I was fully prepared to drop this after one episode, the overly literal title, the fact that it was Xianxia, which almost never clicks with me. I expected a messy storyline, cringey costumes and bad cgi. Well, there is some bad cgi and there are definitely cringey costumes, but a lot of the time this drama is really, really pretty to the point that you sometimes feel like you look at a painting. The costume and the scenery department went all in on this one and the results are very hit or miss and always over the top, but there is a real cohesive aesthetic, that I actually liked.

The star of this show for me is the cast. I feel like they really found the perfect person or at least a very good choice for each and every main and supportive role. Both, Esther Yu and Dylan Wang handle the numerous personality shifts of their characters really well, especially Dylan Wang impressed me. See, I think male leads are often overrated, people see a pretty boy and are like “He is such a good actor! What? Hey, his character is meant to have no emotions!” Dylan Wang not only has emotions, the stuff he is able to say with a straight face is downright impressive, and he really carries a show that is so extra sometimes that it could have gone terribly wrong. And if you start this drama and you are annoyed by another squeaky, dumb female lead, stay strong. If a female lead ever had a right to be naïve and squeaky, it is that one, and she has a good amount of growth to a point, where she does some pretty badass things.

So how is the writing? This is maybe the most surprising part of this drama. The story actually had very good pacing until the last 6 or 7 episodes. There was always something relevant and engaging happening, there was character development, even the side characters where surprisingly fleshed out, and it is one of the rare dramas that actually succeeds in building up a relationship from “I want to kill you” to greatest love of all time, with all the various stages of companionship to a love that is hard to accept but too strong to ignore. When done right this is a beautiful process that a lot of dramas still mess up, but this one does it right and I think it is worth a watch for that alone.

So why only 8 points will you ask. So, while I just praised the writing I also have to say, that there definitely are messy parts, where things don’t add up, established rules are forgotten or not mentioned again, new rules are made up out of nowhere and just a lot of general “Oh, there is this person/artefact/exception that I just remembered that can help us” to the point of: “Stuff just happens! Tadaaaa!” And while I still would have given the drama a 9, it is that last part that made it into an 8.
I already mentioned the pacing problem towards the end (which might not be a writing but an editing problem), some scenes where drawn out to the point where I had to skip ahead a few minutes, other things that were worth exploring stayed underdeveloped. There was definitely one “I will sacrifice myself for you/the world”-loop too many and I wish the story would have ended a few episodes earlier. But the gravest sin of this drama is the fact that after putting us through an amazing emotional wringer for 36 episodes, it gives us the most half-assed, rushed and anticlimactic ending of all time (see: “Stuff happens! Tadaaa!”). I don’t know what happened. Was the editing team rushed? Did they have to stop filming early? Ran out of ideas? Was the drama supposed to have another ending and they just had to scramble something together? I don’t know. All I know is that it feels awful. You know that feeling when you ride out the last waves of a drama you really enjoyed? Yeah, not here. All the love and emotion I had for a flawed but still lovely drama just hung there, unresolved.

I still think it is worth watching, especially if you like the aesthetic of the promo pics, because at the very least your eyes will get a feast. It’s a fun and engaging Fantasy Romance. Just brace yourself a little for the end.