It's with a very heavy heart that I'm giving it 3 stars but honestly there's so very little of Lan Wangji and I was actually reading for him to say something other than  "Mn" and one word. I liked the rest of the story but I'm a lovemaniac and I can't go without the lovey-dovey shit!!! 😭😭😭

This volume was a bit slower paced since it was mostly flashbacks for different POVs that are filling in the backstory of what happened while Wei Wuxian was gone.  I do like non-linear story telling but when the present timeline is such a brief slice in between two rather large portions of the book it felt like it was missing something.

I think this set the tone for what is to come as well and built on the foundation of the relationship with some realizations and playfulness in the shorter bits of the present timeline.

So I’ve been going through these books pretty quickly because I can’t put them down, and I have to say, this volume is VERY much a step up from the previous one in terms of plot.

First, I have to admit: I clearly see why the fans of this series ship Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji so very, very hard. Their romantic connection really starts chugging along in this novel compared to the last one, and I have to say I’m enjoying the ride thus far. It’s hilarious reading about how Lan Wangji tries to hide his feelings from Wei Wuxian, while also expecting Wei Wuxian to remember things that he clearly does not. Wei Wuxian, on the other hand, is obviously on an emotional rollercoaster as he goes through the highs and lows of “Am I or aren’t I?” regarding his romantic feelings for Lan Wangji, and while it’s funny, it also makes me hope he gets over himself fast enough so that he can stop breaking Lan Wangji’s heart whenever he plays things off as a joke, or claims not to remember something (even if that last bit is often true).

They also actually develop as characters in this volume, as compared to the previous one, so it’s easier to be even more attached to them and want to see what happens to them as the story goes on. On top of that, the ending of this volume really drives home their romantic connection and sets it up for the next volume, which I’ll be reading as soon as I manage to get a copy.

And it’s not just Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji who are interesting characters in this novel; it’s the others as well. I wasn’t entirely fond of Jin Ling, for instance, in the first volume, but in this volume - especially during the events in Yi City - I’ve developed a soft spot for him, as well as for the Lan clan juniors who went through that whole harrowing mess. Lan Sizhui will always be my favorite, I think, but Lan Jingyi comes close too, now that it’s clear he’s just a really emotional kid and therefore does not fit the typical mold Lan disciples tend to fit into.

But what really stood out to me in this volume is the theme of truth, and how perception and power can alter what is considered truth, and what is considered false. I won’t go into it too much, since doing so would be spoiling the whole thing, but suffice to say that the Yi City story parallels the later Golden Carp Tower story, and it’s FASCINATING to see how knowing the first story (which reads like its own self-contained arc) affects how one reads the second story. To be fair, the groundwork for these themes was already laid in the first volume, but it’s here, in the second volume, that those themes really come to the fore and are highlighted - to heartbreaking and tragic effect. It’s also clear this is a theme that’ll run across the entirety of the series due to how it also applies to Wei Wuxian and his history as the Yiling Patriarch, so this is a thread that will clearly develop alongside others as the story progresses.

Another theme that I would like to make note of is the concept of orthodoxy vs. heresy - at least where it applies to cultivation techniques. It’s clear that there’s a line drawn between “proper” techniques and “improper” ones, and that application and development of the latter is what got Wei Wuxian in trouble. I’m not quite clear yet on why Wei Wuxian’s techniques were considered so terrible beyond how he was fond of using ghosts and the dead - but then, I guess that’s what the next volumes are for. Still, this theme ties in quite nicely with the whole “truth is what you perceive it to be” theme I mentioned earlier, so it’s going to be interesting to see how this works out further down the line.

Overall, this is a great continuation of the series, and I’m going to be diving right back into the third volume as soon as I get it because I really need to go know what happens next.
 

The episodic webnovel sprawl of the thing really starts to come out in this volume but it's all good enough you don't care