Xianxia / Cultivation / Progress fantasy

[Anonymous No.22495509]

List out your favorite novels and what you are reading.
Mine are: Reverend Insanity, World of Cultivation and Lord of Mysteries (not finished)
I just finished Martial world (was honestly shit except for like a few interesting arcs)
Also I read the first book of cradle and it's cringe and reads like it was written by a teenager? I am missing something?

[Anonymous No.22495570]

>>22495509
bump

[Anonymous No.22495589]

>/lit/ - literature

[Anonymous No.22496600]

Just started Reverend Insanity today and am liking it so far. Also reading Renegade Immortal and I Shall Seal the Heavens. I was enjoying Lord of All Realms but dropped it after about 400 chapters.

[Anonymous No.22496628]

>>22495509
I'm interested in Reverend Insanity but 2300 chapters is simply too much. I suspect there is a significant amount of padding and needless verbosity involved.

[Anonymous No.22496691]

>>22496628
>2300 chapters of shitting on your inferiors
such is the life of an Aristocrat

[Anonymous No.22497552]

>>22496628
It didn't feel that padded, the wold building is very good so is the gu power system.

[Anonymous No.22497563]

>>22495509
I liked Cradle a lot more than when I tried I Shall Seal the Heavens. I can't stand the daily chapter no editor format that seems typical of the genre

[Anonymous No.22497813]

>>22497563
Does cradle get better after the first book, the intro sect was boring and written worse than most novels like reverend insanity and the mc just seems unlikable. The whole timestop mommy that fixes everything is like the cringiest introduction to a mentor/high level figure/goal.

[Anonymous No.22498014]

>>22497813
It gets better but then by 5-6 book it starts getting worse and worse

[Anonymous No.22498021]

>>22495509
Here is my list:
Reverend Insanity
Martial World
Throne of primordial blood
Hidden tower
The Human Emperor
End Of magic era
Otherworldly Evil Monarch
Genius warlock
Sovereign of three realms

[Anonymous No.22498509]

>>22496628
Literally just read it alongside whatever else you're already reading. It's a long book but if you work through it piecewise then you'll have no problem finishing it within a year or 2. Not much padding I'd say, but there are some arcs that don't seem that interesting when you're reading them. Once you are finished these arcs however there is always a good pay off and they aren't bad at all in retrospect.

[Anonymous No.22498630]

I read machine translated web novels

[Anonymous No.22498821]

>>22498630
mtls are garbage, at least read fan translated webnovels

[Anonymous No.22499742]

>>22498021
Is that your ranking? I wouldn't consider the martial world that good desu, the abyssals were a huge disappointment.
>>22498630
Which ones and aren't all the top ones already translated?

[Anonymous No.22499758]

What is the genre about?

[Anonymous No.22499792]

>>22498630
I've seen some screencaps of translated Chinese shit in the fantasy general, and those were atrocious. I wonder if something like Deepl could do a better job.

[Anonymous No.22499825]

>>22499758
From what I could tell from the memes it's basically shounenshit but even more unhinged
All the protagonists are sociopathic pretty boys thag don't hesitate to kill anyone in cold blood, they train even thought they're already OP and have large harems
That's it

[Anonymous No.22499836]

>>22499758
>>22499825
Sorry, my IP range has been banned from posting but this should clear things up
>http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/001/317/233/d41.png

[Anonymous No.22500349]

>>22499825
>it's basically shounenshit but even more unhinged
>All the protagonists are sociopathic pretty boys thag don't hesitate to kill anyone in cold blood, they train even thought they're already OP and have large harems
that's a meme. Most novels have protags that do not kill random innocent people.

[Anonymous No.22500474]

>>22495509
>Reverend insanity
Fucking based

[Anonymous No.22500504]

>>22499742
RI as the top but the other novels weren't really ranked.
I really liked the world building in Martial World

[Anonymous No.22500553]

>>22495509
I liked Ze Tian Ji a lot. I think it is a step up from other wuxia novels in terms of themes.
Dislike the novels from "I Eat Tomatos". Protagonists are basically villains.

[Anonymous No.22500576]

>>22500349
On average, they are fairly Nietzschean. At least compared to their western equivalents (YA fiction)

[Anonymous No.22500676]

>>22500553
Have you tried his other works?

[Anonymous No.22500737]

>>22500676
From the author of Ze Tian Ji? His other works are much worse. It is a shame the ending of Ze Tian Ji was kind of rushed, because it was by far his masterpiece.

[Anonymous No.22501358]

>>22500576
There is nothing wrong with that.

[Anonymous No.22502829]

>page 10
not so fast lil fella

[Anonymous No.22503409]

>>22500504
Don't think that novel really had that impressive world building the author kinda winged it and it shows. World of cultivation, avalon of 5 elements, 40 millenniums of cultivation and Lord of Mysteries would have among the best world building, of course behind reverend insanity which has the best i've seen. Including western writing.
>>22499825
Shonens don't kill people most of the time due to conflicts over resources or have large racewars.
>>22499758
It's what the west now calls progression fantasy basically power leveling dnd characters but less cringe and better word building.

[Anonymous No.22503530]

>>22503409
I have seen so many xianxia stories where it inevitably degenerates into a race war, where “humanity” of course only means the Chinese, and the human-eating monstrous demons/yaoguai/barbarians are everyone else. Some stories are like a fantasy version of the Turner Diaries.

[Anonymous No.22503544]

>>22501358
Oh of course not. In fact, I think it's an interesting to observe that Chinese wish-fulfillment fiction tends to be a lot more willful and ubermensch-y despite Nietzsche's obscurity there while our own stuff tends to be less so even with the massive shadow Nietzsche has cast since the mid-20th century. Especially interesting considering they live in a communist society with communist values which are essentially a secularized materialist evolution of the christian (and Jewish) ethic.

Then again, I also hear that the upper class chinese youths are made to study their own classic literature in the original classical chinese tongue so perhaps Aristocracy is alive and well in the "communist" East.

[Anonymous No.22503581]

>>22503544
The families who did well on the imperial exams are still overrepresented among Chinese upper classes. The Great Leap Forward barely had an effect on this. Read The Son Also Rises.

Xianxia is male wish fulfilment for a culture that has a completely different moral system to what you're used to. It's not Nietzschean in the sense of being amoral, it's just part of a culture where dishonoring your enemies' corpses is more evil than torturing and killing them. If you mean the aspiration to immortality/power is Nietzschean, I still disagree but I see what you mean.

[Anonymous No.22503588]

>>22503581
I meant it in the "aspiration to power" sense but I think I understand what you mean. Xianxia protagonists are not amoral. They tend to follow/operate on a sort of classical chinese morality.

[Anonymous No.22504321]

>>22503530
>inevitably degenerates into a race war, where “humanity” of course only means the Chinese, and the human-eating monstrous demons/yaoguai/barbarians are everyone else.
There is nothing wrong with Chinese writing about Chinese (same way westerners writing about westerners and africans about Africans)

>>22503409
World of cultivation started out really well but then quality quality dropped really fast, I can't remember the reason but I dropped it when left that uninhabited island, also world building was mediocre at best, MW definitely has better worldbuilding than WoC

[Anonymous No.22504607]

>>22495509
Any system novel recs?

[Anonymous No.22504714]

>>22504607
Read several system novels and not a single one was good.

[Anonymous No.22504815]

>>22504714
My Longevity Simulation, though it's more of a time loop novel

[Anonymous No.22505435]

>>22496691
>What the FUCK anon, did you just glance at the number 1 sect beauty?
>"You're courting death"
>I will now gather 100 of my slave disciples to beat your ass at an exact given date from now

[Anonymous No.22505647]

>>22504607
warlock of magnus world would be a decent start. It's written well enough and has a logical ending and a nice change of pace in the last third.
otherwise reverend insanity continues to be the best novel in this space. You know that something is good if the CCP ban the author from finishing it

[Anonymous No.22505775]

read wuxia instead. They're shorter reads and there's plenty of translated novels that you can download the epubs/pdfs of

[Anonymous No.22505784]

>ching chong wala wala bing bong
Chinese Garbage Thread, sage.

[Anonymous No.22506383]

>>22505784
go back to /tv/ and watch some more marvel

[Anonymous No.22506962]

>>22504815
why do the translations for my longevity sim break down after chapter 187

[Anonymous No.22507477]

>>22506962
It isn't translated, at least it wasn't the last time I checked. Chapters on mtlnovel are broken though, if that's what you're talking about. Just read the raws.

[Anonymous No.22507665]

What is going on in this thread? Who are these people? Who are you all?

[Anonymous No.22507883]

>>22507477
do you manually copy paste everythjng into fanyi youdao or can you read chinese?

[Anonymous No.22508025]

i guess im gonna try some xianxia on readibu now. this thread persuaded me

[Anonymous No.22508172]

>>22505775
Unfortunately wuxia is shit

[Anonymous No.22508789]

>>22507665
chinkshit readers

[Anonymous No.22508810]

>>22508172
No, its based. It has real writing and plots

[Anonymous No.22509065]

>>22508789
What are you reading that so much better as your off genre. I can't keep reading hard scifi all the time.

[Anonymous No.22509318]

>>22509065
I read chinkshit, or at least I used to. I read all the good ones and cant find anything else.

[Anonymous No.22509454]

>>22509318
Hard to believe you've read that many since the average novel is 2k chapters and that's like 4 million+ words which is like readying harry potter series 4 times. I'm sure you missed some or you are built different.

[Anonymous No.22509509]

>>22509454
Nta, but you severely underestimate how much a young man with free time can read once he is hooked. I'm not as able to become addicted to them anymore, but in my past any story were I was invested into it could keep me reading the entire day and well into the night, and at the hour of sleep I'd have to force myself to stop reading
I must unironically have devoured tens of millions of words of slop in just a few years, I could easily go through a multi-million word series in a week alone
A far cry from me today, now I can't read shit without getting bored after 5 minutes.

[Anonymous No.22509568]

>>22509454
I'm a NEET and there aren't that many I consider good. I've probably read 10-15 of that length to completion, most of them I briefly look into and decide they're not worth my time, or I get bored 1000+ chapters in.
>>22509509
this guy knows

[Anonymous No.22509579]

>>22509509
name top 3

[Anonymous No.22510078]

>>22509568
If you read 10-15 then you have probably read most of the best ones.
One that I haven't seen mentioned is Dolou Dalu and Swallowed Star (mostly for the scifi ish setting). Though I think it drops that later.

[Anonymous No.22510139]

Which novel got the best cultivation system?

[Anonymous No.22510210]

>>22510139
Reverend Insanity, funny that a bug person though of making bugs a cultivation system.

[Anonymous No.22510364]

>>22510078
Fuck i remember reading swallowed star as it was getting translated, changed websites several times, or wuxiaworld going from a small website to what it is now, like coiling dragon when they were going to go to a prison place in the mortal world

[Anonymous No.22510421]

>>22499758

[Anonymous No.22510457]

>>22509454
you overestimate the number of good chinkshit.

[Anonymous No.22511165]

>>22507883
Google Translate

[Anonymous No.22512564]

>>22508810
modern wuxia adheres to ccp filter much more strictly than xanxia, because wuxia authors hope that their story will make it into animation or live action (those are popular or at least puched by party in China) and anything that appears on chinese tv must have correct story and themes that align with ccp ideals.

[Anonymous No.22512799]

>>22510078
I've read both. Swallowed star is decent, dolou dalu is waifu garbage.

[Anonymous No.22513870]

>>22497563
Ceadle is a poor immitation of true xanxia, don't bother with it

[Anonymous No.22514619]

how much danmei yall reading o.o

[Anonymous No.22515446]

>>22514619
>Danmei is a Chinese genre of literature and other fictional media that features romantic relationships between male characters. Danmei is typically created by and targeted towards a heterosexual female audience.
No thanks.

[Anonymous No.22515502]

Thoughts on The Legendary Mechanic? Always interesting to read a main character who's grasped the gospel of benefits.

[Anonymous No.22515559]

>>22515502
I dropped it sometime after he reached the first city. Litrpg scifi mechanics were cringy, it's scifi but progression was very much like fantasy. Main issue though the writing in general was way below average quality, everything from characters, dialogues, character choices and actions, events and pacing felt completely unrealistic and improbable. Disregarding scifi/fantasy aspect of it, the author can't write basic story and characters.

[Anonymous No.22515655]

I can’t tell how much of Legends of Ren Zu is true and how much is myth in the world of RI.
Seeing the spirit of the based retard son in one of the places of Heaven and earth was a shock.

[Anonymous No.22515728]

>>22515655
subjective interpretations of real events, passed down for generations, resulting in changes like omissions or additions due to the nature of oral tradition while the essential knowledge more or less remained the same.

[Anonymous No.22516056]

>>22509579
Reverend insanity is far and away the best in the genre.
I'd put Warlock of the Magus World second, especially the first 4 arcs, the ending is markedly worse.
For third, nothing really comes to mind, there're a lot of middling works. Martial World is a pretty well-executed example of the kind of stuff you often see. Lord of the mysteries is pretty good, so are I Eat Tomatoes' novels.

[Anonymous No.22516663]

>>22516056
I would put either of Lord of mysteries or 40 millennia of cultivation because they are decently written and have novel spins on the genre. After that it's harder, maybe like avalon of 5 elements or world of cultivation.
Also magnus world dream arc and especially the other world arc are neat. Overall not really written that well but pretty consistent in it's worlds unlike martial world. I though true martial world was much better but I didn't finish it.

[Anonymous No.22517874]

>>22516056
Warlock of magus world is terrible

[Anonymous No.22518241]

>>22517874
Compared to like the best of the genre or in general? It was decently well written with a consistent world and novels ideas.

[Anonymous No.22518266]

>>22516663
LoTM isn't xianxia

[Anonymous No.22518309]

>>22518241
In general, I found the writing to be the absolute worst, I really don't get why it's rated so high on so many sites. I don't know about the Chinese original but if the English translation is accurate then the person who wrote it is literal sub 70 iq retard.

[Anonymous No.22518313]

>>22518266
It is it's just a subgenre of it but honestly it's just Xianxia with fantasy elements.

[Anonymous No.22518882]

>>22496628
>2300 chapters

So is this shit longer then Wheel of time or what?

[Anonymous No.22518949]

>>22518882
RI translation was around 5 million words the last time I checked.

[Anonymous No.22518980]

I finished the Cradle series about 45 minutes ago. First tried it on a friends' recommendation. It was pretty cool, I liked the lightning-fast pacing and the fairytale YA atmosphere was refreshing since I read a lot of grim potatosack low fantasy. Kind of preferred the nature of the early books over later entries, though. The protagonist being born powerless in a world of bullshit superheroes, and scraping by with subterfuge and cheats is a lot more compelling to me than endless fight scenes where every casual attack is a "reality shattering cataclysm" and yet nobody dies. That said, it did a good job placing the bullshit-tier powers in context such that they felt "earned". Likable characters. I found it to be a very light read and went through the series very quickly.

[Anonymous No.22519431]

>>22495509
Currently reading Uncrowned (Cradle 7). I wish I could say it gets better but honestly I don't know. I remember reading Unsouled and immediately dropping it because the opening makes it seem like a Xianxia version of Divergent. If you read the first book and didn't like it then the series might just not be up your alley.

[Anonymous No.22520486]

>>22519431
I dropped it at bloodlines, it just got so much worse as the series progressed.

[Anonymous No.22520522]

>>22505435
truly this one has eyes but cannot see mount tai

[Anonymous No.22520668]

>>22496628
>I suspect there is a significant amount of padding and needless verbosity involved.
No. In a xianxia/cultivation/progress fantasy? Next you're gonna say it has words, made of letters. Preposterous.

[Anonymous No.22521200]

>>22498021
Good
Good
Good
Idk
Good
Idk
Bad
Bad
Bad

[Anonymous No.22521378]

>>22495509
Reverend Insanity is not worth it.

It ends on a huge cliffhanger and will never be finished. Don’t blue ball yourself on purpose.

[Anonymous No.22521488]

>>22521378
What is not worth about it? There are over 2300 chapters released, so what if it's missing the last 100 chapters, what difference does it make?

[Anonymous No.22521545]

>>22521488
>what difference does the ending make?

Anon I…

[Anonymous No.22521745]

>>22521545
It makes no difference. Each arc can be treated as almost a standalone story in the series, only the last book is unfinished and given FY character the ending is pretty obvious anyway.

[Anonymous No.22522105]

>>22521378
The journey is still very much worth it, I think that fact that the ccp went after it makes it even more special. Would you rather eat a full meal of shit or most of the most delicious meal?
>>22519431
Why is it even so popular?

[Anonymous No.22522201]

>>22495509
>>22497563
>>22519431
cradle reads like the person who wrote it read some xianxia novels, captured its tropes but have absolutely no idea how to tie it all together to make it interesting

[Anonymous No.22523572]

>>22521488
Reminds me of Forty Thousand Years of Cultivation
>one of the best xianxias out there
>3270 chapters
>2700 get translated
>Qidan kicks the translator and MTLs the rest
Trust me, it matters.

[Anonymous No.22524009]

>>22523572
It got fully translated around a year ago

[Anonymous No.22524102]

>>22524009
Yeah, with the MTL.
Unless you think the translator, after two thousand chapters, started forgetting the names of the major factions — one of the first chapters after the change calls the Covenant Alliance the Holy Accord Alliance... and the Sanctuary Alliance, in the same chapter.
Not to mention that the author's other work, which was also great, got hit with the MTL bat at the exact same time.

[Anonymous No.22525434]

>>22523572
Fuck qidian

[Anonymous No.22525951]

>>22525434
honestly fuck wuxiaworld too these days they might as well be qidian. RMX sold out, took his bag and gtfo'd after promising not to become a jew. I only read through piracy sites. Does anyone know of a place I can get epubs? Wuxiashithole only sells kindle drm cancer.

[Anonymous No.22526160]

>>22525951
webtoepub chrome extension or lightnovel crawler

Use any pirate novel website. Ranobes top, Novelfull com, etc.

[Anonymous No.22527936]

>>22526160
Thanks that lightnovel crawler looks dece at least I don't have make my own version.

[Anonymous No.22528871]

>>22525951
Just search google for webnovel name +epub

[Anonymous No.22529575]

I once read a novel with a guy who can use an axe and he rescued this princess character from a dragon but not before she got some teeth punched out. Can't remember wtf is was called.