I noticed Chen Zhe Yuan, Nie Zi Hao and Liu Yi Tong in another drama, so I came to watch this one. The character development in the story was very good, my opinions of the characters changed drastically. While I found Yu Yingnan's naivete very annoying at first, she grows out of it. As for everyone complaining about her acting, I looked it up, and the actress was 18. 18! What's everyone else doing at age 18? Probably either trying to get into college or working at a bad job, so she's done well for herself. The two male leads also undergo drastic changes. I hated some characters at some point, so the acting was effective. The plot twisted and turned, it was very exciting, especially towards the end.

Around halfway through, I thought, oh no, a time travel trope, but it actually wrapped events up pretty well. Near the beginning, when they were going up the mountain to learn from the sects as students, after passing through a test, I thought, oh no, a school environment trope, but that was also not what I expected, in a good way. With a certain villain and a certain antihero, I thought, ugh - the being horrible people due to being orphans trope, and that ended up being exactly what I expected, but one got redemption and the other didn't.

The computer graphics were better than I expected. The sets were relatively simple, but effective, and pointed to a medium sized production. Good action choreography team. The uniforms for the sects were plain, probably because there are so many members, but the main protagonists' outfits were pretty good. Silver threading and shoulder pads to look like armor. I was also super impressed by the "bar" setting that was by itself, and almost outside the rest of the plot. Great decor. The bartender's costume was great. The mask really brought out his jawline. The ending song also got stuck in my head, because it's rare to hear emo-ish, rocky songs in Mandarin.

Overall, this was a great, youth oriented story. I would read the book if I found it somewhere and it was translated.