Things start going downhill when he goes to the city, but you don't immediately notice it, or necessarily care, since the story is still keeping you wanting more.

By the time Jing Yan enters middle school, you start thinking if this is still as good as it originally was, and you can find flaws/annoyances that you would have had to deliberately look for before.

Then you read about his high school days, and you know the story is going downhill. The storytelling takes a hit and you start wondering why some of the stuff happening is happening, or why some choices were made. (I personally think he was much more worried during this time about people pirating his work rather than trying to get back into his groove.)

Next comes his time during university. By this time, the story had pretty much turned into your generic xianxia and you're left wondering just what happened. This was no longer the story you read and you are honestly disappointed, but you keep reading because there's less than 100 chapters left.

p.s. His recurring childhood enemy (teacher's ex-bf) must have turned over a new leaf and took a job at a walmart or something since the author never resolved the conflict between him and his faction.

A lot of the reviews are saying that the novel started going downhill after chapter 200ish but for me it began way earlier than that.

In the beginning after the MC came out of his 2 year comatose he started acting with maturity much greater than children his own age. I don't usually enjoy reading slice of life but it was really interesting to see the MC slowly develop his dao or whatever it is.

Then they got a new young female teacher in class and while they're interactions were fresh and interesting in the beginning, things started to go to sh*t when she fully moved in and was around almost all the time. Her mere prescense caused the MC to almost completely regress back into a 6-7 year old kid who's now learning the difference between boys and girls for the first time. Whereas in the beginning he was completely separate in maturity from the rest of his peers, now besides the fact that he's a cultivator, he's hardly different from the rest of them.

What really made me drop this novel though is one of the most annoying and cliche tropes I've grown sick of seeing in CN novels. The bumbling idiot of an overweight sidekick that is the bu*t of every cringingly bad joke. The "fatty" that's attached at the hip to the MC for the sake of unfunny comedic relief. The past few chapters have become a real chore for me to get through as nothing interesting has been happening and most of the chapters are about the MC and his fatty being nagged at by their teacher and the MC acting like some rick young master as*hole with his loser lacky that he only keeps around for his amusement. I really hate when idiotic side characters not only take up too much screen time but also indirectly dampen the mc's pace in progression.

I was really hoping that this novel was a hidden gem that would turn out different to the usual CN novels that I've grown sick of reading but I guess that's just too much to ask.

it's simply crap.

MC is a poor countryside kid broke into 1st stage of daoism by accident that caused villagers and his family to break apart, living only his grandfather and you follow the slow journey of self cultivation DAO while dealing with not normal xiaxia problems, but minor but not less important problems for a small child that believe that if he make enough money his parents would come back for him.

The story really great start, if you aren't interesting setting, intriguing cultivation system, good supporting cast, cute animal companions, original setting and conflicts, no young-master/evil sect, more realistic side-effect of dao luck chance prime for good drama.

I liked how it avoid most normal xianxia cliches and random flexing and focus on a relative more original if mundane problems that a poor kid would happen. In fact the few battles was made in favor of it, in fact I would argue is 10x more in line with" talisman emperor" than another novel of the same name, because his use of talismans is alot more important in the later parts of the novel than the other novel.

As for the cultivation the author sold me that he made some research on what "RL cultivation" means, and avoided the systematic-cultivation/pill and gave a more "spiritualistic" felling that seen more in line with daoism and make other xianxia novel look something closer to a magic schools. Even if the powerlvl is on the lower end, with little chance it could be some sort of wuxia novel instead.

And like I explained before, the drama of this young man learning taoism turn in into a freak and almost break his family is great and more novels should learn to better utilize their drama, even if is kind forced in some parts you can feel the emotional turmoil that being different caused the MC and his Grandpa. And is clearly that where the Author is most comfortable with, while his adventurous solutions are endering and make a more believable power growth than most xianxia novels that after a few chapter they can already cut hills and divert rivers.

And while not perfect it also has a strong "Powerful teacher + dissipline" interaction with his friends that I always think should be a viable and interesting arc for protagonist that are so much powerful than their peers. And the only one that seen to build up "how to make a sect" from the ground up.

The biggest problem is without doubt the change in tone, in special after the chapter 200-ish climax, like most reviews say.

I believe, that people like the Village arc because is very original in some ways, and you can enjoy this slice-of-life with hint of mysterious daoism that has alot of charm, while 2nd arc you learn more about the mysterious cultivation and expand the setting.

But then it start to look alot more like generic "modern xiaxia" with alot of powerfantasy, where MC is just flexing his school peers and gaining great power boost without any enemy to match, with even young master face slap and girls fighting for him on the school. And from what I'm reading don't look like it will be get better.

Is not bad and still more interesting than some xianxias, but is very different from what people are expecting from the author even if in paper seen to make some sense (to raise further in taoism you need to experience and understand "human life" and all it's joy and pains, so try to be a normal kid in school)

MC tr*shes villian? what does villian do? does he come back and try again? no... Does he go get friends? no... he gives up and cuts his losses like any normal person would do after almost dying.