Question Reverend insanity story depth... ?

At this point, you are obviously a troll. Classic wuxia? Haha that's a laugh. You k obviously don't know what wuxia is.
Here is an hint : there are zero active wuxia novels on wuxiaworld.
You are a troll either way but it is pretty sad that you do not understand this novel.
It is in no way perfect but calling the novel's positives as it's negatives, is pretty ridiculous.

 

Basic mind games? There are many mind games but few of them are basic. At the lower power levels many of the characters are simply taken advantage of by Fang Yuan but at the higher levels he needs to operate on a different level where every action he takes needs to have multiple benefits.

Spoiler

One of my favorite scenes in the novel is the auction arc where he realizes that someone is scheming against him and decides to have his ally bid against him in the auction in order to determine the identity of his adversary rather than simply completing the purchase.

Or when that wisdom dao patriarch has finally achieved his goal and stolen the cultivation of his clan members and Fang Yuan shows up with his granddaughter which causes him to lose focus due to one of the souls he absorbed freaking out.

Also I just love all of the beautiful short lived alliances that people make in spite of their differences because they need to do so in order to survive.

 

Better just let it go, it isn't your type
It's too good for you

 

I suspect that "Reverend Insanity" is a lot like "Grandmaster Strategist" in that these books are held in high regard because it's rare to see their like on NU. These kinds of books don't really exist in English either so their uniqueness holds some extra appeal. However, I also suspect that because I already read this kind of thing all the time, I'll find it a lot less exciting as that's exactly what happened when I read "Grandmaster Strategist".

I'm curious to find out but there are a couple of things keeping me from doing so. The first is that "Reverend Insanity" doesn't seem like my kind of book as I'm not horribly fond of villain protagonists. The bigger issue though is that going into a new book with a "prove me wrong" attitude is a terrible idea.

 

Haha, I am not a fan of villain protagonists either and dropped Warlock of Magus World but Reverend Insanity is not really about a villain protagonist but more about hypocrites and a defeated man.
He killed a little girl, I hated that part.
He killed Little girl to become stronger but it isn't so simple.
I don't consider Fang Yuan a villain.
The strong point of the story is how the author tried hard to not make it predictable and smooth sailing for the protagonist.
His notes at the end of volumes are pretty interesting.
Personally, I believe a prequel of the story would have been great.
A story about how he learnt to be cruel would be very interesting.

 

See, every time I hear this book being described like this the more it feels like I've been reading material like it all along.

 

I dislike Reverend Insanity. In my opinion, Fang Yuan isn't worthy to be MC.
I don't mean that the protagonist can't be a villain. He can be evil, but can not be pure evil. Fang Yuan trusts no one, be good to no one. That kind of people can't succeed for a long time. The reason the story can be that long is the author made it "smooth sailing for the protagonist"

 

Most of the time, the translation is wrong actually. The heavens usually means changing one destiny:X

 

That's not the reason. FY is the embodiment of the demonic path. It's said in the first chapter - a demon is an enemy of the world. And in this world, it is where power matters above all, unlike Earth where teaming up matters. He's cultivated bitterly, sacrificed everything, and yet, there are still people stronger than him. He's the underdog in a game of cosmic chess - a nobody trying to become great - yet we still cheer for him.

And it wasn't smooth sailing for him at all. He was shaped this way from a naive boy throughout his life to be used as a tool in a contest between the literal gods of this world because he's an "outsider" or otherworldly demon, so he can change the past with the SAC. Because yes, the original owner tried going into the past to save his love, but he couldn't change anything. So in the end, he tried to destroy fate, but couldn't because he was a part of the world. And because fate was damaged, zombies could exist and fate escapees...

In the past b4 Fang Yuan reincarnated, Spectral Soul was successful in killling FJH and delaying the great era where a new venerable is chosen, but heaven had other plans and used him as a tool to destroy multiple venerable's plans. The destruction of giant sun's true yang building...Sabotaging Spectral Soul's ultimate gu. But our protagonist managed to break free and become a player in the game.

Reverend insanity is a deep story and has lots of amazing lore, that our op is blind too.

 

And that's the point I think illogical. There is no world where "individual power is above all". Individual power is the quality, combined power is the quantity, they are the two sides of the same coin. If he can develop faster than all of his enemies combines (and he keeps making new enemies), that's plot armor.
Of course, I haven't read the latter part, so may he has some change later.

 

It is fine if you have such a world view, but this fiction has a different world view that individual power can exceed group power. If this conflict makes it impossible for you to enjoy any fiction that rely on powerful individual, so be it.
However, I have to say in some historical period, individual power exceed group power while in our current time period, group power exceed individual power. While we currently exist in a world with a different power dynamics, it is hard to find good references to understand world's with a different power dynamics.

 

It's not hard to believe that his growth exceeds his enemies' combined power if you take into account how power levels work in this novel. Just imagine that the growth rate of individuals is exponential, while teaming up is linear growth.

It's like when he levels up his power level is squared, but when two enemies team up they just double their power level.


That's also where the spring autumn cicada comes in. Him knowing the future and being experienced despite his low power level is his plot armour. On top of the fact that he has a reset whenever he fucks up (not that it doesn't come with a cost), so he can increase his power level more quickly than his enemies.

Having plot armour isn't necessarily bad when it has a canonical reason for it, rather than just some bs deus ex machina or Mary Sue which I think most people are complaining about when they talk about plot armour

This is from the perspective of someone who's only read about 800 or so chapters, though, so I can't speak for the rest of the novel.

 

I rather say "more important" than "exceed". It depends on the level gap: You can easily crush 1000 ants, but you can't do the same when facing 1000 dogs, right?
I don't deny individual power, I'm against FY's philosophy "having individual power is enough, group power has no use"
"The individual power is one leg, the group power is another leg. Only a man with both legs can climb to the peak of the mountain." (The Ultimate Monster Tamer, from the same author)

The problem is that he isn't the only cultivator in the world. If his power level is squared when leveling up, so does his enemy.
It's true that spring autumn cicada can reset and save his ass, but if the difference in power is too much, it'll have little use. It's like playing chess with a computer, you can redo your moves as much as you want, but you can't win because whenever you come up with a new move, the opponent can also come up with a new move too.
It's like you said, having plot armor isn't necessarily bad, but it should be reasonable.

 

This is true, but if he happens to level up faster than his enemies then the fact that there are more of them and only one of him is negligible.

I'm pretty sure that for precisely this reason the mc gets into deep shit later into the novel.

I don't know about how contrived it gets at that point, but at least within the first 800 chapters everything seems reasonable when you take into account his knowledge of the future and experience as a demonic cultivator.

 

FY is a bit like Raito Yagami/Kira: smart, goot at pretending, always plan ahead, don't care about anything except achieve his goal. For me, the logical outcome for FY should be dead without achieving the goal like Kira. But I have read some novels of this author before, so I'm afraid that FY will somehow get out of the shit and become the strongest later. That's why I drop this novel.

 

Even if FY would have died without achieving his goal, the story would still say individual power above all. For every group that exists in this world, there is one giant hand that is behind the group making all the decisions. The initial Gu Yue clan is a tool for the first generation clan head. The northern plain for thousands of years, are manipulated by Giant Sun even after his death. The Heavenly Court is using "Heaven's Will" to refer to the will of one rank 9 immortal.
If FY is defeated, he is defeated by someone's scheme hundreds of thousands of years in the making. The scheme may be executed by a group, but that group is mislead about why it is doing what it did, and the one behind the scenes is using the power of manipulation rather than the more straight forward cultivation power.

 

Well, since the novel was banned, maybe we'll never know.
The only thing I like in this story is Human Ancestor Biography.

 

It is a novel which you shouldn't read unless you have read all other interesting novels because if you do you will find many other novels boring. It is the one of most realistic novels i have read there is a reason for every thing and it's plot gets deeper and deeper it's just it takes time because MC is not strong enough to control his destiny yet but with the passage of time you will start loving it

 

WHAT!!!! banned!!!!! Why? When?

 

Political dick-whipping and censorship. Many novels got "banned" or need a rewrite of many scenes.

As far as I know the author said he will stop working on RI for ~2 years and then look to finish it... if the political situation has relaxed. Theoretically it would take about 2 years for the TL to be up to date anyway.

But I wouldn't bet on it ever getting finished. Even though the author promised to.