Tai Yi Xian Mo Lu: Ling Fei Ji

After the first season, I wrote a review about Rise to Immortality having shallow and wordy characters but a good plot, and my criticisms are still mostly true after finishing season 3. But there are certain changes in the upcoming seasons that make me feel like I should give the review an update. Due to the dearth of information about this show, I fear that if I merely write season 2 or season 3 reviews, nobody would see them.

Leng Shuang Ning is the most promising disciple of the deity-level Qing Chen Sect. Lacking confidence in her talent, she promises her teacher that she would always ... stay by his side. To her surprise, she was admonished; her teacher isn't looking for a guard, but a replacement. She is banished from sect grounds to find a fated person and fight demons, if necessary. (In this world, there are xuan (mysterious) sects, mo (demon) sects, and other sects, representing good, evil and neutral.)

The first season mainly focuses on the protagonist exploring the mortal realm and grasping the overall situation, introducing a number of characters of different sects whose paths all happen to intersect on a martial arts tournament. Except unlike other such shows with a tournament, the tournament never happens, but is instead the backdrop for a whodunit-type mystery preceding a catastrophe. And while that was a bit of a spoiler, it's the least I could say to convey that the tone of the first season does not really reflect the material after it.

This show is dark. The entirety of the second season is sort of a calm before the storm ordeal, like the second seasons of One Punch Man or Mob Psycho 100, where the characters have to find their own way in darkness before discovering light, only here it's both figurative and literal. Although for most of the first season, there isn't very much urgency, allowing the characters to wander about and meander, bumping into each other along the way, and having pretentious sounding conversations about their philosophies with complex Chinese vocabulary (which might also be the reason why there are no good subtitles for this work, since no one could disentangle that mess). In season 2, the characters have all separated and desperately need to find each other.

Whether you could enjoy this plot structure depends on how forgiving you are toward questionable character decisions. Rise to Immortality include some of the most frustrating plot mechanics to me, sort of like protecting useless NPCs in an RPG. Characters would at some point rush into battles they couldn't possibly win, kill the enemies right before they start to explain something important, or have to protect weak sidekicks that for some reason have no environmental awareness. These people would try to defend attacks or leave safe spaces to explore despite being told to stay put, and there are always disastrous consequences. In a moment of insanity, one of the characters "accidentally" revives a demon overlord.

Despite the annoying and contrived devices, I do have to applaud that the show has managed to create a disorganized, claustrophobic atmosphere, where the protagonists are all lost as lambs in the face overwhelming adversity. Part of that is due to their own stupidity, sure, but there is also a well constructed plot brewing in the background. And conspiracies that throw all our assumptions into question.

Season 3 features some huge twists, which I won't spoil, and also gives one of the best takes on the human versus demon struggle in these kinds of shows. The one-dimensional stubbornness of the characters in the first season gets challenged, and they are forced to reckon with the reality that the only way they would survive is to be more open-minded about accepting help from the other side. And as the morality of the two sides start to muddle, we're left wondering who the good guys are to begin with.

Rise to Immortality is definitely all plot, and while the characters eventually are forced to contend with the events and show some ability to adapt, their development sort of lag. Yes, there are some touching character moments later on, but for the most part, I never found myself defending or empathizing with any character, good or bad (except for some characters introduced later on). But the way the plot develops with just enough of a carrot, but without giving too much away, keeps it interesting. There is always something you won't know, yet it never feels overwhelming. I know what's going on, and what might happen next, but not what might happen after that. The complete breakdown in the second season disrupts all rhythm in the first.

It is true that the first season was very conventional, with shallow protagonists more interested in testing each others' strengths like a bunch of teenagers with testosterone issues, while the antagonists all seemed like petty womanizers. It seemed like it was going to proceed down that path to mediocrity. I'm happy to report this was not the case, that the characters that survive are no longer one-dimensional, although they're still not quite at where I'd like them to be.

There is still an annoying cat mascot that loves to hear itself speak. The fights are better choreographed than some newer shows, though nothing amazing. I mean there's basic choreography, and not just balls of light or spectral swords or martial spirits running into each other like a bull fight, like the stereotypical shounen fist bump.

Watch this if you like somewhat of a deconstruction of the good versus evil cliche. It's not unprecedented, but still a decent watch.