As bad as the second part is, it starts of amazingly. The MC's village is destroyed, so she takes on the identity of her twin brother and joins the military. Where she falls into a pit of depression from hiding her identity and distancing herself from human interaction. One day, she meets the princess (a manipulative f*cking b*tch) who employs her to be her bodyguard to the capital. Along the way, the princess fakes an assassination attempt on herself, killing 20 loyal soldiers and leaving just herself and Wanyu to get away. They have a bit of relationship building the princess teaches Wanyu how to lead an army rather than being a normal soldier, then Wanyu goes back to the war (but not before the princess sends spies to minister her every move).

The story goes on for a bit (with several time skips) , and Wanyu becomes a commander, and is head over heels for the princess to the point where she probably would have given up on herself if it weren't for the fact that the princess would disapprove. The princess, knowing that Wanyu is in love with her, continues to manipulate her like a pawn on a chess board to get what she wants (though it's implied that she's reluctant about it). The princess sends a spy to marry Wanyu's war buddy. Once the war buddy dies, the Wanyu starts to befriend the spy and considers her as her only friend. The spy eventually finds out that Wanyu is a woman, and their relationship grows even more (in a friendly manner. Not a romantic one, though the spy would be much better than the princess). The spy decides to keep Wanyu's gender a secret, but she eventually dies of childbirth. Wanyu takes care of the child and the princess is annoyed that she doesn't have a spy anymore.

Finally, Wanyu becomes a general. Meanwhile, the princess is getting married in a political relationship. Wanyu is devastated. The princess poisons her fiance (I forgot why though, probably some political reason). Wanyu takes the opportunity to propose to her in front of the emperor and they get married.

This is where it turns to shit. Everything before this moment is a masterpiece, but from directly after the wedding onwards, it turns into absolute dogshit.

They are about to sleep together, and right when Wanyu is about to confess that she is actually a woman, the princess interrupts her, saying that she heard Wanyu was impotent. If the princess didn't say anything, they would have lived happily ever after. But because of this one interpretation, the princess doesn't find out the truth and continues with her manipulation (which is about to go from a 3 to 10).

I feel it's important to mention here that the princess is actually a closeted lesbian, which causes several annoying and uncomfortable scenes where there's a lesbian who thinks that a man is attempting to mol*st his wife while she's pretending to sleep, and a woman who's disgusted as a man contemplating whether she should kiss the woman who she thinks is straight on the forehead while she's sleeping.

Want goes back to the battlefield, and finds out that her wife is pregnant. She goes back home to check out what's up. When she gets back, she finds out that her wife had a miscarriage (of you couldn't tell, the princess is up to her old schemes again). Wanyu sits outside at the princess' mansion in the capital for months, waiting for an explanation. The princess never gives her one (though it is worth mentioning that she feels very guilty for this) . She loses most of her weight and falls even deeper into depression. She doesn't feel angry at the princess since she blames herself since she can't have children with the princess, so naturally, the princess would go to someone else. After several months, the princess finally sits down with Wanyu. After a while, they start eating together and Wanyu is overjoyed just from the princess doing something as simple as serving her porridge. The princess starts to show up every day, and Wanyu slowly starts to get better (don't expect and explanation though. She never gives one and I'm still confused as to what she was planning when she psychologically tortured her 'husband'. That might be more on me missing a her explaining her plans to the audience. Even then, I can't think of a single reason to turn someone who not only blindly trusts your every word, but is also a genius who gained the highest position in the military possible at the age of 20, into a depressed, lifeless statue). After they finally (sorta) make up, Wanyu discovers a box filled with files on Wanyu and other random people dating back to half a decade ago. Wanyu, for the first time, is enraged and yells at the person who she loved for almost 6 years. Naturally, her obsession build up over those years still does not destroy her feelings completely. She wants to leave, but the princess doesn't let her and places her on house arrest. The two slowly make up and Wanyu eventually goes back to the battlefield to defeat the Mongols.

That entire arc was played as a good thing for Wanyu. Her unhealthy obsession with the princess became more healthy. She and the princess can now have in depth and intelligent conversations with each other her now that she knows the true self of the princess. She becomes more intelligent and shrewd thanks to the princesses advice. Naturally, this is all bullsh*t and made me want to bleach my eyes out. The only downside of this psychological torture was that Wanyu lost half of her lifespan, which isn't even mentioned until later.

That being said, the torture itself was actually very interesting as I watched Wanyu fall more and more into depression and insanity whilst stress was slowly building up in her. The outcome of it though was absolutely terrible though.

There's a times kip, and the princess visits the battlefield. There, Wanyu gets heavily injured while trying to save one of the princesses disposable spies. Knowing that her identity is about to be revealed, Wanyu grabs tightly into the princess' hand as she passes out (much to her chagrin, as she doesn't like physical contact with men). Finally, after 160 chapters, the princess finds out Wanyu's secret. She feels a little bit more guilt, and 'the feelings burried within her suddenly erupted.' I found that line bullshit. Obviously it would be a bit hard to replicate this in the 21st century, but if a lesbian princess meets a lesbian woman disguised as a man, and then ab*ses and manipulates them for several years, only to find out that they were a woman the whole time, that lesbian princess probably wouldn't suddenly and magically gain feelings for the person she perceived as a man for the last 5 years.

After the princess finds out the truth, she starts caring much more for Wanyu and becomes much more intimate. After Wanyu recovers (2 chapters later), the princess leaves her with some ninja-spies and the two are separated yet again, without either saying goodbye or even confessing their feelings for the first time since the princess found out the truth. This goes on sluggishly for ten chapters of political intrigue that suddenly became a whole lot less interesting. The amount of characters double in the final 20 chapters. Wanyu and the princess are thinking about each other. Wanyu finds out that the princess isn't just a manipulative b*tch, but also Mongol-helping, psychotic, cold-blooded mu*derer.

You'd think that with 10 chapters left, that would be the end. An unsatisfying ending where the princess gets what she deserves and both she and Wanyu are all alone and commit su*cide. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Surprisingly, a double su*cide ending would have been better than what ended up happening (with Wanyu killing herself because of depressant the princess because of guilt).

What ended up happening was a weird and unnecessary backstory for the princess with a creepy doctor, weird ninja shit, the Mongols suddenly becoming allies, the princess' brother randomly betraying her, and more weird shit. The worst part is that less than 5 chapters after Wanyu finds out about all the horrible things the princess has done, there's a two year timeskip. After the timeskip, there's suddenly a rebellion in the capital, so Wanyu, realizing that she still loves the princess, rushes back to save her, where some more unnecessary sh*t happens, then they reunite and confess their love, then even more unnecessary and weird sh*t happens, then they fake their deaths and live happily ever after.

There was no relationship development. The climax was unsatisfying. Too much was happening, and none of it was interesting.

Rereading this, I accidently gave a summary instead of a review, but it took me an hour to right and my thumbs hurt, so I don't care. I wasn't exaggerating that ending there though. Wanyu finds out the truth about the princess and loses her love just as the princess gained her own. There's a two year timeskip. They make up and live happily ever after. No buildup. Just 'I have hated you for the past two years for manipulating me, helping the people who pillaged my village, and abusing me to the point where you cut my lifespan in half, but suddenly, I love you again."

Also, I didn't expect there to be a gay couple and more so Qi Wang and Chu Wang!!!!! I lost my sh*t after that lol

then the author brought the extra and I really thought it was a sweet dessert after a heavy meal but she (the author) didn't forget her style and fill up a mug of bitter coffee... it's a happy end, happily ever after, yes,... but I'm still feeling it's not entirely a happy ending.. dang it...

The only one that made me stop thinking 10 sec was the first prince ending, seriously, didn't saw that coming, but then that explains his action during that hunt

only women

The romance is extremely slow-burn because Li Xian is a lesbian and she saw Wanyue as a man. She could not fall in love with her because she believed Wanyue was a man. It was only after her identity was revealed did Li Xian finally start falling for her. This completely endeared me to both Li Xian as a character and to the story in general. It's just something I don't get to see much and I deeply appreciate it. I do wish the reveal happened earlier, but that's the only real issue I have with it.

the MC learns that she has been used for years by the FL. I mean she knew that already, having seen the silk reports (that we still got no resolution as to where they came from, since Xiao-Ci burned them, but whatever). But she then learns how she cruelly would allow the soldiers she has fought with for years to starve to craft up a scheme with a Hun chief by stealing their supplies, cruelly mu*dered 20 of the same soldiers to then go on a charade with the MC, etc. All of this, Li Xian doesn't even dare tell to her face, acting like a teenager breaking up through a text message.

So naturally MC is pissed. And remains pissed. For almost three years. Not seeing her for a moment. And again the "romance" becomes a problem in my mind when she then after three years finally returns, still in love with Li Xian.

In particular the dynamic between Qi and Chu seemed very strange to me. Qi suddenly revealing that he is in love with Chu and isn't their blood-related brother came out of nowhere, and goes nowhere, and isn't explained either. Very odd.

Wtf was with leaving the person they both consider to be their DAUGHTER behind as they elope after faking the MC's death?! What the hell was with not caring one bit about the common people despite a few chapters earlier considering the idea of retiring early AFTER a worthy successor has been groomed? That just came out of nowhere and seemed COMPLETELY out of character for BOTH of them.

Another minor pet peeve of mine is that in this ancient setting, no one seems to mind gay relationships. Or how prevalent they are. There's at least three in the story: The main leads, the two shadow guards, the miracle doctor who has the hots for Li Xian (and I think they are hinting at the fact that she might've been getting busy with the Empress before she passed? Or did I misunderstand that part completely and she just fancied the Empress and that sorta transferred to her spitting image, Li Xian?), and finally Qi who has the hots for Chu. But I can look past that, as I am used to most GL and BL to have a very high % of gay or bi-s*xual people in them even though it does kinda take me out of the story.