I loved this drama. It started a bit silly, true, but to watch Qi Ling go from a goofy backwater bartender to a lord - a mage - with powers beyond imagination was a thing to behold and Zhang Mingen played that part amazingly well, he was such a great Qi Ling, both the goofy one at the beginning and the stoic, powerful one at the end. And Joe Cheng, who played his lord, Yin Chen, was so good too, his stoic demeanor, his soft, velvety voice…

I also loved that all the girls that Qi Ling met got their own arcs, their own stories to tell and went through their own development. They grew, they suffered, they stayed true to their duties and obligations and their own paths…

What I did skip was the plotting of Lei Ya and You Ming. At least at first. But by the end, even their stories became interesting and especially You Ming, Shen Yin’s lord, turned out to be more intriguing than I thought at first. He was a true evil neutral, he didn’t care who won as long as he got to slaughter people - but he did care about Shen Yin, as much as he was able to feel anything selfless and real for anyone.

What fascinated me about this series was that there was no romance in it. Yes, Qi Ling felt something for Shen Yin and she for him, but their timing was never right and their feelings never got in the way of what needed to be done - and what was most important to all the disciples: their lords.

Because that’s what this drama is about, the relationship between the lords and their disciples, that undying, selfless devotion which permeated everything the main characters did. They did it all for their lords. They lived and died for their lords.

My main draw were Qi Ling and Yin Chen, of course. Their story was beautiful and though sad at the end, it still ended on a hopeful note and that’s all I need at the end of the day, really. And with that ending, if we don’t get a second season, it’ll be a sacrilege because they literally set it up for a continuation.