Disclaimer: I know this specific topic has probably been belabored on this subreddit. Plenty of people that are better at formulating their thoughts have given their opinions, but I am on break rn and kinda bored and want to write a review for all the novels I have read. I found that while searching for new novels, random threads from many years ago with opinions and reviews were a good starting point for me, so hopefully this helps someone in the future. RI will be my first review since it’s the easiest for me to give my opinion on but I’ll definitely write more for lesser discussed ones (gonna be honest I’ve only read like 6 or so, of which 2 I nearly finished but ended up dropping almost at the end. So I’m no actual connoisseur). I also read this novel about a year ago so a lot of this review is going off memory.

RI = reverend insanity

MC = main character

Part 0.1: Overview/General Thoughts

Of the novels I have read (not many), I think RI ranks the highest for me. I’ll elaborate on my points later in this post but with 2300 chapters the story is quite lengthy. I really like this fact, and the length allows the author to focus on more mundane world building, character building(*), and deeper thoughts regarding humanity and what living in a society means. These things add a lot to the background of any story and create a much richer and intriguing base. That being said, if you come into this story expecting to learn a lot about said subjects, or to interact with the authors musings regarding some philosophical topics, I think you will be somewhat disappointed. At the end of the day this world the author created is fantastical, and while of course there are themes that can be understood and analogized to real life, a lot of the MC’s takes seem in the realm of “teenage edgelord learns about nihilism.” I think enjoying the story purely for the subversion of classic protag behavior and incidentally joining the MC along for the ride with his beliefs, rather than using it as a true learning opportunity for your real life mentality, will make the experience better. Occasionally I’ll see a post on this sub or the RI sub that goes along the lines of “wow MC really made me reevaluate society and how the world works” and you just have to kind of roll your eyes at this. Maybe they’re being facetious and I fell for it.

The novel is also originally in Chinese. I read the English translation, but as a fluent Chinese speaker (my literacy is a little worse for wear but whatever) I could definitely notice some specific phrases or idioms that probably feel poetic in Chinese but end up rather clunky in English (no shade to the translators though, they did a great job). A bit off topic but part of what makes Chinese poetic for me imo is the prevalence of idiomatic expressions, and the fact that a lot of these expressions come in the form of 4 character phrases. The fact that the language is monosyllabic, these 4 syllable patterns are really rhythmically satisfying. Even though this is often lost in translation, I actually really like Chinese-to-English translations and being able to tell that something is just ever so slightly missing. In some future reviews I’ll go over some Korean original (then translated) or English original novels I’ve read. It’s hard for me to describe, but maybe due to the slight clunkiness, or the fact that I can kinda feel the vibe of the poetry of names or idioms in Chinese even without reading the actual Chinese, the awkwardness lends itself to me feeling that the story is deeper. Maybe I’m just weird lol, but hearing about “Bob” fighting the martial artist “Alex” seems stranger than some mystical foreign name using Gu/daoist cultivation…

Part 0.2: Content Flags/TW

As I alluded to, this novel is fairly dark in content, although thematically it’s more like the MC is incredibly callous (putting it lightly). I think this novel is used as an “Evil MC” example but I don’t think it’s quite accurate. At least, the MC doesnt act in the ways he does because he is trying to create more suffering, or enjoys it, it’s just that other lives or interpersonal relationships are insignificant. Again, kind of like callousness tuned up to 100.

Murder/killing: As for the actual content, there is a lot of straight up murder, sometimes graphically described. I think towards the beginning it’s a little more jarring, especially when I was coming into the story with zero experience in the whole webnovel/cultivation genre or subculture. And contextually, the MC starts off weak and small so each murder is kind of thrust on the reader due to the in-universe difficulty of actually carrying it out. But as the story progresses, there’s a lot of “and then XYZ clan was slaughtered” type situations.

Rape/Sexual Assault/Sexual Violence: This is quite rare overall, although there are definitely some faceless named characters that appear briefly, kind of like “thug XYZ who is an infamous rapist.” These characters are overwhelmingly rare and really are easily forgotten, and as far as I remember there is only 1 actual named and somewhat plot relevant character who does something like that (although now that I’m thinking about it, maybe he was just a murderer). Nothing is described graphically as far as these incidents go and overall I would describe the story as essentially devoid of these acts altogether, although someone who has a better memory than I do and is more sensitive to these subjects might object to this description. The story is also basically devoid of romance/sex entirely. Maybe it’s alluded to once or twice? But not with the MC at least.

Slavery/mistreatment: This is very much seen in universe as common and widely accepted by all, and the groups being sold as slaves by humans do end up being somewhat plot relevant so this subject appears a few times. The MC himself participates in both ownership and emancipation(?) although that part is more like he works with the groups that are historically treated as slaves to fight back against humans when doing so is in his favor.

Okay on to the actual review.

Part 1: Power System/World Building

I should probably start with a very rough description of the story. The MC, having lived for a few hundred years and gaining a ton of enemies, goes back in time right before he is about to be killed, all the way to the day when he is about to first awaken his power system. But since he kept his memories, he now can navigate his past life with far more ease than before by relying on things he knows will happen in the future (his past). His main goal is eternal life and really does not care about anything else. That’s about it, basically the beats from chapter 1.

As my very first webnovel, RI treated me to a power system that I didn’t realize would be so unique among contemporary novels. It’s a little strange at first, and honestly I still don’t totally get it with the whole >!(formations and houses stuff at the end)!< but instead of the standard “meridians” and “circulating qi” and similar daoist stuff you’ll find in other novels, RI uses what are essentially little bug guys for lack of a better term. Of course it still has the inner core kind of stuff that is standard for xianxia/wuxia/xuanhuan (I’m probably using the wrong words here I still don’t rly know the difference between the 3). I’m definitely not doing the power system justice in my description, but trust me on this it really is interesting, although it gets kind of complicated when the story explodes in scale later on (and when everyone is kinda too powerful). Everything is really well explained at the start regarding the power system and the narration does a good job of not over expositing since the MC is being “taught” some stuff in the starting setting (so by proxy the reader is learning along with the MC).

The world itself is large and the MC basically traverses it all, although the physical settings rarely play a huge role, and it’s more about the new characters in the new location that matter. There are a toooon of setting changes though which I liked a lot, where the MC stays/lives in place A for a while before moving to place B etc. Through this the world becomes a lot more filled in and real. Towards the late middle/end there is a growing issue with “new clan being introduced just to add some more basically nameless goons to create tension/advance the plot” but at least for a good while every named setting/group matters. If I were to rate these aspects, I would probably give power system a 9.5/10, world building 9/10.

I really don’t want to go too into detail at the risk of spoiling anything, but especially towards the higher end of the power system, the way they advance, the new abilities, the almost wholesome internal farming sim thing (this is only gonna make sense once you get to this part in the story), they all just work well.

Part 2: Plot Progression

Something I find really annoying is the whole “MC born with/inherits/finds super special MC only ability then MCs all over everyone MCingly.” A lot of time progress in those cases doesn’t feel deserved or earned. With RI, ironically the MC does have a super special MC ability and often does MC all over everyone MCingly, but a) there is a specific in universe reason why the MC outperforms the people around him that works out well and b) there are a loooooot of “gathering resources” arcs in between big plot development arcs that make his advancement feel justified. I actually liked a lot of the gathering allies/resources parts as much if not more than some real story beats.

And to not beat around the bush too much, I think RI handles “regression” or basically going back in time with your current memories really really really well. It’s not exactly a get out of jail free card ability, there are limits, and there are even in universe explanations for why things worked out for him or why things didnt when they failed. It also creates the biggest tension driving mechanism in the entire novel for the readers, which is the huge amount of dramatic irony. There are a ton of times that you and the MC know that XYZ will happen, but the other characters do not, which completely affects how their interactions go. The MC can relive his past experiences so he has info no one else does. Due to this ability, a ton of his opportunities come from pre planning which make wins seem more fulfilling and deserved.

Finally the story escalation is quite good. With any cultivation/advancement story, the MC needs to keep progressing and eventually they get way too OP and you need to zoom the world out so much to show the scale of their power that everything kind of feels meaningless and dull. I think that yes there are times where it almost seems like how the hell are there always more strong antagonists for the MC to deal with when none of them were seen or mentioned for so long in the story when the MC was weak. But almost all of this feels like it’s grounded in fairly consistent world-building so his progression and likewise adversarial encounters are justified, and as far as power level goes it never gets to the point where he is too strong for the world. To give Plot Progression a rating, i would put it between 8-8.5/10.

Part 3: Lore/Philosophy

Lore kind of belongs in word building but I think RI includes something unique enough to delineate. As the story advances, there are often chapters dedicated to a book of legends about humanity’s first ancestor. The characters often reference this book of legends, and sometimes are even narrating the legends to each other, but the important part is that these side stories all tie into the plot. I think it’s a really cool way of adding depth and intrigue to items or places of note. What I’m saying doesnt make a lot of sense as I’m reading it so I’ll kind of spitball an example. The characters come across a chasm in the forest. One of them says “ah, this chasm is just like the one from the book of legends.” <begins narrating said legend> “character from legend falls down the chasm and meets with the embodiment of perseverance, and climbs back up the chasm, learning more about himself in the process.”After expositing the legend, the original characters come realize that this is the famous chasm where one can meditate in to build resistance to external pressure to strengthen their minds.

This was kind of a shitty example that probably still didnt make much sense, but essentially what I’m trying to say is that by mixing in these legends with the plot, we get a deeper understanding of some important locations or items (I’m being vague here on purpose).

More than that though, there are indeed a lot of philosophical musings that the author transmits through these legends. I know I kind of shat over how deep this novel is, but that was more about how people take the lessons learned by characters governed by fantasy world rules and try to apply them to real life or themselves. One example is the fact that the MC constantly talks about how reliance on others, building deep bonds, self sacrifice etc are weaknesses. He also talks about how the “righteous” faction intentionally manipulate a lot of relationships to maintain order. Okay, sure in universe that’s a good observation, yes the righteous people are often quite immoral and hypocritical. It’s completely fine as far as the story goes and there is even this hugely cathartic emotional payoff late in the novel where the MC’s self reliance and perseverance is critical. But don’t read into this too much, these points are only valid insofar as the author intentionally set up a morally grey “righteous” group to ridicule. Kinda went on a tangent, but this aside I do think there are some valuable or at least interesting philosophical things to think about, and my point is the mechanism used to ferry these thoughts into your head comes in a really cool “story within the story” book of legends. This stuff is hard to rate because it’s unique to RI, but ✨bonus points✨ for RI I guess.

Part 4: The Emotional Beats

While this story is largely action driven, there are a handful of moments where you really do take a step back and admire how the author managed to weave in some incredibly emotional scenes, specifically to the point where you sympathize and root for this cruel immoral MC. Not to say anything he does is justified using your own moral compass, but still there are definitely some chapters that tugged at my heartstrings. Some come in the form of stories within the story (the book of legends mentioned previously but also these things called dream realms). But some are simply memories of characters that we get to visit. I’m not exactly the hardest guy to get teary-eyed especially when it comes to books, but as far as fantasy or action novels go none have before RI (although I need to qualify this point by saying that action/fantasy is absolutely not my genre of choice so I rarely read books like this even within the Western canon).

That said this is definitely not a novel meant to be emotional, it’s more about how sudden something emotional just appears in an otherwise fairly straightforward action fantasy story. It’s rare but the surprise aspect is what caught me lacking >:(

Idk/10

Part 5: Shortcomings

I think my first complaint would be that the characters often fall a bit flat aside from some really important ones. Due to the sheer size of the world and how much the plot needs to move, some times characters you hoped would continue to receive attention fall to the wayside, or don’t develop meaningfully and are just kinda there.

The second relates to faceless XYZ named group that just bog down progression. There’s a balance to strike between making the world feel real and lived in, and naming every random annoying clan with all their random annoying clan members. Then keeping track of who is who and why we care about them is another task. I think due to this, I felt like my attention waned a lot when I first read it particularly around the middle/late middle section.

The third isn’t really a complaint but the story is incomplete. It got banned in China (plenty of threads discussing why, I never really bothered to dig into it) and the author lost motivation to continue writing. It’s a shame, although the silver lining is that the story is left very much open ended for the reader so that’s good I guess.

Final Thoughts

Idk where to put this but there are some key moments of foreshadowing that I thought really make this novel stand apart from even some of the better received ones out there. That, combined with the fact that there are rarely any “asspulls” that feel way overboard, and the fact that even the predictable plot points are satisfying enough when they do appear, makes the story super engaging as a reader. I can predict things but it’s not weaker when I know what’s going to happen. Or when my expectations are subverted, it’s not due to some stupid reason that leaves me feeling cheated.

I’m sure there are plenty of things that I left unsaid, I’m super sleepy now so I’ll just post as is. Hopefully this helps at least one person who stumbles across this. If you’re deliberating on whether or not to start this webnovel (presumably being on here means you are at least familiar with the martial/cultivation genre and enjoy them) then I would absolutely recommend giving it a try. Yeah there are slow points and dull moments of course, but even then I think there are so many stand out parts of this story that I have to rank it as the best of the ones I’ve read. But I don’t like ranking things like that in general.