At the beginning I could not uderstand why people were not giving this perfect scores - it starts so good!
The premise was interesting and the characters were intriguing and cool.
At the end, I kind of get it and I am not rating it as near-perfect either. Let's break down the pros and cons:
+ Mao Xiao Tong continues to be the most beautiful woman in the world. On top of that she plays a strong swordswoman in this show and that's a bit of a new position for her. She does good.
+ most side characters are well developed and distinct
+ the cast includes many older actors and there are no stiff idols around
+ the fights are super good, very consistently well done. There's very little chi power use and it's limited to a few characters, most fighters can't even fly at all or very well. I do like this low power-level style wuxia more.
+ the story makes sense and the inevitable involvement of political struggles and various country-wide betrayals were not too annoying.
+ I liked that despite being constantly touted as brilliant, the main character was not unbelievably skilled, not some alien-like genius. You can for the most part anticipate the twists and turns, and you can follow the logic behind things. This is actually important and makes these kinds of stories relatable and engaging. Way too many mystery shows based on Brilliant Genius Boy characters will keep telling you how smart they are, rather than showing you and letting you figure things out so you too can feel smart.
+ I LOOOOOOOOVED the twist on the usual couple dynamic where now She is the Tough Badass and He is the Smart Flower. Loved it all the way through, her tossing him around, grabbing his shirt, catching him when he fell down...Inject that shit straight in my veins.
+ I was glad that the protagonist was not yet another one in the growing list of soft boys who only pretend not to be able to do martial arts. Nope, he actually is a weak scholar who can do the escaping technique for a little bit. Nice to see them commit to the bit.

- I was a bit let down by Chen Xiao as the protagonist and his chemistry (or lack thereof) with Mao Xiao Tong. He was...fine. Serviceable. But the high standard of the show would've warranted someone better suited for the role. I know he can be better, his match up with Crystal Liu in "Dream of Splendor" for instance worked a lot nicer.
- No way around this - the show does have pacing issues and it does drag after the first half or so, only to pick up towards the end. We do get to explore and flesh out characters, but there were way too few fights and exciting moments in that section.

All in all - this does a lot of what I want from new-wuxia. Fun characters, plays and twists on tropes, excellent low level fights, not a lot of political bullshit and no traditional tragic endings.