The Daily Life of the Immortal King – Season 1 Episode 2 Recap & Review

Fair and Just Class: President Election

Episode 2 of The Daily Life of the Immortal King (Netflix) explodes at the hospital as Wang Ling ‘births’ himself by crawling from his mother’s womb.

In his crib, his father presents a limited-edition Dragon Slaughtering Sword. As ‘the chosen one’ Wang Ling has to tolerate unimaginable torments from a young age, as he can hear others’ thoughts.

Presented with the gift, and knowing what each parent is really thinking, the toddler experiences his first philosophical dilemma; don’t take the sword and this will go on endlessly. Take it and the counterfeit sword will instantly break, resulting in marital dispute and giving him untold agita.

Considering his plight, the ‘force of origin’ accumulating inside him bursts forth. And with that, he’s saved by the need of a clean diaper. The narrator calls it a ‘thought provoking story of how urine saved a marriage.’ Which leads to baby Wang Ling’s resolve to keep a low profile.

At the age of 6, he fails to confine his force, resulting in the family unanimously voting on the low-profile thing. Dad’s job is to find a way to contain spiritual forces before primary school begins.

But by high school, Wang Ling is still breaking bowls with a touch. His Mother insists he take a daily golden pill while Father continues to apply cultivation technology to amulets in the hope of containing his power. Wang Ling makes an escape as the old amulet argument resumes.

His parents recount the occasional drama when their son’s power made a break for it – a birthday candle house fire at age 7, knocking his friends out of their clothes with a whoosh at age 10. Hoping for a normal life for their son, the golden pill has to date served to reduce his power. With this new bit of knowledge, Wang Ling resolves to remain unimpressive until the new amulet is ready.

At school, elections for class president are announced. Chen Chao and Sun Rong are forerunners. Team Sun are promising all sorts of gifts for votes. Wang Ling intends to slip away until he spots an irresistible sale on ramen.

One of Sun Rong’s people buys them all and offers them as gifts in kind. As students complain, Sun Rong appears to shining lights, arguing with Team Chen on the appropriateness of buying votes. Wang Ling bids 5 votes for 5 packs of noodles.

Students murmur he should only have one vote so our beauty offers all ramen for free. However she whispers an incantation to get everyone on side to instant effect. She looks around for her advocate Wang Ling who’s long left the scene. But he’d conveniently left behind a golden pill, to balance the 5-pack-for-1-vote exchange.

In class, they casually skip ahead to a lesson on the Ancient Art of Confinement – in other words, seduction by incantation. Sun Rong realises she’s been caught out. As the instructor explains the history, Wang Ling spots it too.

Breathing a sigh that he’d evened things up, he notes that he’s automatically resistant to the spell’s influence. Unless, her bodyguard didn’t pass on the golden pill. He signals to her see if she has it.

Sun Rong jumps to the conclusion that he’s staring because he likes her and that pill he sent to her surely must increase power. She pops it in her mouth. But that’s not what he’d been signing – more like, thanks for the ramen, it was great.

Just as her energy collapses, the professor calls her to the front to demonstrate the incantation. She slips and falls backwards, but Wang Ling catches her. Called upon to recite, he drops her to the floor. With a line, he lifts the spell from the entire class.

They move on to the student election, which Chen Chao wins. By phone, the professor confirms to Zhou Yi that Wang Ling was able to break the spell easily, having only heard it once.

At home, Sun Rong continues to ponder Wang Ling. Does he want to help or hurt her?

The Episode Review

Here comes the backstory, affirming that Wang Ling is not your typical kid. And he’s intentionally keeping his skills under wraps in the pursuit of an ordinary life. Whether to please his parents or fulfil his own desire is still to be seen. But it doesn’t seem ‘average’ to keep to yourself quite so isolated. Even Saiki K has mates, though he tries to avoid them.

We also get a whiff of spoiled rich kid from Sun Rong, what with her staff, excess cash and inability to take in negative information. And now she can’t stop thinking of Wang Ling. That can’t possibly help him remain in the background until his Dad’s amulet is complete.

With the professor on to him as well, that seems even less likely.  Surely the school will be keen to find new ways to ‘test’ and assess his ability. Oh dear. Think Zhou Yi has figured out who he is yet? The real hero of Huaxiu.

Another tight instalment, zipping us through history straight to current day in under 20 minutes. We’ve got some idea of where this story could go. Have you spotted that Wang Ling doesn’t seem to be hearing his classmates thoughts? Or has he just got better at blocking it out? Does the episode give you a sympathetic view of him? Think Sun Rong can be saved from herself? With 13 episodes to go, let’s find out.

Shout your ideas on plot below – love to hear ‘em!