Sage Monarch

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Yang Qi was the son of the patriarch of a wealthy family from a small town.

Believing himself to be in love, he stole a pill for his lover, only to have the girl betray him, by taking the pill and leaving him behind.

Caught, his dantian was crippled and left to die under the lightning.

This lightning helped him to recover his lost martial arts and also helped him gain a new, divine-like cultivation technique.

After this second chance, he gains more power as he sought revenge and also to find about his missing mother….

Associated Names
One entry per line
Sage Emperor
Sheng Wang
SM
Thánh Vương
圣王
Related Series
Yang God (Chinese Novel)
Recommendations
Fallen Monarch (4)
Clash Of The Sword Titans (1)
The Immortal King In The City (1)
Recommendation Lists
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Latest Release

Date Group Release
09/23/16 Dark Translations c38
09/08/16 Dark Translations c37
07/25/16 Dark Translations c36
07/22/16 Dark Translations c35
07/18/16 Dark Translations c34
06/20/16 Dark Translations c32-33
05/31/16 Dark Translations c31
05/24/16 Dark Translations c30
05/09/16 Dark Translations c29
04/25/16 Dark Translations c28
04/18/16 Dark Translations c27
04/16/16 Dark Translations c26
04/14/16 Dark Translations c25
04/11/16 Dark Translations c24
03/28/16 Dark Translations c23
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88 Reviews sorted by


GrumpyNPC
GrumpyNPC rated it
October 22, 2019
Status: c450
The pace is way too fast, MC doesn't stay in a cultivation realm more than a couple chapters, he just powers up left and right, sometimes jumping multiple realms in a single sentence. There is no downtime, no romance, no real character development for any character. He meets some randoms, they become sworn siblings, and before you get to learn their names he has already left them in the dust and met a new group of insta-friends who he immediately overshadows with his overwhelming strength. The reader never gets a... more>> sense that there is even a remote chance that the MC could lose, I dont even think he ever gets injured, he is just going around like the second coming of Jesus quoting some bible-ish crap about "ashes to ashes and dust to dust" like a brainwashed cult member. <<less
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DicerX
DicerX rated it
September 25, 2019
Status: c200
The most pathetic novel I've read in a very long while. Almost all characters have a one-track mind and are either WITH OR AGAINST MC; they've no feelings, no ambitions and they all roll with the MC's expectations.

What's worse is that this novel is not original in the slightest. "Oh let's give the MC a who*e of a love interest (Nalan Yanran) and then let's add a mysterious mother from a heavenly background to the mix." If I could count how many novels adopt the same plotline, I reckon more... more>> than 12, and this novel is by far the least appealing. And not to mention how the MC disdains others that rely on X or Y to cultivate when the MC has a living God soul in his body, ridiculous.

Wouldn't recommend this novel and I encourage reading any shitty R18 novel instead, at least you'd get a bit happy after you release some stress, unlike this sinking pile of rubbish. <<less
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Rockbear
Rockbear rated it
May 15, 2019
Status: c114
I won't go into too much detail but as a previous review said, no matter how good the translator, you can't polish a turd...

I didn't start the novel with high expectations but I did have expectations. Which proved to be a mistake. A few of the many issues are listed below.

1) One dimensional characters

... more>> 2) Below average plot

3) Ridiculous plot armour (the character basically knows everything without having to put any effort to achieve it. He's in a pickle? No problem. His technique has it covered. Whether or not this was introduced in previous chapters. He just HAS and KNOWS the technique.)

4) The main character has no redeemable features.

You just cannot get into the story at all. Don't get me wrong, there's much worse novels out there. But just because there's a bigger and stinkier turd doesn't mean this turd shouldn't get the 1* or 2* it deserves.

Save yourself the misery and give this a pass. So many novels that are far better than this. <<less
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rdawv
rdawv rated it
March 22, 2016
Status: --
Impressions as of Ch.22.

The first chapter sets up an intriguing premise: a teenage martial cultivator was deceived by a girl, bringing calamity to himself and his family. His cultivation ruined and tied to a tree like a criminal, he was struck by lightning and infusing him with a golden fairy and the essence of unimaginable strength. Vowing revenge against the girl who had betrayed him, the MC found his clan beset by problems internal and external and had to gather his strength to resolve a tightening noose around his immediate... more>> family first.

As for the plot, I have no idea whether it would be a long term goal like “Battle Through The Heavens” or just a stepping stone for the MC to be given super powers for a usual xianxia story. Not too many characters have been developed in the 20 chapters translated thus far, at least there are intriguing hints about an aunt who is just a little older than the MC, and an ambitious mayor/city lord who still bears a grudge against the MC.

The writing is standard, the dialogue is average and the translation is passable but unpolished; hampered by the author’s terms that sound so awkward in English (eg: “Divine Elephant That Suppresses Hell”). There is also a wall of info-dump initially.

What is available thus far is average and from the pace of the story, seems to take a long way to get going. Have to wait for more chapters before recommending it. <<less
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Wakashii
Wakashii rated it
October 11, 2019
Status: c422
When I saw that it was a Deathblade work, I thought it would be a novel at least close to ISSTH. * Sigh *
I was very wrong, this novel is as cliché as possible with touches of irrationality.
You will see several enemies that when they meet the MC they say: Kneel down, tell me all your secrets otherwise I will kill you and your family.
All the time.
I'll give you an example, I'll put the spoiler but it's not a big deal.

... more>>
Spoiler

“Listen up, everyone. From here on out, anyone who's friends with me, and anyone who's a member of the Hegemon's Society, will kill Yang Qi or die trying! Run an investigation and find out who all his friends and family are. Then track them down and bring them to me so I can torture them to death in front of him. He's going to pay a heavy price for this lunacy! ”

[collapse]

Anyway, the biggest problem of this novel is how the protagonist is perfect and the author clearly imposes what he wants you to think. For example, the enemies of MC are always extremely evil and disgusting, the guys that the MC hates are always piece of sh*t and the author ignores the fact that MC is also a genocide, he justifies the deaths of thousands of people and children in a city such as: All of them were possible enemies of my continent, so it's no use leaving anyone alive.

Btw, the inheritance that makes the protagonist special has made him a kind of apostle, apart from the fact that he is absolute, nothing and no one compares, totally bland.

Sincerely? It's rubbish, it's a novel I regret reading, the funniest thing is how Deathblade tries to defend it in the comments to the point of being extremely arrogant with his audience.

I would not recommend this, It's painful. <<less
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erorr404
erorr404 rated it
July 21, 2019
Status: c260
This novel almost an avrage xuanhuan cultivation novel, it has all the tropes and generic writeng ie. MC is OP and easily kills opponents x amount of reals above him, one dimensional female characters, MC isunreasnably ruthless but somehow still moraly superior to everbody else and so on.

My bigest problem with this novel is the casual use of discrminating and dehumenasing language. I dont understand the need to bulid such a distorted world view, if you want to establish the MC as moraly superior and justify the exesive use of... more>> vilence you can do it without relying xenophobic sentaments and the dehumanisation of the ¨out group¨ ie those MC percives as opponents. <<less
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chiii
chiii rated it
August 6, 2019
Status: c67
Honestly, despite being quite cliche, this story isn't bad. I actually enjoy the cultivation journey although the characters seem quite flat. The constant power ups and like just plain OPness of the MC is somewhat refreshing, when you compare MCs from other novels who constantly struggle to power up and end up frustrating the sh*t out of readers. There are many cliches and such but idk I don't find it unattractive nor unappealing. I think some reviews are a bit harsh but in all, this is an okay novel.
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scribbledoutname
scribbledoutname rated it
May 31, 2019
Status: c1012
Previously gave this five stars, but I'm lowering it to 3.

Dropping the story at 1012 because I'm just not enjoying it anymore. I loved the first half where the MC frequently stomped enemies with his godly "cheat", but the second half feels like a completely different story. The MC is constantly facing setbacks left and right and struggling against an endless number of enemies who are somehow always at the upper limit of his strength. What's more, the author just keeps pulling cultivation sub-realms out of his ass to slow... more>> down the pace of the story.

I know it's primarily a taste thing, but I feel like this story isn't great at anything. It isn't emotionally fulfilling since the plot doesn't throw the MC into a range of emotional side stories like, say, ISSTH (in which case I wouldn't mind if the MC wasn't progressing because there'd be an actual interesting STORY and not just an endless stream of life-or-death crises), and it doesn't scratch that wish fulfilment itch like Invincible and Dragon-Marked War God do.

Also, two of my biggest pet peeves are (a) non-stop struggles for peanut-level rewards/progress and (b) enemy plot armour, where major enemies escape whenever they're about to be killed, and this story has both in spades.

Spoiler

First the Crown Prince and Yun Hailan, then that c*ckroach Chancellor and Leaf-Dao Denier, and now this Joyflower Sect master just got rescued and is being trained by the guy with a God Legion Seal so she can come back and be a pain in the ass later. I don't doubt for a second that there'll be another major enemy when plot armour soon enough.

[collapse]

The MC is a low key psycho. Not as bad as Chu Feng, but there are some things he does that firmly puts him in the evil camp. At first I thought that the God Legion Seal was influencing him but nope, he's just arrogant, selfish and a little bit crazy. <<less
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Velast
Velast rated it
April 29, 2019
Status: --
Well I wish DB had not chosen this novel to transtale. He's such a talented individual - his quality is top notch and I believe he can reach a pro level in translations but not with these kind of novels: (

Overall this novel is so so. In my opinion in terms of quality Er Gen's works hold the first place on a pedestal with Tomatoe's works being on the second and as for this story it's nowhere near the third one.
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EnuoFH
EnuoFH rated it
October 22, 2019
Status: c575
I could do a very big text with the flaws on this work but I will just do this instead

If you want a novel that wants any of those, you should avoid this:

-Actual politics and schemes in the plot that are relevant and has use of the brain

... more>> -MC has actual struggles

-Knowing how strong characters actually are

-Good world building with exploring things out and not just introducing things that sounds interesting and never bothering with it

-Characters that arent 1D

-Smart Characters

-MC that is actually caring

-MC makes friendships that makes sense

Now, things that if you dont want and you should avoid this novel because it has it.

-Everyone is arrogant MC is arrogant just as much as your typical young master

-1D characters

-Dumb characters

-Hypocrital MC

-Flowery talk everywhere making you lost about how strongs characters are truly supposed to be

-Cool ideas for the world building but author dont bother with exploring anything about it

-Very Easy journey for MC, no actual struggles

-"politcs and conspiracies" but its all swallow and there is no need to use the brain for anything

-MC meets someone for the first time and makes that person sworn brother or just with little time he makes a sworn brother/sister even though he was betrayed by his lover in the start but for some reason everyone that he makes a sworn brother and sister now are actually good people that stand for him

The only good thing in this novel its the translation I just dont regret paying for advanced chapters because I wanted to support DB translations, really wish instead of this something from Watching Chess ((I'm only reading Immortal so far but it has actual MC that has brain, side characters also thinks for themselves, MC doesnt have magical item that he got from a top-tier character or is reincarnated with millions of experience) <<less
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Milkboost
Milkboost rated it
June 26, 2019
Status: c212
Lots of pointless and repetitive exposition which results into less action and plot progression.
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kazzzz
kazzzz rated it
May 17, 2019
Status: --
The first few chapters were remarkable only for their bang on job of making clear that this is super derivative and kinda mindless. It has loads of repetitive dialogue, a massive cheat for the MC, zero world-building and the usual bunch of idiot villains. It also goes from 'i'll hide cuz i'll doom myself otherwise' to the MC beating up people levels over him in 3 chapters.

So yeah, this is a hard drop for me.
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mars199
mars199 rated it
May 23, 2020
Status: c30
I rarely write reviews, but for this novel I am going to make an exception. I'm actually not very hard to please and usually only looking for a casual read. I am quite accustomed to chinese novels and do not mind clichés, repetitiveness (withing reasonable boundaries) etc.

Sage Monarch really is exceptionally bad. I do not mean the story itself, which I cannot judge as I only read to chapter 30. The most severe problem of this novel is the absurdly bad writing. With writing I do not mean the translation,... more>> but the general way of storytelling. The author simply cannot properly tell a story. Each character has way too much insight into what is happening and the author cannot distinguish between his own "omniscient" point of view and when he has to switch it off and think a bit more "in character". There is not suspense. All sides in this novel immediately know everything already at the start of the conflicts. <<less
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Ancient_Devil
Ancient_Devil
June 3, 2019
Status: --
What I hate in Chinese cultivation novels:

1: fighting enemies with cultivation a lot more the you.

2: be very young but still stronger and smarter than people millions of years older then you.

3: heals limbs and his whole body easily even when he becomes a lot stronger.

4: Cultivate with a unique technique and become so strong the cultivation levels don't matter (one of my favorite things in novels is when he enters new cultivation realms so my favorite movels Re the ones whose cultivation is the same as everybody alse
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dansweb
dansweb rated it
May 31, 2019
Status: c161
Like all the other bad reviews, I started reading this because of the quality of Deathblade's translations and the previous works he has done (ISSTH, etc). The story of Sage Monarch is not like any of those and is relatively nonsensical and at times forced. It reads as a poorly written Martial God Asura. In the first 2 chapters, the girl who tricked him and is meant to be the antagonist hasn't done much of anything wrong. She tricked the MC into thinking she loved him so that he would... more>> steal a pill but other than that the MC was never under any illusion that his stealing the pill wouldn't destroy his clan. So the real villain here is the MC who betrayed his own clan for some random girl. The MC then fixates on her because she tried to destroy his clan (nope that was you).

Spoiler

This has continued for the next 150+ chapters with the MC professing his plans to kill her every time he sees her. The author makes some additional poorly written attempts to make her seem like the villain but once again she is a really passive character and so she still hasn't done any terribly damning acts.

[collapse]

Other the a weak main plot premise, the fights are more like fan-fiction works or even summaries than descriptions of actual fights. Like many have already said, other than the first 2 chapters, the MC never again experiences any difficult scenario that can't be resolved before the end of 1 or 2 chapters. Also, the story has too many nonsense phrases that are meant to mean something but are just throwaway lines only used once in a fight.

Spoiler

Yun Hailan is apparently has Seagod blood and Dragon blood which somehow makes her like a Dragon in the sea. What does that even mean... Every fight will have some new phrase about how this sword skill is Heaven ravishing or some other some nonsense used in just 1 chapter never to be mentioned ever again. Its like the Sage monarch world has some infinitely large list of slang phrases that every character is keyed into but that they are restricted from ever using them more than once... I'm calling it, Sage monarch world has an urban dictionary.

[collapse]

In summary, if you enjoy MGA, you could probably partially stomach this because of similar themes and because the translation quality of good. If you want something more dynamic and well thought out, try Monarch of Evernight, Godsfall Chronicles, Mother of learning (this is amazing), World of Cultivation, any Er Gen novel, or any IET novel.

Sorry Deathblade, I know you said it gets good but I couldn't last past ch 160 or so. I tried. <<less
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Kurokazin
Kurokazin rated it
May 6, 2019
Status: c412
I'll say this now, the novel (so far) is a solid 3 stars, I gave it an extra star to offset all the Er Gen novel fanboys that were expecting some slapstick-humor power fantasy and gave it a series of 1's and 2's.

I read wuxia novels pretty frequently. Actively reading 5 (including this one) as well as 2-3 on the backburner that I found the synopsis interesting. You can do far, FAR worse than this novel if you're looking for something to fill the gap between the more interesting reads.

One... more>> thing to note is things progress quickly. Unlike a lot of other chinese novels, this one wastes no time powering up the MC. I imagine this is because the "world" he starts in will be rapidly out-stripped by higher tier planes he'll eventually end up in. It's hard to tell at this stage how good the novel will turn out to be, 100 is not much of a sample size when these tend to go on for 2000+ chapters.

So far there have been a few interesting characters, many one-dimensional but there's only so much you can expect from a xianxia-esque novel. I pity the poor author that tries to write unique characteristics for a cast of potentially hundreds of individuals. There's reasonable criticism and then there's just incessant whinging from people more accustomed to japanese media vs chinese media. The grander scale necessitates more generic, one dimensional roles for a cast that's constantly shifting as the MC propels himself into higher levels of existence and leaves his less talented buddies behind.

Otherwise the novel is in a pretty decent state right now. The cultivation levels are easy to follow and understand, the MC doesn't insta-discard his die-hard brothers every 100 chapters, and the world-building isn't nearly as bad as people are trying to make it out to be. We're constantly being reminded and revisiting areas that have been developed in previous chapters.

Honestly, my only gripe about the novel is that the author breezed through the prologue. I would've liked a good 10~ chapters establishing the MC and the Yun chick before sh*t goes fanward.

EDIT: Not sure why I can edit the post but not the rating, we'll just chalk that up to web developer failure - anyway.

Since my last review at 100ish chapters, I'm now on chapter 400ish and holy balls has it gone to complete crap. Folks are forming Go boards and "thousands of suns and moons in their fist" to fight. The MC's personality has taken a massive shift in the least interesting direction and somehow celestial manifestations go completely un-noticed by the opponent/myriad of on-lookers.

I have a lot of respect for the work Deathblade puts into translating novels, but jesus bloody christ did this novel quickly devolve into nonsense. As I said previously, a solid 3 star novel initially, but now it's a 1.1-2 in my book. The only reason I don't consider label it a 1 at this point is because Martial God Asura still exists and retains the #1 spot of being the absolute worst story to ever grace a piece of paper or digital text document. <<less
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DeadOpossum
DeadOpossum rated it
November 6, 2020
Status: c112
The most mediocre of them all. It is so religiously following all cliche events and style so I wonder if it was written by an AI after analyzing thousands of wuxia novels.

The plot consists of holes and the protagonist is dumb as my grandma. I feel like the author honestly tried to disrespect the reader as much as possible, like he is making an experiment: "how much of crap a wuxia novel should be so they would stop reading it?"
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pyogenes
pyogenes
April 14, 2020
Status: c500
This started out good but the MC just kept devolving into a complete sociopath. For an example of how terrible his personality has become: I quit shortly after a chapter where he saw signs of two people fighting in the distance and his first reaction was hoping he could kill and refine them both. No desire to see what the situation was, just hoping to randomly kill strangers for profit.

I could probably overlook having a psychopath as a MC if the conflicts aren't equally bad. After the end of the... more>> first big story arc, he not once encountered anything that remotely was dangerous to him. His abilities are so overpowered in every single possible circumstance that it reads like a really bad Mary Sue fan fic. <<less
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Kuzero
Kuzero rated it
March 31, 2020
Status: c93
I'm really trying to trust Deathblade on this one, but so far it's trasy. 2 star because of the superb translation.

I'm not going to go over the premises of the story. I mean, it's either one likes it or not - and overall it's still fairly reasonable.

In true, most flaws in this story are fairly common among chinese novel, just taken to the next level mostly. The MC is flater than flat. I can describe him with 1 word : arrogant. Because of his heaven-defying luck, he believes himself to... more>> be superior to everyone else, doesn't put anyone in his eyes and just look down on everyone. Basically in his view, other people are arrogant for not seeing Mt. Tai when seeing him.

Of course, while the main character is arrogant, others are... worse. Put nicely, they're just the average s*upidly arrogant chinese characters. Problem, is 99% of characters are basically as annoying as the average arrogant young master in other novel. Of course, it only applies when the MC is involved. When they interact with other characters, they almost act like reasonable human being, but as long as the MC is involved, they become s*upid arrogant morons. There are of course exceptions but they the average person shouldn't be that dumb. The dumbest of them all is obviously the MC. My favorite so far is actually the one the MC hates the most, because this character actually feels human! Sure, a fairly evil character, but a good one nonetheless.

The writing quality is fully saved by the translation, but it's pretty clear it's bad. And it has been some time since I read chapters that are so much filled with useless stuff and repeated things. I've read 93 chapters, but honestly there is at least 30 chapters worth of useless repetition.

The plot armor is really thick. Let's not even speak of his absolutely cheaty cultivation art. What is incredible is, whenever he needs something, it basically falls into his laps. Some of the things happening sound like bad joke.

Spoiler

When he leaves his home for good, we get point of view from his father that they are in danger since the neighbouring country will invade them soon. Fortunately, the MC randomly killed a young master on his travel which is associated with this country which made this country too busy internally to keep on their conquering of other territory, saving his family's ass without even realizing it.

[collapse]

The plot is "hard" to predict because the MC is whimsical. He can't stick to a decision he made more than a few chapters. If, for example, he says he will hide his true power, you can be sure that within the next 5 chapters he will reveal them to a lot of people. Best part? Somehow no trouble will come his way, as if his worries were meaningless from the start... Or that everyone is too dumb to see the amazing thing the MC just did, since someone weaker than him will come offend him again 1 chapter later.

People in this novel only really know 2 word : cripple and kill. More than in any other chinese cultivation novel before (even MGA wasn't that bad!), I've no idea how society is working. People are crippling each other and killing each other over the lightest of grievance. There are nearly no rule regulating anything. I mean, it gets to the point that...

Spoiler

Students of a renowned institute (ie, an academy, a place for learning) attack and try to kill/cripple each other in one of the most important building of the institute, in front of esteemed elder who are more busy having fun seeing the fight than thinking about stopping it. Within clan meeting, it is the same... Clan member more busy thinking how to best kill/cripple each other than to think of the clan's future. As for people unrelated to each other, I let you imagine! It seems like "Hey tr*sh, let me cripple you" is a way to say hello, then realizing the tr*sh is actually much stronger than you so you end up being reverse-crippled, and might as well cripple your whole clan while we're at it for good measure.

Actually, let's just look at the beginning of the novel. The MC stole a pill so he should get punished - killed on the spot. Fairly harsh punishment. But he only gets crippled since he has a very powerful aunt that could kill the whole ruling clan of the city if she just breathed too loudly. Yup, we went from killing on the spot to cripple on the spot despite there being such a deterrant.

[collapse]

Chapter 1 - 40 were a mixed bad. Chapter 40 - 70 were showing signs of improvement with some s*upidity mixed in. 70 - 93 are plunging harder than ever. And so far, I see no point in sticking with this novel, except Deathblade's promise that it will start to get better after a few hundred chapters. But really, why hurt myself so long. <<less
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Fionel
Fionel rated it
May 3, 2019
Status: c8
I was looking something new to read and decided to try this one.

I got 1st ch at to point where MC with stolen goods meets girl.

... then I took break.

I returned hoping it gets decent after start, and now I have gotten 8th ch at point where MC broadcasts his recovery after asserting himself being smart about it.

... for now this is enough I go back looking something else.
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