The title does little justice to the show. I had been interested in maybe watching this for a long time from seeing the odd screencap or .gif set, but based solely on the name had frankly written it off a little.

This is the most wuxia wuxia I've seen since the 2000s. From the fight scenes, depictions of any use of martial prowess and so on, to the array of villains with specific and detailed character designs such as the Ten Great Villains and Zodiac Twelve, it was wuxia to the bones. It's been a long time since I've seen a wuxia where villainous characters have been interestingly costumed and had concepts personal to them, so this was a treat for me.

The story has a neat opening and ending, in that it is essentially all one arc or event, and doesn't stray from it. The first few episodes were slow, perhaps up to about episode 10 or so, while the show was still finding its feet, but I was interested in the plot and what was going to happen from pretty much the start. The story however really mainly picks up after the mid-to-late-20s episode mark. The ending seemed odd to me initially in that it closed not on the two brothers but rather on Hua Wu Que and Tie Xin Lan, but this in fact reflects the opening of the show on Jiang Feng and Hua Yue Nu. and brings the story full circle and closes it roundly. I found it really interesting how the romance storyline developed for the main characters. This is the first time I remember ever seeing the female lead fall in love with one of the main male leads and then slowly shift to end up falling in love and ending up with the other male lead. I was really rooting for the original coupling to work out for the female lead at first, and it was an intriguing experience to watch and feel how it shifted into a different pairing instead, especially when it was driven by and came about as a result of the first. It was also interesting to me that the second female lead comes in so late in the show - at about the two-third episode mark, I believe. I've seen comments noting that this is faithful to the original novel the show is adapted from, which I haven't read. While I feel like it would make more sense to me if I were reading it in a book, it translates interestingly in the context of a show adaptation where it feels like I don't get to build much of an impression of the second female lead and feel the relationship build up, so that it felt a little sudden and underdeveloped for me. Nevertheless, it's a choice I'm rather glad they made if it stays true to the source material, because I think it's an interesting one and completely plausible in how meeting people works - you meet lots of people in the course of living and adventuring, but then you meet a particular someone after all of those other ones who came before who just becomes important to you, and you meet them when you meet them. I hated the main villains (which meant that they were doing their job), and I enjoyed most of the supporting characters of the same generation as Xiao Yu'er and Hua Wu Que. While there were some not completely-tight ends in the story, and I felt flashbacks were used a bit too often in showing some major pivotal events that would have been better served not done as flashbacks, overall the story pulled together.

I hadn't seen any of the main actors in other shows previously, and I thought they all did a terrific job. I really enjoyed Xiao Yu'er, and his portrayal by Chen Zhe Yuan was just right for me. Despite being played by the same actor, I felt the characters of Jiang Feng and Hua Wu Que are very easily told apart; whether this was mainly to do with the hairstyling or not I couldn't say for sure, but each certainly had their own aura to me, so props to Hu Yi Tian. Tie Xin Lan was possibly the character out of the main leads whom I felt seemed to do only one thing, but I still liked her, she just unfortunately didn't seem to have very much to do. The one character I did feel was slightly overacted was Jiang Yu Lang, but he is a sniveling weasel and in that sense I suppose it fits.

The music is also extremely classic wuxia sort of music. I really like both the opening and ending theme songs, and also loved the instrumental (flute?) version of the ending theme that plays during some scenes in the show as background music. Considering I'm listening to the ending theme on repeat now after finishing the show, 9 points for music.

A good rewatch if you're craving a classic wuxia, despite any slow bumps in the story, so overall 9 points from me for being such an enjoyable rendition of the golden age of wuxia.