I've read The Lord of the Mysteries (LoTM) before I read this and... this became my new #1 novel.

The writing style/worldview is very... some other commentor said "cruel" and yes it does be giving xianxia, Gu Zhen Ren (Reverend Insanity) or say WMW vibes.

There's a philosophy in it and... it brought me out of a depressive episode back in 2021. No surprises the author said he started the book wanting to write an idea he had he couldn't name as "Negary" out (or at least that's what MTL got me).

It's... more>> quite rushed at the end, but it sure is entertaining (if you like those scheme-heavy stories) & a story that's not empty. If you're struggling in this world (typical leftist Gen-Z attitude's to the world), it's an interesting book for sure. Nowhere near political though. There's a political passage for sure, but that's just one or two chapters and not the theme, similar to, say how LoTM did it. But the central theme of "Negary" (and its nemesis) is actually spread throughout the book. It's a book with a plan, like LoTM is, or like RI is.

p.s. I compared it to LoTM not because of how similar they are (they are not), but just because I liked these stories so much. I liked LoTM mainly because (1) story thought out, (2) hardly any -isms (many good novels are ruined by casual h*mophobia, transphobia, as well as sexism), (3) no love (I'd call it NL but that got claimed by nonke or straight people), and (4) likeable protagonist, long story, good writing/TL/editing; so to say it passed the bare-minimum and was well-written. At least 3 out of 4 of those points also apply to Soul of Negary. I like Soul of Negary specially because of its style (similar to RI that I just mentioned) (very much to my liking) along with the plot which then needed to come with it, and its substance. It's not a sh*tty substance as well, so there's that.

Final Notes:

If you read this story I recommend reading it while thinking about the philosophy it and its characters present, and if it applies to you and/or your surrounding society. Don't just turn your brain off. <<less

After the 2nd arc, the whole novel became Author's chunibyo diary of some sort. He was out there writing all sort of nonsense that doesn't make sense. You are introduced to a new character every chapter and the worlds are so muddle up at one point you can't tell whether it's up or down.

I am tired but I some how managed to MLM to the end. The story has so much potential than it was I don't know a whirlwind, something can't be unseen, I am embarrassed he actually wrote... more>> some of the things he wrote,

Anyway Killer J best character, I felt like the author want to be Killer J through out the novel anyway, He was the best written one. <<less

Not for the feint hearted.

Geez, while reading Soul of Negary I would often pity the characters. MC is too evil even for my liking, I dropped this only once at the beginning then decided to read it again after a few days, it's that interesting.

MC is very cunning, very manipulative and many characters die or get into unfavorable circumstances because of the MC. Basically he was supposed to be the golden protagonist with large amounts of luck but his system double crossed him, so he showed his true character that... more>> he's absolutely a menance after turning into a spirit and he's going so far as to even harm and manipulate humans, share his consciousness with them (they don't know /some are his believers). Good guys lose a lot in this novel and it sucks (really)

I still liked it though. It is very refreshing and different from most evil protagonist. I have to agree with the other reviewers that the Scp arc was the downfall, now he was just fighting against those organizations and it seemed way too easy in my opinion. At that point MC was op but still, I expected a bit of a challenge like the previous arcs.

Didn't finish the novel yet, some chapters were not translated and I really wanna know if he's ever gonna go after that system. <<less

Negary is not human. Not just physically but mentally as well and you can tell. I really enjoyed reading to see how a being like negary could act and the philosophical bits of knowledge the author added was great as well. Really allows us to think the MC is inhumanly intelligent. The good part is every enemy, actually enemies of the MC is smart, like smart as MC smart, and makes you think the MC only won because of his personality. Recommend it a lot.

This novel starts exceedingly great. At first it seems to be a superb dark fantasy built on the foundation of Dark / Demon Souls game series, but with only a small amount of borrowing.

Unfortunately, as the novel progresses, the quality takes a dive down to the depths of a Mariana trench. The second world is passable, even if a bit mediocre, the third world is definitely below average, and when he gets into the SCR world (you'll know what this is if you have the patience to read up to... more>> this part) it turns into a mess. Honestly, if you want a good impression, read until Negary leaves the Flame world, and then drop this novel. Rarely have I seen a story that gets from being so good to being near-unreadable in such a short span. This sucks. <<less

Vol 1 and Vol 2 are very engaging but entering Vol 3 MC becomes too powerful and basically no longer has to struggle with the challenges he is presented, he doesn't even have to fight at this point. Warlock of the Magus World and Reverend Insanity are way better because MC needs to struggle to improve.

This problem becomes even worse in Vol 4. Vol 4 is also confusing and draws on a lot of popular media, which I find distasteful.

At the start of the novel, I noticed that the writing does more telling rather than showing. I don't know if the translation is just bad but it's extremely awkward then. It also keeps changing from first to third point of view. As I reached to chapter 50, I noticed that the writing has so many filler paragraphs.

The start of every volume and new world was definitely exciting. Discovering new things, new rules, new characters are fantastic. Maybe it's just me but I skimmed like 50 percent of this with... more>> scenes between characters not directly related to negary taking up most of it. They were just incredibly boring, because we know they're insignificant. It's not worth of my time to go through them in my mind.

In the end I dropped it because I just kept getting burn out and I have to take break to read different novels just so I can have the motivation to read it again. Definitely not my cup of tea. For those opposite of me, I recommend it though. It's still good. <<less

The concepts in this story are interesting and quite well executed! I read every chapter with interest, and am very curious what else is to come! Like the power scales is going up astronomically, so I wonder how the story will keep up egagement. The writing style is a bit dry, and this is definitely not a character focussed story.

If I could i'd give it 3.5 stars, but I preferred to give it 4 since NU ratings tend towards the extremes.

This novel is alright, the protagonist is basically a fragmented soul which blobbed with other souls. It resembles Overlord a bit, with it's focus on the side characters, although the MC here gets more screen time.

What I don't like is that sometimes the side characters are uninteresting, although this is more of an issue with the first volume, it still happens later on. Thankfully, it focuses on them for... more>> 1-2 chapters at most, and it's always heavily related to whatever the MC is doing, since the MC likes manipulating others to do things in his interest.

Volume 2 is a lot better than volume 1 in my opinion. This novel is no masterpiece, but if you want to read an evil protag novel and already read the best ones, then I think you will enjoy it. If you don't like evil MC then don't read it, since the character resembles leylin from WMW with his extremely interest centered personality <<less

This is a mess, but it becomes fun to read after you know which parts to skip. Every "world" is split into three parts: Negary builds up its forces, then some extremely messy explanation about the rules and laws of magic and physics and "origins" happens, and then the world battles to a conclusion. The first part is always the best one, then the explanation can be directly skipped and then the world battle conclusion can be skimmed -- did you like the worlds inhabitants? Follow their epic battles. Don't... more>> care? Skim read it for the important parts.

It really is all about selective reading. And if you do, you get rewarded by a very fantastic and interesting story about a characters striving to simply better him/itself to become the most perfect life form in the multiverse.

The worlds are creative, the whole "battling the protagonist" is often cool, characters wallow in misfortune and then there is Killer J, who brings messy to a whole 'nother level.

It is a mess, but boy can it be fun! 4* <<less