Morwen

The last thing we see before the screen fades to black is that he's reaching for the cube-shaped (?) object that he found down in the mines, so my guess is that it can control the dead soldiers to a degree.
I also guess that he was the one who made the Fengshan Altar collapse after he escaped, so no one can go down there again and release the undead.

Ohh, I knew I'd seen it before. And then the whole lighting-the-lamp thing made me go "wait, don't do it, that is a BAD idea". At least he got out of it and didn't have to pay, unlike Wu Xie and friends.

We have bromance and beautifully tattooed immortal twinks who can kill you in under three seconds. 😌

Finding the right entry point to the franchise that works for you personally can be difficult, but:
Though it takes place later in the series, you can start with Adventure Behind the Bronze Door, no problem. It's pretty self-explanatory and has a higher production value than a lot of the earlier seasons. :)
Also, it can be genuinely creepy at times with all the tombs, traps and monsters, so if you're into that, you'll surely be entertained. It also has an actual ending, something that at least half of the other seasons lack.

THANK YOU! I thought I was watching the wrong drama for a second because I noticed these, too.
I'm not even 7 minutes into the first episode but this is already the most DMBJ-style sequence of events that I've seen since Zang Hai Hua.
Can't wait to see how they're going to explain all that.
(I had a feeling they'd keep some of the original's lore elements in, I just didn't think it would be so much.)

On MereBear's blog you can find the translations for all the DMBJ novels & spin-offs. The one for Southern Archives is here:
https://merebear474765851.wordpress.com/the-southern-archives/

Sure, you're welcome. :)

I don't know about her, but the two male leads were adopted into the Zhang family, so there is no relationship by blood. They also belong to a completely different family branch than Zhang Qishan, so they never had any contact with each other and only met him much, much later.

Zhang Haiyan and Zhang Haixia are incredibly protective of each other in the novel, so I assume there may be some bromance between them in the drama.

Not to my knowledge, but there still seem to be plans for the drama. But we all know how long it can take to realize them. 🥲

Right?! I was soooo happy to see his name and face again!
Would have been great to see William Chan and Zhang Ming'en back in their respective roles as well, but I guess we'll have to wait for another season of The Mystic Nine for that. (Though Zhang Ming'en could still make an appearance, if we're very lucky. 😊)

That was pretty much the exception I had in mind. 😂

I finished reading the novel this is based on last night and also took the opportunity to update the cast list. :)
Judging from the characters that are going to appear, they should be sticking more or less to the novel. (Though I'm pretty sure there'll be some exceptions, as in: certain characters' roles will be a bit more extended in the drama.)

Because Li Xian was involved in other projects at the time, as far as I know.

I agree.
I beg everyone to watch and judge this drama for themselves because it's so much better than the rating suggests. (Both seasons are.)

Thanks! ❤️

❤️
Before I watch it illegally (which is really the very last resort for me), I want to at least consider all the options here.

If you have a Viki account please go to the following page and request this drama:
https://support.viki.com/hc/en-us/articles/360034633713-Request-a-TV-Show-or-Movie
Viki picking this up like they did with The Spirealm last year would be a huge win. ❤️

I watched this drama a year ago for the first time and I'm currently rewatching both seasons, and they are even better than I remember.

I seriously don't understand why this one doesn't have a higher rating, though. I loved season 1 of "Tientsin Mystic" to bits, but season 2 is just better in every aspect:
visuals (especially lighting and special effects), dialogues, the villains, the chemistry between the actors, the pacing, the world-building – just everything.
It took me some time to get used to Jin Shijia's portrayal of Guo Deyou, but I quickly learned to love him just as much as Li Xian in that role.

And while in season 1 everyone was still getting acquainted with each other, the bond between the four main characters gets put to the test in season 2. Watching them go through hell and still choosing each other every time is just so satisfying. These characters will stay with me for a long time. ❤️

That's nice of them. At least they knew there were issues. We didn't even know that something was wrong until the movie started. I would have expected that someone would check that kind of thing first before showing it to an audience, but that's apparently not the case.

Yeah, I can relate to that. I live not that far away from the movie theater, but I'm familiar with the problem and in your case I would have stayed, too. Even without the dialogues, the visuals and actions still speak for themselves.