I was a little dissapointed after I finished this novel. Not with the novel itself, but with what people make out of it. The plot is fine, but nothing breathtaking. Author can't write battle scenes, they are so boring that you just skip through them. Progression system is weak, and mc power ups are even weaker with a lot of "mc got insight, meditate for some time, now he's stronger, deal with it". The best part for me were dialogues, they are really good and kept me reading untill the end. But the end was kinda rushed so that's a meh as well.

7/10.
Not the best novel as people try to make it seem, but totally worth to read.

I have nothing but the highest admiration for this novel. It does so much right, has interesting characters, a well-realized and fantastic world, and an intriguing plot to boot. All without wearing out its' welcome like so many other series do. Its like whenever think you think everything's gonna be ok, something comes along and unexpected things happen.

I really love it when it feels like the author sat down before the series and thought out how the plot was going to go, and you can tell that this story was carefully considered before being written. This seems like a small thing to praise but I honestly feel like Coiling dragon has no useless chapters or subplots, everything feels necessary to the story and moves the plot along.

Well, I told you my opinion of the novel, so I won't say more. It was just to make you understand that this novel is really magic, and I'd recommend it to everyone, even the ones who never tried any Chinese novels. Thanks Ren for translating this great series.

... Last updated on June 29th, 2016, 6:14am

Novel starts out dull, then gets better, but towards the end it gets dull again. The author forgets a lot of stuff or more like he throws them away without mentioning them again. If you want something better from this author I recommend Desolate Era, it has been much better so far. The one saving grace for this novel is that is already finished so you can read it in one go.

... Last updated on May 15th, 2016, 9:55am

I will keep this short because most of the comments below are pinpoint. The beginning is quite slow, but I understand it was for the plot development. The middle part of the novel is quite good, however the last 1/3 of the novel was bad.

At one point in the middle of the novel, the author didn't give a shit about the world building he was creating anymore, it just went right now the window. I was anticipating a grand adventure after the MC went to the higher realm, but it fell flat. Every character besides of the MC becomes useless, along with deux ex machina in the novel. The author didn't give a shit anymore and wanted to wrap everything up.

After finishing the novel, I enjoyed it, but no way would I read this novel again. A slow beginning plus, a bad 1/3 of the novel, doesn't warrant me to recommend reading this novel. I gave this novel a 6/10, but it would have been much lower if I didn't finish the novel, because at the end of the day, I was satisfied when finishing the novel.

... Last updated on September 4th, 2016, 12:21am

Bottom line, there is a lot missing for such a large universe. Character development beyond a few main characters was seriously lacking, and the time skips were annoying. Even saying all that, I was still hooked. I've read it twice, and it was more enjoyable the 2nd time through. The thing that annoyed me the most about the story was the constant revenge, complete revenge, rinse and repeat.

Furthermore, the universe was so large and the adventures could have been far grander than they were, but for some reason it seemed like the author was in a hurry. What I enjoyed the most is just about everything not mentioned above. Like I said, I was hooked. Something about the story draws you in, and I for one could not stop reading it.

Overall it was a very enjoyable read, and most likely I'll read it again for a 3rd time in the future. My gripes above are very insignificant compared to the enjoyment I had in reading Coiling Dragon.

... Last updated on April 6th, 2016, 3:21pm

In other words, either the author is a moron, he considers his readers as fools or this story is only for young teenagers with not yet developed reading comprehension.
The first five volumes are indeed captivating and it also gets entertaining in book 11, 13 and 14 but in all cases the quality quickly dissipates once again.

When you've read up to book 8, 9, 10 and further you'll notice that since book 6 the protagonists' actions become more and more naive and shallow, the dialogues inexplicably emotionless and unrealistic - obviously, regarding the respective in-universe -, and the narration as well as the story or plot itself repetitive, stripped of any complexity and lastly arbitrary.



(Note, my ratings are way stricter so ignore the number, they're for my own list.)

... Last updated on April 1st, 2016, 5:57am

This is an amazing novel. But why the low rating? Generally because of how almost half the novel is disappointing. Basically as the title says, the abysmal parts of the novel is during the beginning volumes as well as the ending volumes. Bad start, poor end. The rest of the novel, is perfect.

The beginning few volumes deals with character development and maturity in terms of emotional and attitude. I have almost no qualms with that except that it turns out to be a few dull arcs. Honestly, its like watching a movie about a boy going through middleschool and highschool. Terribly boring. Furthermore, whats the point of the "maturing and growing up" aspect when in later parts of the novel, the MC regress back to his emo, immature side when bumping into various hurdles in life of a cultivator? Very contradicting and an entire waste of the 6 volumes of "growing up".

Now the mid-portion of the novel is excellent. Plot really begins to build up and the MC actually starts to do something or take action. The happenings are in short exciting, engaging and intriguing. Really solid and well written 10-12 volumes here. These mid arcs are where the true essence of the story is in.

Then comes the final few volumes or 1/3 of the novel that most readers dread. All i can say is, the author probably got writers block, ran out of ideas, got sick of writing and wanted to end the story. Absolutely atrocious. Its like kinda how a published series got axed and the author casually throws in a couple of volumes for the sake of milking a few last ditch sales and then conclude it at all means. Absolutely ZERO fucks given in later arcs. Moreover the ending leaves readers dumbfounded, in a bad way. Theres no intricate plot within a plot, early plot hints end up being abandoned/ignored while many plot holes get plugged with bogus explanations, really no effort to link the various arcs and plots. Things also get repetitive and sluggish as the author does a lot of time/plot skips, the story itself is almost non existent and amateurish. The author is clueless. Its aggravating and very irresponsible. This is also where the character power level progression just turns absurdly stupid. What i'm furious about is that 4/5 of the novel focuses on the MC while he is in beginner-mid ranks of cultivation while only less than 1/5 of the story is reserved for when the MC progress to the high ranks and peak ranks. Yes, its documented he spend thousands of years for the higher ranks but in terms of content/plot & no. of volumes, there is almost no intention for "end game content", he just instantly skips ranks and level up to god mode and the story ends abruptly. During the ending few arcs, readers had to laboriously endure climbing up the hill and at the end of the journey they end up at a cliff where the only option is to jump down and suicide.

So there you have it. It is a good novel but the slow, monotonous start plus the badly written later potions just kills the novel. I'd still recommend it, at least for the middle arcs. Also do not pay much attention to the earlier reviews and the novel ratings. I can assure you, more than half of these reviewers and readers did NOT finish the novels. They have absolutely no idea what they are doing and are just rating based on an alpha/beta product. I literally face palm a few times reading these earlier reviews.

... Last updated on March 11th, 2016, 8:38am

This was my 3rd xianxia after Battle Through the Heavens and I Shall Seal the Heavens. You have your typical protagonist who trains extremely hard and is motivated by revenge/family. Some of the previous commentators mentioned that there's a problem with power progression which I agree with; the power levels are somewhat balanced and cohesive in the beginning of the book, but towards the middle until the end of the novel the author keeps on broadly expanding power levels but at the same time also acutely raises the MC's power levels as well to make him stay relevant, resulting in abrupt power level changes that don't feel coherent/smooth. The story began to unravel in the final 25% of the novel as well (right at the end of the Divine Beasts vs. 8 Clans Arc) as the author suddenly introduced a deus ex machina to wrap up a major story arc without contributing anything towards the world building or overall story, then introduces a trite arc which rehashes elements from earlier arcs without providing any story progression or plot enhancement (if you've read the Fullbring Arc in Bleach you know what I'm talking about). Unfortunately, the story consistently tumbles from here, and while there are occasional bright spots, the rest of the story was consistently poor enough that I felt justified in reading every 5th chapter in order to get to the end.

First 75% of the story: 8.5
Last 25% of the story: 4.5

Overall most of the story was enjoyable and kept me reading, which is why I gave it an 8 overall.

The first time I had the chance to stumble upon Ren's work on wuxiaworld I was a little drawn back. I couldn't expect a country known for its history to give something so fresh. After tons of harem, crappy comedy, most idiotic plots in the entire history and many others like these that you can find in most lightnovels, this xianxia opened my eyes to an entire different form of entertainment. It has a lot of bad things, from the rushed ending to the tons of plot holes. Even so, this one will be my very best xianxia that I ever read just because it made me start reading even more than I actually did.

Now, before I say anything, I will say that this work was enjoyable. The writing was easy to understand, and the action was fun.

Overall, this novel is a lot like Mushoku Tensei in style, with an OP character growing up. However, the writing and plot are a lot more primitive than in MT; foremost, the author uses far too many timeskips, so instead of the adventures of a kid growing up, you get the adventures of a kid in short periodic episodes and then short periods of blank space. It starts out OK when they are just like 1 year, but soon we are hitting 30 year timeskips, then 100 year timeskips, and then we get like thousands of years passing in a timeskip.

My second complaint is that there is really only 1 character that matters in this story: the MC, Linley. Other characters are fairly shallow in depth and aren't very important. The villains are so forgettable you might as well be watching scooby-doo. Most side characters either die or go forgotten for literally thousands of years, and some are forgotten completely. On top of that, even things that the main character do have little impact and are quickly forgotten. Linley becomes a master sculpter... and he makes like 5 statues total, before the author ditches it to go on another power fantasy. It results in a underdeveloped world that could have been so much more interesting. Which leads me into my third complaint:

The third complaint is that the world building is shallow and poorly conceived. The author made the main character too powerful, so the world gets absurd and hard to relate to very quickly, whereupon the author realizes that the world is too powerful so he boosts Linley, and the cycle continues. On top of that, the mechanics of the world are chaotic and contradictory: for example, when a character becomes a deity level, they can split off a clone, one of which is saint level, the other of which is a god. If the divine clone dies, they can redevelop a divine clone, albeit at a slower rate. But becoming a deity is based off understanding of profound truths, so how the heck do you not instantly become a deity again, because the saint seems to be able to comprehend these truths equally, despite their power when used being lower.

Overall, it's a fun story and interesting action, but it's like cotton candy. It has a sweet taste and is fun, but it lacks any depth of flavor and leaves you wanting something more substantial.