Hunter2022

If anyone is wondering what is Chi Apotheosis, it's when ppl with magical powers touch their palm on the back of the person in front of them to make a human pyramid to channel all their Chi to the one guy in front at the tip of the pyramid or triangle.

The drama I Am Nobody was about this one guy who had an ultimate move called Chi Apotheosis, but nobody knew what this power was. He only used this move in the climax of the drama to break the energy barrier to save his beloved.

This drama was quite popular and released a few years ago. It seems GJM liked that kind of climatic ultimate move/scene and tried to replicate it in VoS with Ji Ling attempting to break the time barrier exit by "Chi Apotheosis".

Now I know many ppl will say Chi Apotheosis is a common/well known move found in a lot of wuxia or xianxia series. But has it ever been used as the ultimate move of the drama climax or just an afterthought of some unimportant battle scene? It's becoz I Am Nobody was the first drama to make use of it AT the drama climax that GJM thought so too!

Let's see if it's possible to post an image here

https://awnchina.cn/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/%E5%87%A1%E4%BA%BA%E4%BF%AE%E4%BB%99%E4%BC%A0%E4%B9%8B%E7%80%9A%E6%B5%B7%E8%B0%9C%E8%B8%AA.jpg

Go here to read more info on the Fanren animated movie set to hit theaters in China this December!

https://awnchina.cn/mortals-journey-franchise-makes-big-screen-debut-a-mortals-journey-to-immortality-mystery-of-the-endless-sea-set-for-december-2026-release/

If it was me they hired as chief marketing director, I would hold off the release of the spinoff donghua until a few weeks before the Dec 2026 theatrical release. People need a reason to be hyped up leading to the movie's premiere. Or maybe they are doing just that. That's why I couldn't even find a teaser nor trailer for the spinoff series that's supposed to have been released sometime this past May or June.

By the way even though the same studio is animating both Fanren and Shrouding the Heavens, I do believe Fanren the donghua is the superior product becoz they have more creative freedom working under contract for BiliBili than for Tencent.

Finally Fanren gets a donghua movie. BiliBili now into making "donghua" movies but maybe only for a select few donghua series. They're not as rich as Tencent which has infinite cash to spend from gaming revenues.

Tentative title is The Lost Track in the Vast Sea (瀚海迷踪) for Dec 2026 release.

Of course take it with a grain of salt. It all came from a chat bot which may not necessarily provide the accurate info.

Also, the thing is to get the cinematic feel, they will use different techniques on donghua movies which could backfire. If you look at the donghua movie of Shrouding the Heavens made by the same studio as Fanren, the movie CGI models (especially the FL) look blurry and less distinct or colorful from the donghua series version. Something to keep in mind Han Li may appear different/more crude in the donghua movie version all becoz they wanted to achieve a cinematic feel.

EDIT: NVM Deepseek is telling me the donghua movie will actually release in theaters. This is HUGE news. In this case the CGI models may look even better NOT worse than the ones used in the series and may not be re-used in future episodes of the series probably to keep it exclusive and probably becoz more detailed models take longer to render which is not suitable for weekly episode releases.

There's supposed to be a spinoff donghua series. It's related to the nascent soul that took over Qu Hun's body and destroyed it. He is the ML's evil master in the spinoff.

They said they would release this spinoff donghua series in Q2 2026. Now is Q3. I wonder where did it go?

For fans of the donghua, some info I obtained via AI chat bot Deepseek

EP 181 out on all Chinese pirate channels. It sucks to have to wait a couple of weeks for the ENG subs though.

Exactly. This drama made me feel like all cultivators are ethereal beings or elemental spirits that mostly live outdoors. Plus that ethereal ambience background music helps with the mood.

Can someone explain to me how in EP 3 the FL is all cozy with two other female students often holding their hands. Do they know that she is a girl while all the males so far don't know?

Drama renewed my interest in Guo Jingming works after Ice Fantasy left a bad taste in my mouth over a decade ago. I wonder when will be the next epic GMJ fantasy drama or movie?

Ending so ripped off Under One Person/I Am Nobody where everyone was doing Chi apotheosis on Zhang Chulan (everyone that died transfered their spirit energy to Ji Ling to enable him to open the exit once inside the time tunnel). But it was better done with more fancy poses and people wearing way more fancy costumes.

Some fun facts many people are not aware of.

Gnosticism generally believes that when we die, our souls journey to the moon and get stuck there unable to go beyond. If we fail the moon test, then we are thrown back down to Earth for another reincarnation cycle.

This knowledge (or belief) is generally widespread if you belong to some secret sect or society (or if you ask an AI chat bot). I don't think anyone can make it big in the commercial world, unless they are members of such sects. GJM is probably a sect member. That's why he used the full moon to reincarnate the fox spirits in this drama.

Remember there are over 100 million Chinese Communist Party members in China. That's more than the population of certain countries. It's not a wild imagination to say most publicly successful people in China are members of some brotherhood or secret society. (And you can pick them out if you carefully analyze the ideas in their works)

Just tryin to see if someone paid attn... ^_'

Just finished the drama. I thought the ending was very much like Douluo Continent (the donghua). It's a happy ending but some elders perished.

What I hate thought is those dramas that are much ado about nothing where nobody really dies except maybe the main bad guy in the end. Aka The Last Immortal I'm looking at you!

BTW, I don't think it's possible to experience drama withdrawal symptoms for this drama if you've watched it recently as the next Ju Jingyu drama is currently airing.

Chi Wen exists. But he sacrificed his body to trap Jiu Ying for eternity (until another dragon can come and finish him off). That's why he asked Ji Ling to pretend to be him before he became mound to trap Jiu Ying.

After he became a mound, he could no longer roam the world, hence Ji Ling became his worldy avatar.

Plus Chi Wen is played by another actor who has some resemblance to the actor that plays Ji Ling. But they are two different people both in real life and in the drama.

Up to EP24. I think Guo Jingming just rehashed his earlier work LoRD (Legend of Ravaging Dynasties). He directed this drama so had the freedom to pick a ML that looks like Chris Wu. Ji lLing's face is too similar to Chris Wu as Duke (? I forget which number he was). The FL can take damage to evolve/become immune like in LoRD.

I liked LoRD but ppl like Fan Bingbing and Chris Wu had to ruin it so we will never get a Part 3 and conclusion to the trilogy. FL in Part 2 looked so weird probably becoz they had to use AI to alter Fan Bingbing's face... I shudder what kind of face they will use to replace Chris Wu if they ever release the final Part 3.

Also story telling style is the same as LoRD (confusing at first, but then they explain all the hidden angles by going over the plot again at the end of each story arc).

Exactly there is no dragon deity besides the character played by Joseph Zeng as the 10th dragon. But he hasn't become dragon overlord yet. So the Chi Wen you see up to EP 17 is just Ji Ling pretending to be him.

Lu Jing Yi (in this drama only) looks like a cross between Zheng Shuang (now banned in C-ent) and Zhao Lusi. While I like the actress, I stopped caring about Zhao Lusi dramas. I've taken a liking to Lu Jing Yi becoz of her resemblance(s) to those actresses. It's refreshing to see the latter actresses are not the only "game" in town.

Chi Wen told Ji Ling to pretend to be him. Ji Ling (not the wood puppet but the overlord/real owner of the dragon ring) is not dragon. He's just a fox being told by Chi Wen to pretend to be the "dragon god". His real name is Ji Ling the same one he named his wood puppets.

Later Lu Wuyi discovers Ji Ling is only a wood puppet (when he dies he returns to the wood puppet state) and the puppet master is the real Ji Ling and he kept all memories of interacting with her thru the wood puppet(s).