I've read up to chapter 84, approximately 1/5 of the chapters on offer at the current time of writing and I feel I can, therefore, give a reasonable review of this novel.
If you cba to read the whole review, then I will simply say that this is your standard Chinese cultivation novel, with a new, albeit thin, coat of paint. One that you should give a try but that isn't a must read.
This novel begins very interestingly. Giving a well-done description of the MCs living conditions, attitudes, world and all while making it interesting to read with its futuristic spin on cultivation society. This is short-lived, however. The story very quickly after the interesting first few chapters devolved into your standard novel with all the usual fare you've come to expect. The MC early on, after the interesting start to a potentially interesting world, is given generic Chinese novel MC plot contrivance number 006. In other words, the MC is given memories of an expert by AMAZING coincidence, which allows him to attain the talent to cultivate. This has been done in many other novels, where the MC is given either the memories or help of some expert to help them. Nothing new.
From that point on this novel is just your very standard cultivation novel. Nothing of real note really. If you've been reading cultivation novels for as long as I have then you know what to expect. Honestly, this isn't that bad I suppose, because if you're on this site you probably like that style of story. The reason why this story in particular disappointed me is that from the opening I thought this story had to potential to break free from the norm and do something new and interesting. A slow-burning, world-building story, without a plot armor MC, who doesn't need insane luck and talent to be successful. I suppose my expectations were too high, but I was disappointed nonetheless. This is a trend I've found in most Chinese novels. It seems to be the idea that only through luck (destiny) or through having great inborn talent can you ever make something of yourself. I thought this might be different. With the MC climbing up from the bottom, with nothing but his hard work and determination, to prove all those talented young masters wrong! But... in the end, he just gets talent for cultivation thrown into his lap like most other novels.
The story might trick you into thinking its unique but it isn't. All of these new and distinct roles for cultivators in modern cultivator civilization in the novel are, story-wise, functionally the same to cultivators in other novels, just with either a different name or different description. All of the characters and plot points are in no way unique to stuff done in other novels, maybe with a new paint job here and there, but nothing amazing.
Another disappointing thing is the massive information dumps about the history and the world. A good world is built naturally, over time, through the everyday conversations, adventures, and observations of the characters. Not in very obvious plot contrivances which the author uses to dump information. This has been done twice so far, where it is quite obvious the writer just couldn't think of a better way to get across information, so he makes situations as an excuse to write paragraphs of background. He does do some gradual world development, such as when the MC was walking in the underground city, but the time spent on this is too little, with the author favoring dumps, although it's masked well in places.
The translation itself is certainly sufficient to read but still has a fair few small errors here and there.
Characters are extremely standard. Although the main characters mysterious dead teacher and his cute flying sword seem somewhat more interesting due to the questions surrounding them.
In conclusion, this novel is ok. But that's it. If you were looking for something fresh and brand new to sink your teeth into then I would just keep looking. But if you're just looking for a decent novel to binge for a while then, by all means, go ahead and give this one a try. It is by no means bad, just for me, underwhelming so far.
