"Doupo Cangqiong: Nian Fan" follows the aftermath of events in the Yun Lan Sect and is essentially setting up as the conclusion. It begins with the Jia Nan Academy arc, where Xiao Yan seeks his second Heavenly Flame: the Fallen Heart Flame. This arc serves as a buildup to his revenge against Yun Shan and the Yun Lan Sect. This is where everything starts to fall apart. After the second Yun Lan Sect arc—which inevitably takes place in Doupo Cangqiong: Nian Fan—the show begins to decline, especially if you've read even small parts of the Doupo Cangqiong novel or watched one of those AI-voiced summarieson YouTube.

The show basically turns into a Naruto/ Bleach-style anime where nearly every episode revolves around a battle. Old side characters are power-crept into irrelevance. Dou Huang characters are essentially extinct, and even random young adult NPCs end up stronger than Hai Po Dong. The cultivation speed becomes absurdly fast—everyone and their mother levels up multiple times within a year or less. Along with that, the pacing becomes extremely rushed. Some battles are glossed over or heavily shortened. Human-to-human, emotionally important dialogues from earlier seasons are either deleted or trimmed down so much that they lose all meaning.

Emotional scenes are also cut short to make room for more battles. How can you tell? Because emotional soundtracks that were frequently used in the past are practically never played anymore—those types of scenes no longer exist. You're essentially hearing the same four or five battle-themed tracks in every episode.

The only real improvements are in the special effects and animation, which have significantly improved—no denying that.

Also, for those rooting for a particular girl: if her name isn't Xiao Xun'er, she has no chance. The directors and writers have made it very clear in recent episodes (~episode 143 and beyond) who they're backing and who they aren’t.

Maybe the sudden shift is due to an attempt to appeal to a younger audience with a shorter attention span. But I truly cherished the emotional scenes from past seasons—they gave weight to the fights. Back then, even advancing a single star felt meaningful. I’m giving this show a fair 7/10 because early Doupo Cangqiong genuinely meant something to me. I think many longtime fans who followed the story through to Xiao Yan’s fight with Nalan Yanran would agree—it was a great show, and we tuned in every week. Nowadays I am just hoping they won't butcher the ending like they did it to Douluo Dalu.