It takes a while to get used to a new universe setup by an author, especially a Chinese novel/drama like Who Rules The World with such depth, so one needs to be mentally prepared to dive in with the many characters, setup and ways of working within the drama. Sometimes one conversation can reveal the history of a character up to three generations back!
I’m going to try explain, at least for the first 8 episodes (which arrived all in day 1), because I really like Yang Yang and Zhao Lusi together as a CP. I mean they were already my bias individually so what more can I ask when the drama-verse decided to pair them up for my fangirling in one universe.
When I read the synopsis, I was not sure of the names of the main character names – WRTW production team made it easy for everyone with two character pics below.
In the martial arts world, Yang Yang is Hei Feng-Xi 黑丰息 and in his royal family he is Feng Lan-Xi 丰兰息, shown above.
As for Zhao Lusi, she is Bai Feng-Xi 白风夕 in the martial arts world, and has a second identity in her family (like royal birth right) as Feng Xi-Yun 风惜云 which has not been revealed yet in the first 8 eps.
And the others are:
- Zhang FengYi as King of Yong, father of Feng LanXi
- Li RuoTong as Bai Li Shi, step-mother of Feng Lanxi
- Liu RuiLin as Feng Ju, younger brother of Feng LanXi
- Zhang TianYang as Feng Chang, older brother of Feng LanXi
- Xuan Lu as Feng QiWu, an official in State of Yong
- Lai Yi as Huang Chao, Crown Prince of Ji
- He KaiLang as Yan YingZhou, a general in State of Ji
- Zhang HaoWei as Yu WuYuan
EP 1
Narration starts:
The World now is divided seven ways, led by a leading Kingdom in Great East and it rules the six other states with Xuanji-Ling (some form of imperial token/weapon, I guess, its capability has not been revealed).
There are two well-known martial arts heroes: Yinquan Shuixie*’s master Hei FengXi and Tianshuang Sect*’s Bai FengXi whose martial arts are well and above everyone thus so they have been fighting for the top title inevitably. Hei is aloof and seldom interacts with the world but wherever Bai is, Hei is bound to appear, at least that’s what the folks say.
And the story of two of them starts from Great East.
Narration ended.
The Crown Prince Jing Yan of Great East is flustered because Great East has lost Xuanji-Ling thus he asked his father, King of Great East what to do. The King of Great East is instead calm and took the advice of a masked Court Adviser to act according to plan, which is to ask the other six states to help with the search of Xuanji-Ling. With that, the world is shook up, everyone is searching for Xuanji-Ling but each one seemed to want it for himself/herself.
– One month later –
Atop the Xuan Mountain, people are chasing General Yan YingZhou, from State of Ji, and it appears that he has found Xuanji-Ling. Crown Prince of Ji, Huang Chao, is ecstatic upon hearing the news because he might be able to rule the world with Xuanji-Ling.
The group of people are chasing General Yan and almost caught him but Bai FengXi butted in and saved him. She saw how bad his injuries are and told him to wait while she made his way to get medicine from Han Residence.
Hei FengXi has been keeping tabs on this via his intelligence society YQSX and deduced that Bai is going to Han Residence to get medicine to save General Yan. Thus he decided to go Han Residence as well, since it’s Master Han’s birthday and he happened to have an invite.
At the party, of course Master Han refused to give Bai FengXi anything because it’s not her first time forcing her way in to take meds. She refused to leave and started feasting at the banquet so the guests started picking a fight with her.
Outside, Hei FengXi arrived to the party and waited for the right moment to make an appearance.
When he finally made his delicate entrance, it’s obvious Hei FengXi and Bai FengXi already know each other because they started bantering – she called him Black Fox, inferring that he is sly as a fox while Hei means black, and he reminded her to take note of her etiquette/manners to be graceful as befitting her nickname.
Master Han asked for compensation for the meds but Bai had no money so he asked her for an apology and also to leave her hands behind.
Bai offered her hands and Hei lamented that it’s his misfortune to know such a troublemaker in this lifetime.
But in the next moment, Hei turned around to Master Han, apologised on behalf of Bai and volunteered to pay back on her behalf too. He also turned to the other guests and apologised and brought lots of alcohol for them to celebrate. Bai then took the meds needed for General Yan and make her way to him to save him but he is nowhere to be found in the cave (where she had left him).
While waiting for the guests at Han Residence to be drunk, Zhong Li and Ren Chuan Yu (the two always following Hei around), were wondering if their master Hei likes Bai FengXi. Ha. But Hei overheard them, cut them off and asked for a report of what happened on Xuan Mountain.
Since General Yan is nowhere to be found, everyone from the martial arts world and countries are all looking for him. Hei guessed that tonight there will be a big battle on Xuan Mountain. And he is right. Shortly after Bai found General Yan, they were chased and in the middle of the battle, to get back Xuanji Ling, Bai got poisoned by the Ling, both of them escaped and General Yan in order to save her, fed her the remaining meds and decided to lure the attackers away and hope that Bai can bring Xuanji Ling to Huang Chao. Just like this, General Yan sacrificed himself.
Next, everyone turned their attention to Bai and she got chased, while fighting back, she fell off a cliff and Hei FengXi managed to save her.
In a cave, Hei treated Bai and examined the Xuanji Ling to which he discovered that the Ling is fake. Hei deduced that there is a huge conspiracy behind this fake token, causing heroes to lose their lives over it.
When Bai FengXi woke up, she is surprised that Hei FengXi did not take the Xuanji Ling.
She realised that something is wrong either with Hei or with the Xuanji Ling, and with her quick wits, she deduced that the Ling is fake. She also is shocked at the conspiracy.
Hei is glad that Bai woke up from the deadly poison, if not, he will be the only “FengXi” left in this world. Bai does not believe Hei is a kind soul as he even prepared meds for her. She thinks that the meds might be deadlier than the poison from the Ling. Here, Zhong Li jumped in Hei’s defence, saying that Hei even took out a precious thousand-year-old herb for her and when she was in a coma, Hei even fed her meds himself.
Hei then shush Zhong Li up, and Bai got speechless. Hei asked Bai to drink the meds, looking like he’s going to feed her again but she took over the bowl and said she will drink it on her own.
She looks a little reluctant and Hei teased if she is afraid of the bitter medicine.
EP 2
Bai FengXi visited General Yan’s tomb and promised to send the Xuanji Ling to where he wants, which is State of Ji. Hei FengXi came by the tomb too and reminded Bai to get more meds from Han Residence to get a full recovery. Bai really does not understand why Hei is doing all this, because he could have saved General Yan as she observed how some of the attackers died at the hands of his able men. Hei remarked that his doings cannot escaped Bai’s eyes indeed.
Bai does not want anything to do with him and said good bye. When she left, Hei thinks to himself that it is State of Ji’s greed that caused the death of General Yan.
In town, a group of men confronted Bai, accusing her of killing the entire Han Residence. And Hei appeared right behind her, claiming to be her alibi, so the group of men gave up, giving some face to Hei. Bai asked what’s Hei doing here, following her. Hei just wants to get to the bottom of the massacre of Han Residence.
At Han Residence, they deduced that it is Duanhun Sect* who did the malicious deed and they also could not find the corpse of Master Han’s young son Han Pu so they looked around and found him alive hidden together with the medicine manual.
Bai FengXi saved Han Pu and let out news that Han Pu and the Han medicine manuals are with Hei FengXi. True enough, as Hei is leaving the town, a group of black masked men followed his horse carriage and attacked him. Of course, they aren’t his match and from the dead masked men, he found an important clue. So he u-turned back to the town but asked Chuan Yu to go back home first and checked that everything is alright.
Back in the town, Hei found Bai and Han Pu in an inn. Han Pu is still in a shock and sleeping on/off. So Hei and Bai started chatting and Hei is concerned that Bai has not recovered fully from the poisoning but Bai does not want to trouble Han Pu when he is still not well.
Bai questioned Hei if he got more clues as to why all of Han was killed and so he shared something he found on the masked men corpse, a silver-leaf that has the markings pointing to Yu Town’s Shang Residence. Seemed like Shang Residence is connected to Duanhun Sect, thus the trio decided to make a trip to Yu Town.
On the way there, in the carriage, Hei asked Bai to serve him tea since she took up Zhong Li’s spot in the carriage. Ha. She unwilling served him tea and then started bickering with him. The convo ended up at how proud and aloof Hei is and that there is no one he would take a liking but he said Bai is wrong, there is someone whom he admires, and that is State of Qing’s Princess XiYun.
Flashback to Hei meeting Princess XiYun when they were ten years old. And Hei started praising Princess XiYun and reciting one of her famous literary works. And when Han Pu heard it, he is reminded of his father whom has taught him the same and started crying. One thing led to another, they wanted to give him food but found out that Bai has eaten everything so Bai volunteered to go out and find food. While she is gone, Hei took the opportunity to ask Han Pu how to make a medicine for Bai (to help Bai recover from the poison). And so Han Pu gave tips to Hei and even helped with it.
At a rest stop, Han Pu gave the meds to Bai and Bai knows that it is partly due to Hei’s credit and so she thanked him for it. And very quickly, she asked him out for dinner.
At the dinner, a storyteller was telling tales of Hei Feng Bai Xi (nickname of Hei and Bai combined but Hei comes first), thus Bai Feng Xi asked Hei Feng Xi if he has any silver coins, he only has a silver leaf so she took it anyways and rewarded the storyteller but requested that he used Bai Feng Hei Xi moving forward (such that Bai comes first, ha!).
After dinner, both Hei and Bai were remarking if the attackers came already. Hei is caught by surprise that Bai is aware of his plan and Bai was like, yeah if not why do I ask you out for dinner. That was to give the attackers a chance to come by.
Hei looked amazed that Bai knows him so well, simply by the fact that he chose an inn instead of his usual lodgings.
Hei: “You know me best.”
Bai: “Naturally.”
Zhong Li: *chuckling*
Zhong Li had brought Han Pu to meet them too, and at this moment, the attackers really came. Han Pu could recognise them by the masks they wore and weapons they used. The attackers (apparently from Duanhun Sect) all committed suicide on the spot.
The next day, they continued on their journey. Han Pu fell asleep in the carriage and Bai fed Hei some raspberries though he claimed that he would never eat food from strangers. In the end, he couldn’t helped reaching out for more.
We have a scene of Duanhun Sect – they have destroyed a gathering point of Yinquan Shuixie in Yu Town and they do this because they believed that Hei is resourceful and formidable because of the information he can gather from all gathering points.
Hei got notified (judging from the sounds of the birds flying above), yeah he knows one of his information gathering point is destroyed and he is slightly amazed at the resourcefulness of Duanhun Sect as well. There is no way of finding the Shang Residence quickly now but Hei got another idea up his sleeve, he will locate Shang with the help of the other powerful family in Yu Town which is Qi Residence.
Finally, they are in Yu town, at a restaurant feasting. And soon enough, the Qi young master came around outside yelling that he wants to buy Hei’s horse.
Hei and Bai then went outside to meet the Qi young master and informed him that the horse is not for sale. Of course he wont take no for an answer, and insisted on buying it – he sent his bodyguard sorta to fight them to get the horse.
And Hei sent Bai to deal with him, calling her “Xiao Xi, it’s your turn” like she works for him. She looked at him puzzled while he just looked back like it’s perfectly normal.
Bai did it anyways and just one kick from her, the bodyguard is down on the ground. Master Qi and his gang then fled.
This is where Bai don’t get it, she thought that they are here to get Qi’s help so why fight them away. But Hei has his reasons, the stronger they seemed, the more sought-after they would be by the Qi Residence for alliance.
Notes:
*Yinquan Shuixie (YQSX) is like a secret intelligence society formed by Hei Fengxi
*Tianshuang Sect is where Bai FengXi resides with her master and she is the eldest disciple
*Duanhun Sect – the mysterious Sect going after Xuanji Ling and responsible for the massacre of various households/residences
I’m finally done with EP 1-2, like a week later! It is indeed hard work and requires a fair bit of explaining due to the number of characters involved.
Anyways, some interesting tidbits on how Who Rules The World is faring among the currently airing dramas on its premiere day:
(note: web dramas only)
(side note: Yang Yang’s character in Glory of Special Forces, Yan PoYue is #1, yeah, airing at the same time!)
#1 Glory of Special Forces, #8 Who Rules The World
DramaKaffe 