Story's pacing started out okay in the beginning, but then went on to become very slow, draggy, and oftentimes incoherent.

The biggest problem of this drama is not that it's cliche and there's no innovative element compared to narratives we've seen previously, but rather, it got really boring in the middle chunk where they abandoned the main plot, and as someone hilariously mentioned in the comments, it went from Love and Redemption to Mysterious Lotus Casebook, before it found its identity again back as the tedious Immortal Samsara. A mish-mash of different xianxia storylines doesn't make it a good one.

Even Cheng Yi could not save this drama that lost its charm starting from a third way into it. Yangzi acts the same as she always does in these noisy characters meant to be annoying but 'charismatic', while I felt bad for Chengyi always having to act out these scenes that are meant to be heart-wrenching, but did not evoke any emotions in me, as the reason preventing the couple from being able to get together was forcefully fed to us every half episode. It does not help that Cheng Yi and Yangzi look and feel more like cousins or friends rather than a star-crossed pairing.

After having watched MLC, I would say Joseph Zeng had much better chemistry with Cheng Yi than Yangzi does with him. And I know that they are different relationships, but what I'm trying to say is, because the combination wasn't a great fit, it affected how we saw the trio (including Yumo), as convincing comrades. It felt more like a uni luck draw where you pull out your classmates' names and that's how you came to work with everyone in the group project. (Nothing wrong with your groupmates as at least no one is lazy and leaving everything for one person to finish, just not the most amazing dynamic to produce the best results).

Watch only if you want to see Cheng Yi with curly silver locks as a devilish demon king stealing the limelight (and hearts) and leaving fans wanting him to play a seductive villain one time.