Discussion Cultivation novels

Hello, i'm here to give my pov on cultivation novels. Pretty short, it's just what i was expecting and what i actually get.

It's at a point where authors feed us trash novels and we just eat them thinking "it's the norm"...Let me tell you IT'S NOT OKAY!!
From what i understood from my many reads... heheh :

Mortal/cultivator ratio is 1000:1 in average. If you can cultivate then you're at least in the medium to upper class of intelligent ppl. Because if you're not, how can you learn new techniques or even create some. Add to that the fact that your intellect grows with your realm cause you need to learn more difficult techniques, apply even more complex theories. And finally with the many years of cultivation you acquire more knowlegde and wisdom. Or at least you know when you put your hand in the 'fire', it's gonna hurt (Common sense, right?).

So... HOW THE FUCK DO WE GET SOME YOUNG MASTER FROM THE HIGHEST REALM, WITH AT LEAST 500YRS OF CULTIVATION BECOME SUDDENLY SO DUMB THAT HE CAN'T EVEN TELL WHAT'S BETWEEN HIS LEGS.

It's so infuriating to have the pride of a powerfull clan's IQ drop to -30 when meeting our MC. And the elders are no better.

Something i would love to see added is that; the more MC cultivates, the more elaborate are the schemes (MC's and Villains's) and the more INTELLIGENT are the villains. Not just 'POWERFULL'.
If MC is a dumb muscle-brain, no biggie, just have his buddy do the scheming.

Hey authors, if you don't have that many ideas (i know you ought to have a lot of imagination to create a novel) just reserve your most elaborates schemes for the later parts. Establish a hierarchy, so that we readers can see the Mc or his buddy intelligence growth.
Just more and more powerful foes is not enough anymore.

*Sigh*... It was a fun ride. Cultivation novels for me is like getting to know someone who then introduces you to the whole family. But this family just marries between them, there's no fresh blood. Even if there is, it's just some branch family member marring in the main family. So at it's core it's just the same old same old.

Thank you all for listening. If you have something along those lines that i haven't read, feel free to suggest. And if you know some authors... who knows? Maybe something wonderful will happen. Till then SEE YA CULTIVATION. PEACE

 

Read Reverend Insanity. It's the light shining in the darkness (that's filled with trash).

 

Read Cultivation Chat Group by far the most decent one and there's no stuff like brainless enemies that get on your nerves because of their stupid family. The plot sometimes moves, sometimes it extends in the relaxing part. But at least there won't be chapters that make you exclaim in agony. Why mc!?why do you have to be so muscle brained!?
You'll cry because you can't stop laughing at Thrice Reckles Mad Saber when he gets rekt by too much death seeking. And the shipping is strong with Shuhang and the girls.

 

That's because you are reading the trash ones. There are many good ones but a shit ton of trash ones. It's like looking for a diamond the size of a grain of sand inside a mountain of shit.

A good way to find out if a novel is trash is if it has at least 2 thousand chapters(there might be good ones with 2k chapters but I highly doubt that). Another is if it has below 3.6 stars(debatable) in NU. Novels with 4 stars in NU might not deserve the 4 star rating but anything 3.5 stars and below absolutely deserves it

 

Yeah, this is my problem when I first read cultivation novel. Unfortunately it doesn't change. Cultivation novel is honestly, poorly written. You will have to endure plot holes by enjoying the other stuff if you read cultivation novel. If it doesn't have anything else, it's shitty.

 

I reccomend: World of cultivation
Yes it is weak to strong, but let's face it what cultibation novel isn't?
The MC is smart and ocasionally scheaming and has a "mentor" that is all about scheming.
MC is a crafter, which i personally love.
And it has almost no romance, if i wanted to read romance i would go find one of the trilion CEO/boss/manager garbage fires.

Summary: Read it now!

 

Other stuff is how the fuck the heroine still not raped if every young masters always tried to rape her. how the fuck did she survive before meeting the MC if every young masters with cultivation higher than her elder always tried to rape her?

 

First, let me start off by clarifying: I likewise do not approve of the garbage that comes out in this genre. Unfortunately, the way in which many webnovel authors write is to appeal to the masses. This mainly because of the design of the platforms that these novels are originally released on(Basically, they are pursuing upvotes/views/rockets/etc. when they are writing). In other words, the authors will generally pursue whatever will make them more money. This is why the young master face slapping cliche shows up so often, it's a type of wish-fulfillment that is popular among Chinese teens and young adults. Anyways, we basically have to accept that this recycled garbage won't be going away anytime soon.

P.S: To everyone who has complaints about recycled garbage in web novels: If you actually want to change this sort of thing, I would suggest sending your complaints to the authors of the novels. Posting it here, where translators and readers hang out, isn't going to accomplish much. Translators only translate whatever the original content of the novel was, they have no control over how the story develops. By complaining to the translators, you are only demotivating them from continuing to translate.

 

How can one outclass one's IQ?

it's hard to ask that from authors who are writing this to earn easy money by filling qutoas everyday, they have atmost 15% creativity added, rest all is just generic plot rinsed and repeated like hot mooncakes in new year's.


They probably don't even consider it as a novel, but more like a soap opera with overly stretched plot lines with commonly accepted tropes. Like the sinful lust of harems, creating situations where only mc can solve ( hero problem).




PS: most plausibly only by promoting more originals take on xianxia, or a increase in self published authors in China can bring a qualitative change.

 

Any TRUE'rs in chat?

But yeah, I feel the exact same way brodie.

Gotta be honest..........there are a shit ton of novels on NU that don't deserve the 4 star or sometimes even 5. Theyre only getting high ratings cause the mc did something the reader would do or they feel like one character so much they just keep hyping it up but there are completely dog shyte stories cough Raising Children While Being An Adventurer cough that just get 5 stars cause people like that fact theres fluff in it.

The rating system has devolved to the point of people not even giving legit reviews that could help the reader decide if that was the right story for them or not.

I dont wanna hear about your fuckin 20 chapter filler on how your japanese food completely captivated the other worlders. I wanna know if the translation was good, the plot was steady, the character mapping, and other shit.


But it's not just that, OUR OWN PEERS ARE FEEDING US THIS BULLSHIT!!

I'm tired of people recommending me fucking horrible isekais and culti's. I've only been reccomended Ze Tian Je like twice while I keep getting these young-master slapping stories every fucking time. It really be your own people.

I hate this so much but not all reviews are inherently bad or shit if their a five star.

For example, Everone Else Is A Returnee has an amazing review.

That is a true review. The reviewer has laid down updates for when s/he got further into the story.


But this is also accountable to the authors.

When you see something trendy don't you wanna try it? That's not to say some authors aren't pressured into writing that type of story. Some people feel as though that if they don't write some litrpg then their fans would stop following them.

This seemed to happen with a certain NSFW artist when she drew some [REDACTED] stuff. Some fan's were starting to like goblins more then her original work so she conformed for that patreon money.

And theres nothing wrong with that but it's poisoning them and us.

Make Novels Great Again.

 

Most of the 5 stars are people who are fanboys that doesn't drop reviews. Look at the popular shit xianxias like ATG. It had 4 stars but recently dropped to 3.9. I think it deserves lower but people still put in 5 stars for that steaming pile of shit.
This is honestly a disease. I call it Shitty Xianxia Stockholm Syndrome. It is when the person has read too much of a shitty novel that they are unable to drop said novel no matter how shit it is. They are unable to drop it because they are in denial and dropping it means admitting to themselves that they wasted days reading a massive dumpster fire of a novel. It happens to other types of entertainment too like anime and manga.
I honestly got this disease too because of Rebirth of the Thief and other shitty novels

 

this is my point exactly. not to mention that cultivation is about tempering oneself so why the hell would strong cultivators cuddle their children.

also why would a sect or a caln try and kill you because to killed one of their own. sure if they got killed doing something for the sect/clan them a swift retaliation is in order but if they get killed because they are stupid and are thinking with their dick they can piss off.

it doesnt make sense how some people act in cultivation novels when cultivation is the grand equalizer, you never know if the merchant or traveler in front of you is an expert that is trying to explore the world in hope of seeking enlightenment or just bored.

so every person from a great clan would know to respect others as doing so you lose nothing and might make new connections.

honestly the novel the best shows how a proper cultivation world would be like is cultivation chat group.

in it people forge their own path of cultivation after a few stages as that is what cultivation is, a path you forge for yourself.

it pisses me off to no end how they rely of old legacies and don't make their own things. sure there is nothing wrong with following a legacy as it is the accumulation of knowledge, but in my opinion each generation should add their own understanding to their legacy instead of follow it as if it can never be wrong.
========

in ISSTH some stuff is also personal as the people must find their own path after a certain stage, or how to become a master alchemist they must come up with new pills of their own making that have certain criteria.


sadly must cultivation novels are a boring cycle of BOY sees really hot girl (who is so beautiful that the author describes her beauty as an abstract concept), BOY gets mixed up with the girl, girl is engaged against her will to spoiled young master or is being pressured to be with a spoiled young master, BOY accidentally offends the spoiled young master, BOY must run and hide while using the pressure to get stronger with whatever cheat they have. BOY fights spoiled young master and wins, spoiled young master goes to his clan/sect to seek revenge, BOY kills spoiled young master and the people who back him (killing thousands or millions of unrelated people while doing so),
BOY sleeps with the girl, and you almost never hear about the girl again. BOY finds another girl in a higher realm or stronger city (who is somehow even more beautiful than the one who's beauty as an abstract concept) they fall in love....... rinse and repeat.

I have seen people that collect post stamps that care more about their stamps then the MC's of cultivation novels care about the girls in their harem.

honestly beauty would not be a criteria for finding a partner as after cultivation to a certain stage they will all look super hot or handsome.

and why do authors need to find stupid reasons to motivate the MC to get stronger, when immortality or adventure is more than enough.


if you want check out these they are decent cultivation novels :
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/24709/defiance-of-the-fall
cultivation chat group
I Shall Seal the Heavens
Warlock of the Magus World

this is also good but i have not read far enough yet to know if it turns shit or not
Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

 

I completely understand, I have that problem too and so many of cultivation novels follow the same path.
For example one very very common path in novels is being transmigrated into the good-for-nothing miss and it seems like she's a bada%% and face slapping those horrible relatives we all hate until the male lead comes along and she's suddenly turns weak as hell compared to him..
I know all romance lovers like a good romance novel and adding cultivation to it is just awesome, but personally when I'm looking for something with the element cultivation & romance in it, I really don't like when the ML can just overpower her with his magical cultivation powers that makes her unable to move/get away, just because he thinks she's interesting and peeks his interest.
Like if your interested in her at least you can be a gentleman about it and go about it the right way, that's all I'm asking!
No need to pushy as hell, romance just doesn't work that way.
That's how you get hated instead, at least in my opinion.

 

Well, it's not completely ilogical.
Cultivation mainly focus on becoming stronger, faster, live longer. Not being smarter. In fact, because they are strong, cultivators usually understimate wisdom.
Why there are dumb young masters: substitute "cultivation level" by "money" and you'll have the real-life version. Power tends to corrupt.
Why there are dumb elders: those elders grew up from dumb young masters.
There are some good cultivation novels, but the only one (among what I read) when almost all villians are competent is #9 in my sign.

That's not the case. They think they lost "face". In Chinese culture, "fame" is placed before "wealth".
Forty Millenniums of Cultivation is quite good, but it's more a sci-fi novel than a cultivation novel (In fact, you can change "cultivation" into "magic" and the main story plot is not affected.)

 

Library of Heaven's Path is quite a decent cultivation novel too. There are stupid people here and there but there's a good quality story and even though there seems to be some harem possibilities mc is just interested in one girl.

 

Sure there is the losing face thing in Chinese culture, and you see it heavily influence cultivation novels even though that mentality would fade away in a society that lives for so long.

 

On the contrary, I don't think it's illogical in cultivation novels. If you're so strong that no one can imprison or kill you, then shitty fame is the only punishment the society can apply to you. So fame must have a heavier influence in cultivation world than our world.

 

If intelligence rise alongside the realm of power, then when will MC able to kill them or defeated them? imagine when you have a foe with super-computer brain + planet-destroying power, thats going to be a long,long fight that maybe take an entire series just to kill the enemy? Look at Xuan from Terror Infinity he has computer brain plus high power level, even when the series ended and the main Vilain dead, he is still alive. it is too hard for Author to think a way or plan so the MC can kill the Villains.

 

Idk, honestly if it was me I wouldn’t give a fuck.

Plus a lot of cultivation novel put a very heavy emphasis on people seeking sexual pleasure when they are of a high status. But honestly after living a few hundred years meaningless sex becomes a recreational activity, they won’t compromise them selfs just to have a bit more sex because the girl is hot. Well most people won’t.

But this is just me speculating.

 

Who said the more intelligent you are, the smarter you will be. Please remember technology and society has stagnated in the Immortal worlds and have followed the same practice for millions of years. All knowledge and insights are heavily guarded and hardly passed onto the next generation, as it is viewed it would affect their understanding of the Dao.

Clan and Sect backing are big things. Who would mess with a young master, when the Elder would see it as a sign of disrespect. A young master would know all the big and up coming players. In regards to the MC, who would care about him, he is just a big fish from a small pond that entered shark infested waters, his level isn't impressive.

Imagine becoming a immortal practitioner as a preteen and each realm slows your aging, Now factor in good genetics and a strong backing to gather you resources. You end up speeding thru all the realms and levels, you would still have a body of a hormonal teenager.