After having read quite a bit of the genre, I've obviously noticed some common traits between all these novels: the length, power fantasy, and other elements which are almost always present. I can safely conclude that a xianxia is way more than just a novel about one's rise from mortal to god. However, you'll regularly see a xianxia criticized for the same reason : the novel is too repetitive, the protagonist is too strong, etc. Therefore, I have to ask myself : if those are the defining traits of the genre and obviously something people are looking for, why are they also appalling and what makes a good xianxia?

Similar to these novels, the world of comics also has a few drawn out mastodons and they happen to be extremely popular : One Piece or Tower of God are a good example of very long comics where the main characters go from one adventure to another, in a seemingly endless trip which only very slowly gets closer to being concluded, but without even an end in sight. It takes much more time to draw a comic though, so few of these have been finished and they can't compare to the size of xianxia novels with millions of words.

There's clearly an appeal to a long novel where you follow an unending adventure. As a youth, I always desired that, but growing up I mostly got bored of it and looked for shorter but better reads. Yet I still ended up reading TMW and absolutely loving it. I will not deny it is repetitive, but I don't think it is a bad repetition because I was not reading this novel looking for a conclusion. First of all, TMW does not place a huge importance on story points and focuses much more on the protagonist's adventure. Since the story is not very important, the evolution and ending doesn't really matter, so the reader doesn't particularly look forward to it. If you read this novel, it's only because the present chapter and story is entertaining and there's little chance you'll be frustrated because a plot point whose resolution you wanted to see has taken hundreds of chapters. There are such moments, but they are not really that important.

One of the thing I really love about this novel and which made me read it all the way is quite simple: world building. I've seen many people that didn't share my interest and criticise the novel for being wordy and trying to "fill" the chapters while the writer is having a block. I don't share this opinion. One of the main reasons I really like TMW is because the author spends a lot of time describing the world and how it works. It's not always amazing but there are a lot of good ideas and it renews itself constantly. The protagonist is always travelling to a place which is different, where the organisations don't work the same, with different types of powers... all of this kept the novel interesting for me and I couldn't get bored out of it. I felt like the repetition of the arcs was just a pretext to build this world.

Yes, it's always Yi Yun arriving somewhere and going from a weak random dude to being a local powerhouse. But every arc is also the opportunity to explore where he is and learns as much as the protagonist would about things. I never felt the novel to be drawn out at all. It doesn't spend thousand of words describing emotions or repeating the same thing, it doesn't have one young master popping up after the defeat of their younger brothers to avenge them. In fact, I think most of the arcs were concluded in a pretty good way. The novel has a format it always follows : the protagonist arrives as a weak person and observes his surroundings, which is a great occasion to do world building. A few likeable characters are introduced as his new companion and friends to involve the reader and make him care about the world, then the protagonist has to face some kind of obstacle. There is a build up and every arc will be concluded with a big fight that doesn't disappoint and which is very satisfying, it's also the opportunity to introduce cool cultivation techniques. The only thing I'd criticise is that way too many people underestimate the protagonist, which was a bit too cliche. They keep building up excuses as to why he's not as strong as he seems to be, which is a bit more original than most xianxias but still annoying. It's only in the last few hundreds of chapters that everyone acknowledges his power, but they still make up some excuses for having to fight him.

Another thing I particularly liked is that there were many interesting antagonists, and that is from the very beginning of the novel. They aren't amazing by any means, but they are more than just your typical young masters. The author does acknowledge their value and doesn't just ridicule them, which helps in respecting them and liking them as antagonists. A few of them were recurring in the novel, which helped to build them as characters. I only regret that both Yi Yun and his enemies are always so needlessly cruel and can't resolve things without murder because I thought a lot of these antagonists would be nice to keep around or would at least deserve to repent.

Finally, I do think the novel had some good characters which made it particularly enjoyable, but I'm very sad that they are often skipped without ever reappearing. A few of them especially had way too much importance at first then were completely forgotten and never mentioned again. I think less than five characters from a part of the story will reappear a few hundred chapters later, but even they are forgotten. The novel would have gained a lot more love from me if the protagonist took the time to revisit past places and meet with his friends (and enemies) again, alas! There were also really interesting story elements, cultivation techniques, and some minor things that kept me going so I have to say, I really liked reading TMW.

Like a lot of other Asian novels, their writing style is so cringy. The way they over-describe everything makes me want to barf. Especially when a female is introduced. The MC acts like they've never been around a female in their entire life. Though, I doubt these authors ever interact with women, anyways. Women might as well be aliens to them.

... Last updated on March 12th, 2020, 6:35am

In all honesty this story hardly deserve the hype it gets. Author has been going in circles from the very start.

Every arc author would introduce few arrogant "genius" who would look down on MC and ultimately get their asses kicked by MC. 400 chapters and all the antagonists have same personality. It's like in every new arc author just changes the name of character. That's it.

Story so far: There would be a tournament /challenge -> Side characters would tell MC's luck is bad as he is facing some hotshot -> Opponent would look down on MC as MC doesn't have impressive background -> MC would show his awesomeness -> Excellent character shilling -> Repeat.

Instead of fleshing out side characters or improve the world building author would waste chapters on "arrogant genius" who hardly matters. Every arc we will see new arrogant genius with same personality but different name.

... Last updated on May 28th, 2016, 9:06am

I would have more positive things to say if not for the developments around chapter 360, which were pretty disastrous.

The novel is being written day-by-day (translations have caught up), but unfortunately the author tried to do too much business travel while continuing to write daily and so the quality dropped precipitously for a dozen or more chapters, leaving behind a lot of plot holes, or more specifically just a lot of disappointment with a whole bunch of things in the story that now feel largely pointless.


... Anyhow, there are lots more things and even semi-important side characters that seem to have been completely forgotten, but even if the author ropes them back in later, it's just going to be awkward. Where is the MC going? It seems to change day by day, without him accomplishing his previous goals!

To make things worse, at one point the author got angry with his fans for daring to criticize these developments, which only served to show how the author lacks the ability to see certain glaring, obvious flaws in his work, which makes you think there is much less hope of improvement then!

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That being said, up to that point I actually enjoyed the story, but I think we are seeing here the big problem with publishing daily for so long: some things were not well thought out (how can they be, when in such a rush, and when you can't undo anything?).

I think the author overestimates his own intelligence (by a lot). If he wants to write a better story, then he probably needs to spend a year (or more) working on it (like a regular author), so he can work out all the details to perfection, or otherwise he needs to accept that he's just writing pulp fiction, and seemingly without even a care for coherence or memory of past chapters. Being in denial about what he is doing or what he is able to achieve is not good.

Anyhow, what I enjoyed for the first ~300 chapters was that the conflicts were generally better than most Wuxia out there because the enemies were a bit smarter than usual (thus the tension was higher) and also because the MC generally smartly stayed on the right side of karma, so he felt more deserving of his good luck than most wuxia MCs.

But then later on he revoltingly 'forgets' hundreds of people he faked caring about, which makes whatever he is saying/doing from then on become totally uninteresting: who cares about the promises or emotional bonds of a dirty little scammer/liar who lies to himself so easily that he conveniently 'forgets' about people as soon as they become bothersome to think about - after all, it's so much more fun for him to focus instead on some dumb new grill so he can get laid, huh!

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.... All-in-all, I just can't get over how condescending and self-absorbed the author was in his comments - especially considering how bad the story got from then on. I think he is very stupid, on very many levels. I doubt I will bother reading any of his other stories, because he is frankly very insulting to my intelligence, due to how stupid, unaware and yet simultaneously condescending he is.

... Last updated on October 8th, 2016, 11:28am

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I've finally found a readable wuxia novel. Usually, I find the protagonist too evil for my taste. Always extracting petty, brutal revenge on every people that offend him. The protagonist is still ruthless but he's not smug about it and is not in the habit of lording it over people. The author at least gives his focus on giving us an exciting story. It's straight forward but I've grown to enjoy it very much. Binge read it in two days. Would definitely recommend if you're looking for a good addicting, read.

I can see the potential romance but no romance so far,
Yun Che says even if you're at the very top of the universe if you don't have someone to share it with you, it's still nothing!!!
Well see in the later chapters then!

and this novel is definitely a must read!
Story is good, plot is good, characters are better, even though the pace is kinda slow it's still good imo, author explained enough bout the cultivations, techniques and battle descriptions, etc. Even though there's lot of explaining, it's not boring. Author knows when to time skip.

I like the plot about kinda waiting for that to happen and how it will be described lol.

Anyways, you would definitely enjoyed it, especially the brick! About the brick?

... Last updated on April 2nd, 2016, 4:33pm

i like stories where the author spends some time on world building and giving their characters a unique personality, rather than them being a typical bundle of traits. so far, yi yun is almost as quirky and funny as zuo mo (world of cultivation), though he is leveling up a lot faster and his thinking isn't as skewed.
i don't thinks its slow, but i can see how people with shorter attention spans would think so.
if you find this story slow than you'd probably like more typical xian xai like martial god asura and peerless martial god better.

The story is long-winded but very interesting in my opinion. Kind of like whether you like Only Sense or think it's a good book to fall asleep. The later arcs have good action and hilarious scenes. And of course the limelight scenes that have been anticipated are worthwhile. I ended up doing a two day marathon to catch up to the present chapter.

... Last updated on March 13th, 2016, 2:34pm

Yes if you were to compare this to other xianxia novels it would be considered slow, but it doesn't feel out of place here. The pace works very well with the story and really makes it a memorable journey.

I marathoned this in 3 days. Even while marathoning I could feel the slow pace. But I will tell you what, I havent had so much fun reading a novel in a long while. This is definitely worth the read and the slower pacing is its only flaw. ZTJ novel is actually slower than this one and I still enjoy it a lot, so this slow pace it's not that big of an issue at all. The author does a wonderful job of making you excited for the future which makes it hard to stop reading.