Love Beyond the Grave Episode 38 Recap
> Love Beyond the Grave Recaps
Duan Xu returned to Nandu in secret to meet with Prince Jin, who had recently ascended as the new Emperor. They met at the outskirts of the city, where the Emperor had established a solitary tomb for Fang Xianye, refusing to let the man who died for the sake of the Great Liang be left in the wilderness.
Duan Xu knelt before the Emperor, asking for punishment for his failure to arrive in time during the Nandu riot, but the Emperor assured him he was not to blame. Standing before the grave, the Emperor spoke of his travels and his realization that the world belonged to the people, not just the person on the throne.
Duan Xu, knowing his own time was running out, swore a solemn oath upon his friend’s soul to fulfill their shared dream and recover the seventeen prefectures of the North. After the Emperor departed, Duan Xu stayed to speak privately with the spirit of Fang Xianye, noting that while the world saw the top scholar as a disciplined man, he was actually more of a madman than Duan Xu himself.
He promised that the Emperor would be a good ruler and expressed his desire to spend whatever time he had left by He Simu’s side. Duan Xu later returned to the Duan Mansion to bid his father farewell. He declared that he would no longer be a pawn for the family’s glory and intended to live for himself and the woman he loved. As he walked away, his father’s desperate calls for him to return went ignored.
Later, Duan Xu shared a childhood memory with He Simu about a time he fell into a deep, dark pit in their backyard. His father had stood at the edge and refused to help, telling him he would starve if he didn't climb out on his own.
Duan Xu explained that he didn't hate his father for this because he later learned that his father had actually stood nearby in the sweltering sun for hours, watching over him until he successfully climbed out. He Simu felt a deep ache for Duan Xu, realizing how difficult and lonely his life had truly been. As the war reached its climax, Han Lingqiu returned to the front lines after learning of Chenying’s death.
Overcome with grief and regret for having left, he vowed to fight alongside Duan Xu to the end. Duan Xu laid out the strategic deployment for the upcoming battle for Youzhou, the gateway to the North Chong Army, calling it a fight for survival. That night, He Simu watched over the sleeping Duan Xu. Fengyi warned her that even with the elixirs and blessed spells he had provided, Duan Xu’s constant overexertion was draining his life force.
If he continued to exhaust himself for the war, he would only have two years left to live. On the battlefield, the situation turned dire when Yan Ke unleashed a massive army of puppet spirits. These evil spirits began a massacre, attacking both the Great Liang and the North Chong soldiers without distinction. To Yan Ke, human lives were merely insignificant ants to be sacrificed for his own power.
Lu Da, the North Chong general, was horrified to see his own people being slaughtered by the very spirits he thought would help him. He tried to confront Yan Ke, but Yan Ke revealed that he had secretly planted a seed of control within Lu Da during their cultivation. Lu Da was now nothing more than a puppet, forced to serve Yan Ke's ambition to become the Sovereign of the Void. Maizi rushed to report the chaos to He Simu.
Seeing the slaughter, He Simu and Fengyi headed to the battlefield. While He Simu went to deal with Yan Ke, Fengyi used the last of his strength to refine the weapons of the Great Liang soldiers with spirit power, allowing the mortals to finally strike down the puppet spirits. He Simu confronted Yan Ke, who ranted about being treated as a pawn by her father and her.
He Simu dismissed his claims as the delusions of a greedy rebel, stating that she had given him power, but his insatiable desires were his own undoing. She challenged him to a final duel for the title of Sovereign. During the struggle, Lu Da managed to seize the Spirits Lantern. Driven by his hatred for the spirits that killed his family, he believed that if the Sovereign vanished, all evil spirits would disappear from the world.
Despite Yan Ke’s attempts to stop him—as Yan Ke did not want He Simu to die—Lu Da smashed the Spirits Lantern. As the source of her power shattered, He Simu began to fade away. To her own surprise, she felt a sense of relief; she was finally free from the burden of her eternal loneliness and the pain of being left behind by everyone she loved.
As she drifted toward the Void, she imagined seeing her parents and even saw Duan Xu reaching out to her with a smile. In the Void, Jiang Ai and Bai Sanxing felt the tremors and desperately worked to stabilize the spell formations to prevent the spirits from flooding the Mortal World. However, He Simu was pulled back from the brink of destruction by the persistent calling of a small spirit who had been following her.
She regained consciousness on the battlefield, where she saw the spirit of Chenying standing nearby. With Yan Ke defeated and reduced to ash, the puppet spirits vanished instantly. The Great Liang army, led by Duan Xu, emerged victorious, finally ending the long and bloody conflict.
