I was looking about for a good Xian Xia or Wuxia. Friends recommended it when I asked about a good world building and epic saga. XianXia/Wuxia seems to be very very long, chapters numbering in the thousands on average.
Smart MC? Not true. He's cunning - yes, but that is because everyone else is so dumb. If you put an idiot in a class of retards, does that make him smart? Hell no. He is more intelligent than average MC, that is for sure, but I wouldn't called him smart. Why? There are so many ideal opportunity he misses. If he really is smart as you all says, he should have notices those opportunities or at least made comment or references to them. Situations he got in and out of is more or less plot armors. So he is only smart when the plot needs progression?
A little annoyance of mine is stuffs given on a silver platter just because he is the MC. It is something I despise the most in any fiction. The MC works for his progression? So Meditating in a cave and swallowing EXP pills calls hard works? Am I missing something here? When did hard work, work beyond your limit, with blood and sweat each day, exhausting yourself to the point of death to just gain that extra level has been reduced to this?
When I first read one of the Xian Xia novels, I thought the EXP pills was just a plot device for that particular novel, but every freaking novels so far has them as a mean for progression. These things are a cheat. You don't train with them - you mediate with them. You don't break sweat with them. All you need is swallowing tonnes of these, and how absurd they appears despite their incredibly rare status is just mind boggling.
Complex characterization? Lol - he is as complex as a white piece of paper with some winkles. There is no dot on the paper for me to focus on so my eyes wandered just like the MC until someone write something on it to define him.
The MC was a scholar, who as far as I understand, follows Confucius. It implied he is a great follower to the point that he failed the imperial examination because he got no one to rely to. It wasn't due to his lack of wisdom or knowledge. Cool. That great. He's an underdog? Yet, as the story progress, he spits on Confucius values the moment he gained status in the world of cultivation. His rapid changes of values wasn't a problem at first, but how he went from A to C, skipping B in matters of few paragraph of expositions. It made me cringe. This guy just swing to whatever wind blows at him, are you fucking kidding me? Real people do not do that. They holds onto their values, and true heroes, despite adversity, will not throw away their values they gain throughout their early life. Complex? My ass is more complex.
Another problem with this story, and probably Xian Xia in general is: Monster on top of monsters. No matter how powerful you get, there will always be someone more powerful than you. I get that. MC need something to strive for, but Xian Xia upped it to eleven. How to sound more epic? Add more insane godly character into the scene, only have them killed by even more insane godly characters who appears because the plot called for it. Their arrogance so overshadowed the protagonist's one that you immediately root for the protagonist because you lack the brain to remember what he just did a few pages ago. Lol
Power level up is a joke. Not that it didn't make sense, it's the way it was handled. Qi Cultivation is the lowest form of level just like in every Xian Xia. It's like a universal thing. Let's say this Qi Cultivation is level 1 to 99 if it was an RPG game. Easy to understand right? Everyone play RPG at least once in their life.
So being level 1, fighting against level 99 = instant suicide, but if you got good items, potions, armors and weapons, used your turn correctly, a level 80 can beat a level 99. If you got shitty items, you just need potions - lots of potions. Attack, endure retaliation, drink potion, and repeat. It's painfully slow, but you can take down a boss type monster this way. So in this story, the MC... oh wait, it's exactly like that? Is this a game? No matter how much the MC get injured, he will be up and running about in a few line of exposition.
Getting to level 99 is an impressive feat, but wait. There is a legendary level 100! It will takes you years and years of hard work, training, blood and sweat - or swallow these pill and sit in a cave. You don't need to eat, shit or sleep. Just sit in the cave while I exposition your progress. Pretty much.
And once the MC reached level 100. His level reset to 0 and he needed to reach level 99 again, just on a new playing field. I like the Qi Cultivation idea because it gives good indication of how powerful the MC can be, but overused is bad - is very bad!
My initial understand when reading the story was: Qi Cultivation, reaching level 9, then form Dao Pillars then Core Formation, then Nascant Soul, then Spirit Severing, then something, then something, then something, you become Immortal. Cool. Pretty straight forwards. Easy to understand, right? As the story progress, each stage after Qi Cultivation expanded more and becomes even more draggy, to the point that each stage is the same as the previous one, just with a different name.
Qi Cultivation - 9 level with legendary 10 to 13 levels.
Foundation Formations (Dao Pillar) - You don't have one, you have 9. They comes one at a time, with a slice of fractured, cracked, flawless and perfect. Ummmm.... isn't that the same as previous one?
At which point, the story stated there were several stages of Spirit Severing... so basically endless leveling until the author decided to fuck it and give the MC all the power boosts he needed?
Each stages has nine levels with legendary 4 levels that no one seems to reach, which our MC will reach because he got plot armor. I don't know about you guys, but I hate reading rehashed stuff in the same story. Training phrase is fun in the beginning, but strategic phrase should start afterwards. Use what you have to beat up opponents that more powerful than you. Using artifacts in ways that no one else thought of.
In fact, the MC went from stage 10 to 13 of Qi Cultivation in matters of chapter. One chapter in fact, and I'm going to guess that he's going to go from somehow fractured foundation to perfect foundation in a very shot amount of time? Hacks much? That brought me to my Ex Machina point, which underplay badly in the reviews.
Holy shit, there are so much in here that it aren't funny at all. Lacking resources to cheat your way into next level of Qi Cultivation? Here is a mirror that duplicate stuff at an insane reduced price. Lacking godlike weapons? Here is a sword that can steal Qi from other people, which you definitely won't abuse - no, scrub that, here's another one, because what better than having one legendary? Having two legendary! You can steal people's hard earned work at a double rate, you douche bag. Needed Spirit Stone to exchange for all these godly items? Here's a mountain worth of them. Oh, don't worry, when you run out, I'm sure you will find an ocean worth of them with little effort.
Yeah, bullshit that this story isn't full of hacks.
Sighed. I don't want to spend pointless words describing how misleading the reviews in this section are. This MC is pretty much like every other MC. Just because he got a little cunning, it doesn't mean he a smart MC. Show is intellect through his actions with interesting twist and turn. He barely worked for any of his power up, and you guys are so blinded to that simply because he is called the MC. He can cheat and hacked his way into godhood, but when someone else does it, that person is evil? It's like Naruto versus Sasuke. Hypocrite much?
And what bothered me is the MC's flipping personalities. Depends on the situation, his personality could do a total 180. Basically: "I will not kill unless the plot demands it." After committing sins, he will explain why he did it and reverted back to his more usual self. A few chapters later, it was never mentioned again.
Meh. Entertaining - very, but shitty story is still shitty. You can watch mindless TV shows for hours on end. It doesn't mean the story isn't stupid. Honestly, I enjoyed it for the first book, but randomness at the end (turtle in space) made me dropped it. No, I'm not kidding. There is a huge turtle in space at the end of the first book. Hilarious? Yep. Made sense in the context of the story? Hell no. Then book 2 starts with him basically rehashed of him at gaining his first Qi Cultivation Level. It just called Foundation Formation now.
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