Here's a different type of traditional wuxia/cultivation novel for you. If I could describe it in a sentence, then it would be; "a brutal, grimdark cultivation novel." There's no empathy and it accurately portrays the harsh, competitive environment, where everyone climbs a mountain of bodies in order to fight for resources and get stronger. Everything makes "sense" and the actions of the MC is logical - though brutal at times. The MC is, what you would call, a "villainous" MC, and the reason for the apostrophe is due to the fact that his actions are sometimes necessary, but it also displays his arrogance and dominance as a talent. You really get a feel for his character in the first chapter, and I'll insert a warning here, it can be *very* jarring. You read it, and then think, "No way can this be the MC. He's a total dick." But because he's a dick and not a spineless, dickless MC, unlike many other traditional wuxia novels, it's refreshing - but in a dark and twisted way. Spoiler here; in the first intro, he had just forced a girl of a rival sect to oral sex, and killed her lover in front her, and then killed her once done. Though the oral part is not mentioned explicitly, it can be deducted, and because the story starts of with the females point of view/backstory, it really portrays the harshness and lack of empathy the MC has. You then keep reading, thinking, "no way is this the MC", and then he comes across another character, with MC vibes and you think, "Yes! Finally the 'real' mc and this scumbag gets his justice." But, (un)fortunately, no. This type of twists and turn keeps you reading, slowly getting addicted to the no-nonsense MC, where you slowly get to learn more about him, and his circumstances. With this slow reveal, you unconsciously begin to accept him, root for him, and accept his brutal ways. His lack of empathy in this competitive wuxia workd becomes his strength and makes him "cool." And as if to contrast this, you also slowly begin to realise how deeply flawed other wuxia novels are - they say that it's competitive, but none of their characters in their story takes the same measures. Think about it, if your life is constantly on the ropes, would you have time to go left and right to conquer beauties or spare you rivals? No! You'd use every means at your disposal to gain strength, plot against your rivals/enemies, and further you agenda. This brings me to the second point; the side characters. They are pretty well sculpted, with their own agenda, ideals, and background. As of now, not much is known, but the MC's flashback unveils a larger story and gives more depth to the side characters. If you think the MC's a dick? Wait till you meet enemy/***** nr. 1 - it's damn near chilling what she does to gain strength. There's no right or wrong in this world, only who's weaker or stronger. Might makes right - and in this novel, it does so in the most brutal, no-nonsense, unfiltered kind of way. Dark pleasures, anyone? As of chapter 18, we've been introduced to some superficial side characters, and a few prominent ones - we're still learning more and more of the plot and MC, but not much has been revealed. This brings me to the story progression, I can see that the author is taking the long route; slowly building the characters, their relations, and unveiling a bit of the world a chapter at a time. We don't know why the character wants to become strong or why he's cultivating, though a little has been hinted at his meagre family background that could potentially have plot relevance. As of chapter 18, MC is just a ruthless, overbearing, and prideful mc, but the plot is slowly starting. I find this good, as you need time to adjust to the new paradigm mentality and the circumstances of the MC, and I'm eagerly reading to uncover more about the MC, and thus stumble upon the overarching plot in due time. Lastly, this is a pretty new story, so I'm cautious about predicting update stability. (cont. In comments).

One of the best cultivation novels I've ever read, at least top 5 of all time for sure. The characters are extremely well written. The Mc can be seen as the "rich young master" of the novel, but an extremely smart and charismatic one. The novel is well aware of the tropes inside it's genre, and plays really well within them. Every character has a personality of its own, and makes their own decisions based on their personality. Let's not even talk about the world building and cultivation realms, everything is well explained and has a reason, not just the same a to b increases qi by a billion fold. While reviewing this, I come to realize that this is probably top 3 of all time.

Just like before, I'll be brief and to the point. (Curse 140 Word Count). To all those reading, will read, thinking of leaving a review, comment, power stone, or reply to my comments, I thank YOU for being apart of this! Let's move forward, strongly and with anticipation for the future.

Novel is a Huge let down there is such a miss leading intro, for some reason the MC starts off as like a ruthless killer but then he just changes into neutral good and it’s super boring

For some reason I can't comment so I'll say it here. Briliant! Another incredible story that has me pumped and really interested. After reading hundreds of cultivation novels and getting bored to death by a lot of them I find this one a breath of new air. The character is really intriguing and is more in line with the "Young masters" of other novels. But his intelligence makes you feel like he is gonna stay, a bit like history's strongest senior brother in his demeanour. I am expecting even more. Well done!

Reveal spoiler

I’m doing this review as per chapter 22, it’s a little early to write, but this novel is doing great so far, and I think it deserves it. It’s a long review and if you don’t want to read it all here is a summary: It’s great, without much clichés so far and if had been one, or I haven’t noticed or it hasn’t bothered me, the MC is mature and intelligent, nor too soft nor too hard, but ruthless nonetheless, a little OP, but the good OP, side characters, and enemies have well written personalities and motivations, not the young master type. The story is entertaining right of the bat and is a really good read 5/5 overall, one of the best originals so far, so go read and enjoy it. Writing quality: As I’m not a native speaker I can’t say for sure that there are no mistakes, but as of now, to me, the grammar, style and sentence structure is great, no glaring mistakes that take you out of immersion and wants to make you hit your head on the screen, in fact I haven’t seen any mistakes at all. And as the author is already pretty experienced, I don’t think it will have. (5,5) Story development: So far, it’s really good, the pace is good, not to fast that you don’t know what’s happening nor to slow that it becomes a chore to read, nice and steady, as the MC is already older we do get some flashbacks, but they are really minor so far and well put, as they do not take you out of the main story, just enhance it instead. (5,5) Character Design: Just awesome, the MC is great, mature, intelligent, and I mean he seems intelligent by real world measures, not by normalizing the entire world population IQ to -30 so that everybody says that he is The God of Cunningness and Machinations, which so far we haven’t seen much from the MC, but he is good in seen through them, anyway he is a “good”, he is not soft nor a pushover, he is apparently ruthless, but knows when to act, and does great with the girls hahaha, so far the best part of the novel imo. About the side characters, they are great, really well put together, with realistic views and distinct personalities, the antagonists we have seen so far are well built with reasonable power and ambition, not one face slapping, “you are just trash”, type of young master, which is great. No apparent romantic interest so far, the novel is tagged as Harem, I’m not really a fan, but I’ll trust the author as he has done a great job in the romance of his last novel, and as far as I’m concerned if the women that makes the harem, continue the trend of the other characters, personality and development wise, it won’t be a problem, so… (5/5) World building: So far not too much has been said about the world in general, we know it is a xianxia like world, with sects clans, cultivation and immortality, but that’s basically it, but to be clear it’s not without its own originality, I’ve read tens of cultivation novels so far, but this one has something interesting that I can’t actually put into words it’s just different and entertaining, the author does a great job of showing just what is needed, us readers don’t get confused with lack of really important details nor get so info dumped that gets our heads spinning, it’s great and it shows that the author has really developed his writing quality compared to his last novel, which had a problem with too much information being thrown at us, so far so good however. (5,5) Update stability: Now this is where it gets a little trickier, in the beginning of his last novel, his updates wore insane, like 2 to 4 well written chapters every day, latter it stabilized at 2 per day, than one, than nothing for a long while, I know he had some personal problems and it’s fine, but it was probably that he had also burnt himself out of steam due to writing at his insane initial pace, recently he has been writing again and so far, has been keeping his promises of the schedule and kept it modest, and with clear goals, like writing X chapters till the end of the month and so forth, I know he is doing this to get some momentum, and hopefully a healthy one. So, summarizing nothing conclusive can be said about updates, but I’ll give a vote of confidence by what I’ve seen so far in this novel. (5,5) Well, that was long, thanks if you have read it all and thanks if you haven’t, and remember this is nothing but my opinion of the novel so far (chapter 22, I will update this on the comments or write another review if my opinion change as the novel develops) , you can have yours and we can discuss it like civilized people we were supposed to be if you disagree. That’s it, bye hahaha

the plot was good. but clearly the author writes to fill the daily word count ( i.e money) not for the quality the story doesn't even progress for hundreds of chapters. focusing on things that holds no relevance to the core story. really disappointing the author tries to focus so much in the explanation of cultivation that it becomes annoying at times. the cultivation levels are messy and all over the places

ch-515 I'll just write my complain because everything else about this novel is perfect and unique . There is no Romance . To me it feels like there are no real feelings b/w MC and his harem . It feels like Each and every girl is with him b/c of resources and safety he can provide them to make them powerful and he is keeping them b/c of their beauty. There is no real feelings involved . It feels more like arranged relationship than love relationship. MC seems more like some rich young master spending resources on girls and using their body in return . It may be because of lack of interaction between MC and his girls . There is practically no interaction or relationship building between them . The whole interaction between MC and some girls is defined in one paragraph .The way this story is building it seems to be a long novel , so it wont hurt if author spends some chapters on relationship building . AND more importantly the girls which truly care about MC(Su mei , Quing Quimu) are not in his harem at this point , I hope they will be in future . Well leaving Romance aside , this novel is the best novel i have read till date . Hoping for faster updates .