Good morning, Readers!

Well, this is something of a clusterfuck of a writing check in.

As readers of this blog will note, my mental health took a sharp nose dive at the end of March/beginning of April, leaving me able to write, but utterly unable to record what I wrote and when. Honestly, just getting to write at all was a huge victory for me that last little bit, so I’m not going to gripe too much. What it does mean, however, is that I have an unaccounted for 8 968 words that I have no idea where to place.

I’ve decided that they’re bankable words. Interest to fill in the spaces where I didn’t quite reach my goal for the month. Which is a good thing, because I have not started out April strong.

But first, the end of the month results for March:

So, over 15 000 words is nothing to sniff at. I didn’t hit my goal, but at least I did something.

My results for the first full week of April were also shy of the mark.

My plan to write an extra thousand or so words before the weekend ended did not happen. I took another dive and I instead concentrated my energy on trying to pull myself out of a bad spiral. I’ll write a bit more on that later in the week, maybe.

Once again, I didn’t hit my goal, but I was not far from it. I’m still counting it as a victory, considering how things have been for me and my stupid brain of late.

And there’s time to make up the difference.

Before my brain wigged out, I was just shy of 100 000 words, finishing the week at 98 066 words. A fortnight later, when I started recording my progress once more, I began my week with 107 034 words. So, in the two weeks between my break and getting back on track, I wrote 8 968 words. That is shy of the 10 000 words that would have been my goal for two weeks, but it’s not actually terrible.

I’m not happy about much of this. I hate missing marks I set for myself. I despise blowing past deadlines. And arriving late to anywhere gives me severe anxiety.

However

I’m trying to learn to cut myself some slack. It’s a tough time for everyone, and I am no exception. That I managed to get anything written, let alone coming so close to my targets, is actually something I can be proud of. I’m working on getting there, in any case.

As it stands, I’m roughly 2 000 words behind schedule. That’s not insurmountable. I might be able to fix it before this week is out.

For now, though, I’m going to concentrate on just hitting my targets. If I can manage more, then that’s grand. I just want to reach the line this week, though. So far, it’s going pretty well... I say after one day of the week has passed.

And that’s where I am with my writing until now. I will make another report next Tuesday. For now, though,

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

Sooo... LWJ and WWX have escaped, killing the slaughter tortoise. Heh. That’s just such a hilarious phrase. LWJ has gone to the Cloud Recesses, and WWX has returned home to Lotus Cove, where his adopted father dotes on him. But shit’s about to go down.

Unlike the previous few episodes, this one opens on an entirely new scene. Jiang Fengmian is summoned into his throne room where two members of the Yao Clan - a small cultivation clan - lay injured on the floor. The Clan Leader is in absolutely terrible shape. They reveal that the Wen Clan attacked them, practically obliterating their Clan. These two, the clan leader and his heir, are now the only survivors.

Well, shit.

Turns out the Wen Clan are systematically obliterating all the clans whose heirs escaped the cave of the slaughter tortoise and thus the Wen Clan indoctrination.

WWX with Jiang Cheng’s aid convince Jiang Fengmian that the Jin Clan would be helpful here. Even if the Jin Clan leader will not publicly revolt against the Wen Clan, his son, Jin Zuxian (the peacock) is definitely on their side, and will be able to help them. Sweet. Allies in unexpected places.

Jian Fengmian decides to go then to the Jin Clan, bringing his daughter with him. This leaves Jiang Cheng and WWX in charge. In a pretty sweet moment, Mama Jiang, who is actually called Madam Yu, brings a bounty of food for her daughter, and medicine for her husband, revealing that she actually cares about him, even if she’s acting really bitchy about it currently.

We jump over to the Nightless City, and the weird volcanic throne room of the Wen Clan, Wen Chao enters, as a multitude of puppets shuffle and twitch around the lava pit over which three pieces of the Yin Iron float. The throne is empty, and we find Wen Ruohan sitting on the steps instead. Dude looks a wreck.

We find out that Xue Yang, that weird little psychopath, has gone awol, and Wen Ruohan wants Wen Chao to track him down and get his fragment of the Yin Iron. This enrages Wen Ruohan, and with his worsened temper, he loses control of his own hand. When he demands Wen Qing for his acupuncture, Wen Chao reminds him that he sent her away. Why would you send your doctor away? What a tool. He refuses to recall her.

Credit to canary3d for so many hilarious gifs.

Then Wen Chao reports that the slaughter tortoise is dead, and they’ve found suppressing sigils on the beast, which was probably why they failed to notice it before all the trouble at the cave. When Wen Ruohan asks after the artefact responsible for the suppression, Wen Chao reports it was gone. Then Wen Ruohan sends his son to Lotus Cove, telling the coward he can kill them all if he wants.

Not. Good.

Back at Lotus Cove, we’re at another session of archery, where everyone is shooting at kites. Jiang Cheng and WWX are supervising. Bored WWX declares he’s had enough, and the youngest disciples are sent to go collect the arrows and kites.

In the collecting, they come across Flirty McBitchface and a contingent of Wen Clan soldiers. She’s holding a kite and demands to know whose it is. It belongs to the youngest disciple (we met him previously when Jiang Fengmian was showing him how to shoot properly). Flirty McBitchface demands that the soldiers seize the boy.

Don’t all the disciples come running to Jiang Cheng and WWX.

All the commotion brings out Madam Yu.

"What's this ruckus?"

She stands her ground as Flirty McBitchface and her soldiers arrive. It’s a bitch-off, guys.

This jumped up harlot of the Wen Clan sits on the throne and demands tea. One of Madam Yu’s handmaidens basically tells her to pour the damned tea her damned self.

Oooh. Sassy.

Flirty McBitchface says that servants should know their place. A little hypocritical, since she herself was a servant before Wen Chao decided he liked her better than his wife, her mistress. She says that Madam Yu’s servant would earn herself a slap to the face if she behaved that way in the Wen Clan.

Madam Yu tells Flirty McBitchface that no one can slap them. No one would dare.  Flirty McBitchface insists that servants should behave like servants. Madam Yu does the equivalent of saying, “Yeah, WWX. Know your place.”

When pressed as to why she seized their disciple, Flirty McBitchface says that it was because the child was conspiring against the Wen Clan. She uses the kite as proof - it’s round and golden, like the sun, which I guess is the symbol of the Wen Clan, apparently. WWX points out that if that’s the reasoning, then no one should be peeling and eating oranges, as they are golden and round like the sun. But oranges are a personal favourite of Flirty McBitchface.

Madam Yu demands the reason for the visit - was it really for a kite. Apparently not. No, Flirty McBitchface is there to seek punishment for a particular someone. That someone apparently distracted Wen Chao when he was fighting the slaughter tortoise. Luckily, Wen Chao killed it anyway (the lying cow), but the person who cost him the first fight needs to be punished. It’s WWX, obviously.

Jiang Cheng tries to step in, but is silenced by his mother.

Then Flirty McBitchface strikes a nerve, saying that if anyone in Lotus Cove was shielding him, it would lend credence to the rumours that WWX is actually Jiang Fengmian’s illegitimate son. Well, Madam Yu is having none of that. WWX loses his temper and goes for Flirty McBitchface, but Madam Yu hits him full in the chest with a whip of purple electricity that magically unleashes from a bracelet on her wrist. It’s the same weapon that older Jian Cheng lashed WWX with in the second episode.

Jiang Cheng steps between them, and Madam Yu warns him to butt out or he’ll feel the lash too. Her maids pull Jiang Cheng away and poor WWX gets lashed four more times. Once again, Jiang Cheng moves between them, tearfully begging his mother to stop.

She stops. Despite WWX in agony on the ground, Flirty McBitchface is not impressed. She demands that Madam Yu cut of WWX’s right hand - that’s his sword arm. Being WWX, we learn from eavesdropping on his thoughts, that he would gladly give up his right hand if it would mean the Wen Clan leaves the Jiang Clan alone.

By all accounts, it looks as though Madam Yu is going to do it, despite her son’s protestations. Flirty McBitchface then does something stupid. She reveals that the Lotus Cove is going to become the Wen Clan supervisory office - stripping Madam Yu and her son of their home. Well, doesn’t that get under Madam Yu’s skin. She full on backhands Flirty McBitchface, sending her sprawling. AND she puts her foot on Flirty McBitchface’s head and reminds her that she is just a servant, and that “I am superior, and you are inferior.”

Look, I don’t like Madam Yu, though I kinda understand her lashing out, but there is not denying she is an absolute boss. I am absolutely cheering for her here.

Her badass servants then become a blur of murderous activity, slaughtering the Wen soldiers. Then they go for Flirty McBitchface. She screams for Wen Zhuliu - Wen Chao’s bodyguard, also known as the core melter (or crusher, depending on the translation you’re reading). Well, doesn’t it seem that Wen Zhuliu and Madam Yu know each other. She greets him as Core Crusher. He greets her as Purple Spider.

It looks like they aren’t going to fight, but Flirty McBitchface forces the issue. Amazingly, Madam Yu makes the first move, noting that Wen Zhuliu isn’t a Wen at all, but that he abandoned his own clan to join the Wens. That’s a backstory I’d really want to learn more about. Regardless, there’s a fight.

WWX shouts for Jiang Cheng to stop Flirty McBitchface from firing off the beacon, which would summon more Wen Clan soldiers. He does, but gets distracted when he sees Wen Zhuliu gain the upper hand in the fight against his mum. He goes to help her, but gets badly beaten by Wen Zhuliu. Meanwhile, Flirty McBitchface sends up the fireworks, sounding the alarm.

Madam Yu uses the distraction to collect WWX, who is still on the floor 'cause of his recent lashing, and her son, and flies off with them to the quay. She puts them both in a boat and checks Jiang Cheng over, relieved that the damage was not severe. My guess is she was very worried that the Core Crusher crushed his magical core.

What follows is a heartbreaking goodbye. Madam Yu ties both boys together with her purple whip, saying it belongs to Jiang Cheng now, and will recognize him as its master. Also, the bindings will not loosen until they’re both safe. She makes WWX swear he will protect Jiang Cheng with his life, if necessary. She doesn’t soften to WWX at all, blaming him for everything that has happened. But when Jiang Cheng begs his mother to come with them, she pulls him close

She kicks the boat off the pier, watching them go with tears in her eyes, before turning and rejoining the fight.

Distraught, Jiang Cheng screams for his mother as the boat drifts down river. They come across their father’s boat. He is returning with Jiang Yanli. He releases the boys, discovering that the Purple Lightning Whip recognizes him as a master (giving hint to his wife’s feelings for him). Jiang Cheng explains everything, and begs for his father to take them back to the fight.

NOPE!

Jiang Fengmian ties all three of his children up with the purple lightning, telling them they’re to go to their grandmother’s to hide. There’s another touching goodbye before Jiang Fengmian leaves his children to go to his wife’s side.

His three children:

Me:

And that’s where we end the episode.

What I Liked

Ugh! All the tears! Look, there’s a part of me that really enjoys having my heart torn out and stomped on, and this horrible tearing apart of parents and children definitely does that. I might have sobbed on my first watching. Hard. Like, my pillow was soaking wet. I held it together better this time around. Just.

There wasn’t so much action this episode, of course. It is a drama after all. But the tension in this episode was done extremely well. And they did rip my heart out. Sometimes those kind of scenes can be extremely corny - either the writing or the acting (and sometimes both) are inexcusably bad. Not so here. It was all so well done, and I was destroyed on my first watching.

What Could Have Been Better

Uh... there were no goofy action pieces this time around (which is really where I find my biggest complaints), so finding a complaint is tough. I’m not looking closely enough to see wires that appear on camera, or if there are any costuming mistakes. I honestly, don’t have anything that I’d do differently this time around.

Good morning, Readers!

That seagull is me. On the inside.

Not much to report today. I'm a little behind in my writing.

I slammed my finger in the filing cabinet a few days ago. It's not as black as I expected it would be, given the pain of the incident.

What else? The panel is tomorrow night, and I'm freaking out a bit. On a related tangent, I'm going to have to reschedule tomorrow's live stream. I'm hoping for Saturday. We'll see.

I happier news, I learnt that my dad will get his first inoculation shot against Covid soon. I'm so excited to be able to hug him again - just have to wait until his second shot, and my two shots and then I'll be golden.

Um... that's it. That's all I've got.

Stay safe this weekend. I'll see some of you during my stream, and some of you next week.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

I'm very very late posting this, but!

I'll be on a panel this Friday as part of Can*Con's continuing commitment to provide a pandemic convention, or sorts. I will be sitting with many other wonderful, far better folks talking about folklore and how we use it in our writing. But I suck at explaining, so here's the actual spiel from the folks at Can*Con:

It starts at 7pm.

So click the link to register so you can sit in on what looks to be a juicy conversation about really cool things!

Okay, I have to go. There's lot to do all of a sudden.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

I haven't blogged in a while, other than the pre-scheduled episode breakdowns of The Untamed. For that I'm sorry. Things have not been okay with me for a bit. Nothing major. Just... I'm struggling coping with *gestures at everything.*

I live in Ontario in Canada. The province is run by a conservative, and his handling of the pandemic and the vaccine rollout is going about as well as you can guess. If you can't guess, we're in our third wave, hit with another lockdown that is a lockdown only in name. The man cares more about getting his rich friends richer, and attempting to score political points against our prime minister, and thinks nothing of playing with people's lives to do it.

That's about where we are as a province. And I wasn't coping very well.

I'm a little better now. Enough to blog again.

Tuesdays was supposed to by my writing check-in, but the nature of my recent spiral meant that though I wrote some, I neither reached my daily goal, nor attempted to record my progress at all for the last two weeks or so.

So this is a hard reset on that.

As of lunch hour yesterday (writing this shortly after), I have just past 107 000 words. I didn't hit my daily goal, so there will have been a writing session in the evening after the writing of this post. I'm hoping to make it past 108 000, and will consider that the new set point for counting my daily efforts.

I will try and keep up with the word counting until the book is finished. I'm not as close as I want to be to the end - it's a long one, remember. Still, I'm getting there, and I am feeling a little bit of pride that despite how awful I spiralled this past fortnight, I still managed to write some.

We have to take what little victories we can.

Hopefully I'm back to blogging too. I'll keep trying, at least. Until tomorrow, then.

Ciao!

You know, it just occurred to me that this segment would have made for better alliteration if it went up on a Tuesday. Oh well. We'll just stick with Mondays for now.

We're still in the slaughter tortoise cave. LWJ wakes up, so WWX guesses it must be around five o'clock in the morning. Fancy being able to set your watch by your crush's sleeping habits. In any case, LWJ is awake now, and he tells WWX that this is the slaughter tortoise. The one Xue Chonghai kept. WWX notes that he had snuck out to try and find the tunnel Jiang Cheng and the others escaped through, but couldn't. He fears the tortoise blocked it somehow. They've no choice but to fight it. And if they die to it, well, says a cheerful WWX, they'll be famous.

They collect arrows quickly and quietly and prep for war together. LWJ takes the strings off the bows to create his killer string... which I though he used his qin for, but maybe this is just a variant. Then they come up with a plan. It's... an interesting one.

First WWX sneaks into the tortoise's shell. It's at this point my suspension of disbelief takes a bit of a hit. You see, there's no way he'd get in there without first having to slice the beast open somehow... or maybe he crawled up it's butt? But, he's in the shell. That's not how shells work, my dude. Anyway, he's in there.

Inside, he discovers the corpses of people. They're just standing there, covered in red goo. Dead. Like some macabre wax museum. Somehow WWX surmises that the slaughter tortoise (I'll never get sick of saying that) not only kills people, but consumes their magical essence. He tells LWJ so, because now they can communicate telepathically thanks to a spell LWJ performed.

Also inside the shell, WWX comes across a curious sword, grabs a hold of it and is immediately overwhelmed with ... something? The sword is screaming. I don't know.

Then, the slaughter tortoise snakes its head inside it's shell to attack WWX.

That's not how shells work, my dude.

But hey, it happens. WWX uses the scream-y sword and stabs the thing in the lower jaw. It pulls it's head out of it's own arse, presumably, and now LWJ can join the fight.

Right! So, LWJ gets to work, wrapping his killer string around the slaughter tortoise's neck to garrotte the beast. Meanwhile, WWX is "hanging" from the lower jaw. I say "hanging" because he's perfectly horizontal the whole damned time.

That's not how physics works, my dude.

Anyway, the sword WWX is hanging on to starts to affect WWX, and then this happens:

And it's stressful, because I can't tell if that means the sword is somehow possessing WWX or if WWX has managed to control the sword. Incidentally, LWJ also doesn't know which one of these it is either, and appears freaked the fuck out. So, it's also really hard to tell if what happens next is because of WWX or the sword, but WWX manages to used the sword's power to lift all the weapons at the bottom of the lake and plunge them up into the slaughter tortoise's neck. Combined with LWJ's garrotting, that finishes off the beast... but it almost finishes WWX off, too. He falls face-first into the lake and doesn't move. LWJ fishes him out and leans him up against a rock. It's his turn to nurse WWX, just as WWX nursed him.

WWX has a fever, so LWJ warms him up with some magical transference. WWX turns a bit petulant and asks LWJ to sing a song for him. LWJ obliges. If you listen carefully, he hums the theme music and if you recall, it's exactly that song WWX played to calm Wen Ning the puppet way back in episode two or three. So cute. WWX falls asleep briefly, and we get a flashback of all the interactions the two have had up until this point.

Cute.

WWX wakes enough to ask the name of the song. LWJ answers, but WWX is passing out, so he doesn't hear it, and nor do we.

It's important to note that he clutches the sword to him the whole time.

The scene fades to black and we fade back in on an open fire, and WWX sleeping outside, still clutching the sword to himself. Jin Zuxian (you know, the peacock that Jiang Yinli likes) is tending the fire. He chastises WWX for being so heavy (which I find difficult to believe - WILL SOMEONE FEED THAT BOY), and then Jiang Cheng shows up. All WWX can think about is LWJ (who, we learn, has rushed back to the Cloud Recesses), and Jiang Cheng rightfully chastises him for not thanking either him or Jin Zuxian, who travelled without rest to ensure they could rescue WWX and LWJ.

The gathered cultivators decide to split up. WWX and his brother will return to Lotus Cove to try and get their father on board with the gathering resistance led by the leader of the Jin clan (who was convinced to by his son), and Jin Zuxian will return to his land to prepare for the coming fight. Before he heads out, WWX grips the sword handle to test it, but there are no screams.

We cut to Wen Chao, who's off trying to find Xue Yang. Wen Ruohan (in an earlier scene) reveals that he doesn't know where that brat is, and he wants that brats fragment of the Yin Iron.  Wen Chao gets news that Jin Zuxian and Jiang Cheng were spotted in the vicinity of the cave, and Wen Chao says they were probably trying to rescue LWJ and WWX, but were likely to only find their corpses. He sends two lackeys to confirm that LWJ and WWX are dead, and then decides to send his body guard and Flirty McBitchface to Lotus Cove. Oh dear.

​We go then to Lotus cove and Jiang Fengmian is showing a cute kid how to shoot. Jiang Cheng and WWX arrive and WWX faints. He wakes up in what I assume is his childhood bed, where the film makers left another huge clue that this is as gay as the day, with a childish image of two boys kissing carved into the bed, presumably by WWX in his youth.

In the warm exchange between himself and Jiang Fengmian, WWX gives credit to Jiang Cheng for coming to his rescue, but Jiang Fengmian only seems to care about what WWX went through. Jiang Cheng gets understandably pissed and snaps. His father then tries to school him on the clan motto and what that means. He's interrupted, though, by his wife, who is super pissed.

She asks her husband if he can remember between the two boys which one is his actual son. And then, OH SHIT! She's actually pissed off because Jiang Fengmian used to be in love with WWX mother, and there's talk about that WWX is actually Jiang Fengmian's son and no wonder she's such a bitch about it all. I mean, that's no reason to take things out on WWX, but now I understand why she's such a raging witch, at least.

Poor Jiang Cheng just stands there and is forced to watch his parents fight, and to hear all this nonsense. The poor bastard. He storms off. I would too, bro. But WWX follows and does his best to cheer his brother up, noting that of course Jiang Fengmian would be harder on his own son - who will on day be clan leader. WWX gets a lot of slack because he's ultimately inconsequential. When Jiang Cheng becomes clan leader, WWX will be his subordinate.

Jiang Cheng argues that is not true. His father is hard on him because he doesn't like his mother, and so he doesn't like his son. This broke my heart a little bit. It's not true, of course, but I've certainly felt like I was unlike by my parents at various points. I get you, Jiang Cheng.

The Lan Clan has the Twin Jades (LWJ and LXC), well, the Jiang Clan will have the Twin Heroes. The whole scene is a lovely moment between two brothers. In a stunning setting. Holy hell Lotus Cove is beautiful.

And so ends the episode.

What I Liked

I spent a lot of time making fun of this episode, but I actually really liked it. I loved the bonding between LWJ and WWX, and how we're finally seeing the cracks in LWJ's cold persona. He cares for WWX, and it shows. I love how we get to see the disfunction in the Jiang Clan, and how that affects Jiang Cheng and how he feels about it all. The poor dear. I want to give him a big hug.

I also really love the ambiguity surrounding the sword and whether or not WWX was possessed or if he managed to control the dark magic of the weapon. I also liked how LWJ seemed unsure which of those it was. Sure WWX seems fine and normal now, but... I mean... We don't know what happened to him with the sword. And I like that a lot.

What Could Have Been Better

That's not how shells work, and that's not how physics work.

Those are my two biggest gripes about the episode, and yet it still made for a good watch, even if I mocked it just now. I mean... come on, though.

Anyway, with the slaughter tortoise dead, we can now focus on the coming war between the clans. It gets bad, y'all.

Things continue to get darker here on the show, and I'm loving it.

Where we are to date - the heirs of the cultivator clans have been surrendered to the Wen clan for indoctrination. LWJ was had his leg broken by Wen X when he was captured, surrendering himself and the Yin Iron fragment to Wen Ruohan in order to save the Lan Clan disciples. Half his home has be razed to the ground.

The Wen Clan now has three fragments of the Yin Iron.
​
Jiang Cheng and WWX are there also, WWX volunteering to go, as he is not an heir and so didn't have to. He's a cheeky buggar, and was punished by a long night stay in a prison cell with a giant hungry dog. He was helped, however, by Wen Ning and Wen Qing, who are decent people, even if they belong to the Wen Clan.

That's pretty much all you need to know now. On with episode thirteen.

Once again, we start where we left off, WWX offering to carry LWJ, who has but one response.

"Boring."

Knowing LWJ isn't going to let him help, WWX animates a paper doll and uses it to surreptitiously ask Wen Qing, who is accompanying them on the night hunt, to find a way to make it so LWJ can get some rest. Wen Qing, being an absolute queen, halts the whole troop and without batting an eye tells them they will get a drink and some rest here. Just like that. This, despite already having been threatened by Wen Ruohan for helping LWJ and WWX the last time. Wen Qin is a queen.

For her help, Wen Chao threatens her again. She acts like he's overthinking when he's absolutely right.

Meanwhile, WWX very sweetly gets water for his injured beau. LWJ barely gets a drink before Wen Chao has everyone up and moving again. His particularly bossy lady-friend Flirty McBitchface tells everyone to search for a cave. It's then we find out that she was the handmaiden of Wen Chao's first wife. Wow, you two. Wow.

As it turns out, no one can find the cave, but WWX seems to have spider senses, and sends a talisman across the water, revealing a cave. The twerp. He should have just let it be and they could've had a long and fruitless search, but stayed out of trouble, more or less.

So, into the cave they go.

Well, don't they come to a steep drop off. So naturally, because he's a dick, Wen Chao pushes WWX down in order to see how far it goes. Injured, but alive, WWX gets up to find the rest of the cultivators coming down the side on ropes. It results in a touching moment of almost-camaraderie.

The group moves forward until they come to an underground lake. A dead end.

Wen Chao and his cronies join them and Wen Chao, certain that the beast that he'd intended to find was here somewhere, decides to use one of his hostages as live bait. Jin Zuxian once again stands up to Wen Chao, protesting the decision at all, noting that Wen Chao would leave them there to die.

Flirty McBitchface decides that she wants Mianmian to be the live bait, and the cultivators close ranks, including the injured LWJ, who helps put down a couple of lesser Jin cultivators who tried to go for Mianmian (presumably to save themselves). WWX notes to his brother that given the situation, they might mot be able to stay out of trouble after all.

AND FIGHT!

Given that the hostages were relieved of their swords, they do extremely well, fighting against the Wen Clan cronies. I'm particularly impressed with Jiang Cheng, who held up well against Wen Chao's bodyguard. And can I just say, the stony face of LWJ as he fights is equal parts impressive and amusing. I may have giggled.

During the fight, WWX recites one of the principles of the Wen Clan at Wen Chao. You know, the whole, "Those who do evil shall be executed" thing. Wen Chao doesn't recognize it and calls it out as bullshit, which amuses WWX, who notes that it was laid down by a Wen Clan ancestor, and the price for disrespecting one of those is, uh, well, death.

Then WWX takes Wen Chao as hostage and jumps to a rock that's sticking out of the lake.  Turns out that rock is not a rock at all, but a water snek of some kind.

Apparently snek thing can't see too well.

Wen Chao, being a dumb fuck, screams, and WWX is forced to toss him back to shore, and it's about then that I realized that the snek is not a snek at all. It's a damned tortoise. A slaughter tortoise. Remember way back in episode I've forgotten already when Lan Yin mentioned the first wielder of the Yin Iron, Xue Chonghai had a pet slaughter tortoise? Yeah...

Anyway, there's now a fight against the tortoise, but not before Flirty McBitchface decides to get some damage in on Mianmian. She heats up a brand (where the fuck did they find a brand, and why, if it wasn't found, did they bring it along?) and goes for Mianmian's face. But WWX, being himself, dives between and gets his chest branded instead. Cool. Smells like an infection, probably.

The Wen's escape the pond, Wen Qing having to be dragged away, protesting the entire time. And then, for some reason, they cut the fucking ropes behind them and blockade the entrance to the cave. Bastards. The hostages discover this and despair.

But LWJ comes to the rescue. With what? Maple leaves. No, seriously, maple leaves. There were maple leaves in the water. They must have gotten there by some kind of tunnel, and if they got in, perhaps the cultivators could get out. So, they form a plan. WWX will distract that slaughter tortoise with fire while Jiang Cheng goes to find the potential escape route and checks it out.

That works, and Jiang Cheng reports back that there is a tunnel, it does lead out, and it's large enough to take them all through, five or six at a time. So, the plan is to continue distracting the tortoise with fire while everyone escapes.

Problem, the tortoise figures out how to put out the fire, meaning WWX is forced to distract it in person. He does so, telling everyone else to get out. Naturally, LWJ, injured though he is, stays to fight the tortoise with WWX. Jiang Cheng leaves, but only reluctantly, telling his brother that he'll be back to save him.

The hostages make their escape, and LWJ and WWX escape into a side cavern where the tortoise can't get at them. What follows is a sweet bonding scene, in which WWX nurses LWJ's many wounds. It has plenty of humour, like, for example, LWJ's gay panic as WWX hurriedly tries to undress LWJ, and when that doesn't work, starts to undress himself.

It was all a ruse, though, to get LWJ to vomit up the blood that was making him unwell. In the fighting, WWX lost most of the poultice Wen Ning gave him, but he uses what he has to treat LWJ. LWJ takes some and smashes it onto WWX's burn, and jokes (JOKES!), "You're welcome."

A lovely bonding moment happens in which WWX talks about men having scars and besides, now Mianmian will remember him forever. LWJ gets a little huffy, and WWX asks if he likes Mianmian. The, "Bitch, are you blind?" face LWJ pulls is just... *chef's kiss*

It's here that LWJ reveals that the Lan Clan cannot come to their rescue as WWX surmised they might. The Cloud Recesses have been burnt. When WWX enquires after his uncle, Lan Qiren, LWJ notes he was badly injured. When WWX enquires after his brother, Lan Xichen, LWJ reveals that he is missing.

Then, it being bedtime and his life so fearfully regimented growing up, LWJ falls asleep. WWX guesses it must be around nine o'clock.

And this is where we end the episode.

What I Liked

I adored Wen Qing this episode. Showing her helping WWX out, even after she'd been threatened, proves just how good and brave this girl is. Sure, her courage isn't the bravado of WWX, and remains largely uncelebrated, but I'd like to point out that if she didn't help WWX out against he giant dog in the dungeon, he'd be dead and this would be a much shorter series. Courage doesn't always roar like a lion, and Wen Qing is a goddess. Fight me.

I also really liked seeing Jiang Cheng fight so well against Wen Zhuliu (the bodyguard). The poor lad doesn't get many hero moments in this series, and this was definitely one of them.

In fact, the fight choreography in this was pretty damned good.  Mostly.

What Could Have Been Better

So... the fight with the murder tortoise was a little goofy. I feel like the choreographers have no idea what the CGI animal will be doing, and so compensate with a lot of wire work and unnecessary spins, somersaults and twirls in there to make it look hectic and scary.

Oh! And also, once they're in the cave, WWX goes to get something to help treat LWJ's injured leg and comes back with a whole-ass tree. Like, surely if that thing exists down there, there's a perfectly decent escape point that you have access to, no? It made me laugh. Both times.

Still, the series is awesome and I'm loving it still. Next week, MOAR SLAUGHTER TORTOISE!