Like what some of the reviews I've read have mentioned, as someone who has not watched/read the anime version, I personally felt that this drama was overrated and over-hyped. Story was overall decent with it's ups and downs but can be at times confusing - with poorly thought out and timed flashbacks. Was initially pulled in by the story at the beginning but had to constant wait for the timeline to be pulled back to the present - which I've heard had taken 34 episodes out of 50 to happen! Furthermore, there were certain plots here and there that were not explained or written well IMO - for example, the scene whereby Yunmeng clan chief went back to help his wife only to be stabbed in 5 seconds?? (Really??? he was the clan chief for heaven's sake!), the scene where Wen Chao cut of the ropes trapping many of the clan juniors in the cave (honestly, some of them are martial experts and the cliff was not vertically dropping???) and many more...

Production wise, it was obvious that it wasn't exactly high quality with poor CGI all round and shoddy camera works on multiple scenes. Some of the actors were definitely not up to par though I felt that the main leads acted out their roles well and it definitely improved as the series went on (at least up till the point i've watched). Music was great as well - the top redeeming point for me.

Overall, I am shocked that drama of this quality is able to top the ratings in MDL - overtaking the likes of masterpieces like My Mister, Signal and the much better Nirvana in Fire. For someone who had no inkling of the storyline beforehand, this was at best, an average drama.