I've had this recommended to me, and so far I've read up to chapter 350. People were saying how it doesn't have xianxia cliches etc. and how it is a unique and very good novel. But I feel like cliches are all there, only thing different is that now cultivators don't kill indiscriminately. Patriotism? Double Check (this shit is annoying as fuck) Face Slapping? Check Arrogant young masters? Check Idiotic revenge plots? Check MC is a genius at everything? Check Complete ripoff of another setting, only adding cultivators? Check Long drawn out chapters in order to increase word count? Check Random romance coming out of nowhere? Check So far, this novel can be branded with "Industry Standard™". I don't understand where the high praise is coming from, this seems like a bog standard xianxia with some sci-fi elements and a few cliches moved around. Maybe I shouldn't have expected actual quality writing like in Reverend Insanity, Lord of the Mysteries and Mao Ni novels. It also really grinds my ears how every other sentence is praising federation and how mc is proud to be a citizen, as well as the over exaggerated reactions of the characters.
Its uniqueness does not come from the lack of Xianxia themes; you're right, its full of them, but rather its setting, a futuristic cultivation world is pretty rare in novels these days and its unique way of looking at how a futuristic cultivation world may develop. The third and fourth arcs are better IMO, with the fifth arc where I dropped it.
It didn't get better for me. I believe I dropped it around chapter 1000. I remember the MC set off on a random journey, wherein he kept getting lucky, saving random people in distress, etc. and it was boring as fuck.
I'm at around 1600 chapters and it gets so much better. My god! The start was just trash because the author was starting out and a lot of the cliches get weeded out. I mean it really has everything right now, existential philosophies, AI debates and even kingdom buildings. Plus cultivation MECHAS (not the mechanical suits from the beginning either). There is even great lore on Pangu species and giant space empires (plus of course xianxia cliche criticisms of other novels, but gives reason why some of them exist in the first place). If you have the time to invest into it man, it gets so good. The only problem it has is that the author is kinda lazy sometimes and explains instead of actually showing, but with his improvement with writting I have hopes that that's gonna change too.
It does get better. Characters, good or bad, do have their own ideal. Not the "more money, more power, more girl to fuck" kind of bad guy.
Congratulations you have broken into Foundation Establishment. You now prefer mature stories and BL . Stop torturing yourself. Just because it's free , doesn't mean that you have to read it. Try Sword Dynasty. You can watch the live action. 10 Miles Peach Blossom Xuan Yuan Sword and Chinese Paladin Cheers!
It would get better, then worse again. I dropped it at that time, so I don't know if it will come around or keep going downhill.
Em, Patriotism and the pride of being the Human is one of the unique parts of the novel. MC is patriotic, but not racist, on the contrary - he will help races to achieve the piece. Arrogant young masters? I can't remember any, but I can remember a lot of smart villains who aren't one-dimensional idiots. Do you understand that in any weak to strong type of a novel there should be mob characters to make the MC fight them, right? Do you understand that most readers read the novels of this genre for the sake of good old face slapping, right? If you don't want face slapping or the "weak to strong" story then you should read some published western novels which are written for the sake of plot and characters and not for the sake of making the reader emotionally excited by pure dominance of MC over others. You will get bored with "a deep plot" much faster because, eventually, most authors have limited imagination and borrow most plot twists from each other or from older novels. And web novels, instead, just use human's instincts the same way DOTA or RPG games do.
Spoiler The Colosus (a kind of giant mecha armor like Gundam) of The First Emperor (who is called "the savior of humanity", more or less Jesus in this universe) is called "The Golden Sun". It was described like this "Every living being looks at it will feel warm and safe, as their instinct to trust the sunlight. Every enemy looks at it will feel despair, as it cannot be defeated, like the sun cannot be extinguished." Honestly, this is the most epic description I ever read. If you have read it, it's the climax of this novel. Everything went downhill from there.
You are one of many people who realise this fact. I never read xianxia novel that don't have arrogant young master or face slapping.