The beginning of this drama was promising, even though it wasn't living up to it's high budget in terms of scene, costume and particularly, bad lighting that showed all of this. The pacing was fast, we got right into the story, but after a handful of episodes, it slowed down considerably.
The actors are doing their best, but there isn't chemistry between the leads, a character I had high hopes for in the beginning who seemed plucky and brave - Na Sheng, soon became clingy and whining and distracted by a love affair instead of a noble mission to save people's lives. It got to the point I didn't like to see her in scenes.
I came in the show to watch Liu Haikuan, and as always, he does great with what material he has, and villain is a new role for him, his character Yu Huan had surprising depths, but is was set up by the plot to never win, so you as the audience get very weary, knowing that an ending is inevitable, you stop caring about the characters and the story because the telling is so clunky and lacking suspense.