Time Raiders Episode 7 Recap
> Time Raiders Recap
Wu Xie finally regained consciousness, finding himself hanging upside down from a vine. Below him lay a coffin containing a male and a female corpse. He initially speculated that these were merely decoy mechanisms, designed to scare people off, like those described in his grandfather's notes. He then noticed a knife on the general-like male corpse lying beside the beautiful woman, and, addressing the female as "Miss Fairy," he asked if he could borrow her friend's knife.
Using the short blade, he severed the vines binding him, causing him to fall directly into the coffin, landing between the two bodies. He quickly realized this wasn't a decoy mechanism, as it hadn't attacked him. As he struggled to stand, the female corpse's hand unexpectedly clasped around his neck, clinging to him as he rose, its cold touch deeply unsettling. Suddenly, a faint cry for help echoed through the air.
Wu Xie turned to see Pangzi, also suspended by vines, but alive. Pangzi desperately pleaded for Wu Xie to find a way to get him down, even as he questioned Wu Xie's "flirting during a crisis" with the female corpse. Wu Xie, with difficulty, tossed the dagger to Pangzi, who quickly cut himself free and dropped down. Pangzi, seeing the female corpse still attached to Wu Xie, reacted with a mix of curiosity and fear.
He then glanced at the male corpse and urgently warned Wu Xie not to look at its face. He identified it as King Shang of Lu, noting its distinct fox-like features—a pointed chin and black-blue skin—matching the legendary Green-Eyed Fox Corpse. Pangzi explained that this was a rare congenital deformity, revered as divine in ancient times, whose sufferers' faces sharpened and eyes elongated in puberty, fearing sunlight and hiding in darkness, their bodies shedding skin until they turned blue-black.
He speculated whether King Shang of Lu's deformity was the root of his twisted nature. Pangzi then jokingly warned that merely looking at the Green-Eyed Fox Corpse's face could infect one, causing them to transform into its likeness, though he quickly admitted he was just making it up. Wu Xie felt a wave of dizziness when he looked at the male corpse, as if caught in a terrible illusion, and quickly averted his gaze.
Pangzi then observed the female corpse's remarkable preservation after millennia. Wu Xie reminded him that he had noticed something in her mouth, which Pangzi then identified as a key and suggested it might be the key to her release, claiming it would make her let go. Just as Wu Xie was about to reach into the female corpse's mouth, a hushed voice, belonging to Pan Zi, warned him to stop.
Pan Zi, from a distance, advised that such a mechanism was beyond Wu Xie's handling and could be fatal. He instructed Wu Xie to tilt the female corpse's head, press her throat with his thumb, and then slap the back of her head, emphasizing the throat pressure to prevent her from swallowing the key. Wu Xie followed the instructions, and the female corpse's grip loosened, allowing him to break free.
Pan Zi then quietly revealed a shocking truth: the "Pangzi" currently with Wu Xie was not the real Pangzi. He warned Wu Xie to be wary, as the impostor was trying to trick him into taking the key from the corpse's mouth. Wu Xie, remembering Pangzi's earlier urgings, realized the truth. The fake Pangzi, enraged that Wu Xie hadn't retrieved the key, choked him. Struggling for breath, Wu Xie frantically searched for anything useful nearby and found a square cauldron.
He slammed it into the impostor's head, knocking him out and seemingly "waking him up." The real Pangzi, now conscious but with a throbbing headache, was confused. Wu Xie explained that they had been caught in a hallucination, and Pangzi had been choking him. Pangzi questioned the lump on his head, and Wu Xie explained he had fallen, but Pangzi argued it must have been from Wu Xie's blow.
They surmised that the hallucination began after they fell into the altar area and looked at the Green-Eyed Fox Corpse, possibly also influenced by some elixir taken by King Shang of Lu. Wu Xie then noticed a keyhole on the square cauldron, whose shape perfectly matched the key he had seen in the female corpse's mouth. Although Pangzi dismissed the cauldron as a recent German-made fake, Wu Xie decided to proceed cautiously.
He slowly extracted the key from the female corpse's mouth, observing a very fine thread attached to its end. He recognized this as an ancient mechanism he had read about, where crossbows were often placed inside corpses and connected by fine gold threads to the object being guarded. If the thread were broken, the crossbow would fire, striking anyone close to the corpse. Wu Xie carefully snipped the thread.
Immediately after the key was removed, the female corpse's arms began to crack and crumble into dust. Startled, Wu Xie was reassured by Pangzi, who calmly explained that the key must have been responsible for her preservation. With air now entering her body, rapid oxidation was causing her to decay. Their relief was short-lived, however, as they then noticed that the male corpse, King Shang of Lu, was missing.
They wondered if he was alive, or if his elixir of immortality had actually worked. As Wu Xie and Pangzi started to make their way back, Third Uncle's distant voice once again pierced the air, urging Wu Xie to watch his back. Wu Xie turned to see Pangzi carrying the "fox demon" (the Green-Eyed Fox Corpse) on his back, its mouth agape and ready to bite Pangzi's neck.
In a timely intervention, Third Uncle and Pan Zi shot an arrow, striking the creature and causing it to fall. Finally reunited with Third Uncle, Pan Zi, and Da Kui, everyone expressed relief at their narrow escape, despite Pan Zi's severe injuries. Third Uncle explained that their hallucination was caused by a hexagonal bell, not the eyes of the corpse (which were fake stones embedded later).
He clarified that the combination of the fox mask and the bell's sound created a psychological suggestion, especially given their earlier close contact with it and inhalation of hallucinogenic powder. Wu Xie initially believed it to be a Gudiao (a mythical creature) from the Classic of Mountains and Seas, whose cries cause hallucinations, but Third Uncle corrected him, stating that no such creature existed; instead, ancient people used eagle-shaped bells for rituals.
Pangzi then showed Wu Xie a special stone called Tianxin Rock, explaining it was used to repel the Nine-Headed Snake Cypress, which had been grabbing them. He pointed out a colossal tree where the "snake cypresses" (which are the poisonous vines/hands) parasitized. As the fog dissipated, they gasped in horror, realizing that the tree was not covered in bird nests, but was laden with numerous human corpses.
