As the final entry in the Fox Spirit Matchmaker trilogy, I went into this drama with very low expectations. Both Fox Spirit Matchmaker: Red Moon Pact and Love in Pavilion were critical and commercial disappointments, and I struggled to enjoy either. At this point, my main motivation for watching was simply to finish the trilogy. As a direct sequel to Love in Pavilion, this installment relies heavily on familiarity with its predecessor.

This drama is…passable. It certainly has the most coherent storyline of the three. Cheng Yi plays Wang Quan Fu Gui, a man raised from childhood to be “the Soldier,” a weapon designed to exterminate spirits. His father, hardened by the loss of his wife, family, and comrades, becomes emotionally distant and cold. Despite this upbringing, Wang Quan Fu Gui retains a fundamentally kind nature and refuses to kill indiscriminately. His path crosses with Spider Spirit No. 12580, sent to spy on him but lacking any malicious intent. Their relationship develops into one of mutual support as they push each other toward becoming better versions of themselves.

Even so, the drama remains bloated, weighed down by repetitive conflicts and baffling character decisions. Having not watched the original animated series, I can only echo a common criticism: by positioning itself as a continuation of Love in Pavilion, the adaptation loses much of its internal logic. The production seems caught between staying faithful to the source material and accommodating the prequel’s narrative, and its attempt to do both leaves the drama feeling compromised. The cast does what it can, but the writing flattens nearly every character into something one-dimensional.

The handling of the release only added to the confusion. It’s difficult to understand why iQiYi chose to air this drama so soon after the failures of Love in Pavilion and Cheng Yi’s poorly received The Journey of Legend (赴山海). Originally titled Fox Spirit Matchmaker: Wang Quan Chapter (狐妖小红娘王权篇), the drama was abruptly rebranded shortly before airing as Sword and Beloved (天地剑心). This title completely obscures its comic and animated origins entirely. The late-stage effort to distance the series from its original IP feels both deliberate and desperate.

Ultimately, this marks another underwhelming outcome for iQIYI: three strikes for the Fox Spirit Matchmaker trilogy and yet another disappointing showing for Cheng Yi. While the drama eventually crossed 9,000 on iQIYI’s popularity index, it failed to surpass 20 million views per episode. For a drama that was highly anticipated as the savior of the series, reality has sunk that the producers and screenwriters just couldn’t create a good adaptation.