Starting with the fact that the MC starts out as a spell caster- when he later develops his 'fighting ability', the whole 'trained in spell casting for decades' thing gets forgotten except as an occasional 'drive by' mention for the sake of some exposition/comparison. I should stress this isn't simply 'Linley chooses to ignore his own power & any/all benefits'- no, spell casters pretty much stop existing in the world once the author decides fighters are more cool. This is 'explained away' under the pretense that spells simply attempt to replicate elemental powers- but somehow the author completely forgot how powerful 'area of effect' spells were described as being, since in the conflict no one seems to use them anymore and instead combats in small groups or as a mass melee- at least until the end, then it's still just many v 1 or whatever other 'advanced strategies' the author thinks make sense. Point is he's forgotten spell use entirely.

I don't know if the author realizes it or not, but the protag is pretty s*upid, and his careless actions are actually the direct cause for most of the senseless deaths in the story. We won't even get into how the protag later quietly benefits from the deaths of others- somehow not realizing that he's actually _cannibalizing_ others spiritually! I guess it's supposed to be ok since he didn't actually do the killing itself?-- but his mentor was a spirit, and there are gods and (mention of) an afterlife- so him assimilating millions of souls in a process that was originally considered evil...

Go figure.

The author does intentionally make him do other things for the sake of plot, though- so 'being a genius' is all about power, not common sense.

There's a lot of innocents dying pointlessly and no character caring. Sometimes Linley is affiliated with some of them, and though he may have claimed some affection- he always forgets they existed in a crisis situation. He's pretty much a cowardly bully actually- only fighting when cornered or thinks he's at an advantage. He'll literally stand around watching people die instead of using his quite significant powers. No, actually he later abandons people to flee & save his own team, only to have to fight the threat anyway after tons of people literally begging for his aid die (and then he has to fight the threat anyway).

This is one of those 'we don't like white knights' stories, sure- but when the author points out 'a bunch of gods coordinated can kill a highgod', the puts a bunch of gods in Linley's face begging to be led- he can't be bothered with telling them 'ok, all attack at once' (like a 'genius' would), because he's too busy trying to save his own skin. I won't even get into how little risk he would have helping people out of the fog sea when he left- or informing anyone of the difficult (but possible) method of escape- to maybe help others. People trapped for trillions of years? Sucks to be you... Also, in b16c15 he actually intervenes in a restaurant brawl, getting the attacked guy killed- to avoid being bumped into/save his food! he of course (as usual) doesn't give 2 shits about the dead guy. He's come a long way from protecting his brother from the injustice of near-death from random saint battles of long ago- now he causes death with his power directly...

There's also a bunch of dumb 'rules', and some ridiculous plot 'solutions' (the creative use of tunneling to avoid detection by the eyes of a god is one of the more laughable). Actually, there's a LOT of bs spouted to try & direct the plot/fill holes:
"Linley, Highgods have their own pride. If you don't go irritate a Highgod, a Highgod generally won't lower themselves to deal with you."
(said after a highgod straight out slaughtered a bunch of saints, then planned on killing Linley just because he had worshipers...)
In short there's a HUGE amount of exposition, 'speculative misdirection', and flat out 'creative misleading'. The story 'tells' you a LOT of stuff- but what it 'shows' you is often a lot less impressive.
Here's the most BS one which attempts to refute math:
"How much money could shopping possibly use up? 10% off was nothing to them. Given the wealth which Linley and Bebe currently had, a discount of 10% was meaningless.". I doubt you're as math-challenged as the author, but no matter how much you have, only 10 10%'s amount to 'all of it'.

The continual increase in the number of times Linley himself forgets 'the most recent important thing' and acts in a way which completely disregards why they were on 'high alert' & 'happy to be alive' just a while ago... Ugh.

It's kinda irritating actually...
MC is a dumbass.

As I continue to read chapters, watching him 'hide his power' while not doing his job as a fiend... seriously- I don't even know why it's 'cool' to have 'hidden power' if you just use it to save your own skin- especially if it's _obvious_ there's no escape, and you just let people die for effect...

And the enemies are allowed to flee, and bring more troubles so often...

I'm at b16c20 now, and I have no idea what the author is thinking. He's made Linley such a chikensh*t in the face of someone more powerful he's completely planned to abandon a fighting ally and use that as a moment to flee (even though he walked through a but-ton of guards & fortifications on the way in. No way having a powerful ally is useful... (sigh)

b19c13- Linley is in a hurry to help out his ancestors in the netherworld. Not going to go into details, but to get favors from a sovereign he agrees to an unreasonable exchange after barely not being killed by that sovereign for ridiculous & unreasonable bs. Whatever- So now he's got to enter the Planar Wars representing death and kill the opposing commanders (most of whom are more powerful than him). Well, sounds legit- get in, do it, get out- right? Maybe he'll get lucky. Oh- but he finds out literally on the door to go in, that he can't leave till the war is over... in 800 years.
'Sure, no problem' you obviously say because as a reader you forgot he was in a hurry to try & save the spirits of his ancestors before they suffered eternal dispersion or whatever in the Netherworld... but if they have to hold on 8 more centuries while struggling to survive, 'no biggie', right?

So clearly the author forgot his own purpose.
Don't worry- he 'plot armor's everyone Linley wants to rescue- even though the Infernal Realm is supposedly so vicious.

There's other messed up stuff in there-- like the author teasing with 'the guy is literally in the next room' twice while Linley's 'looking' for people- but to say the story degrades as it progresses is an understatement.

Also, at b21c29, the plot both becomes super-predictable (because Linley is a plot-forced idiot), and hard to anticipate. Why 'hard to anticipate'? Because the story will end in 15 chapters, and that should be nowhere near enough to wrap up 'all the things' satisfactorily...

Ugh- the ending... quite predictable except for the s*upidity, melodrama, & grandstanding. We won't even talk about 'jumping the shark'... At least it's over.

Yes, many things were left unresolved...

he constantly refuses free brothel women and ignores all women in general, including the obvious likely love interest who is clearly into him. That would be fine, MC focusing on cultivation instead of women is whatever... but then he falls for some rando as soon as he meets her?? After being together a bit he ends up cucked and ghosted, but soon after he considers her "a friend he's on good terms with" and even saves the guy who cucked him (and tries to harm him after) ???

he finds out a super important person harmed his family many years ago, so he wants revenge. He then decides to just go for it in the capital of the faction enemy belongs to, despite knowing that there are multiple people around that he stands no chance against... he doesn't even consider the super important enemy might have defense treasure! He could easily just wait until he has enough power to do it or there's a good opportunity, but no. Minimal prep, goes all in.

The story centers around our main character, Linley Baruch, who basically tries to reach the pinnacle of power, as with most other WNs. However, the story mostly becomes a story about revenge, as our MC tries to find the killer of his parent (s) / In fact, this leads Linley to make several dumb decisions throughout the novel, and makes him a very one-track minded character, who focuses solely on power and revenge. This basically occupies the first half of the novel; yet, in the second half, he starts feuds with the enemies of his clan, and the same story is repeated, only on a larger scale with more powerful enemies. Because of this, Linley is somewhat boring as a character.

There are some interesting, fun side characters throughout the story. For example, Bebe is a funny, combative type of character who starts trouble and fools around a lot; he's a good example of a character who, despite being static throughout, is enjoyable. Beirut and Bluefire are cool and mysterious, and change as Linley gets stronger. There are a few other single-personality characters who are entertaining, like Gates, which add to the story. That being said, there are tons of one-off characters, characters who basically have no relevance but keep appearing, and characters that are repeats of each other, which detracts from the story.

The world itself is expansive: the Yulan continent is pretty massive and populous, and various places in it are visited throughout the story. There are major powers and lots of landmarks, making it seem like a more lively, interesting place than many other WN universes. The later parts of the story introduce new planes in the universe, which provide a very contrasting environment compared to the Yulan plane. This variation and detail is great, and makes the universe more immersive.

With regards to romance, it's fairly heavy in the beginning, but after he finally settles down with one person (which obviously happens), it basically just becomes a burden for the MC. The author has never had very compelling romance, and it's not what the story is really about, so I didn't really care about it either way. If you were expecting a harem, sorry to disappoint you.

i also hate that grandpa doehring wasn't resurrected. Y!!! I understand that his death was needed in order for the MC to grow but y couldn't he be resurrected?? ??