A League of Nobleman Episode 14 Recap
> A League of Nobleman Recap
Suffering from a recurring stomach ailment, Lan Jue is resting at home when Wang Yan visits. Lan Jue learns from his friend about the current tensions in court: the Empress Dowager is holding significant frustration, having failed to punish Grand Tutor Liu Xian and unexpectedly losing her confidant, Xuan Ji. Lan Jue reflects on his own precarious position, having previously offended the Empress Dowager in the phoenix head case and then outmaneuvered the Emperor.
He believes he has lost all hope of becoming the Minister of Rites or traveling to Nandong as an envoy. He feels all avenues for vindicating his father concerning the Moluo Village case are closed. A subordinate returns from the South, reporting they couldn't find the village itself, as its location is hidden deep in the mountains and old guides who knew the way are long gone.
Regarding the clay whistle, only a few elderly people recognized it, but none could recall any details, leaving this clue also at a dead end. Alone before his privately set-up memorial tablet for his father, Lan Jue laments his lack of success. He feels useless, believing his twenty years of effort and actions taken against his conscience to clear his father's name have amounted to nothing. He questions the purpose of his own life if he cannot achieve this goal.
Zhang Ping arrives and overhears him. He assures Lan Jue that as long as he is alive, there is still hope. Standing before the tablet, Zhang Ping promises the late Mr. Lan that he will work hard to uncover the truth of what happened that year. The next morning, Zhang Ping and Chen Chou arrive at Lan Jue's residence with ingredients. Zhang Ping intends to use dietary therapy to help treat Lan Jue's stomach ailment.
Despite the presence of a doctor at the residence, Zhang Ping insists on taking over preparing Lan Jue's meals, diligently noting his food intake and preferences for three meals a day. Zhang Ping brings Chen Chou to a pharmacy to purchase expensive medicine for Lan Jue. Chen Chou worries about the cost, noting their financial strain, but Zhang Ping insists on buying it, viewing it as necessary to repay Lan Jue's life-saving kindness.
While there, Zhang Ping unexpectedly recognizes a specific prescription for the Heart-calming Paste, a formula tailored for Xuan Ji's heart condition, being purchased by someone else with the exact same dosage. This raises his suspicion. He follows the buyer and confirms they are a servant from Xuan Ji's Mansion, observing them packing large, heavy items onto carts. Zhang Ping suspects Xuan Ji may have faked his death to leave the Capital City and rushes to inform Lan Jue.
Recognizing the urgency, Lan Jue agrees they must investigate immediately before Xuan Ji disappears and the trail goes cold. To avoid raising suspicion, they visit Xuan Ji's Mansion under the guise of offering condolences and presenting gifts. The butler receives them and explains that their master's final wish was to be buried in his hometown, so they are preparing to transport his coffin back for burial.
During the visit, Lan Jue orchestrates a diversion: a person pretending to be a pharmacy clerk arrives and urgently informs the butler that poisonous aconite was mistakenly included in the medicine delivered earlier. The butler is alarmed and hurries away with the medicine. Zhang Ping and Lan Jue quietly follow the butler and observe him taking the medicine into a hidden area within the mansion, confirming their suspicion that it leads to a secret chamber where Xuan Ji is concealed.
They locate a trigram puzzle they believe is the mechanism to open the chamber. Working together, they carefully manipulate the rings, identifying which sections control the mechanism while risking hidden crossbows, and successfully unlock the passage. Inside, they find Xuan Ji alive. After a brief struggle, they manage to subdue him. Lan Jue clarifies that he did not come to capture him but to demand answers about Moluo Village and its connection to his father's case.
Xuan Ji initially claims ignorance, but Lan Jue presents a letter found at Chang Wei's house, confirmed to be in Xuan Ji's handwriting, summoning Chang Wei to the South on the very day his father visited Moluo Village. Lan Jue presses him, stating he has no escape and urging him to tell the truth about Moluo Village and its link to his father's case. Under pressure, Xuan Ji confesses to leading the massacre of the entire Moluo Village.
He claims they were spies from the Nandong Kingdom who conspired with Lan Jue's father for treason. He asserts that his father, although upright, was deceived by the Moluo villagers and leaked military intelligence, causing a devastating defeat for their army, which is why his father was charged with treason. Lan Jue asks if a woman approached his father, and Xuan Ji confirms it was a Moluo witch. Lan Jue seems to recognize this detail.
Zhang Ping interjects, pointing out the inconsistency in Xuan Ji's story: if the villagers were Nandong spies, they could have been punished openly; why stage a "condemned by heaven" event to hide their demise? Pressed further, Xuan Ji admits that while the core events regarding the intelligence leak were true, the leak was "also" connected to him. He confesses that twenty years prior, he had recruited the Moluo witch into the Department of Incantation.
Fearing punishment and accountability if his connection to a spy was discovered, he orchestrated the massacre as a cover-up. To disguise it as divine retribution, he hired two individuals from the civilian population: the embalmer, skilled in creating an instantly lethal red poison powder, and Chang Wei, an expert in making sky lanterns.
He planned to load the lanterns with a large amount of gunpowder and the red poison powder, designed to explode over the village when carried by the wind, simulating a "scarlet mist" descending from the heavens. He claims Chang Wei and the embalmer had to go into hiding for their safety after the event.
Regarding Chang Wei's involvement in stealing the phoenix head from the Immortal Instrument site, Xuan Ji denies any knowledge, stating his heart condition prevented him from going up there. He claims he initially thought the phoenix head issue was an opportunity to help the Empress Dowager against Grand Tutor Liu Xian. Upon realizing Chang Wei was instructed by someone to steal the phoenix head, Xuan Ji speculates it must be a survivor from Moluo Village, now back for revenge. He recalls that a survivor once performed witchcraft causing the entire Sacred Lake to boil.
