What I like about it:

The fresh faces and the side characters. Often you get too many side characters that it drags away from the main story and causing the series to lose its main purpose and drag on. But the side characters added on to the story, surprisingly they made it work! The two stories that come to mind are the south sea emissary and Qian Mei and Huang Quan and Zi Mo. I think there is something going on with Bi Luo and poison girl but that is probably just my imagination.

Jessica Hsuan playing as the bad guy. The last time I watch any of her works was a long time ago and she was the main lead. So, it was interesting and refreshing to see her play as the bad guy.

The chemistry between the main leads. At first, when I saw who played the ML I was a bit disappointed, maybe it was because I just got done watching good-looking Xu Kai that I was expecting that same kind of wow factor. But he one I like to describe as good looks based on character. I always give characters a chance to “wow me” and boy I’m glad I did. I really enjoy his acting and his character. I know that the story really revolves around FL but I think ML kind of took the spotlight.

I love love LOVE the outfits! I adore the colors in here, especially the red that they had the FL in the entire time. This bright red made me focus so much more on the intensive action scenes. Talking about the action scenes, the cinematography, and the action….what a visual feast! What a wuxia without its awesome action scenes!! I’m a bit bias but I did get a tiny spark of excitement when I saw the ethnic minority outfits in here, mainly because it is close to my heart.

What I found annoying:

Of course, in every series, there has to be that annoying character you despise. I found Xiao Tai to be super annoying, her innocent, selfish, bratty attitude and thinking caused her to lead a rebellion and the guy who adores her to follow suit. It wasn’t until his death that she realized what she did. The only reason why I put up with her was because of Qing Yu or Meng Fei was super cute!

The poisoning, I should stop holding my breath each time ML or FL gets poison or injury. They were continuous injury/poison that I had to fast forward through some of these parts.

Everyone wants FL dead, first it was Moon sect leader and now the daughter wants her dead too because she wants to covet “senpai” to herself.

And I know this is just a pet peeve, but I often was upset at the choice that ML made even though it was thoroughly thought out and meant to be the well-being for everyone. As a leader, he shouldered a lot of the decision-making and burden. I had hoped they would have this selfish getaway, to blossom the romance between ML and FL. We only got a small taste of this when FL injury ML for a small getaway to heal him.

What makes me often think about this series after it ends:

The chemistry between the main leads. I like this mature feeling of mutual understanding of one another, making sacrifices for one another, and this natural love that doesn’t seem to be forced. I love just how simple their love is.

Re-watch value: as much as I love the characters in here, I probably won’t be re-watching it.