For the first part of the book, it start really slowly and nicely so we could see the characters develop and take shape right in front of us, and it ended with a tense cliffhanger.

However, both of what I mentioned died in the next book. Every character that wasn’t the main leads was basically just a cardboard cutout.

Personally, I found the MC completely unbearable and even unrecognizable compared to the first book. I get that she went through an insane amount of trauma and is even in a different body, however, there wasn’t a single trace of her past self at all, especially when you compare her to the FL who went through a similar situation.

Like there was literally arc after arc when the previous arc hadn’t even finished, and by almost the end of of the book, you get like five different plots that go back and forth until they finally get some closure.

Powers given to our main characters come with heavy baggage. With the knowledge that no character is omnipotent- everyone has weakness that can be exploited- you can really feel the stakes.

Also, who doesn't love my darling baby Ah Fu?

Yes, FL falls in love first. In any case, she is the first to understand this, and you will cry at exactly what moment she realized it. This moment broke me.

after Gu Fuyou reincarnated.

The biggest flaw would be... the world became smaller, and the worldbuilding that the author worked on introducing just went poof.

What about Dongli and Xuan Miao Sect? She was a very interesting character that got sidetracked after the extra chapters, surely someone entrusted by Yunran Xuanzun to monitor her greatest enemy's dragon daughter would've been a formidable cultivator. She just got... married off and written off, a few chapters detailing Zhong Michu's and Dongli's responsibility to rebuild Xuan Miao Sect would've been nice as we've spent the first volume reading about Xuan Miao Sect and various cultivators within the sect. It feels a bit unresolved and lacking to me, Xuan Miao Sect's revival deserved a chapter detailing its situation after Zhong Michu became the Dragon King or after her marriage to Gu Fuyou, or when she reached immortalization because then that would mean she attained a higher cultivation level than her master and mother. Yunran Xuanzun, Ji Chaoling and majority of the cultivators literally sacrificed themselves for Zhong Michu.

What about Ah Fu and Yi'er after Zhong Michu came out of seclusion? Being the child of MC and FL, she had very little characterization and scenes other than stalking her mother. Reading about a grown up Yi'er with Ah Fu would've been nice, they're both sole survivors; Yi'er is the only golden dragon and Ah Fu the only remaining Zhenmao.

Personally, this is one of my favorite completed cultivation Yuri novels alongside The Beauty's Blade. However, this is definitely my number one, most favorite angst novel! Of course, there's a happy ending, so angst to your heart's content!

Yes, they do.

For example, in those 700 years that Gu Fuyou was not around, I would loved to read a few chapters from Zhong Michu’s pov. How did she cope with GF’s death, all the years she spent cultivating and taking revenge on some of the people involved in her sect’s death, how she raised Yi’er and Ah Fu. All of that would have helped the readers connect to her yearning and longing for GF even more. Even besides that, I wanted to know Scholar Zhai’s story and her background, some of the ens*aved people especially Feng Sui since they specifically emphasized him as an ambitious strong man despite being branded with the s*avery curse. And just so many more characters that had interesting expositions but were never fully fleshed out.

Another big one was GF’s friend/brother’s fiance (forgot her name). She literally got her tongue cut out, witnessed the love of her life committed su*cide in front of her, spent 700 years without any loved ones around except for ZM keeping in contact with her. It would have been so nice to see her journey during those 700 years and how she established herself as a doctor etc. Of course, I am not asking for chapters upon chapters dedicated to these characters but they had very strong premises and I think there was definitely some lost potential there. Overall, that entire 700 years time period could have a few chapters of its own before jumping right into GF’s reincarnation.

how the s*aves were handled in the novel. Most of the time, they were just described as “the s*aves did this” or “the s*aves did that” which made them sound like one-body ? and felt a bit dehumanizing to me. But also, that might be something that got lost in the translation so I tried not to dwell too much on that.