#yingzhao

[avercwh]

general yingzhao

[shirop]

Centaurs 🐎

[cieorale]

my fave mods in pirate fits ☠️🩷 my entry for the 1st Anniv Fan Contest!

[dragaliareferencearchive]

Model references for Yingzhao: Winged Gardener - Aether Gazer *Please note that her released model has incorrect textures for her weapons

[clj-art-blog]

DFQC & XLH | | When it's cold in Cangyan Hai | Warming using different methods

[pinkmoonmp3]

orange by yingzhao liu via gatherjournal

[the-game-spirit]

aaaa difficult game go brrr

[radiant-pagoda]

game mode like this one [from the demo] so i can get silly with the rest of the bosses. pleadse

[himboblackdragon]

#why is there a goat#more importantly#why ISN'T there a goat in lbfad#ronghao buys a goat#the goat makes him smile#yes SMILE#and it breaks into his room and eats his best robes#and he calls it hao haizi#which means little devil#and then one day when Chidi is having an evil qi attack the goat comes and finds Ronghao#who knows something has to be wrong with Chidi#and then he finds her unconscious#and hao haizi insists on eating ronghao’s sleeve while he's trying to comfort her#and she wakes and says 'there's a presence in this house' and ronghao says yes i know it's hao haizi#yup ok yup gonna#just go now#and yup#ok (via @justalittlerabidyingzhao)

I'm here for this canon divergence. More goats!

Guo Xiao Ting Weibo | 2022.20.9

[possessable]

OKAY NOW THAT MEMORIES OF BATTLE MODE IS OUT I CAN DO A BOSS RANKING FINALLY

7. GOUMANG - i don't even want to replay this one

6. YANLAO - Eh? Not that bad, but nothing to write home about. Memories of this fight are fading from my mind actively as I type. What was I thinking about again? Something about a claw…

5. YINGZHAO - A solid first boss—nothing extraordinary, but I can't think of anything bad to say about it. Does a good job teaching the player how to parry. It's fun trying to Unbounded Counter the attacks when you normally wouldn't be able to in the game's regular progerssion. I like The Yingzhao.

4. JI (Tie) - I like the little gimmick where you can choose his next attack, that's really fun. Fun fight. I feel it sort of goes on too long though, much like Ji's life—or doesn't have enough variety of attacks, something like that. It's a nice fight though.

4. LADY ETHEREAL (Tie) - Fun fight. This was my favorite when I first played the game. uh. Wh. What happened? Why is she not even in the top 3 anymore? Wh? Anyway. It's really fun having to discern Lady Ethereal from the clones and attack accordingly and I love the infinite arena but, same as Ji's, still feel like it goes on too long.

3. JIEQUAN - Very fast paced and aggressive. I love it. His teleporting in the 2nd phase is really fun. I had forgotten how much he Erratically Jumps Around during his fight it's such a contrast to Eigong's very methodical and composed one. Can you tell I compare every fight to Eigong's because she's the only boss I was able to replay for several months

2. THE FENGS - I HATED this fight when I first played the game it was my LEAST favorite. But. It's. It. It…grew on me…? Fuxi's nice consistent attack patterns are a really fun contrast against Nuwa's Random Bullshit Go and it's really fun to…What's wrong with me? How did this happen?

1. EIGONG -

[himboblackdragon]

Catalog of LBFaD drama name origins

Mythology -> book -> drama

Dongfang Qingcang / 东方青苍: The origins of this name are hotly contested, and to be honest the only hypothesis I remember is the Azure Dragon of the East. East being "Dongfang," and the dragon itself being alternatively called "Qing long" and "Cang long." (x)

Haotian Tower / 昊天塔: The tower where DFQC was imprisoned in, in both media. There's no Haotian Tower in mythology, but "Haotian God" is one of the names of the emperor of heaven. (x)

Ninth You / Jiuyou / 九幽: One name for the mythological netherworld, the capital city of the Moon Tribe in the drama. The capital city of the devil tribe in the book. (x)

Sansheng / 三生: The name comes from the "Three Lives Stone" (sansheng shi 三生石), which represents a lot of things in Chinese tradition, but probably the most salient being a rock in the underworld near the Oblivion River. In the novel universe, the rock is graffitied with the names of the ones the dead passing by wished to see most. The stone seems to have transformed into human form in the first book of the series, succinctly titled Sansheng, which tells the love story between Sansheng and Moxi, the novelverse God of War. (x)

Siming / 司命: A folk god, and usually male, who oversees human fates. In the CLJ novel she is responsible for writing the Fate Books. (x)

Xirang / 息壤: Mythological self-expanding-and-growing soil. Although it plays a key role in the book, it only appears in a throwaway line in the drama, when Changheng suggests building XLH a new body out of it. (x)

Mythology/literature/history -> drama

Chengying Sword / 承影剑: One of the ten famous swords of China, in historical and literary tradition. From the Spring and Autumn Period. (x)

Chonghua / 重华: Chonghua is the given name of a legendary emperor of China. (x)

Haotian Matrix / 昊天阵: "Haotian God" is one of the names of the emperor of heaven. (x)

Hellfire / 业火: A Buddhist concept, the fires of karma. (I'm pretty vague on what it actually is and where it exists.) In the book, DFQC's powerful fire is usually just called "raging flames" (lieyan 烈焰), and it's red instead of blue. (x)

Liyuan / 澧沅: Li and Yuan are two of the four big rivers that flow through Hunan. Coincidentally, also the names of two of the four rivers that flow into Shuiyuntian, that flooded when DFQC broke the pearl. (x)

Love Tree / Seven-Emotions Tree / 七情树: The name "seven-emotions tree" comes from the phrase "seven emotions and six desires," (qi qing liu yu 七情六欲). The exact emotions and desires this refers to differ based on school of thought. (x)

Lord Dong / 东君: A deity often paired with Yunzhong-jun as one of the two primordial gods. Seems to be a sun deity. His name literally means "Lord East." (x)

Lord Yunzhong / 云中君: A god from mythology, often paired with Lord Dong as one of the two primordial gods. Sometimes interpreted as a woman. (x)

Oblivion River / Wang Chuan / 忘川: A river in the land of the dead. To cross it, you must first drink a soup that makes you forget your past lives. (x)

Qu Shui / 曲水: Literally "winding waters," the name of Xiao Run's pageboy might come from the upper-class drinking game "Qu Shui Liu Shang" 曲水流觞, in which players "wait by a winding stream and compose poems before their cups full of rice wine float down to reach them." His nickname Ququ'r is phonetically very similar and means cricket. (x x)

Return to Ruin Realm / Guixu Zhi Jing / 归���之境: "Guixu" was a place far to the east, that every body of water eventually emptied into. The characters break down into "return (to)" and "ruins." The "Zhi Jing" makes it "Region of Guixu" or "Guixu Area." (x)

Tai Sui / 太岁: A folk deity, but not necessarily evil. (x)

Xuanwu God / 古神灵玄武: Xuanwu is a constellation representing a tortoise-snake spirit. (x)

Xunfeng / 巽风: His name most likely comes from the "xun" trigram of the Eight Trigrams, of which the element is wind, or "feng." (x)

Yingzhao / 英招: Legendary creature that has the body of a horse, the face of a man, stripes like a tiger, and wings of a bird. Not like our waddling ball of fur at all. (x)

Yunmeng Lake / 云梦泽: One of the largest lakes in China in ancient times, now mostly nonexistent. (x)

Book -> drama

Bone Orchid / Gu Lan / 骨兰: It has more of a dried-vine aesthetic in the book.

Chidi Nüzi / 赤地女子: The god of war of the heavenly realm, in both media. DFQC's nemesis and the object of A'Hao's obsession.

Dayu Battalion / 大庾兵: Only mentioned once in the drama, along with the Tieyu Battalion 铁羽兵, as forces that Shangque has mobilized in response to Xunfeng's insurrection. Dayu's the name of DFQC's adorable (to me) pet sky/sea serpent.

Destruction of Heaven / Ruins of Ten Thousand Heavens / Wan Tian Zhi Xu / 万天之墟: A formless place where Siming can be found, in both the drama and the book. The book series further specifies that the Destruction of Heaven sits above the Three Realms and the Endless Desolate City (无极慌城 wu ji huang cheng) below.

Dieyi / 蝶衣: Ronghao's loyal right-hand woman is also present in the book.

Fairy Execution Platform / Zhu Xian Tai / 诛仙台: Where Changheng is to be executed after talking back to Yunzhong. In the book this was a platform over a mass of the book equivalent to evil qi/suiqi, which XLH was cast off from, almost getting eaten alive by the evil qi.

Fate Books / Mingbu / 命簿: The combination of these two characters seem to be an invention of the novel, and are records of the destinies of living people collected and administered by the land of the dead.

Fate Tree / Mingge Shu / 命���树: "Mingge," in both the novelverse and in the Love You Seven Times drama, are the stories high immortals (in CLJ's case, Siming) write to direct the fate of mortals. I'm not clear on the distinction between mingbu and mingge in the CLJ book.

Lucheng / 鹿城: In the book, a militarily important city of the Jin Dynasty, although the drama has styled it more into the Tang Dynasty, some thousand-plus years later.

Ronghao / 容昊: In the book, the wheelchair-bound master of the demon commerce city who's later revealed to be Chidi's obsessed student. We're not given the first character of his name in the book; it only ever calls him A'Hao.

Shangque / 觞阙: The name of the prime minister of the devil realm in the book, horrified by DFQC's erratic behavior while his body is being partially controlled by XLH. Show!Shangque's personality likely came from Dayu, Book!DFQC's overpowered flying serpent who follows him around like a loyal dog.

Shuofeng Sword / 朔风剑: "Cold northwest wind" sword, it's Chidi Nüzi's weapon in the book and the drama. It stays in sword form in the book, but becomes a geographical feature and a seal in the show.

Thousand Dreamland / Thousandfold Illusion / 千重幻境: A realm of endless very similar illusions that Ronghao/A'Hao tries to trap DFQC in to prevent him from finding XLH, in both media.

Xiao Lan Hua / Orchid / 小兰花: Our heroine!

Xie Wanqing / 谢惋卿: One of Chidi Nüzi's mortal incarnations in both media. However, in the book she is a general who's betrayed by the man she loves, an ordinary mortal, while XLH and DFQC watch.

Misc

Changheng / 长珩: Changheng's not in the book, but the book does have a troublemaker by the name of Changming 长命 who is DFQC's biggest "love rival" (he's like ten years old), and I wonder if the "Chang" part of Changheng's name comes from Changming.

Flying Fairy Pavilion / Life-Ending Pavilion / 飞仙阁: A reference to Xie Wanqing's real identity as the Fairy God of War. Also a euphemism for death.

Haishi / 海市: Conceptually, comes from the demon/nature sprite city, yaoshi 妖市, in the book. For the drama they got rid of the demon part and called it Haishi, Sea City.

Tongyun / 彤云: Xie Wanqing's maid, and an actual word that refers to red clouds or "dark clouds before snow." (x)

Xiao Run / 萧润: I'm not sure the Run part of his name is a reference to anything, but the Xiao is probably there to make the Xiao-lang wordplay work. (x)

Yannü 盐女 and Cangyan Sea 苍盐海: The "yan" is the same as in "Yannü." Which came first, I wonder? (The "cang" is the same as in Dongfang Qingcang.)

Sans Data

I do not know any special origins of, or was too lazy to look up:

Black Sash 黑杀斩, Bone-Devouring Spikes / Frost-Salt Nails 噬骨霜盐钉, Cangyan Sea 苍盐海, Changle Street, Cloud Shadow Mirror 云影镜, Danyin 丹音, Dark Pine Forest 暗松林, Dream of Nine Serenities / Jiuyou Dream 九幽一梦, Eternal Flame 长明火, Evil Qi / Suiqi 祟气, Firefly stone 奇幻流萤石, Fountain Palace 涌泉宫, Four-Water Pearl 四水宝珠, Fuju Cave 弗居洞, Glazefire 琉璃火, Granny Tie 铁婆婆, Green Flame Wine 绿焰酒, Hall of Divine Waters / Shenshui Ting 神水厅, Heart-Hidden Pin 藏心簪, Hidden Treasures Shop 藏珠斋, Jieli 结黎, Jinling, Jingyiya Teahouse 静逸雅轩, Karma Jail / Karma-Spanning Abyss 渡业渊, Liufang Pavilion 留芳阁, Night-Stream Building 夜溪楼, Northern Sea / Beiming 北溟, Primordial spirit 元神, Qingchuan 青川, Ranxi Flower 燃犀花, Shaking Light Peak 摇光峰, Shuiyuntian 水云天, Shuyu Forest 漱玉林, Silent Moon Palace / Jiyue Palace 寂月宫, Silver Lake 银湖, Soul Transformation Cauldron 化魂鼎, Soul Transformation Grounds 化魂墟, Southern Fairyland / Extreme South Fairy Continent 南极仙洲, Spirit Lock Gate 灵锁门, Spirit-Shattering Abyss 碎灵渊, Spirit Stones 灵石, Tianji Mirror 天极镜, Universe Pills 无极乾坤丹, Wind Prison 风牢, Wind Warriors, Wuqi 巫芑, Wuxian Clan / Witch-Salty Clan 巫咸族, Xilan 息兰, Xingluo 星落, Xishan 息山, Xiyun 息芸, Xuanshuang Whip 玄霜神鞭, Xuanxu Realm / Mysterious Realm 玄虚之境, You Jade Ring 幽玉戒, Yujing 玉京

Much thanks to sassybluee's Reference for Fic Writers.

This post is subject to change. Additions, corrections, and discussion welcome.

[glorious-sunset]

Reflections on Ep. 7 of LBFAD on rewatch

Shuyu Forest, Day 10: Xiao Lanhua (XLH) drew a possessed Yingzhao away from the other fairies but is about to become Yingzhao fodder! (where is her Xilan magic when she needs it?!) Our dashing anti-hero knocks the beast unconscious, saving both of their lives once more! DongFang QingCang (DFQC) can’t believe how close he came to dying again due to the insufferable one-heart curse and XLH’s reckless actions!! Where the hell was Shangque (SQ)?! He is about to kill Yingzhao but XLH stops him. In her gentle way, she purifies Yingzhao of evil qi, heals him, and captures him with a Demon Pill.

As Dieyi lurks in the trees behind them, DFQC, barely glancing in her direction, blasts her shoulder with excruciating Hellfire. DFQC chides XLH for her soft-hearted nature which led to her placing herself in danger. “I will remove this nature from you completely so you won’t be in danger again” he says, intending to add an emotion-repressive component to their regular training sessions. In the past few days, he had spent hours with her every day trying to improve her cultivation and powers, although progress had been slow (as he complained to SQ in ep. 6).

But it is XLH who rubs off on him instead. She explains to him gently that if she and the other fairies hadn’t cared about each other and worked together, Yingzhao would have devoured them all. Placing a soft hand on his shoulder, she says that no matter how dark and painful his past was (she has no idea!), she and others are there to help him through it.

Their tender interlude is interrupted by Changheng (CH) calling for her. XLH entreats DFQC to leave. “If CH sees me with you, he’ll think that I…” “What will he think?” he taunts her with a long stare, feeling irrationally infuriated by her infatuation with CH. “That you’ve been colluding and fornicating with a criminal?” He wants CH to believe that they are lovers, that he has irrevocably claimed her for himself, and she is off-limits to CH forever. The thought is delicious…he wants to kiss her in front of CH right now…

But for now, he lets go of this fantasy and disappears. It is too early to reveal himself to his enemies. A panicked CH grabs XLH’s arms and is relieved she is unhurt (no thanks to you CH! You’re hardly ever there when she’s in danger :P ) Appearing soon after, Ronghao (RH) now knows that XLH, the target of his failed assassination attempt, is CH’s secret crush. Lady Sansheng and Supreme Liyuan (LY) also appear and LY is very suspicious of how exactly XLH managed to subdue the rabid Yingzhao. Her priority is, of course, to protect DFQC, and she refuses to mention his presence there.

But she is worried when RH retrieves the evil qi she had dispelled and LY claims that only members of the Moon Tribe or celestial criminals could have reared such an evil force! Does that mean…that Da Qiang might have been responsible? This seem unlikely to her, but then, who else here could have done it? She does not suspect RH at all – ah RH, you are too good of an actor! Nobody ever suspects you of anything!

Fountain Palace: LY and CH believe there must still be an escaped criminal from Haotian Tower at large, and LY decides to seal off the Heavenly Spirit Lock gate until they are captured. This presents a problem for RH, who is unable to return to Haishi.

Arbiter Hall: That evening, XLH receives a message from Lady Sansheng congratulating her for achieving first place in the fairies’ examination that day! She is overjoyed! :D

Due to use of the evil qi, DFQC has realised that the people of Haishi who tried to kill XLH made another attempt today, and that it is connected to Lady Chidi’s destiny leaf. XLH interrupts his talk with SQ by asking him to join her for a chat. Still suspicious of why he was in Shuyu Forest that day, she asks whether he is connected to the evil qi. DFQC never explains his actions to anyone, and so, his ambiguous denial is not enough to satisfy her. On a side note, he has this habit down to a fault! After returning to Cangyan Sea, he doesn’t explain to Xunfeng, or the elderly lady of the hunters’ camp, or to anyone, what he had been up to for the past 30,000 years. Xunfeng believes he had been living in Shiyuntian all that time, as he challenges XLH in DFQC’s body in ep. 12: “you’ve lived in Shiyuntian for 30,000 years. Have you forgotten our rules now?”

But for the first time, DFQC’s evasion backfires on him, as XLH takes him by the hand and uses the Xilan seal to make him turn himself in! He is forced to compromise his usual behaviour and explain that he had been in Shuyu forest to protect her. Yingzhao would have killed her if he hadn’t been there! “If you die, I will die too. Your life is as important to me as my own life” he tells her resentfully. Note that the value of her life to him changes over the series. At the start, it is equal to the value his life only because of the physicality of the one-heart curse. Soon after, it is equal to his life due to his growing love for her. But soon, it surpasses even that, and her life becomes much more valuable to him than his own life! In ep. 26, he tells her not to use her blood to heal or revive others, not even himself. When she dies, he cannot bear to live, despite no longer being bound by the Xilan curse. And by the end, he sacrifices all that he is…his life, his spirit, his very existence, and is prepared to sacrifice even the memory of his existence…to save her.

XLH is overwhelmed by his sweet proclamation and by the fact that he has saved her life yet again. As they sit down to tea together in their usual idyllic alcove, she reminisces about the joyful memories they have created together over the past ten days or so. Just yesterday, during one of their regular teatime chats, she had happily recounted to him how she had seen snow fall in Haishi for the first time recently. To her delight, he had created snow around Arbiter Hall for her, and a little campfire to warm themselves by as they watched the falling snowdrifts together. In this little alcove, they had eaten her flower cakes together every day, both having a fondness for sweets, and curled up with books next to each other. He had helped her with chores around Arbiter Hall whenever she had asked, folding sheets and blankets with her and even cleaning (she mentions in ep. 9 that she got him to do chores). In the lead up to the examination, he had spent hours with her every day trying to train her powers – something nobody else had ever cared enough to do. With her damaged roots, no one else had thought she could improve, except for him – he was the only one who believed in her.

Every day, Da Qiang had collected dew for her, and taken her to see the sun. Usually for the first rays of sunrise, but sometimes he let her sleep in and took her to see the late morning sun. XLH was not a fast flyer and Yunzhong Water Pavillion was a great distance away, so he would inevitably carry her there and back again ensconced in his strong arms, while she also held onto him. She enjoyed that part very much, although it made her heart race to be so close to him.

But the sweetness of these memories only made her heart ache all the more. It was bad enough that she would have to cancel her result of winning first place in the exam, as she couldn’t accept a result that wasn’t completely her own. In giving this up, she would be giving up the one dream that had kept her going over the past hundreds of years, of working at Fountain Palace. But what was even worse was the thought that one day Da Qiang might be gone. She tried to tell him how she felt, that he was like sugar to someone who was used to taking bitter medicine. She wished he could stay with her forever, that she would never have to taste bitterness again.

DFQC did not quite understand, but she had given him much to think about with her speeches on the value of emotions. As he watched her sleeping that night, a vague memory came to him once more of being tortured to the point of longing for death, to have his emotions removed so he could control Hellfire. He was not fully aware of the reasons for this, but the Moon Tribe had been facing imminent genocide at the hands of Shuiyuntian and their lethal spirit-vanishing arrow formation, to which they had no defence (mentioned in ep. 16). In the end, everything his father had done, to his father’s own unimaginable suffering, had been to save DFQC’s life, as well as the existence of their people, both of which could only be protected through his son’s control of Hellfire.

Haishi: RH, twisted as he is, is trying to remember his beloved Master by forcing another helpless woman to disguise herself as Chidi. His relationship with Chidi was not romantic; rather, he revered her as the magnificent Goddess of War that she was. He had been a blind and unwanted little flute boy, abandoned by his family and by the world, who had condemned him to a miserable death. Nobody had cared to give him a scrap of food or warm clothing against the bitter cold. Lady Chidi had given him a new life, one where he had sight, power, wealth, immortality, and most importantly, was cared for. How could any other woman even come close to his formidable Master? His guards wait in the wings to carry another corpse away the moment the maidservant slips up.

Arbiter Hall, Day 11: XLH finds a firefly in her greenhouse! Luring it with food, similar to her way with Yingzhao, she captures it in the Magical Jade Firefly stone CH had given her. She plans to return it to CH while cancelling her examination result, thus giving up her dreams of both Fountain Palace and of CH. “Everything will return to its original place,” she says sadly but with acceptance.

Yujing: Danyin, in an awesome growth arc, threatens to beat XLH into a pulp if she talks about cancelling her exam result again! As a judge, CH will not hear of it either, and persuades her to keep the Firefly stone.

Haishi: RH, having tricked XLH into purifying evil qi and resurrecting an Ice Jade plant with green Xilan energy, realises that she is the Goddess of Xishan! And also, that she is under the protection of the Moon Supreme, who had used Hellfire on Dieyi, and on inspection, has escaped from Haotian Tower. Our power couple have been discovered! Rotten friend that he is, RH does not tell CH that the woman he loves is actually his fiancée :D Instead, he tells the unconscious body of his Master that they will be reunited soon. The drama doesn’t explain well why Chidi is undergoing mortal tribulations, apart from Taisui saying it will keep her spirit alive (ep. 22). In the novel, however, they are her punishment for reviving RH through unnatural means. Despite her resounding victory over DFQC, the cruel ruler of Shuiyuntian had condemned her to live through 1,000 mortal trials, and in each one, she would be doomed to be murdered by the one she loved D:

Here is a link to my episode 8 review (contains spoilers). All of my LBFAD articles and episode reviews can be viewed with the tag #lbfad reflections (hyperlinked) and the table of contents to these is here.

[shentheauthor]

HOHOHO IT GOES DEEPER THAN THAT THOUGH BECAUSE ITS IN LADY ETHEREAL AND THE FENG’S THEMES AS WELL. HOHOHO

I’m trying to prove a point. Does anyone else hear Yi’s theme in Ji’s boss theme.

[sassybluee]

Talk about what you love about XLH!

AHH what don't I love about her! Thank you for asking 💕

I really love how strong she is, while being physically weak for most of the story. She finds ways to navigate her world despite her disadvantages, like how she almost manages to capture the yingzhao during the exam, or when she drugs the Moon Tribe soldiers to try to escape. Never once is she helpless, even when the odds are all stacked against her. I really love how she constantly goes after DFQC whenever he tries to control her. Even if she can't do much against him, she won't stay silent! She WILL let you know she doesn't like what's happening. She WILL push back as much as she can. I love that she gets a couple badass moments, of course, but I love what she's able to do when she can't be badass.

I like that she also grows self-assured and decides she's fine not knowing her origins. I'm sure she must have some memory of the wedding night in Lucheng, enough for her to be curious about it, but she doesn't pursue it further because she's content with what she has become already. She doesn't need anything else, even if it meant she'd have more power and finally prove her bullies wrong!

I love how sweet she can be, but I really love that she can be manipulative (though she's never malicious). I love her penchant to poison/drug people. I love that part where she goes on and on about all the bad things she called DFQC before she knew who he was. She's so funny.

I like that, although she grows throughout the story, she remains true to who she is. She doesn't let the past harden her, though I'm sure she grieved quite a bit once she could. She isn't vengeful, though she had every right to be with everything Ronghao had done in the past and in the canon timeline. She remains hopeful during the 500 years of waiting.

And she's SO CUTE omg. I want to pinch her lil cheeks.

[many-faced]

ranking the nine sols main bossfights minus Eigong bc i havent finished that one yet

I will note while this is a ranking, I think all of these fights are REALLY good. Some are just even better than others. Fuxi and Nuwa is the only one I sort of disliked, but even then I did enjoy the bossfight!

I'd be interested to hear other's opinions :>

1. Ji Challenging but SO entertaining. I also just love his design. Probably actually my favourite Sol and I am including Yi in that equation.

2. Lady Ethereal Similar to Ji, challenging but fun! She marks the end of midgame imo, and perfectly sets up the crowd control and quick visual identification skills you'll need for the areas going forwards.

3. Goumang Looks tougher than she is. Maybe a bit easy, but a fun gimmick! Kicks up the difficulty a bit alongside Yanlao, but is a lot weaker. I recommend fighting her before Yanlao, even though you can technically do them in either order. Despite her being weaker, still very entertaining!

4. Jiequan A bit fast, definitely a good skill check for the halfway boss, though! Would recommend bringing the gene eradicator, though. Makes it SO much easier. Some azure bow upgrades wont go amiss either.

5. Yanlao Old man. Fun patterns, second phase is a fun challenge, all about timing and patience. A tough but still reasonable difficulty spike alongside Goumang, eases you out of early game and into midgame well.

6. General Yingzhao A great introduction to how the main bosses feel. Simple patterns, not too fast, but still a challenge for his place in the game.

7. Fuxi and Nuwa First phase is fun and simple. The second phase SUCKS. It's doable but I found myself relying more on luck and hoping Fuxi doesn't do certain patterns at the same time as Nuwa's charge or jump. They're also just my least favourite sols overall, design-wise, personality-wise and lore-wise. I do really like the Empyrean district area, and this is still an entertaining bossfight, but it's just not as good as the others.

[ar1bee]

Feng Lai from The Legend of Shen Li

Commissioned by Yingzhao!