This volume was mixed for me with some very high highs and some lowish lows. St's art continues to be beautiful, and the cover scene chosen is so wonderfully tragic.

A lot of points in this volume were very frustrating, where either Mo Ran or Chu Wanning would do things that just wasted time on page, because they knew they needed to do something but instead they went and did something else for a prolonged period of time for no particular reason. It might have been less frustrating if it didn't happen at least four times in the same volume and wasn't set during a narrative time limit. The first time, Mo Ran has to collected Chu Wanning's first soul before the night ends by finding the soul and then going to a specific location to start the next part of the ceremony. Instead he deviates to take the soul to his room, and then specifically just... chats. For what is described as a very, very long time, almost the end of the ritual. We're narratively meant to believe he's gained some wisdom and regained some of his kindness, but instead the entire section I spent thinking how much of an idiot he is for just wasting time like this. Yes, it's nice that he just wants to spend some time being friendly with Chu Wanning, but it just feels really dumb. The second time, Mo Ran is told that he "probably" needs to go to two locations because Chu Wanning seems to have two earth souls when he should only have one. Yes, Mo Ran does find one soul when he tries the first direction, and maybe that just clouded over his judgment and he forgot about the maybe other soul until he remembered, but he spends a lot of time afterward just being despondent because he doesn't understand why the spell isn't complete... until he remembers maybe Chu Wanning has another soul to collect. It's hard to feel sympathetic when you spend the time wondering why he just... forgot information he was just told.

The third time, Chu Wanning is so shocked by Mo Ran liking him that he just stares while Mo Ran repeatedly attempts to talk with him. Yes, it is very angsty that Chu Wanning is so unused to sympathy or affection, particularly from Mo Ran, that he's literally frozen in place and unable to move or react properly, but after having two scenes of long drawn-out frustration in the same arc, under the same time limit, this was really annoying. It just dragged a bit longer than it should have. The fourth time, Chu Wanning is busy trying to get them to escape... and instead gets hyperfocused on punishing Mo Ran for a perceived fault and yelling about how Mo Ran is a liar. I get that emotions are high, especially for Chu Wanning, and he feels like his happiness has been ruined, but this side thing to just punish Mo Ran was so weird. I love Chu Wanning, he's a great character. He doesn't have to be perfect. It's just hard to be like "oh yeah he's great but uh... he really likes beating up Mo Ran for perceived faults, huh".

The high points of the book generally made up for it, though. I honestly really loved Rong Jiu's return, and he's one of my favorite characters. He's got so many problems and he's just enjoyable. Mo Ran finally seeing through the misunderstandings and seeing Chu Wanning's affection for him was so wonderful. I still felt a little frustrated because he hasn't realized yet that someone was using magic on him to make him be less open, but it was nice all the same to see how affectionate he is towards Chu Wanning, and I look forward to going through that plot in the future. The wonton scene was so heart-wrenching. All the flashbacks were also wonderful. One of the things that drew me to this novel was a fancomic of a scene in this volume, where Mo Ran the emperor is trying to put on his old clothes and getting frustrated, and that part was so lovely to finally get to.

All in all, good volume with some frustration, but worth it for the story and characters. Looking forward to volume 4! ( )