The Legend of Shen Li

Shen Li (沈璃) is the Bicang King (碧苍王), ruler of the demon realm (魔界, mo jie), born holding a pearl. Around her thousandth birthday the sovereign of the heavens decrees her engagement to Fu Rong (拂容君), his thirty-third grandson, who is known as a philanderer. She refuses and runs.

During the escape she fights celestial generals, is injured and is knocked back into her original form. She falls to the human world, where a man later known as Xing Yun (行云) takes her in. He is in fact the god Xing Zhi (行止), travelling among mortals. Their fates tangle from this point.

The setting is a mythic world of heavens, demon realm and mortal land, not a real historical period. The drama is adapted from the web novel Ben Wang Zai Ci (本王在此, "this king is here") by Jiu Lu Fei Xiang (九鹭非香), and was directed by Deng Ke (邓科) for New Classics Media (新丽传媒).

Producer Zheng Zhongli (郑中莉) told The Paper that she liked the novel's lively characters and its female core: Shen Li is like a decisive woman at work who can still be moved by a small kindness.

Tencent Video said the drama passed 30,000 on its heat index within 26 hours, its fastest entry into the platform's "hit club", and The Paper reported a peak of 31,784. Jiemian reported that on finale day it passed 100 million plays in a day on both Yunhe and Kuyun data. Critics were more mixed: The Paper's early review found the first episodes slow and episodic, with thin supporting characters, while still seeing Zhao Liying as the draw. China Writers Net, reprinting a Paper column, felt the story stayed within the familiar xianxia pattern of love tangled with duty.