Becoming a Sage Starts From Condensing the Essence of Time从岁月道果开始成圣

Read up to Chapter 116. I agree with other reviews here that's is a bit of a weird thing to read in terms of what's good and bad. I am probably going to stop this novel for now, but may come back to it in the future.

Edit: After writing this review/essay (insanely longer than I intended), I realised I didn't put the good points which kept me reading this novel, until very far down, so I'll mention them quickly here.


He transmigrates into the body of a Scholar who is planning to take a big exam to be classified on some important list. There's a LOT of painting, poems, righteousness, saying thoughtful stuff, reading into all of this stuff in detail etc.

His main "cheat" is the ability to absorb Age Qi off others. Golden ones can basically awaken a talent for him and normal ones can be used as skill points to upgrade his talents or cultivation techniques. Each time he uses an Age Qi, it gives him a short memory related to the person who he absorbed it from, thought later on that aspect dissappears from the ordinary ones and only remains on the Golden ones.

The talents which can be upgraded seem to have the same requirements:
10 Age Qi for first upgrade.
100 Age Qi + 2 Golden Age Qi/Sacrifice 2 Talents for second.
1000 Age Qi + 10 Golden Age Qi/Sacrifice 10 Talents for third.

Tbh after he awakens and upgrades the Genius talent, his cheat isn't really a big thing anymore. He still absorbs the Age Qi from people when he has the opportunity to, but it just goes towards strengthening his genius talent.

The language used is (supposed to be) VERY detailed and beautified. Lots of flowery descriptions etc. Though that's kinda ruined by the translation issues (mentioned further below) as well as the fact that it constantly uses the same things over and over again. It's pretty much always raining, since the author seems to enjoy having everything happen in rainy weather and describing that, constantly "bathing in moonlight" and mentioning the MC has a "fierce tiger in his chest" etc.

The main issue with the translation is mostly the usual stuff nowadays. Lack of any proofreading, messing up names, messing up pronouns, using negatives and positives the wrong way round (can vs can't for example) etc.
Given these issues, its unclear at times whether some of the wording issues above is due to the source or the translation - like in one chapter alone it mentions bathing in moonlight/wind/etc. like 5 seperate times or something.
On a similar vein, there are things that are said that are just not true/don't make sense to be something a smart Scholar would say. Some examples i found quickly:




Lastly on the translation issues, sometimes things are said that contradict what was mentioned previously or that kinda break how things work. The main example of this is related to the Little Token challenge stuff, but there is also cases where one chapter says that cultivation doesn't provide any benefits in terms of learning, then the very next one seems to go against that, since it says that MC was able to remember all the books he had read even in his original life, which clearly shows that the cultivation does have an (incredibly large) impact imo:



For the Little Token stuff, we are originally told that:


But then, after MC makes a breakthrough the Token/Ranking seems to become sentient and increases his spot by 1 just by itself:


Given that people only have 2 chances to fail before being removed, why would anyone risk accepting a challenge if a breakthrough can increase their ranking? The only rules we are given regarding the challenges themselves are AFTER MC isn't the last anymore (with a potential translation error - the person who is now last isnt challenging the one in "First Place" but MC who is second to last.):


No clue about whether or not the other rankings have restrictions against accepting/rejecting challenges. No clue if there are rules to prevent those in a higher position just forcing challenges on the Weakest ones to kick them out when they are so much weaker etc.

Speaking of that though, it's unlikely to happen because (other than the Prime Minister's family/minions) ALL the stronger cultivators/old monsters that MC meets seem to ADORE him. It is honestly a really nice change of place for the MC to be supported so well by those stronger than him. Even the number 1 on the Little Sacred rankings becomes friends with him and is happily waiting for MC to get stronger so they can fight. His master is extremely generous with him, as well as all old people who see his talent and want to nurture it. Its a really refreshing change from having those stronger constantly trying to deprive or threaten the MC. Here he gets tons of benefits either just due to his character, or simply due to people wanting him to succeed - his master especially has a wish that she wants granting, but never tries to force MC to fulfil it as it would bring him more trouble. [Though I'm almost certain he will end up doing it anyway. She has been so helpful to him that he would have to be heartless not to.]
The only minor issue with this recently is that it feels like EVERYONE is now like this with MC. Even a character who is friends with the Prime Minister who is against the MC decides to stay quiet in a scenario rather than stand up for his friend, because he values MC more. Also all of these old monsters constantly make sure to protect MC from anything too strong for him - if someone much stronger is trying to use their realm to put pressure on MC, they always step in and dispel the pressure, allowing MC to act freely.

The direction it seems to be going in now is the MC being a righteous cultivator. He can't do anything that goes against his will or thoughts, otherwise his realm will instantly plummet. I'm personally not a fan of this type of MC - since he has to stay true to his heart, he will undoubtedly be drawn into troubles that could easily be avoided by him being silent or ignoring things, which is not possible for him anymore. It is likely that, given how protective the old people are over him (mentioned above) he will never be in a position where his righteousness brings him any real difficulties.

Overall...I've written out way too much here.

Quite good but for some reason the author is obsessed with a gentleman's backbone and not bending over. It's repeating in almost every chapter. Fu#king annoying

Spirit- Meditation, Embryonic Breath, Shedding Mortality, Primordial Spirit, Oblivion...
Body- Qi Blood Awakening, Spirit Bone Forging, Inner Core Condensation, Mystic Intent, and Connate Realm

Trash, fastfood.
just to get angry, the mc is a whore from modern society who thinks he's a Saint

This novel is quite 'weird' if you ask me. I read about 100~ chapters, and I must say I have mixed feelings about it. Why? Because of the ff.:

waste of time

It is good enough.
The first 40ish chapters are long and suitably translated.
After that, the translators once again become greedy and artificially inflate the chapter numbers.
Of course, none of that is new, it is standard practice.

No Harem until chapter 118ish (cannot talk about future chapters).
The MC's System is simple and easily understandable.
It is OP, but this is wish fulfillment, so this is natural.
He is a scholar. A "gentleman with a spine like bamboo", if that tells you anything.
It is actually pretty good.
Fast food, yes, but better than 90% of the other trash webnovel shits out.

Start with some good way......
But along the way writer get drunk on his own bullshit.......
The protagonist change drastically become fame , glory and honor seeking
Monster.....
He should have kept low profile and get stronger. The system use in here is new and refreshing, but he doesn't use his advantage very well.


And what is up with every author write novel don't have concept of time...
I'm sick of the protagonist go through cultivation realm like eating tofu...
Others take 100 s of years time to advance.. this M.F. advance the same level in half an hour.... and writer comes up with some B.S. plot armor to justify it..

Overall not a bad One you can give it a try... (3.5/5)

Had high hopes for this. If you're like me and have sifted through countless cultivation novels, then you're looking for something different.

This is different. Not because of the cultivation or world, those are still comfortably generic, but in terms of the main character.

He's polite, elegant, humble, with a literary flair that makes him stand out from other MCs. A lot of the side characters were well-written as well, especially the first villain. Author had me rooting for him at some points.

I was a bit disappointed that the MC seemed to grow more and more arrogant as he got stronger, acting like his talent is his and not harvested by a system from other people.

Also the author dipped into some common tropes that I would've liked to see less of, like 'dao of invincibility' and demon qi body tempering, but overall isn't a bad read. Better than the average cultivation novel.