Omg, I didn’t realize that there was a drama adaptation of one of 九鹭非香 Jiu Lu Fei Xiang’s novels (pretty slow of me here), but now that I knew I’m so excited!!! Excuse me for not posting more chapter part posts xD as I got excited and wanted to post something else besides translations 😅 It’s been so long since I did something else, heh.
Anyhow for those who aren’t aware of the novel, I’ve attached the novelupdates link, but I feel that most readers here enjoy reading her novels and may have heard of Ostentatious Zhao Yao before.
Note: Tread carefully below as there are SPOILERS!!! DO NOT READ if you don’t want to be SPOILED
Drama Information:
Chinese Name: 招摇 | English Name: The Legends (coughssogenericcoughs)
Region of Production: Mainland China | Production Group: Yu Heng Film, Yi Jin Film, and Xi He Film
Filming Location: Hengdian (most period dramas are filmed here), Fenghuang Xiangxi
Director: Zheng Wei Wen
Scriptwriters: Jiu Lu Fei Xiang, Yang Qian Zi, and Peng Yun Rui (who was a scriptwriter for Princess of King Lan Ling)
Producers: Ruan Jie, Liu Lu, and Huang Yan Hong
Genre: Costume ancient drama, xianxia
Stars: Bai Lu, Xu Kai, Dai Xu, and Xiao Yan
Episode Length: 45 minutes | Episodes Count: 40 episodes (some places put 50 eps but assume the least amount is 40 and episodes count are subjected to change)
Broadcaster: iQiYi | Broadcast date: Expect December, may be pushed to January (no broadcast date is fixed in drama world lol)
Timeline: June 12, 2017 was when the drama was revealed at Shanghai TV festival. October 27,2017 was when they first launched the start of filming. On January 16, 2018, they held a screening event at Wan Lu Men conference.
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(Taken from Chinesedrama.info) Synopsis:
An one of a kind xianxia story with the right amount of action, humor, cuteness and drama that is told from the POV of the master of a Demon Sect. After her ‘death’, she is determined to regain her place ass King.
Lu Zhao Yao (Bai Lu) is the fearless leader of Wan Lu Men. She falls into a dangerous situation while she was attempting to claim the sword that the Old Demon King left behind. She mistakenly assumes Mo Qing (Xu Kai) to be the culprit who betrayed her.
Five years later, Lu Zhao Yao manages to establish a connection with Qin Zhi Yan (Xiao Yan) of the Immortal Sect. She also returns to Wan Lu Man, hoping to reclaim her position as the leader. However, Mo Qing has already taken back his identity as Li Chen Lan, the son of the Demon King, and currently sits in the center of power. Lu Zhao Yao entices him to steal another sword for her sake while she colludes with Jiang Wu (Dai Chao) with a scheme of her own.
Contrary to expectations, Lu Zhao Yao gets kidnapped by Jiang Wu instead. Secrets from the past are revealed and Lu Zhao Yao realizes who her enemies are and who has stayed by her side all along.
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Character Posters:
Bai Lu as Lu Zhao Yao, our feisty demonic leader of the Wan Lu sect. An unbridled character that often lands herself in funny situations. When she sought to recover the sword of the former demon king, she was ambushed by the ten immortals sect and “died”, losing her leader position to Mo Qing (who she thought betrayed her). Later she came back to reclaim her leader position. After a series of events, she eventually discovers who are really her foes.
Xu Kai as Mo Qing, the disfigured male lead. He loves Zhao Yao dearly, but through a series of misunderstanding, he has obtained the former Demon King’s sword after the ambush of the ten immortals sect. It turns out that he is actually the son of the former demon king, Li Chen Lan whose power dwelled inside his body and is waiting to be awaken. Five years after the “death” of Zhao Yao, he claims the leader position and sits in power.
Dai Xu as Jiang Wu as the refined lad on the demonic path whose ruthless strategy is to pretend to idolize Zhao Yao, winning her trust in him until the time is right where he aims to take over the Wan Lu sect and kill Li Chen Lan. Jiang Wu occupies Feng Prefecture City and then met Zhao Yao whose interactions ended up captivating him…. so they ended up collaborating a scheme for her to take back Wan Lu sect, but naturally as any villain, he has his own set of plans.
Xiao Yan as Qin Zhi Yan, is a member of the ten immortals sect, someone who has a gentle and calm disposition, but is tough inside. Her father was harmed and so she sought to take revenge against the Wan Lu sect. She ended up forming a spiritual connection/linkage with Zhao Yao.
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Bunch of drama (a lot of the OTP) stills:
Side characters stills:
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Thoughts:
Feel free to ignore this section of the post 😅 My initial impression of the drama adaptation commencing was joy! Then after released of posters and what not, the excitation went down a bit lol. Anyhow, this is Jiu Lu Fei Xiang’s first novel to drama adaptation so please check the first episode for support! I’m not too sure if they will upload this drama on youtube, but we shall see if maplestage has it. Hopefully, someone can possibly provide english subtitles, but I’m not too sure on this as the drama hasn’t air yet.
As for the drama itself and the content, I’m not too fond of the English title as I don’t find it one bit creative lol. Aside from Xu Kai, I’m not familiar with the rest of the casting. Bai Lu is a relatively new actress who has starred in a few dramas and I think she can definitely pull off the cutesy portions of the story lol. As for Xu Kai, I’ve watched him in Story of Yanxi’s Palace and his acting was rather decent, but my goodness… that mark on his cheeks doesn’t look like disfigurement at all 😂. Even if I’m unsure about the acting overall, I’ll try to watch the show for support and to see how the adaptation turns out. I’m keeping my expectations low because I can see that they decided to change the narrative a bit here. Compared to the novel (which I didn’t get to finish completely), they’re going to tell the story in the beginning when the two leads first met, including the rescue by our female lead. From there, it seems that the narrative is going to lead up to the recovery of the former demon king’s sword and then from there, I do not see stills the female “dying”, so I’m assuming that they might not dwell to much on the spirit possession or the fact that she was pretty much a wandering spirit during the first half of the story. Zhao Yao might be more “human” like in this as she doesn’t look like the undead in here 😅 But we shall see how the story will unfold for this drama when it does air~
So readers, what are your thoughts for this drama?
Banana Chocolate Cosmos ✿ 
I used to get so excited when I heard about drama adaptations of the stories I follow, but after too many disappointments, my enthusiasm has dimmed quite a bit. Still keeping my fingers crossed that they do the story justice; that’s the problem, usually, with the failed (imo) adaptations–that they depart from the original storyline and just replace it with stupidity and/or filler. But I see you’ve written Jiu Lu Fei Xiang among the scriptwriters. Is that just a courtesy (because she’s the author), or is she actually involved in the scriptwriting for the drama? ‘Cause if it’s the latter… consider my excitement going up quite a few notches in anticipation of this project.
p.s. most of the stills look quite gorgeous
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Im not too sure how involved she is. I see her weibo linking to the drama in one post but she’s mainly writing about posting her newer novels’ chapters lol. I would say she seems to have approved of the filming.
In the end not too sure how involved she is in writing.
Sometimes authors are involved but other scriptwriters tend to change the script later on (cnetizens criticize that part). Anyhow, just purely based on what they give us with stills, the main premise is kept for the drama.
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I don’t see a huge deviation so far at episode 9 other than the way they spent about 3 episodes to give the leads a bit of background info, which I think is necessary because I generally find the female lead quite unlikable. So good thing it shows her actually being good in the beginning for a little. I hope the lead gets her body back soon though cause the whole boring another body business is very confusing since they decided to actually use 2 actress for this.
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Yeah I saw the two actresses switch, but considering the story I understand they have to use two different people. I’m glad they did the soul switching thing lol because that would be a shame if they took that out. I’m glad the author was on board for most of this
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I have only read the translated portions of the novel but I’m enjoying the show even without subtitles. I do think that by about ep. 12, they have left some of the original storyline behind but I imagine you win some/you lose some when trying to fit this all into a show. I can only hope that because of the increased interest from the drama, someone will finish translating the novel.
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Yeah I hope someone will finish translating the novel… a bit of an upgrade in writing from the author lol Anyhow, I’m glad folks are enjoying the drama even though there is no subtitles. I expected for them to change some of the storyline… but as long as they kept the main gist then I’m fine with that
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Bai Lu actually is perfect fit. In fact I can’t think a better actress that plays the parts. The girl has played 3 dramas in 2019 and killed all 3 of them. Too bad the editing and script /restriction ruins the later half.
If anything Bai Lu and Xu Kai chemistry and acting are the reasons people should check out this drama.
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I finished the drama at this point and agree, the leads have great chemistry and Bai Lu is a fantastic Zhao Yao.
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