Word of Honor

Zhou Zishu has spent his career inside Tianchuang. He drove the nails into himself to be free of it, which leaves his senses fading and his fighting power greatly reduced, and he drifts into the jianghu as a man near the end of his life. There he meets Wen Kexing, secretly planning revenge for the deaths of his parents.

The plot's engine is Liuli Armor (琉璃甲): five pieces said to unlock a vault of martial arts manuals, whose hunt brings violence and suspicion to five major sects. Zhang Chengling (张成岭), the son of a sect leader, becomes Zhou Zishu's apprentice. Gu Xiang (顾湘), a member of Ghost Valley raised by Wen Kexing, belongs to the other side of the same conflict.

The series adapts Tian Ya Ke (天涯客, Faraway Wanderers) by Priest, a danmei (耽美, "addicted to beauty") novel, a genre of fiction centered on romantic relationships between men, published on Jinjiang Literature City (晋江文学城). The result is a classic wuxia world: several sects, a feared valley outside them and a prize that all are chasing. China News Service's launch report notes designed fight sequences and themes of chivalry and righteousness.

Ciwen Media (慈文传媒) and Youku produced it, filming at Hengdian World Studios (横店影视城).

It arrived in the shadow of The Untamed (陈情令), the 50-episode 2019 danmei adaptation with Xiao Zhan (肖战) and Wang Yibo (王一博). Word of Honor did not repeat its scale but became a "small hit" of the first quarter of 2021, with a Douban score that climbed from 8.1 to 8.6 and about 250,000 ratings. It carried Gong Jun to prominence and became his breakthrough.