ep 1 summary ahead

--Was this directed by the same person who did Novoland?--

1.Our series opens with war. The central mainland has three tribes: human, beast, and demon. The humans and beast clans have been friendly for generations, the demons are evil. The demons are currently attacking as the human emperor has died, and people are fighting to stave them off. The empress is of the human clan but she reminds me of a phoenix because she has red fire wings and even takes on the form of a red fire bird to fight off the evil ice frost dragon. This demon leader's face is covered by a mask, but he seems male, and hell bent on defeating her. She gets beaten pretty badly.

2.The infant prince has the astrolabe formation in his blood, being a direct descendant of the late emperor. With no other choice, the queen is willing to use him to save the world. She hugs him and then tosses him to his death (?) The Empress's eyes glow red...

3.They are able to hold off the demon invaders but not stop them. Her ministers insist she elect a new emperor since the previous emperor is dead and the prince is missing. She refuses, and crowns herself since she alone protected the empire while the ministers fled.

4.Not happy with a female leader, the Minister in charge of Gogiero college refuses to support her. She uses him to make an example, accuses him of being a spy, executes everyone in his college, and then is crowned empress.

5.The New Ruling Empress vows to find her son...

--It is unclear to me if these humans are super humans? They are different from normal everyday humans. Perhaps they have descended from gods?--

6.We now go to a young boy, presumably in the human realm. His name is Changsheng and his blood seems to have unusual powers. It also attracts beasts. It seems he is being raised by a reclusive old man/medicine maker. We learn that Changsheng's blood can heal people. He warns him to be careful because there are greedy people who would want his blood.

7.Demons in the area are looking for something....

8.Meanwhile a lord brings his sick daughter over. When no one is looking Changsheng heals her by feeding his blood to her. He gives her something to remember him by and they promise to not forget each other.

9.Fast forward to the present. Changsheng has a strange illness referred to as 'the force of stars' and he must take expensive medicine to keep it from relapsing. We learn that he will die before he turns 20 (no wonder they picked such a young actor to play him). Changsheng wonders if destiny can be changed (is that I theme I hear). His master tells him he can change his destiny if he 1)cultivates himself before the Deity-Hidden stage before he turns 20 but it isn't that simple he has to do many things before he can even reach the stage, like go to the bone marrow purifying stage, then the erebus-insight stage then the star-convergence stage

10.So he sets out to change his destiny after getting a sword, his buddy Yuren at his side...

So far: the costumes are great, I LOVE the empress, and the settings are pretty. It is still too early to speak to story or acting, but the music is good. I have a feeling that the target audience is teenagers (it just sort of has a Novoland feel)

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