The Desolate Era

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Fate had never been kind to Ji Ning. Wracked by illnesses and infirm his entire life on Earth, Ji Ning knew early on that he would die as a teenager. What he didn’t know was that there really was such a thing as life after death and that the multiverse was a far larger place than he thought.

A lucky twist of fate meant that Ji Ning was reborn into a world of Immortals and monsters, of Ki Refiners and powerful Fiendgods, a world where Dynasties lasted for millions of years. A world which is both greater… and yet also smaller… than he ever could imagine. He would have the opportunity to join them, and in this life, Ji Ning swore to himself, he would never let himself be weak again! The Era he was born into was a Desolate one, but Ji Ning would make it his era.

Associated Names
One entry per line
Age of Desolation
Jade Sword (official English title of drama and anime version)
Mãng Hoang Kỷ (Man Huang Ji)
Records of Barbarian Ji of the Primeval Era
العصر المقفر
莽荒纪
Related Series
Coiling Dragon (Shared Universe)
Recommendations
Coiling Dragon (23)
Stellar Transformation (12)
I Shall Seal the Heavens (10)
Swallowed Star (9)
The Nine Cauldrons (8)
Tales of Demons and Gods (7)
Recommendation Lists
  1. china
  2. Best Novels I Read in years (Must read for you)
  3. My Gem Collection
  4. For the chuunibyou guy inside us all: male centric...
  5. Wow there's a manhua version (ML)

Latest Release

Date Group Release
03/08/15 World of Watermelons v1c18
03/08/15 World of Watermelons v1c17
03/07/15 World of Watermelons v1c16
03/06/15 World of Watermelons v1c15
03/06/15 World of Watermelons v1c14
03/05/15 World of Watermelons v1c13
03/05/15 World of Watermelons v1c12
03/04/15 World of Watermelons v1c11
03/04/15 World of Watermelons v1c10
03/03/15 World of Watermelons v1c9
03/03/15 World of Watermelons v1c8
03/02/15 World of Watermelons v1c7
03/02/15 World of Watermelons v1c6
02/28/15 World of Watermelons v1c5
02/28/15 World of Watermelons v1c4
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Trent
Trent rated it
May 28, 2016
Status: v17
The Desolate Era is great for a while, but it becomes more ordinary. The plot isn't noteworthy. It doesn't stand at the top of the genre, but it can be fun. I'd like to put it somewhere between three and four stars.

I mostly like it, at times love it, and occasionally get bored or annoyed by it. While some arcs are a waste of words, others do well at making you thirst for the next chapter. The time skips are well used, the harem is avoided, and the characters tend... more>> to be three-dimensional, at least for a while. But although the novel initially does an outstanding job at showing growth, the all-important cultivation and comprehension levels later lack intricacy and charm, becoming banal. The protagonist's improvement becomes rushed and loses significance. Highly experienced immortals are downgraded, and pretty much all enemies become immature, easily agitated brutes.

Unfortunately, instead of exploring the already immense realm that he's created, the author takes the route of adding higher power levels and larger realms for the protagonist to hurry through, each of which is as bland as the last. Characters lose roundness. The story fails to deliver on its initial suggestions of depth—which, to be fair, is to be expected from the author. The novel's still quite gripping sometimes.

Here's a standard DE battle:
Spoiler

Ji Ning yells "Break!" while launching a profound attack.

Opponent's defense is unfathomably profound, and he responds with his own extremely profound attack.
Opponent: "Break! Break! Break!"

Ji Ning, however, has gained more insight into this arc's technique, which makes it stronger and more profound than we'd last seen it.
Ji Ning: "You shall BREAK for me!"

They take turns exchanging profound techniques, occasionally yelling some phrase with "break" in it while making sure to think, or having the audience or narrator remark, that their skills are unfathomably profound.

Ji Ning overwhelms Opponent, because no one's as talented and lucky, or of course as profound, as our MC is.

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MadokaBlackEyed
MadokaBlackEyed rated it
September 27, 2020
Status: v45c17
I have to say, this novel is full of CRAP and sh*t mixed together forming a story that is so full of nothingness and blant plot, an MC that was good and kind hearted turn sh*t and utterly evil brat, wantonly killing anyone barring him from getting someone else treasures and anything he wants, but still keep himself of being delusional that he's a good samaritan, and most of all, the cultivation and power scaling is chaotic and non-existent in some places, like how the shitty MC can kill almost... more>> everyone even above him.

I got bored by reading moment and battles in late chapters, why? Because there's no character development at all, the story jumps from one place to another without real character progress. The enemies the MC encounter are all the same with different just names and abilities, just pump the power and be defeated then next one will arrive with same attitude and smug. I got so bored I skip some chapters lately just to finish reading this crap and throw it in some illusionary tr*sh can in my mind and get over with it.

Overall, this is just a mediocre novel, I can say IET's best novel is Coiling Dragon, but not THE best novel out there due to how bad the ending was written. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND not to waste time reading this novel like I did, or else you'll be disappointed in this one. Don't trust those positive reviews, they're just click baiters. <<less
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wlitsch
wlitsch rated it
August 23, 2020
Status: v20
The plot is interesting, but the characters are terrible, and the universe is depraved and immoral to the extreme. It loses 2 stars because the main character is a slow-witted block of wood who we are constantly told is a quick-witted genius who cares about friends and family. Really? Is that why he basically never makes any plans ever and then the few times in thousands of pages he does finally bother to make plans they are so simplistic that a fifth grader could come up with them five seconds... more>> after getting punched in the head. He cares about family? Is that why he basically abandons them every chance he gets. Sure he tosses amazing treasures at them like he's a king and they are merely peasants then he walks off as if to prove that they are really only tr*sh to him. Let me ask you this. If you said you cared about someone, bought them a great car, and then walked off and never spoke to them again, and also refused to tell them anything at all about yourself does that express love? NO, it expresses utter disdain. Our main character killed over 10 billion people, but doesn't feel guilty in the slightest. He is only afraid of the sin flames that will burn him as a result.

In fact, not a single person in the universe of the Desolate Era gives two shits about mu*dering thousands of innocents, eating babies, raping hundreds of women, or enslaving millions of people. If you think I'm kidding read the web novel. Those are all actual examples. None of those things ever caused any characters to feel disgusted. They just fear the repercussions of invoking sin that might make their cultivation paths more difficult. The universe agrees. Do you know what the author's definition of Buddhist enlightenment is? It is perfect amoral hypocrisy. If the MC, for instance, can mu*der, r*pe, gorge himself and engage in all kinds of sin imaginable and at apocalyptic scales then it is all good as long as deep inside he feels it doesn't affect him at all. So the author's vision of enlightenment is perfect self-delusion for the win. It does not escape me that this curiously debased version of enlightenment basically means that only rapacious and mu*derous emperors whose actions are totally counter to their words and beliefs could possibly become bodhisatvas or Buddhas. Ironically enough, after reading this I too became mu*derously angry. According to the author that makes me one step closer to being Buddha as long as my heart is totally contradictory to my actions.

So the MC is an emotionless mu*der hobo of epic proportions in a world where not a single person is moral and mortals were born to be ens*aved and worked to death at the leisure of their betters: cultivators. The MC meanwhile only has superficial friends, superficial conversations, superficial ambiguous, poorly explained cultivation system, superficial powers, superficial battles. Nothing is explained in depth. No conversation or relationship seems real. The story and worlds are vaguely interesting, but they are inhabited by sociopathic puppets. Loss of a star for a terribly shallow poorly explained universe.

The powers of the MC are also some of the most boring and nonsensical powers that you can see in xianxia novels. The MC walks around waving 700 plus swords just to produce a single (Bleach-anime-like) sword light that is around 20% greater than his normal sword. What a massive strategic waste of 700 plus swords that could have done far more damage independently. The author is obsessed with formation whose power arises simply by things standing in certain places. That's it. Sounds interesting right. You stand in a certain place, or place something in a certain place, and it just kicks ass. How? Who the hell knows! Cultivate to become a fiend god. Ok, good, how do I do that? You don't know! Neither does the author. But don't worry. Our MC, Ji Ning has one of the top ten divine abilities in the known 3 realms. Wait for it? Here it is. Grip strength. His grip strength is awesome. That's it. Oh, he also has a top ten divine archer ability. Awesome right? Wrong! He doesn't ever use it because whenever he sees the enemy he just rushes over and tries to smack them with a sword or two fingers meant to act look a sword. If amazing grip strength, two pointy sword fingers, and a divine archer ability that doesn't really get used much at all strikes you as "interesting magic" then this emotionless block of carved wood Ji Ning is for you.

I Eat Tomatoes best, or most inspired, work was probably Coiling Dragon. His following works are clones. Desolate Era is better than Lord Xue Ying, but that doesn't make it good. I mean, how good can a novel that uses the word "incomparable", literally, 5000 times be? Probably only 50 uses of the word actually being semantically and syntactically correctly incomparable. Every other adjective and adverb is "incomparable". I am not exaggerating. I would never dare exaggerate in the presence of this author. This author is, hands down, the emperor of exaggeration. I now consider the word "incomparable" a kind of Chinese water torture. If I hear that two things are "incomparable" and then seconds later read the author actually compare it to something a frustrated alien of merciful death might just burst from my chest and put me out of my misery. Oddly enough, I'm only five foot ten inches tall, but that alien ripping out of my chest is actually 3000 km long! <<less
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Felonyr
Felonyr
March 20, 2018
Status: v43c13
⭐⭐⭐⭐

Overall best CN novel i've ever read from other IET novels. Good world building, but many detail are exaggerated just to display how big this novel's world is.
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lungshao
lungshao rated it
February 16, 2018
Status: book 6
Started well and interesting but immediately stalled. MC retained his memories from past life but doesn't use it at all nor does he continue his "kindness" from his past life. Typical Chinese fantasy novel that has tons of annoying over explanations, conjecture word count padding, constantly rehashed scenarios and excruciatingly "gossipy" fight scenes. Every character is flat and uninteresting except for his parents. There are some good Chinese novels out there but this isn't one of them. I normally can handle the Chinese fantasy style "essay" style format but... more>> had to stop by book 6. Not worth the time. <<less
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Nbhan101
Nbhan101 rated it
February 18, 2017
Status: v26c3
I have got two words for this novel that is "simply amazing". At first, I started with a manhua didn't understand much but I still liked it. Then all of a sudden manhua stopped from releasing, I was devastated- as I wasn't good at reading the novel, but I still wanted to know how the story is going to progress so, I made my heart bold and started reading novel for the first time. At first, I didn't understand complicated words but I didn't give up because this novel story... more>> was too intriguing so, I continued on reading it. And today I still find it the best of all the novels I am reading right now. <<less
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Random_Pain
Random_Pain rated it
January 25, 2017
Status: v22c17
This is going to be a loooooong review, that will hopefully pull new readers into this amazing novel. (Tthis review is practically a novel in its own right :D)

But, before I start with reviewing the actual story, I noticed some of the reviews here were quite negative on some of the more "illogical" elements of the story, such as the scales of some things/places or fights in space without space suites, but they seem to forget that the story's genere is xanxia or in other words a fantasy novel.

So... more>> for all those looking for a more scientifically based universe with a good scientific explanation for each and every element in the story then this, or any other xanxia for a mater of fact, isn't for you.

Anyways, back to the review.

Spoiler

This novel is written by the known novelist I eat tomatoes or IET for short, is a xanxia (Chinese fantasy novel) based on the concept of reincarnation, and centers around the MC ji ning and his journey from a mere mortal towards becoming an immortal.

The story starts up as the MC dying, and reaching the after life, or hell, for that matter. Because of a certain circumstance he gets a chance to meet one of the rulers of the underworld, by luck he receives his "OP" technique and proceeds to be reincarnated.
while this is a very rough summary of the first chapter it more or less represents most of the similarities this novel has with other generic reincarnation novels.

Now onto the pro and con part, (you will notice there are more pros then cons) :

Pro:
- Story - The story has, obviously, had a lot of thought put into it, seeing by how well it is written, has a solid story line, with a plot flow that keeps each arc relevant to the last. There is an amazing lack of repetitiveness, each arc is unique. The MC obviously has plot armor, but it is integrated well into the story and isn't as obvious as in other stories.

- World Building - the story is set on a planet in a galaxy? Called the three realms (earth is also located there), only this planet is one of the 3000 larger planets, planets which are thousands of times larger than our own earth.
as the story progresses the MCs "world" expands from the planet to the galaxy with potential for more.

- Characters - this will be divided into 3 parts:
main character: Ji Ning. We follow the character from the moment he dies an is reincarnated, and we see his transition from a normal teen, to a child in a cultivator world and eventually see him becoming a cultivator. As the story goes along it is apparent that the character is a little OP, not enough to be #1 wherever he goes, but just enough to keep him alive.


Side Characters: The relevant side characters are all fleshed out, some with back stories, all have their personalities, and each has his unique abilities or traits setting him/herself from the rest. The main thing about the side characters is that they are not only relevant to the story, they also make a difference, they effect the story.
they don't only cause things and then need to be avenged/saved, they actively help the main character get out of sticky situations or flat out save the MC.

Villains: the main bulk of the villains are well though out, personality wise and ability wise. They all fit in nicely into the plot, especially after the first few arcs where the story's main plot starts to play out and the villains become increasingly powerful, manipulative and intelligent. There are obviously some villains which are bumbling fools that all they want to do is evil and make the MC look great, but those are minor and far in between.

- Pacing - the pacing is great, time skips jump from half a year to 5, 9 and even more years. It shows the actual effort the MC puts in before he is able to master his abilities, rather than just bulldozing through everything and becoming all powerful in 2 years.

- Translations - a bit plus for this series is the amazing translation its getting, very high quality translations with 10 chapters a week, makes this one of the best translated series's, imo.

- OP Technique - the reason this is in pros and not cons is because the OP technique the character receives is not an all powerful wand of destruction, a heaven defying shoe of fluffiness or anything of the kind. Its a soul strengthening technique that IS OP at the beginning of the series as it gives the MC an edge over his peers, but as time progresses it becomes less and less relevant and will eventually become sub par compared to other techniques he will probably get.

Cons
- Scaling - Since we are all simple earthlings and 100km is quite the distance, reading about someone moving 10, 000km in an instant, a giant 10km in hight or a clan spreading over 1 million km from one side to the other (and thats considered small) will make you cringe at the beginning, though as the story progresses the over the top scaling starts becoming acceptable as the MCs world expands.

- Characters - forgotten / neglected. - Even though I did mention the great side characters and their significance to the story, there are still many relevant characters that are suddenly sent somewhere and are completely forgotten about, which is a shame because there are some great characters you will learn to like, and others that you would at least like to know what happened to them.
for example:

Spoiler

ji brightmoon - at one point she was born, the next moment she has some screen time is 200 chapters later when she is already a celestial immortal.
quing quing and white
Northmont Baiwei
Mu Northson
Yuchi Xiyue - what happened to her after the Youngflame has been destroyed
and his sword master Immortal Diancai

These are some characters that were really relevant to the story during multiple arcs and have become completely obsolete and just vanished without even getting some closure in their back stories

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Neutral - depends on your preferences.
- Not for the faint hearted - Well the novel does have its cruel moments, massacre, mass mu*der, mental games, s*aves, mental and physical torture and so forth. I myself enjoy these kind of things as it adds some more realism to the story, but thats just me. :)


Story style - The story telling is similar to ISSTH, as both follow the main character with little to no "filler" chapters/ arcs, this means that characters will become obsolete once the MC passes them and moves to another better location with stronger enemies, and no POV chapters, so we only get the MCs point of view.

Romance - I am not sure if there is romance here or not, there are feels, and lots of feels, but im not too sure about romance.


This was a loooong review, if you managed to get here you are, probably, a better person then me, as I would've given up after the first paragraph :D
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Kefi
Kefi rated it
April 9, 2016
Status: --
Up to v11c32

So far so good. The MC follows his own moral code and progress from helpless baby to teenage monster cultivator quite entertainingly imo.
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Ritwik
Ritwik rated it
January 21, 2016
Status: --
OK... So The Desolate Era is IET’s latest work. It’s amazing and the translation is now being handled by the best and most trusted translators presently working, RWX, who just completed coiling dragon. (RWX, you are a god)

Then, about the novel, I think IET has become even more compelling as a story teller. The plots are well thought out and characters are really great and developed and we can really understand why they are doing what they are doing.

The world building is different as in we only... more>> know as much of the world as the MC knows till that point. As the MC grows up and travels around we start getting a better picture.

The power or cultivation system is brilliant and it’s brilliant because everyone can follow their own path of cultivation. As in there is no one awesome way to become immortal. The reasoning behind the MC’s power is very, very well explained and at some point I was like, of course that’s right. It was refreshing as in not many authors satisfactorily explain their MC’s increase in strength.

The beginning is a little mediocre compared to CD bit by the third book it becomes very interesting.

Also the historical references are good and according to RWX it is incorporated into the story very well.

It’s a brilliant read so don’t miss out. <<less
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KarakaZahard
KarakaZahard rated it
June 21, 2019
Status: Completed
I had high expectations, reading the reviews and how much they like the novels of IET. I will put pros and cons about this:

Pros:

    • The best thing about this novel is the cultivation system, it is very unique in the xianxia novels (i haven't read the other novels of IET). If you want to go to higher level there are a lot of requirements and it's not about taking pills or "cultivate sitting cross-legged"
    • The training sometimes is so good and creative
      Spoiler

      For example one time when the MC went fighting against people of the first levels and he decrease his own power to one level less of the enemy to train his sword arts. And what I loved more about this, it's that it was the MC's idea

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    • The fights are ok, but I have a few problems with them (which are going to be in the cons)
    • The power ups are ok (i think this and the fights don't add up or substract to the overall of the novel because they are only ok)
    • The characters are at least bidimensional but some of them have the same personality
      Spoiler

      For example Spring grass and Autumn grass

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    • The world building was pretty good for the first half of the novel.
Cons:

    • The characters don't have any development and the worst of this is the MC because we read about him for f*ck*ng 1600 chapters and it is very monotonous reading the MC with the same personality all the time.
    • The side characters are left behind and forgotten
      Spoiler

      Little Qing, Mu Northson, the Ji clan, and the list goes on...

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      What I want from the author about this is not saying something like Ning talked with his friend *insert name*. I expect something more, this is the same sh*t that if you didn't make them "talked"
    • Talking about interactions, this is something that IET don't know how to do, the characters don't feel real because they only talk about the plot, something like "we need to do B" and the other say "Oh yeah let's do it". I mean IET can make them talk about their emotional problems or something else.
    • The romance is very badly written
      Spoiler

      The first one was a plot device and the second one too fast and then it became plot device to make the MC power up a lot of times...

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    • The motivation of the MC for the second half of the novel is so crappy, I don't how I managed to keep reading it.
    • It has plot holes but I don't remember every one right now
      Spoiler

      The worst one I can remember was when the MC found Mu Northson working for the Seamless Gate and decides to safe him by himself without going to ask for help to the Xia emperor.

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    • The second half of the novel only have a few decent side characters
      Spoiler

      For example Ninedust

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    • Spoiler

      I don't know what was the point of introducing Su Youji and Pillsaint and giving them too much "screen" because they weren't useful for 99% of the time

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    • Spoiler

      I don't like the battles very much because they use three heads six arms or some ridiculous skills like that and it's not very pleasant to imagine some fights like this, at least for me.

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I don't know why so many people like IET so much, I think because of the cultivation and the characters (i mean for the first half most of them were decent) and if you compare this to MGA, it obviously is going to be DE better than MGA because this one is sh*t. I don't recommend this but if you are going to read it, you should read only the first half (23 first volumes) and I think that was decent at least (6/10). Overall I believe this novel is 4/10, the second half ruined everything with the s*upid MC's motivation and less good characters (but a lot in quantity...) and more forgotten ones.
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dahlys
dahlys rated it
August 17, 2018
Status: Completed
Desolate Era can be split into two halves: the Three Realms and the Universe.

The first Three Realms half deserves a 4.5/5. The protagonist Ji Ning wishes to take hold of his own destiny and fights for his loved ones, his friends, his world, and to restore law and order. The plot is deep with layer upon layer of enemy conspiracy, and keeps you reading to find out what really is going on. The plot twists are amazing and will leave you satisfied and surprised. The cultivation phases are clear and... more>> the protagonist remains true to his original skills -- he is damn bloody good at the sword and only gets better at it. Romance is the weak link here, Ji Ning doesn't spend much time with his wife at all, and there is literally no content about his daughter even though she is the most important person to him. Even his pets have more screen time.

In the second Universe half of the story, Ji Ning suddenly loses his original motivation that made the first half so compelling. He already has the strength to protect what he wishes to protect, so acting on a promise, he... embarks on a holiday. He oh so conveniently runs into one opportunity after another and gets stronger.
Spoiler

He then finds new motivation in resurrecting his wife despite their shallow, short relationship, and Ji Ning thus turns into a spoiled brat wallowing in grief, unable to get over her death and clinging onto a thin ray of hope.

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The new arcs are boring and even the fights lose their flavor once Ji Ning's skills become set in stone and only increase in power and speed. Even the final war has none of the complexity and delicacy of the Three Realms war! 1/5 for this half! <<less
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VvvV1225
VvvV1225 rated it
September 8, 2017
Status: v31c19
Classic IET work, good writing, story development, character growth and world set-up.

At-least the way MC makes enemies aren't something like, MC meet X guys/girls from Y sect/clan, and for some random reasons an irreconcilable feud is created between them, because they think MC is from some backwater region and weak with no backer compared to them. Aka "an ant".
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clowred
clowred rated it
March 22, 2017
Status: v15
It is already known that IET has recycled Coiling Dragon into Stellar Transformations, Swallowed Star and of course, Desolate Era. If I had to talk about all the resemblances between these novels then I would need to write a novel. But then again, its not like I blame IET for doing this. His own view of the martial world is complex and it is by no means shallow. Even though he blesses his protagonist with a plot armor, he doesn't make it too evident, making him enjoyable. There is quite... more>> a lot of drama, but it is at least to some degree supportable thanks to the world build. But there is one thing that IET fails to understand no matter how much he writes. And sadly, that is also one of the worst mistakes an author can make. Do I need to say it? If you have read Coiling Dragon, Stellar Transformations and Swallowed star you should already know it. But for those that have barely thread upon the cultivation world written by IET, please, never expect an enjoyable romance. NEVER. The female is at first a princess in a big castle that for some reason becomes acquainted with the protagonist even though they should originally live in completely different worlds. That in itself is not that bad, but then again, these women become so useless later on and so lucky at the same time that I feel like hitting my head into a wall several times a chapter. They are kind, cute, innocent, beautiful (well duh, of course its not a bad thing), love the protagonist and completely trust him. Then they wait to be protected, until he somehow fails to do it and
Spoiler

die (or at least get close to something like this)

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. These freaking useless love interests makes some of the most enjoyable novels on the internet into the blandest things possible. I know that I haven't said a lot of things about the novel itself, but remember this, once the protagonist that made you binge read this novels finally starts his relationship you will regret every single moment you spent cheering for him. <<less
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cerberus31
cerberus31 rated it
March 3, 2017
Status: v24c10
I got to say that DE started out well and stay good far a while then just went downhill fast. Chapters start to just be praising the main characters greatness repeatedly using the same examples and sometimes using them multiple times in the same chapter.
... more>>
Spoiler

a perfect example of this is would be that ji ning has not trained for a thousand years yet is already really powerful. You will typically find this mentioned at least once a chapter

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another thing that is a problem is that later in the story the main character has what equates to a deck of get out of jail free cards for every problem he runs into to the point that it becomes ridiculous. This causes us to not really feel for him when we know he really is not in any danger at any point in the story, since we know the main character will pull out his get out of jail free card.

a third problem is side characters and enemies, they become really one dimensional as the story progresses and some are just straight up forgotten about. IET typically has this problem though so it really is not a surprise.

another issue that DE has serious plot issues. The author tends to have trouble with consistency

Spoiler

example is that ji ning finds a treasure trove of knowledge but that knowledge is never explained to us the reader, so that IET can pull something out that we know nothing about and use it as a plot point

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the only reason I even give this 3 stars Is for the first 11 chapters. <<less
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Solr Flares
Solr Flares rated it
February 22, 2021
Status: Completed
It was good in the beginning but the rest of the plot was so unbearable for me to read. A lot of the characters are just forgotten and that's one thing that I absolutely hate. The romance is kind of forced and the MC's source of motivation is basically his love. To me, I think that's just some bullsh*t reason the author used to try and explain the MC's actions. The cultivation and power scaling is pretty decent I guess. Don't let this review put you off but if you're... more>> like me and care about the MC's relationships with friends/family I wouldn't recommend this to you. If you like insane measurements, MC doing s*upid sh*t for "love."

I give up. I really can't think of anything I particularly enjoyed after the first 200 chapters. For the first 200 chapters 4.5/5. After, steadily decreased to 1.5/5. I'm gonna give it a 2.5/5 rating but I'll have to round it up.

Spoiler

yes he has a fiance but then she f*cks him over basically. I wonder where I have seen that before. Oh, what? Coiling Dragon? Same Author too? Shocker.

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Macho
Macho rated it
May 4, 2020
Status: Completed
One of my absolute favorite novels. I've read it multiple times over the years.

My favorite thing about this novel is the main character. Let's get a couple of things straight first off. Ji Ning isn't the most relatable, comedic, or especially multi-dimensional character; he is very easily figured out and there shouldn't be too many surprises for people in his character. Yet I can't just help the fact that I do love how well he fits into the novel's humongous world and how he is just such a good Xianxia... more>> protagonist.

He is filial to his parents, loyal to his partner, steadfast in cultivation, courageous in adventure, smart in life, and especially not a f*cking self-righteous beta loser like in some stories. He gets sh*t done, he cultivates better than a god, he kills better than a devil, and has the mindset of an immortal. There aren't too many obstacles that pose him problems during the story, yet I do like that a lot as it's well done in a powertrip story like this.

I might not be a proper reader in a typical sense, I don't get too emotionally attached to the characters so the tear-jerkers aren't too interesting to me, maybe a bit cringy at times. This novel is a good story, it fills my mind with wonder at times, especially during the later stages of the story; that's when Ji Ning's horizons are broadened largely and we get to delve in really deep with increasing scale, age and strength.

I believe a novel is good when you can still remember some scenes years later and have them in your thoughts and still find yourself drawn into the story and the awe-inspiring magnitude of a world.

+ no arrogant young masters or senile old ancestors <<less
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Arvind
Arvind rated it
April 6, 2019
Status: v19c16
To those who r wondering on whether they should start reading it or not, I'll just say one thing, "Seeing is believing"

Before I too was in delimna on whether I read it or not. So started reading reviews, most of them being criticizing.

They werent helpful AT ALL. Surprisingly, when I started reading novel it wasn't as bad as they claimed it to be rather it was on the good side of xianxia novels
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Cardman001
Cardman001 rated it
April 25, 2018
Status: Completed
The Desolate Era (DE) was a great novel, and while the story had many ups and downs, the experience was overall a very enjoyable one. I would probably give this a

4.5/5, but I don't mind rounding up because the drawbacks are certainly not overwhelming (and you may not even notice them if you binge-read). Note that I have not read Coiling Dragon, but I have read Stellar Transformation, and being written by the same author, I'm sure there are similarities. Still, I don't think it's fair to compare them, as... more>> they have different focuses, stories, characters, and universes, so I won't be drawing comparisons below. I highly recommend reading DE to everyone, especially those who like classic Xianxia novels. I'll give a bit of commentary about the novel itself below, and then a list of pros/cons, which will hopefully help those of you that are debating whether to start DE or not.

Spoiler

The main character, Ji Ning, is well-developed and has various revelations and emotional moments throughout the novel. He starts out being reincarnated on a cultivator planet after dying on Earth, and I very much appreciated the fact that his time on Earth is more or less meaningless throughout the story (in the sense that he doesn't have overpowered memories and skills because of it). He climbs up through the rankings and advances through the universe at a very steady pace, even if the story sometimes feels very slow. The universe is expansive, and just as you might expect, the world continues to open up and get larger and larger throughout the novel. Unlike lots of other novels, Ning does actually travel to many places in each given universe, so it certainly doesn't feel like the universe is "as wide as an ocean, as deep as a puddle". The supporting characters are also elaborated upon extensively, and even come up later in the novel despite being completely outclassed by the MC. In this regard, I really like how the author still takes at least a bit of time to remind us of some peripheral characters. For those of you who care about romance and harems, you will probably be disappointed. There is some romance, but it certainly feels more like the romance element is to justify the MC's growth as a person, not to actually develop his romantic and caring side. The main love interest is basically a MacGuffin: she is the motive and reason behind everything Ning does throughout the novel, yet she actually doesn't show up or do much in the story. Well, for me, I don't care for romance in these types of novels because it's usually either done poorly or done excessively, so my enjoyment of DE wasn't really affected. I will say that the first half of the novel was much more enjoyable to me than the second, to which I would give a 5/5 and a 4/5, respectively. There are some ridiculously "lucky moments" and plot contradictions or unexplained plot holes throughout the novel, but usually they don't have much impact on the story.

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Pros:

    • The MC is very likable and has actual emotions and opinions. He isn't always carrying out justice, nor is he purely greedy. He is complex and dynamic throughout the novel, even if overly naive at times.
    • The universe is interesting and enormous. Like many WNs, it keeps growing after each arc in the story, and is populated by unique characters. In each phase of the universe's exposition, lots of places in it are actually visited, so it seems deeper than you might find that of other stories.
    • The supporting characters are numerous, but many are still mentioned later in the novel. The author occasionally reminds us that he hasn't forgotten about them, even if they've been totally overshadowed by the MC's power, which is nice (it makes it feel like the first half of the novel was meaningful).
    • The story has some epic moments. This is not a novel that is exciting from start to finish, but the lulls make the dramatic and action-packed moments feel more weighty and fun.
Cons:

    • There are lots of times when the character acts in a dumb way or does something s*upid, presumably just to move the story along. It doesn't happen too often, but when it does, you definitely notice it, and it may break your immersion.
    • There are some contradictions and plot holes throughout the story. Usually this doesn't matter too much, but it is noticeable, and again, it may break your immersion.
    • The romance in this novel is essentially irrelevant. It basically exists just to exist, and give the MC new experiences and thoughts on the Dao. It's also one of those plot devices that causes the character to act overly s*upid. See the spoiler above for some more information.
    • There are lots of time skips and boring passages throughout the novel. While they are usually followed by cool, action-packed moments, it is definitely a trudge to get through. The author has even stated that there were times where he didn't feel the quality of the story was quite up-to-par, but released it anyway. Although I think the overarching story is still good enough to keep you reading, I wouldn't be surprised if people dropped the novel midway.
    • The power levels and power system is convoluted, as there are a lot of things to consider and, especially in the second half of the novel, the MC breaks the conventions of the power system. Lots of lucky encounters also occur at just the right moments. Suffice it to say that if the character needs to be stronger, he'll probably pull that strong out of somewhere in the nick of time.
Overall, I very much liked this novel. The story itself was great, and the characters/universe felt meaningful to me. There were some problems, just like any other novel, and the moment-to-moment action might be lackluster for many readers. Still, I highly recommend this novel, and it's probably in my top 5 favorites that I've read. <<less
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EnFire
EnFire rated it
December 16, 2017
Status: v37c30
Desolate Era is a novel I've been reading since it first started being translated by RWX, after coiling dragon. With that being said, I find that the story has stayed strong since the start, and while it may not have the fun of simpler skills anymore, this is a IET novel and if you don't expect to see people traveling at 100 times light speed, or more, then you've never read an IET novel. With that out of the way, I'll go into what I think is good, and what... more>> is also dull or bad about this novel.

The Good

Interesting World

This novel truly has an interesting world in it, and impressively even after thirty-seven! Books, I find there is still more I want to learn about the world and even Ji Nings homeworld, The Three Realms. At first it's learning about people from Chinese Mythology, like Nuwa, and later
Spoiler

after he leaves the three realms, the entire realmverse he is in (FlameDragon Realmverse) has interesting story and now we are beginning to learn about Autarchs and a great war, as well as what seems to be the route for the final level-up

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While the mythology being included at first may be more or less of interest to some of you, if you like it you might not enjoy the rest of the world as much (if that was what pulled you in), but you should still enjoy it. And for those of you like myself, who have no idea about Chinese Mythology, then you'll still enjoy it.

  • To add to this, I will also note that the character development is decent and the story progression is well done. There is definitely plot-armor power ups, but you're not a MC if you don't have amazing situations happen to you. Furthermore, I never felt annoyed at the constant expansion of the world, as for the most part it is done in a way that makes sense. While some side characters are definitely forgotten, I don't take offense as that's only realistic. If you are traveling the universe, are you always going to go back and talk to someone from a single world?
A "Real" Main Character

Tired of characters who will kill an entire clan for looking at them the wrong way, or get themselves into terrible situations by being brainlessly arrogant? Well look no further! One of the things IET does best, in my opinion, is his main characters have real emotion. Ji Ning feels like a real person, acting upon his own thoughts and desires while not being completely "kind" and a doormat like many JP mcs. Ning is an awesome person, and you begin to feel like you actually know him after just a few chapters. There has only been once or twice where he has done something that is against what his character is, but that's very good for a novel that's so long.

Other Notable Features

I personally enjoy the power system in this novel as opposed to most other IET novels, although you can really tell that ones after this, like LXY take from this power system and evolve it as IET should do. It's easy to grasp while being complicated to make sense why their power is what it is, all the way until where it is now where the laws "learned" by the people are on such a scale that if it were anymore than "laws", I'd have no idea what to make of it. Another good aspect, in my opinion, is that the novel isn't super serious and thus it's a fun binge read. There are some parts that are definitely emotional, but for the most part it's light-hearted.

The Bad

"Romance"/"Motivation"

Stop it IET, stop writing romance. You're just not good at it, man. I know you want to have something more than just "Desire to get stronger" as motivation for your MC, but having such weak romance with such weak foundations makes having the romance at ALL worse than not having it.
Spoiler

Ji Ning, like 20 books like is only getting stronger as a passion to want to revive his dead wife (who, of course, can't be revived through normal methods due to where she died yadadada), so here he is, literally quadillions of years later, still trying to revive his life and having no other motivation to get stronger

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The lovely attribute of this type of novel is the fact that in a world where cultivation exists, you don't absolutely have to have a motivation aside from wanting immortality. Of course, a well done motivation is always better, but if you can't write a good one, don't write one at all.

Terrible, meaningless units and time skips

As a reader, numbers above even a million are impossible for us to truly comprehend, and there is no need to go to the extreme as IET likes to. This is an IET novel, and like most (not all) of his novels, there are super exaggerated units. It doesn't bother me as much with power level sort of stuff "Cool he can move 100x the speed of light, or cool he can destroy an entire galaxy with his strength" is fine, but what always bothers me are the s*upidly outrageous time skips. One point recently (Not a spoiler, as I won't say what he was doing), he just spent 800 chaos cycles essentially in a single room (not even cultivating). What is a chaos cycle? It's a length of time that spans, from memory, either 1 trillion or 10 trillion years.. So that's 800 trillion years at the least spent doing "nothing". Those type of time units are just outrageous and pointless, and detract from the story rather than add.

Summary

This novel, like any wuxia/xianxia/xuan huan isn't for everybody, but it is one of the best within the genre of Xianxia. It's well written, has good plot development and characters, and is a great overall novel. If I were to rate this from a more objective point of view, this would probably be between a 7-8/10 as a novel, maybe 6-7, as almost any wuxia/xianxia etc. I find are less "well-written" than standard amazing novels, but in terms of enjoyment this gets a full 9-10/10 from me. The flaws this novel has are easy to look past when reading it for the enjoyment the novel provides, it is worth your time to give it a shot. As with most IET novels, the beginning of the story (first 10-15 books) are the best, however unlike most IET novels, this specific novel still retains great quality in the later volumes albeit a little less than the beginning. You won't be disappointed, so long as you like this type of novel in general (as I assume you would, being that most people on this website read CN novels). <<less
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Lswarmruler
Lswarmruler rated it
October 28, 2017
Status: v34c15
For now, I think this novel is best IET's novel after Coiling Dragon.

This novel plot is super interesting and not once repetitive

But, I cant give this 5 star because the author sometimes makes a dumb plot such as
Spoiler

Ji Ning get abducted by hegemon, but just forgive him and dont do any revenge. Or when his best friend Ninedust almost get killed because of Solesky's fault, but he just forgive him and let it go.

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