I started this drama for Zheng Yecheng and Liu Haikuan, and had high hopes as everyone praised the novel, and I expected big budget cool looking fantasy drama... but, hell, no. I struggled through 36 episodes, and now, so close to the finale, I am gonna just drop the drama, because I really don't want to watch what they did to the few characters I liked.

The true Big Bad of this drama was its editor. I wish I could tell him/her that they can't crop two unrelated scenes in small pieces and show them in sequence. Or that they can't make the half of the episode as flashback of recent events instead of showing them in direct order. Or that they can't show the scene which seems to be complete and 10 minutes later add more lines to it in a flashback. What a ridiculous idea!
Pale coloring and effects and transitions from 90th also didn't help to enjoy this drama visually.

The second and third big criminals were director and scriptwriter.
The dialogues were dull, empty, full of repetitive thoughts. Characters seemed to not have what to talk about, so were going through the same 1) 2) 3) issues each time. Or just kept silence.
The complexity of dialogues was more or less as following:
~~
"Did you see anything?"
"No, did you see anything?"
"No, I didn't".
~~
(and all that was said s-l-o-w-l-e-y)

Creators made 5 episodes to set up affection between the leads and failed cause after 1st episode scriptwriter couldn't think any decent dialogue for them or any adventures they could have together and know each other better. Relationships between Bai Ying and crown prince also just formed from the air somewhere in between her fall and his 100 years sleep.

Director failed even action episodes, which could be better with better visuals and more realistic fight choreography. Moreover in between them there were 3-5 episodes where characters had long emotionless dialogues, while staring onto the water/forest/sky. The amount of walking around the forest was so impressive, that I thought actors had a goal of "walk 10 km a day". Or maybe they wanted to be cast to "The Walking dead".
Background music was mostly slow and with a repetitive mystic tune, as if created to help you fall asleep.

Fourth Big Bad for me was the female lead. She seemed to have the same face expression all the time, as if she woke up in the morning, something surprised her a bit, she raised her eyebrows a little and her face just got stuck in that movement, and its upper part never moved again. She also didn't have any badass vibe, although she is supposed to be one of the strongest sword fighters there. Whatever she said, I was just afraid she was gonna faint next moment. Taking into account, that each time she went to help someone, later others had to save her, I would never give her any task more serious than arranging sea shells.

I couldn't care less about the romance of main leads. They had very little chemistry, in the "past" part of the story they fell in love without any relationship building, in the "present" part they just continued being in love, and while there could have been many reasonable misunderstandings between them, scriptwriter managed to create only a few cringey ones. Usually in other dramas where I didn't fall for main leads I would fall for second couple, but here - not really. Second couple would be nice, if the girl wouldn't be so reckless and annoying, it was just a bit too much.

But some side characters I did like.
Zheng Yecheng created very likable character, funny, but not annoying at all, honest and kind. He seemed to be the most "alive" character, could smile while his eyes were sad, and I believed in his affection. I wish characters like this, selfless and just GOOD would win girls' hearts more often in dramas, because kind men deserve to be happy. Unfortunately, after promising character development which rapidly happened in first episodes, in the "present" part of the drama he didn't have opportunity to shine, and most of the time was just there without much purpose.
My second favorite character was Xi Jing, portrayed by Liu Chang. His story started with a lot of drama, but he managed to recover from that, he was a loyal person and friend. Unfortunately, in the second part of the story he had nearly no important scenes as well.
Yu Huan (Liu Haikuan) had quite promising story and interesting relationships with his buddy Fei Lian, with mermaid Xiao, with his sister and mentor. Unfortunately, it looks like scriptwriter took some facts from original novel but totally changed the ending, and those facts which were meant for Yu Huan's character development, here just create frustration about his ending.
My favorite females were mermaids Ning Liang and Xiao and guess what - bad ending for both *sigh*

Overall, this drama is a big disappointment. I expected to see a big budget production, good effects, decent acting, lot's of adventures and interesting character development... and got none of that. Visually drama looks very average, and some scenes are so bad that it is just a shame they passed post-production in year 2022. Acting was stiff from most of the cast, even those, who I know can act well - bad sсript and directing made them just stand and look around most of the time. All events from this drama could have happened in a better drama in just 10 episodes instead of 43. All twists and actions were predictable or even worse than you could predict.

Will I say "don't watch this' in conclusion? Nah, it's for you to decide how to waste your time.