Let's start with the Music. The intro is pretty nice song. The outro reminds me of the Mavis Bacon typing program from the 90s so at least it brought back fond memories.

The actors. A lot of reviews I see came for the male lead as someone who watched both The Untamed, Doulou continent, all 3 seasons of The Eternal Love, The legend of the White Snake, The Imperial Coroner. I can safely say I'm familiar with a good portion of the cast in this show. Honestly I will give the casting director props for picking a good looking cast in the male department. The female department is basically not very unique and you could literally show me a screenshot of the female character and I would honestly not be able to tell you what show or who they were that's how little the female casting stood out to me in the looks department.
When it comes to acting I can say that no one out shine anyone and they all did an amazing job with what they were handed. But honestly I would have loved at least one actor to look like they actually was having funny with their role the closest that look like that was the White King.

The writing -

I could tell by the very first 3 episode that the show was going to be a hot mess. There's 40 episodes yet we have a dragon, mermaid, palace drama, school drama, tribal drama, a wedding, picture coming to life, a sand demon, a fake death, a fire, an inept Emperor, a flower, etc. Was it even reasonable to expect any of these plot lines to be successfully fulfilled ? no not at all. I get they were ambitious but at the same time it wasn't going to work.
I wish they would have picked a few storyline and work with it. Hell they didn't even do a good job with the school life. It was a blink and you would miss it. That's what they synopsis said it was about yet that wasn't even correct.

Characters-
Shi ying- honestly this character is your stereotypical prince who was raised outside of his role, that faked his own death. Honestly I don't think I expected much from this character. Was the writing shallow very but if you are one of the people complaining about romance yet came from the show The Untamed, I'm going to question you about how you thought that show was packed with romance yet this show was lacking. The romance was on the same level, where if you know what to look for you can see it. The moment were more acts of service as the love language. Plus there's I'm pretty sure they kissed in the first 10 episodes when they were in the cloud demon thingy. Am I going to comment on how old Xiao Zhan looks to be playing 17. Not at all because the female lead didn't look that much younger than him the only reason people think so is because the crew used the age trick of bangs. While none of the other female characters around her age had bangs. Also I don't blame the Actor for acting like a plank of wood because that's the writer and directors fault for not giving better instruction

Zhu Yan- let's just say can we stop this troupe of female being childish to appear youthful at her age of 15-17 (I'm going to guess she wasn't that much younger than the prince) she would be trying to act like an adult to prove herself worthy and capable as the other student who seem to be older than her. As someone so willing to learn magic how as she not taught the foundation of magic, even if female learning is something to be frowned upon, she is still the only child yet alone daughter of the Red King so surely he would have trained her to be a good ruler of her tribe, but no she was so lacking in the basics of not only magic but also magic her family inherited, that to me shows why they are considered the weakest clan. I actually feel bad for her to be so weak. I thought going through the schooling would have made her better but I didn't see any improvement in her magic abilities when she left the mountain. Did I mention she is a Mary Sue, she might not know magic but somehow when the time comes she suddenly can perfect any spell, or have a solution to any problems. Also I agree that the dress scene took me out, That's just bad writing, folks.

Zhi Yuan- I have a question what are the mermaid rules, because I honestly don't know. I'm 20 episodes deep. He thinks he is in love with the princess because the dragon fed him some nonsense about him crying finally. I have to say I course he didn't cry when his lover died because he had his memory wipe not only that he knew she would be reborn, imagine crying everytime your husband went to work... It's that feeling that yeah it seems like a lot but he knew that death isn't the final good bye, it's only the finally good bye when he dies. Not to mention the who set gender thing that got introduced, what was the point of that so are you telling me that he wasn't a male this entire time, because he didn't fall in love with the great whatever grandma? I'm sorry but would he not think of all the children of the family as his own since he raised them as if they were. Did the grandma have a husband and that how the family had kids? Are the kids of the Crimson tribe half mermaid and they just don't speak about since the gene are probably recessive/or bred out? That's why this entire plotline to me is a waste of time it leads to more questions than answers.

Bai Xuelu- she is the character that has the most stereotypical character development. She the illegitimate daughter of the White King. So she is trying to prove herself as being more than what her mother was a lady of the night (putting it nicely) so she will do anything to become the Empress which if you honestly think about it or if she had half a brain no one would allow her to fill that role with her background. I don't know why she didn't settle on taking over the role of her father instead of the Empress but , I guess dumb people with a chip on their shoulders can be talk into anything if you put the right carrot on a string.

Qing Gang- honestly he is perfect for the role of self righteous plank of wood. He is a general, and all around good guy who just wants to save the girl who has proven time and time again to a worthless p.o.s, because he thinks love can conquer all. I'm sorry but take that method to the battlefield and see if it works... It didn't well that was a lesson worth the price of underestimating your opponent just because they are a female.

Chong Ming- honestly this is going to be a hot take but they should have switched his actor for the actor that played Shi ying. Only because he makes a more convincing 18 year old. I sat the entire time thinking that he looks so much younger than Xiao Zhan and honestly I think they miscast both of them, I get why they casted Xiao Zhan as the main character but it gets extremely distracting seeing both of them together.

Shi Yu- honestly I can see him being a good emperor and a bad emperor at the same time because he has no back bone. If it wasn't for the emperor finally stepping up to be a good father, he would have married Bai Xuelu. Just pitiful.

Bai Xueling- honestly they could have CGI the word Pitiful over her and it would honestly be the same, she didn't even try to fight for anything. If it wasn't for everyone around her pushing her and helping her, she would have been mark with a scarlet letter and the sister in law of the prince. She really was the worthless Best friend.