To me, all six of them are the brightest red flags there ever were... (Yes, including DJX - nobody is that perfect, he's sending serial killer perfection vibes LOL).
Wow, they're making it a drama?! I won't say no, though it did work fine just as a movie. I wonder if they'll dilute the story to make it last 10 eps (and if they'll be brave enough to leave in the hints in the prison part of it).
I’m hesitant to watch this in fear of feeling unfulfilled since I’ve heard the leads never show any physical…
They end up married, with children. Take a look (ETA and no, the editor didn't force any edits, it all happens naturally. And yes, it's censored, but it comes through anyway).
It's a bit far fetched, trying to insert Christian themes into a definitely danmei-(censored)-adaptation. I particularly…
This is xianxia, nobody acts as if they would in real life, LOL. Whether the Nie clan survives or not doesn't depend on NHS only. And they had plenty of generations of new disciples despite them all knowing the stakes. The clan will be fine with or without NHS.
There's a side-character movie (two actually). If you watch Fatal Journey you'll learn more about the Nie brothers relationship. It's definitely not NHS being lazy - he just does not want to follow the same path he's supposed to, since he was born into the Nie clan. And TBH Meng Yao was, initially, two steps ahead of everybody and carefully hiding all his plots and web-weaving. After NHS found out what actually happened, it takes time to make the plot strong enough to ensure success. And he does get everything done as he wanted too - NHS is up there with WWX in the smarts dep't.
Meng Yao "cares" for LXC just as much as Xue Yang "cares" for Xiao XingCheng. Not for themselves but for the image they might have made in their minds about the villain - a mirror to a fictional better self. The one thing LXC prizes above all is his integrity - and Meng Yao made a mockery out of it.
JC was raised to be a clan leader. He can never take into account just the one person, even if it's his brother. He has to consider the good of the clan - WWX never had to bother with that, since he's an outsider anyway, and he could (and did) just up and leave the clan one day. JC doesn't have that freedom. And also he never joined the others in insulting and ridiculing WWX, where did that impression come from?! His hatred is very personal and warranted (if you read the novel you'll see WWX is not that clean himself, either, there are things he did that make him a bit gray, too, and JC's hatred - again - is earned). JC is not a power groupie, LOL. He's just mad and unwilling to let go of his anger at any point in his life. And at the same time... he's yearning for WWX, and missing him just as much as WWX is missing him, too. It's just that WWX can put it into words - he tries to explain to LWJ how JC is like, while JC can never even yell it out at WWX himself, he's that mad at him.
Yup, this is pretty close to a masterpiece in a study of human characters. And now you see why its genre (xianxia and not wuxia) or the level of fight choreography don't really matter actually, LOL.
Finished the drama and I get why people are saying this is a Masterpiece. There are still plot holes however and…
It's a bit far fetched, trying to insert Christian themes into a definitely danmei-(censored)-adaptation.
I particularly disagree with NHS being guilty of sloth - did you not catch the part where ALL Nie clan leaders eventually go insane and their swords go berserk due to their madness?! NHS is smart and he does NOT want to become a clan leader or cultivate his clan's disciplines, precisely because it would kill him but not before driving him into insanity! It's not being carefree, it's being a planner and seeing far ahead. THAT's what he's been using his intelligence for - he hasn't cultivated a lot so he's not a powerful fighter, he knows he's not a match for the rich and well-connected Jin clan, and he also knows who IS that careless about the power of others and their status and can get things done - WWX. They were fast friends in the school at Cloud Recesses, he knows what WWX is capable of.
There is no preventing the Nie clan madness, the only way to not get it is not cultivate that method, which is precisely what NHS does. But Nie MingJue is already going mad because of it - that's why he needs the Lan clan songs to pacify it - and it's already too late for him. Even without Meng Yao's intervention, he would've ended the same way, only later.
So yeah, NHS is a master manipulator - just as much, and at the end, better than - Meng Yao. His methods are also unorthodox (do you wonder why he chose WWX to come find out the truth - the one cultivator who didn't just talk about leaving the beaten path but actually went and opened up the new path all by himself? WWX is his inspiration.) Is it cowardly? Yes. Did he have other choices? Like, what?
So no, it's definitely not sloth. Years of planning every painful detail, and then making tiny course corrections once the plan is set in motion - he is better than Meng Yao, but his whole life has nothing to do with being slothful.
HA!! Meng Yao caring for LXC??? It was LXC who let him in the secret library where he took the Collection of Turmoil, it was LXC's trust he broke time and time again - how is that caring for him and for his opinion?! Even at the end he promises LXC to not do something and then does it not even ten minutes later - is that respect and care for LXC?!
Just a side comment on JC - he never does kill WWX (in the novel he's not close by when it happens, in the drama he doesn't actually hit WWX, WWX lets go because the rock LWJ is standing on can become dislocated and bring him down too.) And TBH, his attitude after the resurrection is 100% warranted. It was never WWX's intention to bring ruin to his foster family and clan, but that IS what happens due to WWX's actions - JC's clan, his parents, his sister - they all die because of something WWX did. It's not too much for JC to blame him for those deaths.
As for Xue Yang... it's not any human sin or even emotion other than him being a sociopath. Why he is that way - does it even matter? If he had a rough childhood and becomes a serial killer, should that rough childhood excuse the killings?! Even those he loved, he destroyed, because he doesn't really care for them, just for his possession of them. There is no sin in Xue Yang, he's beyond humanity, just a selfish killing machine.
If you can get the novel, you could try it and see if you like it (and it you get the same impression from it as from the drama). There's also a 3-season animated series, an audio drama, and a manhua based on the novel. It IS quite a phenomenon. And the novel, obviously, has all the danmei bits they removed :D
She saw visions of him being treated like s*it after seeing him destroy her sect and kill thousands of innocents…
It might help to realise he actually (in the human life) doesn't feel emotions at all though he can register people are feeling them. In the original timeline, nobody ever cared for him and so he never developed the ability to feel. After he died the devil artefact inside him just took over, so he became an avatar of the original Devil.
Li SuSu just went back in order to get that Devil Bone from him and then kill him. She has her mission, and love - what comes of it - happens despite all her intentions and without his knowledge (he still can't feel anything). The transmigrated Li SuSu is not the original abuser Ye XiWu, and that comes to the attention of Tantai Jin, too, eventually.
It's going to be a long process.
But yeah, still extremely abusive as they come, if it's not your cup of tea or you can't even deal with the idea of it, better not start it. Not every drama is for everyone, and that's just okay.
~You like MianMian, don't you?!~ Ahahhahahaha poor LWJ's face.
But nah, there's still the scene in the snow (in the Silence Room). The scene on the stairs (~walking with you on a single-plank bridge til its dark end isn't so bad~ - total damage!!) The scene in the library (with WWX painting a little flower behind LWJ's ear, awwwww~ and then all hell breaks loose, LOL). The reveal later on (in the Jiang Ancestral Shrine). All the scenes where LWJ silently blocks everything from getting to WWX. LWJ getting drunk on purpose :D The CHICKENS!!!!!
1. Xue Yang disappeared mysteriously without a sound, he has the lust to kill people so it's out of character,…
To the first: nope. It's not him :D (ETA LXC does have a flute (a different kind than WWX's, a xiao / vertical flute called Liebing. WWX's Chenqing is a dizi, a horizontal flute). LXC will be playing it again, even if not every time as a weapon - they CAN use music as a weapon, but also just can choose not to).
To the second: Yes it's the Lan Clan. Wen Qing played but not as a fighter, she was just playing (it's one of the arts an accomplished noble should have mastered - playing an instrument, painting, etc for women, but also for men (and riding a horse, and sword-fighting etc). And yes she actually died.
I meant raised from the dead :D MXY is in the current (present) timeline, he's the one who's using a blood spell to call back WWX from the dead. WWX's spirit enters MXY's body, and MXY's spirit is gone forever (the price for the soul-calling). In the past timeline, it was indeed Jiang FengMian bringing back WWX to the Jiang Clan after finding him wandering around homeless after the death of his parents (one of whom was someone JFM maybe was in love with in the past before she married someone else).
1. Xue Yang disappeared mysteriously without a sound, he has the lust to kill people so it's out of character,…
Q2 first - yes it's the same person controlling Wen Ning at the JZX assassination site
Q1 No it's not either of them (Meng Yao or Xue Yang). Though yes, Meng Yao discovered how to use a flute to override Chenqing for a little bit (and already has used it in the interim before the present timeline starts, again). Hint: the method needs music. What clan do you know that can control or use music in battle?
LWJ was punished once after fighting 33 of his clan's masters in order to defend WWX's possessions in the Burial Mounds (in the novel he's defending WWX himself, but the death happens a bit differently). He wasn't punished to be restrained for 3 years, he just wasn't able to even walk and took forever to heal (they got him 33 lashes with the heavy whip that leaves forever marks and usually kills the victim with many less hits than he endured). He would've gone sooner but just couldn't - he's still only human.
OOOOOOH who raised WWX? The direct answer is - Mo XuanYu did. Then who taught MXY how to use the spell and made sure a Yin Tiger Tally artefact was close enough to make sure WWX's spirit WILL come when called? Isn't that just the most interesting thing? :D
That's one of the best reveals when you get it :D It's too big of a spoiler, sorry, won't tell you, and please don't look for it, but it's also worth waiting for :D
PS The Yin Tiger Tally aura was around the sword they found (in the novel it's a body part, ick!) It was a lure the mastermind used to set WWX on the trail of the actual villains - because WWX can't resist a mystery he can't untangle, and LWJ will follow him to the depths of hell now he got him back :D
3 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLLumzo__GA
Intimacy and love doesn't need French kissing (nothing against it, LOL - romance works with or without PDAs.)
Ren JiaLun has a HEA in The Blue Whisper, doesn't he? Or are they talking averages? :D
ETA I also thought LYX defeated Cheng Yi in the blood up-throwing dep't, LOL :D
There's a side-character movie (two actually). If you watch Fatal Journey you'll learn more about the Nie brothers relationship. It's definitely not NHS being lazy - he just does not want to follow the same path he's supposed to, since he was born into the Nie clan. And TBH Meng Yao was, initially, two steps ahead of everybody and carefully hiding all his plots and web-weaving. After NHS found out what actually happened, it takes time to make the plot strong enough to ensure success. And he does get everything done as he wanted too - NHS is up there with WWX in the smarts dep't.
Meng Yao "cares" for LXC just as much as Xue Yang "cares" for Xiao XingCheng. Not for themselves but for the image they might have made in their minds about the villain - a mirror to a fictional better self. The one thing LXC prizes above all is his integrity - and Meng Yao made a mockery out of it.
JC was raised to be a clan leader. He can never take into account just the one person, even if it's his brother. He has to consider the good of the clan - WWX never had to bother with that, since he's an outsider anyway, and he could (and did) just up and leave the clan one day. JC doesn't have that freedom. And also he never joined the others in insulting and ridiculing WWX, where did that impression come from?! His hatred is very personal and warranted (if you read the novel you'll see WWX is not that clean himself, either, there are things he did that make him a bit gray, too, and JC's hatred - again - is earned). JC is not a power groupie, LOL. He's just mad and unwilling to let go of his anger at any point in his life. And at the same time... he's yearning for WWX, and missing him just as much as WWX is missing him, too. It's just that WWX can put it into words - he tries to explain to LWJ how JC is like, while JC can never even yell it out at WWX himself, he's that mad at him.
Yup, this is pretty close to a masterpiece in a study of human characters. And now you see why its genre (xianxia and not wuxia) or the level of fight choreography don't really matter actually, LOL.
I particularly disagree with NHS being guilty of sloth - did you not catch the part where ALL Nie clan leaders eventually go insane and their swords go berserk due to their madness?! NHS is smart and he does NOT want to become a clan leader or cultivate his clan's disciplines, precisely because it would kill him but not before driving him into insanity! It's not being carefree, it's being a planner and seeing far ahead. THAT's what he's been using his intelligence for - he hasn't cultivated a lot so he's not a powerful fighter, he knows he's not a match for the rich and well-connected Jin clan, and he also knows who IS that careless about the power of others and their status and can get things done - WWX. They were fast friends in the school at Cloud Recesses, he knows what WWX is capable of.
There is no preventing the Nie clan madness, the only way to not get it is not cultivate that method, which is precisely what NHS does. But Nie MingJue is already going mad because of it - that's why he needs the Lan clan songs to pacify it - and it's already too late for him. Even without Meng Yao's intervention, he would've ended the same way, only later.
So yeah, NHS is a master manipulator - just as much, and at the end, better than - Meng Yao. His methods are also unorthodox (do you wonder why he chose WWX to come find out the truth - the one cultivator who didn't just talk about leaving the beaten path but actually went and opened up the new path all by himself? WWX is his inspiration.) Is it cowardly? Yes. Did he have other choices? Like, what?
So no, it's definitely not sloth. Years of planning every painful detail, and then making tiny course corrections once the plan is set in motion - he is better than Meng Yao, but his whole life has nothing to do with being slothful.
HA!! Meng Yao caring for LXC??? It was LXC who let him in the secret library where he took the Collection of Turmoil, it was LXC's trust he broke time and time again - how is that caring for him and for his opinion?! Even at the end he promises LXC to not do something and then does it not even ten minutes later - is that respect and care for LXC?!
Just a side comment on JC - he never does kill WWX (in the novel he's not close by when it happens, in the drama he doesn't actually hit WWX, WWX lets go because the rock LWJ is standing on can become dislocated and bring him down too.) And TBH, his attitude after the resurrection is 100% warranted. It was never WWX's intention to bring ruin to his foster family and clan, but that IS what happens due to WWX's actions - JC's clan, his parents, his sister - they all die because of something WWX did. It's not too much for JC to blame him for those deaths.
As for Xue Yang... it's not any human sin or even emotion other than him being a sociopath. Why he is that way - does it even matter? If he had a rough childhood and becomes a serial killer, should that rough childhood excuse the killings?! Even those he loved, he destroyed, because he doesn't really care for them, just for his possession of them. There is no sin in Xue Yang, he's beyond humanity, just a selfish killing machine.
If you can get the novel, you could try it and see if you like it (and it you get the same impression from it as from the drama). There's also a 3-season animated series, an audio drama, and a manhua based on the novel. It IS quite a phenomenon. And the novel, obviously, has all the danmei bits they removed :D
... For some reason though this sounds like it'll have a sad ending...
I feel like doing a dance hahaha~
ETA LXC is the best guy, he's the captain of the WangXian ship LOL :D
Li SuSu just went back in order to get that Devil Bone from him and then kill him. She has her mission, and love - what comes of it - happens despite all her intentions and without his knowledge (he still can't feel anything). The transmigrated Li SuSu is not the original abuser Ye XiWu, and that comes to the attention of Tantai Jin, too, eventually.
It's going to be a long process.
But yeah, still extremely abusive as they come, if it's not your cup of tea or you can't even deal with the idea of it, better not start it. Not every drama is for everyone, and that's just okay.
But nah, there's still the scene in the snow (in the Silence Room). The scene on the stairs (~walking with you on a single-plank bridge til its dark end isn't so bad~ - total damage!!) The scene in the library (with WWX painting a little flower behind LWJ's ear, awwwww~ and then all hell breaks loose, LOL). The reveal later on (in the Jiang Ancestral Shrine). All the scenes where LWJ silently blocks everything from getting to WWX. LWJ getting drunk on purpose :D The CHICKENS!!!!!
There are way too many :D
Kind of like expecting someone to have pity on a serial killer because he had a rough childhood.
This is a pretty abusive drama, if your heart can't handle it, don't put yourself through it.
To the second: Yes it's the Lan Clan. Wen Qing played but not as a fighter, she was just playing (it's one of the arts an accomplished noble should have mastered - playing an instrument, painting, etc for women, but also for men (and riding a horse, and sword-fighting etc). And yes she actually died.
I meant raised from the dead :D MXY is in the current (present) timeline, he's the one who's using a blood spell to call back WWX from the dead. WWX's spirit enters MXY's body, and MXY's spirit is gone forever (the price for the soul-calling). In the past timeline, it was indeed Jiang FengMian bringing back WWX to the Jiang Clan after finding him wandering around homeless after the death of his parents (one of whom was someone JFM maybe was in love with in the past before she married someone else).
Q1 No it's not either of them (Meng Yao or Xue Yang). Though yes, Meng Yao discovered how to use a flute to override Chenqing for a little bit (and already has used it in the interim before the present timeline starts, again). Hint: the method needs music. What clan do you know that can control or use music in battle?
LWJ was punished once after fighting 33 of his clan's masters in order to defend WWX's possessions in the Burial Mounds (in the novel he's defending WWX himself, but the death happens a bit differently). He wasn't punished to be restrained for 3 years, he just wasn't able to even walk and took forever to heal (they got him 33 lashes with the heavy whip that leaves forever marks and usually kills the victim with many less hits than he endured). He would've gone sooner but just couldn't - he's still only human.
OOOOOOH who raised WWX? The direct answer is - Mo XuanYu did. Then who taught MXY how to use the spell and made sure a Yin Tiger Tally artefact was close enough to make sure WWX's spirit WILL come when called? Isn't that just the most interesting thing? :D
That's one of the best reveals when you get it :D It's too big of a spoiler, sorry, won't tell you, and please don't look for it, but it's also worth waiting for :D
PS The Yin Tiger Tally aura was around the sword they found (in the novel it's a body part, ick!) It was a lure the mastermind used to set WWX on the trail of the actual villains - because WWX can't resist a mystery he can't untangle, and LWJ will follow him to the depths of hell now he got him back :D