Thanks to @PeachBlossomGoddess, they sum up pretty much all you need to know about this drama and points to consider before starting the 36 eps. Due to works, I tend to look away from anything that is longer than 16 eps…and usually, a Chinese Wuxia genre rarely has anything goes less than 24 eps…a good ones with great plot lines is well over 60+ eps.

So what I often do is invite my mother to join in the journey, and skip parts when I ain’t available to watch. I will then ask her to sum up main details for me. Great tactics plus, a way to find ‘activity’ to share with my mother.

This drama was almost not the one. She started this drama accidentally on one of our purchased movie platforms. I caught on with her till ep 4 or the ep with the fireworks, which YunXiang (Chen Xiao-my fav actor) plays and annoys the f out of the masked men. It was quite boring to us both. Too much talking, the story was quite slow and the fact that the protagonist dressed like a beggar and has no superior martial art skills. Like what?! I dropped at ep.4. My mother carried on for 2 more eps. That was the end for “The Ingenious One”.

I go through several K-drama before there is another urge for Chinese Wuxia…I go back on A Dream of Splendor, another Chen Xiao’s great drama, skim through my fav scenes with Liu Yifei and him. TIO pops up again on the channel. I decide to give it another try since there is no new drama from him this year. This time, I watch carefully, listen to the dialogues, understand his motives…Oh my Gosh! There are deception, scheme within scheme, twist plots after plots…I am shook. Director Patrick Yau, and screenwriter YanXi, do what they do best, got us deep into the support characters’ stories, know their back stories…then kill them right before the story comes to a close. Damn, I know this is there often use trick yet, my heart wrenches when ******Spoiler Alert*****Mo Bu Fan takes the poison pill, doesn’t care for life after his one and only innocent Kang Qiao is knifed. Or when Jian Biao, Ten Teals of Gold, scarifies himself for the protagonist (he is a bit annoying at this point).

It is a happy ending…though doesn’t satisfy my thirst for unfolding mysteries behind the sects, what did happen to Qi Tian Feng? Would Nam Gong Fang (he murders the f out of his role, so good!) return and take revenge? The cleaning up….besides that, I’m so happy that everyone is coupled up nicely. Superb!

Btw, the OG actor Huang Hai Bing (Qian Rong) is only in a few scenes but his aura fills the set. When you watch other actors, you can tell they don’t have the core power for martial arts, more like a dance in the sky showoff that looks nice. However, his moves are the sh**. Beautiful and powerful flavor!

I rate the rewatch a bit low because once you know all the answers, there isn’t thrill left to the story, which loses it focus as the FL and some other “main roles” need much improvement on their acting skills.