Some spoilers
Soulmate Adventure is a breath of potential. ya go through it and it has that rough, newby energy. Where it's really messy, but you can see the vision, see things coming together. You just have to support it and give it time. Season 2 and these specials are testament of that. The animation, art style, backgrounds and such were massively improved. There were still plenty of animation bits that looked a little funny, but I can accept that because the action is always stellar. this series has great action, lore, and heart.
it doesn't follow a lot of rules. It's the kind of series that makes its own rules, which feels fairly common in the Donghua space. China has been writing fiction for years, and has been heavily sectioned off from the rest of the world. Every Chinese game and series I've seen has elements of other types of fiction, but the writing style feels much different. It tries to focus a lot more on subtext and foreshadowing, as well as surprise twists that honestly you'd think would be set up. A difficulty is that Bilibili's translation isn't particularly amazing, or easy to follow. You also just have to learn to roll with information and twists.
It can make the plot feel pretty messy, but that has its own enjoyment. The rough upstart kind of enjoyment. Flaws as just as charming as positives I like to think. Soulmate Adventure has a lot of those, but they're part of the fun. The characters are charming, action scenes great, the music, and character designs, and the heavily implied gayness of the leads. yeah, Ling and Yuxiu are such a good pair. They're cute.
Something that also comes from chinese fiction is that they either have different architypes, or just don't feel constrained. I can't say for certain, but i have a feeling that these animators are given good funding. Like how do you have two seasons and specials that are very written to be part of an ongoing story. They have moments of trying to wrap a lot up for the audience, but also don't feel the need to force a complete story in. Let the story and characters breath and all that. This leads to slow pacing, but it works. The fight scenes especially make it worth while. If they make a third season, I hope it looks even better and that the writing gets even better, because there's a star in this kid, and I look forward to seeing shine.

time for spoilers.
Also the last few minutes of this special was SO GAY! the way Ling and Yuxiu flirt is adorable and they were so close to kissing at so many points, and they decided to name a sect after themselves, specially their names fused together. simply BLISS. Thanks for reading.
It was a shame that one a few of the characters didn't get much time to shine, but I guess they didn't have the time. these specials could've stretched into a whole season I think, and that would've been for the better. There's a lot you can cover in a tournament arc, you can add depth to factions and different characters, and they could've set up a lot of plot points more. But I guess they didn't want that. I'm guessing they had these episodes as the finale for season 2 and didn't want to make a whole other season just to fill time. A real shame, but I get it.