I Don't Know but I like it

This episode teaches us three things:
1)Everyone in the Xuanyuan sect, minus Jing, and the other slaves, seem to have it in for Fu Yao.  They go to ridiculous ends to remove her from this competition, succeeding in a)making her more determined to overcome them and b)failing.
2)Fu Yao may have a destiny, and it may be connected to a simple staff given her by the old man who may have raised her or is just her drinking buddy
3)Prince Sun clearly is drawn to her

This Episode also introduces us to a few things
1)Mainland dramas must have a cute critter rendered out of bad CGI that may be relevant to the plot and sadly seems to make the show a little cringey
2)A Realm of Nothingness
3)An Ancient Version of live stream
4)A tournament involving balancing on an umbrella like structure

Plot:
Essentially, Fu Yao exits Round 1 victorious, but worse, she is riding the buffalo of yore, and to all the nobles, this is a huge embarrassment and slap in the face.  Their stubborn pride and traditionalism will not allow them to stoop so low as to recruit a rising star in the fighting world, rather they would like to see her dead.

Fu Yao is greeted with applause by the other slaves.  Prince Sun is amused by her defying the order.  Now she visits Jing to deliver some medicine (given to her by the prince) and Jing is less interested in her stellar performance and more interested in her thoughts on becoming his concubine.  He also does not seem happy that she has gone a step further and now is promising to no longer see him because they are 'going down different paths'.  Fu Yao no longer believes that Jing will be able to give her what she wants--someone who will support and love her unconditionally.  She also does not want to be a source of pain for him or hurt him, because she cares about him and he has continually hurt himself trying to protect her.  She does promise to protect him in the future and to come to his aid. Still, this baffles and hurts Jing but he accepts the medicine.

Pei spies this visit and is able to get Fu Yao arrested for allegedly 'stealing'because turns out the medicine given to her by the Prince is contained in rare sea glass and no slave could come by it. Perhaps this is a test for our female lead, as she thinks back to the Prince's words--if you want to live long, keep your mouth shut.  She does reveal who gave it to her.  Their punishment?

The Realm of Nothingness!  Not opened in centuries, they will stoop to a petty punishment to kill her, because it is the only way they can say they 'gave her a chance' because if she is deemed pure, then she is able to be free, but few, if any, have the level of purity needed to survive this icy place. In fact, she almost dies but is rescued by the prince, making me wonder a)how he knew she would be there and b)how the hell he can survive there.  He is able to help her escape, though she does not know he saved her, and he hopes they stop bullying her.  He really distinguishes himself from Jing, who seems to rely on the affirmation of others--his father, whom he wants to live up to, Pei, whom he does not want to offend, even Fu Yao, whom he needs to rely on him, and is even hurtful of because she is in a position that allows him to do so (example: he can't risk offending Pei because of her status, but Fu Yao should tolerate being number two because it's the best anyone from her lot can expect).

Now Fu Yao rolls with the punches showing yet another quality: she does not really seem interested in asking questions like WHY because when you can live stream matches with secret treasures, it doesn't seem worth it to question because there are just far too many possibilities.  Yes.  In round two, she is to fight a match on an umbrella requiring a partner--you can only proceed in pairs because it requires balance to be stable. Her partner, alas, has been told to abandon her so she fails.  Also, she arrives with a stick given her by gramps who says she has a destiny to leave up to....talk about heavy handed plot related dialogue!

AGAIN the prince appears, how we do not know, to save her. Is he an immortal?A god?

Stay tuned!
I give it an 8 because it was interesting and in spite of my summary, they are able to portray this all in a way that makes it work--the music and pacing is good and as ridiculous as it sounds, they made it work.

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