Disclaimer: this is the first one out of the daomu biji series I've seen!

As someone who just started this drama after seeing Joseph Zeng in Take my Brother Away, I was blown away! Firstly, I did not know it was a whole series but even then I think I was able to keep up pretty well. I thought the casting was amazing and all the actors did such a great job, it will be hard for the one's in the sequel to live up to. I found the pacing of the story to be weird in some parts but overall it was fine.

I'm not sure if it's because of the actor's ages or what, but none of the characters ages made sense or the year this story takes place. They're dressed pretty modern but they use phones from the early 2000s but they also have access to hi-tech drones? Also, Ah Ning's death was inadequate for a main character and it was weird how her body kept showing up in places with no explanation. A lot of elements are introduced and made to seem important but as soon as its inconvenient, it gets dropped or ignored. For example, the doppelgängers theory was introduced (with no basis may I add) but was never mentioned again. The deadly bugs that can kill you with one bite is another example of this as by the end of the show, they're just shooing them away. I thought the snakes were way too overused and wished they brought in something new. I liked how they changed the objectives as the show went on and it wasn't set in 1 place for too long. However, it became really confusing at times as to how the objectives were connected and related to the larger story. We go from finding the secret of immortality to Wu Xie's uncle missing to Zhang Qi Ling losing his memory to hunting for the Zhang family pavilion just to get Zhang Qi Ling's memory back?

I would hesitate to even call the ending an ending. Wu Xie is seemingly distressed about his friends but never goes to look for them? And Cox Hendry says he will join when they get close to the entrance but misses his cue? They should've at least tied up some loose ends. I'm just being a little nit picky but overall this big budget production will be a great watch for anyone (maybe not romance fans).