I watch in engsub, so I'm gonna rant in English.
1. Well, firstly, magical het. Yay. There are lots of beautiful characters of both genders, but I ship guys with girls! Yay! I even started telling myself het bedtime tales again.
2. Secondly, magical equality. Super-inner-power-martial-arts-sect accepts both lads and lasses equally. Half of sect-leaders are ladies. A father tells his daughter she must not fail him, not in the context of marrying some rich brat, but in the context of winning a sword competition. Top four powerful characters are still men, but what do you know, I'm only at episode 17.
3. Main character seems a bit of Mary-Sue by episode 17 (that scents competition really has come out of nowhere), but she's not annoying yet.
4. Deeeeestiny. Love this stuff. Maybe I'm a romantic or some such.
5. Positive non-romantic interaction. I just recently figured that I can't approach relationships from "I like you, let's date, then kiss, then make love" angle (people get to know each other already with a relationship in mind). It only works in my mind through friendship (people get to know each other without considering each other relationship material). Well, in this show, they deliver it my colour, my size. Looooots of interaction, care, rescues, all before romance is in either party's mind.
6. Unemotional male character. It turns out I'm kind of partial towards those. He's kinda like a Vulcan. (This is my happy face.) All cool and collected, and he even lives in the Hall of Emotionless, how awesome is that? It's not like he's totally unfeeling, but he's very reserved and in control of himself. Also his position doesn't allow him a romantic relationship. He's just asking for it, right?
6. Lots of men seem to love the main character for seemingly no reason, which I don't like. Of course, it usually comes handy in the adventures, and she rather graciously deals with it, but still. Makes it more Mary-Sue. Even though I don't understand the envious women. "Men like her, so let's give her trouble". What gives? They'll only like her better, the wronged party usually engenders compassion.
7. No religious references whatsoever. Like, none. The entire setting seems to deal with magic without deities. Except the "ten deity devices", but even those seem to refer to some absurdly large force rather than an object of worship. No worship, period. Only "cultivation" (that is, actions towards increasing one's "inner power"). Also, practical immortality! Like really practical! And it makes one beautiful and healthy, too! Tom Riddle cries poisonous angry tears!
8. Awesome music.
9. Ambivalence. You think "okay, those are good guys, and those are bad guys", then it all gets mixed. Kind of like in Person of Interest. Also, the question "why didn't this character kill that character" gets raised a lot (would somebody kill Greer?). But I guess it's kind of... realistic? Rather than fairy-tale where the hero just kills the villain?
10. Also, beautiful villains. Even the guys that are probably supposed to look ugly.
11. Odd passive practice of Chinese language. Folks talk about themselves in third person, and make up odd monikers for their friends. Also, I finally found out the correct spelling for "Da Gen" and "Xiao Mei" from Petshop of Horrors (大哥 dà gē; 小妹 xiǎo mèi). Only it seems those are used for good acquaintances rather than actual blood relations (maybe that's why they're not listed under family honorifics in Wikipedia). If only I wasn't too lazy to actually stop and read the labels in han characters...
12. Overall aesthetics. I Just Love It. Of course, lots of flowing clothes, lots of beautiful faces, lots of long hair. Chinese epic, what can you expect?
UPD: Also, they're not allowed to use magic outside of