There are already a lot of reviews explaining the story, so I am going to concentrate on what I feel and my scores.

The story for me is 2 scores really. The story of the main characters Ye Hua / Mo Yuan and Bai Qian, and then the other people. The story and writing for the main story is well done and one of the best written around. The other storylines are all over the place, I love all the Kunlu brothers and their stories (16th brother and demon princes, love the demon tribe stories with crazy Xuan Yu and Li Jing., 4th brother and Zhe Yan, and even the hateful Sun Jin and heavenly Lord. The part of the story I could not stand was Bai Feng Jiu and Emperor Dong Hua. I started of thinking they were ok, but I ended up cringing every time they were on and hoping the scenes didn't take too long and we could get back to the other characters.

The acting was again hard for me and depended on who you were talking about. I will say all of the cast was great from Sun Jin and Heavenly Lord, who did so well at making me dislike them, to demon princess, the kunlun boys all really top notch. I adore 3rd Uncle and Chen Lu. I thought Venmo Gao was good as the Emperor Lord playing the stoic but I still feel character. My biggest issue was with Dilraba Dilmurat and the character of Bai Feng Jiu. I found her acting to grate on my nerves. I'm not a big fan of the whole I am young and innocent and the way she played it made the character annoying, I have a hard time watching her in other dramas now cause she just seems to annoy me. Ying Mi as Bai Qian is great, she does not have the widest range but there are times she impressed me and she really captured the difference between Su Su and Bai Qian, and even when she played "Xuan Yu". The perfect actor score really comes down to Mark Chao as Ye Hua and Mo Yuan. His acting is incredible. Watch the changes in Ye Hua before he meets Su Su, while he is with Su Su, after he loses Su Su, and then while wooing Bai Qian. His facial expressions and his eyes are even different. The scene when 2nd prince is trying to save his Snake love, he just looks on with a passive I do not get this. When he is with Su Su he seems like a young kid in first love with such a happy and easy smile. Then there are the heart wrenching scenes losing Su Su and afterward. Gone are the passive I don't get it stares and they are replaced with stares to burn a hole through Su Jin (but she is too dense to see it). Finally is the more cautious Ye Hua with Bai Qian, he's smiles are there but there is almost a sadness and less freedom than with Su Su, You know an actor does a great job when you feel worse for ye Hua than Su Su / Bai Qian after he takes her eyes away and she jumps off the terrace. If you are not sure watch episodes 27 when Ye Hua wakes up and refuses to drink the amnesia liquid to (best scene) stabbing Su Jin, then episode 28 when heart broken Ye Hua burns Su Su's cloths to make a fake Su Su but then is clearly an amazing but sad father to A-Li, and then episode 29 when he sees Bai Qian. In 3 episodes that was an amazing range of acting,

The music is great. I listen to the OST all the time. Remarkably my favorite piece of music is after Ye Hua meets with Heavenly Lord (having stabbed Su Jin) and he is walking back to his palace, is not in the OST. The haunting music along with the world weary expression and slow gate of Ye Hua make the scene so moving.

Rewatch value for me is I watched the entire show, rewatched it again in its entirety, and now I continually re-watch but just the parts I like. I find it more enjoyable skipping all the scenes with Bai Feng Jiu! I basically watch all the scenes with Si Yin and Mo Yuan, Su Su and Ye Hua, and Bai Qian and Ye Hua. Anything with A-Li, who is adorable, 3rd Uncle, 4th brother, well pretty much every scene not related to Bai Feng Jiu and Emperor Lord.