Ever Night Episode 13 Recap, Plot

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Long Qing arrived at the Secluded Pavilion to pay his respects to Wei Guangming, the High Priest of Light. He expressed frustration that the Hierarch had stood by while the Light Hall was purged by the Jurisdiction, only intervening after the wrongdoing was exposed and then administering an inconsequential punishment. Proclaiming this an injustice, Long Qing declared his intent to rescue Wei Guangming, believing the world would lose its light without him.

He attempted to use his cultivation to break open the iron door imprisoning the High Priest, but his efforts were futile. Long Qing then humbly implored Wei Guangming to accept him as a disciple. However, Wei Guangming scornfully dismissed him, stating that even if the world regarded him as the Son of Light, his heart was burdened by internal fetters, rendering him unfit for such a responsibility. Long Qing thanked him for the counsel before departing.

Ning Que awoke feeling disoriented at the Red-Sleeve House. He quickly penned a note for Sangsang, informing her he was drunk and would not be home that night, and instructing her to drink the chicken soup he had prepared. Xiaocao soon summoned him to Lady Jane, who gently admonished Ning Que for lingering there, urging him to cherish his studies at the Academy instead of associating with wealthy young masters.

She stressed that even a talented scholar would be looked down upon for frequenting brothels. Feeling an unexpected sense of familial warmth from her, Ning Que expressed his gratitude. Lady Jane advised that to earn true respect, he must cultivate genuine ability and character. Ning Que vowed that if he ever achieved great renown, he would return daily to acknowledge her guidance.

This reminded Lady Jane of an old friend—an Academy disciple and its greatest legend aside from the Sage—who had made a similar promise but never returned. Declining to elaborate, she arranged a carriage to take Ning Que home, also preventing him from greeting Water Drops, who was entertaining guests. Later, as Water Drops accompanied Yan Se, the divine talisman master, he spotted Ning Que's note.

Immediately captivated by the calligraphy, Yan Se had her grind ink and spent the night trying to copy it, though he felt he couldn't capture its essence. Despite the writer appearing to have no cultivation, Yan Se found the script remarkably full of meaning, calling the words "chicken soup" a "stroke of genius." He dubbed it the "chicken soup post," interpreting it as a heartwarming gesture from a husband to his wife.

Water Drops corrected him, explaining that Sangsang was merely Ning Que's maid. Upon learning the writer's name was Ning Que, meaning "better to have less," Yan Se was intrigued. Meanwhile, Ning Que returned home to Sangsang, who had prepared bathwater. When she offered to scrub his back as usual, Ning Que gently declined, saying she was too old for them to bathe together, leaving Sangsang to wonder if he was growing distant.

The following morning, Yan Se visited the Academy and confirmed with Master Lv Qingchen that Ning Que was indeed unable to cultivate, a fact he deeply regretted. Yu Lian also advised Ning Que against forcing cultivation, explaining that his body was unsuitable and that his persistence would be futile. Despite having observed his unique feat of descending from the Temple of Old Books, she urged him to give up. However, Ning Que remained resolute.

Later, while reading "Analects of Wuzhanyang about the Sword of Magnanimous," he was overcome by a powerful sensation, experiencing a vision of someone wielding a sword with world-shaking power. Acutely aware of his own limitations, Ning Que angrily scribbled down his resentment toward Haotian for this unfairness. His unseen pen pal, Pippi Chen, swiftly replied that true fairness doesn't exist, likening Haotian's favor to sunlight on a "lotus above the clouds" while ignoring "poor grass" like Ning Que.

Their correspondence evolved into a spirited intellectual debate. Pippi accused Ning Que of injuring his heart and lungs by using a flawed method to study the book and challenged him with a complex medical question. Ning Que retaliated with an exceptionally intricate mathematical riddle about "Haotian's cattle herd." Pippi, a self-proclaimed genius, was stumped, calling it a "strange question" from a "monster."

Back home, an amused Ning Que described his pen pal to Sangsang as a "poor, wretched man" who had likely been hurt by women. He also gave Sangsang a prescription, claiming it was a secret formula from the Academy's Second Floor that they had acquired by chance, and instructed her to prepare it discreetly. Unable to solve Pippi's medical question, Ning Que proposed a draw.

Still fixated on Haotian's perceived injustice, he asked if there was another way to cultivate, raising the possibility of the Demonic Cult's methods, which involved forcibly drawing the "breath of heaven and earth into the body." Pippi reacted sharply, sternly warning Ning Que never to mention the Demonic Cult outside the Academy, as it would invite pursuit from righteous powers. He explained that even these methods required unblocked apertures.

Acknowledging Ning Que's superior arithmetic skills, Pippi added that Ning Que should be thankful his body was unsuitable for demonic cultivation, or he might have had to "cut him into three pieces." Their subsequent exchange led to a mutual reveal: Ning Que from Weicheng with a "little coal-black maid," and Pippi Chen from West Shrine, the genius who earned an unprecedented six A+ scores five years prior.

Unimpressed, Ning Que countered with his own unique record of "three A+, two D-, and one missed exam." Conceding Ning Que was "eligible for equal dialogue," Pippi explained he had run away from his powerful family to avoid inheriting their vast business. Ning Que later visited the Short Building Next to Lake, a teahouse run by Yan Se.

The master performed an elaborate tea ceremony but admitted his personal preference for drinking from a large teapot, a habit from his military service. Yan Se revealed he was a former document appraiser for the army. He recognized Ning Que's hands as those of a knife-wielder and correctly surmised he possessed a falchion.

He then directly linked Ning Que to the recent deaths of Zhang Yiqi and the blacksmith Chen Zixian, instructing him to bring his falchion to meet him at dawn. Yan Se confessed that he himself had forged the treasonous letters from the King of Yan to General Stateliness fifteen years prior, a deed for which he was never rewarded, leading him to resign. He told Ning Que to return between 5 and 7 PM for a resolution.

As Ning Que left, he realized the immense pressure he had felt from Yan Se, concluding the teahouse owner was a formidable cultivator. Meanwhile, Long Qing returned to the palace in Yan State. A flashback showed a younger Long Qing urging his brother, Chongming, to flee as Chongming was taken hostage.

The King had then instructed Long Qing to go to West Shrine and then Tang State, enter the Academy, and become the Sage's direct disciple with the ultimate goal of destroying them. In the present, Long Qing recounted his rejection by Wei Guangming to his father. The King dismissed it, suggesting Wei Guangming was merely clinging to his title after fifteen years of imprisonment and that true power lay with the Sage and the Academy.

He reiterated his command: Long Qing was to go to Tang, attempt the entrance exam for the Academy's Second Floor, and become the Sage's student. To facilitate this, he would recall Long Qing's brother, and Long Qing accepted the mission.

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