What the novel is really about:
1- Low talent MC has a proficiency system, as a loose cultivator he has to hustle to get his pills, cultivation skills and resources are very heavily restricted by the great sects, they hold an tight oligopoly over techniques, recipes, businesses and real estate, leaving the loose cultivators to live in the cracks.
2- MC is calm, quite thick skinned, business minded and tries to avoid risks, he is not a saint, but still has a conscience and tries to make sincere friends when possible. (Quite sociable MC all things considered)
3- The pacing is quite slow, even 80 chapters in he is still not that strong and has to rely on help from others to keep himself safe, he also doesn't have many trump cards nor anything that can be called heaven defying by any means, just a slow grind into an alchemists which has to go from day to day working hard, avoiding offending people and trying not to die by reaching the end of his lifespan.
To me this was an interesting yet frustrating read, you see the potential of his cheat but never see it grow to the point where he can finally have it easy so far, in fact I suspect that might never come... (Could be wrong but the pacing and focus of the story is on the day to day struggles of the MC and how the world events affect him directly)
Characters are interesting, everywhere you see the people struggling to live in this very hierarchical cultivation world, huddling together into small communities and many colorful people that show up with different ways of achieving immortality as loose cultivators.
The world so far is a bit too small due to the MC not going many places, you only know basically a small region with some sects in it, some of the rules of society and and overarching conflicts with the demons (magic beasts) in the mountains (don't know how long it will take to go anywhere else at this rate, author might lose his drive before that happens)
