The Journey of Flower

Hua Qiangu is an orphan who carries a scent that attracts demons, which has made her an outcast since childhood. She is rescued by Bai Zihua (白子画), leader of the Chang Liu (长留) sect and one of the most revered immortals in the world. He has, in fact, been tasked with killing her, and he spares her instead. She becomes his disciple on Mount Chang Liu, and she falls in love with him.

That is where the story turns from a romance into a tragedy about consequences. To save Bai Zihua's life, Hua Qiangu sets out to retrieve ten ancient artifacts, and in doing so she inadvertently revives the Demon God.

Strip away the fantasy vocabulary and this is a story about proof of devotion: how much will one person give up for another, and does the other have the right to accept it? You can read Hua Qiangu as devotion at its most extreme, or as a heroine defined largely by what she endures. Both readings come from the same structure, so watch with the question in mind rather than expecting the show to settle it.

A teacher and a student falling in love (shitu lian, 师徒恋) is one of the most reliable forbidden-love setups in Chinese web fiction. The sect, the vows and the hierarchy are the built-in obstacle, so no outside villain is needed. This show raises the stakes: the disciple Bai Zihua falls for is the person he was ordered to kill.

It is based on the novel Hua Qiangu by Fresh Guoguo (fresh果果), which drew on Daoist immortality legends. It runs 58 episodes on TV (the DVD release runs 50), broadcast two per night.

Outside China it is less visible in English-language fandom than The Untamed or Eternal Love, even though it came first. In 2015 there was no large English-subtitling ecosystem for Chinese dramas. When a show became famous in English tells you when the subtitling infrastructure arrived, not when the show mattered.