Only Lan can see the enigmatic mark, which is an untranslatable Hin character. Before a guy saves her life by showing up at her teahouse that night.

One of the storied wizards of the Last Kingdom, Zen is a practitioner. They were said to have taken their magic from the demons they interacted with. It is thought that magic is long gone. The situation now requires total concealment from the Elantians.

When Zen encounters Lan, he immediately knows what she is: a practitioner who has a strong ability concealed in the mark on her arm. He has never seen anything like it, but he is aware that if there are any solutions, they may be found deep within the Last Kingdom's pine forests and misty mountains, where a group of master practitioners are plotting to topple the Elantian government.

Both Lan and Zen possess hidden mysteries that they must keep from others and that they have not yet discovered for themselves. Though fate has brought them together, their future is still up in the air. Both have the ability to free their country. And both have the ability to end the planet.

The conflict for the Last Kingdom has now started.

My Review

It was extremely difficult to write this review. Unfortunately, I didn't feel the same connection to this book as I did to Chinese mythology and folklore. It's incredibly boring, and there's nothing obviously wrong with it, but I can still appreciate that it doesn't exactly follow the same forced East Asian YA fantasy plot. I suppose it comes down to personal preference.

I liked the description of tropes and other related concepts in the introduction, but she went into far too much detail. The primary plot of this book could have been predicted with absolute certainty. Being predictable isn't always a negative thing, but in this case, nothing really piqued my interest. If you've ever followed a xianxia or wuxia drama, you can almost predict what will happen here.

There were many action scenes, a plausible plot, and a decent pace; however, there were times when the push of the first book was very apparent. There was a significant information overload at the beginning that felt rushed to build up the world and cover all the key plot points. This was where the majority of the action took place and where the majority of the information was revealed. It resulted in a somewhat sluggish and muddled beginning.

This was also marketed as a "enemies to lovers" tale, which is completely false. Zen and Lan got along well and were mindful of one another right away. There were no enemies here. I don't believe there was any chemistry between Zen and Lan in terms of telling rather than showing. Despite being praised as a wonderful romantic match, none of their interactions were all that exciting or interesting.

I thought the magic scheme was really well done. The magic system captivated me, and I was anxious to learn more about it. The guard magic and the four evil spirits were my favorites. Although I firmly believe that some people will love this, I am regrettably not one of them.

It's obvious that I won't like this book, and I think that many readers will be as well because of the subpar promotion, but it's not the worst book I've ever read. If you want a fantastic Chinese fantasy that thoughtfully addresses the representation of ethnic minorities, try The Poppy War instead.

My ratings score:

★★★★★ Fantastic! Made me go through a lot of emotions & the entire book is incredibly beautifully done! 

★★★★ Memorable! Despite its shortcomings, this book was incredible and taught us a lot. 

★★★ Good work! Nothing particularly remarkable, but still nice.

★★ Meh... Mediocre with great room for improvement.

★ Extremely Poor.