I usually skip Dilraba Dilmurat works as I don't think she has chemistry with anyone. Yes she's beautiful and her acting skills gotten better but she still didn't pull off what the story required. Her big eyes always looked kind of blank & I am sure there will be lots of people offended with that comment.

What worked:
Story - overall interesting at least for the first 30 ep. Then the last portion dragged on w/ the the evil witch
Character growth was well written: FL, the princess & Hao Du were my top 3
Strong overall cast and supporting cast:
Zhao Lu Si (Princess) - I always watch her dramas even the subpar ones. She's always a delight to watch. Her character growth was the best in this drama.
Liu Yu Ning (Hao Du) - Loved his character the most
Leo Wu (Ashile Sun) - The little kid that was in Nirvana Fire grew up! Ok I didn't think he had any character development but every drama needs that hero
Random super cool swordsman - standard new character introduction with a pop in rescue
Ending - It's NOT the typical everyone dies kind

What didn't work:
2nd 1/2 - dragged on and the whole evil plot wasn't that entertaining
The disappearing martial arts of the FL. It happens a lot in many dramas. Fierce FL started out can beat a 100 men and then as the story goes, she needs to get rescued by literally everyone
Not enough screen time of Zhao Lu Si & Hao Du. There was a huge gap where she just didn't even appear in any episodes