Fox Spirit Matchmaker. Here's What to Expect in Yuehong, Zhu Ye, and Wang Quan Chapters

While we're still waiting for the release date of Fox Spirit Matchmaker: Yuehong and Fox Spirit Matchmaker: Zhu Ye, both expected to air this year, let's explore the background and storyline, including the Wang Quan chapter which is currently filming.

The Fox Spirit Matchmaker is based on the popular Chinese manhua of the same title. But while the final script of the drama adaptation may vary and may never follow the original material, much of the concept of the source material is always woven into the actual screenplay, so we can expect the basic plot of this manhua will be followed. 

Tree in Tushan where the spirit and human pledge their love

We still did not know how close the script of the Fox Spirit Matchmaker drama adaptations to the original manhua, the productions have not yet shared a comprehensive plot summary for each of the chapters (Yuehong, Zhu Ye, and Wang Quan) but based on the characters of the cast of Yuehong and Zhu Ye, it looks like they did not entirely follow the original manhua. 

For example, in the manhua, the Yuehong arc began with the story of Bai Yuechu (the 5th reincarnation of Dongfang Yuechu) and Tushan Susu (who is Honghong but just lost her memory).

Bai Yuechu fled to Tushan and met Tushan Susu, a fox spirit matchmaker. Together, they worked as matchmakers between spirits and humans. The story of Dongfang Yuechu and Tushan Honghong is just told in flashbacks.

But in the cast lineup of the Yuehong chapter, no characters of Bai Yuechu and Tushan Susu are included, so it means they skipped this part of the novel and just went straight to the era of Tushan Honghong and Dongfang Yuechu.

So, here we go, let's explore the basic storyline of the Yuehong, Zhu Ye, and Wang Quan chapters based on the original manhua, and let's see how much of these scenes will be transported into the drama.

But first, here's the basic concept of the Fox Spirit Matchmaker:

The story of Fox Spirit Matchmaker takes place in a world where humans and spirits live together, and sometimes fall in love with one another. 

It has two realms, the human world where Daoists or Taoists live, and Tushan where the spirits live. Tushan is also the leader of the Spirit Union and a major player in the Yi Qi Dao (human) and Spirit Union's Alliance. 

Yang Mi, Liu Shishi, and Li Yitong

Tushan's business revolves around the resort and its matchmaking service, which is available for human and spirit couples who wish to make a Pledge of Love. 

Humans have a limited lifespan and when they die, their Spirit lovers are left alone and heartbroken. So the fox spirits created a way so that Spirits can reunite with their reincarnated human lovers through a Pledge of Love under the Tree of Plight. 

Humans don't have the same memory of spirits, when they reincarnate, they cannot remember their past life anymore, so the fox spirit will act as a matchmaker, using a special book made from the Tree of Plight to remind the humans of their past life and love.

Those who make a vow beneath the Tree of Plight will have their names written in the Tushan Matchmaker's books so that when the human is reincarnated, the Tushan's Matchmakers can help them back to their loved ones and help them recover their lost memories. 

According to written texts, in the world, there are humans and spirits, and they are capable of loving each other. 

However, spirits can live for a long time, but humans have a limited lifespan. If humans and spirits love each other, they make a Heart Oath (Pledge of Love) under the Kuqing Tree (Bitter Love Tree in Tushan). 

Humans can then reincarnate, but they will not remember anything from their past lives. The spirits will then buy the services of the Tushan Fox Spirits so that the reincarnated human can remember their past love.

To make the pledge of love effective and successful, the lovers will use a special item called a fabao or magical treasure (in the form of a pledge token or magical weapons), for example Dongfang Yuechu and Tushan Honghong use Yuechu's Void Tear as fabao

While the fox spirits of Tushan cannot guarantee that every love story will be a success, as it depends on the two lovers who made the vow in the past life, and their own efforts in the current life to fall in love, the fox spirit matchmakers will do everything to help the two lovers get back together.

But their matchmaking service works are made difficult by the intervention of the demon spirits -  the Shadow Foxes, they are the bad spirits and the enemies of Tushan. The Shadow Foxes try to thwart Tushan's efforts to make peace with humans by inciting hatred and breeding violence. 

The Shadow Foxes' ulterior motive is to find and obtain the precious artifacts of Dongfang Yuechu that would give them unlimited powers to rule the world.

YUEHONG ARC

In the drama adaptation, this is starred by Yang Mi as Tushan Honghong and Gong Jun as Dongfang Yuechu. They met when Dongfang Yuechu fled to Tushan to hide from the rogue Daoists who wanted to kill him. Honghong timely saved him.

Gong Jun as Dongfang Yuechu

Tushan Honghong has a brash personality and prefers solving problems with direct application of force, rather than with subtlety. But despite her somewhat brutal nature, she is a good spirit who protects humans from enemies. She also desired peace and harmony between humans and spirits. 

However, she becomes emotionally withdrawn after she accidentally kills a young Daoist who saved her and her sister, Rongrong when they were kidnapped and sold as slaves.

The regrets and emotional turmoil she felt increased her power but left her cold and distant with no room in her heart to fall in love. It appears that a Fox Spirit's power is based on their emotions, the stronger the emotions the greater their power. 

Dongfang Yuechu is a carefree human but has a mysterious bloodline that yields unprecedented power, making him the target of rogue Daoists and spirit demons because he carries artifacts and abilities that give someone immense magical power that even the mighty spirit cannot resist.

The Dongfang clan was once a very powerful clan and highly skilled martial artists whose mission was to slay spirit demons. Their blood carries magical powers that cannot be overpowered by the spirit demons.

He has two powerful abilities: Void Tear and Pure Yang Fire. The Void Tear is considered the most powerful magical artifact in existence capable of manipulating space (and possibly time). 

Void Tear, also known as Xukong Zhi Lei, is a powerful spacetime treasure, a magical liquid to dissolve enemies in spacetime. 

Dongfang Yuechu was able to use it with both eyes and summon the most powerful form of Xukong Zhilei. He used his right eye as an offering treasure for his pledge of love to Honghong. 

Due to its complex nature, Void of Tear is tough to control. Its destructive capabilities are immensely potent and only Honghong's repelling claw is capable of blocking it. 

Cultivating and acquiring this magical artifact is extremely difficult. It requires the highest level of Daoist spirit power mastery. It also requires its creation to be born out of sincere romantic affection and sorrow. 

This makes it significantly difficult to produce as most Daoists live stoic and detached lives free of burdensome emotions in their pursuit of perfection.

The strength of Void of Tear is proportionate to the devotion to a loved one or the sorrow endured by an individual. 

Only Dongfang Yuechu has ever produced the complete Void of Tear when he journeyed to realize Honghong's dream of peace, and in the end, made a Love Pledge with her before dying.

Dongfang's family bloodline allows him to naturally use the Pure Yang Fire. Nearly all spirit demons fear Pure Yang Fire. Tushan has since developed a counter method for Pure Yang Fire (with Dongfang's help) using Deep Yin Water. 

Storyline of Yuehong chapter:

Dongfang is the last remaining survivor of the Dongfang Clan.  He moves to Tushan to evade the rogue Daoists who pursue him. He grows up with Honghong, Yaya, and Rongrong.

He develops feelings for Honghong but she constantly turns him down. He discovers later why. It was due to the grief of Honghong for accidentally killing a young Daoist who saved her and Rongrong. 

Honghong wishes to see a long-lasting peace between spirits and humans so Yuechu left Tushan to join the Yiqidao Daoist League to realize Honghong's dream. 

Yuechu returns to Tushan to establish an alliance between humans and spirits to achieve peace, but the Shadow Fox empress (spirit demon) tricks them into going to war together. It was too late for Honghong to realize the deception.

Honghong having exhausted all her spirit power to complete the pledge begins to lose her strength. The Empress quickly regenerates and begins to choke the weakening Honghong, saying that Honghong is foolish to make the pledge because if she kills Honghong, Dongfang will never be reincarnated.

The spirit demon conspired with Jin Renfeng, the Golden God of Fire to attack Tushan. Dongfang Yuechu then shares his blood with Honghong to give her the secret of his power, wounding himself in the process. Her strength increased dramatically and she was able to defeat The Golden God of Fire.

Near the end of his life, Dongfang made a Pledge of Love with Tushan Honghong using the 'Void Tear' as the vessel, to meet again in the next life. 

ZHU YE ARC

This arc focuses on the love story between two humans and powerful martial artists, Dongfang Huai Zhu and Wangquan Ba Ye. 

The drama adaptation stars Liu Shishi as Dongfang Huai Zhu and Zhang Yunlong as Wangquan Hong Ye (They changed the name of the main male lead in the drama from Ba Ye to Hong Ye).

Dongfang Huai Zhu is the eldest daughter of the Dongfang Clan. She has a younger sister, Dongfang Qinlan, the mother of Dongfang Yuechu. They lived in the Bamboo Pavilion.

Unlike some other traditional women in her time, Huai Zhu has no household skills or any of the four arts: Guqin, Chinese chess (weiqi), calligraphy, and painting. She was raised to be a warrior and thus excels in martial arts. 

Wangquan Ba Ye (Hong Ye) is the powerful leader of the Yiqidao League. He is also the head of the Wangquan family. Originally known as the 'masked swordsman', he is a powerful warrior.

The story begins when the sisters, Dongfang Qinlan and Dongfang Huaizhu, and an assistant enter a village to defeat some spirit demons. They meet three Daoists and fight side by side to kill spider demon spirits.

Liu Shishi as Dongfang Huaizhu

But they were defeated and the attacker captured Qinlan. Huaizhu was able to escape. When she woke up, she met a masked man with a sword standing on the branch of a huge tree - Wangquan Ba Ye. 

Ba Ye excused himself and left to attack the spider spirit's hideout. Huaizhu took the chance to follow him and asked him to help her save Qinlan. After setting some conditions, he agreed. 

Huaizhu had to leave after being summoned by her father through Jin Renfeng, she left a message on Ba Ye's clothes to meet on the seventh day of the seventh month (Qixi) in the Zhu/Bamboo Pavilion.

They later met. But Huaizhu was disappointed because she couldn't see Ba Ye's face as he always wore a mask. Later, the Masked Daoists led by Ba Ye traveled to the border and had a fierce fight with the people guarding the border, killing all masked Daoists except Ba Ye.

After his escape, Wangquan Ba Ye fights his way through the Daoists of the Flame Villa to take Huaizhu who was held prisoner by Jin Renfeng (who would become God of Fire in the Yuehong arc).

Suddenly, the Wangquan Blade shoots down from the sky into the ground. Wangquan's clansmen appear and they blackmail Jin Renfeng (who killed Huai Zhu's father due to his powerful blood that can wield power) to let Huaizhu marry Ba Ye. They eventually wed. 

Later, Huai Zhu noticed Ba Ye becoming weaker and weaker and his hair turned silver. Fearing the future of their child, Huai Zhu asks the Daoist elders to help her transfer all her spirit power to her child so that her child can be born with the abilities of the two powerful Daoist clans, the Wangquan and the Dongfang, and become a highly skilled demon slayer. 

They named their child, Wangquan Fugui. After she transfersblackmail all her spirit powers to Wangquan Fugui, Huaizhu dies. 

Upon hearing the death of her sister, Dongfang Qinlan becomes angry. She teaches her young son, Dongfang Yuechu how to use the Pure Yang Flame weapon. She also tells Yuechu to live a happy life but to always remember their two great enemies: Jin Renfeng for usurping the Dongfang Clan, and Wangquan Ba Ye for using up Huaizhu's spirit power. 

Meanwhile, Wangquan Fugui grows up to become a powerful demon slayer using the Wangquan Sword given by his father. His father trained him to kill demon spirits without mercy. 

One day, he saw a spider spirit being hatched from the Venom Widow in their family estate. This little spider spirit was sent by the Shadow Foxes to act as a spy in the Wangquan family. 

Ba Ye told his son to kill this little spider spirit, suspecting that this was a spy sent by the spirit demons, but Wangquan Fugui hesitated as he pitied the little spider, believing that not all spirits are demons. 

The spider spirit can show Fugui the wonderful world outside the estate, the world that Fugui barely knows. The spider spirit opens up Fugui to a different side of the world which he did not learn from his father, so Fugui named the spider, Qingtong, meaning "clear".

Later, Fugui and Qingtong developed feelings. Fugui chose to leave the Wangquan estate with Qingtong and build their own family. When he died, Qingtong was left alone. She waited for her love to reincarnate by seeking the help of the fox spirit matchmaker.

WANG QUAN ARC

This arc focuses on the love story between the human, Wang Fugui, and the spider spirit, Qingtong. In the drama adaptation, it stars Cheng Yi as Wang Fugui and Li Yitong as Qingtong.

Cheng Yi as Wang Fuigi

WANG FUGUI is the reincarnation of Wangquan Fugui, the famous Daoist and former leader of the Yi Qi Dao League. In the Zhu Ye arc, before his mother, Dongfang Huazhi, died, she asks the Daoist elders to help her transfer all her spirit power to her son, Wangquan Fugui, so that he can be born with the warrior skills of two powerful Daoist clans  - the Wangquan and the Dongfang--and become a powerful demon slayer.

Still photo of Cheng Yi as Wang Fugui 

After meeting with the Venom Widow, Wang Fugui recovers many memories of his past life (which were erased by the Third Master of Aolai) and remembers how to use the powerful sword called Wangquan Golden Life Blade. However, using the Wangquan Blade consumes up his life energy, thereby shortening his life.

QINGTONG - She is a spider spirit and originally had no name. She appeared in the Zhu Ye arc as a spider who was hatched from an egg by the Venom Widow (spirit demon) and trained to be a spy on the Wangquan family. 

As Venom Widow's slave, she was referred to only by her number 12580. She was later caught and covered in powerful sealing fu charms by Wangquan Fugui's half-sister who used her as a messenger.

Wangquan Fugui took pity on her and helped her gain freedom. He nursed her back to health and gave her the name Qingtong, which means clear, referring to how she opened his eyes to the world.

Years after the death of Wangquan Fugui, she became the Matriarch or Grandmother of the Wang family and has been waiting for Fugui to be reincarnated.

Filming set of Wang Quan chapter

Wang Quan chapter storyline:

In the Zhu Ye chapter, Qing Tong is a spirit spider planted by the Venom Widow as a spy to gather information for their revenge against the Wangquan family.

Wangquan Fu Gui had no freedom in life as he was trained to be the ultimate "military weapon" of the clan. He was kept inside the family estate and thoroughly becomes a highly-skilled demon slayer. However, he was full of yearning for the outside world.

The Wang Quan chapter stars with Qingtong stealing the matchmaking book from Tushan Susu. But she was attacked by Bai Yuechu with his powerful Void of Tear ability. Qingtong was forced to abandon her spider body. She fled to the forest and was rescued by the old man.

The old masked man turns out to be the grandfather of Wang Fugui. Qingtong is healed by Wang Fugui's grandfather who gave her human limbs and removed her demon markings. 

She is soft and kind, and although a powerful Spirit, she does not intentionally harm humans. She is extremely infatuated with Wang Fugui when they finally met. 

Later she realizes Wang Fugui is the reincarnation of her past love, Wangquan Fugui but he does not have any memory of their past and he constantly rejected her for other women.