After watching I could understand why it was considered a hit drama.
Even if the plot can be considered cliche, has some of tropes that I don't like, but maybe because it's a visual it's totally different.
It tells a story of Ling MiaoMiao who traveled to the book of her favorite author, which she did not really like to find herself being a vicious supporting role. Not to mention the system asks her to fulfill some of the obligatory tasks (the trope I actually hate).
But ten the story completely forgets about it and moves on in a different direction when MiaoMiao joins the three Demon Catchers who are the main protagonists of this story, she wants to change the fate of everyone.
The journey revolves around the long-lasting grudge of the Mu family and the Demon who destroyed almost everyone in their family - Resentful Woman. As the sole survivors, Mu Yao and her brother Mu Sheng try to find ways to track Resentful Woman and put an end to a feud, avenging her entire family. But the closer they get to the truth the more the truth has blurred edges.
What I eventually liked is the simplicity of connecting the dots. That everything that was told to us about our characters is actually connected into a bigger plot. It's not that complicated, but it perfectly depicts how actions lead to unexpected consequences. So it was pretty engaging and I couldn't stop watching.
At least they didn't make MiaoMiao into a silly, because this trait I like least in main characters who are depicted cute and a small sunshine. Though I'll be honest I couldn't always connect to her acting. But overall chemistry with other actors was great.
Ding YuXi to me has the face of the male lead, you know when you look at someone and think - that's a central position. Also to me his acting was decent.
As for overall impression of visuals I can say that cgi at time is very.. specific, like ones it looks decent at other times more like "we're broke". I know it's hard to create a fantasy worls out fo nothing. But I have no idea why especially computer model are kinda.. meh? Like creatures etc.
But the makeup and costuming were great, very pretty.
As for the plot, it was interesting to follow, once again will say I found it strange like MiaoMiao had to do few obligatory tasks (and we had few iconic scenes from the first episodes) and then never did them again except the main - capture Mu Sheng's heart.
My only complain is that I still think 32 episodes is too long. I know it's a norm for China to have larger number of episodes, but tbh a lot of it does not play out well and feels like it's dragging its' feet.
Now I can see the difference between unscrupulous vertical dramas that would shoot even questionable stuff, short-form which is better but doesn't have the budget and big-budget that can have a good cast and good quality and they don't need anything spicy for you to root for the romance.
RATE: 8,5/10.