Reviewed at 30 chapters, rated 5.

Cultivation Chat Group is really very, very interesting. Don't be discouraged by its strange doodle-like cover. It has rare initial premise where an ordinary youth found the extraordinary world of cultivation by chance. So far, Author's narrative was solid. The plot properly contains many hooks, from mystery stuff, potential romance, plus cheeky humor stemmed from numerous misunderstanding.

In short, I'm optimistic of its future potential. This one could provide you a nice read, no matter who you are. Though, it is best read in bulk.

Comedy: I've read many many novels, and it's become extremely difficult to find anything that can make me lose control of myself while reading. Even if something is amusing or tragic, at most I'd find myself involuntarily smiling or frowning at best.

This novel broke that pattern. Within 1210 chapters, I've encountered two times where I genuinely couldn't control myself and busted out in hysterical laughter. The second time, it was severe to the point I couldn't breathe and found my eyes tearing up and nose running - yes, I literally... more>> laughed to the point I cried. The humor came directly out of left field and walloped me with the force of a flying missile.

Why was I hit so hard? The main reason is this author came up with his own unique ideas and punchlines, and in this genre where almost every idea's already been seen, it's a wonderful breath of fresh air. I'd never seen any humor similar to this, so I had no resistance whatsoever when the author slapped me with it.

Uniqueness: This novel really does NOT conform to cliches seen in other novels, and constantly manages to bring out new and interesting ideas derived from its modern setting. You'd think Xianxia + Modern Life likely wouldn't mix well, but this author absurdly managed to make it work, and make it work well. The two are weaved together exquisitely, and you can easily tell how much thought the author put into how the two genres influence each other. Even better, since this combination is so rare, almost everything the author brings out is fresh and innovative - very few old or reused ideas to be found. This is the synergy that comes with a unique setting and a clever author that thought deeply into what could be pulled out of it.

Characters: My god, the characters. There are many characters in this novel, and they're introduced quite rapidly. You'd think it'd be very hard to keep track of so many people, and even harder to bring out their individual personalities in the readers' memories, but the author handed this splendidly. Unbelievably, almost every character feels easy to remember and very unique in their own way. They have their own personal quirks, and the author smoothly introduces these traits through a mix of comedic social media chatting and irl events. Characterization is a well-flaunted strength of this novel.

Plot: The author's clearly planned out the plot far in advance, and many many pieces of foreshadowing are hidden all around, sometimes in seemingly meaningless bits of daily life. I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes!

Romance: The entire novel has a comedic undertone, so it's somewhat difficult to weave in serious romance. Something to note is that romantic relationships are occurring not only between the MC and the heroines, but also between many other side characters of various degrees of importance. The relationship web of this novel can get complicated, and it can be considered a triumph of the author that the novel was able to convey it quite smoothly through daily character interactions.

Pacing: If I had to make a complaint, it'd be the slow pace - the chapters meander quite a bit and it takes a while for the plot to move along. Even so, this pace adds an extreme level of detail and further contributes to fleshing almost all the characters out, so it's certainly not all bad. <<less

(I'm still learning English, so ignore my mistakes)

I have read over 700 chapters and this novel is really starting to annoy me.

The thing I like the most in this novel is side characters. There are many supportive characters in the story and it was really fun to read about them. One of my favorite character "venerable white" was introduced around 250 chapter. Every scene involving him is funny as hell. There are no overly drama in the novel. There are mysteries added in-between chapters so you can... more>> look forward to it. Well written parody of Chinese cultivation novels. There are no arrogant young masters shit.

Now the things I hated the most-

• • First of all I felt like cheated. There was Romance, Fast cultivation tag added into description (i removed it now). As you can guess there was no romance at least in 700 chapters, MC is too dense for romance.

• • Whiney MC. In every chapter MC will complain about something that happen to him. He is very lucky. He reached the 3rd level in cultivation in 3 months which other reach in 50 years. Yet he complains that he is unlucky in every single chapters. In the beginning it was funny to read about his misfortune. But now it's so annoying that I skip whenever he whines about his bad luck.

• • Too much comedy and at the wrong moment.*spoiler* There was a scene in which MC'S girlfriend's sect was massacred and his gf died too. It was a emotional scene and author ruined the scene by adding comedy into it. Same thing happened many times.

• • Extremely slow pacing. 700 chapters = 3 months in the story. I will give you guys an example. Some bad guys were planning to kidnap and harm MC'S family. I read next 200 chapters but they are still planning the kidnapping because only 7 days passed in the novel.

Well as you can see there's many things I hate in this novel so I'm dropping it. I might pick it up again coz tbh its not that bad, just a little annoying. If you are looking for good parody with slice of life story and can ignore above points then may read the novel. <<less

The story was fairly interesting but I have big issues with things that happened so I dropped it

TW: Racism, Colorism, s*xual Harassment, s*xual Assault

This novel contains racism towards India, basically insinuating its laws are lacking particularly about violence against women. I agree that laws protecting women are lacking, but this is a world wide issue and really ironic coming from this author, will explain in a bit.

There is also rampant colorism, as the MC cultivates his skin turns fairer, which apparently somehow makes his more attractive? Also the characters allude... more>> to using skin whitening creme multiple times. Combined with the jab at India, not a good look for the author.

Back to the topic of s*xual violence, basically every time a woman appears in this novel she either gets sexually harassed or objectified. Pretty typical of a Cultivation novel but still annoying. They do fight back though, I will give a bit of credit for that.

But the biggest problem is that this novel basically makes fun of s*xual assault against males, and even worse they manage to be transphobic while doing it.

A one point in the story the MC hears his roommate talking with their childhood, who is described to be very androgynous. They ask his roommate to help them learn to kiss, roommate says no multiple times. They force a kiss on him anyway. MC hears the whole thing and does nothing about it even though he has superhuman strength at this point. Childhood friend and him even shake hands after chatting a bit. Roommate is, of course, traumatized. MC asks him if childhood friend is a man, roommate says no. MC then tries to 'comfort' him telling him he is lucky that he kissed a girl. Wtf. Even if it was a girl doesn't mean it's okay. Roommate decides to leave and get drunk, MC eventually joins him. Roommate is basically black out drunk, and literally says he wants to die. MC and his friends discuss why he would be so upset (I dunno guys maybe it's because he was literally assaulted?) They come to the conclusion that childhood friend must be trans. Then they all feel sorry for roommate. This was all also played for laughs.

I stopped reading at this point, Do I really even have to explain why this is extremely f*cked up? If you are a male and have been sexually assaulted, just know your experience and trauma is valid, and I recommend you skip this novel. As for the transgender community, Im sorry you are still depicted in these horrible stereotypes.

I recommend novel updates adds the appropriate tags for this novel.

For any prospective reader, go into this novel at your own risk. <<less

Easily my favorite of the modern cultivation novels, this one stands out because the MC is an average college student with no cultivation talent who becomes a loose cultivator (as in, not part of a sect) because he accidentally joins a chat room of incredibly powerful, incredibly bored semi-immortal cultivators.

If you couldn't tell, it's a comedy.

After over a hundred chapters, he can reliably beat any street thug... or even a dozen of them and that's about it. Sure, he's taken out plenty of more powerful, more experienced cultivators, but that's... more>> pretty much by relying on one-shot artifacts gifted to him by pals and being lucky. He has almost no business trying to fight a serious cultivator and he knows it.

There are various plot threads coming together, however slowly, and it does seem quite interesting, but if you expect them to come about any time soon, you're bound to be disappointed.

No, this story is about a mostly average, if amusing guy trying his best to survive being thrust into a world of super-immortals and endless calamities that befall him because of it, while also being excited to find out that he, too, can be a cultivator... just, you know, kind of a weak, pathetic one who isn't expected to amount to anything. <<less

This is a fun slice of life feel to it, and its funny misunderstandings on both sides.

So far there have been no instance of battle or cultivation however the dialouges of the chat group is quite funny. The TL is also very well done. Hope to see more of this fun novel.

Definitely a worth read novel, I even read it even though I have exams next week T_T

Fun and interesting way of telling a story. I can't wait for the new chapter to come out

There are a ton of reviews about the positive aspects of cultivation chat group (most of them are true). Let me write about the negative points and what went wrong in the later chapters.

The farther you go in this novel, the more comedy you get. At some point it shifts completely to the comedy aspect and you get the feeling, the story revolves only about comedy. For sake of comedy the author abondend a lot of stuff you expect from this kind of novel. Exciting story developments/twists etc. Are anbandoned... more>> for comedy most of the time. Character growth and realtionship development are less prevailing.

The farther you go, the more the story slows down and it gets dragged on like a chewing gum. Currently I'm reading about a race (of course the race is just for the lols) between cultivators and there are like more than 10 chapters just for the race.

The comedy isn't as good as in the first 200-300 hundred chapters. Don't ask me why. Maybe there is too much of this kind of comedy or maybe the quality/creativity is less than in the beginning or maybe a combination of both aspects. At any rate, there are more and more jokes and "funny" developments I don't laugh at. Sometimes I have to grin, but it get's less and less.

I give this novel 3 stars, because I really liked the story, before it shifts to "complete comedy mode" and because the characters are very interesting. I wish I had this kind of characters in a serious xianxia/wuxia novel :D <<less

A new plot, a new character, and a new environment, this novel is a gem! There is character development from the MC, smooth sailing plot lines, and hilarious side characters, what more can one ask for? I am impressed with the depth of the story since it goes from light to heavy back to light again, generally with the story revolving in a light atmosphere. I got hooked onto this story and couldn't stop. Read through all the chapter in two days! Highly recommend for those looking for an interesting... more>> read and great translation! <<less

One of the few stories that tries to combine the modern with the ancient. A simple character thanks to a small mistake found his path towards cultivation. Fights, medicinal pills, magic, smartphones, chat group, navigating (gps). A story that manages to combine all of them deserves 5 stars. I'd like to express my thanks towards the team translating this gem. You guys are great.

This novel is somewhat similar to Galactic Dark Net in the 'gain powers from the internet' aspect. Other than that, it has been a light hearted read though there are hints of a darker arc approaching. Translation quality is better than average, and there's really nothing to nit pick on. I believe this novel has potential, so I'll be checking back regularly for more chapters. Keep it up, translators!

You'd think that since this is a chat group the author would write the dialogues in a chat format. You would be wrong, instead he describes the members of the chat group using the chat, sending smilies and typing long winded sentences that would get a tl;dr anywhere else.

Hilariously Funny, really made my day. Defiantly worth your perusal :)

Highly rated cultivation novel set in modern world, came in whith a fresh take and continued for a long time while building the world and characters.

The only issues that stick out are the end being rushed compared to the rest, though at least we got a clear end, and

Cultivation Chat Group (CCG) is the only Xianxia that seems to have been planned out properly to last thousands of chapters. I've read a lot of Xianxia, and they all suffer from pacing issues if they drag on. CCG avoids this by simply having a wonderful cast of characters and a unified world.

This unified world is very important as so many cultivation novels introduce power levels, groups, sects, ect.. that come out of no where that were never heard of before but certainly should have been. This makes everything feel... more>> grounded as the powerhouses of the world aren't just missing until the MC becomes powerful enough to slay them or too powerful to be threatened by everyone introduced already. Instead our MC deals with people more powerful then him constantly, and sometimes they become friends, other times they become enemies. And if it weren't for said friends, said enemies would actually tear him to pieces.

This all means the friendships and relationships he cultivates are even more important than his own cultivation and it shows. The cast is amazing, they act like people, with motivations, drives, relationships outside of the MC, families and friends of their own. This results in a massive cast that you can name by heart just due to the fact that it isn't just Arrogant Young Master A, Stuck Up Miss B, Princess C, Generic Henchman D... ect. And yes you did notice that the villains are also memorable. Not because of how evil they are, but because they too have motivations, friends, drives and desires that don't revolve around the me. They don't seem to have family, but they are evil and that doesn't work well as a weak spot for evil guys.

Overall this novel is by and large the best example of literature from a CN author I've had the privilege to read. Almost everything done wrong by other authors is done right here. Its a master class on writing Xianxia in a Xianxia parody. Its also amazingly humorous to the point where the author astounds me with how he reuses jokes without making them tired by virtue of the humor not being from s*upidity of the cast, but them being genuinely funny interactions between the cast that don't get old due to how lovable they all are (Thrice Reckless and his death seeking behaviors being one that I always smile at). <<less

Like many others have said, the comedy is good, characters are interesting and the MC is a fairly relatable college student that stumbled into a bunch of cultivators that he thought didn't exist till then.

Now for some other things to note:

Basically everything is really drawn out and really slow. Any plot point will take dozens to HUNDREDS of chapters to resolve, a few are at the 1000+ chapter mark I kid you not.

Why? Cause the author has the tendency to throw in like 2-4 more plot points before solving even... more>> 1 that had been set up before. Got an invitation to some party in a few months? Ok time to spend 500+ chapters doing a bunch of other things first cause the MC got sent into outer space, explore some ruins, have a training montage, deal with a few guys trying to kill him that were related to a plot point 600+ chapters ago (still unresolved btw), and generally triggering like 5 other plot points to be resolved later.

1 plot points that are now at the 1000+ chapter mark revolves around a character with a deadly disease introduced somewhere around chapter 300-400 (been awhile now so I may be wrong), but due to some magic is in a state of suspended animation. So the author after introducing that plot point threw it on the back burner for like 700+ chapters before revisiting it and got it PARTIALLY resolved before throwing it back on the back burner and hasn't mentioned it since, and I'm on chapter 1517 now.

The romance is also equally slow. While it is listed as a subplot in the tags, I feel like thats an understatement at this point since the love interests are absent about 95% of the time and when they are present in the current plot line, it moves at such a slow pace that would put romcoms like Nisekoi to shame. This because any development both minor and major will be left behind again for several hundreds of chapters once the story moves to the next plot point where the love interests are absent.

So while I do think this is good novel, just be aware that it's plot points are SLLLLOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW and many will be left hanging for hundreds of chapters before even being mentioned again. <<less

(╯‵□′) ╯︵┻━┻

This novel has good-> comedies, characters, world buliding, cultivation system, hidden plots, extreme coincidences..

-MC is not s*upid, he is kind and looks like easy to be builled, and slightly a death seeker (not like other novels usual mc) and also cultivators confidence crusher.

... more>> - Other characters are unique and memorable {eg; white (basically 2nd mc), soft feathers, sixteen, thrice reckless (best death seeker), donfang six, doudou (chuchu-con), joseph, etc.,)

-Coincidence : The no. of coincidence in the novel will even make the characters in the novel doubt about their life.

-Comedy; superb....

Dharma king creation : Die, die, die- All those who are unfaithful will... Die, die, die! All those who are unfilial will... Die, die, die!" (Note: This is a song)

Whole world : Do you really think I won't Flip the Table (╯‵□′) ╯︵┻━┻ <<less

Best Chinese novel ever! I saw all the 5 star ratings' and was like "cultivation?, that boring repetitive hot garbage that is never translated properly." SO I gave it 50 chapters which led to 100 then to 1000. Here are some good points.

-This novel should be read with the wiki available cause there are like 200+ characters that are introduced and reappear throughout the novel. Something lost on all other Chinese writings. As side characters disappear in other novels never to be seen or heard from again. The characters in... more>> this novel not only move on with their lives but on some call out the author for forgetting about them. The world building and character development is great I wont spoil anything else but very nice novel. <<less

Easily the best novel I've ever found on this site, especially in the "power-fantasy" department.

I recommend you use google to find another translation, because novelupdates isn't showing the latest ones. The translation speed is around 1 a day, but tbh I haven't found the translator yet because I can just read the raws anyway.

Anyway, this novel is probably one of the better cultivation ones out there. There's no obvious cliches like the famous sect>kingdom>empire>sect but cooler etc, or the unrealistic female characters that all instantly fall in love with the... more>> MC because he's the MC (I really hate this trope in particular). I think the way characters are written in general in this novel is great actually. People don't become dirtbags just because they cultivate, and most of the people are MC meets are memorable and actually decent people, just with a few quirks. In fact, I honestly think that the side characters are the real MCs, after all it's them that makes the novel interesting.

The cultivation system is again one of the best ones I've seen, it's not overly complicated, as in like having 100 realms with each one having "small realms" thus causing the realms to be boring measures of strength that can be simplified as stats. The novel has only 9 realms, that's only 9 and it has over 3000 chapters... However, there's a half-step I suppose after the 9th stage Tribulation Transcender since this realm only lets you live tens of millions of years. Some geniuses figured that if you perfected your "path" (can be anything from what I know, ice, defence, or even something s*upid like giving birth to yourself) you would gain immortality and could live an indefinite number of years. Anyway, this half step realm gives you way higher power compared to a normal 9th stage. After that the only other realm related power up is to become the Wielder of the Heaven's Will which is basically becoming close to a god, and there can only be one at any time so you have to wait for the previous one to leave their position for whatever reason to have the chance to become one.

Anyway, because of this the cultivation system is way more detailed than other novels and it's a lot more interesting. Things you gained at the beginning can remain relevant even as you advance in realm, for example the 1st Stage innate skills or the 2nd stage dragon dantians. Each rise in realm is unique, for example 4th stage is the break point to be able to fly, 5th stage decides your path for the rest of your cultivation life through dragon patterns, the higher you get the greater your potential. Also, you have to draw to advance in realm which is pretty interesting. 8th stage makes you give a speech to the entire world and makes people unable to forget your name for the next year, along with giving you a "Sage Seal" that has interesting uses. Overall it's a lot more interesting than stat stick cultivation.

The MC is a cheat btw, but the way it is handled doesn't make the novel unpleasant to read at all. In fact, it actually pretty funny, especially at around c1000, which has my favourite stretch of chapters in the entire novel.

If I have one warning, it's that the beginning of the novel is pretty slow (the tractor racing arc went on for a bit too long), but if you stick it out it gets MUCH better. Oh and btw you should probably read other bad cultivation novels before this because it's a parody.

Edit: The ending of the novel does feel a bit rushed, but the translation is FAR from reaching that so you don't really have to worry. At this rate it's going to take years for the novel to be translated fully so... I would definitely say that the novel remains pretty good though apart from the ending which felt rushed. <<less