I read the few translated chapters and the MTL, I can say is amazing novel.

Do you dislike the "dumb young master trope"? Do you wish the MC would think before ofending everyone he see? Or that he will reveal all his trump cards as soon as possible? Do you wish that the MC plans are not braindead simple or convoluted complex, but feel feasable with the cards he has at his hands? Do you dislike the MC being all the time saved by a stronger senior every time he is... more>> in danger? Do you wish the MC would try something else beside hitting the enemy even harder when he is in a difficult situation? Do you wish to read a story where each major realm and in fact even a couple minor realms really feel like the enemy is really that much more stronger? Do you want plots where the MC does something else beside tournaments and exploring trial grounds? Did you wish that old/high lvl cultivators didn't act like spoiled children all the time and instead had their own plans schemes that allowed them to cultivate for so long? Do you dislike useless characters that are just there as peanut gallery to comment in how bad or good the MC or is enemy is?

Then you came to the right place.

This is one of the few novels that I felt that the MC cunning is not because everyone around him is s*upid, in fact even 1000 chapter later the MC still being caught of guard by some oponent cunning or means that he is couldn't protect against, in fact while very first major conflict was the best example of plot and counter-plot, even involving 3th party you thought would be a minor player. The rest of the story have a bunch of this schemes and deadly encounter that the MC need to navigate and play his hands or die trying.

While the MC does receive his broken secret method, and eventually some impressive powerups and treasures, is not paired with a complete all round strenghts that make everything else useless and instead are closer to incredible powerful but specialized tools to use and is up the MC to fill the gaps and how to use it. And as I told before even 1000 chapters later he not complete invencible that take armies of same lvl cultivators, insteads fights have a good mix of lenght and lethality that don't let it drag for too long or feel too repetitive.

Their mix of different kind of conflict in 1000chs beside, and while you wills still find your staples, tournament, trials and inheritance while if there was any "young-master plot" it was at most only one. Intersect conflicts, help others get to their clan, world war, mental trials of fake life, be suspect in a mu*der case, spy/saboteur mission, and few other. However, he not always the weakest party that have to use is inteligence to find connection, sometimes he is the mysterious expert that is helping someone weaker for some gain they aren't aware. And most of his conflicts are at least plausible and don't seen like arbitary "f*ck you" by the destiny/author.

Ofc the novel is not perfect.

Despite make schemes and inteligent character that both major and minor character can have surprising deep considerations.

Like all xianxias, the dialogue and personality of the characters that aren't scheming are incredible boring.

That bleed out in how bland the "romance" is, specially because the personality of the MC and love interests are either withdraw, cold beauty or don't like to stand out, what it mean that unless you can buy that the trival stuff they talked between scenes really make them hit with each other you shouldn't really expect much from that. That is double the problem when it come to interaction with strangers, the incredible formal setting of the Cultivation world means that be talking with your master, your senior brother, the merchant you are haggling or even your enemy seen to be filled with that useless formality that while had been skipped don't really allow you to see much of the character personality and they kind blur into one mass, beside the ones that are more extrovert that bring some life to the story. However the MC personality beside training and scheming is really dull and later on cold to even people that should be considered in friendly terms.

Ironic enough if the MC had been extremly greed, h**ny dog or even a coward would have done wonders to his personality and maybe the plot and character interactions. But the MC is none of theses if maybe excessive cautious but the story most point that this is the best option in this universe. So if you think that is a PLUS or a MINUS that is up to you.

While I do praise the schemes and plots, is not all banger after banger, there is their high and lows, specially when you notice the author just skipping a major area, like the arc just after the "lost continent" things just progress so quickly and it seen the author is trying to fill holes that I really don't care much about and how he handled it just make everything related to it prior seen like a filler.

As well the problem with many xianxia, is rather slow. Specially at the start, the very first arc where he start at mortal and end in the path to immortality, is incredible dragged and could have without doubt have cut half the chapter of that arc and would be fine. The same goes for some characters and plots that goes nonwhere, at least at the most of them seen to have potential, but the author didn't continued, in part because the other character can't keep up with the MC cultivation speed, another problem is that the MC is really incredible distant and barely pay lip service to morality so neither you or him care much about theses persons.

Also while is really slow, it really good into sell how difficult and powerful each cultivation lvl is.

Spoiler

However, it took more than 1120 chapters and he is just now become a Nascent Soul

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However despite my critiques of the characters dialogue and personality, the little that we see, specially in the main context of cultivation, aka fighting for resources, be in tatics, misdirection, lies and schemes make the novel overall more interesting.

And the MC relationship with the FL eventually grow to be interesting (at least compared to all other cardboard relationship/throphy wifes of the genre) where it take more than just saving her from her current danger to complete fall in love. It still have problem, but if you ignore the worst tropes that some times brought up, it could be considered serviceable.

So is a recomendation from me. More than 1000 chapters and I'm still reading for now at least,

Now I do have a question for anyone that knows how to read chinese or the translator, that ever bother reading this far.

Spoiler

One thing that bothered me, is that the MC is often mentioned to have "dark complexion", not once, not twice, but every time they describe his aparence they would say that, so is that just the MC being tanned because he was a farm boy? Or he is supose to be african descend? I would guess the first.

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At the start of the novel we get to see a family struggling to meet their needs due to a plague. To meet their demands they decide to send their child, out protagonist, to the army so that they can receive stipends. Later our protagonist goes to army thinking of joining the army as an guard and provide his family with money so that they can live soundly. But fate has it's twist as he was chosen by the military advisor as his sects successor. Our protagonist is excited as... more>> he embarked on the journey of Immortality but whole notion of immortality is gauge to him at the moment.

Spoiler

But who could have thought that there was deception at play. He later found that he wasn't an success but a pig to be farmed.

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The story is similar to Record of Mortal Journey To Immortality. The characters portrayal is vivid. The cultivation description is also vivid. When our MC finds his golden opportunity it will cover 3 to 4 chapters to describe about the cultivation methods. In other novels it is easily covered up in 2-3 paragraphs, in this novels it talks about struggles of the method. It is a highly recommended novel who wants to read about a naive mortal boy cultivating to Immortality where every steps he took is filled with struggle, deception and wonders. <<less

It appears to be a martial cultivation novel (at least at the start). The MC appears to be an ordinary villager in an ancient China style setting. He goes to join the army and is recruited as a disciple by a wandering martial artist from a hidden sect who is serving as a military advisor.

No hints of immortal cultivation being part of the world setting so far, but based on the novel description it seems likely that it exists.

Didn't really interest me but doesn't seem bad.