Ashes of Love (Chinese: 香蜜沉沉烬如霜; pinyin: Xiāng Mì Chén Chén Jìn Rú Shuāng) is a 2018 Chinese television series based on the novel Heavy Sweetness, Ash-like Frost (2009) by Dian Xian.^[3][4] It stars Yang Zi as Jin Mi and Deng Lun as Xu Feng in the lead roles.^[5][6] The series premiered on Jiangsu TV starting August 2, 2018.^[7]

The series reached 100 million views in just 15 minutes after the broadcast of the first episode.^[8] As of January 2019, the series has reached over 15 billion views.^[9]

Zi Fen, the Flower Deity, died after giving birth to a daughter, Jin Mi. She foresaw a future where her daughter would suffer a great love trial within the first ten thousand years of her life. Therefore, before dying she gave Jin Mi a magical pill that prevents her from feeling and expressing romantic love, hoping to avoid the love trial tragedy. Jin Mi grows up in the Flower Realm, living as a low-level immortal. Her peaceful life is interrupted when she encounters the Fire Deity, Xu Feng, from the Heavenly Realm who had crashed into the Flower realm. After saving him, she persuades him to take her to see the Heavenly Realm, where Jin Mi meets Xu Feng's half-brother, the Night Deity, Run Yu. She also meets Princess Sui He, who is a close ally & niece of Xu Feng's mother, the Heavenly Empress, and as a result, Sui He believes she will one day marry Xu Feng. Both Xu Feng and Run Yu develop a love interest in Jin Mi. Due to the magic pill, Jin Mi becomes unwittingly involved in a love triangle between the two brothers who become rivals for Jin Mi affections. Jin Mi, unknowingly, falls for Xu Feng, through the mortal realm trial experience. Jin Mi learns, later, of her true origin as a child of the late Flower Deity and the current Water Deity & she was also promised to the Holy Emperor's first-born son, Run Yu when the Water Deity married the Wind Deity.

Eventually, Jin Mi is tricked by Princess Sui-He into thinking her father and his wife, her stepmother died at the hands of Xu Feng. She kills him on the day of her wedding to Run Yu who has rebelled during his wedding against his father, the Heavenly Emperor, as Xu Feng is defending his father against Run Yu. As Xu Feng is dying, Jin Mi coughs up the magic pill. She realizes she does love Xu Feng and regrets what she has done.

Jin Mi feels guilty for killing her true love, Xu Feng. She wanders around the river of souls looking for Xu Feng and torturing herself for what she has done. She finds out Xu Feng's soul was retrieved by his father before he died who placed it into Xu- eng's Phoenix hairpin and gave to Sui He for safekeeping. She also learns there's an elixir which can bring back Xu Feng to life, but the main ingredient is difficult to find. With the help of Xu Feng's uncle the Marriage Deity and her friend, the green snake Deity, Jin Mi was able to get the main ingredient but at the cost of giving up her color vision. She gave the ingredients to the Medicine Deity to create the elixir of life. With the elixir in hand, Jin Mi found out Xu Feng's soul was being kept safely in the demon realm in a cave by Sui He and a demon king who was sympathetic to Xu Feng. She sneaks into the cave after Sui He leaves and gives the elixir to Xu Feng's soul. The elixir works and Xu Feng is bought back to life. Jin Mi filled with joy weeps and a teardrop falls on Xu Feng's face. She quickly leaves before Xu Feng awakens as she hears Sui He coming back to the cave.

Xu Feng is later reborn in the Demon Realm and is named as the new Demon King. He unites the Demon realm and wages war against Run Yu, who has now ascended the throne as Heavenly Emperor after his father died. He plans to make Jin Mi Heavenly Empress. Sui He, who went to Demon realm with Xu Feng, lies about how she bought Xu Feng back to life. Jin Mi can't help visiting Xu Feng in the Demon realm & frequently visits Demon realm to watch him secretly. Xu Feng is aware of her secret visits, tries to hate her for killing him and telling him as he was dying that she never loved him unaware of the magic pill given to her by her mother. To hurt Jin Mi, Xu Feng decides to marry Sui He knowing Jin Mi is nearby listening. Sui He is elated to finally becoming Xu Feng's wife. Xu Feng walks over to Jin Mi after Sui He leaves and returns the love token (a piece of her true form) she had given him. Jin Mi tries to tell Xu Feng she loves him and about Sui He's lies, but Xu Feng doesn't want to hear about it and tells her to leave or he will kill her. Jin Mi is completely heartbroken, destroys the love token and goes back to the Heavenly Realm. She finally agrees to marry Run Yu, but finds out he had manipulated the truth about her father's death. She refuses to marry him, tries to escape to go back to the demon realm to stop Xu Feng from marrying Sui He and to tell him the truth about Sui He & her true powers. Run yu gets upset and imprisons her in her palace until the day of their wedding which is the same day as Xu Feng's wedding. With the help of her friends the Marriage Deity & the green snake Deity, she escapes.

Xu Feng becomes suspicious of Sui He and her true intentions after finding evidence of her deceit. He and his friend, the demon princess Liu Ying, saw Sui He switch out the heartstone in the great hall which can tell if a couple is meant to be by using one drop of blood from each person, for a fake stone. On the day of his wedding to Sui He he arranges a plan to make Sui He show her true powers and deceit. Originally his friend the demon Princess Liu Ying was to impersonate Sui He and Sui He was given incense to knock her out, but at the last minute Jin Mi was substituted with the help of the Marriage Deity and the Snake Deity. Using a puppet spell, Xu Feng and Jin Mi are married by the Marriage Deity and pass the test of the heartstone. Sui He comes rushing into the hall stating the stone is fake and the bride is not her. The Demon princess Liu Ying arrives in the hall, to the surprise of Xu Feng, with the fake stone which had been switched out before the wedding for the real stone, found in Sui He's room. To Xu Feng's surprise, his bride is Jin Mi. Upset, Xu Feng demands to know the truth and who bought Jin Mi to the wedding. The Demon Princess Liu Ying & the Marriage Deity both tell Xu Feng to stop denying his heart's true desire. Xu Feng learns the truth of his rebirth from his uncle and of Jin Mi's sacrifices which Sui He took credit for. In anger & resentment, Sui He admits to her wrongdoings and it was done because of her love for Xu Feng. She shows deadly power given to her by the Heavenly Empress & tries to kill Jin Mi. Realizing the truth, Xu Feng stops Sui He, removes her powers and banishes her from the demon realm. Xu Feng admits to Jin Mi, even though she killed him, he couldn't bring himself to truly hate her, hated himself for it, but in fact, he truly loves her with all his heart. They reconcile and admit their love for each other.

A final battle arrives between the Heavenly Realm and the Demon realm where Run Yu states Jin Mi was kidnapped and detained by the Demon Lord Xu Feng, with a duel to the death taking place between Run Yu and Xu Feng. Jin Mi wants to stop the loss of innocent lives and realizes she must ultimately sacrifices herself to end the war and return peace to the six realms. Jin Mi's soul disappears in Xu Feng's arms and Run Yu, heartbroken about what he had done to Jin Mi and his people, declares he will not set foot in the demon realm ever again.

In the aftermath, Xu Feng gives up his position as Demon lord to his friend, Demon Princess Liu Ying, & tirelessly travels the six realms to search for the remains of Jin Mi's soul which is protected by the ashes of Buddha. He believes because of her great sacrifice to bring peace to all realms, her soul is intact as a reward somewhere in the six realms. For three years, his search is unsuccessful. He settles into the first place he shared on the mortal realm with Jin Mi. He discovers Jin Mi was, in fact, a teardrop in his eye after he opens a box full of drawings Jin Mi made of all their times together. Realizing Jin Mi will one day be reincarnated, Xu Feng resolves to wait for her.

Five hundred years later, Jin Mi is reborn alongside her father in the Mortal Realm. On the day of her arranged wedding, Xu Feng arrives in his phoenix form, kidnaps and reunites with Jin Mi, who has retained her memories. They elope.

Seven years later Demon princess Liu Ying works to bring a new age of prosperity to the Demon Realm. Sui He, driven mad by her defeat, rambles around in the Demon Realm's outskirts. One day, she mistook an entrance to a cave to be the Heavenly Empress' throne room and stumbles into the same cave where she once threw the old Demon King's sons when they insulted her. This led to her being eaten alive by one of the remaining sons. He appears to have eaten his own brother.

In the Heavenly Realm, Run Yu rules alone as Heavenly Emperor realizing it's not a position to be taken lightly. He notes this to his faithful female servant, Kuang Lu. She renews her vow to always be by his side along with his dream beast.

In the Mortal Realm, Jin Mi and Xu Feng live a happy & carefree life and have a son, who knows the story of his parents and tells it proudly.

The series began filming in June 2017 and finished in October 2017.^[23][24]

This drama was commercially successful, placing first among audience ratings in its time slot and reaching over ten billion views. It also received positive reviews, scoring a 7.7 on Douban.^[29] The drama was praised for its light-hearted yet grounded storyline,^[30] high production quality of beautiful cinematography and exquisite costumes; as well as the well-constructed plot and excellent performance of the actors.^[31]