Original subtitles

♪The Upper Three hold the seals♪

♪A valiant general, an opera star, and a ruthless cripple♪

♪The Middle Three stir the clouds♪

♪A fiend, a wandering hero, and a master of the blade♪

♪The Lower Three deal in gold♪

♪A beauty, a seer, and a scholar♪

♪The Upper, Middle, and Lower Three♪

♪Represent the nine houses of old Changsha♪

♪Together, they are known♪

♪As the Mystic Nine♪

[Mystic Nine] [Adapted from the novel of Kennedy Xu]

[Episode 7] [This story is purely fictional]

I clearly saw 15.

These wool balls really...

Forget it.

You never believe a word I say.

I believe you.

♪I was raised♪

♪Amid cast-off bones and alleyways...♪

What is that thing?

Catch it, and we'll find out.

Fine.

It's your turn now,

Master Zhang.

Show me what you've got.

♪And weathered every storm♪

♪Through another life, I look back once more♪

♪But who can I tell?♪

♪Beneath the iron curtain, the rain leaves me blind and deaf for now♪

♪The child with a dog has nowhere to call home♪

♪One vow between kindred souls makes death worthwhile♪

♪How could comrades standing side by side let loyalty grow cold?♪

♪I'll shatter bone and sinew to make the show go on♪

♪Fight on, fight on♪

♪Till Heaven's Gate lies trampled and broken...♪

Notice anything?

It's like a crow.

It likes pretty things.

It stops when it sees something shiny.

♪I was raised♪

♪Amid cast-off bones and alleyways...♪

How annoying.

Why does it keep coming after me?

Maybe it likes your pretty face.

How annoying.

It has excellent taste.

♪I've turned to dust♪

♪And weathered every storm♪

♪Through another life, I look back once more♪

♪But who can I tell?♪

So it likes pretty things, huh?

♪You're not like him, so don't choose to perish...♪

I'll trust you one more time.

You'd better catch it.

♪I'll overturn the way this world works♪

♪I'm not like him, so don't be deceived♪

♪Let half a crimson sun light my broken form♪

♪All that burns♪

♪Is a lone flame beneath the brooding clouds♪

Not bad.

Your skills are passable.

Open your hand.

Why did it vanish?

Master Zhang,

I have to say,

couldn't you have been gentler?

We finally caught one alive,

and you made it vanish with one grab.

What exactly was that thing?

Probably one of the three imps in the mural.

Next time, you try, Fifth Master.

Show me how it's done.

I...

I only gave you the chance

because you love showing off.

Then thank you for the opportunity.

You're welcome.

Don't overthink it, Laogou.

If you're sure, do it.

Women in this world

have it far harder than men.

They're often forced to do

the most menial, degrading work.

You see the people's suffering

very clearly, Laogou.

I've simply seen too much.

Once we get out of here,

I'll see that you're duly rewarded.

Duly rewarded?

The position of Changsha Defense Commander.

You take Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

I'll take Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

How about that?

Agreed.

The son ends up a beggar

and works Madam Wang to death.

What nonsense, "Madam Wang's Lecture."

The son should decide his own fate.

Why should Madam Wang bear the burden?

What kind of world is this?

We may not be able to change the world,

but I hope that one day,

we'll all be masters of our own fate.

I hope so.

You're playing the bait next.

Careful. There may be a new punishment.

Come on,

you little imps.

Come and get me!

Good.

The imps are gone,

and the mechanism is disabled.

Let's take a break.

You rest. I'll keep looking.

Whoa.

It vanished into thin air.

And it was a new one.

And it was skinny.

It was this thin.

Was it rolled out

like a noodle in its last life?

Where did this one come from?

Probably another one from the mural.

This thing

can crawl into people.

Did you see where it went?

No.

Let's check one by one.

You scared me.

We don't know what we're dealing with.

We shouldn't split up.

Stay close.

Are you hungry?

That smells delicious.

Laogou.

Did you find the skinny imp?

No.

Then why call my name?

Keep looking.

Something's wrong with you.

Just keep looking.

I'm perfectly fine.

Laogou!

Zhang Qishan,

I think...

I think...

I'm all right.

Zhang Qishan...

Don't move!

It's...

I'm starving.

Thank goodness.

Better Zhang Qishan than me.

I see.

This thing

can only possess one person at a time.

I'm starving.

Is this a hungry imp?

When will it be your turn?

I don't know.

I can't eat any more.

I can't eat any more.

Hungry imp, switch hosts!

Switch hosts!

Switch hosts!

Switch hosts!

This is infuriating!

Miss Huo, you call the shots.

We'll do whatever you say.

I don't know,

but no one could be inside that hole.

The gap inside is tiny.

No person could possibly fit.

Even if someone got in,

they would've been crushed beyond recognition.

They couldn't possibly be alive.

Miss Huo is on their side.

Bring out all the explosives.

We'll blast open the ceiling.

- Yes. - Stop.

Didn't you say you'd listen to me?

If the ceiling collapses,

we'll all be buried in here.

Juanlian.

Juanlian.

Are you trying to get Fifth Master killed?

Give me the explosives.

Tiezui.

Take everyone

somewhere safe and find cover.

I'll handle the blast. It's safer.

Wait, Xiangu, you... I...

Fine.

Master!

Master!

Master!

Juanlian, it's a dead end.

Did the blast send Master flying?

Why didn't you say so earlier?

I thought once he heard us preparing the blast,

he'd get out of the way.

It's sealed off above.

But when you lit the fuses earlier, the smoke moved.

There must be a mechanism up there.

A narrow gap traps heat.

The temperatures inside and outside differed,

so the smoke naturally drifted toward it.

Are you happy now?

But we all saw that hand.

Even if it wasn't Fifth Master's,

there must be some explanation.

Could there really be a ghost?

Enough. Stop making wild guesses.

This tower must have lured us here

for some other purpose.

What do you suggest we do, Eighth Master?

Three words.

Stick together.

Isn't that two words?

Master Zhang and Fifth Master aren't here,

so we have to hold the line for them.

We can't let this tower have its way.

Zhang Qishan,

I kept something from you.

There were two characters on that red ball.

I may not be able to read,

but I recognized the shape.

It should be "Peng Ju."

Have you heard of the Three Worms?

A folk healer

once told me

that everyone is born with three parasites inside.

To live a long life,

you have to kill all three.

The Three Worms are

Peng Ju,

Peng Zhi,

and Peng Qiao.

Peng Ju is drawn to beauty

and lavish finery.

It dwells in the head.

Peng Zhi

craves delicacies

and dwells in the belly.

Peng Qiao

dwells in the dantian

and stirs up the heart-fire.

The three imps in the mural

are the Three Worms within the great ghost.

That red ball was Peng Ju.

The hungry imp haunting us now

is Peng Zhi.

If Peng Ju can be killed,

then Peng Zhi can be killed too.

Zhang Qishan,

hurry up and find a way to kill it,

or I might really eat you.

Where are you going?

I'm fishing it out.

I'll lure Peng Zhi out of your belly.

Could you hurry?

Zhang Qishan,

do you have anything else to eat?

Yes.

What are you doing?

Desperate times.

You'll have to make do.

Come on.

Wait!

This is revolting.

Master Zhang,

it's finally your turn.

Zhang Qishan,

tell me,

if I stab it now,

will you die too?

I don't know about it,

but I certainly will.

Then make do with this.

You'd really eat that?

Stop playing around,

or I'll eat you too.

Fine.

You said it yourself.

I'll lure it out for you.

Brace yourself.

This thing

can jump between us in an instant.

I think...

Better Zhang Qishan than me.

Wait!

It's the eyes.

It moves back and forth through eye contact.

So even if we lure it out,

it'll just possess one of us again.

Then wasn't that whole plan useless?

What do we do?

Since it came from the mechanism,

we'll disable the mechanism.

What if the imp

still won't leave after we disable it?

Then we'll find a way to kill it.

Wait.

What if we disable it

and another imp appears?

Then you can eat it.

But the next imp

is Peng Qiao.

It stirs up the heart-fire.

Zhang Qishan, you'd better hurry.

I'm starving to death!

A play often moves people

in a single moment.

The same goes for mechanisms.

They may look complicated,

but it's all misdirection.

We need to simplify it.

Bravo!

I know how to solve it.

Still hungry?

Did you disable the mechanism?

Yes.

That wretched Peng Zhi.

If I ever see you again,

I'll starve you

into a chopstick imp!

Didn't you say you weren't hungry?

What?

After all we've been through,

aren't you hungry too?

Untie me!

The son becomes the top scholar,

and Madam Wang can finally live in comfort.

Surely we got it right this time, right?

Of the creatures on that relief,

we've encountered

the giant serpent, Peng Ju, and Peng Zhi.

So beyond this passage lies

the great ghost.

Xiangu,

I know you're worried about Laogou.

With him gone,

you must feel unsettled.

You can't hide it from me.

I once read a book called "Strange Tales of Penglai".

It said

that feelings like yours and Laogou's...

At a time like this,

instead of worrying about everyone's safety,

you're talking about that?

I'm the Eighth Master.

I keep all eight sides covered

and concern myself with everything.

What did the book say?

"A lone goose flies east, with a corner to the west.

Eastward, it may arrive.

A lone goose flies west, with a corner to the west.

Westward, it cannot arrive."

What does that mean?

The book has been lost.

I was only teasing you.

That line can't be deciphered.

That's Tu.

Juanlian, that's Tu!

Madam Huo, Eighth Master, a picture from Fifth Master!

Fifth Master says

the place they've reached looks like the Underworld.

If his picture reaches us,

the two places

must be linked by a mechanism.

Keep looking.

If we can't find a way,

Eighth Master can perform another ritual

and send us all over there.

Eighth Master,

please begin at once.

This place doesn't look

like the great ghost is here.

What could be inside these vats?

Don't touch them.

The lids

bear Daoist symbols.

They seem to be suppressing something.

Zhang Qishan,

don't tell me you're afraid.

Then open one.

I should be able to protect you.

I think

we should understand the situation

before deciding what to do.

What's written there?

They seem to be notes

on herbs and alchemy.

They may have been studying magic.

Magic?

Why would that require so many vats?

Could they all be filled with magic pills?

But there isn't

a single alchemy furnace in this room.

They could be the alchemists' test subjects.

Looks like another dead end.

Why is there hair on this mural?

All this hair has rotted away.

Laogou!

In this place,

alchemists experimented on people and animals.

The vats contain people and animals of all kinds.

So that's what happened.

The alchemists fed their pills

to people and animals,

causing them to mutate.

This place is a prison.

They locked all their mutated creations

inside these vats.

Were all these monsters

created by the Otherworld Patriarch?

If he was so powerful,

why did he need to be a fraud?

No.

The things here

are clearly much older.

I understand now.

When the Otherworld Patriarch built the tower,

he uncovered this place

and linked it to the tower through mechanisms.

He also wanted to use these monsters

to make his followers believe he had magic powers.

But his plan failed, and the monsters escaped.

So he had to abandon the Otherworld Tower.

Now we have to deal with what he unleashed.

Can we even handle them?

That shadow alone had us running in circles.

Even the darkest evil

follows a pattern.

Once we see the pattern,

it won't be hard to handle.

We've come all this way

without finding a single clue.

But perhaps

the key clue already appeared,

and we simply overlooked it.

Zhang Qishan, come with me.

Look at this.

Could this be what we missed?

Zhang Qishan,

what do you think it means that a man

was hidden beneath this hair?

I don't know.

But he outranks even the great Underworld King.

Is this mural identical

to the relief outside?

No.

This man isn't on the relief.

There, the great ghost rides the serpent.

But in this mural,

it has swallowed the serpent into its body.

What does that mean?

Look.

The man above

is the true master of this place.

Don't think of the great ghost as a ghost.

Think of it as a map.

The ghost's head beneath its master is one room.

The serpent in its belly is another.

What place does the map formed by this great ghost

represent?

The Otherworld Tower itself.

In the zaju version of "Journey to the West,"

there's a scene

where Sun Wukong alters the Book of Life and Death.

He passes Pingdu Mountain

in the Underworld

and meets an immortal

wearing an exceptionally tall hat.

The immortal's abode is built upon a great ghost.

His name is...

Yin Changsheng.

Look.

That's Yin Changsheng.

I understand now.

The master of this place

is Yin Changsheng.

He practiced alchemy and mystic arts here,

then imprisoned all the monsters

he created through his arts.

Yes.

That's it.

Yin Changsheng

knows tricks that can manipulate

and reverse time,

and make the sun set in the east and rise in the west.

Every detail along our way makes sense now.

Tiezui once said

these were the divine powers

the Otherworld Patriarch claimed to possess.

Now it seems

all his deceptions

began only after he

broke through into this place.

This was where he found his inspiration.

Perhaps they weren't deceptions.

The Otherworld Patriarch

may truly have believed

these feats could be achieved.

So after he found this place,

he genuinely tried to learn them.

To learn Yin Changsheng's methods.

Exactly.

He found a way into this place,

but he never expected

that once he entered,

he would find it

filled with monsters created by Yin.

He got the methods wrong,

and his followers paid the price.

It ended in tragedy.

As for him,

he could only flee.

Once outside,

he built high walls,

hoping to keep every monster

trapped inside the Otherworld Tower.

That's impossible.

It makes sense,

but there must be more to it.

What about the shadow?

How do you explain that?

If I were writing this play,

the shadow would be this man,

Yin Changsheng himself.

He probably took one of his own pills

and became neither human nor ghost.

Quite a show

has unfolded in this tower.

[Yin Changsheng]

♪The past fades like smoke♪

♪A choice is made in silence♪

♪In this labyrinthine puzzle♪

♪Who can reach the shore?♪

♪Just an ordinary farewell♪

♪The sun seems to shine bright over our heads♪

♪But this could be our last trip together♪

♪The spring breeze continues outside♪

♪Who was it who left in such haste?♪

♪Caught in the game, the raging waves fall silent♪

♪Who believes in fate?♪

♪For my home and my country, the years pass like a dream♪

♪When the song ends, who will still be waiting?♪

♪With a nod, we bid farewell and set out again♪

♪Take care♪

♪We once raced♪

♪For the dawn♪

♪Ever-lasting bond, a satisfying vindication♪

♪In the web of fate♪

♪No one can escape♪

♪Life and death cut like a blade♪

♪We too were young once♪

♪Fortunate to brave the raging waves together♪

♪Keep the ember lit♪

♪To illuminate the journey ahead♪

♪The spring breeze continues outside♪

♪Who was it who left in such haste?♪

♪Caught in the game, the raging waves fall silent♪

♪Who believes in fate?♪

♪For my home and my country, the years pass like a dream♪

♪When the song ends, who will still be waiting?♪

♪With a nod, we bid farewell and set out again♪

♪Please, do take care of yourself♪