The 39-episode xianxia series is based on the web novel by Jiu Lu Fei Xiang, Accompanying the Phoenix. I have actually read the translated version of the Chinese web novel earlier, and re-read the story to have a better comparison with the series. Below a link to the English translation.
https://allnovelupdates.com/book/accompanying-the-phoenix
The series is helmed by Zhao Li Ying and Lin Geng Xin, both a little older and matured as an actor and actress. The story starts off with Shen Li, who is also known as the brutal Azure King of Spiritual Realm, disagreeing with an arranged marriage for her to one of the immortals from Heaven Realm. In her escape, she is injured and accidentally turns into a chicken (perhaps phoenix which looks like a chicken) in the Mortal Realm. She is saved by a seemingly ordinary scholar Xing Yun. As Shen Li recovers her power within the yard of Xing Yun, they get to know each other better. The two gets involved in the power struggle for the city’s heir apparent – the eldest and youngest brothers. At the same time, they meet a lotus demon attached to the youngest heir, who is sacrificed to save the heir’s wife. Their life in the mortal world turns topsy turvy, as Shen Li is caught by the armies of Spiritual Realm while Xing Yun continues his life as a human in the Mortal Realm.
Back in the Spiritual Realm, Shen Li has to face the arranged marriage and accepted it as her fate to ensure a stable relationship between the two realms. The Heaven Realm sends Fu Rong as the groom, who is a little immature & has a bad reputation as a womaniser. However, the ancient god Xing Zhi also tags along and resembles the mortal Xing Yun so much that it startles Shen Li. Having reincarnated as a mortal, Xing Zhi is indeed the mortal Xing Yun whom Shen Li falls in love with during her days in the mortal realm. However, as they thread carefully on the arranged marriage issue (and their respective feelings for each other), they are faced with attacks in both Heaven and Spiritual Realms.
The traitor in these attacks are revealed to be Mo Fang who has been Shen Li’s right hand man in her years as a general at war in Spiritual Realm. Mo Fang is also revealed to be the only descendant of the demon lead Liu Ming who is imprisoned by Xing Zhi a milenium ago, assisted by demon Fu Sheng who is hell-bent to resurrect their previous glory. Although Mo Fang is in love with Shen Li, he is manipulated by Fu Sheng to proceed with the plan to release the demon from the abyss that imprisons them.
In Shen Li’s fight with Fu Sheng, she is injured badly and lost all her power. Believed to have died in battle, Shen Li’s “death” greatly affected Xing Zhi who is usually emotionless. He manages to find the heavily injured Shen Li and chooses to stay at the beach side for her recuperation. However, in order to allow Shen Li to full recovery her power, they venture out to get the medicine for Shen Li to cultivate her opposing power within the body.
As they go through the journey, more is revealed on Shen Li’s real identity. She is actually the daughter of the Demon King and Liu Yu, one of the disciple of within the Spiritual Realm. The Demon King has been imprisoned in the Abyss for a thousand years. When Fu Sheng cracks open the Abyss, all hell breaks lose whereby the warriors from Spiritual Realm and Heaven Realm joined hands to fight. As the ancient god, Xing Zhi uses his remaining power to cement the cracks of the Abyss, ensuring the demons will not be able to come out. As a result, he loses all his power and is deemed dead. Shen Li perseveres in her belief that he will be resurrected and refuses to let go. And so he is resurrected with the help from his other ancient gods that are have gone.
Muse #1 : The series actually stays true to many scenes described in the web novel. There are very little revisions made, my suspicion is to enable the series to pass through the censorship. Some revisions would be the lecherous Fu Rong, whereby his lecherous nature is reduced significantly while his attractions to Mo Fang (LGBT portrayal) is totally removed.
Reading the translated version of the web novel, the novel is fast-moving with some sense of dry humour injected especially in the interaction between Shen Li and Xing Zhi. It is these interactions which made the web novel quite interesting to begin with. Unfortunately in the series, these are not brought out and in my eyes, fall short.
Muse #2 : It was also quite difficult for me to imagine Lin Geng Xin as Xing Yun/ Xing Zhi. Xing Yun is described as a weak scholar and no matter how they put a pale Lin Geng Xin, he just does not make the cut. As the ancient God with no emotion & indifference, Lin Geng Xin also does not bring out the aura expected.
Although Zhao Li Ying does a little better, it is quite hard to also imagine her as the deadly & violent Azure King. In actually fact, in certain angle, she looks almost like Yang Mi! And she does look so thin. Although she is indicated at 1.65m, she really looks shorter than normal especially standing next to Ling Geng Xin who is at 1.86m.
Muse #3 : The web novel provides a slow development for the couple – first admiration, then attraction, subsequently understanding and finally dependence. However, it is difficult to see such development in the series for the couple. The chemistry is somewhat lacking between the two, whereby the ancient God is always distant. Technically, the web novel provides a contrast of the two personalities, the yin to the yang, the cool to the heat. An always indifferent ancient god with the whole world’s burden on his shoulder as opposed to a passionate, fiery, upright, direct & loyal demon. Well, the opposite attracts. The storyline with the backdrop of an ancient god falling in love with a demon, with the two discovering their own journeys and hearts. A love story after all.
Muse #4 : The love story is also sprinkled with the reminder that an ancient god has responsibilities towards all realms, giving in to his love of Shen Li abolishes his exalted position as a god and with repercussions to his responsibilities. Precisely due to this, I felt that the author seems to tease the route of enlightment and the immortals. Is responsibility so important that one should be devoid of emotion and lack the warmth of relationships? The ancient god Xing Zhi is actually quite a pathetic soul that has lived almost forever, losing everyone that he has known in his life. Imagine the loneliness that he has to go through, with no companionship in his indefinite life.
The worst is actually when the immortals of Heaven Realm keeps pestering him to ensure he upheld his responsibilities to protect the realms. In their mind, he should just give up his love relationship with Shen Li. He is not even given a chance to choose. Immortals of righteousness or immortals of self-centredness?
Muse #5 : 2nd male lead Mo Fang is painted as a traitor, but it feels like he is more of a victim. And a very weak personality, that leads to his indecisive nature. As much as I wanted to empathise with the character, it is difficult to. However, the actor portraying Mo Fang is quite good-looking and plays his weak character pretty well. His ending is a little abrupt, and I didn’t like any character to have suicidal thoughts. Surely he should deal with his own struggles.
Muse #6 : I felt that the series painted both Heaven Realm in a more negative manner. The Heavenly Realm is portrayed as a decaying society whereby the immortals are too pampered. Their lack of diligence and caution compounds their inefficiency especially in dealing with crisis. This is extremely apparent when compared with the Spiritual Realm armies who are constantly fighting to guard against the Abyss (and the demons). The immortals are supposed to denounce attachment, but their behaviour seem to have fallen on the opposite spectrum. The immortal lots are gossipy, judgmental, arrogant, ignorant too. The worst is when they demanded the ancient god Xing Zhi to prioritise them over his deemed treacherous relationship with Shen Li, with no evidence to indicate the relationship is the cause of the “wrath” from the heaven. How ridiculous, all hypocrisy and selfishness.
The Sea Realm is also not spared, whereby the Sea Dragon King is such a pushover, only knowing how to beg for help. The way the immortals in the sea reacts by gifting treasures to the ancient god when he goes fishing, paints a decadent bribing society who is trying to make the connection with the strong & powerful god. I am not sure whether there is some implied morale lessons to be learnt, but it does sound quite pathethic that the immortals who are usually striving for enlightment ends up in such a situation.
Muse #7 : Immortal Fu Rong is actually quite a funny character. Outwardly a coward, he also goes through his own journey and finds his own strength in the overall scheme of things. With his outgoing nature & extroverted personality, it is easy for him to be the diplomat across the various parties. I guess he has also gone on a journey on his own whereby he is seeing first hand how sacrifices are made in the Spiritual Realm, resulting in him maturing along the way.
Muse #8 : The series is really too long with quite a lot of flashback and slow scenes of staring gazes for the main leads. Which is why the whole industry may be better off to reduce the episodes to make it more compact & exciting for the audience. It will help with production costs & probably provide better enjoyment. 😀
Conclusion 7/10
For die-heart fan of the original web novel, they will not be disappointed with the direction of the series which follows closely with the novel. The series does fall short on many areas, but the CGIs and costumes are fantastic.
The opening theme is heavenly, with opera-style singing and with the suona (a Chinese-style trumpet) accompaniment, evoking ethereal & majestic feels at the same.
Not the best, but not the worst either. Perhaps as I do have some biases towards Jiu Lu Fei Xiang’s web novels, I would say catch the series regardless. The last episode of 39 feels more like a bonus episode, especially with the full episode focusing on Madam Jin and her struggle with obtaining her love, a mortal practitioner stubborn enough to struggle with his feelings for the beautiful Madam Jin. In a way, a good close for the chapter with good ending for all. I would probably love to know more of what happened to Fu Rong, You Lan and even Rou Ya.
Cheng's Musings 