Divine Destiny Episode 1 Recap
> Divine Destiny Recap
Ten thousand years ago, in the extremes of the Heavenly Realm, an immortal patrolling the Heavenly River grew lonely from endlessly reading the Book of Heaven. To ease his solitude, he used his power to transform a large bluestone by his side into the Bluestone Immortal. However, she later made a grave error by mistakenly releasing a Great Heavenly Demon, a violation of celestial law.
Unwilling to let her face punishment alone, the immortal patrolman voluntarily accepted demotion to the mortal realm alongside her. They pledged, with the bluestone as their symbol, to stay together for one hundred lifetimes before returning to the immortal realm. After ninety-nine lifetimes of companionship, in his final mortal life, the banished immortal recalled the sacred chants by the Heavenly River and the green eyes of his companion.
This prompted him to journey to Kunlun to find the Bluestone Immortal and fulfill their century-long promise. At the same time, the Chaotic Energy that sustained the balance of the Three Realms was weakening, heralding a great catastrophe. An oracle revealed that only a banished immortal, born with a blue magical stone, could avert this disaster, sending the world's various sects scrambling to find this prophesied savior.
In a remote desert inn, a young waiter, Ji Ruochen, enthralled guests with tales of immortal cultivation, dreaming of one day achieving the Tao and protecting the people. His adoptive mother, Huaniang, worried by his obsession, tore up his cultivation manual, fearing he would abandon her and her partner, Zhang Wancai. The couple, who had adopted Ruochen as an infant, secretly ran the inn as a front to drug and rob their guests.
Following their plan, Ruochen successfully drugged two travelers. Soon after, an extraordinary new guest arrived. Tasked with drugging him as well, Ruochen offered the guest tea. When the guest grew suspicious, Ruochen drank the tea himself to feign innocence, but his subsequent actions exposed their scheme. The enraged guest, revealing himself to be a powerful cultivator, seized Huaniang. During the struggle, a falling lantern struck the cultivator on the head, knocking him unconscious.
Believing him dead, Ruochen, Huaniang, and Zhang Wancai loaded the body onto a cart, intending to push it off a cliff. Before they could, Huaniang noticed a luminous blue pendant around the man's neck. Seeing its value, she took it and placed it around Ruochen's neck. Upon returning to the inn, they were confronted by armed men from multiple sects. They had come for the banished immortal, and seeing the radiant pendant on Ruochen, they mistook him for their target.
A chaotic fight ensued as each sect tried to claim him. Amid the fray, Ruochen was captivated by the skill and beauty of Zhang Yinyin, the chief disciple of the Xixuan Sect's Taixuan Palace. He decided he wanted to join her sect, and she ultimately rescued him, fleeing with him toward Xixuan. At the sect, Hierarch Ziwei used a Psychic Mirror to verify Ruochen's identity.
Terrified of being exposed as an imposter, Ruochen stood before it, but the mirror showed no reaction, confusing the sect leaders. Anxious, Zhang Yinyin pushed him closer. At that moment, the blue pendant on Ruochen's neck glowed brightly. Hierarch Ziwei immediately declared that the pendant's spiritual light was the mirror's divine confirmation of Ruochen's identity as the banished immortal. Having stood too close to the mirror, Zhang Yinyin collapsed from a severe headache.
Her parents, Jingxiao and his wife, rushed to stabilize her with their vital energy, warning her that the mirror harms those with demonic energy. They later revealed that she has a "demon-rearing root" inside her, and the mirror's power had reacted to her latent demonic aura. Despite her suffering, Zhang Yinyin vowed to train diligently to defend her title as champion of the Qingyun List.
Hierarch Ziwei formally named the newcomer Ruochen, meaning "like dust," and gifted him his personal Chiying Sword. Ruochen was placed under the temporary guidance of multiple lineages. While touring the grounds, he learned from a senior disciple that Yinyin has suffered from an ailment of invasive cold energy since childhood, which is managed by her parents' vital energy.
Ruochen was given spacious private quarters, a rare privilege that underscored the high expectations placed upon him to ascend to the immortal realm and secure the sect's future. Alone, Ruochen felt the blue pendant on his neck fluctuating between intense heat and cold, and he sternly commanded the "worthless stone" to recognize him as its master.
Meanwhile, Hierarch Ziwei confided in the acting Hierarch that Ruochen's arrival was fated and that he must be protected at all costs from rival factions. Later, while exploring the Library Pavilion, a restricted area he was permitted to enter, Ruochen stumbled upon bizarre, grotesque creatures. Startled and overwhelmed, he instinctively cried out for Zhang Yinyin to save him.
