BOUND BY A LANTERN LIGHTS
Synopsis
In the modern world, Ling Tian wakes in a hospital after an accident on Floating Plaza Bridge, desperate to find his brother Yang. He learns Yang died swerving to avoid a fallen tree and save three children during a storm-induced mudslide. Grieving, Ling Tian visits The Lantern’s Fate—the shop he and Yang dreamed of opening—where Wu Lan arrives with a finished bird lantern identical to his birthmark, which Yang had left for their opening day. The two confess their long-held feelings for each other and agree to hang the lantern in Yang’s honor.
That night, Ling Tian’s birthmark glows warm, pulling him into a vision of a mountain ledge in an unknown place. A boy who looks exactly like him—Lin Yun—lies wounded, clutching a glowing green plant as three armed men approach. Lin Yun presses the plant into Ling Tian’s hand and shares his wish to be strong enough to protect others before passing away. When their skin touches, a wave of light merges them, and Ling Tian vanishes from his bedroom, leaving only his green stone necklace and the blinking bird lantern to alarm Wu Lan and his parents.
Ling Tian wakes in Lin Yun’s body on the cold ledge, then later finds himself tended to by a broad-shouldered man with Yang’s eyes, who teases him and insists on being called "Master Baby." The pair travels to The Crooked Mug tavern, where an old bearded man and a bright-eyed young girl approach their table, with the girl exclaiming that Ling Tian (as Lin Yun) is "the one." The girl helps herself to bread while the old man plays a flute and sings a song about time, space, and hidden paths, then shows off a glowing drink called "Brook-Song Gold" before they depart.
When Yang returns slightly drunk, he steals two horses to escape the stable owner’s wrath, and Ling Tian clumsily mounts the second horse. They ride past cultivation sect lands—Sunfire Clan, Dragon’s Scale Herb Gardens, Earth Spirit Sect, and Misty Cloud Sect—before reaching Grass Valley Village. Yang notices Ling Tian’s unusual spiritual energy and questions him, then brushes it off as a joke. In the village, Ling Tian unconsciously releases a wave of energy to protect children from a falling tree branch, surprising guard Da Peng with powers he didn’t have days before.
At the family estate, Ling Tian’s boxing stances confuse his father Lord Lin Wei, who scolds him before sensing his open meridians in awe. His sister Xiao runs to embrace him, and his mother Lady Mei Lian calms her husband. From the roof, the old man and girl sing their song again, then transform into radiant, divine forms before vanishing in silver mist. As Ling Tian’s hand touches his father’s, a jolt of power passes between them.
