-A journey to love

Based on the title itself, I'm asking myself, whose journey is this? The answer is crystal clear after watching this couple times: Ruyi! It's not about Boss Ning or the other brothers. Ruyi as the best assassin (been mentioned multiple times since beginning till the end) originally doesn’t know what is love. She only knows about killing, following orders, and gets the job done. She is so used to work by herself and doesn't know how to react to NYZ's jealousy except by being angry, leading to their "breakup.” Only later on, she learns that she is not alone. When NYZ is trying to decide for her, what's the best for them and their relationship, it doesn't feel right in Ruyi's heart at first. However, in their journey as a couple, Ruyi learns to trust him and sees his point of views.

A journey to love: love your partner, your friends, your community and most importantly, yourself! Ruyi needs to learn all of that. The whole series show her progress from being alone to be able to accept others.

To me, it's a very deep self-reflection question asked by NYZ to Ruyi about the reasons behind the last messages from Empress of An to her. It's also the beginning of her journey to learn to love herself. NYZ and the bond he has with all his "brothers" are all crucial for Ruyi's journey.

Ruyi's character development is wonderful, making her more like human, not only cold blooded assassin. She feels the pain of losing people who is dear to her. She allows NYZ to deal with LTG. She is afraid NYZ gets hurt during the war, etc.

This drama is 10/10 for me. Lots of wisdoms and lessons learned throughout the drama. Exceptional bonds of the brothers. People come and go in our lives but the good memories last forever. Finding true friends is definitely priceless. All the actors and actresses perfectly show their emotions so we as viewers can truly feel their feelings: the joy/pain/sorrow/love/hope/fear. Kudos to all of them. Then, there's the songs. Each background songs and sounds are perfectly played. Heroic fighting scenes. Cool weapons. Beautiful costumes.

In the last episode, the drama portrays the casualties of the wars. Since episodes 35-40, lots of death. It's really depressing, but that's the reality of wars. The scene feels so real, so sad, and painfully heartbreaking.

Now about the ending: The conversations between CY and the boy are in the real life, not a dream of CY.

Couple main reasons why I believe that:
1. It's obvious that Ruyi believes suicide is for the weak! She will not betray her beliefs. She's been true to herself from the beginning. That clue makes me think yes, she survived the explosion.
2. When the boy mentions his name, CY right away asks if his mother's last name is Ren? She knows straightaway Ruyi is still alive. Her surprise facial expression is more like, "is this real?!" kinda feeling because after so many years, she's surprisingly able to possibly meet Ruyi and NYZ again. Another clues that make me considering she knows that Ruyi is alive is when she stops YY from stopping Ruyi to go to the camp. She knows she can't change Ruyi's decisions. Tbh, I believe even LTG and YY know that Ruyi is planning to fake her deaths and withdrawing herself for good afterwards. Why so? LTG being so devoted to his master will never allow Ruyi to go to suicide mission unless he knows that Ruyi plans to withdraw herself with NYZ who miraculously survived the tower attacks. YY also said she believes Ruyi is the best assassin in the world and will successfully finish the mission.
3. The boy is giving so clear and detailed informations about his family. The boy also mentions his dad loves his sister the most, indicating NYZ is alive too. Last name: Ning. Dad can only be NYZ. Both kids name have Shisan (from Yu Shisan) and Lu (Yuan Lu). For CY to have a dream out of nowhere like some people think, I will have to disagree. The scene where CY sees the rest of the gang behind Ruyi and NYZ, I will interpret that as she believes they're the ones who protects Ruyi and NYZ to survive. The 4 brothers will always on their back. The vast green land (peaceful place) is also the perfect place to think like that as all 6 of them really contribute to the peace they have now.

This series is indeed a journey to love for our main lead, Ruyi. I also think it’s still a happy ending, at least for the main leads and many other people (netizens of both An and Wu).