I really wanted to like this drama, but I couldn’t. Even with Luo Yunxi as the ML it was a chore to make it through to the end.

The underlying story wasn’t bad and had quite a few classic elements (underdog female sect leader, tense father-son relationship, treacherous prince, etc.) that could have fuelled a good drama with good acting. Sadly, the scriptwriter seemed to think that this audience is made up of idiots and logic or common sense are just superfluous concepts that hinder creativity.

The result were jewels like a man burying a horse (on his own, without a shovel), a little girly carelessly parading around a priceless artefact, then entrusting it to someone she doesn’t know (oh, it gets stolen - surprise!) and to top off the insanity a man pretending to be someone else without even changing his hairstyle or clothes (and still using the same fan!). The behaviour of the FL made me more than once agree with her sect elders that she’s not leader material. I will root for the underdog, but not for incompetence!

The fake horse riding was so bad (the actors’ movements didn’t even match the gait of the horse) that it made me cringe. I understand that not every actor may be able to gallop freely on a horse, but at least learn how to fake it properly.

To upset the viewers even more there were the usual boring tropes of love triangles (two of them, because they are fun!) and stupid misunderstandings between the two leads that could have been cleared up in two sentences. There was zero chemistry between the leads, so in the end I couldn’t even care whether they got together or not.

Overall the drama had very few redeeming features. The father-son scenes were among some of the best this drama had to offer. The OST wasn’t too bad and there was LYX elegantly floating from the sky.