I appreciate that the story doesn’t rush the action. It takes its time with the emotional build-up. The entire section is just characters reacting to the wife’s decision. The arrival of all the faction leaders feels like a live audience to a personal tragedy. The detail of all the powerhouses arriving to “congratulate the soon-to-be Emperor” is a great touch. It turns her personal triumph into a public spectacle, which only makes Lu Qing’an’s private pain more poignant.
The zombie design is very “sexy vampire” with the pale skin, red eyes, and sharp fangs. He looks cool and intimidating. No rotting flesh or weird zombie warts. It fits the power fantasy of being a cool monster king.
I want to know more about Zhaozhao's past life - she remembers falling into the Pacific Ocean so she must have been a powerful Taoist master in her previous life how does that connect to her current abilities.
That moment when Xia Yiran said she chased Shen Yan as the craziest thing she ever did... you could tell she really put herself out there for him. But his reaction to her kiss just made everything awkward. Their whole relationship feels so fragile.
I have a huge soft spot for Elder He. He’s the classic grumpy, loyal sidekick. The way he says he was “busy refining artifacts” and then proceeds to hand Lin Qingxue the weapons he made for her is a fantastic “oh no” moment. I could almost see the regret on his face. His internal monologue, “I’ll go screw your mother!!” made me laugh out loud. He’s a good man who accidentally helped the bad guys. I hope he sticks by Lu Qing’an through this whole mess.
The whole “I’m a man, it would be against nature” line from Xu Xiao made me snort. What a coward. Even in a life-or-death situation, betrayal was his first instinct. I was genuinely glad when Jiang Jin didn’t hesitate to shank him and Jiang Ru. Like, you tried to throw her under the bus? Yeah, no mercy. That kind of payoff is so satisfying.
2 The detail about the martial artists just leaving after killing bystanders in the street wasn’t mentioned in the main scene, but Shen Xing notes it earlier. That visual is chilling. It makes his own alley murder feel less shocking because the world already normalized violence. The author is very good at setting up the atmosphere through indirect observation by the protagonist.