Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this is a "liked"/“meh”.

The deets:
Two preteens have a destined encounter that results in the preteen version of our ML (a crown prince) being framed for murder. He is smuggled out of the palace by his would-be baby daddy to go be a novice in a pugilistic sect instead. Our preteen FL, devastated that she was the cause of the crown prince being accused of murder, sends a prayer to the heavens that he will rest in peace which inexplicably causes a curse to be placed on our ML (wtf!?). The curse will not come to pass if he does not meet with her again before his 18th birthday. But, of course, just before he turns 18, she finds her way to his isolated valley within the sect’s territory. Lots and lots of hijinks ensue…

What I liked:
Getting to see Alen Fang in another drama. Though I’d like to see him as an ML for once instead of the eternally doomed SML (always the bridesmaid, never the bride…). I liked that many of the male leads were easy to look at (an not one of them had the stupid thin and long hair pieces in front of their face). I liked Zhu Yan’s character. At first, I wasn’t sure, but she grew on me. I liked that the younger prince got together with his love despite everyone’s best attempts to keep them apart. I like that the General finally got his girl in the end and she (Bai Xue Lu) turned out to be a decent person in the end (I wonder how tall that actress is?). I liked that this was a xuanyuan/wuxia/xianxia because I’m not into historical reality (much less inaccurate history because that, in many ways, is worse by ‘whitewashing’ history; though if I’m going to watch a xuanyuan with Xiao Zhan, can we please just have a season 2 of DouLuo Continent?). I liked that there were distinct sets and costumes as you went to the different ‘kingdoms’ across the land.

What I disliked:
I totally could have done without the would-be baby daddy character (the sect leader [seriously is there some sort of law in China that Han Dong must be cast in at least 50% of active productions at all times!? That dude is in like every other drama out there]). He didn’t know wtf he wanted and kept messing around with the ML’s head in some bizarre effort to get revenge for ML’s mother (his lost love) and then gave up and went and did it himself. He knew that ML wanted to live like a monk but decided to foist a trifling girl (Bai Xue Lu) upon him, hoping that she would somehow inspire enough feelings in him for a cause the ML had no interest in taking up that he would be able to survive an ordeal that literally no other sect member had ever survived before. When ML displayed interest in another woman, at first Sect Leader tried to separate them and hook him back up with the trifling girl. Then he gives up on that and decides that our FL will do. But then as soon as the ML develops real feelings for our FL, Sect Leader decides that its time for our trifling girl to come back upon the scene and take him back. *sigh *
I didn’t like that the trifling girl’s only goal in life seemed to make a powerful marriage. The way her character was written, she was intelligent enough and strong enough not to need a man to get her what she wanted—yet they forced her into the role of b@t$*** crazy jealous woman and made her spend 2/3rds of the drama going after dudes she didn’t like and ignoring the one she did.
Minor point of dislike: If you didn’t know what “shifu” meant, you will by the end of the drama, since its every third word that Zhu Yan says.

Final thoughts:
I stand by the title of this review: If you were disappointed by Journey of Chong Zi and/or found Journey of Flower too much of a case study in toxic relationships, I recommend this one instead. It’s basically the same idea but involves a lot less yelling at the screen.