Apurva101
This review may contain spoilers
Wow! Why aren't people talking about this one more?
Initially when i saw the cast and roles, I thought that the twins would marry twins and that Chen Xing Xu was portraying both the Male leads, but thankfully that wasn't the case. This is the first time I was introduced to Luke Chen and he was amazing in the role of the third prince.
I also had a lot of assumptions before going into the shows, I thought that the ML played by Cheng XIng Xu would be pretty tame however his story arc was quite powerful compared to that of the Void third prince. His pairing with Landy Li was so fun to watch. The drama didn't have much physical intimacy or even kisses but it was plain to see the lead characters feelings for each others.
I do agree with a lot of reviewers and commenters, the drama has great beginning and ending arcs, however it drags a little in the middle with filler episodes. I like the 3 shards story arc, but it could have been better written. Once they fell in love with her, she just stashed them in places and expected them to stay there no matter how much time it would take for her to find and woo the next one.
And one thing that bothered me, the drama focused too much on forgiveness & sacrifice. Too many characters that shouldn't have been forgiven were forgiven, and unnecessary sacrifices were made for those.
Some Notable Characters:
Liguang Ye Tan
-------------------
Loved her right from the beginning. I like watching characters that are open about everything and say what they want. So I pretty much enjoyed watching her every time she was on the screen. She adored Qing Kui and it showed despite her trying to be a hardass at times. What I liked about Ye Tan is that even though she was envious of the way Qing Kui was treated, she never blamed Qing Kui for it. She knew the culprit was her father and she laid the blame right at his feet. Despite being treated like a prisoner all her life, having to hear cruel words from her father, she found it in herself to forgive him because he did all that to protect her. (Nope, still don't care for her father. She almost died quite a few times because of his negligence. When he used those harsh words, he gave others in his kingdom permission to treat Ye Tan poorly. She was starved most of the time, left to be eaten by animal once. People dared to do this because they knew that her father didn't care for her. Her relationship with You Qin was beautiful to watch.
Empyrean Xuan Shang / Shao Dian You Qin
-------------------------------------------------------
He was so damn adorable. From the get go, we could see how affected he was by Ye Tan. Once he realized that he liked Ye Tan, he never hid his feelings. He was honest about them, even when he turned her into a walnut and sewed her mouth shut. When he found out that Ye Tan was not Qin Kui, he kick up much fuss about it. He accepted her without creating any unnecessary drama that would be out of his character. He was consistently loyal to Ye Tan (Let's not mention that one shard who was promiscuous for his own good). Qing Kui would never have been a good match for him, she would have probably just gone along with everything he wanted and not changed his life much.
Liguang Qing Kui
-----------------------
In the beginning, I was a little upset with her character, not because she was favored twin, but I always felt like she could have done so much more for Ye Tan. What upset me even more was that she was a bit hypocritical with Chao Feng / Third Prince, telling him that she disliked people who treated their family badly. However, she was fine treating her father (Emperor Liguang) well when he treated Ye Tan abysmally. This highlighted her privilege, since her father so clearly loved her, she could turn a blind eye to how he treated Ye Tan majority of the time. Ye Tan never blamed her, since she was imprisoned by her own family, treated poorly, she was glad to receive what little she received from Qing Kui. There could be more to the story, maybe she helped her sister a lot more than we got to see but it wasn't depicted so clearly. I did grow to like her character, especially after watching, "Immortal Samsara: Part 1" , where we have another set of twin sisters who were borne out of same root. It just made me look at her in a different way. Throughout their interaction Qing Kui had always been kind to Ye Tan. She always thought the best of Ye Tan and her ambitions of becoming the Demon of the Void. All their interactions were genuine. Even when the whole mix-up happened and she ended up in the void realm she could have blamed Ye Tan for trying to create a mess to get her out of her wedding she wasn't really against of. However, she was quite sane and even looked out for Ye Tan in her own way. So maybe Qing Kui was one of the reasons Ye Tan didn't loose her spirit even after spending 18 years in captivity.
Chao Feng / Third Prince
---------------------------------
The great liar, it was fun to watch him come up with crazy but believable stories to hoodwink Qing Kui, who easily fell for it. The crazy idiot, didn't even realize that he was creating a trap for himself and when he did realize he was quite happy to fall head over heels for Qing Kui. While he appeared quite dashing in many scenes, I do wish his character would have been more imposing and not often defeated by You Qin. I wanted to see them as equals.
Shao Dian Xiao Yi [Heavenly Emperor]
-------------------------------------------------
The emperor, You Qin's father, was more of glory hound, who didn't really care about You Qin as his child. He just wanted to be known as the father of the great Empyrean who achieved the perfect celestial body and saved the world. Even the fix is not permanent, only for a few hundred thousand years, after which he might as well pop out another child to sacrifice, when he himself never had the guts to step up to the plate. Qing Kui was such a decent person and he seemed very happy when she died, that was quite disgusting to see. His expression of glee was present when he found out that You Qin made progress in his cultivation, not really caring that his son was going to die. A decent parent would have been worried about his child, he seemed elated. Its a wonder his wife tolerated him for so long. We all understand sacrifices are to be made, but he could have been a supportive and understanding parent to You Qin. What's more, he was the first one to be an obstacle in bringing You Qin back to life. Even when he came back to life, he just was selfish prick to everyone included.
I'm not a fan of open endings like these so I scrolled down to the comment sections and found this link. This helped ease of the anxiety the I felt after that ending. https://x.com/YoukuOfficial/status/1750867181745688650?s=20
I also had a lot of assumptions before going into the shows, I thought that the ML played by Cheng XIng Xu would be pretty tame however his story arc was quite powerful compared to that of the Void third prince. His pairing with Landy Li was so fun to watch. The drama didn't have much physical intimacy or even kisses but it was plain to see the lead characters feelings for each others.
I do agree with a lot of reviewers and commenters, the drama has great beginning and ending arcs, however it drags a little in the middle with filler episodes. I like the 3 shards story arc, but it could have been better written. Once they fell in love with her, she just stashed them in places and expected them to stay there no matter how much time it would take for her to find and woo the next one.
And one thing that bothered me, the drama focused too much on forgiveness & sacrifice. Too many characters that shouldn't have been forgiven were forgiven, and unnecessary sacrifices were made for those.
Some Notable Characters:
Liguang Ye Tan
-------------------
Loved her right from the beginning. I like watching characters that are open about everything and say what they want. So I pretty much enjoyed watching her every time she was on the screen. She adored Qing Kui and it showed despite her trying to be a hardass at times. What I liked about Ye Tan is that even though she was envious of the way Qing Kui was treated, she never blamed Qing Kui for it. She knew the culprit was her father and she laid the blame right at his feet. Despite being treated like a prisoner all her life, having to hear cruel words from her father, she found it in herself to forgive him because he did all that to protect her. (Nope, still don't care for her father. She almost died quite a few times because of his negligence. When he used those harsh words, he gave others in his kingdom permission to treat Ye Tan poorly. She was starved most of the time, left to be eaten by animal once. People dared to do this because they knew that her father didn't care for her. Her relationship with You Qin was beautiful to watch.
Empyrean Xuan Shang / Shao Dian You Qin
-------------------------------------------------------
He was so damn adorable. From the get go, we could see how affected he was by Ye Tan. Once he realized that he liked Ye Tan, he never hid his feelings. He was honest about them, even when he turned her into a walnut and sewed her mouth shut. When he found out that Ye Tan was not Qin Kui, he kick up much fuss about it. He accepted her without creating any unnecessary drama that would be out of his character. He was consistently loyal to Ye Tan (Let's not mention that one shard who was promiscuous for his own good). Qing Kui would never have been a good match for him, she would have probably just gone along with everything he wanted and not changed his life much.
Liguang Qing Kui
-----------------------
In the beginning, I was a little upset with her character, not because she was favored twin, but I always felt like she could have done so much more for Ye Tan. What upset me even more was that she was a bit hypocritical with Chao Feng / Third Prince, telling him that she disliked people who treated their family badly. However, she was fine treating her father (Emperor Liguang) well when he treated Ye Tan abysmally. This highlighted her privilege, since her father so clearly loved her, she could turn a blind eye to how he treated Ye Tan majority of the time. Ye Tan never blamed her, since she was imprisoned by her own family, treated poorly, she was glad to receive what little she received from Qing Kui. There could be more to the story, maybe she helped her sister a lot more than we got to see but it wasn't depicted so clearly. I did grow to like her character, especially after watching, "Immortal Samsara: Part 1" , where we have another set of twin sisters who were borne out of same root. It just made me look at her in a different way. Throughout their interaction Qing Kui had always been kind to Ye Tan. She always thought the best of Ye Tan and her ambitions of becoming the Demon of the Void. All their interactions were genuine. Even when the whole mix-up happened and she ended up in the void realm she could have blamed Ye Tan for trying to create a mess to get her out of her wedding she wasn't really against of. However, she was quite sane and even looked out for Ye Tan in her own way. So maybe Qing Kui was one of the reasons Ye Tan didn't loose her spirit even after spending 18 years in captivity.
Chao Feng / Third Prince
---------------------------------
The great liar, it was fun to watch him come up with crazy but believable stories to hoodwink Qing Kui, who easily fell for it. The crazy idiot, didn't even realize that he was creating a trap for himself and when he did realize he was quite happy to fall head over heels for Qing Kui. While he appeared quite dashing in many scenes, I do wish his character would have been more imposing and not often defeated by You Qin. I wanted to see them as equals.
Shao Dian Xiao Yi [Heavenly Emperor]
-------------------------------------------------
The emperor, You Qin's father, was more of glory hound, who didn't really care about You Qin as his child. He just wanted to be known as the father of the great Empyrean who achieved the perfect celestial body and saved the world. Even the fix is not permanent, only for a few hundred thousand years, after which he might as well pop out another child to sacrifice, when he himself never had the guts to step up to the plate. Qing Kui was such a decent person and he seemed very happy when she died, that was quite disgusting to see. His expression of glee was present when he found out that You Qin made progress in his cultivation, not really caring that his son was going to die. A decent parent would have been worried about his child, he seemed elated. Its a wonder his wife tolerated him for so long. We all understand sacrifices are to be made, but he could have been a supportive and understanding parent to You Qin. What's more, he was the first one to be an obstacle in bringing You Qin back to life. Even when he came back to life, he just was selfish prick to everyone included.
I'm not a fan of open endings like these so I scrolled down to the comment sections and found this link. This helped ease of the anxiety the I felt after that ending. https://x.com/YoukuOfficial/status/1750867181745688650?s=20
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