The act of calling this novel garbage is just disrespectful and calling this "nothing ever happened" is just plain lie. Seriously I don't know if someone who said it read the same novel as I. This novel is not focus on cultivation aspect blindly. It uses it as a plot drive for things to happen. This novel is not for kid. Don't read it and then said those disrespectful things again. We are not the same.

Should be called Way of Zero-Brain-Celled organisms.

So much of the plot would be completely irrelevant if any character did anything that used even a single brain cell.

Even the mastermind villains and supergenius protagonists have all of zero iq in literally every plot point.

... more>> If you like 200+chapter long conflicts because nobody bothers to think the dead obvious even to a negative iq reader, then this is the work for you.

Writing is above average for a Qidian work. Comes with all your stereotypical faceslapping moments and does a good job of padding out content & pacing better than most other Qidian authors.

The author is clearly winging and making sh*t up as he goes. The power scaling is random and nonsensical, random characters get buffs or nerfs with zero reason, e.g. The MC can know everything, but suddenly knows nothing because the author needs to nerf him in a certain point. Then he suddenly knows everything again.

If you haven't read anything with cultivation before, I don't recommend this wn as a starting point because the author takes every cultivation trope throws it into the story randomly. The eloquent writing tries to disguise this randomness, and anyone familiar with this genre would have no trouble following it, but the placement of a lot of them make zero sense if you give it even a single brain cell of thought. It will be quite confusing if you're not already familiar with cultivation tropes.

This is pretty standard Qidian/chinese drama shit. One of the most annoying aspects of this story is the lack of death or killing. Similar to many other xianxia/xuanhuan, you can replace every instance of the word "sword" with "large wooden stick" and every fight scene would make 10x more sense since every character is an HP sponge that never dies unless they are crucial plot point. I will say the fight scenes are better written than most and don't fall into a boring routine which is an issue with even the most popular xianxia. The fights are still ultimately extremely padded and this story in particular has the most nonsensical asspulls in fights that you wouldn't even find in a generic shonen.

This author has elegant writing but the story has way too many asspulls. New characters & new abilities come literally out of nowhere then disappear equally as fast. It's really hard to give any shits to them or even longterm conflicts because it's just negative iq decisions by every character.

If you're still reading this, it's best to just turn off your brain and enjoy a half-decent story for the incredibly bored. <<less

The plot revolves around a child raised in a village temple named Chen Changsheng. He has a terminal illness that he must go to the capital to find a cure for. But when he goes there and tries to settle an arranged marriage set up for him at birth he finds out that his fiancé is actually *record scratch* the incarnation of a Phoenix??? With everyone looking down on him he must deal with arrogant young masters, proud heavenly sons, jade-like beautys, the Church, and even the Empire itself?? Join... more>> Chen Changsheng as he fights his way to the top of the cultivation world and uses his might to prove just how wrong everyone is about him!

Sounds pretty cliché right? The true value of this light novel comes out when the author takes these clichés and turns them on their head by putting real, self actualized characters into these situations. These are characters with goals and personalities, hopes and aspirations. They're so well realized that it feels like any one of them could have been the main character of their own novel.

Spoiler

The fiancé Xu Yourong is the reincarnation of a Phoenix is set up to be this genius beauty who is perfect in every way but when you finally get to know her she's a proud introvert who worries about living up to everyone's expectations while still maintaining her own identity as a person. I mean come on, that's an awesome character. Qiu Shan Jun is the love rival to the main character and the reincarnation of a Dragon. He's set up to be some heaven sent prodigy that's almost too perfect. You can't help but feel that there's some sort of insidious sub plot where he's using any means necessary to come to power and be with Xu Yourong. Then when you finally meet him it turns out there's nothing nefarious about him at all and he actually is kind of perfect. He's a devoted swordsman who tries his best to do what he thinks is right and while he does love Xu Yourong, it's completely unrequited and he knows it. When he's finally revealed after hundreds of chapters I was so angry at him because of how much I liked him. He was built up to be a kind of antagonist to the loveable main character but then you meet him and dammit, he's cool.

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In contrast to the unique and well crafted personalities of the supporting cast, the main character's personality is almost robotically dull and repetitive. He always put's a lot of thought into his actions and is so straightforward it's kind of rude. But by being so clear minded and plain it in turn reflects the flaws of the other characters onto themselves. He's not mired down by the politics and nuances of the world so other characters can feel the constraints placed upon themselves by society when talking to him.

Something interesting to note is that the author spends a relatively considerable amount of time delving over what it means to be a woman in power. While the author doesn't make any definitive statements about it, just bringing it up at all is miles ahead of any other Chinese light novel where the women aren't even really people but props to the main character.

As far as action goes, the world's cultivation system has specific boundaries but the techniques and methods are left almost entirely arbitrary. This could be a major flaw but the author deliberately mystifies it so that he can tie character combat strength to their mental state. It turns major fights into not only physical clashes, but into philosophical ones. By doing it this way the character who wins fights isn't just the one who is physically stronger, but emotionally stronger.

The only con of the light novel is one that's brought up in every review, it's very verbose. Every character is fleshed out and the political situations behind them are thoroughly explained. Since every fight is tied to emotional state as well that means changes in the fight are also tied into mental changes within the character themselves. But this also means that these changes have to be explained. It can kind of drone on and on like that. I can't blame you if you skip chapters like that and honestly you wouldn't miss much.

If you can power through how wordy the author can be you'll be rewarded with the cream of the crop of Chinese light novels. Fantastic characters, intriguing plots, and a well lived in world. 5/5 a mastah piece <<less

Ch 1075 / 1184

Couldn't bother to read the last 100 chapters.

This novel feels like an ulta nice setup for an 4000 chapter long epic adventure (an really good slow paced one)... but after the first few hundred chapters the author decided to just stop developing the main story, threw in a bunch of filler and call it a day.

It's so frustrating, he had it all... except an good plot ; (

The novel is good the thw the MAIN problem is the fking MC. I just don't like how his character isn't a constant at all. His character changes so many time and, from his reactions and thoughts personally he actually fits to be a side bald character for me.

I couldn't take it anymore. I don't like the way the MC thinks or acts, yeah has a little knowledge then again in a world ruled by power it's pointless. Also by chapter 94 he still didn't 'progress' with his cultivation, yeah he is getting started but it's still boring.

I've read a few novels and compared to them here is my grading: 3 stars

5 star for truly wonderfully described world. All the important stuff, obviously to their own liking (politics etc), but the effort was there for sure. Maybe a little too verbose, but to each their own, I guess

4 star for characters. I can't help but applaud at how well (almost, see later) the characters were growing in terms of their attitude, relationships and the rest, alas, there were too many damn characters and sometimes I just felt... more>> lost at remembering who is who etc.

3 star for the story. This is not your typical "go to one world, enter school, win a tournament, go to another world, enter school, win a tournament etc" novel. While the story was good, the ending... my godness... yet another novel, yet another absolutely lazy ending with tons of untied ends. I mean, I can't even call it ending, it was literally just a switch to a new arc with nothing but a stop, after introducing tons of new things. But there was not even an epilogue or hint of a sequel... I was completely flabbergasted, probably the worst "ending" I've ever seen. Pretty much the entire reason this gets a 3 instead of 5

0 star for the romance. Even though there is no "romance" tag, it is there for sure and besides leaving a bitter aftertaste and even some negative emotions, sadly. It felt like things were building up and this garden of zhou thing followed by bridge battle with all the secret relationship afterwards were going towards some bright future, you know. Naturally there should be hardships, but then after all the turmoils, revenges and other bullsh*t one would expect some pleasant conclusion, but then last like 50 chapters (after a timeskip) were just so damn disappointing, I honestly expected a polar opposite outcome in the relationship, but... it was just so hard to swallow, she was so rude to him and never gave him any explanation (jealousy, apparently, although I'm not even sure why, if it was clearly stated, that she was the only one... and of course MC did not understand or was too shy to ask (which was explicitly stated)), and even when he was about to su*cide, there was literally no emotions, I mean seriously, at some point I even wondered if she actually ever loved him. And then the parting in the penultimate chapter: Him: "cya", She "cya", Him: "You are not coming with me?", She: "No".
I mean... ugh... I should probably put a negative grade for romance tbh.

Spoiler

Also, poor Luoluo, this reminds me of ISSH and Chu Yuyan. Disgusting. This is not the first time I see this f*cked up love triangle and its very very annoying

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This novel was somehow readable, until you realize that Grand Examination, which was poised all this time as Chinese Imperial Examination, is nothing more than glorified tournament. And never cultivating MC, want to get first place only to... start cultivating.

Brilliant story telling. This is similar to game of thrones in so many ways. The story is centered around the protagonist who start off as naive but staunch youth. He 'quickly' develops in to pragmatic but good natured man. And there are many plots woven within the 1183 chapters. Nothing is as it seems, your choices will decide your fate. How will you choose? To read or not to read?

Read for pleasure, don't expect quick actions or extreme power ups. This is not that kind of story.

I had a good time reading this novel. I love the characters and the premise. Didn't think I was gonna finish this after reading some of the reviews here since I was scared of bad endings. I ended up continuing since it came coming back up to my mind and, damn, I'm glad I did it.

Pace is slow but I found it more engaging than a lot of faster-paced novels out there. Strong characters all around, most contributing until the end. The cultivation level doesn't spiral out of control.

The combat... more>> could be slow and can be confusing but it got better (or maybe I just got used to it). An experience with wuxia TV series might help to picture scenes. <<less

This is a good novel, some events will make you want more and some just make you lost interest. I must say the translator is awesome with update, probably drop it if not.

Story Line: 8/10

Story Progression: Start-8/10, start to mid-4/10, Middle- 7/10, mid to end-4/10, End - 8/10. (The 4/10-too much useless filler, 6-10 chapters can be done in 1 chapter)

... more>> Characters Dept: 7/10, this is the first novel that put too much into a character that it become unnecessary and annoying (hence more fillers)

Characters Development: 7/10, (the novel is almost done and the MC still in the middle early stage of cultivation power, it unlikely he will step into that stage beyond the dead queen, not even sure if he will step into the upper stage of power. The power houses will stay at power houses. The author should replace those fillers and focus more on this.

Education level for enjoyment: Bachelor+ (High schooler, you won't understand shit, go away.)

Novel is almost done, looking back there isn't much going on. Feel like this novel can be done in 300 chapters or less. There are very few novels out there that make sense, so 4 stars. <<less

If I had to discribe reading this in a phrase it would eb delayed gratification.

The first 125 chapters the main character is a weak nobody, but its all about character building. Its tough to stick with the novel during this time but worth ir.

Often chinese novels have filler, but most of the time when I read what I thought was filler in this novel it wasn't. The author likes to avoid the main plotline with filler like character introduction, so even though its sometimes painful to read when your waiting... more>> for the plot to jump back up, its still worth it in the end.

Really good but sometimes difficult to read, especially at the begining. <<less

Read if you like:

• A smart, hardworking protagonist who doesn't go on killing sprees and likes to think about the philosophy of life
• Solid romance (although you might feel rage in the beginning chapters, trust me, when the romance kicks in it really kicks in)
• Politics and court intrigue --> this might turn some readers off though, b/c Way of Choices is not your typical martial arts story
• Suspense and mystery --> seriously, even now I'm not sure what exactly is the protagonist's background and it's making me n e r v o u s
• Great, fully developed side characters (aka Tang Thirty-Six, aka my future husband hello handsome)

Cons: It's slow. Like, I mean, some arcs can be very slow. There's no instant gratification in this novel, it reads more like a slice-of-life... more>> at times (okay, maybe not that slow... stuff actually does happen, don't worry). Suffice it to say, because of the mystery of the unfolding plot line, it might be hard to understand some things in the beginning. I might compare this to Grandmaster Strategist (don't exactly remember what it was called, correct me if I'm wrong).

Summary:

Chen Changsheng is a young Daoist boy who has studied in a countryside village his entire life with his Master and Senior Brother. He spent his entire childhood memorizing 3, 000 books, the books which compromise the entire Daoist Canon. Yup, hello genius protagonist! One day, he journeys to the Imperial Capital to find his fiancee and end his engagement, because he strongly believes that he's going to die before he's 20 and he thinks this would be deeply unfair to his fiancee. Hijinks ensue, and he ends up caught in the middle of a power struggle that sweeps the entire Empire. Let the boy live! All he's ever wanted is to cultivate in peace and read his damn books! <<less

I'll admit that I really loved the first of the five books of this story (around 200-300 chapters) but then instead of wrapping things the author clearly tries to do what most soap opera do... Do random things just to make more books. Of course I'm biased since every review depends how a person receives a story as such i'll just say that if you have weeks of your life to trow then this story is overall mediocre.

Also if you can, like me drop a story in the middle... more>> then feel free to start because the beginning is really good.

Otherwise be warned that to some the more they read this story the longer they'll suffer. <<less

If you can make it past the first school arc, this is gold. The start of this is fairly generic including all the tropes of a mysterious past, fortuitous encounters, breaking an arranged marriage - typical xuanhuan stuff. The initial translations were of low quality but they've probably all been replaced by superior versions by now.

The writing itself is filled with life and riddled with classical culture. Each arc beyond the first has a long buildup of story, setting, and motivation which explodes into a rather satisfying climax. If you're... more>> a fan of Western movies, treat this novel as such. Power progress is clumsy but short as the novel quickly moves towards the bigger picture once the protagonist is sufficiently strong. The story can be wonderful in both close personal encounters and massive political engagements. For how much Chinese authors parrot "the law of the jungle" and "the strong eating the weak" it rarely ever shows through more than a single antagonist at a time. Here, however, it does to a wondrous effect. What happens in a world where absolutely powerful existences meddle in common affairs?

Do me the favor of reading until the climax of the Garden of Zhou arc at the very least before calling it quits. It's worth your time. <<less

This book is a jem. I've just started reading waxia novels. I have read tales of demons and gods, I shall seal the heavens, true martial world, battle through the heavens and a few others.

I'm terms of plot and characterization this books is hands down better then any of the others. Cultivation is important but more there is this deep political drama conspiracy going on. And its more about cheng changsheng trying to find a way to live. It's also a romance. I'm only half way through and I don't... more>> know the end but what I be seen has been so cute. My man Chen changsheng is smooth AF. He is not a player but he just wins people over. His way of life is like the poem invictus. And He will not going quitely into the night.

He is a very likeable and developed man character because of how he has grown up. He is so calm and mature. He is a health nut and a germaphobe. It's really funny. The story really excells because of the characters. Every character is three deminsional and grows. I love tang 36, Lou Lou wrathful zhe xu, xu yu rong. The antagonists are complex especially the Divine Queen. It's really good so far.

I will say disclaimer. The book is slow paced at first. Like the first 100 to 200 pages I almost dropped it but I am so glad I kept going. The book got better and better. The writing got better and better. At some parts it's almost poetic. The dialogue is top notch. The way the battles are written for better. Be patient I got so drawn in after the first arc. I'm half way through and parts have brought me to tears. It's so good give it a shot. Be patient. So many good themes about life and death and love and determination. <<less

Way of Choices is a very slow novel.

This is its greatest strength. From beginning to the most recent chapter, Mao Ni takes the time to explore the world and its people, to reveal, layer by layer, the intricate web of connections and motivations of an expansive cast of fully fleshed out characters. This necessarily slows down the novel as the author sometimes spends a single chapter detailing the relationship between two characters who might otherwise be uninvolved in the main plot.

If the novel has a major weakness is the action... more>> scenes. Mao Ni, much as he excels in other fronts, has the terrible habit of over explaining the moves each character takes, dragging out fights and losing tension. There is very little that annoys me more than a fight interrupted mid move to have sideline characters exclaim over X move of doom and all the illustrious personages that have used it before.

Despiute this bad habit, Way of Choices still stands head and shoulders above any other chinese webnovel i've read, and a great deal of western novels as well. <<less

While I would love to say this is an amazing story, I would be lying to myself. The characters are pretty well structured, however like many others have mentioned. The pace is absolutely glacial. I've read the first 50 chapters and I feel like it's move no where. That isn't even the main reason why I dropped it, I don't like how everyone seems to be mocking the main character for no substantial reason, and it doesn't seem like it'll improve within the next few hundred chapters from what I... more>> could tell. I might pick this up again if I get the patience to, but until now it's too frustrating. <<less

This is perhaps the best written novels amongst those listed at NU. The MC is unusual and not the cliche kind who are OP and mu*der maniacs. Romance is in its primary stage but interesting nevertheless. I simply can't encourage people enough to give this a shot especially now that the releases are coming in much quicker than they were during the beginning of the novel.

Great story, but it is really slow. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as that pace is what allows the author to really flesh out the main cast. The first 100 chapters barely contain any action, and the protagonist doesn't actually fight until around chapter 200; there is a much greater focus on cultivation, philosophy and character-interactions than power-levels and combat.

That said, the slow pace also causes a number of annoyances, such as

So, you might ask: If I don't think the slow pace is a detriment and I love the characters, why do I give it only 4 stars? I am not going to beat around the bush: It's the action. I can read dozens of chapters detailing how the protagonist contemplates the meaning of some carvings on an obelisk, but the moment the fighting starts, it just completely loses me. It is overwrought, verbose and more often than not outright boring aside of maybe the big final confrontation of the arc. Aside of those though, I would say one can safely skip 90% of all the combat without losing any information, flavor or enjoyment.

That said, if you can tolerate the combat and the tension of the setup and the payoff of certain plot-elements having hundreds of chapters between them, this is an amazing read, with a very likable protagonist and cast. If you don't have the patience, it's better if you read several hundred chapters in one big chunk and then put it aside until more translated chapters come out, as reading this one chapter at a time is tantamount of trying to quench your thirst using drops from a leaking faucet.