whoissilmoy

Not only did Xu Kai played two characters but in the same time period and same scene which means there are days on the set, he has to literally change from one character to the other on the spot. The two characters personality, mind, and emotions are opposite of each other.
Xu Kai said it was a headache initially.
What other Chinese drama has an actor had to do this?
I can think of Bai Lu in AMA, she had to change from male character to female character in the same time period for a few scenes, but never were her two characters in the same scene together or interacted with each other.

should your comment be a spoiler? This is huge part of the mystery.

The characters are the strongpoint of the story which is why they had to devote so much early episodes to them. The characters have a lot of personality in the game too, but the drama improved it greatly largely due to the excellent acting of the cast, creating memorable characters.

I checked up on the game character for the little girl Xiao Yuan and my goodness, the drama found a little girl who can act exactly like her in the game, same look and personality, amazing.

so the Yun clan are fish creatures living on back of a whale (Kun)?

she didn't explain that Zhu Yu is good but has absorbed dark energy from the human energy and is afraid she could lose control

I read that one of the themes of this story is the morality of killing to save others.

Shuo Xuan:
You took away my mother. My mother was Ling Ye, the former queen of our (Yu) clan. The body that Zhu Yu (Qi's mother) is using now is my mother's. Hundreds of years ago, the Yu clan resided at the bottom of the North Sea. Our queen, Ling Ye, my mother, found a nice and warm habitat at the North Sea and migrated the entire clan there. Hundreds of years later, the Sea of Clear Skies prospered and became the Pearl of the North Sea. Nobody knew the Sea of Clear Skies WAS BUILT ON THE BACK OF KUN (giant whale). Kun was born from the sea. It sleeps for hundreds of centuries to gather strength waiting to jump out of the sea and ascend. ON THE DAY OF ITS ASCENSION, THE SEA OF CLEAR SKIES ON ITS BACK ALMOST COLLAPSED INTO RUINS. My mother, Ling Ye drained her power to reach Kun's awareness via the Meditation Spell and stopped the ascension. KUN IS ZHU YU (Qi's mother, her Lordship). Her Lordship stopped ascending. She took over Ling Ye's body and started saving the (Yu) clan (which Shuo Xuan is a part of). She housed all the survivors here and treated them with her life power. Years later, those who were less injured or had greater energy could finally move around. All the survivors of the Yu clan you see are cured by her Lordship with her life power. She was drained and about to die but thanks to Qiyuan... (and Shou Xuan has to stop to give away the plan because Qi is an intricate part of that plan). Since you are back to her Lordship now and become the young Lord, you should appreciate her sacrifice for the clan that she ended up like this because of us.

at the beginning of ep 18, Qi asks Shuo Xuan why she treats her badly and she replies, "You took away my mother", then she goes on to explain the story but stops short of telling Qi the plan. How and why Qi took away her mother was not explained. It seems the story itself is just a backdrop for the bigger story or the mystery surrounding the story.

in ep 18, when Qi was talking to Shuo Xuan, she spoke using a mature voice

the drama is not done airing

I read that in the game, BLH is the true hero of the story.

This drama followed a suspenseful game that is full of mystery so closely that it just dropped the audience right into the middle of the story with little explanations, and even with plenty of foreshadowing as in the game, unless you already know the gist of the story is not easily picked up immediately, those confused may have dropped the drama early. Drama watchers are not interactively playing a game and it takes over 16 episodes before the setting starts to reveal itself. Having said that, this should not be viewed as a flaw because the early episodes are crucial in explaining every character to the audience so they will be able to connect emotionally with the characters later on when the real story is revealed and understand their actions all along and understand the underlying themes. THE CHARACTERS IN THIS STORY IS THE STRONGPOINT OF THE STORY WITH THEIR OWN DISTINCT PERSONALITES AND MOTIVATIONS AND FEEL LIKE REAL PEOPLE and brilliantly portrayed and even enhanced greatly in the drama whether agree with the changes or not. Surely, when one is done watching the entire drama, one will see the reasons why the drama was done this way? I hope this is the case.
The drama started off showing a scary Kun, the giant mystical beast (whale) was a danger to the world, then it switched to a cute pink whale spun into a child Qi with her Master sending her to the human world, then suddenly she is with Jinzhao and they are trying to figure out their identifies. Then they encounter Qinyan Sect Lord Ming's people and Zhaoyan, and we are getting some clues that Qi may not be who she is as she can absorb Qiyan orbs and has become even more powerful. Would a more transparent setting early on but with suspense cause less people to drop the drama early? My opinion is that the drama would not be as suspenseful if too transparent. I feel that there are pros and cons of whether to make the setting more transparent at the onset and agree with the producer's decision to follow the gameplay, less transparent and more suspense, and focus the first half of the drama building up the characters which they did in a very charming and entertaining way while moving the story along. I like the changes they made to the gameplay to make the characters more interesting and charming.
I enjoy the drama very much the way it is. I love Esther portray of Qi including her voice feels so perfect in this drama. The producer tried to stay as true to the original story as possible in every way and provide more than just watching a gameplay but turned it into very high entertainment value for drama watchers. The cast has chemistry especially Xu Kai and Esther characters are so precious to watch and charming off the charts, the acting is great, the fighting scenes are well done, the animations like the beautiful magical floating ship, fighting sea monster looked so real, the music is great and will bridge your emotions back to this highly emotional charged and memorable story which is not well known due to game itself was a flop, now this drama, can bring the story to life to non-gamers too. This story should have been a classic, an all-time great story. Well, the drama is not done airing, so we shall see how it did to the original themes.

Jing Tian seems to have positive impact on Xu Kai in real life too. In their livestream he is changing his bad habits, going to bed early, exercising, etc. because Jing Tain does that too. Jing Tian takes really good care of herself; she exercises a lot. She's really a homebody too and she says she can stay in for days and eat the same food everyday, a simple person, no wonder she is so youthful looking. She is encouraging to Xu Kai because he is normally shy about his singing, but she tells him he sings nice.

she has only been in mortal world 3 years. she woke up in this teenage body but has no memory or anything and no knowledge of anything, not even language, basically a blank slate, but she learns fast. This is a fantasy drama, dont' try to make sense out of it.

I love Esther portrayal of Qi. It's perfection for me.

yes. finally, i see a comment on this. I loved his brilliant portrayal of Yuan Qi in Royal Feast, made the relationship between Zhu Zhanji, Yuan Qi, and Chen Wu amazing chemistry! including the censor Mr. Mei who showed up briefly to give a love rivalry to the temperamental crown prince Zhu Zhanji played by Xu Kai, whose jealousy fits were so fun to watch.

He Feng Tian started out years before Xu Kai, Bai Lu, Zhao Lusi who all came on the scene the same year. He played a more prominent role as the doctor who had romantic relationship with female general played by Bai Lu. Xu Kai was new unknown actor who only a small part of following the crown prince around. But after Yanxi Palace, now all we see is He Feng Tian play supporting roles to Xu Kai. He is a good actor but he doesn't seem to get leading roles.

3 yrs. if you can look beyond her voice, the character is smart, clever, wise, kind, perceptive, adorable, etc. a very strong character! Lots to like about this character.

the ml in The Legend of Zhouhua is 9 yrs older than Jing Tian. He is a handsome and seasoned actor with many nominations and awards. JT can partner with either 9 yrs older or 8 yrs younger, pretty versatile of her.

he seems to laugh a lot in bts. he's a funny guy according to his female co-stars.
based on bts, Esther is a very serious and focused, same as other actors, while Xu Kai is more relaxed and jokes around a lot and have fun.

his singing is not that bad, it's a nice voice, he's not a professional singer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHbhq4XSuwo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWeYKvW_ToI

It's a rare treat for XK fans to hear him sing. I thought he said he would not sing again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TYOSht8QEQ

there's only a few out there?