I really liked how everything was managed up until the seagod island .

After that the MC suddenly turns extremely arrogant (he suddenly masacres loads of high level beats and gets exposed / saved from apparently imposible situations that could've perfectly been avoided without giving him absurd power ups) and the author messes up with the power levels .("the bad" title douluos are supposed to have incredible amounts of experience go full retard whilst all the good ones have self made techniques) .

It almost feels as if any non main character is completely passive on large scale battles suicide against the main cast whilst they (the main cast) are in peak condition and retreating when they go out of fuel .It is really frustrating seeing how the all survive after having shown the weakness of boost powers against actual power in a battle of attrition (it's not as if an encounter with a random in 1minute would take the same time as a large scale battle that is supposed to be fought in days…).

... Last updated on December 8th, 2020, 2:14am

A premier example of a xuanhuan novel: a fantasy story infused with Chinese elements. Much of the setting are typical of a Chinese novel, but there are elements of ‘foreign’ influences like angel wings and Romanized names. Written by the veteran TJSS, you can see many of the elements that appear in his other works: great fights, humorous dialogue, emotional writing (Feeling like reading douluo dalu novel too much these days), very long winded narrative; all around an interesting premise of a world of spirit summons and martial arts.
Douluo Dalu’s key strength is in its characters. In too many stories the supporting cast are often relegated into the background, demoted as cheerleaders or forgotten entirely. In Douluo Dalu, the supporting characters are important. Each friend has role and they all work together as a team which is constantly emphasized by the author, all given their notable characteristics and dialogue to make them stand out from each other. The love interest of the main character is perhaps one of the better ones in this genre, as she is not just a pretty face. Indeed, she grows to be the focal point of the MC’s life and her destiny becomes the story’s plot later on.
The translation is top notch and the translator can be an example for the community.
Once the reader gets past the verbose style of writing, he or she can discover a story that has action, camaraderie, romance, struggle and tragedy. A very good first choice for someone who wants to start reading Chinese novels. For seasoned readers, it remains a well written story that has the usual elements of the genre.

those typical reincarnated time space traveller uber loser 4 butt cheeks talented mc learn super move from a scroll given by godly wereturtle dwelling on mammoth balls amulet that picked up to wipe ass while take a shit and pondering his past live on a riverside after 1000 level up from cultivation, training, hangover pills, previous live wisdom before fighting some cocky jerks from twisted families together with his harem collected here and there, RINSE REPEAT until you bald.

A bit long winded, at times the author can take 10 pages to describe something, for example the process of absorbing a ring or the system in which a tournament phases tale place which is unneeded and annoying imo. Likewise way to often he goes out of his way to explain something that would have been better left unexplained, either the explanation being ridiculous, completely unneeded or it's used only as a preamble that something is imposible, BUT, Tang san can do it anyways... If you are going to go ahead and completely disregard what you went to great length to explain then at least have the decency! of saving me the time of reading that crap, but no!... the author seems to think this makes Tang look awesome, I, think that makes the author look rather pathetic and dumb, a rule is not a rule if it is just there and is explained only for the purpose of being broken by the MC with no further explanation than "he's the MC".
For those who read the manhua, either start at the beginning or at the last fight in the first arena training, there are many differences between the two even if in a general sense they follow the same story-line, but it specially diverges after the continental tournament.

What I liked the most was the balanced main char, I'm pretty tired of reading manhuas and novels about normal guys entering the world of cultivation just to become amoral cretins who just go on killing rampages so this is a good change, unfortunately later on he becomes pedantic, condescending and quite manipulative. On the bad side, the MC is too perfect which is the main downside, why the author needs to make him the best at absolutely everything and have everything he does be special is particularly annoying, as usual this adulation of his own creation can be nothing else than self flattery, this two aspects become even more excessive in later parts. Also, it was pretty decently paced in powering up till halfway through where it unfortunately speeds up all of a sudden to ridiculous degrees.

Last, the translation and literary skills of the author are lacking, I get annoyed at the use of the double negative "not inconsiderable", "not insignificantly", etc. and the translator uses "how could" and "how couldn't" so often it's ridiculous, same for "if it had been" and "if it weren't for". Not to mention the author's clear chauvinistic writing, even if there are a few strong female characters the author can't help interject phrases like "even if she's a woman" or "after all she's a woman" and so on.
Just as with other novels the story and setting is also inconsistent, there are lot of contradictions (in this case going as far as contradicting itself within the same volume). This gives the feeling (or rather makes it clear) that the writer makes the stuff as he goes and hasn't given it much thought to the specifics from the start, another aspect of lousy storytelling and literary skills which imo, in a fantasy type setting worldbuilding is one of the most important aspects.

On a more general view, I really would appreciate if all Chinese translators would stop using extremely, excessively, unexpectedly, unprecedented and so on words all the time, those worlds are meant to be exceptions, something rarely seen if the translator and author uses them twice per page it just feels like you are reading the lame fantasizing of a high-school kid. I'll probably earn some hate here but this really is a problem of all web and self-published novels I've read so far, there really hasn't been a well written novel and that's my main gripe with wuxia, xiaxia and xuanhuan web-novels in general, they are more fanfiction than proper fantasy, that's the impression they all leave me and I can't imagine this changing without having the novels go through a proper publishing process.

The more I read the worse it becomes, this was a good novel at the start, decent about v20-25 and is close to unreadable after v30 or so in Seagod's island arc.

My favorite phrase: "How far would a three thousand-jin (1.5T) weight fall in two seconds" this pretty much says it all.

... Last updated on November 11th, 2020, 1:15pm

MC is perfect, almost everyone else is perfect. Every threat gets eliminated pretty quickly and no real sense of danger. If someone gets poisoned by an ultimate incurable poison the mc will cure it pretty much next issue. Everything is a "super legendary never seen in 100,000 years" special item/ability. Reminds me of how un-fun cheating in a video game can be.

... Last updated on December 29th, 2016, 5:35am

xainxai-type stories that don't have a harem, at least one rape, and an arrogant Jerk MC with a hair trigger temper are very, very rare, and the lack of those here makes me like this story even more.
tang san is calm (unless xiao wu gets hurt), smart, and has a pretty easy-going personality most times. he's a very likable MC.
the ring system for cultivation is intriguing; a nice change from the typical level-up systems and the side characters are quirky and interesting. i enjoy the team set up. the parts where the shrek seven devils are together are some of my favorite scenes.
the story is entertaining and doesn't make me roll my eyes with a gazillion "it cannot be!" and "how is it possible?" type statements that repeat over and over again in every chapter that has a fight.
can't ask for much more from a web novel.
if your looking for typical xian xai like martial god ashura or against the gods you probably wont like this one. if you want a break from the usual, then it makes a nice change.

for those of you wavering between the novel and the manhua, i recommend reading the novel.
the manhua is terrible and it cuts out a lot of important scenes or adds some that make no sense.

Considering the author is the same guy who wrote Guang Zhi Zi, the story about the bro harem, and Shen Yin Wang Zuo, which involves killing people for saying even the slighest insult against the MC's mother, I thought this would be as trashy as the previous two. But... wow. This blew me away completely.

Seriously, the description is just awful. It gives the completely wrong impression of both the MC and the world. Especially the "one without magic, martial arts" part. Many of the spirit abilities are indistinguishable from magic and the MC very quickly meets a character that uses a grappling style of martial art to regularly kick his butt. I didn't read this story for quite a while because of the description and it was a big mistake.

I think this is one of the better Xianxia style stories. There is more of a focus on group battles but the MC is still a typical Xianxia MC and so he is OP and the one who usually wins the battles in the end. That's just the nature of this type of story. I find Douluo Dalu to be a lot better than Shen Yin Wang Zuo by the same author.

... Last updated on December 29th, 2015, 1:19pm

@alphaGulp In the novel that i know, the MC (Tang San) love really Tang Sect. He is from a branch family but it's because he is from a branch and not from the main family he can't become a Inner sect disciple to learn skill books from the sect, therefore he decided to steal those skill books to reach the pinnacle (his goal) and broke the sect's rules even if he know he will die, he is already prepared to commit suicide and then some of sect's elders are regretful when they didn't react in time to stop Tang San. He don't care about low rank, he just love to learn more about hidden weapons.

... Last updated on October 28th, 2015, 3:27pm

The first few arcs are very good. But the last and final battle arc gets really sloppy. The seven monsters gets strong way too easy. Jumping levels like crazy.

Also, Title Doulou's, the strongest warriors are meant to be extremely low in numbers (like 10). This fact is almost a law in the first few arcs, but in the last arc the number of Title Doulou's are suddenly much, much higher. And they dies just like that...