Chaotic but Convincing
The story itself is a rather complicated journey of love, duty and sacrifice, spanning through thousands of years. With visually overbearing cultivation powers, the story begins when a flirty, morally-gray, assertive FL meets a good old cliche righteous cultivator, marking thr beginning of true chaos within different realms.
I couldn't help drawing a parallel with Wei Ying and Lan Zhan (Untamed) just if Wei Ying met Lan Zhan as a demonic cultivator from the start.
Which...is off to a good start.
The story starts with ML and FL being on seemingly two opposite sides, having two opposite worldviews. When circumstances force them to collide, they start to question their set views, listening and learning from one another. It was interesting to witness the growth their shared experiences have created.
The cast. Vin Zhang and Sun Zhen Ni did a good job in their roles. The banter, teasing and overall chemistry between the leads made their love story intriguing and the progress believable. Though they were stuck in a flirting stage for a loooong time before anything solid was established, the journey wasn't boring at all to watch. Throughout the story the actors also had to portray several different versions of themselves, and while both did a great job, I found Sun Zhen Ni's acting more charming if only because not only did her demeanour change but also moods and expressions would change completely with a different character, making it immediately obvious it is a completely difference person, while some of Vin Zhang's quirks bled out into all characters.
SML (Wang Duo) was established as a very intriguing character from the start with his calm, almost cold, yet kind personality. He was like a still water - pure, majestic and mysterious - seemingly another intriguing character to follow. Unfortunately later on his character suffered from a looong sequence of annoying plotlines that took away most of his previously established charm. SML is quite a pitiful character, and I wish his storyline went in a rather different direction, but alas. The actor did a great job in portraying the subtle yet deep emotions of his character. It'd be interesting to see him in a different role.
Why chaotic? The chaos comes from excessively detailed lore, over-the-top visualisation of spiritual powers and skillsets, fast-paced action sequences with clipped-short emotional scenes (mostly in the beginning) and too many loosely connected side characters. Some things last for the length of the drama. Fortunately, the emotional scenes attain a better-suited pacing later on in the series, allowing the viewer time to connect with the characters and their experiences.
Excessively-detailed lore was an issue though (personally). There comes a time when there's one too many ancient artifacts and overpowered characters takes out one too many new skills out of their "spiritual pocket". Side characters (together with side plotlines) got way too much screen time where they could've been shortened significantly without any loss to the main storyline. It felt a bit exhausting to keep up with all that. Instead of getting emotionally involved with the side characters (plots) I'd find myself missing the main couple. On its own, the ideas aren't half-bad but when added together they feel too convoluted. If it was up to me I'd focus more on the main couple's journey and less on the external factors.
The Ending (and the whole built up to it) was very thought-out and it beautifully circled back to a lot of the previous sideplots, making everything more meaningful. The CGI was the most intense at the end and this time it felt fitting and added to the story rather than distracted. While I wish some character arcs had a bit more emotional impact at the end, it wasn't a bad end and could certainly be considered fulfilling.
Overall, plot-wise, the story isn't all that novel, it holds several headache-inducing cliches, and perhaps I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend this title for a non cdrama fantasy watcher, but the main couple's banter and chemistry is real fun to watch (and they have A LOT of good interactions), hence why I'd recommend it to fantasy cdrama fans.
I couldn't help drawing a parallel with Wei Ying and Lan Zhan (Untamed) just if Wei Ying met Lan Zhan as a demonic cultivator from the start.
Which...is off to a good start.
The story starts with ML and FL being on seemingly two opposite sides, having two opposite worldviews. When circumstances force them to collide, they start to question their set views, listening and learning from one another. It was interesting to witness the growth their shared experiences have created.
The cast. Vin Zhang and Sun Zhen Ni did a good job in their roles. The banter, teasing and overall chemistry between the leads made their love story intriguing and the progress believable. Though they were stuck in a flirting stage for a loooong time before anything solid was established, the journey wasn't boring at all to watch. Throughout the story the actors also had to portray several different versions of themselves, and while both did a great job, I found Sun Zhen Ni's acting more charming if only because not only did her demeanour change but also moods and expressions would change completely with a different character, making it immediately obvious it is a completely difference person, while some of Vin Zhang's quirks bled out into all characters.
SML (Wang Duo) was established as a very intriguing character from the start with his calm, almost cold, yet kind personality. He was like a still water - pure, majestic and mysterious - seemingly another intriguing character to follow. Unfortunately later on his character suffered from a looong sequence of annoying plotlines that took away most of his previously established charm. SML is quite a pitiful character, and I wish his storyline went in a rather different direction, but alas. The actor did a great job in portraying the subtle yet deep emotions of his character. It'd be interesting to see him in a different role.
Why chaotic? The chaos comes from excessively detailed lore, over-the-top visualisation of spiritual powers and skillsets, fast-paced action sequences with clipped-short emotional scenes (mostly in the beginning) and too many loosely connected side characters. Some things last for the length of the drama. Fortunately, the emotional scenes attain a better-suited pacing later on in the series, allowing the viewer time to connect with the characters and their experiences.
Excessively-detailed lore was an issue though (personally). There comes a time when there's one too many ancient artifacts and overpowered characters takes out one too many new skills out of their "spiritual pocket". Side characters (together with side plotlines) got way too much screen time where they could've been shortened significantly without any loss to the main storyline. It felt a bit exhausting to keep up with all that. Instead of getting emotionally involved with the side characters (plots) I'd find myself missing the main couple. On its own, the ideas aren't half-bad but when added together they feel too convoluted. If it was up to me I'd focus more on the main couple's journey and less on the external factors.
The Ending (and the whole built up to it) was very thought-out and it beautifully circled back to a lot of the previous sideplots, making everything more meaningful. The CGI was the most intense at the end and this time it felt fitting and added to the story rather than distracted. While I wish some character arcs had a bit more emotional impact at the end, it wasn't a bad end and could certainly be considered fulfilling.
Overall, plot-wise, the story isn't all that novel, it holds several headache-inducing cliches, and perhaps I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend this title for a non cdrama fantasy watcher, but the main couple's banter and chemistry is real fun to watch (and they have A LOT of good interactions), hence why I'd recommend it to fantasy cdrama fans.
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