Dashing Youth (2024): Rewatch [Episodes 7-8]

Welcome to the fourth discussion post for a Dashing Youth rewatch.

This post is for Episodes 7-8.

Ep. 1-2 | Ep. 3-4 | Ep. 5-6

!!! PLEASE USE SPOILER TAGS FOR ANYTHING BEYOND THE CURRENT EPISODES AND ANYTHING FROM BOTH BLOOD RIVER AND BLOOD OF YOUTH!!!

Infos about the drama can be found in the old masterpost. You can also find a translated relationship chart here. If you download the picture it should be big enough to actually be readable.

Ep. 7

New to the show:

Absolutely no one. This is the first episode we don’t get introduced to a new face and name to remember.

Back to the Gu Chen-capturing event

The Xichu battle sounds awesome, would love to see a fully animated version of it. All the Tianwaitian guys meet up to get their hands on an allegedly weakened Gu Chen. Baili Dongjun joins to defend his shifu, but gets told of by him, while the guys on the other side of the conflict think it’s their lucky day to get the Scholarly Deity and the Innate Martial Artist in one go. Gu Chen uses a lot of his power and a lot of blossoms (you could call this Blossoms of Power, hah!) two transport himself, BLDJ and the two more henchmen-y Tianwaitian fighters to another plane of existent.

There he can teach his student the Cosmic Path. BLDJ looks so proud to have such an awesome teacher. Gu Chen is victorious but uses most of his power and he and his student get a last drink together. BLDJ also gets the quest to go to Tianqi, brew a pot of Peach Blossom Moonfall and to hang it at the tallest point in the city. It gets very emotional and BLDJ gets some last wise words.

Here we open up the dichotomy between being carefree and responsible. Being a hero means to have responsibilities for others, but Gu Chen wishes for BLDJ to also remain carefree. Seems quite unobtainable. Finally Gu Chen turns into petals while his very distraught student watches. With his childhood master the last part of his childhood departs or as his grandfather phrases it: He gets his first true taste of the martial world.

(Also WHJ departs to do whatever the heir of the Wen family does. Poisoning some people perhaps. Just to keep up to date with everyone’s place in the world.)

Seven Days Later

Xiao Ruofeng and Lei Mengsha are still guests at the Marquis’ Mansion. The former seems to have calmed down his father concerning the whole ‘the Marquis let the Scholarly Deity live’-buisness. Baili Luochen is still unwilling to part with his only grandchild for the academy’s sake and wants him a pampered and carefree life at home. LMS remarks that only an idiot can be carefree. Which fits his character quite well, because he is the type of guy that plays up an air of care-freeness while actually being very responsible.

Anyway, Baili Chengfeng is also against his son going to Tianqi. They are half-way convinced by the argument that BLDJ is actually better protected at the academy and also in a better position to learn the realities of the world of which his shifu’s death was the first. But BLDJ gets to have the final say. Thanks, it’s really nice to ask the guy everyone’s debating about.

Only problem: That guy already took a horse to run away on his own. Or not. He seemingly only wants to do some sight-seeing in his home town. Maybe to say goodbye to everything.

XRF swears to BLLC that BLDJ won’t be involved in state affairs if he goes to Tianqi. He swears on his life. That seems daring with the way stories like this go. Meanwhile LMS has a bit of a different encounter with the family: Wen Luoyu poisons him and threatens him that he gets the antidote only if her son returns safely home from his stint at the academy.

Studying medicine

Next we get a look at Sikong Changfeng’s not-apprenticeship under Xin Baicao. They seem to bicker quite a bit. SKCF gets a text message from his BFF to find him in Tianqi. It’s the place to be for young people to make a name for themselves (like Xin Baicao did, healing an Emperor) and so SKCF plans to head there after his time at the Medicine Valley is up.

Travel Time

BLDJ, XRF and LMS finally head to Tianqi. BLDJ gets a last look at his home town and it feels not only like a goodbye but also like closing the prologue of the whole story. We get a short glimpse at Ye Dingzhi, who already arrived in the captial.

Ep. 8

New to the show:

Yue Qing - younger sister of Yue Yao

Li Changsheng - Chancellor of Jixia Academy, Master of the Eight Young Master of Beili, the world’s best martial artist

Tu Zao - owner of Qianjin Gambling House

Ji Ruofeng - Chief of Baixiao Sect, knower of most things.

Zhao Yuzhen - disciple of Mount Wangcheng , shidi of Wang Yixing and the one he got the sword for

Lv Suzhen - chief of Mount Wangcheng, shifu of Wang Yixing and Zhao Yuzhen

Still on the road

BLDJ, XRF and LMS have a heart-to-heart about Gu Chen’s death, who is responsible for it and who to blame. They more or less agree that BLDJ is allowed to beat XRF up, when he has the skills, for his involvement in the whole thing. That’s a new way to become friends. We also learn that XRF is seen as the best disciple of Mr Li, the head of the academy. BLDJ is his youthful confident self and announces that he will take that place.

At the same time another of the young masters, Liu Yue, gets called to the academy to be an examiner on the preliminary exams that are going to take place soon. Which BLDJ seems to partake in as well despite being hand picked by XRF. Two weeks later the trio finally arrives at Tianqi. XRF departs to return to his princely duties while LMS acts as guide to BLDJ (I really like seeing those two together, they played of so well of each other in I am Nobody).

Winter Wonderland

High on a snowy mountaintop Yue Yao has meet up with her younger sister Yue Qing to catch up with each other and eat hot pot. Mo Qixuan, the white-haired deity, is invited to join but Yue Yao takes him away to talk. She gets news about BLDJ joining the academy’s examination. Which is bad for their own plans for him, because he would be under Mr Li’s protection there and nobody wants to (or can) deal with him. Yue Yao has a short flashback to their only face to face meeting, before asking her sister to cover for her because she has to leave for Tainqi. Yue Qing is furious about her leaving again so soon. Of course YY is doing all of this for their family, but YQ seems still quite a bit resentful.

New city, new master

BLDJ wants to visit one of Tainqi’s famous taverns but gets stopped by Li Changsheng, Chancellor of Jixia Academy. Apparently BLDJ is only allowed to have white haired guys as his master. LCC drinks a pot of the famed liquor BLDJ was going for right in front of his future student. He also renders him unconscious. So BLDJ wakes up in a bed at the academy. LMS is back with him again (I guess he will do quite a bit of BLDJ babysitting duty with the poison thing going on) and explains that the old guy he met was in fact Mr Li. LMS gives him a tour and informs him that he mustn’t leave the academy until the examination is over. There are also bets going on about who is getting this spot as the last disciple of Mr Li.

At Qianjin Gambling House the owner, Tu Zao gets told about the peach some academy disciples dropped onto BLDJ’s. Him not having dodged the peach makes everyone wonder how he is XRF’s pick. So Tu Zao orders more informations being gathered about the person. But he is still quite sure that XRF didn’t choose a good for noting and bets on BLDJ entering the academy as Mr Li’s student.

Wu Xiangshi orders Mo Qixuand and Zi Yihou to secretly follow Yue Yao to Tainqi. We also learn that Wufa and Wutian run of after their crippling defeat by Gu Chen. Mo Qixuan seems to be more loyal to Yue Yao than the rest of Tianwaitian. He is quite enraged that Zi Yihou informed Wu Xiangshi about her coming and goings. There seem to be some rifts between people that want to return Beique to its former glory, no matte the cost and those that are a bit more chill about it.

Training Days

Back at the academy BLDJ tries to strengthen his internal force with some breathing techniques he learned from LMS. He is not very successful and still doesn’t know about the correlation with the drinking. Ji Ruofeng appears masked and attacks him immediately. It’s more a demonstration of how inferior one is without the knowledge to use internal strength. JRF owes Gu Chen a favour and because he is a guy that knows much he also knows about the restrained Gu Chen put on BLDJ’s internal strength. He reveals this to him and also, that the best way to integrate this internal strength into his body is… to learn internal strength techniques. No complete short cuts from him, though it seems like his techniques differ a bit from the standard.

Peach Mountain

We visit Mount Wangcheng where Wang Yixing finally gets home after his Sword Forest adventure. Young Zhao Yuzhen is contemplating his second to last peach of the season. He really wants to have them year round. And he would love to leave the mountain, knowing the outside world outside only through stories of his martial siblings. As a consolation prize he gets a brand new sword that can heat up the whole yard into a state of infinite spring. That way he could get his peaches year round. He only needs to train a bit. Being obviously quite a prodigy that goal doesn’t seem to be that far away. He just doesn’t like the name of the sword Wang Yixing brought him, Divine Fire. So he quickyly puts the power of that sword into his own. Easy.

Their master Lv Suzhen and Wang Yixing have a talk about the impossibility of Zhao Yuzhen leaving the mountain. His fate is to be the best of their sect, but also to be caught there, because some catastrophe will befall him should he leave the mountain. BoY: >!Stupid true prophecy!< Wang Yixing gets sent to Tianqi by his master to keep an eye on BLDJ. All the world is interested in how he turns out.

Memories

In Tianqi Ye Dingzhi visits his abandoned childhood home, which is not completely abandoned. BLDJ is there to burn paper money for his lost friend Ye Yun and his family. He talks to them and reveals that he will challenge the liquor brewers at Diaolou Tavern in a few days to get a step closer to being the liquor deity he promised Ye Yun to become. But also, that he will full fill Ye Yun’s part of becoming a sword deity as well.

Questions:

1. Training wheels seem to be off: Any bets on how long it will take us to get a BLDJ & YDZ reunion where BLDJ actually recognises his old friend?

2. Any favourite dramas by the actors involved?