I'm not a girl but I still enjoyed this.

This is a light hearted novel about a random girl been transported another world. She tries to find out what's going on and wtf happened. But she dies again and again before getting some clues. But that's ok she comes back anyway. There's lots of sassy internal monologue by our friendly female mc which is quite funny.

The perspective from a modern everyday gal getting dropped into a wuxia alternate world is refreshing from the usual male super-serious types. The gal also tries to solve problems through persuasion without killing anybody which is also sweet.

But of course it won't be much of a story if everyone agrees to sit down for tea. There's always stubborn butt faces who won't listen to girl powa. Just like in real life, situations can get quite messy and there's no real clearcut easy answer. I don't know the answer either as it's only up to c132. Only way to find out what our friendly female came up with is by reading the book!

Conclusion - Story: Good, Translation: Good, Characters: Fun, Read: Yes.

 

I loved this series. I started reading this in English, then I went and found the raws and read all the rest in Chinese, so this review covers the entire series. Bear in mind that the series is 400+ chapters, so even though some of the things I describe may not seem to apply in the early series, it most certainly does later on. I can say that by the end of the series, all the main plots are answered satisfactorily, and all the apparent issues with the MC turn out to not be so.

As a reviewer somewhere else put it, "this novel is basically throwing all the OP tropes into a melting pot and having Zhu Yao beating it into normalcy." This story is full of Mary Sues and Gary Stus... and it's the MC's job to fix the mess they create.

To start with, the main character. I love this MC. She is Far from a saint, she doesn't have some great aspirations. What she Does have, is a very solid bottom line, which applies both to her beliefs, And to protecting herself.
Is the situation way too dangerous? ... yeah, she'll run.
Someone tries to saddle her with unreasonable responsibility? ... yeah, she'll run.
You're a bastard? She'll tell you to your face that she doesn't like you.
You're a b*tch pretending to be friendly? She'll tell you to your face that she doesn't like you.
Try to harm her? She'll punch you right back.
Try to harm those around her? She'll punch you right back.
Trying to deceive her with dramatics? She won't buy it. Scram!
Trying to earn her favor with dramatics? She won't buy it. Scram!
She knows what love is and is not afraid to shamelessly go after it.
She knows what love is Not and will tell you to your face, so believe it or not, this story is not a harem. It's not even a triangle (it will become obvious later on). The ones with the harems are the 'bugs' she must fix.
She swears, she can be violent and she's fine with being an accidental witness to live action xxx.

But she also takes her responsibilities seriously, and cares for the ones close to her seriously. She is hugely tenacious: no matter how bad the situation is (and boy can the situation get bad), even when she's on the verge of dying (again), she'll do whatever she can to think of a solution. And though it may not be immediately obvious, this MC is (or at least will become) quite clever, able to see through schemes quickly, see trouble coming from a mile away, see the problem for what it really is, and see what's Really up with people (psychologically-wise). Some of her stances (such as her bottom line of never killing anyone) may seem naive at first, until the story gradually expands onto the 'big picture', and it becomes obvious that she is just the person needed to fix the cause, not kill the syndrome.

Apart from her, there's her multi-purpose Master, who joins her in many of her iterations. The two actually become a surprisingly complementary pair. As Zhu Yao starts relying on her master properly, her master looks out for her interests (he doesn't really care about anything else, so much so that he can't even remember more than a handful of people...) while she does what she can to fix all the 'bugs' in the multiple worlds. He backs her up with knowledge, power (and maxed out stats in domestic chores), while she risks herself at the front lines to fix the 'bugs' (which is a lot more complicated than just beating a few people up. Hell, most of the time, she doesn't Know what she has to do).

Writing-wise, the story is really funny, full of puns that are unfortunately often lost in translation, though it also has its share of sad/upsetting moments. Surprisingly, the story is not too repetitive, with enough variation between each arc that by the end of the series, I was rather sad there wasn't more. That said, some parts are definitely not as fun to read as others, and some have really slow starts. Everything concludes quite nicely though, though the ending feels a bit rushed.

Discovered this novel and got hook. The character is like-able, the setting is save the world, or rather worlds. With many bizzare situation and funny character, the novel still hold itself strong enough and getting me to finish it.

very, very silly.
its a fast read with interesting characters.

on another note.
alphaGulp....
(female fantasy #1: the most alpha male takes me by force!)
uh....no.
i can only conclude that most of your knowledge of women comes from shoujo manga starring a doormat female mc and a "devil" male mc.
there is not a single female i know who suffers from that particular fantasy. nor do they like to be grabbed by the wrist, dragged around, restrained, or told they are now someones property.
if you try any of that in real life your likely to be slapped at best (or punched), and then get a restraining order set out against you.
please do not assume all women are actually like those characters you read about in shoujo.

There's a few times that I've been introduced to a genre through parody, and though it's probably not the best way to do it, it's not the worst either. To the layman, a parody or pastiche can be incomprehensible, but if it's a well-crafted one it should be able to stand on its own. Of the three xianxia internet novels I've read, each one has been humorous, and after being spoiled by them I don't know if I would be able to stand the taste of straight-laced immortal Daoist action.

My Disciple Died Yet Again is a meta-pastiche, incorporating a few of the currently popular genres and devices to create an slightly metafictional isekai repeated-reincarnation cultivation romantic comedy fantasy. Our main character, Zhu Yao, a game-developer, gets sucked into a world of Daoist cultivation fantasy after being asked by her online friend to help them fix some "bugs".

This starts a cycle of Zhu Yao reincarnating in various guises and lives, handling a hairy situation and then maybe dying again. Typical of a Chinese reincarnation fantasy, her lives are intertwined with those of many others, most prominently her master, the comedically stone-faced and lacking in common sense Yu Yan.

The narrative voice occasionally dips into the equivalent of the common isekai otaku-reincarnator voice, which paradoxically means there are lots more translation notes and explanations for modern Chinese internet slang and memes than there are for any of the cultivation or fantasy aspects of the story. Despite this, the text flows, the translations are good and it's perfectly readable.

Repeated reincarnation is a good device to change the story up and introduce new things without it feeling jarring, and this is used to good effect here. Each of Zhu Yao's lives is an arc (I know, my standards have fallen too) itself, with tons of overlap because LOLimmortals. As we go on, we delve deeper and deeper into the mystery of what her online friend actually is, and what she is doing in the cultivation fantasy, but her adventures are enjoyable even without this fairly tame red line going through them.

Enjoyable, readable, relatively Chinese. Might be a good starting-point if you want to get into cultivation fantasy because it doesn't take itself too seriously, and there is no major grinding aspect to the story.

Caught up around chapter 191.

One of the novels that I can't get enough of.

It's a light hearted read with a focus on comedy. There is a plot but it takes a lot of chapters to establish the world, characters and setting. It's full of laughs and is one of those novels you shouldn't take too seriously. The interactions and relationships between the characters are gold. The tone has stayed consistent so if you like the first chapters, you'll most likely like the rest. Give it a shot! You'll know if it's not for you after 10 chapters or so.

If you are a girl you have to read this.

The story starts out all silly and makes you wonder what can come out of it if the main character dies over and over again.
The plot, however, still moves on despite her death and somehow her new rebirth form ties into the plot.
In addition, if you have patience or know chinese to read the online novel, be patient and continue.
After 80 chapters, the super cute love part comes in!

2alphaGulp
You're too hung up on the chick protagonist = chick fantasy. This is definitely not a chick fantasy, because the chick herself doesn't see her master as a romantic interest. In fact she doesn't have any romantic interests yet.

Yes, her master is an almost perfect, alpha male. Except he lacks common sense. It is explained in the novel that his master took him as a disciple when he was only 3yo. Since then all he did was cultivate.

So far this seems to be geared at the seinen audience, IMHO.

LOL. This one starts off pretty fun before really losing it (in just a dozen chapters).

What was fun at the beginning was having a different take on the typical wuxia-rebirth starting point - instead of having the usual super-motivated hard-working guy, we have a never-married 28 y/o independent female introvert who often acts very silly.

The comedic plot seems to hold it together for a while, but then it spirals way out of control:


So yeah, it's a demented chick fantasy. The humor felt very Japanese and formulaic, to be honest, but it still made me laugh a few times.

That being said, It is interesting to consider how she quickly finds her place each time and basically just interacts with people who have no choice but to deal with her short-comings as a demented chick (she finds people who desire her, try to adapt to her, or do things for her, etc.). In many small ways, she causes much woe to man, but to such a degree though that one can't even tell if it is for personal gain or as a training method, or perhaps just as a reflex, or a way to distract herself?

It's something to ponder...

---

P.S.: It seems my analysis upset a few ladies and white knights! To be clear: chicks don't want to be raped (obviously), but they ARE strongly attracted to the most alpha male (who is usually middle-aged), and WHEN that happens, their chick brain's preferred outcome is for him to MAKE THE FINAL DECISION FOR HER. She has already signaled that she is interested, and at that point it is far sexier for her that the the guy 'forcefully' take her, than for him to stupidly ask (ie: beg) for what is already clearly available.

One of the advantages for the chick when he takes her 'by force' (*with her approval*) is that she can keep playing the angle of being a victim, or a saint, or a pure girl, when in fact she is a hugely horny girl who actually really desperately WANTED to jump him, but doesn't want to say so, for social and strategic reasons.

Men generally will resent having decisions made for them, and they generally won't be spending their time TRAINING their master (ex: teaching him who the real boss is by having him desperately make sanitary pads for the MC!). This is totally a 'female fantasy', as we see the weak female lead hook, befuddle and break down all the powerful men (including the little boys in training!).

She may be weak, but she knows how to 'handle' men. Women LOVE that stuff, but I, as a man, don't care at all to see her so easily vanquish these (ultimately) very weak men. I think the author would have made a far more interesting story if there was more balance, if the victories by the female lead weren't so easy as to be revolting, in that a man cannot identify with ANY of the male characters (unless he is a pussy-whipped mangina).

... Last updated on January 10th, 2016, 8:35am