Reverend InsanityGu Zhen Ren • Daoist Gu • 蛊真人

4/5
I have read about 1400 chaps and am taking a break
This review will have SPOILERS

An amazing novel that will make you think about life and teach you a lot of thing, give you a different perspective on life, but there are some issues that i'd like to adress.

First issue thats auite noticable is the padded word count - too often the author repeats the same information in a matter of couple of chapters, too many info dumps and useless information that we could live without, if all these were taken out, this novel would probably have less than 2k chaps right now.

Another issue is that a lot of things dont make sense in the novel. For example, heavenly court.
A 3 million year old organization, 3 immortal venerables led it, has a large foundation, okay understandable. But its existence doesnt make sense and it has never been adresses (at least not in first 1400 chaps). All members are way too loyal. You are telling me that exceptional rank 8s that have great grandmaster attainments are willingly becoming heaven's will's slaves, giving away their immortal apertures and forever giving up any hopes for advancement, and then unhesitantly sacrificing themselves for heaven? What kind of bullshit is that, that's same as some great king in our world sacrificing himself for God. So heavenly court having so many rank 8s is nonsensical. It was just put in the story by the author, but its existence doesnt make sense.

Another issue is heaven's will itself. I honestly think that this story would be much more epic without it, or if it played a smaller role. It's like having a second author, a convenient plot device. Some BS happens that couldnt have possibility of happening? Oh heavens will wanted that. A convenient plot tool that the author uses to twist the plot in a nonsensical manner. Another point is that heavens will's abilities are inconsistent. It was said that heavens will could only influence gu immortals subconscious, and it took a long time and that stronger the immortal the lower the influence, but then heavens will influences things that should be way beyond its capabilities. So how does that work?
Also how od tribulations work? Immortal apertures are considered different space and arent connected to the outside world, so how can heavens will influence it and send a tribulation? I doulw understand if they happend in the outside world and targeted the gu immortal's body, not their immortal aperture.

Actually inconsistency is a big problem in this novel. The author often twists things that were stated in the past, so that it becomes more convenient to advance the plot the way he wants.

The nest thing is actually quite common in chinese cultivation novels, but idk why.
After every volume, the mc is nerfed, AFTER EVERY SINGLE ONE. After first volume MC goes from rank 3 peak to rank 1 initial, after second volume, MC is under regional suppresion, he goes from rank 4 peak to rank 3 peak and cannot advance to rank 5 quickly because of it. After third volume he becomes an immortal zombie and he stagnates becaus eof it for 400 chaps. After fourth volume he loses almost all his immortal Gu. If it happend once or twice it would be okay, but every f#cking time?

Second half of the novel could have been so f#cking epic but the author just ruined it. After he gets rid of heavens wills influence, and gets sovereign immortal aperture, everything should have calmed down and MC should have slowly advanced to rank 7, and then it should have slowly picked up pace. If MC passed most tribulations to advance to rank 7, he would be comparable to feng jiu ge, because of his overwhelming number of dao marks. But the author made him dumb all of a sudden. He gave up at least half a million dao marks (5000 times increase in a paths ability) to advance to rank 7 quickly. Completely dumb decision, but i am too lazy to explain why. Again, things were conveniently twisted so that this decision coould be considered 'practical', but if you look into it it was dumb as f#ck.

There is way too much tension in the second half of the novel, it's exhausting to read, this is not how you write a novel. If this tension felt natural, maybe i could pull through. But it feels artificial and fabricated. Its not a pleasant experience.

All in all, this novel could do much better without the padded word count, "the second author", pacing could be improved a lot, and also it would be nice if the author didnt make the MC dumb from time to time haha.

But the fact remains that this is a great novel and absolutely worth a read, a classic in chinese cultivation genre. Just take your time so that you dont burn yourself out.