Warning: This review is like full of spoilers so if you don't want any hints to what happens, it's probably best that you don't read it haha. Thought I would just share some of my raw thoughts that I wrote right after watching this drama and see if anyone finds it interesting or feels the same :)

PROS:
- beautiful scenery; from bihai cangling to fangyin gu to qing qiu, i think that this drama really nailed down the fantasy aspect while clearly being distinct from TMOPB. I was surprised with all the colors and how well they really put these respective worlds together.
- unexpectedly, I really liked the netherworld guy. he was there when we needed him and he was consistently helping feng jiu
- the acting was literally perfect all around. gao wei guang did such a good job of switching between dong hua and shen ye; and honestly every character was portrayed very well (imo)
- they really did a great job with all the female character's hair (except for jie lu but they fixed it towards the end when her rank changed); i loved all the hair ornaments and hairstyles and i thought that they were all very elegant.
- it's kind of crazy how much personality dong hua actually has in this drama. now that the drama is actually focused on his and feng jiu's love story, his love is like 10000x stronger and i found that interesting to watch
- i like how in the fighting scene at the very end, fengjiu was there as well, because I didn't want her to just desperately wait at the side and feel/act helpless---i liked how they made her clever, determined and able to fight
- ye qingti is one huge pro for me. hands down still my favorite character (if you don't count ah li or gun gun, who are both equally freaking adorable) . he's loyal, strong yet gentle, extremely considerate, and um good looking??; also gun gun's white hair is the absolute cutest.
- i appreciated that she did not stay in her fox-obsessive phase for too long because that would've been unrealistic and honestly p boring. she needed to grow out of an initial childish obsession and "grow up" (so to speak)
- the ending was actually satisfying and i thought the ending monologues were fitting
- jiheng and zhi he both had their "su jin" moments but thank GOD that those were short lived and they both either moved on or got told off
- i honestly liked their mortal realm story arc a lot, even though it was p sad at the end to see feng jiu break his heart because she had to. it was (literally and figuratively) down to earth and lowkey unrestrained. the aranya dream sequence was also pretty interesting and I liked how that was almost like a mystery
- high production quality!! & i liked the OSTs
- i just wanna say, that yan chi wu is a GREAT person. i didn't expect to like him, but i liked him just as much as i liked his "twin brother" zi lan in TMOPB; he is so funny and loves to cheer people up. he is loyal, determined and doesn't crave power. He was such a great companion for feng jiu to have during their time at fanyin gu and stayed a great friend even after they left the valley

CONS
- there were enough plot holes to cause confusion and like take away from the overall vibe. and if it wasn't plot holes, it was unexplained events or filler events. for example, what was the point of cang yi? the immortal that dealt with the mortal realm that feng jiu was engaged to for .2 seconds? i found that that entire section could have just been eliminated. it didn't have an impact of feng jiu's character or any other character at all, and seemed like a filler sequence for me. if it had been completely cut out, the story would've stayed the same. he was only in 1-2 eps (barely) and we (viewers) never heard from him again...; AND they never answered the question as to why aranya was abandoned to begin with...which i was asking in my head during the ENTIRE aranya dream story arc; aLsO they like completely dropped zhi he?? the last scene we see is her getting upset about feng jiu and dong hua's wedding...but like after that she literally disappears...which ig is fine and all but like i would rather have had her not inserted there than have her come back only to disappear again
- the last misunderstanding between dong hua and feng jiu was so unncessary. if dong hua had just explained to her or COMMUNICATED then feng jiu would not have misunderstood and literally gotten her heart broken aGaIN. She got stood up at her wedding and did not receive ANY explanation, only to visit the demon realm herself to be given a vague answer that was not explained, and she assumed the worst---which I would've done too. She then went on to have to raise her son on her own in the mortal realm for a few years. while no one knew of his existence. If I was her, I'd be pissed too when I came back to the immortal world and dong hua just said a bunch of romantic shit like nothing had happened. then feng jiu gets told off by everyone about how much dong hua has done for her and then she feels guilty for misunderstanding BUT lowkey it was never her fault for misunderstanding given the very LITTLE information she was told. yes dong hua did a shit ton for her but he also doesn't communicate jack so misunderstandings were created (on numerous occasions too). a girl gets tired of getting ghosted again and again, and i commend feng jiu for having the strength to move on and be strong for her son. AND i stand by the fact that the misunderstanding those last few eps were not needed and in fact very frustrating for the viewers -_-
- i found that overall, the story arcs were too long (IN THAT the pace was p slow). there have been a lot of dramas were the ep count is hella long (e.g. ashes of love/eternal love) BUT the plots for those do not move at a slow pace, and it doesn't feel like the story is dragging. to me, the overall impression each time there was a story arc was that things could've happened so much quicker, but the production team chose to drag it out (maybe to increase ep count, idk). the whole story can be summarized into a few story arcs: maid/fox feng jiu --> mortal realm --> feng jiu trying to get over dong hua while dong hua starts falling for her --> fanyin gu --> dream of aranya --> cute stuff --> miao luo goes batshit crazy and the demon clan starts dying AND misunderstanding (singular) gets created between feng jiu & dong hua --> final battle --> reconciliation. they absolutely spent too many eps in fanyin gu & dream of aranya with very little development. there would just be eps and eps of her like writing letters to shen ye, and then shen ye getting all upset, and then we more views of his inner thoughts, then we catch fengjiu having loads of fun w dong hua and aranya's family being evil and annoying (just over and over). the actual development of the aranya story is like snail pace (like she founds out important details VERY SLOWLY)
- i cried a grand total of barely once during the last ep when they say i love you to each other, which is not a great cry count for a drama LOL (for me haha)
- they were kinda inconsistent with feng jiu's martial arts ability...it seemed that they wrote her as strong when they needed her to be and then weak when they wanted to write in dong hua saving her...i just want a cohesive development of abilities dammit

OVERALL:
To be honest, I was a bit disappointed...I thought I was going to like it more, but the story itself was just not that appealing to me. I love all the characters and the actors/actresses that played them, but I just didn't fall in love with the main characters' love story. Even if I didn't compare it to TMOPB (which i tried rly hard not to, but it's kinda hard, given the characters are directly related), their love story just isn't as touching to me. After all, it started from feng jiu's obsession and dong hua just basically thought she was cute and then he appreciated all the stuff she did for him...and then obviously them interacting just kinda had them fall in love...and all we get is that feng jiu's obsession started from when dong hua saved her...which is aight ig but like...idk . The creativity and execution is still super amazing though, and gun gun UGH he's so adorable and dong hua's reaction to seeing him was def one of my favorite scenes in the entire drama. I just skipped toooo many scenes to rate this higher than an 8.5. I'm glad I watched it though :)