The Journey of Legend

An epic story of heroes in the wuxia world where rightenousness, justice, and chivalry reign

This was a highly anticipated drama with a spin on the regular wuxia, coming of age story. It was about the journey of growth, heroism, and friendship while ultimately saving the world from utter chaos and destruction. It also had an interesting twist, using the element of isekai (transported to another world) and connecting strands of modern life issues into the martial arts world through the character, Xiao Qiushui, or known as Xiao Mingming in modern day world.

I won't give away too many other details, but overall, it has all of the classic elements within these types of story: family, friendship, brotherhood, and rivalries. It contained gripping, thrilling fight scenes with breathtaking choreography. Many of the memorable scenes were the fight scenes that I can still remember with vivid excitement. There is one in particular that I very much enjoyed and rewatched again, which happens approximately more than halfway through. (Hint: It's shown in the opening.)

The acting and the comedy is a great plus. Some of the fourth wall jokes about elements within hero stories had me laughing. Furthermore, the actors were able to pull in at the viewers' heartstrings when moments of immense intensity exploded forth onto the screen. This made the characters likeable and fun to watch.

I also commend the drama for being ambitious with the various ideas and strands of intriguing subplots that pulled in my curiosity. However, unfortunately, I think that was also one of its downfalls. I think within the 40 episode length, not all of the subplots and relationships could fully flourish and develop, which I think is a shame because it had potential to be even better.

That being said, there were some scenes that dragged on a bit long and parts in the story that slowed the series to a lull. Also, at times, the pacing felt off. Towards the later half (especially towards the end of the series), it felt somewhat rushed and abrupt. It's a bit sad since I think the drama had a cool premise.

Overall, I like the drama for the action scenes, the comedy, the acting, and the characters. The story and pacing left something to be desired. For me, the fight scenes made up for it, and I'm a sucker for a hero who finds his purpose and meaning in life while uploading the righteousness of the martial arts world.

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Is Being a Hero Worth It?

The Journey of Legend is a story of a young teenager, Xiao Ming Ming, who accidentally transmigrated into a novel of the martial world. He faced many challenges and tribulations that helped shape the person he wanted to become.

This drama showed a rough journey of choosing righteousness over evil deeds. Fighting evil with goodness is really hard, especially when people prefer comforting lies over hurtful truths. That’s the nature of humanity. Taking this path is not easy, it can give you second thoughts along the way and make you ask yourself, “Is this even worth it?” And it doesn’t even guarantee that you will win.

But Xiao Qiu Shui showed us that taking this path is far more worthwhile than walking on a road you didn’t build. Choosing right over wrong is never a bad choice, it’s just that people often give up too easily and allow themselves to be deceived. Even when the world was against him, he never stopped protecting people and even helped open their eyes so they would not be deceived by the villains.

In the end, it showed us that goodness never truly leaves people’s hearts. It’s just that we become consumed by negative emotions, which lead us to choose the wrong path. Goodness is the foundation that unifies the world, and it never disappears.

Just like how Xiao Qiu Shui sacrificed himself to save the world, it shows that true heroism lies not in victory or recognition, but in the courage to stand firm for what is right, even when the cost is your own life.

MY RATING | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Acting & Cast: 8
Storyline & Writing: 10
Directing & Pacing: 9
Cinematography & Visuals: 8
Music/OST & Sound Design: 10
Overall: 9

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Not the grand tale of heroes on an epic quest I was expecting...

The only reason I had fun with this and was able to finish was because the ridiculousness became amusing and I am stubbornly curious. The fast pace helps but don't let it deceive you. A lot of action happens in every episode but it's usually all for nothing. You really have to adjust your lens prescription to enjoy this at all. Watching Xiao Qiu Shui navigate this world is basically like watching someone play a video game. For most of it I was able to numb myself to the bad acting. I also made the excuse that the over the top acting was intentional for nostalgic purposes and to sell the whole novel world setting. I know I'm probably wrong but let me have it lol

This is 40, 40+ min long eps and there's a lot going on at once, all the time. New characters are spit out and disposed of almost every ep. It was hard to form an attachment to most of the characters, including XQS. As a drama about epic legendary heroes...I didn't really feel the grandeur of it at any point. The journey never really journeyed and the brotherhood never struck any sentimental chords in me. This is by no means a mindless or emotionally fulfilling watch. Then I tried to think about it also being a transmigration story, but that aspect of it didn't really work either. The fight scenes were pretty good though. That's where a majority of my good rating comes from.

Cheng Yi is Cheng Yi but his emotional scenes were borderline torture in this one. My feelings towards XQS went from dislike in the beginning to neutral enough to root for him somewhere in the middle. It still blows my mind that as the main character he had the cheapest looking/worst costumes. I liked Li Chen Zhou a lot more. He looked better and was more interesting and entertaining on screen. Then pair him with Zhao Shi Rong and this CP was able to breath some life into the show. Those two brought all the heart and all the feels and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them together. Which confuses me because how does Cheng Yi kill it with his chemistry between his one character's love but bombs the chemistry with the MAIN character's love interest? I'll chalk that up to the bad writing and directing. So I'm not even going to get into how stiff the "romance" was between XQS and Tang Fang. It's better to pretend it never even happened and move on.

I also liked Song Mingzhu. She was a pretty little badass and so loyal to Liu Sui Feng without being cringy. I would've liked Liu Sui Feng more but they completely diminished LSF's character little by little until the end. The drama created all this hype and angst around his big vendetta and rivalry with XQS in the beginning, just to dissolve it and let it fall flat. That was one of the most disappointing pitfalls of this show, amongst many other unresolved plot points.

The OST was good though. I liked Silence Wang's theme song. It was campy but catchy. Zhou Shen's song was good but overplayed so I don't like it anymore. I believe Cheng Yi's track was played during the final scene but I could be wrong.

Unless you're a young kid who just likes to watch nonsense action scenes or a die-hard fan of Cheng Yi's adorable big head, then there's absolutely no reason to watch this.

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Please , Watch attentively!

I'm a total Cheng Yi fangirl, and I was SO excited for "The Journey of Legend." Let me tell you, it did not disappoint! Even if you're not familiar with Cheng Yi, this show is seriously addictive. The story is full of twists and turns, with a strong female lead and a complicated, swoon-worthy male lead (played by Cheng Yi, of course!). It's got that perfect mix of fantasy, romance, and drama that keeps you hooked.

Now, I know there's been some negativity floating around, but honestly, give it a chance! What I loved most was how invested I got in the characters. You really feel for them as they go through all these trials and tribulations. Plus, the visuals are stunning! The costumes and scenery are just gorgeous, and they really bring the fantasy world to life. If you're looking for a series to binge-watch that will give you all the feels, "The Journey of Legend" is definitely worth checking out. Trust me, if you watch attentively, you'll get the plot, and you'll be hooked!

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The Journey To Boredom

When I started this show, it was the second most popular airing cdrama so I had high expectations. I enjoy wuxia dramas a lot and can even binge in 3 days but this one, I struggled to complete ,taking a month!

The series starts off well with the ML, a writer, who ends up in the story he was taking "inspiration" from. The system that drags him inside refuses to let him use cheat codes to gain strength and he has to complete certain steps first. Initially, ML and his friends added fun and humour to the drama when they were travelling places and dishing out justice to members of the power gang. But soon after everything went to hell starting with ML's parents being in danger.

ML's older brothers were the most annoying characters in this drama. I literally wanted someone to punch them hard in the middleof the series. They were dragging the plot of breaking down the ML and making him suffer for several episodes. And I just couldn't give a damn. There was no emotional connection formed with any of the characters. At some point in the show, ML also destroys the system that pulled him in and defeats the whole transmigration purpose of the story. It just becomes a regular historical fantasy. That took away all the potential for fun as the ML also forgot or stopped caring that he was just inside a story and the story became overly serious.

The other characters were merely existing. The FL was good and had chemistry with the ML but they wouldn't let her shine too much because the show had to revolve around the ML. I was starting to love another grey character - Liu Sui Feng and they made him utterly useless as well. The whole time I was curious about the ML's doppleganger and wondering if they were the same person and again, that angle was just so boring. The director just wanted to find ways to make the ML shine and in doing so, all other characters fell flat.

Initially the show introduces the power gang which is terrorising the martial arts world and all the people and were thus the bad guys for harming so many innocent people. But by the end, they made the power gang's leader and the other main lead the real good guys who were just trying to do things a different way. This 180 degree turn made no sense. Why were they harming so many people, stealing everyone's money, surrounding the ML's house and trapping them inside knowing they might starve, etc? Suddenly the leader (ML's other role) was said to be a good guy who never wanted to kill.

Also there are just so many characters who are introduced as powerful and just die soon after - again so that the ML can get their powers and be the ultimate baddie that no one can defeat. There is a scene where 8 masters are transferring their skills into the ML and the scene is so comical and not at all awe-inspiring. Made me wish we could download and upload knowledge the same way in real life.

The drama simply isn't worth watching unless maybe if you are a fan of Cheng Yi but I don't know if even his fans can enjoy this too much.

There are some great fight choreography scenes which normally I love but the show was just too boring for me to truly enjoy it. Fighting alone cannot save a show. Even the finale was not interesting and I actually fell asleep watching it. Had to wake up and start over in 2x. The ending was ok but by the end, I just did not care.

The OST is good but very repetitive.

Final conclusion, just skip it.

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Such a pity

I love Cheng-Yi-dramas and was really looking forward to this one. I was more than disappointed.

It started out boring, got a little better in the middle just to slow down again. I struggled to finish it. It was not the actors, it was the script and the final cut that made it a hard watch for me.

What did I like? Cheng Yi, obviously, but if the character of Li Chen Zhou suited him, Xiao Qiu Shui was not a good role. This main character was, during the first half, just whiny and he cried like a baby way to much.
I also did like Liu Sui Feng, but I feel that a lot of time wasted on repetitions and side characters should have been used for his background. Especially in the end he didn't get enough attention.

What else was not to my liking? The script was so draggy, I hated seeing Cheng Yi cry again and again like a baby, I believe there were too many unimportant side characters that sometimes were simply annoying (the five punks were just a waste of time).
The main-OST was everywhere until I couldn't stand it any longer.

At the same time there are so many lost opportunities: Li Chen Zhou was a great character, but we didn't get enough. Especially his relation with the Emperor could have been deepened. His quiet acceptance, his resilience for the greater good and so on. I did like the way his storyline ended.

The last fighting-scene between the two brothers, what was that? I was so looking forward to it, I love Cheng Yi's fighting-scenes, and it ended within not even a minute? No way, we were robbed! Instead there were 10 minutes for the fight between the armies.

I didn't like the costumes at all. The materials seemed cheap and why did they all wear some sparkly gems on their dresses?

I wouldn't watch it again and am sorry for Cheng Yi. It's the first of his dramas I really dislike.

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Perhaps Worlds Don’t End When They Collapse – Reflection on The Journey of Legends Finale

When I reached the end of The Journey of Legends, I didn’t see Xiao Mingming’s awakening in his own world as a simple return — but as something far deeper.

Even though the Magic Codex world appeared to collapse, I believe it didn’t truly vanish. Instead, it released him — not as punishment or closure, but as an invitation. Perhaps that world wanted him to experience his own character’s emotions more vividly: to walk through the pain, love, and wonder he once only imagined.

His awakening, then, wasn’t a reset — it was a realization. The world of the Codex didn’t die; it transformed into something internal, something only he could carry forward. Through that collapse, Mingming gained clarity, empathy, and a new creative pulse. He didn’t escape the story — he became it.

To me, the ending suggests that the Magic Codex world wanted him to see, not just to write — to understand that some worlds collapse not to end, but to be reborn through the one who remembers them.

It’s a beautifully symbolic finale — one that blurs the line between creation and creator, between fiction and awakening.

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Officially the WORST drama of the year!

Really hate to say this but as Cheng Yi's fan, this drama make me really disappointed.
Too many plot holes, too many CY crying in a self-defeated scene, many worstless side character that did not serve any additional purpose.
What is the function of the stupid thugs? For comedy is it? But i did not find it funny.
Many unnecessary death, which does not even cause me to shed tears, why? because those dead character is not fleshed out properly making me not emotionally invested in them. Only one scene made me drop a single tear, which is the scene where his parents say goodbye, thats all.
The osts are not catchy or memorable enough, except maybe one.
This drama require the protagonist to carry it, the side character is worthless. A good drama need synergy and functioning side characters to elevate the story. One person cannot carry story by himself. Most of the best drama has vey good, fleshed out side characters beside the protagonist. Rare for me to not bawling in CY drama, this is the first.

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Total garbage

This is probably the weakest historical series of 2025. The script and plot are completely chaotic; at times, we get lost in the story. There is no logic between some plot lines, which makes the series boring. It's very drawn out with stupid scenes. The acting by the main character is very bad, and his constant yelling is annoying. At times, I even wonder if this guy is a warrior or a child. The humorous characters are too pathetic and unimaginative. The sound engineer is really the only one on the level. And if the producer and director approved and created this garbage, they clearly have no idea of life experience and live in a closed environment. This series is a total exposition for the other characters, and it's not their fault. I suggest they star in more series or films by this or that director.

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Watching just for chenyi

*CONTAIN SPOILERS*
Honestly unless you’re a die hard chenyi fan (like me) I would suggest you skip this show. It starts off decent for around 10ish episodes then starts falling off. The pacing and editing is confusing, to the point where I thought I had missed something. Plots are all thrown in together but not filled, things just kept happening to progress story but is not well explained.

My biggest issue was characterisation. There’s so many minor characters that just did absolutely nothing for the show. All the characters felt so 2D, with no real growth or plot of their own. Most of them just hover around the ML in the background the entire show. Some of the characters change personality so drastically (to push the plot) that they feel like a different person altogether example the older brother, while some characters just slowly lose their purpose like lui sui feng (once the real villain shows up, he just became a side character) what happened to his revenge? What about his redemption?

I was originally so curious about Li Chen zhou , why does he look exactly like our ML? I had all these theories only to find out there was no reason, guess production just wanted to utilise chenyi to the maximum by giving him a white haired character for fans.

The transmigrating plot is also sooo unnecessary. The ML pretty much just forgets this is a novel and his from the real world, and destroys the system pretty early on, so what was the point even? Even I start forgetting his from modern times. Probably would have been better if they just kept that out.

Near the end they rushed it so much and everyone was dropping like flies. Like all the major characters started doing dumb things and getting themselves killed. I don’t think I’ve ever watch a show that killed off that many characters yet I didn’t feel anything for any one of them .

All in all i did finish it cos there were some good fight scenes and my love for wuxia and chenyi

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What a Messy Journey

Xiao Mingming was a wuxia novel writer who was facing confrontation from his colleague at the office. Frustrated about going forward with his novel progress, he stayed up at night to work on the novel using an AI software and at some point he somehow woke up as the novel’s protagonist, Xiao Qiushui. Although XMM wrote XQS emerging to be a top warrior at the early age of 20, he realized he had transmigrated into XQS’s body before all the many cheat-powerups he wrote for the protagonist happened. The AI software made contact with him and gave him some quite ridiculous tasks, which sound impossible to achieve with his mediocre martial ability, in order for him to exit the novel world. With that, he embarked on his journey to initially find a way out but eventually found himself treading the road to find his self worth.

It is hard for me to admit that this time, Cheng Yi falls short from my expectation, as Mysterious Lotus Casebook had been my first show of his and he was superb there. MLC set the bar very high, which tJoL failed to reach even halfway.

First off, I feel that the supposedly familial relationship between ML and his “storybook” family lacked substance that it made me fail to relate to the deep attachment that ML somehow grew for them in that short time that he spent with them after his transmigration, especially when ML was well aware that he was in a mere storybook and trying to get out. The sentiment just looked too fake, same goes to the camarederie that they try so hard to emulate among the youth gang that ML led (dang i forgot the name they made for their group). And since i could not relate to the relationship the screenwriter tried so hard to force down the viewers’ throats, I find all those crying and grief by most of the characters look fake too, their unconvincing crying ability only made it look worse. And it really gets on my nerves when ML turned into a crybaby after his fallout from his brothers. He cries at almost everything when it comes to his family, and those flashbacks that supposed to conjure up the lamentful feeling on the viewers? - Epic fail. Screenwriter tried too hard, showed those flashbacks too repetitively and eventually failed miserably to reach to the audience. Though I can’t speak for others, at least i can speak for myself as a viewer.

The most useless character without any depth is probably the first bro Xiao Yiren. It is quite a shame that the screenwriter decided to paint him as a dense and brainless little fellow when his background made him up to be quite a remarkable person who is supposed to be one of the most eligible bachelors out there. For an elder brother who was supposed to be a role model for his younger siblings, he has no respect and trust for his brothers at all, and would rather believe an outsider than his own blood. He is so gullible and yet showing so much shortfused temper when XQS admitted he was the one who took Liu Siufeng in. I mean, how is he any different than XQS with Liu Siufeng? Did he forget that he was ready to bring in the Sword King into the bunker? That little brother of his literally died to prevent him from doing this and now he was all worked up because the break-in happened anyway as if XQS wanted it to happen? For someone who was supposed to be intelligent and wise as a young leader of a sect, he showed none of this. Their brotherhood isnt convincing even in the earlier episodes as I mentioned before. He kept getting duped and influenced over and over again like an oblivious little puppy who had just ventured out into the world. This, when it was written that this character was supposed to be the most experienced of Jianghu among the three brothers. Oh what an absolute joke. This character is just one of many who acts incoherent to their written background, like the screenwriter got fedup halfway and said “to hell with it,” and then went on to write in blindfold. I am particularly disappointed with Crazy Yan because he also fell into the screenwriter’s ‘to hell with it’ syndrome when this character plumetted steadily from top fighter to top loser with unremarkable and very forgettable ending. Gosh Crazy Yan couldve been so much more with greater impact. But nope. The screenwriter said ‘to hell with it’ so to hell it goes.

I also find the supposedly subtle romance between Tang Fang and XQS to be too unreal. I just don’t see the spark. And that marriage promise between them looked lame and corny instead of comical that the screenwriter intended. Basically the whole plot of this show is too messy and all over the place with characters behaving incoherently against their written predisposition. The screenwriter failed to create comedic scenes that it ended up being slapstick and forced. There’s also too much chivalry speeches before fighting and useless draggy scenes that my fast forward button had to work overtime and my thumb constantly on overdrive. Everything didnt seem to work into becoming the scenes they were supposed to be, it’s simply an epic failure.

The premise looked too similar to the cdrama ‘A Dream within A Dream’ that i felt the screenwriter was trying too hard to copy its style, but this time the end product seemed to be of Grade D when ADwAD had been Grade A, especially when they started to show signs of possible other modern person transmigrating into the storybook (like how the screenwriter went into the story to rectify the plot in ADwAD) on episode 26. Like for real? I don’t watch much of novel transmigration drama so I am not sure if this is a common trope, but the similarities between the two that I’ve seen is just too cringy when one failed too miserably.

I think ML and FL are particularly lousy at crying scenes, especially ML with his supposedly overdone red eyes, like he sprayed too much onion juice into his eyes before the take. And this didnt look great when he’s supposed to cry (fakely) every few episodes that i began to label him a crybaby. Honestly Cheng Yi should stick to cold and aloof type of characters, he’s great with those - Li Chenzhou was awesome, and avoid characters that have more than two crying scenes until he learn to cry convincingly. The only one who looked good at crying here is the one who played Xiao Xueyu, i can really feel her devastation when she realized her third brother might have perished, but thats just about it. The rest of the cast failed miserably, they should go back to acting school specifically to learn how to cry. Other than the lack of substance, this unconvincing crying is also why I could not feel the sadness when characters started dying. Unlike A Journey to Love’s pointless and unnecessary character massacre that left me bawling at each death even when on rewatch, the character deaths here on TJoL seem pointless and “meh”. I failed to feel for them, sorry.

Poison trope is abundant here. People keep getting poisoned left and right but none of it really do anything but make people faint or deplete neili (but they regain them shortly after since they had no problem fighting with inner strength). And of course when any of the mainleads gets poisoned, stabbed, sliced or crushed, all they suffered was fainting which theyd just get up and start kicking again after a good night sleep. After episode 20, i contemplated on dropping this title so many times, the only thing that kept me going was the curiosity of the real mastermind in the mask.

Such a lengthy negative review, is there anything positive at all? Well the fight choreograph is good, hat’s off the the action choreographer team! All the hand-to-hand combat and swordplay turned out to be impressive and not boring. They look fierce and yet also graceful. I especially love ML’s swordplay cuz he looked formidable with every swing like he really trained hard for it. Same goes to rest of the cast. If only they tried as hard at crying too.

Oh and before i get accused of being a hater or biased for this review, to be honest, of all the casts, i only recognized Cheng Yi from Mysterious Lotus Casebook. Although i have seen Eleanor Lee in Fake Princess I didnt recognize her until I saw the list of casts when her character made an appearance while I was watching (I like to look up the casts in accordance to character appearances to see if i have seen them in other drama). So you can’t say I am biased against the show or any of the casts because Cheng Yi actually left a deep impression on me for his performance in MLC, and I was more satisfied of Eleanor’s performance on Fake Princess than her co star, so I actually started watching this title with a pretty high expectation. Being an objective viewer, I cant possibly rate any higher when the show doesnt match even the baseline of my expectation, even if it had my favourite actors on it (Cheng Yi isnt my fav actor, but i have rated low for some series starred by my fav actress Zhao Liying).

So that’s it. You might like this if youre a Cheng Yi fan, but if you’re not, oh well don’t put too much expectation before watching and maybe you won’t be as disappointed as me.

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I do not think Cheng Yi wants to be in this role

If he is not looking bored, he looks pained, or numb. There is zero chemistry or connection between the characters of any kind either the supposed friendships, family ties, or ML-FL. The story is just all over the place. Some of the makeup and characters are trying so hard to be strange or funny it is painful. The CGI and editing are shoddy. The fight scenes are predictable and not exciting or interesting to watch. Chen Yi gets to be a fashion plate with a lot of different outfits but hey at least he has cute clothes. Man I could go on and on but why. I am sticking with it because I am hoping at some point after the endlessly long scenery and character establishment there will be something more fun to watch, but not holding my breath. I am actually quite sad for CY because I know he has a huge fan following and I do think he is a decent actor or at least I liked him very much in Mysterious Lotus Casebook. But this is just not good.

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