This is a Critical Review, please do not read ahead if you're very attached to this drama, are easily offended, and/or do not like long reviews.

Disclaimers: This review has many criticisms and spoilers from the drama. proceed at your own cost. Everything in this review is MY OWN PERSONAL OPINION.

Review Outline (in case anyone wants to jump around):
Plot/Story
Acting/Actors
Production Value
Makeup/Costumes
Music
Rewatch Value

Now then, like always, grab your tea/drink because this review will be long.

Plot/Story:
The biggest problem with this drama is its plot and storyline. Everything is very out of place and its (characters') goals are constantly changing. I haven't read the whole original novel, but I read a few chapters from the links provided on here and a lot of spoilers before all the episodes aired.
This drama is very frustrating and complex. The things that needed to be explained in this drama are not explained (well), and the things that do not need to be explained are explained too much. There were so many times where I was watching and was asking, "Why? But why? How? But how?"
For example, the smut scene of SJ and MY, why? What was the reason?! Another example is when TTJ suddenly appeared on land after being in the River of Stynx after 500 hundred years. Like how? How did these mortals live for hundreds of years? How does one become an immortal? Isn't BuYu the first and old immortal? *Btw BuYu is PangYiZhi, the little kid god that got kicked down by JiZe.* Why did it take BuYu 10,000 years to become an immortal or become PYZ? How come he didn't ascend as a god after so long? If the immortals like the sect leaders had been alive for 500 years or more, how come they can't recognize GYJW as XL? Didn't XL train in the sect for years?
The drama was a bit draggy here and there with its limit of 40 episodes. The drama spent too much time on the first arc (TTJ and YXW) in my opinion. The script writers probably dragged it out because they want "romance" time for TTJ and YXW. For the SJ and MY arc, it was that draggy but so many things were unnecessary. The drama could've ended at CJM and LSS having a good time after she saves him from execution. I wouldn't mind. The ending was very rushed. Have no idea how their child was conceived, but it doesn't even matter anymore because a lot of things weren't explained.
A lot of the lines were cringey. The flirting was milking every single last chemistry the leads had for each other.
YeBingChang and XiaoLin's romance...where? LOL.
Also, the script does a lot of telling instead of showing. BUT! When they do show, they've already told us about it beforehand. LOL.
A lot of things are repetitive such as the evil bone talk. We don't learn any new information, but the characters talk about it as if its something new.
I do believe that this is a very hard novel to adapt into a drama. I wouldn't personally adapt this novel into a drama unless I get to change a whole bunch of things. I applaud the production team on their attempt to do justice to the novel and even making this into a drama.
One big thing this drama failed to do is make us care about why anything is even important. The characters are not memorable nor likable. Why does the world even need to be saved?
Even if we do get the 58 supposed episodes, I don't think the drama would've been any better. I heard the production team said that because they can only air 40 episodes they stuffed all the supposed episodes into the 40 episodes. A normal episode used to be only 40 minutes, but now each episode is 58 minutes long. I don't think we missed anything much. I did hear that XL and YBC had more filmed but it was cut out.


Acting/Actors:
Y'all please be patient and kind with me. I do not have anything against the actors/actresses. These are just things I notice about the acting and writing for the characters that I want to talk about.
First off, the script isn't that good and I think all the actors did the best they could based on what they had. If you look at the behind the scenes you can tell how confused some of the actors are or misinterpreted some scenes. *Reminds me of Marvel fans asking why Tom Holland looks like he's confused half of the time. It's because he didn't know what was going on half of the time due to the script.*
All of the main characters are so inconsistent; their actions, their love story, their thoughts, their feelings, and ect. This makes it more difficult to act because not everything is filmed in order and characters has growth. *Ex: I remember in the Starry Love drama interview, Li LanDi had to often help remind Chen XingXu which character he was supposed to be along with what part of the story it was as things were filmed out of order. He had like 4 roles.* *Scenes are/can often film out of order due to filming locations.* Everything is literally out of place for a majority of the characters.

Leo Luo: This script did injustice to Leo Luo's acting skills. I know the man can do better and I've seen better from him. But he still did exceptionally well. I can tell he really enjoys his role as TTJ. His best acting scene was the whole episode on the boat explaining his misery/asking his questions before his execution by his brother--just not to die in the end. *I cannot with C-citizens catching his blood bags and pipes for the blood scenes. I can never look at those scenes the same again.* I wished that his voice was deeper and more scary. When he laughed evilly, it sounded a bit funny to me, like I wasn't scared nor did I feel/react like any of how the characters did. I was just...confused. He still did the best as MY, maybe because he has more experience playing characters similar to MY. The director said that Leo asked about a lot of things about the script and how to execute some scenes. TTJ is a very complex character and with a script like this where many things are unexplained. It can be very hard to execute because the actors have to fill in the missing blank and act according to their knowledge of the script and character given to them. I also can not comprehend how nice CJM is, like one does not just change over sleeping for 500 years. We see before TTJ gets the name CJM, he acts a bit innocent in order to get to talk to PYZ and find a way to revive YXW, but the overall sudden change was too quick. This feels like plot armor from the script writer(s) to make people like TTJ more. It also came off as if Leo just wants to create an entirely different person/character for CJM instead of convincing the audience that TTJ is CJM. It doesn't entirely work because CJM isn't a reincarnation of TTJ. Just because LSS took away the evil bone doesn't mean she took away all of his despair/hate/evilness/ect. CJM seems to almost act like he wants to be MY/is (like) MY, and an entirely different person from TTJ.

Bai Lu: It's very hard to differentiate LSS from the Old YXW and SJ. All of their personalities are just too similar. Their actions and motivations too, even LSS as new YXW. I found LSS to be too similar to SJ after the SJ arc. Also if you watch Bai Lu on a lot of variety shows/BTS/facetime, you can kind of see that sometimes Bai Lu is just being herself on screen and not her character. For example when LSS ate in front of TTJ to confirm that the food is not poisonous. No noble lady eats like that nor does someone who grew up like a princess in a sect. Even if LSS wanted to prove a point, it was out of character. Bai Lu's best scene is when she was SJ and went against TianHuan. Just in general, Bai Lu’s characters here are not easy to portray because her characters constantly go through life changing events. A lot of the time though, it seemed like those life changing events did not really affect the characters at all. It may seem like the characters didn't change. Her acting leaves me wanting more. For example, when LSS goes back 500 years as YXW, she forgets her stages of grief and jumps into focusing her mission and is in the acceptance stage. Same thing happened when she went back to the future, 500 years to her present. LSS just quickly accepts that the future has changed and that she has left everything behind as YXW. She doesn't feel much about anything and is very subtle. Like we know she's traumatized! But there wasn't a lot of emotion or showing of it when LSS came back. She got over things quickly.

Chen DuLing: This drama seems to be like it's supposed to be her breakthrough drama that makes her the next industry go to big/consistent FL, but sadly she wasn't shown much nor did she have any likable characters. The drama promoted her as one of the four leads all for her to be barely on screen and for them to list her later on as a supporting cast. Same with Ding Wei who played XiaoLin. Chen's acting is a bit forced and some scenes came off as overacting and over dramatic. For example, when TH ordered for SJ's clan to be killed, the scene came off as too much as she is not grounded in her acting. When she does the evil laugh, it sounds really fake. Also, instead of playing as an innocent YBC, who is actually greedy and quite evil; we see a YBC, who is (already) greedy and evil pretending to be innocent. YBC showed all her cards already through CDL's acting to the point that we could predict what type of character YBC is already. There's no build up or mystery to YBC. It was easy to tell YBC was faking her innocence, and therefore; everything YBC did to be innocent or nice came off as "she's totally faking" or "she's a snake". Favorite scene from CDL is when MN asked GYJW to stay with her after he left the mountain to supposedly find an answer to who he is.

Ding Wei: Like CDL, I wished his character also had more scenes. DW was also promoted to be one of the four main leads and it's disappointing that due to his short airing minutes/time, he and CDL are now listed as supporting cast. DW as an actor really plays and embodies XiaoLin as a main character. It was easy to tell that XL had his own vibe that is different from all the other characters. That vibe though was lost when he played SY and GYJW. Can't even evaluate SY much as he's barely shown in SJ and MY arc. GYJW was a questionable character. I was very confused by a lot of GYJW thoughts and actions. The script wrote GYJW as a resurrected XL but made him an entirely new personality/character. We didn't need that. GYJW just became annoying and despicable. Sometimes the camera would just cut to GYJW looking spaced out or looking like he's deep in thought. Yeah, if the script is like this and with GYJW's character being all over the place, I would be lost and confused too in what to do.

You know it's bad when the OG actors are just having fun filming. They're not even taking this drama seriously LOL. The BTS are so funny! The OG actors are just enjoying themselves as their characters and delivering their lines. Their roles is basically just to narrate a whole situation to pass time in the drama. I love their energy so much though. It makes the drama less serious in a way and reminds us not to take this drama too seriously. I've seen these OG actors do great acting before. Supporting roles did okay. Nothing too impressive. I do have to say though that Sun Zhenni is very pretty and it carried a majority of her scenes.

Production Value:
Money was questionably spent. I heard a lot of people say that the CGI in this drama is phenomenal but I dare to disagree. This level of CGI is normal nowadays for a decent to high budget fantasy drama. Underwater scenes are all too fake and change many times just for plot armor. Sets are very questionable. One scene we're in the palace meeting hall, then we're in a poor cottage, and then a rich cottage? No proper carriage or nice carriage for rich people or the Kings? Why does everyone own a horse, LOL.
Going back to sets, some of the places look very modernized, like it was just cleaned up for the shoot. For example, the rock and set/landscape that CJM and LSS was making out on after confessing their love.
Awful camera angles and close up on actors. Color lighting is constantly changing. Would've been better to stick to a certain tone per arc. Night never truly being dark...even when going to bed.
Majority boring/basic fighting scenes.There's more but they're not as bad as the above.
I do think money was well spent on the Gods CGI. I love seeing them. The best fighting scene is MingYe against the Devil God. It looked expensive, had good duel choreography, was well executed, and had great CGI.

Makeup/Costumes:
The makeup is just...all over the place. Whoever chose the foundation and put it on the actors...Why? Everyone looks as pale as a ghost. Pale means beauty but not this pale. This is legit white. No natural make-up. Everything was put on a bit too much. Maybe this next era of costume dramas is bringing back heavy makeup.
Eyeliners..OMG Leo Luo..What did they do to you?! Sometimes one eyeliner is shorter than the other. Sometimes one is thicker. Sometimes one is sharper than the other. Leo's eyebrows too. This is why they shouldn't have done so many close-ups of his face and the other actors!
Talking about close-ups. We can see pores. We can see those colored contacts, and how red some of the actors' eyes are from it. Lipstick and blushes, lots of shades, and very inconsistent colors on the actors. Close-ups were bad as the imperfections of the lipsticks can be seen. Like some colors just do not look flattering on the actors.
Now onto the clothing.
What is up with fantasy dramas nowadays just designing random outfits for mortals? You can't even tell if anyone is from the same Kingdom because they all wore different clothing styles. For the demons, can’t even tell that 10K years have passed due to their clothing and looks.
Also, why does the main cast (and some of the supporting casts) get better costumes than everyone else even when they're supposed to wear similar clothing/status to the others? CJM wears nice high fashion clothes as a disciple and has a different uniform. Same goes to LSS and GYJW. Their Shifus don't even have such nice clothes. No dress code, I guess.
YXW as a maid having an expensive looking maid outfit that is also a bit different from the rest of the maids... TTJ wears fur when he's a hostage prince.... SJ's evil purple outfit being a modern dress with overlay fabrics. Yes, we can see the straps that hold the dress. Paper Towel wrapped around CJM's shifu's headpiece. LOL!
I do really like the color palette for the Heavenly Gods and Goddesses outfits. Ming Ye probably has my favorite with his general outfit with the red and blue fabrics. I think the drama put a lot of money into the costumes because some of these costumes look EXPENSIVE AND BEAUTIFUL! But some of them are also just straight up filler outfits.
The mismatched earrings are giving...Korean Asymmetrical Earrings. It's pretty though. The hair dangles are so long and maybe a bit much. Pretty yes, but is it needed and practical? No. In the BTS their hair is constantly stuck due to the hair accessories.

Music:
I love a majority of the songs, but I do like all of the songs, so a 10/10.
I didn't like a lot of the songs when they appeared in the drama.TBH I didn't know that I liked all the songs because like 8/13 of them didn't even connect to me that it was from TTEOTM. The songs would just appear on my random chinese ost playlist. I had to look up the playlist and that's when I got a light bulb.
There's just something about the songs that don't feel cohesive altogether nor connect closely to the drama for me. I like to listen to a lot of the songs separately. When I listen to a majority of the song I don't even think about the drama.
A song I felt was used exceptionally well in the drama is 'My Body' - Huang Xiaoyun. It was perfectly used during the fighting scenes of MY and the Devil God. When the music came on before the last fighting moments...I felt the build up to that epic battle scene.

Rewatch Value:
Let's just say...there are hours of my life that I will never get back....
Funny thing is, I kept dropping this drama while it was airing. I watched around 10 episodes and then dropped, but I kept coming back due to the TT by Youku. Like I invested too much time into this drama already to not write a review. This review took me three weeks to write LMAO. I kept writing and got overwhelmed by how much I had to write about and kept stopping. I also overwrote my review that I had to delete over 1k words. I contemplated not writing or publishing my review, but I wanted to let out my rant about this drama so I can forget about it. And if I do ever need to rewatch a drama I can come back here to see exactly why I will not be rewatching this drama.
I actually rewatched some of the episodes because either I kept dropping it/slept through it/or just skimmed. On the episodes I did not rewatch, I was quite bored and I did find a lot of the romantic scenes cringey. Chemistry was too much for me LOL.
Overall, I think I'll just stick to the music and fan made videos of this drama.

Note : I do not hate this drama. Feel free to comment down below any questions or comments you have about my review. As a reminder, please be kind to each other.

Thank you so much if you've read and made it this far. I hope you enjoyed this review and were not too offended by my opinion. Have a wonderful day! Now then, peace out!