I am so conflicted writing this review. Overall I'd say the drama made a positive impression but felt unbalanced. So many things were done very well, but it often was at the expense of other important aspects.

The good:
- The message I got from this story was to find your own path to happiness and live with no regrets. I think the drama did a wonderful job conveying that. We all have the choice to shape our lives into what we want it to be. We just have to have the courage to take the reins.
- Character development and arcs of the female characters. Watching Yang Ying grow into her own shoes and take command of her life and watching Ru Yi find her own version of happiness outside the Empress's last words were probably the most satisfying and fleshed out parts of the story.
- A healthy relationship between the leads. This is peak romance. Find me a man like Ning Yuan Zhou.
- Music. It took a while to grow on me, but it was the lyrics that eventually made me cave in. Catch me singing "Half a Lifetime of Suffering" any time, any day.

The not so good:
- Everyone dies for no good reason. I'm not against people dying, but I have a bone to pick when it feels like the only reason they died was to serve as a plot device to make the story a tragedy. Most of their deaths felt so ridiculous and unnecessary. Maybe their sacrifice would've been more impactful if the pacing near the end was better, but a lot of it fell flat for me. Character deaths need to feel meaningful, significant, and impactful. Squeezing all their deaths into the last episodes undermined everything the story had built up to that point.
- Character development and arcs of Li Tong Guang and Qian Zhao. On one hand, I admire that these two mostly stayed exactly the same for most of the drama. On the other hand...... why??? There was so much potential here. Li Tong Guang could've grown out of his obsession for his master sooner (arguably if at all) and matured into a wonderful young man (and had a beautiful relationship with Yang Ying). Instead, he was this lost, stupid little lovesick puppy until the very end. Ugh. Also, Qian Zhao could've learned from his impulsiveness when he tried to kill Ru Yi and later not threaten Wu's king. It was hard to feel for his death when he tried to kill the king one minute and died protecting the king five minutes later. Like so many confusing signals here. I can kinda understand where the writers were going with him, but it wasn't presented well.
- The pacing. Things were generally fine in the beginning, but man did it go off the rails near the end. The first time they did a montage of the political events, I thought I'd accidentally clicked on a trailer for the next episode. It felt like a rushed info dump. And it happened at least three more times. I also feel like they could've spent more time with Yu Shi San/Chu Yue and Yang Ying/Li Tong Guang. Like I know we love the main leads, but the other couples need some attention too. It felt like the writers wanted the main couple's deaths to be as dramatic as possible, so they really beefed up their romantic scenes in both length and quantity. I never thought I'd complain about too many main couple romantic scenes, but here I am...
- That tacky map showing their travel route. Okay, I admit I'm nitpicking here, but tell me why they couldn't make a better map?? Even a cutesy one with bouncing horses pulling the carriage would've been better.