Ancient Love Poetry & The Last Immortal - connection post
Warning: Contains spoilers for the first series so skip post if you haven't watched it and do not want to be spoiled.
Ancient Love Poetry - Origin of Yuan Qi
Once upon a time, there were three realms - god realm, immortal realm and demon realm (no human realm yet).
In the god realm, the most respected are the four true gods - born from heaven and earth and are responsible for the peace of the three realms. Two of those true gods are Bai Jue (the god of fire) and Shanggu (the goddess of chaos). But destiny became their enemy when Shanggu had to make the sacrifice to save the world from the Tribulation of Chaos.
The god realm was destroyed and the human realm eventually came to be.
Broken hearted, Bai Jue spent tens of thousands of years collecting what was eft of Shanggu's soul. Eventually, Shanggu was born as Houchi, a goddess disrespected for her weak power (who unknowingly possesses Shanggu's sealed power and memory inside of her).
Now this part is the spoiler. Even if Shanggu is alive as Houchi, the Tribulation of Chaos is still meant to come to pass. Bai Jue, unwilling to see Shanggu die again, painfully endured dividing his original being into two for the purpose of possessing the power of chaos which would let him suffer the Tribulation of Chaos in replacement for Shanggu. One split created Bo Xuan who watched Houchi grow up, staying by her side, guiding and protecting her before disappearing one day. The second split is Qing Mu who fell in love unconditionally and eventually became Houchi's husband.
Qing Mu and Houchi's marriage and union is what led to Houchi's pregnancy. They fought for love even if they knew that their time together was limited. They had both long learned that they possess the true god's spirit inside them, and when the spirit awakens, they would disappear.
It happened that Qing Mu disappeared first, which led to Bai Jue's return. This Bai Jue acted that Qing Mu is no longer a part of him, deliberately hiding his love from Houchi and Yuan Qi. With enemies all around and with his power still weak, he pretended to abandon them, even going as far as to remarry just to give Houchi a push to forget him.
Secretly, he disguises himself to spend time with Yuan Qi, using the form of Feng Ran (Houchi's friend). He also secretly comes to watch over Houchi/Shanggu and Yuan Qi as they sleep. So Yuan Qi had been spending time with him without knowing it's his father who was with him.
All this is because Bai Jue had always intended to sacrifice himself in the Tribulation of Chaos and he knew there was no going back. He did not want Shanggu to experience the thousands of years of pain he had endured for losing his beloved.
So this cute kiddo is Yuan Qi from Ancient Love Poetry. Qi in his name means 'abandonment', a name given by his mother (Houchi who had no memory of Shanggu).
Yuan Qi's character is playful, smart, curious, bold, daring and cunning enough to be manipulative. But he also learns easily and is innocent with a pure heart. He likes to know how magic weapons came to be and likes disassembling them to study how they are built. He looks like his father but has his mother's temper. He has a strong sense of doing what is right, and would bravely apologize and make amends if he knows he's in the wrong. He also doesn't like it when the people around him are sad, so he tries to cheer them up.
He is the only child of true gods, and is considered the other true gods' nephew. He possesses the power of chaos (same as his mother). He is also very much spoiled. 😂💙
Before he sacrificed himself in the Tribulation of Chaos, Bai Jue finally visited Yuan Qi as himself. Yuan Qi was mad at him for his abandonment but he eventually gave in. They did the things that Yuan Qi loves (like spending time in the human realm, eating good food, gambling, playing with toys, etc). It surprised Yuan Qi how his father knows what he likes and perhaps (just maybe), he also realized then that the Feng Ran who did all those things with him was actually his father in disguise.
Bai Jue also tried to explain to Yuan Qi that death is something that comes to everyone. It is not something horrible, even if it's your own death or the death of someone you love. It's just like flowers blooming and drying. It hurts a lot at first, but the pain lessens with time. He told Yuan Qi that to sacrifice oneself for the ones one loves and for the world is a good thing. Yuan Qi listened to these but he didn't really understand it completely.
When Shanggu learned Bai Jue's true intentions and sacrifice, he was already dead. Shanggu knelt in front of the ancestral god for 500 yrs to plead for Bai Jue's return. At that time, they knew that a new god of fire is to be born and she is desperate to have it be Bai Jue. She was kneeling even when Yuan Qi bid her goodbye because it's been decided that he'd be taken as a disciple in Daze Mountain.
This kid Yuan Qi grew up to be this cute guy from The Last Immortal. They hid his true origin and gave him the name Gu Jin.
The willful spoiled kid grew up to be a righteous but still willful young man. Still innocent and forgiving. Still with a strong moral compass. Still brave and honorable enough to apologize and make up for his wrongdoings. Still caring for all beings in all realms and treats them equally. Still wishes his father had not left them. Kinder, and braver and even more honorable and just. He became exactly the guy that a water divine beast named A Yin would grow to love.
There is a lot more I want to say. But let's skip it for now.
But I made this post as I couldn't help it. Looking back on Ancient Love Poetry and having read Shen Yin, I finally have a deeper understanding of Yuan Qi and his choices.
In lots of ways, he truly resembles his father.
:)
P.S. Do pm if you want spoilers. I am literally bouncing from restraining myself and internally screaming. I wanna talk about the novel so bad hahahhaha.
