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Skyfarrow
SkyfarrowTranslator6yr
2017-12-31 19:35

I'm obviously going to be biased because I'm the current and original translator since my Zelsky site days, but this novel is one of my favourites. I don't normally read novels during my free time but I love catching up with the raws every week so I know how the story progresses. Fang Yuan - a great main character, he's pure evil and ruthless. Only his goal of immortality matters, and anything or anyone who gets in his way, he will destroy. He is smart and plans well, and constantly has to find ways to overcome his enemies, which are usually stronger than him. The world building is great, the characters are smart, there are barely any of those dumb kind of characters around. It is constantly stressed that usually whoever can make it to Rank 6 and above are 'the top of the top' of humans and are very smart, never to be underestimated. The story develops well, introducing new factions, enemies and 'allies'. There is no harem, no 'stupid female character', no romance involving the main character so far (not counting past life events) and author likes to make sure the main character is not too OP, and always tries to make sure that every Gu has a weakness that can be countered. So there is no absolute 'most-powerful Gu' in this world. At over 1800 chapters, the raws still have much mystery to be solved, but so far while there has been ups and downs and 'boring parts' the overall is still a good read.

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Replies125
Syahir_
Syahir_Lv5

Thx

Chicaalterego
ChicaalteregoLv6

Sounds a bit like Warlock of the Magus World... well, putting aside the Gu bit. I will likely give it a read after I get the crave for villain stories, since now I'm bloated after bingeing the last 200 chapters of WMW that I had to read to reach the end.

Auras
AurasLv10

Love different types of Gu one of the most original lightnovel out there

Top1
Top1Lv2

Cool

JKingSniper
JKingSniperLv6

Ay fellow WMW fan

Chicaalterego:Sounds a bit like Warlock of the Magus World... well, putting aside the Gu bit. I will likely give it a read after I get the crave for villain stories, since now I'm bloated after bingeing the last 200 chapters of WMW that I had to read to reach the end.
Small_cold_hands
Small_cold_handsLv4

>There are no strong Gu here. >Spring Autumn Cicada haha cool story bro

Cemall
CemallLv6

He cant use that every time when he used it he must wait until its energy charged

Small_cold_hands:>There are no strong Gu here. >Spring Autumn Cicada haha cool story bro
Small_cold_hands
Small_cold_handsLv4

In distation this Gu overpower, everyone understand this

Cemall:He cant use that every time when he used it he must wait until its energy charged
Cemall
CemallLv6

İts controls the time it must be overpowered but not like re:zero he can change everytime

Small_cold_hands:In distation this Gu overpower, everyone understand this
Small_cold_hands
Small_cold_handsLv4

It's like re:zero, just MC so weak that he can't use it fully. When he'll up lvl 6 it's will be

Cemall:İts controls the time it must be overpowered but not like re:zero he can change everytime
Small_cold_hands
Small_cold_handsLv4

Just think about it. You can use this Gu everytime when enemy beats your ass with ~1 year (or less) cooldown. I meaning immortal rank. 8 think this Gu has two weakness. First: when enemy 7 or higher immortal. And second: when your rank higher that 6

Cemall:İts controls the time it must be overpowered but not like re:zero he can change everytime
Cemall
CemallLv6

Yeah i understood but i think wheb mc become rank 6 we understand how can use cicada lot more

Small_cold_hands:Just think about it. You can use this Gu everytime when enemy beats your ass with ~1 year (or less) cooldown. I meaning immortal rank. 8 think this Gu has two weakness. First: when enemy 7 or higher immortal. And second: when your rank higher that 6
Small_cold_hands
Small_cold_handsLv4

I don't think that Cicada imba just because all Immortal Gu strange and mystical. You can dominate in part of continent and be invincible with Attacking lvl6 Gu. But the cicada is still a bit overboard. Too dishonest

Cemall
CemallLv6

Yeah i know but cicada was one of the mysterious one if i remember correctly its 7 th so not all rank 6 myst , but there are unique but we see future chaps

Auras
AurasLv10

Favourite light novel

Idare
IdareLv4

what is the update speed

zulkix
zulkixLv4

It's too risky since it involve detonating yourself...but spring autumn cicada is a good backup plan

Small_cold_hands:I don't think that Cicada imba just because all Immortal Gu strange and mystical. You can dominate in part of continent and be invincible with Attacking lvl6 Gu. But the cicada is still a bit overboard. Too dishonest
Auras
AurasLv10

Favourite light novel

JabriEL
JabriELLv5

The spring autumn cicada is not the only OP rank 6 and it has no atack power he can't control it it and has a high chance of failure plus their are others OP gu like reincarnation etc or those folks with stupid amazing luck. What baffles me.is how he managed to get lucky enough to live two hundred years at rank 2 before the lucky encounter that raised his talent the first time

Derenium
DereniumLv11

Whenever he uses spring autumn cicada there is a chance of failure, where he just die

Small_cold_hands:I don't think that Cicada imba just because all Immortal Gu strange and mystical. You can dominate in part of continent and be invincible with Attacking lvl6 Gu. But the cicada is still a bit overboard. Too dishonest
Other Reviews
DepressiveCritic
DepressiveCriticLv4

I was tired of these novels in which the protagonist lived for over 1000 years, and reincarnates, and when reincarnated, does not act as if he were 1000 years old, but as a young 15 year old in the heat. Always making strong people as enemies, never acting discreet and cautious, most of the struggles are because of the women who walk with the MC, and worse, always all your enemies are stupid who only know how to think with your dick. In Reverend Insanity we can read about Fang Yuan, an old demon who lived for 500 years. He acts according to his age, he is a cunning old fox, his plans are always deep and sinister, even the reader can not guess what he will do next, and so leaving the novel always unpredictable. Here you will not find random and stupid people trying to kill the MC for some casual reason. All people are intelligent and shrewd, they know when to move forward, and when they step back, for you to survive in this world, you have to be a smart person, so the stronger the person, the smarter they are. The cultivation method in romance is something good and unique, here for you to advance, you will need Gus, adorable little insects (some are not r.) That are terrible to get, evolve, and create them. And worst of all, you need to feed them. Some insects need strange foods like the heart of a vicious woman, and others need something more rare, and difficult to obtain. If I had to say something I did not like, and it made me a little uneasy while I was reading, it was at the beginning of Volume 4, but then I got used to it. Apart from that fact, the novel was incredible for me! If you're tired of the same romances, come read Reverend Insanity. Can come with high expectations, you will not be disappointed!

Aesth
AesthLv4

Let me remind you first. If you are a person that love saviors, family bond, romantic relationships and loyal friendship, then you can stop reading while you are ahead. Same with people who like short plots and ****** villains. If you read novels where MC always has to defend his pride, then this novel is where the MC sh*t on pride. Daoist Gu plot is real deep. Story is on a whole different level. Here you have real cruelty unlike other novels where everything goes smoothly for the MC and the hot chicks always survived. Also for once there is also a great meaning and explanation for him to be transported from another world. After you manage to read past 1000+chapters, you would throw 99% of the other Chinese novels you had read and admired in the garbage bin. It's like comparing a kid story book to a ***** novel. Story is told from past, present and future. Here you don't get retard geniuses, rich arrogant young masters or worthless enemies that appear out of nowhere to annoy MC. Every single enemy is a real master that has experience real life difficulties and are veteran in plots. They are harder to kill than cockroaches. MC has real sh*tty luck and is a loner. The whole world is his enemies and has no real allies. Any good luck he had was false, scheme by the heaven in the dark to control him. Anything he encounter has a meaning later on in the future (like 500+chapters). MC has 2 personality: In the past his personality is more to the kinder side and is more reluctant to do evil. Spend 500years on pain, despair, difficulties and being suppress by heaven. He experience every kind of mood from love, friendship to hate. He is but a chess piece slowly being molded by heaven to become useful later on. Present personality:because of his 500years of life, he already experience everything life can throw at him. He already love once, so he no longer need to love anyone else. He already shed tears before, so he has no tears more to give. Compassion, friendship, family, pain, torture, schemes can no longer faze him. Here is where his personality shines. His determination and endurance is on a whole different level. Nothing can stop his path. MC has 1 goal ever since he ended in the Gu world. Eternal life. In order to accomplice that he would keep walking the road ahead no matter how many enemies or difficulties ahead. Both in past, present and future his goal has never change. That make him so different from other people. He not afraid of anything and has never regretted anything he has done. The amount of enemies he has is ridiculous. Basically the whole world want to hunt him down later on. MC has to survive by only using his brain, mouth and tricks. Here you have no hero story with rainbow and color, but cruelty and only the strong survive. Forget about novels with beauties. Here author treat female equally as hard as males. MC literally has no compassion toward them. Best things I like about Daoist Gu: MC is always true to himself. Never a hypocrite. Also he is shameless, greedy and cruel on a whole different level. He would swallow you whole without even spitting out the bones if he get the chance. But what great about Fang Yuan is that evil and good has no meaning to him. For him there is no such different between black and white. Only eternal life matter to him. For MC things like pride, morals, justice, team work, loyalty etc are just bunch of nonsense. He always see what benefits him first and see if something/someone is useful for his purposes. Another thing I love about the story is that it has a lot of philosophies and life lessons. Author put real background into the story like the Gu insects, world settings and dao school (like human, blood, stealing, wisdom, information, time, space dao etc). I especially like the Human Ancestor Biography. You can see author really spent effort on it. My personally opinion is that you really need to finish the first book to actually fell in love with the rest of the books (6 in total).

adsegm
adsegmLv3

The single best Chinese fantasy novel I have ever read hands down. And I have read a lot of them but never have I been interested in reviewing them, simply because they could never compare to any of the great western fantasy writers like Martin or Abercrombie etc. This so far is they only Chinese novel that had managed to kindle that sense of awe and immersion that comes when you get lost in the author's world. The best part is the world building and the plot development. At the time of writing this review a total of 1798 chapters are available (raws) and the entire novel is still set in the same "world". There is no "but wait.... There's a more powerful world with stronger cultivators, better treasures" and so on and so forth. The magic here is harnessed by using "Gu" insects which have a single purpose like increase strength, shoot blades etc. They are then combined in interesting ways and one cannot simply pile on a bunch of them together because they need to be fed and can have opposing properties. The plot is absolutely amazing with no lucky "I just found the greatest treasure in the universe, in the trash bin." Everything the MC gets is truly earned. It's not all perfect though. The unavoidable issue with the stereotypical "dog eat dog" cultivation world does not allow for deeply flawed characters, all of them inevitably are a bit too realistic and many a time can seem a bit mechanical. Most of them are still well written though. The biggest concern though is the main character who has a psychopathic attachment to increasing his strength, where it is the entire point of the novel. While there is a reason why he gets this way it's a problem with all xanxia.

Lkheir
LkheirLv10

Oh boy, where do I even start. Reverend Insanity is an absolute masterpiece, an example of just about everything good in xianxia, taken to its peak. If you have even a vague interest in the genre, RI is a must read by all means - even if you do dislike some aspects of it. What makes RI so outstanding is primarily the plot, structured into distinct 'volumes'. (Though the ones marked as "1" and "2" here on Webnovel are actually the same volume) The novel starts off somewhat slow, but over the course of each volume slowly builds up to an absolutely massive climax in the last 30-40 chapters of a volume, the likes of which I have not found in ANY other webnovel out there - and very few print book series for that matter! That may sound like an exaggeration, but the first couple of turning points are amazing beyond words - unbelievably intense and unpredictable - yet so incredibly well set up and foreshadowed, with surprisingly few plot holes considering the sheer scale. And that, in a regular-release piece of ambitious action fantasy is a very impressive achievement. At its core, RI is a classic xianxia novel, with a 'relatively' traditional cultivation system, clad in the cover of 'gu' - magic insects that form the basis of not just the power system, but society on the whole, from street lights, to letters, to houses. While certainly a unique take on cultivation, with some other interesting twists I won't spoil, it's still very much a xianxia, the internal cultivation remains much the same, and many traditional elements, such as dao paths, pill refining, heavenly tribulations, inheritances, blessed lands, and so forth do appear, though often with different names. Our main character, Fang Yuan, is not only a reincarnator, but originally a transmigrator as well. Don't put too much focus on the latter, but fact is, this is his third rodeo, and he certainly acts like it. He is mature, driven, and logical. Unlike many reincarnation novels, our hundreds-of-years-old MC does not act like a naive teenager with plot-convenient 'past knowledge' that is only used as deus ex machina, no, Fang Yuan is very much an experienced *****, callous, scarred, hardened and cynical after his past life. And while I certainly consider this a good thing, its also one of the key points that will turn some people off RI. Because Fang Yuan is not a hero. He is not an anti-hero. He is not neutral. He is EVIL, to the core. Not your prideful, arrogant villain, your crazed maniacal slaughterer-for-fun, or your edgy brooding git, thank god. But he is cold, cruel, calculating, and utterly amoral. He is a manipulative double-crosser who knows when to act nice for his own benefit. There is no wholesomeness to be found, and very little comedy, this story is DARK and cruel, with virtually no exception. And don't expect this to change much. For while Fang Yuan is a fairly interesting character, he's already a grown man with hundreds of years of experience - there is not much character growth to be found. Most side characters are fleshed out enough to seem like realistic, grounded people, with their own ideals, beliefs and motivations, even quite minor characters. There are some characters which receive significantly more characterisation, and remain relevant throughout the story, and very few are entirely forgotten. But ultimately, this is not a story with more than one main protagonist. The author does not do what oh so many other authors do, in trying to write an intelligent MC by making all other characters utter morons. No, not only is our main character well and truly intelligent, so is just about everyone else. There are extremely few incompetent characters, even throw-away villains, minor characters, and lunatics are generally intelligent and rational, with very little of the clichéd blind arrogance or utter stupidity so common in xianxia works. Of course, while characters are generally intelligent, they are still limited by perspective, circumstance, pride and rules/standards, and certainly make many errors and poor decisions from an omniscient point of view. What sets our MC apart is not that he is all that more intelligent, but that he is experienced, amoral, and shameless - without the slightest care for pride, rules, or reputation. And another thing which sets RI apart from many other novels, be they xianxia or not, is that there is absolutely no romance. Zero. Zilch. We have one, perhaps two minor characters with an adoration towards Fang Yuan, but, as one would expect of intelligent characters when faced with a cold, loveless killer, they don't ever bring it up, and merely keep at a distance. One of the central recurring themes in RI is the idea of individuals versus organised groups. While with a fair bit of bias, seeing as our MC very much stands for the former, this is portrayed in a rather grey sense, with deceit, abuse and corruption, contra caring, love, and fairness being portrayed on both sides. For the most part, the author seems to write from a fairly open-minded perspective, which can very much be a breath of fresh air. And another praiseworthy aspect is that our MC, while certainly evil, and a complete psychopath, is by no means a hypocrite. He knows full well that he is evil, and makes no attempt to seek a moral high ground - if it gets him to his goal, he has no qualms with being in the 'wrong', and does not attempt to justify his actions. There are no rose-tinted glasses here. The world itself has a very strong foundation, with clear and distinct world building, history, rules, and organizational structures - everything 'makes sense', and this is something that really sets RI up for greatness. There is in-universe mythology that permeates through the story, often founding the basis for not just cultivation, but beliefs, ideals, and ways of thought as well. I do, however believe that it is important to see it as such, as much like real-world mythology, it is simplified, over-exaggerated, and metaphorical - which makes perfect sense for abstract stories passed down over countless years. While I praise it to high heavens, and it is one of extremely few novels I will ever give a perfect score, there is still no such thing as a perfect novel. It can absolutely be polarizing to a lot of people, Fang Yuan is definitely not everyone's type of MC, the serious tone doesn't ever really go away, and it is still ultimately a xianxia - which some people will like and others not. And while basically unavoidable, the lulls between climaxes can feel unbelievably slow. They are undeniably important, as they are dense to the point of bursting with foreshadowing and set-up, but by god can it be slow. The fourth (fifth on Webnovel) volume in particular really drags on, and while the pay-offs may be worth it, getting there can be a slog, especially once caught up and reading chapters as they are translated. Besides the novel itself, the translation is excellent, with the occasional slip-up here and there, but a reasonable pace and consistently good quality. There is very little to complain about here. Ultimately, I believe that beyond the plot, what makes RI so bloody good is the incredible consistency. Characters are consistent in their actions and beliefs, the power system is well founded, with the vast majority of power-ups making perfect sense - in fact, just about everything in the story just makes sense. Very little feels shoehorned in, little is left out, ignored or unexplained, and there is an incredible amount of foreshadowing and build-up. And this is why I believe that while it may not be a perfect novel, RI achieves what it sets out to achieve. There is no such thing as a flawless or universally appealing novel, but for what it is, RI is downright fantastic. Even if you do dislike aspects of it, even if the genre does not interest you, at least the first 400 chapters or so are absolutely worth a read for the quality alone. Said quality does not decay beyond that, but the story does slow down quite significantly, and if you already weren't interested it may be hard to tough it out between the climaxes.

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