Very braindead. Was in the mood for some braindead zombie action, so I read some of it, but the characters and character interaction writing was like bad npcs that make Bethesda writers look like geniuses.

Although the genre is marked as Romance, that is only an element, alongside ruthless palace intrigues, noble families intrigues and drama, political schemes, adventures, family conflict, some adventure, revenge and mystery and supernatural subplots. Has plenty of dark themes. Although it mostly reads as a historical drama rather than fantasy, there is a light xianxia touch in those supernatural/fantasy elements. All in all, well written and interesting, various elements meshing well together, and moving at good pace that feels neither rushed nor dragging on too long and stuffed with filler.

Well-written xianxia, mc loose cultivator, balance selfishness/human decency. Mostly one POV/mc with occasional organization-building. Various elements done reasonably well, grounded, things-make-sense feel.

For me, very enjoyable with little to complain. Worldbuilding is on point, there is a strong element of mutual deterrence and calculation of gains and losses among various forces, with flow of events that feels justified and logical. Battles are on point, decisive, not dragging on for too long with a 'let me waste 2 chapters doing autoattacks and get injured, before I use my cooldowns' syndrome. In this one they won't mind directly blasting with the ultimate if circumstances call for it. Start is quite slow, later events pick up speed. Can't say it's something shockingly original or ingenious but pieces come together into a satisfying whole with plenty of variety, as long as this concept is your cup of tea. Among novels with similar themes I've seen many that felt worse.