Ancient love poetry indeed exceeded my expectations. I am a very familiar fan of Zhou Dong Yu and Xu Kai’s work, so it came to no surprise to me that their acting and chemistry was indeed spectacular. I want to try and do this review while minimizing spoilers but it’s showing to be increasingly difficult. So disclaimer: spoilers are ahead.
Acting;
The acting was indeed poetic. Xu Kai was a man of shedding beautiful tears. He portrayed the ice cold Bai jue and affectionate Qingmu really well that you could indeed tell they were of two different beings. Zhou Dong Yu did the same aswell in reference to Shanggu and Houchi. Shanggu’s character was extremely soft. She’d often smile alluring brightening up my entire screen.

The makeup and the dressing of the characters also helped with their portrayal aswell. Shanggu often wore white clothing to emphasize on his goldly and poised standing. shanggu also did the same. Qingmu and Houchi, their counterparts often wore baby blue traditional dressing which highlighted their youthful nature.

Character development:
Zhou Dong Yu plays Shanggu, a quirky, spoiled, yet kind hearted young girl born as one of the three true god yet possessing little magical prowess. After thousands of years of being pampered She goes under the care of the cold true god Bai Jue to master her powers. The two grow much care for each other and fall in love.
The storyline follows the typical heroine “save the world” phenomena in which the main protagonist will have to sacrifice greatly for the greater good. What I found rather interesting is that our heroine isn’t born with the innate selflessness that has to be present in order for a sacrifice as such to be made. Rather she learns through thousands of years of cultivation, her destiny and why such sacrifices are necessary. She learns that such an action is not predetermined but rather is a a necessary choice of action needed to protect the world and those that she loves.
Shanggu’s selfless sacrifice then gives birth to Houchi, who is of separate existence possessing Shanggu’s spiritual essence. Similar to Shanggu’s, houchi also has little prowess. Houchi’s demeanor is similar to Shanggu in the sense that they are both kind hearted and quirky but Houchi’s temper showed to be much more calm. She was stigmatized as a child due to being allegedly illegitimate. Initially, I had much love for Shanggu but once the story began to unravel and I began to shed tears for Houchi. I felt like i had much empathy for her. Houchi’s character ultimately suffered a great deal more than Shanggu. The complexity of these two characters was something I loved of a great deal. It greatly held the plot. However, what dissatisfied me was that Houchi’s character suffered a great deal under the hands of others.

Another character that had great development was Wu Huan. Shanggu as a true god required a spiritual beast.
Inexplicable, Wu Huan was given the position out of kindness from Shanggu. Wu Huan would go on to serve as Shanggu’s spiritual beast climbing up the ladder from taking care of her imperial hall to becoming the Heavenly empress and the first female demon god.
Her villian origin story formulated from constant mockery due to her low status of birth in her pheonix clan. She sought to not let her status defeat her and stood out to Shanggu, earning her position as spiritual beast of a true god. Wu Huan’s character showed great jealousy for Yeu Mi, Shanggu’s best friend, envying her prestige as a goddess. At the time Wu Huan had took charge of Shanggu’a imperial hall and the little power she was able to grab a hold on threatened by Shanggu’s soon return. Her return however was short lived as a sacrifice came not too far soon. Once all the god of the immortal realm were being whipped off one by one by the chaos that came along, Wu Huan and lower ranked immortals and lord were left to take over the heavenly realm. Wu Huan seized the opportunity marrying The heavenly emperor, Mo Guang. The heavenly emperors character was that of a self righteous and courteous man. He loved Wu Huan developly and often showed a blind eye towards her scheming deeds.
Not much was said on this however, to my beliefs, she most likely had a love affair with Mo Guangs companion, Gu Jun. As they spent a lot of time together in Shanggu hall cultivating. She wanted gravely to get a hold on power and was able to dismiss her feelings before it was too late.
Wu Huan was able to enjoy her status as empress giving birth to three children and gaining respect amongst the three remaining realms. However, the return of the true gods gravely scared her. Her greed for power led her towards the demonic path. She feared as though once the true gods arrived she would face the same humbling that she had experienced in her childhood. Wu Huan also had commuted atrocities during the great battle, one of which was killing a god. So to hide this she devised many schemes which eventually caught up to her. She also decimated her entire clan to keep her status of power. I really loved the independence her character portrayed. She rarely relied on anyone, including her husband. She felt as though the only one she could rely on was her self and this attitude led to her being able to amass a lot of power as a female cultivator. Though however, her character was evil and she did end up becoming a devil. Her grit was incredible.

Overall:
This drama indeed has great rewatch value due to how dense the plot is. It gives room to further interpretation through deeper comprehension which can only be grasped by rewatching. The protagonists go through three lives together and which each life comes a different storyline surrounding a different character. Each character comes with their own unique back story and challenges which drives the plot. This drama most definitely ranks in my top 10 list of xianxia dramas.