Series / Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms

Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms (三生三世十里桃花, Sān Shēng Sān Shì Shí Lǐ Táo Huā, literally "Three Lives, Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms") is a 2017 Chinese fantasy/romance series starring Yang Mi and Mark Chao. It's based on the novel of the same name by Tang Qi. It is also known by the title Eternal Love — which is, confusingly, also the title of a different Chinese series.

Bai Qian, daughter of the Fox King, goes to Kunlun Mountain to become a disciple of Mo Yuan. While there, she gets caught up in a war between Celestial Tribe and Ghost Tribe. The Ghost King is sealed away, but years later he is about to escape his prison. Bai Qian tries to seal him away again, loses her memories in the process, and goes to the mortal realm. Meanwhile, Ye Hua, Crown Prince of the Nine Heavens, is sent to the mortal realm. He's warned that he must not get involved with any mortals. Then he meets Bai Qian.

As of 2018, it's the most-watched television series in China. A sequel/spin-off series, Three Lives, Three Worlds: The Pillow Book (also called Eternal Love of Dream), aired in 2020. The source novel has also been adapted into a 2017 film, Once Upon a Time (2017), and a 2019 series, Love and Destiny.

The series can be watched on YouTube with English subtitles.

Contains examples of:

• Abdicate the Throne: Long before the series starts, Dong Hua Dijun abdicated in favour of the current Heavenly Lord.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: Bai Qian is kidnapped and almost drowned on her birthday.
• Age-Gap Romance: Not obvious given the fact that the characters are immortals, but age gaps are pointed out in three instances:
  • Bai Qian is 70,000 years older than Ye Hua (in the show's timeline anyway, though the dialogue makes this confusing).
  • Dong Hua is significantly older than Feng Jiu - he was conquering and ruling the heavens when her father was a kid. He doesn't look it mind you. According to the books, he's about 370,000 years her senior, and she's 30,000, though in this series' timeline she's actually about three months older than Ye Hua.
  • Bai Zhi is 15,000 years older than his wife, the Fox Empress.
• Age Lift:
  • Bai Feng Jiu is only 30,000 in the books, but here she is 70,000, having been born just before Mo Yuan's sacrifice.
  • Ye Hua is only 50,000 in the books. In the show, it is mostly stated he is 70,000, being born about two-to-three months after Mo Yuan's sacrifice. However, the book age occasionally pops up in dialogue as well, seemingly due to writers not remembering to take into account the Adaptation Expansion.
  • This expansion-induced age issues also affects Su Jin. One instance states she is only 500 years old at the time of the Ruo River battle, and thus when Ye Hua is born months later. Later on, she says she is 20,000 years old than him.
• Alleged Lookalikes: Xuan Nu is said to greatly resemble Bai Qian, but at best, the actresses have the same face shape. Their actual features - eye shape and set, nose, mouth and chin - are too different for anyone to realistically mistake them.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Par for the course for this series.
  • Yao Guang loves Mo Yuan, who doesn't love her because he likes Si Yin/Bai Qian (in the series anyway).
  • Xuan Nu loves Li Jing, who loves Bai Qian, who loved him until he cheated on her.
  • Su Jin loves Ye Hua, who (initially) thinks of her as family.
  • Miao Qing and Lu Xiu also like Ye Hua, who only loves Su Su/Bai Qian.
  • Bi Fang loves Bai Qian, who is unaware she loves Ye Hua.
  • Bai Feng Jiu loves Dong Hua, but whilst he does reciprocate, he forces himself not to for the sake of the realm.
• An Arm and a Leg: Ye Hua loses an arm in a fight with a beast.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Li Jing gives one to Bai Qian.
• Arranged Marriage: Often of the Altar Diplomacy kind.
  • Sang Ji and Bai Qian are betrothed to form an alliance between the Celestials and the Fox Tribe. It doesn't go ahead, which leads to...
  • To make up for Sang Ji's actions, the Heavenly Emperor has Ye Hua betrothed to Bai Qian instead. It works out... eventually.
  • Xuan Nu is betrothed to a black-bear spirit. She finds this horrifying and runs away from home.
  • The Heavenly Emperor himself was arranged to marry his cousin (of some description). He resisted at first, but after being forced to get to know her, accepted it.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: When Su Jin is on trial for framing Yuan Zhen for attempted rape, framing Bai Qian for attempted murder, and attempting to use a magic puppet to seduce Ye Hua, she begins saying that everyone present - including her technical husband Ye Hua - are lying about her. Dong Hua points out that slandering her husband is the worst crime out of the lot.
• Assassin Outclassin':
  • Die Feng, Zi Lan, and Tian Shu and Ye Hua, all easily defeat groups of Ghost Realm demon puppet assassins. These puppets were noted to have killed several high immortals in the previous days.
  • The mortal Emperor identity of Dong Hua takes on two packs of ninjas in the space of a few minutes, whilst protecting Feng Jiu, and kills them all without sustaining a single injury. Feng Jiu did get injured protecting him once though.
• As You Know: A seemingly throw-away tidbit of information about the ancient god clans is presented by Fox Emperor Bai Zhi in episode 12 - when gods of the ancient clans (Dragon, Phoenix and Fox) died, a celestial phenomenon occurs. Whilst it may seem innocuous as the auidence knows Bai Qian isn't dead (which is what her mother was fearing), it does foreshadow two events: a) that Mo Yuan can come back and isn't technically dead, and b) that Ye Hua isn't actually dead either. Neither "death" comes with any type of phenomena, though the characters curiously seem to forget this fact in both instances.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning:
  • Ye Hua officially being made Crown Prince. He gets given the seal before the representatives of the leaders of the Nine Heavens, all the while birds sing and the skies shine gold in celebratory divine approval.
  • Bai Feng Jiu is recognised as Qing Qiu's Queen of the East, succeeding Bai Qian. Everyone, including her own father, bow to her, right after Dong Hua sends her an extremely valuable gift, which she accepts with a wisdom and grace one wouldn't think possible of the sweet, giggly, spoiled girl she was prior.
• Ax-Crazy: Xuan Nu does things like arranging to be badly beaten, kidnapping Mo Yuan's body and A Li, and blinding herself when she loses her ability to shapeshift.
• Bling of War: In the war between the Celestial Tribe and Ghost Tribe, both armies wear much nicer-looking clothing than is practical on a battlefield.
• Blood from the Mouth: Shows up every time a character is injured.
• Bloodless Carnage: Zigzagged. The battle scenes have very little blood, but when a major character is injured, they almost always bleed.
• Bolt of Divine Retribution:
  • Advancing in ranks (whether from High Immortal to High God, or from regular prince to Crown Prince), requires the person advancing to be hit with lightning bolts. For example: Bai Qian is supposed to be hit by 3 strikes advancing to High Immortal, but Mo Yuan takes them for her. To become Crown Prince, Ye Hua is struck by dozens, and becoming Emperor/Empress requires about 90.
  • Being punished in the Nine Heavens usually means being struck by lightning too, either once or over a specific period of time. The Heavenly Emperor punishes Su Su this way for pushing Su Jin from Zhuxian Terrace, but Ye Hua takes the punishment instead.
• Braids of Action: Yan Zhi.
• Breach of Promise of Marriage: Zhe Yan and Bai Zhi go to the Celestial Palace because Sang Ji breached his betrothal, and thus the Emperor's word, to marry Bai Qian. Whilst they go to see if they can actually back out of it altogether despite the embarrassment towards them, it's the Emperor who wants to keep the marriage pact in tact to save the face of his tribe and family. This results in the more iron-clad betrothal between Bai Qian and Ye Hua. Oddly, a further breach on the Celestial side is subsequently used as a threat hanging over their own heads as they can't afford to anger the Fox Tribe and Qing Qui, whose alliance is keeping their shaky hold on power.
• Cain and Abel: Li Yuan hates his half-brother Li Jing.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Qing Cang, bordering on Stupid Evil. His only drive seems to be because he doesn't want to be subservient to the Celestials and For the Evulz. He will bully whomever he needs to in order to start a war and sacrifice as many lives as he has to in order to achieve this goal, including his loyal followers and his own children, who he's cursed to be his power vessels. Qing Cang won't even think through the logic of his actions in pursuit of his goal. Not only does he activate the Bell of the East Emperor without thinking that its creator, Mo Yuan, knows how to stop it, he readily states it'll burn the world down despite this being counterproductive to his goal of ruling said world. It's hardly a wonder that he's actually defeated fairly easily in direct combat, first by Mo Yuan, and then by Ye Hua; he only pushed the Celestials to desperation because Xuan Nu helped him, not through his own actions or military brilliance.
• Celestial Bureaucracy: The Nine Heavens is one, which is unsurprising given the mythology it's based on. There are numerous laws and regulations, as well as rules of etiquette. And ignorance of these is not an excuse when you're caught breaking them. There's also Divine Ranks, from low immortals (or fairies, depending on translation) to high gods, and even amongst the high gods, there's differences of respect based on age and lineage.
• Combat Hand Fan: Bai Qian's preferred weapon. She defeats a phoenix demon and fights her way across a battlefield while armed with only a fan.
• Damsel in Distress: Bai Qian, when she's captured by Yao Guang and chained up in a water dungeon, and later when she's kidnapped and taken to the Celestial Palace.
• Dark Is Not Evil:
  • Ye Hua always wears black, but he isn't evil.
  • Li Jing is Prince (and later King) of the Ghost Tribe, has horns growing from his face, and usually wears dark colours. But he isn't truly a villain; he's just weak and selfish.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight:
  • Xuan Nu dies in Li Jing's arms.
  • Ye Hua dies in Bai Qian's arms. He gets better.
• Dissonant Serenity: Whilst the Heavenly Emperor is highly concerned about the war Qing Cang is intent on starting, Dong Hua is more interested in the tea cup he's using and wanting a replica for himself. Mo Yuan also doesn't seem bothered discussing the tea cup either, though Die Feng states that this is a front and the calmer he seems, the more worried he is.
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Xuan Nu uses a Bed Trick in order to get the reluctant Li Jing to sleep with her and this is how she gets pregnant. Li Jing is clearly not aware as she appears as Si Yin and he's miserable and drunk, but nobody, not even him, calls her out on this deception. Even Yan Zhi, who sees what's happening, doesn't stop it.
• Dragons Are Divine: Of course, given the setting comes from Chinese Mythology. The Celestial clan, i.e the rulers of the Nine Heavens are stated to be also called the Dragon Clan. We only see Ye Hua in dragon form however.
• Driven by Envy: Part of Xuan Nu's motivation in turning traitor is her jealousy of Bai Qian.
• Drowning My Sorrows:
  • Bai Qian gets drunk after catching Li Jing cheating on her.
  • Feng Jiu starts drinking after she's sent back to the Fox Kingdom.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Ye Hua thinks to himself that no other man will want Su Su as she has been sharing her bed with him for three months, and thus he needs to marry her to effectively protect her reputation. Thing is, Su Su is completely unaware she's had a man in her bed and she lives alone on a mountain where nobody else lives. In fact, Ye Hua himself has to tell her it was the territory of the Golden Lion Beast and infested with monsters so no one else would go there. Therefore, nobody else would know a man's been in her bed either and thus if a man in the town she frequents took a fancy to her, neither of them would be any the wiser and she'd be acceptable enough to marry. Given how clever he is, his line of thought makes no sense save to be a way for him to convince himself he wants to marry her.
• Eternal Love: Given that the setting is amongst "immortals"/"gods", any romantic relationship (that works out) falls under this trope. The big one is the main couple, with Ye Hua only ever loving Bai Qian, and the duo contemplating how they end up planning to spend eternity together. Bai Qian's parents also count, having been very happily married for hundreds of thousands of years.
• Evil Costume Switch: Xuan Nu starts out wearing bright colours, but switches to darker clothes after marrying Li Jing.
• Evil Laugh: The Ghost King gives one after he captures Bai Qian and Ling Yu.
• Express Delivery: Le Xu is pregnant with Ye Hua for only a few days.
• Eye Scream:
  • Bai Qian has her eyes removed as "punishment" for supposedly blinding Su Jin. To make things even worse, Ye Hua has to carry out the punishment.
  • Xuan Nu blinds herself when Bai Qian takes away her shapeshifting powers.
  • Su Jin uses Bai Qian's eyes after Ye Hua removes them. When Bai Qian regains her memories, she comes to take her eyes back.
• Facial Markings: Yan Zhi and Bai Feng Jiu.
• Faking the Dead: Ye Hua plans to fake his death so he can be with Bai Qian.
• Fantastic Racism: Immortals tend to have a sliding paternalistic view of mortals. There are some who don't seem to discriminate against mortals (such as Die Feng), some who feel somewhat superior on occasion (Princess Lu Xiu of the Chang Sea), some who look down on them (Consort Le Xu and a lot of the servants), and some who will abuse/kill them as they see fit (such as the Heavenly Emperor himself). Paradoxically, the Heavenly Emperor will send someone out to protect mortals from immortal problems, but if a mortal breaks rules they don't even know about, he won't see ignorance as an excuse and order them killed on the spot.
• Forceful Kiss:
  • Li Jin to Si Yin/Bai Qian. She pushes him off and knocks him out soon after.
  • Ye Hua does this a few times to Bai Qian whilst trying to get her to fall (back) in love with him. How comfortable she is about it varies in each circumstance.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Xuan Nu is jealous of Bai Qian, especially when Li Jing gets involved.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Mo Yuan sacrifices himself to win the war against Ghost Tribe.
  • Yao Guang volunteers to lead a suicide mission that will give the Celestial Tribe a chance to defeat Ghost Tribe.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: Despite spending 70,300 years looking for Si Yin and Mo Yuan's body, none of the disciples, who claim they've looked everywhere (including in the mortal realm), apparently ever bothered to check Qing Qiu. This is despite the fact they knew Si Yin was a fox from Ten Mile Peach Forest, which is in Qing Qiu. If they had, they would have seen Bai Qian, who is a dead-ringer for Si Yin, walking around.
• Ignore the Fanservice: Princess of the Eastern Sea, Miao Qing, tries to get Ye Hua to notice her by dancing for him during the banquet at her brother's palace. Ye Hua seems ignorant of her as he's too focused on the fact he's found Bai Qian, who is Su Su. Even when she points Miao Qing out, Ye Hua keeps ignoring her.
• I Have Many Names: Bai Qian goes by several names over the course of the series. She uses the name "Si Yin" while at Kunlun Mountain, Li Jing calls her "A-Yin", and Ye Hua calls her "Su Su".
• I Have No Daughter: Xuan Nu's mother says this after all the insane, evil things her daughter does.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Ling Yu, courtesy of multiple arrows.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Bai Qian jumps off Zhuxian Terrace, becomes a high goddess, and regains her memories of everything she's gone through before and after becoming mortal. Unsurprisingly, a drink is the first thing she asks for.
• Inhumanly Beautiful Race: Nine-tailed foxes (i.e. the Bai clan) are said to be uncommonly beautiful and naturally seductive in appearance, even for immortals. The Fox Empress, Bai Zhen, Bai Qian and Bai Feng Jiu are all mentioned by other characters to fit this image of their race.
• Karmic Butt-Monkey: The Daoist Priest who twice accosts Su Su (Bai Qian). First, he tries to take her Jade Purity Fan by claiming it's his and she stole it - Yan Zhi shows up to prove him wrong and uses the fan to hit him with lightning. Days later, he tries to punish Su Su for this by revealing the black snake in her basket - the snake (Ye Hua) turns into a huge dragon and blasts him with water, humiliating him again. Ye Hua then sics Si Ming on him to alter his fate to make him a drunk laughing stock for the rest of his life.
• Lady of War: Yao Guang is a dark example. She duels Mo Yuan while wearing a long, flowing dress, and she's a good enough fighter that she's only defeated when he turns her own attack against her.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Bai Qian loses her memories after her fight with Qing Cang.
• Light Is Not Good: The Heavenly Lord is usually wearing bright colours and lives in a palace in the clouds. But he also has Shao Xin locked away because she wants to marry his son, and he refuses to let Ye Hua see his mother unless he does an Impossible Task. And then there's the way he treats Bai Qian...
• Love at First Sight:
  • Yan Zhi and Li Jing both fall in love with Bai Qian at first sight.
  • Sang Ji and Shao Xin fall in love when they first meet. It doesn't end well.
• Love Makes You Evil:
  • Xuan Nu betrays Kunlun Mountain after she falls in love with Li Jing.
  • Su Jin tries to murder Bai Qian because she loves Ye Hua.
• Medieval Stasis: Both the immortal and mortal realms are stuck in the setting of early Imperial China. However, it's more glaring in the mortal realm, which moves on a faster time scale (roughly 1 day in heaven equals 1 year in the mortal realm). The exact same tea house in the Far East is seen when Bai Qian visits as Si Yin, and 70,000 heavenly years later (which is millions of mortal years) Su Su goes to there occasionally. 300 heavenly years later, Bai Qian again goes there. At no point does the tea house or town change despite the incredibly long passage of time.
• Misplaced Retribution: A verbal version. Le Xu lays into Bai Qian for being the cause of Ye Hua's suffering and his death, however that fault lays with two parties. With Ye Hua's family - including Le Xu, who all treated Bai Qian's mortal form, Su Su, like absolute crap. And primarily with Su Jin whose entitlement towards Ye Hua kept making her act in more and more insane ways that threatened/harmed/framed Su Su, leading to all the punishments and suffering Ye Hua had to take. By this point, Su Jin has been punished for all her other crimes and cannot be reached to be blamed for everything else, although Le Xu never seems to think to bring her up as a cause, nor think that she herself or the celestial royals were at fault.
• Missed Him by That Much:
  • Ye Hua goes to Qing Qiu to speak to Bai Feng Jiu about finding Si Yin, who he believes has a way to bring back the dead, as he wants to revive Su Su. All the while Bai Qian (who was Su Su) is inside the Fox Den and very nearly went outside to see him herself.
  • Shortly after the above, the Jade Purity Fan disappears from his hands so Ye Hua thinks it returned to Si Yin and goes to Kunlun Mountain to check if the disciple is there. Meanwhile, Bai Qian/Si Yin is there but she teleports away mere seconds before Ye Hua walks into the main hall to catch sight of her.
  • Senior Disciple Die Feng and Sixteenth Zi Lan, who have spent 70,000 years looking for Si Yin, walk into the main hall of the Eastern Sea King's palace just as Bai Qian/Si Yin hurries out the back.
• Mistaken for Cheating: Su Su/Bai Qian mistakenly thinks Ye Hua has lost interest in her and fallen in love with Su Jin instead. Ye Hua's behaviour only makes things worse.
• Mystical Pregnancy: Le Xu touched a Golden Lotus and became pregnant with Ye Hua, who's the spirit of the lotus in a human body.
• Not Quite the Right Thing: Le Xu offers a memory potion so Ye Hua can forget Su Su, as she wants him to be like he was before and to get over his sadness. Whilst it is coming from a place of love as his mother, she is basically trying to force him to be happy and go back to being the emotionless, lonely, good prince he was before he met Su Su. Nor does it take into consideration that if he forgot Su Su, then he either: wouldn't know where the hell his infant son came from, or would actually ''forget'' his son too. Given the damage that happens because Bai Qian removes her own memories, only to get them back, it's clear that this really shouldn't be the answer.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Some of Ye Hua's family serve as this for Su Su. They don't approve because Su Su is mortal. His grandfather, the Heavenly Emperor, is the worst if one doesn't count Su Jin, who is not blood related, but was effectively raised as his foster sister. Su Jin of course is extremely horrible to Su Su, ultimately causing her to suicide. Meanwhile, Ye Hua's mother only cares about Su Su insofar as Su Su is pregnant with Ye Hua's child, and says it to her face, allowing her attendants to treat Su Su badly. Ye Hua's father gets a pass mostly because he doesn't interact with Su Su, though his mother says he too is furious that Ye Hua plans to marry Su Su officially. The only one of Ye Hua's immediate, present, family who shows Su Su no ill-will is Lian Song. Meanwhile, they're all - save Su Jin - very happy about Bai Qian marrying Ye Hua, although Le Xu still has qualms about her due to being a meddling and overprotective mother. She fully goes into this territory when Ye Hua dies, and Le Xu blames his suffering all on Bai Qian even though it was not her fault.
• Off Screen Moment Of Awesome:
  • Dong Hua conquered heaven and earth to become Emperor. Yep, the laid-back, Pretty Boy Troll with the beautiful white hair.
  • Fox Emperor, Bai Zhi, took on the four divine beasts, possessing half the power of the Heavenly Father and won (injured, but seemingly easily healed). Yes, those beasts that kill all Li Jing's soldiers, overpower a disciple of Mo Yuan and Li Jing himself, and stab Ye Hua and tear of his arm. Bai Zhi overpowered them all, alone.
• The Old Gods: The Heavenly Emperor laments that there are few old gods left, and the ones that are around, tend to stay out of worldly affairs. The only deceased old god who is repeatedly mentioned is Heavenly Father; the living old gods include: Dong Hua, Zhe Yan, Mo Yuan and Bai Zhi. Of them, only Mo Yuan actively gets involved due to being the God of War. Dong Hua is retired but gives advice and manipulates from the sidelines, whilst Zhe Yan and Bai Zhi prefer being laid back, with the former only involving himself when he has an emotional reason to do so.
• Parental Marriage Veto: The Heavenly Lord doesn't approve of Sang Ji's love for Shao Xin.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Su Jin seems to be built for this, though she eventually meets her match in Bai Qian who puts her in her place.
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Ye Hua and Bai Qian. Eventually. After a lot of confusion and suffering.
• Poor Communication Kills: Bai Qian would never have jumped off Zhuxian Terrace or drunk an amnesia potion if Ye Hua had explained his plan to her.
• The Power of Blood: Type AB - blood from the heart of a nine-tailed fox can preserve a body. This is how Bai Qian keeps Mo Yuan's body intact for over 70,000 years.
• Product Placement: In episode 22, Bai Zhen and Zhe Yan are eating nuts and describing them...The same nuts appear multiple times throughout the series.
• Questionable Consent: Unfortunately, this does happen between Ye Hua and Bai Qian twice (if the times he uses a Forceful Kiss are treated in the context of that trope). In one instance, it seems it's supposed to come across as part of the cheeky way Ye Hua is trying to get Bai Qian to fall (back) in love with him. However, the second time is treated as being part of how she comes to accept she loves him.
  • Whilst she's in the mortal realm, Ye Hua comes to visit her and then decides to stay for the night. She turns to find him ready for bed and he asks her to get in. Bai Qian says she'll sleep on the floor as she's clearly uncomfortable, however Ye Hua points out her powers have been sealed so she can't fight back and whether she sleeps in the bed or on the floor, she'll end up having him beside her. He also then wonders if she's being deliberately coy. This prompts her to excuse that the bed is too small and she needs to be a good host and let him have the bed, before sheepishly agreeing to share the bed. The background music suggests this is supposed to be humourous and flirty, and they do only sleep, however Ye Hua did have all the power in this exchange.
  • After Bai Qian goes to get the Soul-Gathering Lamp from Ye Hua, he closes the door as she's trying to leave, carries her to the bed and begins kissing her rather forcefully, whilst having removed his top robe and hers. She tries to resist having her robe removed and the kiss, and then has flashbacks of her memories as Su Su, which adds to her confusion of what's going on. At this point, she's only just considered that she does have feelings for him. The next thing she knows, they're both naked because he used magic to get rid of the clothes and she tries to cover him up. Bai Qian only seems to consent at this point, once she asks if he really wants to be with her. Though she does act like it was consensual afterwards the problem is that the power dynamic by the time she does seem to agree is already heavily in Ye Hua's favour. Furthermore, it's hard to tell if she could have used her own powers to get away from him at the beginning as it's implied he's more powerful than her anyway.
• Rubber-Forehead Aliens: Non-science fiction example; some of the Ghost Tribe have horns growing from their faces and pointed or frilled ears. The Mermaid clan are similar, but they also have blue skin and fins growing from their faces.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Qing Cang gets sealed in the Bell of the East Emperor.
• Seduction-Proof Marriage: Ye Hua is only interested in Su Su/Bai Qian, the wife he chose for himself (effectively). When Miao Qing tries to use a dance to get him to notice her, it fails as he's far too interested in the wife he's rediscovered.
• Separated at Birth: A unique version. Mo Yuan survived birth, however his younger twin brother did not. Thus their father, the Heavenly Father, turned the miscarried twin's essence into a golden lotus so it would have a chance in the future. Hundreds of thousands of years later, that golden lotus induced a Mystical Pregnancy in Le Xu so she could give birth to Ye Hua, who looks uncannily like Mo Yuan. Given the millennia between their births and the fact only Mo Yuan (and possibly Dong Hua) knew the truth, it's hardly a wonder nobody knew or could figure out they actually are twins.
• Shipper on Deck: Si Ming ships Feng Jiu and Dijun.
• The Smurfette Principle: Whilst there are plenty of female characters, there is only ever one high goddess at a time.
  • In the beginning, the only known high goddess is Yao Guang and she ends up dying.
  • During the main part of the story, Bai Qian ascends to high goddess and the gossiping Celestial tribe members specifically mention she's one of the few high goddesses in the world. Thing is, we never learn who these others are (even her own mother is not of this rank as revealed prior) let alone see them, and she's treated as particularly special because of her lineage and position as queen.
• Snakes Are Sinister: Averted.
  • Shao Xin is a snake spirit, but she isn't at all sinister.
  • Ye Hua is able to turn into a black snake (actually a dragon that's become very small), and he definitely isn't evil.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Bai Feng Jiu keeps telling Dong Hua that her aunt has never left Qing Qiu since she was born, and doesn't have any connection to Kunlun. Despite her attempts at innocence, when she says she would never lie to her savior, Dong Hua just looks amused at her terrible attempt to convince him.
• Sweet on Polly Oliver: Yan Zhi and Li Jing fall in love with Bai Qian/"Si Yin". Li Jing realises she's a girl at once; Yan Zhi doesn't.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: Kunlun Mountain doesn't accept female disciples, so Bai Qian disguises herself as a boy to get in.
• Take a Third Option: The Celestial army, once it's revealed that Xuan Nu stole the battle plans. They can either surrender and submit to Qing Cang's rule, or go down fighting as is and take as many of the Ghost Realm soldiers with them. Mo Yuan manages to come up with the third option: getting half his army to sacrifice itself in a feint, so the others can outmaneuver the enemy and capture the leadership. Despite reluctance, they take the third choice and win, but at a massive cost.
• Taking the Bullet: Li Yuan tries to stab Li Jing. Yan Zhi and the Golden Lion Beast jump between them, and the Golden Lion Beast gets stabbed instead.
• Thanatos Gambit: Li Yuan gets Xuan Nu to kill him because his death will give Qing Cang more power.
• Treachery Is a Special Kind of Evil: By stealing Mo Yuan's tactical plans and giving them to Qing Cang, Xuan Nu caused around 200,000 soldiers on both sides to die, in addition to Mo Yuan sacrificing himself to stop the Bell of the East Emperor. Due to this, not only is she a Persona Non Grata within the Celestial Tribe, but to Kunlun, and her home in Qing Qiu - she's banned from the Nine Heavens save to stay in a hall, most disciples of Mo Yuan would like to kill her on site (as would Bai Zhen), and her mother disowned her. The betrayal was so heinous that the forces of heaven itself cursed her with the inability to bear healthy children due to the lives lost as a result of her actions.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • Bai Qian: She decided she wanted to attend the birth of her second brother's child and convinced Ling Yu to sneak off with her. They were caught by Qing Cang who wanted to start a rebellion, then had to be rescued by Mo Yuan who then protected her from her ascension trial and was hurt. This results in the war between the Celestials and Ghost Tribe, culminating in Mo Yuan's death, Qing Cang's sealing, and the loss of power and prestige for both clans. Naturally, she blames herself, although Bai Zhen points out that there are a number of factors involved and as several people note, Qing Cang was always going to rebel, it was merely a matter of time.
  • Xuan Nu: Aside from her jealousy factoring massively into the outcome of the war between the Celestials and Ghost Tribe, her ultimate Sanity Slippage eventually brings down the Ghost Tribe itself. Being jealous of Bai Qian and also wanting to revive her dead child leads to her taking A-Li and Mo Yuan's body and baiting Bai Qian. To protect herself, she uses the generals and soldiers most loyal to Li Jing and his regime. Bai Qian kills them all, leaving Li Jing with few supporters left to try and keep the Ghost Realm safe and to stop the re-emergence of his father.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Most of the characters have animal forms that they can change into at will.
• Warrior Prince: Li Yuan is a villainous example. Li Jing is a somewhat more heroic one. Ye Hua is a truly good example.
• Writers Cannot Do Math: Or rather, they didn't have trouble keeping track of how they adapted the story and the timeline suffered as a result. The big culprit of this issue is when Ye Hua's birth occurred. The depiction in the show is that he was born a few weeks after the Battle of Ruoshui River, making him 70,000(+) years old when the main story kicks in. In the book however, he was 50,000 years old (as his spirit took 20,000 years to help Mo Yuan begin to piece his soul together). This age survives in dialogue, such as when Le Xu says that Su Jin is 20,000 years older than Ye Hua, even though days prior she was said to be only 500 years old; or when Bai Qian says she is 90,000 years older than him, even though she's actually 140,000 and later says that Ye Hua is his show age (i.e. 70,000).
• The Wrongful Heir to the Throne: Neither of Qing Cang's sons are good rulers. The best that can be said for Li Jing is that he isn't outright evil like Li Yuan.
• Yandere: Su Jin will do anything, no matter how insane, to win Ye Hua's love. Even marrying his grandfather, and accusing another man of attempting to rape her.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: A day in the heavenly realms equals a year in the mortal realm. Or at least, that's what they say. The pacing can confuse this issue, as can the fact that the Adaptation Expansion has messed with the original story and the creators didn't pay attention when they directly adapted the book and when they added their own ideas.
• You Are Number 6: Mo Yuan's disciples refer to each other by the order in which they became his disciples. Bai Qian is the seventeenth disciple, so they call her "Seventeenth". Ling Yu is almost always called "Ninth", and Die Feng, the most senior disciple, is always called "Senior".

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