If you want well-paced, fully realized world-building, well-written characters and relationships, intriguing political plotlines, and good action scenes, then this is the drama for you. It is the best chinese drama I have seen yet that fits my criteria neatly. It toes the line between classic chinese wuxia and the fantasy elements perfectly. The characters are all multi-dimensional and the plot is carried along through a fun-loving main character who doesn't lack any depth himself. Xu Fengnian is the most interesting main character I've seen in a long time. He tries to embrace both the meticulous scheming as well as the martial foolhardiness and the writers and ZRY are good enough to pull it off

The biggest plus point of this drama is the use of a rather slow plot advancement to build on intercharacter relationships. No character in this series is black and white, complete good or evil and it wrestles with the debate about what peace means in an exploitative imperialist state.