Ashes of Time

Murong Yang, a prince of the former Yan kingdom, asks Ouyang to kill Huang Yaoshi because Huang broke a drunken promise to marry Murong Yin, Murong Yang's sister. This broken vow set in motion a chain of events that entangled Ouyang in their conflict.

Murong Yin asks Ouyang to kill her brother Murong Yang, claiming he has become possessive and won't allow her to marry Huang Yaoshi. However, Ouyang soon discovers that Murong Yang and Murong Yin are actually the same person, a person suffering from a fractured identity caused by denial of their own desires.

Earlier, Murong Yang visited seeking to kill Huang, creating the initial conflict.

The memory wine is said to erase memories. Huang Yaoshi brings it to the inn and drinks from it, which seems to loosen his grip on the past rather than truly erase it. The wine is tied to a woman and choices that have haunted both Huang and Ouyang for years.

Over years of exile, Ouyang's psyche slips further into darkness after learning his sister-in-law died. He reemerges as Dugu Qiubai, an invincible swordsman whose name becomes legendary. This transformation represents his complete departure from the man who ran the desert inn.

The Blind Swordsman, an old friend of Huang Yaoshi, comes to the inn as his sight fails. He hopes to defend the village against bandits to earn money for a journey home to see Peach Blossom one last time. He faces hundreds of bandits alone, is overwhelmed, and is killed.

After learning his sister-in-law died two years earlier and that she had asked Huang to bring him the memory wine, Ouyang drinks the wine himself. This triggers a fierce transformation, he burns down the inn, returns to White Camel Mountain, and becomes the Western Venom, a figure defined by vengeance and isolation.

The memory wine was delivered by Huang years earlier but sat untouched until Ouyang finally drank it.

A village girl offers her mule and eggs to Ouyang, seeking vengeance for her brother's death at the hands of soldiers. Ouyang declines and sends her away, but she refuses to leave, remaining by the inn in hopes he will change his mind and help her.

Hong Qi, a down-and-out martial artist, takes up the girl's offer to kill soldiers in exchange for a single egg, losing a finger in the process. After healing, he leaves the inn with his wife and later earns fame as the Northern Beggar, a symbolic turn in a life shaped by hunger, loss, and a hard-won code of conduct.

Ouyang never fully moved on from his sister-in-law, who died of illness two years before the main events. Before her death, she asked Huang Yaoshi to bring Ouyang the jar of memory-erasing wine. This unresolved love and her death drive Ouyang's eventual transformation.

Huang Yaoshi, a close friend of Ouyang, visits the inn annually to share a drink and conversation with Ouyang before continuing his journey back to White Camel Mountain. These visits are a ritual that continues through the seasons of Ouyang's exile.