It was pretty heartbreaking to see their relationship shatter in the past all because of Lin Canglan, who probably wins the award for worst father. The part of the novel when both JYH and LHQ both realize that they’ve changed from the cruelty of their childhood and can’t go back was very sad TAT. Which is why I’m very glad Lin Haoqing was decisive and went through with killing his dad XD. Also very glad the novel didn’t go down the he secretly loved Yunhe route because that would’ve been a disservice to their complicated relationship.

I need JLFX protagonists to please stop dying and rebirthing the trauma I’m getting from this pattern lmao

the ultimate master and the grandmaster.

The former who raised the grandmaster who went all crazy & made other people suffer for their ideals/actions, told the MC to tell the phoenix to go after the grandmaster which just got her killed off screen (really cheap honestly), basically undid the immortal seal in the grandmaster to kill him to only have his power absorbed by a crazy b*tch, and all she has to say to our mc? "Welp I did my part I have no juice anymore. She's gonna be a massive bit*h of a problem. Better deal with that MC, see ya bye" I'm mocking and paraphrasing...

The latter raised a crazy bit*h aka the princess who tortured demons and civilians, became heartless & created crazy disciples who did sh*t to ppl like the MC or made the issues worse, killed a love story of his "friend's" just bc he could idk they never explained, made the crazy bit*h more dangerous for funz, and got his power s**ked bc he finally got closure bc he got to talk to the love of his life again (the og master) and wants to die. I mean the only good thing is that due to this change of heart, he healed the ML in the end buttttttt whatever dude.

HE

I find that Yunhe’s longing for freedom is what drives her instant attraction to Chang Yi. In her mind, he embodies a “beautiful story” that humans aspire to be but are not and the manifestation of what it means to be “free.”

Now, Yunhe’s definition of “freedom” changes two - three times over the course of the novel. At first, “freedom” meant being able to go outside the valley and experience the world. The second, it meant being able to live a life “without fear.” The third being her resolution to stay by Chang Yi’s side as his life-long companion and lover—freedom of being able to “decide” for herself. In the end, Chang Yi, being the manifestation of freedom that she believes him to be, ultimately becomes her “freedom.” Her longing for “freedom” was also a yearning for Chang Yi’s heart. In thinking this way, the novel becomes more profoundly beautiful.

She over-complicates almost everything instead of just being honest. She continuously makes too many bad choices that end up being detrimental to herself as well as the ml. She can't sit still and enjoy mls' company. Underwater she could barely wait the 3 days to heal. Afterwards, she knew of his freezing condition but still chose to separate from him and go work at the border instead of regulating that task to one of the other 10, 000 people available. If that plant cure didn't appear when it did then she would have robbed him of precious moments he could have had and wanted before his end.

I really liked the FL of the novel. But she was tortured throughout the book and kept captive various times by different people. It was hard to read. Tbh I have mixed feelings on the ML. In the middle of the book, it kinda felt that he was just being plain cruel and this made me want the FL to die. I know he wanted the FL to live which is why he kept her under his protection (since she did also try to find ways to commit su*cide) but he was being overprotective and the FL was a prisoner again. I did understand why the ML was mad at the FL, she did lie to him and "betrayed him" but she thought her betrayal would lead him back home and also how she was going to die soon anyway so parting him with would be the best and she didn't want the villains to go after him which is why she stabbed him and pushed him off the cliff. I'm glad it was an happy ending but the ending could've been better. I did like the supporting characters. The main villain was okay, her main goal was basically to kill everyone and rule the world.

I think the author overdid the torturous star-crossed lovers thing. As per JLFX novel's, the MC had to die and we painfully had to go through all of that and then resurrect. I find this very unnecessary so even if there was a silver lining after her rebirth, I was just tired and felt emotionally spent after all that we had gone through. In a way, the story was very cliche, with the MC pretending to not love the ML so as protect him and other useless misunderstandings that are so old school; or the ML being so cruel to MC and the bondage was just a bit too much to read at times. Towards the end, there was a lot of deus ex machina by the author just to keep the MC and ML alive e.g., that fight scene with grandmaster and princess. Otherwise, you end loving the characters as you them grow and you keep wishing for them to get out of this torturous cycle but just when you think they are about to, the author circles back again. Honesty, I wish this book just ended with the tragedy part and we stayed there since their romance was so mixed with cruelty that I wondered if they really needed to be together at all. Another reviewer talked about how freedom meant different things to them at different points and I do agree with that but ultimately, is the torture they underwent just to be together really worth it.

It would be justifiable if she only hated the Grand Master, but no, she considers all humans like ants, killing whoever she wants indiscriminately

Why don't give more space to the phoenix or tell more details about the cause of the Grand Master's obsession? It is like the author didn't know how to incoporate those parts in the story so she remained vague to the detrimental of the novel