The Silly Alchemist

Description

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My past life: Ordinary. Mediocre.

What I want in this life: Riches. Power. Influence.

My goal: To be a prodigal son. A waste youth with riches and power. Maybe even sidekicks.

My name is Ye Lang, I’m an alchemist, and I’m also here to squander as much money as I can.

Associated Names
One entry per line
Alchemist Frenzy
Luyện Kim Cuồng Triều
TSA
炼金狂潮
Related Series
N/A
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Recommendation Lists
  1. For the chuunibyou guy inside us all: male centric...
  2. readable stuff I find sometimes on the world wide ...
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  5. Amazing comedies pt. 2

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65 Reviews sorted by


lekhoa88
lekhoa88 rated it
March 1, 2017
Status: Completed
Note: I read the Vietnamese translation after I got hooked up from the English translation.
... more>>
Spoiler

Pro:
- Lots of comedy - At least every other chapter have something that cracks me up.
- Characters are well "re-used" - In a lot of novels (cough - TDG, LMS) , new characters are constantly introduced & forgotten. In this novel, the list of characters well maintained ; they are brought back into the stories from time to time.
- Interesting story development - The novels can be broken up into several big adventures, and each of them is well written across multiple (50+) chapters.


Mixed Feelings:
- OP MC from the start.

Cons:
- Very little character development - Most, if not all characters' personality stay the same.
- "Harem-ish" - All top-notch looking female characters like MC. The good thing is there's no romance as MC is not interested in any of them.

Conclusion:
Very good read. Once I start reading into an adventure, I can't help wanting to read more. Translation rate is very slow at the moment (1 chapter every ~7 days). Might be better to wait & read in bulk.

I generally don't like to read Vietnamese translation as English translation is easier for me to understand. However, I got very addicted to this novel and finished reading the Vietnamese translation.

Original rating 4 stars. New rating after completion is 5 stars.

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shuiko
shuiko rated it
November 3, 2016
Status: c22
Overprotective Siblings make the story go round and round and round. Late on its more funny.

Honestly the story does a great job introducing and creating a familiar world in fantasy, but with a concentrated effort in tell a story about a cast of characters, rather than some random MC vs the s*upid/evil people.

They family dynamic, the relationships are basically the foundation for this story.
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Ilikeitloud
Ilikeitloud rated it
June 5, 2021
Status: c70
I got tired of it
Spoiler

when he ruined another girls' whole life because she called his friend names. Like he ruined her reputation and put on a big hat on her that she was cheating on her boyfriend. Like wtf! MC was the one who told his friend to chase after the girl's boyfriend.

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Then, there is way too much clichés. Everything just worked out. Struggles, no problem, luck/allies/villain will appear and take care of it.
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Liamrodhudson331
Liamrodhudson331
June 14, 2017
Status: c15
This is a good read if you're looking for those light-hearted novel, but a crappy story if you're looking for those old-fashioned style novels... Which makes it very boring for me in general. Of course it has some comedic relief in it but I just hate this type of novel, or rather, this type of MC. Personally, he's too dense for me. He also doesn't seem to give a crap about anything at all, even his own family amd childhood friend, many actions of his are also very questionable... Overall,... more>> all you need to know is that he's very very very s*upid... <<less
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Little Big House
Little Big House rated it
November 9, 2016
Status: c20
There are some absurd contents at the beginning of the novel. This may be due to the author lack of knowledge. If so he could have research it or just omit those facts and replace them with others.

For example:
... more>>
Spoiler

At the start of the novel, when the main character talks about the theory of evolution, saying that humans are descendants of the chimpanzees and other primates. This has been proven wrong for a lot of reasons which you can find in a lot of books, research (and of course Google).

Afterwards he goes against the theory of the flat earth and the geocentric model (earth = middle of the univers) by saying that the earth is round and the planet orbites around the sun.

Why I feel so uneasy about this is because :
1. As keklel said in his review, the world's settings suggest that the earth shape has already been discovered. Thus the author kind of contradicts himself.

2. The theory of evolution of Darwin is known for being erroneous since it displays humans as an evolution of "monkeys" (other primates). It has been proven that we share a same ancestor.

3. You shouldn't say the earth is not flat because it's round. You should provide proof of why it is round. Otherwise it's akin to a I say-He says- You say debate. No one is right or wrong because they don't provide any arguments.

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The story can be better, if I were to compare I'd say it isn't the worse I've read so far. Other than that, I find it strangely entertaining.

For the moment: 4 stars - Story a the most silly MC. Fun to read for now <<less
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LSCP
LSCP
December 31, 2022
Status: Completed
Sometimes I ask, are people blind of the tags?

People keep complaining that this is more of a slice of life, comedy where the MC doesn't make sense.

Well look at the tags it is a freaking Isekai slice of life comedy novel with a naive, dense, deficient and a bit crazy protagonist, he does have his smart moments, but the thing is:

... more>>
Spoiler

Because of the way he reincarnated, his soul split into two, which made him a deficient in certain ways, then he lived that way for years, until he got the other part of his soul, which made him less dumb.

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But his desire is the same: spend money until he can't anymore, never do any work, except when he gets fun from it. But he doesn't make evil things, and try to help others (again, as long he gets entrainment from it).

And the thing that makes this all possible is the others characters, which start to like him for what he is, also because he's the son of the goddess of luck (figuratively) which make some "useless things" he buys to actually give more money than he spent and him being a genius in alchemy (despite his deficiency).

In resume, this is a comedy with some action, slice of life isekai, which doesn't make sense, the intention is to give a laugh and a good read which you don't think hard, and despite my 5/5 I would say this is more of a 4.1/5 <<less
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SunderHero
SunderHero rated it
August 29, 2021
Status: Completed
Basically a troll novel, where you can read every 5 chapters and still understand what's going on, a very good waste kf time novel, many characters that you can remember and forget, not that significant to the story, villains are just people who don't understand themselves, author was probably drunk writing the climax, it makes characters that ain't relevant more unrelevant, characters that need polish disappears like a bubble, a villain from the start of novel till near end becoming allies at the end, wtf is that? What's the point... more>> of build up? It got too many plotholes, the MC itself is a huge plothole, you can remember side characters more than the MC since there's no really character development of the MC

tldr, it's a good waste of time, but not really a good novel <<less
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Mahesvara_
Mahesvara_ rated it
April 28, 2021
Status: Completed
Spoiler

This one gave me a lot of laughs although I'm a bit unsatisfied because of the lack of real romance. It makes me wants to smack the Protagonist into oblivion of how he friendzone his girls but I can't help it since he's too funny and the girls are all so cute when expressing their frustration. The girls are all Quirky so I felt like it's wasted that there's wasn't even a real romance but all platonic love.


But overall this is so fun to read. I loved it.

My favourite girls:
Zhao Yarou /Madwoman
Zhen Xiaoyan /Fatty
Coldblood Five /Little Five

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raltzero
raltzero rated it
January 19, 2021
Status: Completed
I've finally decided to finish reading this novel after several years.

In my opinion, this is a great novel if you're looking for an airheaded MC who becomes smart at times and always wins. While there is many mentions of people dying throughout the novel, it doesn't feel serious since it's skimmed over. Battles are over within chapters, deaths are glossed over in sentences, etc. If anything, this novel is more of a Slice-of-life novel than anything.

In terms of alchemy, it's not gone into much. Alchemy in that world seems to... more>> be exactly what the author first mentioned it as: science. It's a mixture of magic and science, but maintain on the concepts of science. Of course, everything related to alchemy is glossed over as well. However, you will get the feeling that science, formations, magic, transmutation, and other stuff are all being thrown under the one tag named alchemy. In short, alchemy is the solution to most things in the novel. Heck, the MC builds an
Spoiler

airship

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at the end of the novel. It's a really wide category.

It should be reiterated that the MC is always winning, even when he says he's not. The reason why he's always winning? Because of his other mother, the Goddess of Luck. Anything he does will be beneficial to him in the end, no matter how long it takes. Something he buys might be of use to him right away or it might be of use to him years into the future (which is just dozens of chapters away).

The main character never really grows because he doesn't have to. Technically speaking, he's around 30 in mental age when the story really starts. That doesn't change his airheaded nature, it just gives him more perspective into things. He might be airheaded/silly, but he's not ret*rded. He's already smart enough, which is why it's fine for him to never change throughout the novel. In fact, the novel would be different if his personality or method of doing things was to change.

Overall, a great novel translated from 2010. 5 stars. <<less
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kuro21101
kuro21101 rated it
February 12, 2020
Status: c100
the plot of the story at first seems fun. You know, something to read in the spare time. But the fun part becomes quite frustrating quite quickly. If the main character had a more depth not much but at least acted more mature and responsible then this story wouldve been just fine. Every one knows that in order to spend money you got to make money, yet the MC in this ln doesn't want to make money at all. Also for instance ... more>>
Spoiler

the part where they first lost the kingdom the MC was as careless as can be and sounded foolish when e realised he won a city. If the premise was a bit different in that he wasn't as lucky as he is or he actually really cared for his family, and wanted to spend money he wouldve been happy instead of acting like a fool. Because now he could spend even more money as he was a king.

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.

but anyways that's just my two cents <<less
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li25
li25 rated it
September 16, 2019
Status: c293
This story really interesting. It's used to be slow update but recently the update is quite good and the male character is so foolish but cool. Well the latest story really one that I never expect after put on hold reading this. The fight n plot got more variant so I won't be able to tell what will happen with the male lead in the future.

Good job for the translation n wish I could read the end of the story
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Parpaing
Parpaing rated it
September 15, 2018
Status: c22
I'm at chapter 22 and there's still absolutely no plot.

The only reason people like it is because it's a very rarely seen slice of life comedy in a cultivation world.

I'd elaborate more in the ways this novel is bad but I don't want to waste anymore time on this wet piece of white bread.
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captain crunch
captain crunch rated it
May 24, 2017
Status: c72
Rating: 3 stars, Translation: 4/5

(My reviews may sound negative, but my format is to list reasons why I didn't give 5 stars.)

[[5 star = almost all readers may enjoy. 4 star = large majority of readers may enjoy. 3 star = 50/50 of readers may enjoy. 2 star = a niche audience may enjoy. 1 star = maybe portion of niche audience may enjoy.]]

[[5/5 = Infrequent minor errors. 4/5 = Frequent minor errors or infrequent major errors, no difficulty to read. 3/5 = Frequent major errors, some difficulty... more>> to read. 2/5 = Difficult to read. 1/5 = Unreadable.]]

(My synopsis has more info than above, but not really spoilers since most info is from very first chapter.) MC is like an anonymous blank character from the real world who got his hands on some "cultivation" and martial arts secret textbooks just before he dies and reincarnates into another world. His wish is granted to become the son of a rich family and spend a lot of money. OK, that's about it. Not sure how to summarize everything else other than the story is like a series of episodic short stories, time skips, of the MC growing up and his shenanigans with spending money. There are 700+ chapters, and the translation is at 72 right now, so there may be more to the story than this.

As of chapter 72, features: Reincarnation, Chinese style fantasy world with magic/martial arts/demihumans (but very little utilization of any fantasy stuff), rich MC spending money, happy-go-lucky MC, not really a harem (don't know why the tag is there) and no romance (just surrounded by female characters), not many challenges or tension, no combat, not much training or power progression, no wars or political conflicts, no adventuring or journeying, no technology gap or nation building. The title says "alchemy, " but there hasn't been much of it, more like it's mentioned as a vehicle to set up his shenanigans.

So from the list of features, you can tell that the story isn't typical. It doesn't seem serious at all. It's just one random episode of an unserious incident after another, often with a brief time skip in between each episode. MC's actions so far aren't consequential to the world, and he doesn't really have a long term goal other than spending money. There's no leveling up or exploring or fighting. I think this may turn off a portion of fantasy world reincarnation readers. But some readers may be OK with reading something different.

The MC himself also feels a bit anonymous to me. Very little is said about his previous life other than he was "ordinary." He doesn't really grow or have special goals. He doesn't use anything from his previous life in this new life, other than that secret "cultivation" stash of textbooks, which is more like a plot device than a part of the story or his development.

One pet peeve I have is when a story often feels like filler, or is too redundant. It can take a long time to get to the point. An example is in the very first chapter, the author spends several paragraphs to vaguely state that the house MC is reincarnated into is big and expensive. I think some readers like this style, and I have seen it in many series, but I call it "Slice of Too Much Information." Another example, without giving spoilers, is that the first 25-30 chapters is kind of like one long prologue. Something happens to the MC, and some readers may feel like it was a bait-and-switch.

There are some other very minor issues that I don't think are a big deal. An example is another of my pet peeves: the use of exclamation marks. This author does liberally use them, but it's not as bad as other series. It's more like once every couple paragraphs, vs every other sentence in Warlock of the Magus World.

Overall, this story is a reincarnation to a Chinese historical fantasy world, but it doesn't follow the adventuring or nation building themes. It's not serious, and doesn't focus on any challenging or dramatic events. The story is in the form of episodes, rather than arcs. My opinion is half of the reincarnation audience would prefer something different, but some of that half may end up liking this. However, since the pace is very slow and the first 30 chapters felt like a lone introduction, some readers may have dropped this before finding out they liked it. As of chapter 72, I might have given 3.5 stars on my scale, but I think the sum of the issues brought it down to around 3 stars.

There are a whopping 700+ chapters in this series. Maybe the author gets more serious, or maybe this theme may just continue on. I assume alchemy will eventually play a more obvious role, since it's in the title. Plenty of room for the rating to change. <<less
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Ignus
Ignus rated it
March 18, 2017
Status: c36
Review at chapter 36, and I have no idea where this story will go. Which is a good thing, as this story is original.

The first 25 chapters focus is comedy, and I at least got a chuckle once every 3 chapters, and that alone makes this a worthwhile read. If I had to describe the first 25 chapters, its like reading a 4koma with the MC as Forrest Gump.

Meaning: A MC who is entertainingly s*upid doing amazing things, told in a segmented way. Like highlights of his life, short stories... more>> focused on comedy.

Things then change for a towards a more serious story. I am currently looking forwards to future chapters and might update this when I read them. <<less
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Rat
Rat rated it
December 9, 2016
Status: --
it''s really funny. The MC has ridiculous luck and he got his priorities straight (being prodigal). The way he speaks innocently while inviting the rages of others. It's a refreshing and funny story.
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doomeye1337
doomeye1337 rated it
October 30, 2016
Status: c24
Basically an accomplished guy who wanted to be a prodigal son reincarnated with hidden/subconscious memories of that wish into the body of an androgynous autistic baby boy. Very amusing light hearted read thus far. Silly is a very fitting word.
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Melody
Melody rated it
October 9, 2016
Status: c10
This is the most ridiculous story I've ever read. The MC is reborn in a super rich family set in a Wuxia/Xianxia historical China. He goes about squandering his family's money because he wants to act like a prodigal son. This is actually understandable so I was fine with it but what makes this the most ridiculous story is when he acts dumb. The MC seems to not have any common sense that is typically shown in an 'supposely ordinary adult' of the modern world. Despite being an reincarnated adult,... more>> his actions doesn't have logic in it and it make no sense at all so the story becomes very frustrating to read. Yet, it's because it is so out of logic thinking that it intrigues me to keep on reading it so that I can get the gist of the story. Overall it's an entertaining read for a pastime. I look forward to its potential so I rate it 4 ?. <<less
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what is an introvert
what is an introvert rated it
June 12, 2021
Status: c210
Like many of the chinese novels, good starting all spoiled by the typical MC and suddenly changing all the female characters to fangirls. When tigress left I thought it is gonna bring some character development but no, he acts solem for the next 3 chapters then its back to the start. Typical ethnocentric chinese author who loves to mention and boast his culture in a fictional book time and time again by mentioning it in every op technique and making other characters fawn upon it. Even after unlocking his seal... more>> he remains muddle-headed, the only thing that changes is that now he can talk properly and has memories about his previous life so that he can boast his chinese culture. I gave 1 star extra just because of the good base of the story otherwise complete tr*sh. <<less
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deathmine31
deathmine31 rated it
January 28, 2021
Status: Completed
I first stepped away since the reviews centered around a drastic change around chapter 30, after which, the charm is gone and a typical CN novel is born. This did not happen, at least the latter part. This novel is different, so much so I would give it a 4/5 despite finding it tedious to read through. MC is directionally challenged, that is his gimmick for most of the novel. He has some knowlegde due to his previous life, this allows him to do whatever he wants in the novel.... more>> His goal, to be a prodigal son. Its a unique story, just not entertaining enough to warrant 700+ chapters. The novel feels repetitive. A joke might be funny the first time but not after 100 times. If you want a CN novel thats not quite a CN novel, this is for you. <<less
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fangyuan
fangyuan rated it
November 10, 2020
Status: Completed
A novel marred with inconsistencies but that did not take away/ severely impact the joy that the novel brings. The novel is rather unique as it puts a heavier emphasis on slice of life and adventure over cultivation. I think the humor in the novel is good although some are lost in translation due to its nature (them being a Chinese joke or meme). Translation is solid but the quality dropped a bit towards the end.
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