Sword Dynasty

Ding Ning (丁宁), a chronically ill young man from the city of Changling, rises fast in a violent age and sets himself against the royal house of the kingdom of Heng. Viki's synopsis puts it as a revenge story: a young warrior with a chronic illness, an unlikely alliance with a noble warrior, and a challenge to Heng.

The series is set in an invented era modelled on the Warring States period, when several kingdoms fought to unify China. Heng is the strongest of them. In iQIYI's Chinese synopsis, Ding Ning becomes the talk of the martial world through feats such as shi ri po jing (十日破境, "ten days to break through a realm"). A realm (境, jing) is a level of cultivation, so skill becomes something that can be measured and raced through.

Zhangsun Qianxue (长孙浅雪), played by Li Yitong, travels with him posing as his aunt. The king of Heng and his queen have a past with a famous sword master, Liang Jingmeng (梁惊梦), and the synopsis says the truth of their betrayal of him is slowly uncovered. It then turns to Ding Ning's friendships with the kingdom's other young swordsmen, including the crown prince.

The source is the web novel of the same title by Wu Zui (无罪, "Not Guilty"); iQIYI had already released an animated adaptation, premiering April 26, 2017, per English Wikipedia. Jones Wah-Kon Ma (马华干, Ma Huagan) directs, Rao Jun (饶俊) wrote the screenplay, and the film director Feng Xiaogang (冯小刚) is credited as supervising producer. Filming ran from December 2017 to April 2018 at Hengdian World Studios, and the finale aired on January 5, 2020.

A New Weekly (新周刊) writer, posting on The Paper's (澎湃新闻) contributor platform in December 2019, noted that the novel is xianxia (仙侠, "immortal heroes"), cultivation fantasy, while the series moves toward wuxia, with a more realistic historical setting, staged martial arts and a visible sword culture.

The adaptation drew complaints. A January 2021 roundup on the Taiwanese entertainment site BEAUTY lists it among costume dramas adapted from novels that online commenters called heavily altered, citing cuts to the novel's cast and a rushed final stretch.