Rakshasa Street Episode 17 Recap
> Rakshasa Street Recap
The villagers of Mingjing Village were in a state of alarm as Bai Jingxuan had vanished. His brother, Bai Jingyin, recalled Bai Jingxuan mentioning he would play a final song for Nan Yufu as a farewell. The elder grew concerned, suspecting that Bai Jingxuan might have left the village with Nan Yufu, despite Nan Yufu's professed amnesia. Leading the search to the village entrance, Bai Jingyin and the elder found Bai Jingxuan lying wounded, shot by an arrow.
Shortly after, Nan Yufu, at the head of the Lingjia army, arrived and stormed Mingjing Village, seizing control, binding the villagers, and greedily observing the Bodhi tree. Once Bai Jingxuan was revived by the Bodhi tree, he confronted Nan Yufu, accusing him of being a liar. Nan Yufu dismissed Bai Jingxuan's words, reciting an ancient Buddhist verse by the Sixth Patriarch Huineng: "Bodhi originally has no tree, nor is the bright mirror a stand.
Originally there is not a single thing, where can dust alight?" He stated that Bai Jingxuan, with his old-fashioned ancestral prejudices, could not comprehend the changing world. He revealed that Mingjing Village, the fabled Peach Blossom Spring, had already been consumed by the spiritual domain. Nan Yufu confirmed his intent to claim the Bodhi tree, but declared his true prize to be the villagers themselves.
He recognized them as Messengers, referring to them as "smart people," possessing the unique ability to act as a key connecting the spiritual domain and the human world. He explained that unlike ordinary Spirit Man who cannot revert from alienation, Messengers possessed controllable and partial alienation.
For his grand scheme, he subjected the villagers to gruesome human experiments, repeatedly injecting them with various toxins and poisons to induce alienation, then using the Bodhi tree's restorative powers to heal them, endlessly repeating the cycle. He even offered Bai Jingyin the power of invisibility, promising him freedom to move between worlds.
Bai Jingxuan realized that Nan Yufu's prior expressions of friendship, shared moments of 'Gao Shan Liu Shui,' and his 'not wanting to forget him' were all a deceptive facade; Nan Yufu had simply exploited him. Nan Yufu revealed he had spared Bai Jingxuan not out of kindness, but because Bai Jingxuan was instrumental in gaining access to Mingjing Village.
Bai Jingxuan later understood that Nan Yufu's ultimate goal was to extract information from Messengers to create a drug that would allow humans to survive in the spiritual domain. He would then use those humans (caught from the human realm) to discover how Spirit Man could freely traverse the human world, thereby bridging the two realms and fulfilling his larger conspiracy. He observed the Bodhi tree's unique ability to absorb and break down toxins, comparing it to a natural scavenger.
Nan Yufu declared alienation to be "the cancer of Spirit Man," claiming it unlocked immense power and a connection to the spiritual domain. He crafted a potent alienation agent, "Crazy Snow," by harnessing the 1600 years of accumulated resentment absorbed by the Bodhi tree, which he considered the best alienation medium. He then injected villagers with this "Crazy Snow," inducing their alienation, and released them into Yulin Street.
His chilling objective was to spread terror, making the people of Yulin Street believe that anyone entering Mingjing Village would become an "alien," transforming the sacred village into a notorious "land of demons" and a gathering place for evil, ensuring no one would dare approach and disrupt his research. He scoffed at the mention of Zhenhun Generals, deeming them inconsequential. Bai Jingxuan lamented this cruel fate, calling it the "tragedy of Mingjing Village."
Having seemingly perfected his "Crazy Snow" experiments, Nan Yufu then focused on obtaining the "no fruit" (or Supreme Fruit). He revealed his extensive knowledge of the "no fruit" and the village's ancestral precepts, having delved into Mingjing Village's history. He recounted that 1630 years ago, in 386 AD, the Bai family, descendants of the feared "Killing God" Bai Qi, fled the chaos of the Qin Dynasty to establish this secret haven, ironically becoming healers as an atonement for past bloodshed.
He detailed the legend of a fisherman who stumbled upon the village and later left with the Bai family's eldest daughter, who was captivated by tales of the outside world. Their union led to the Bai family bloodline dispersing into the human realm, prompting the ancestors to establish the strict ancestral precepts to prevent similar occurrences. This tale, Nan Yufu explained, was immortalized by the fisherman's poet friend, Mr. Jing Jie (Tao Yuanming), in the renowned "Peach Blossom Spring."
Nan Yufu thanked Mr. Jing Jie for providing the clues that led him to the village's secrets, announcing that the Bodhi tree's "no fruit" would ripen that very night. As the Bodhi tree reached its "Qiming" (enlightenment) moment to bear the "no fruit," Nan Yufu ordered its retrieval, but his men were attacked by Stone Spirit (Shi Lingming). Seizing this opportunity, the elder led the villagers in an escape.
Overwhelmed by shame for their ancestors due to the village's plight, the elder performed a ritual with "the blood of the fifth class," symbolically entrusting their ancestral grievances and awaiting the return of the "White Lord." With Nan Yufu's forces closing in, the elder, knowing they were no match for the Lingjia army, reluctantly distributed the "Crazy Snow" drug to his people.
He solemnly tasked Bai Jingxuan, the only one spared from the experiments and the last "normal" person, to protect the ancestral precepts and locate the Bai family's descendants. Empowered by the "Crazy Snow," the villagers launched a desperate, surprise attack on the Lingjia army, allowing Bai Jingxuan to escape Mingjing Village. They subsequently found refuge in a mountain cave, but the "Crazy Snow" had a devastating side effect, rendering them all mute. They remained hidden, fearing Nan Yufu's discovery.
Bai Jingxuan further revealed that the former Zhenhun General of Yulin Street, who had entered Mingjing Village to investigate the Spirit Man alienation, was murdered by Nan Yufu. This act tragically cemented Mingjing Village's infamous reputation as a "land of demons," and Beiluoshimen (Northern Division) subsequently became the Zhenhun General. Cao Yanbing realized that Bai Jingxuan had led him and Xia Ling to the elder in order to pass on the ancestral precepts.
Bai Jingxuan confirmed that the ancestral precepts were a unique "Yanling letter," infused with the Bai family's bloodline power, legible only to their direct descendants. He explained that Nan Yufu had not completely annihilated them because he considered them insignificant, but any attempt to emerge would surely lead to their destruction. Therefore, they entrusted the ancestral precepts to Cao Yanbing, hoping he would defeat Nan Yufu, find the Bai family's descendants, and help them rebuild Mingjing Village.
Cao Yanbing questioned why he was the chosen one. Bai Jingxuan explained that they later understood Mingjing Village to be the original intersection of the spiritual domain and the human world. When the spiritual domain expanded and encroached, it engulfed Mingjing Village, causing the Bai family's bloodline to disperse throughout the human world. He emphasized that Cao Yanbing, as a Messenger, possessed the ability to traverse both realms.
Moreover, Cao Yanbing was the only person in five years to actively seek the Bodhi tree, a testament to a unique fearlessness that Bai Jingxuan believed made him capable of confronting Nan Yufu. Bai Jingxuan urged Cao Yanbing to promise that he would not let Nan Yufu destroy their Bodhi tree again, implying that Nan Yufu had already destroyed their souls. After delivering his final confession and heartfelt plea, Bai Jingxuan closed his eyes, passing away.
Cao Yanbing, looking at the silent villagers, solemnly promised that he would diligently search for the Bai family's descendants. As for Nan Yufu, Cao Yanbing declared that the time for reckoning was now.
