I figured someone may want a more balanced review that isn't, "This is all crap" and "this is the best ever" First I have to establish that I go mostly by talent of the actors/crew. I don't really do the whole mooning over actors thing. Not my jam. I don't automatically upvote a drama because the actor is "hot" or whatever. I go by how the drama is or isn't. I go by if the art is good or bad.

For those of you that are planning on reading the book, read the book second and watch the drama first. The drama first is OK and regular and kind of middle of the road. The book is excellent, though lacking in details, so you should be helped by doing it in this order. I should warn that the second half of the drama is nothing like the book.

For comparison, this drama is better than Longest Promise which had some of the worst writing I've witnessed in a drama. This drama, though suffers mostly from an unconfident writer who isn't sure how to do anything from the book.

If you are going to watch the drama, you're likely watching fro Ding Yuxi and the production values.

The best lifetimes are in order (for the drama):
The animal lifetime (Hilarious and voiced very well)
The Demon lifetime (mostly for Ryan Ding living the role--and changing his mannerisms in every single way playing it).
The Sect lifetime Almost 1 for 1, but then went off the rails a bit towards the end.
The flashback couple lifetime (Cang hai)
Prime Minister's daughter
Princess/General This was cut in half from the original, so didn't have the gravitas, but I understand they had to cut it likely because of censorship.

The character I hated the most was Xiu Ming. I hated his ending too, especially since he's split off from the original character who was a stalker in the book. He literally stalked the female main character across lifetimes. *Stop redeeming stalker characters~~* And yes, I can fight you on this. When someone is trying to "rescue" you without your consent, and follow after you for *lifetimes* then yeah, that's called stalking.

I mostly skipped (10 second skip) through the whole banished clan thing--it didn't belong in the drama and I lost about nothing. The acting wasn't that great to begin with. And I didn't care that much about the Zihui storyline at all, which felt disjointed from the rest of the drama anyway.

In order the best parts of the drama:
1. Ding Yuxi

-hands down the best part of the drama. The director let him do *mostly* what he wanted, though there were a few times I felt like he was limited by the director. *ahh* Ding Yuxi playing mischievous is something I really like because it's in his wheelhouse--but the director cut him off? I said this consistently since the beginning. If you want to watch the drama only for him, it's not a bad pick.

2. Production values: These are the costumes, music, CGI. The CGI was the best in Heavenly realm. I'm guessing the writer had to set more things in the heavenly realm to save on costs. I'm not against that. (Costs more to rent a space than build a set sometimes) That said, I wouldn't have minded if they saved on production costs and gotten better actors. The production team went all out. The only person that probably should have paid attention more is the sound guy. He missed a few sounds he should have put in. I feel like they couldn't pay all the actors all the way through due to the production values being high.

3. Red Thread Master and Yang Chaoyue

Contrary to popular belief, Yang Chaoyue was better in the second half of the drama. I thought she wasn't that good at the beginning, but she grew into the character more. Slight downgrade for the whining bits, but I think that's more down to writing and directing choices, than personal choices. I also, really liked the choices of the Red Thread Master, which surprised me. The dynamic between the two acors felt more natural. She definitely picked up a few things during the course of the drama and became less stiff and emotionless. It's not top of the line such that Yang Chaoyue was pushing Ryan Ding, but it wasn't terrible either. If you want to see actresses that pushed Ryan Ding, then there is Romance of the Tiger and Rose. And I'd also say Moonlight with Esther Yu--who also pushed him quite a bit. While she wasn't terrible ^^ I still would have chosen a top line actress and sacrificed some of the production values like the 3D printing of crowns to try to get a better actress as lead. Guan Xiao Tong would have been my natural pick since she can play the range.

4. Director. Some of the blocking was off, particularly on Ryan Ding--I don't blame Ryan Ding for this--that's on the director's head to run through the scene and let the actors play it out a few times. And a few directing choices I disliked entirely, though these are minor.

5. The writing. The writing was meh for me--I mean if you take it separate from the book it's running 3-4. It's really, really creepy that the screenwriter wants *so hard* to redeem incel stalkers this much. I mean, WTF. Trying so hard to redeem incel stalker from the book, and then try to redeem them in the drama, but no one wants that. What I felt from the screenwriter throughout was that they were constrained a bit by budget, but also they lacked confidence to make the bolder decisions. For that reason the drama feels like a fanficiton version of the book rather than an improvement. This isn't to slam fan fiction, BTW, but to say, it feels more copying cookie cutter. And BTW, I'm not one of those, the book is always better. I go wherever the story is best.

6. The Nepotism adds

Occasionally, in order to make a production, the financing asks that you add characters--there were quite a few and a few characters that should never been downgraded were downgraded for the drama. Usually in regular production, adding characters means more budget. The only exception is nepotism adds where there is a contingency. This is why I think a few of the actors who were added, but not in the book were solely added for budget reasons, not storyline reasons. Zihui should not have been split into Xiu Ming and Zihui. This by far, weighed down the drama and you didn't get the tighter plotting that the book had. The whole of the Muluo tribe--Uhhgghhh no. OK, the demon bit was good. But still.

BTW, I still want to yeet Xiu Ming off this drama.

BTW, I'd so watch a movie version that actually followed the novel more 1 for 1.