YMMV / Sha Po Lang (Novel)

• Audience-Alienating Premise: The fact that the couple involves a man and his foster father is enough turn some others off from reading the novel. Although they miss the part where Gu Yun is assigned to be Chang Geng's official guardian only until Chang Geng comes of age.
• Awesome Music: The ending theme, "Moon as Flowing Gold", perfectly captures the aesthetic of the novel and is a poignant telling of Gu Yun's side of the story, particularly how he's devoted his life to serving his country and how Chang Geng has given him another reason to not die in battle and live to see another day.
• Base-Breaking Character: While the fandom never really gets into a heated debate about it, many fans do have difficulty in having a single unanimous opinion about Li Feng.
• Nightmare Fuel: Everything about the Bone of Impurity, from the origin of the name, to how it's made, and the effects it has on the person poisoned with it.
• Squick: While it's Played for Laughs, even some readers feel a bit of disgust when they learn alongside the protagonists that Liao Ran is not someone who bothers to bathe, let alone change his clothes at all.
• Tearjerker:
  • After Gu Yun gets into a confrontation with Li Feng over digging up the silk road to harvest more ziliujin, Gu Yun is punished and forced to kneel in the snow for hours. When Chang Geng catches wind of it and arrives to get him, Gu Yun's health already started to decline from the extreme cold, and the sight of his state is enough to make Chang Geng tremble out of both sorrow and rage.
  • Li Feng's death. Even though he acts obstructive sometimes, is susceptible to making poor decisions, and made the mistake of following his father's advice of regarding Gu Yun as a threat, he genuinely believed that he was doing the best he could for his country, yet he dies with the feeling that he shamed his ancestors for what he perceives to be his mediocrity.

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