EPISODE CONTEXT

As the first of fifteen episodes, 'Banishing Evil (Part 1)' is pure foundation — establishing Wei Wuxian's return, the cultivation world's power dynamics, and the supernatural threats that will drive the season's central mystery. It feeds directly into 'Banishing Evil (Part 2),' which continues the Mo Village incident and begins connecting the present-day events to the larger backstory. Everything introduced here — the eerie tone, the fragmented timeline, the unanswered questions — becomes the structural DNA for the rest of the season.