I had always thought Martial world and Legend of Futian were the best wuxia novels ever until I read Reverend insanity!

Fang Yuan, is the type of person who is pragmatic, cold to the bones, ruthless like a empreror, and calculating like a greedy businessman, he harvests the benefits while making sure that the risks are carefully considered and moderated. Some people would say he is the devil, but I say he is just a man who wants to rise to the top of a world that deprives him of this right, he wants to succeed, he wants to be free, he wants to live forever.

Quotes : View of things from... more>> the perspective of Fang yuan

''The highest point for a lifeform is to reach immortality, their greatest desire is immortality. What is the point of wealth, it is merely a hoarding addiction. What men and women, it is just primal instincts. What reputation, it is just bullsh*t people spew about you, carrying the stench of depravity.

Wealth, beauty, reputation, status, people who pursue all these are short-sighted. Back on earth, there was no choice, as everyone was going to die eventually, thus they can only pursue these or life would be meaningless. But in this world, where primeval essence is rich, why would we not pursue immortality given the possibility?

For the sake of immortality, wealth, beauty, reputation, status, I can make use of all of them, and I can also discard them as easily! For immortality, fear cannot stop me, I will charge forward relentlessly! For immortality, laziness will not stop me, I will never slack even for a moment! For immortality, pain cannot stop me, gods and demons cannot stop me, even heaven and earth cannot stop me!'' Fang Yuan <<less

I know this has been said soo many times but damn he's shrewd, not a dumbass, a sly old fox, doesn't think with his d*ck and is soo fun to read. Not perfect from a non biased standpoint but god tier for somebody who read this as their first novel like me. Ngl was pretty confused but I got used to it. Edit : The translation has ended so f*ck. Damn you the people who banned this.

This novel could be so much better with emotions. We follow a character that has no emotions whatsoever. At first it might be interesting but it get boring later on. This is why all main characters in novel, movies, dramas are all emotional characters. They have motives, goals that are backed up by emotions and other characteristics that make them up.

The main character here however is solely focused on getting stronger/ live longer. I ask you what is the use of living long and getting stronger without emotions? No use.... more>> Maybe he will get revenge on some sh*t ass characters and what after that? The novel is really good in its other aspects. It however makes you think if this was written by a psychopath.

Good novel still. Depends on personal opinion. Absolute sh*t in my opinion due to the MC. <<less

I'll be very honest, most of the low rating reviews here from Novel Updates. They have no argument, there really is no such thing! They just say: ahh I don't like this noevl, because MC acts cold like a machine should have cute blablabla characters. Let's be honest, do you see any arguments in this review? Don't you believe it yet? LOOK AT IT: "The MC has no storyline armor" And to laugh at something like that, right, for love!
Now in all sincerity, read this novel if you have no thoughts of atruists who completely disturb your conscience and let you be deceived by a fiction. Your values and ideals are not welcome here, nobody cares or at least I don't care.
The novel, have everything that is being said in the synopsis, the protagonist will not change to be a hero or to play the role of charity. He will follow his desire, which is to be eternal. Building this, so friends, love and f*ck don't have a damn thing, okay? Thank you and see you later.

Reverend Insanity is a unique novel, not only among the Eastern Fantasy novels but among all the novels out there. It combines many aspects which have never been combined before and combines them to form a masterpiece. What aspects?

1. 1. Evil Protagonist - Yes, this novel has a truly evil protagonist. No, he is not an anti-hero. He is downright evil. But, it all fits pretty well given the kind of world this story is based in. This brings me to my second point.

1. 1. The World - The Gu world... more>> is brutal, to say the least. People without important families are pretty much s*aves who can be r*ped or killed for entertainment. And it is not only the antisocial elements who do this - it is the way of the society. In this world, you can kill some humans randomly and no one will find fault with you. This might seem hard for people of our world to digest, but it is not like we value human life as much as we claim to. Anyway, the people who have been whining in other reviews seem to not understand this. If I were to say, the entire world is evil. So, this world deserves an evil protagonist.

1. 1. Realism - Yes, as much as it sounds contradictory, this fantasy story has quite a bit of realism in it. Given the premise that the protagonist and the world are evil, every plot point flows logically in the story. If I think from the perspective of characters, it makes sense to me.

Reverend Insanity combines a truly evil protagonist, a brutal but unique world and logic to form an incredible tale. This book is so good! There are so many endearing points to it. To give you some examples, the protagonist is an adept schemer but he doesn't win all the time. He wins some and loses some. Every time his power improves, he has to work for it. He doesn't get a plot armour to dominate the story. This is a novel which suffers from the lack of mind-dead arrogant young masters. All antagonists are crazy smart, especially in the Gu immortal world. The schemes and powerplays mixed with the interaction between characters are incredible. And most importantly, this book presents an ideology. This is something which I believe none of the Chinese Novels does.

It presents to us, the ideology of a "demon". He schemes against the world, crosses every bottom line, breaks the laws of society, all to attain his one dream and goal - eternal life. I have read about many mad-scientist characters who get so involved in their goals that they cross all ethical boundaries. Generally, the hero kills the scientist and saves the experimental subjects. But in this book, the mad scientist is your protagonist. You can feel his desire, his dream of eternal life. To obtain it, he is ready to forsake everything. This is his true demon heart! And he is happy to end up miserable as long as he is on his path. He is cruel to others and to himself. He can sacrifice others and himself. All for his one desire, one obsession. And don't get me wrong. This is not a new thing and has been used in literature many times before. If the desire in question is love for one's wife or lover, this becomes an epic love story. If the desire in question is for one's country or race, it becomes a legend. This book just dares to make this a selfish desire for eternal life.

After writing what I feel this book is, I can only say that this is a beautiful piece of writing and definitely among the top in Chinese Novels. You don't have to like the ideology that it presents, but it doesn't mean you can't enjoy the story. If this "demonic" ideology offends you so much that you have to whine about it here, I guess you don't have the mental capacity to handle anything with substance. In that case, I would recommend you to read God of Slaughter. <<less

this novel is made by a psychopath..

i read a many ruthless novels and I love it since it has cause and effect reason but this is the first time.. first time that I saw an MC who I thought is reasonable and intelligent to be just an as*hole and a moron who just justifies his wrong doing with something so s*upid...

The novel started out good and I thought the MC is smart and reasonable.. but after killing the family hunter for a s*upid reason im dropping this novel now..

i wish... more>> I can score it 0... s*upid psychopath author.. <<less

I believe this is a very well written story (I started reading the raws)

Although the hero has 500 years of knowledge about the future, this is not a super powerful advantage (Heck, he has to fight with the Will of deceased almost-immortals with thousands and thousands of years of experience). It only brings him opportunities. What he gets out of the opportunities is very dependent on his own current strength and well planned manipulation of people. He does not always get all the prizes or the best prizes. Sometimes,... more>> he even takes heavy losses. In addition, his actions are not on a whim, they are all rational choices in his best interest. Even though he has no qualms about killing people, there is a reason for killing them. Eg keeping secrets, loot, prestige, etc. Of course, if the enemy is too powerful, he would run away.

As for world-building, I think it is exceptional compared to most stories. Although a Gu world is a little strange, it is done very reasonably. In addition, there is a powerful Creation story/myth within the world that not only explains the world in the novel, but also has many life lessons and philosophical thinking that can be applied to our life as well. I believe the only thing that is weak in the novel is the economy, but it is really hard for authors to get a reasonable/realistic economy in their stories, so I dunno.

I would recommend this story as long as you don't find magic drawn from bugs weird and have no problems with a anti-hero protagonist. <<less

Reverend Insanity is a typical reincarnation anti-hero novel, with the usual heartless MC who only has benefits in his eyes. While sometimes this is a refreshing change of pace for readers, in the case of this novel it really isn't.

At first the writing was interesting I was really pumped at the prospects of an MC that made rational decisions with his mind, not his dick, and I was not disappointed. What I was disappointed in however was that this novel takes this aspect to the extreme. Such an extreme that... more>> the MC now feels like a machine. It was honestly a delight to read at first but your will to back the MC quickly wanes when the MC in question is a unfeeling pile of meat. Like the dude literally has NO feelings, zero, zilch and all other synonyms for none. It really gets on my nerves that the dude doesn't feel anything, it became more than a bit uncomfortable.

While not a terrible read, Reverend Insanity is truly a story about a heartless MC, nothing more, nothing less. <<less

PSA for new readers.
There isn't much I can say that others haven't said already, so I'll just leave a little PSA for our fellow demonic cultivators before they start their journey with Reverend Insanity, aka Daoist Gu, aka Plot Twist: The Novel, aka I wouldn't want to be friends with this guy, but ALL HAIL LORD FANG YUAN.

This is not a time travel story.
First thing to note. This is NOT a time travel story. Throughout the story, the number of times Spring Autumn Cicada has been used by Fang Yuan can be counted on one hand. It is used very sparingly (and there are nearly 2.4k chapters!). But rest assured, anytime it IS (or is not) used, the story immediately peaks. The impact of each use all have massive repercussions on the story. And there is a very big risk involved each time Spring Autumn Cicada is used. One of the risks (which is revealed very early on in the story) is the fact that it has a coin-toss chance of failure. Given the activation condition is that Fang Yuan must sacrifice his entire being (cultivation, body, soul, etc.). If he fails, it isn't a simple matter that he doesn't go back in time. He dies.

Another thing about Spring Autumn Cicada that will be very apparent from the very beginning but takes a bit of thinking and reading to realize is that: (read at your own risk, though it's not much of a spoiler)

There's much, much more to this seemingly straight-forward Gu, but you will find out as you read the novel.

The world.
The world depicted in the story is very dark and cruel. In this world, the main character doesn't always win. When Fang Yuan acts, there is a very real feeling of thrill and risk. Due to reasons revealed very late in the novel, Fang Yuan gets in trouble and sticky situations very often. Sometimes he wins, but other times, he loses. Fang Yuan is very cunning, and so he wins a lot, but when he loses, he LOSES bad. This is especially apparent in the early parts of the story. Sometimes it's a strategic loss. Sometimes he loses, but still manages to salvage the best he could out of the situation. Rest assured that despite this, Fang Yuan always makes sure the final laugh goes to him.

Unlike other novels, the nine cultivation levels introduced in the story is all there is to it. There are no "higher" fairy-like or god-like realms that keeps one-upping each other in terms of power scaling. Power progression in the story is not slow, by any means, however. It is not fast either, but very balanced. Sometimes Fang Yuan won't progress to another level for hundreds of chapter but his power accumulation through other means (rare Gu, killer moves, odd Gu combinations, etc.) more than makes up for it.

Team-ups.
One of the most intriguing things you will find in this novel is unexpected team-ups and partnerships. Despite the labels of "Righteous Cultivators" vs. "Demonic Cultivators" and whatnot, the world and its inhabitants actually operate in a very morally gray area. In this world, given the right benefits, characters can suddenly go from mortal enemies to brothers in arms. Though that's not to say there's no absolute characters who never switches their allegiances. There are. However, Fang Yuan perfectly encapsulates this concept. In one chapter, you can expect him to go on an adventure with his buddies. The next, you'll see him backstab his allies and team up with his enemies, or gets backstabbed by his allies along with his enemies. There are no eternal friends, nor eternal enemies. Just eternal benefits.

Side characters in this novel always make a comeback in one form or another. They are not immediately forgotten after Fang Yuan moves on, unlike most xianxia novels you might find. Even after Fang Yuan ascends to the upper 4 cultivation levels, characters in the lower cultivation levels does not become irrelevant. Some, in fact, becomes even more relevant.

Lows and Highs.

The beginning of the novel is a bit slow, but it quickly picks up a few dozen chapters in. For me, the novel has been nothing but interesting from the very start, as it was very different from many novels I had read. However, if you find yourself wavering, try to at least stick with the novel until the end of the Yue Clan Arc (the first Arc / entire first book), which should be about 200 chapters' worth of reading. There are a few plot twists sprinkled in within this first arc that will keep you very entertained, and the ending of this arc will, I assure you, leave you completely hooked.

After the Three Kings Inheritance Arc, which has arguably one of the highest peaks in the novel, the novel will drag on a bit starting with the Northern Plains and ending with, especially, the Zombie arc (chapters 450 - 1000, roughly). You don't have much to worry, because even in its lowest points, the novel is still very, very strong compared to your typical xianxia novel. And within these arcs contain some really, really high-highs (especially at the end of the Zombie arc). It just takes a while to get there. Not gonna lie, I did fell asleep a couple of time getting through these arcs, but it was well worth the effort because it sets up some really important plot points for later arcs.

HOWEVER, once you make it through the Zombie arc and into the second half of the story, then I hereby officially welcome you to Peak Fiction. From this point onwards, you can expect climaxes and peaks to happen f*cking left, right, up, down, forward, backward and in f*cking circles. Every chapter hooks you right in, and every arc has multiple peaks that you thought cannot get better but just, DOES. Every arc somehow continuously one-ups itself, and the stakes keep getting higher and higher. Until and especially after Fate War. At this point, say goodbye to your life since you will find it impossible to put the novel down up until the very end.

Journey Before Destination.
To end this PSA with, I want to cite a quote from Brandon Sanderson as a Stormlight Archives fan: "Journey Before Destination". Take it slow. Read at your own pace. My biggest regret with this novel is burning through it as fast as I did and not paying more attention during its slower parts in the Northern Plains arc. Reverend Insanity is a very long journey, and took me a month and a half to complete it start to finish. And that is with me constantly and obsessively binging it 24/7 during summer break. Chapters are very long, and seemingly inconsequential details are crucial to the story. So pay attention.

And, lastly, for those of you who want to "pass" on this novel because it is not a "complete" product. Trust me. I hate reading incomplete stories as any other guy out there but, as they say, the journey is what makes the destination. The story has been axed and may never be completed, but that doesn't discount what it has managed to achieve during its nearly 2400 chapters runtime. If there is one time you should tolerate an incomplete story, then this is it.

I feel like I got pranked into reading this novel. It's just disappointingly bland. Nothing stood out for me.

1. There's way too much bloat and repetitive information for a book about magical worms.

2. Cultivation/Power system is complete nonsense as there are worms for about literally anything. It's unrestricted, I can think of so many Gu that can solve a situation but they are not there because author has other plans.

3. Dialogue. This is probably the weakest part of the novel while I understand it's a one man novel and dialogue... more>> is not it's main appeal it's awful. Author cannot portray emotions to save his life and it reads like newspaper

4. Character. The MC is a comically neutral evil villain with no real motivations on why he want to reach the top. He's "smart" but unrealistic and not grounded kind of smart. The rest of the characters are mostly psychopaths cranked to the eleventh. They lack variety and relatability.

5. Philosophy. It's very half baked and juvenile at most. <<less

‍‍‍I honestly just can't believe anyone can praise this load of sh*t as well written.

Its so unbelievably bad I didn't even need to search for it's shortcomings they were in plain sight screaming "look at me"

Well, perhaps its not that much of an exaggeration, it's average at best, but definitely not the pinnacle of literature. This is the disappointment coming from a reader who picked up this novel with unbelievable expectations (due to the praises.)

... more>> Admittedly, its not entirely similar to other cultivation novels but

The characters have no depth whatsoever, and the MC is legit like a robot, very predictable, at a certain point becomes boring to read about

I felt no satisfaction from reading about him, despite his being an evil character, which itself should've been in line with my tastes

But he was so damn bland

The whole novel was bland it didn't feel like it has any life, it's hard to put it into words

It couldve been the bad translation. Of course this is reliant on personal taste mostly, if you liked it then good for you. However I decided to write this because I felt like someone has to balance things out amidst the unbelievable amount of praises.

First of all ive only read a little past 100 chapters so what im judging is PURELY based off these, although the other negative reviews ive read kind of confirm my suspicions

1. There are no smart schemes. Thats it. And anyone who claims theres any semblance of cunningness and scheming that goes beyond surface depth clearly hasn't read a single well fleshed political novel

Although the author and his fans like to claim the characters are cunning and intelligent but truthfully there wasnt anything mind-blowing, I read without anything catching my interest.

Somethings felt forced, im not going to give examples because I havent read much and this is purely my subjective opinion, mixed with some objective points plain in sight.

Anyways there was something about it's vibe and the setting that felt forced, I couldn't picture it as a world that flowed smoothly, it felt like the world was cardboard, or paper, its hard to put into words. This leads us to how everyone seemed to love claiming the characters have any depth. It felt like the author was forcing mannerisms onto the characters in hopes they'd feel unique from each other¿ but it ultimately failed in showcasing each of them with their own unique personality, it also failed in showcasing them in different lights.

The author tried to highlight the intelligence and wisdom of the MC, and also put effort into tryna avoid making the other characters fall in comparison

but when it came to the actuality of things, no character in the village striked me as smart, not one of their actions or thought processes was different from the rest, ultimately they adopted the same values and even their mannerisms and approach at handling things felt forced, as though there was no inner basis for it. They might have had goals but none of them stood out. For example all the students of the academy adopted similar views, they behaved similarly towards the MC, they even spoke simarly. They were either full of anger towards the MC or fearful, if they were weak, and all their screen time was centered around that.

The academy elder and most other characters also adopted very similar behaviours, they tried to repress the MC and hinder his rise in influence in their own ways, and their sole desire seemed to be centered around following the rules and regulations to the point I felt we got nothing else from them. The way they behaved... Was predictable to say the least. They weren't fleshed out. The uncle's efforts in scheming against the MC were like a joke and I knew from the start I dont need to take them seriously because none of them seemed to have any semblance of "intelligence"

It was mostly utilizing his authority in the most obvious ways, so that when it failed to bring him results, he didn't know what else to do. It was pretty... Insignificant. When it comes to my ideas of good scheming for example, you should be able to tell there is wit behind their actions, they reason well and utilize good judgement to their benefits. Their actions are well-reasoned and thought out, while their failure for instance is due to factors they didn't know, which you as a reader are privy to, such as bing outschemed or outwitted, manipulated etc.

And this leads us to the conclusion which is, at most it was basic mind games? That's the best it can pose as. (This is btw coming from an avid psychological and mystery themes lover)

•character commentary and inner monologue

Another point that s**ked is the commentary of side characters to, pretty much any event. It always seemed to be unnecessary and just there, to further accentuate how ruthless and uncaring MC is to rules, clan system, whatever. It was just there without value, and felt like it robbed whatever quality left the chapter had, because of the wording or the repetition, as it was always in very similar scenarios and under similar circumstances. Whenever MC did sth in public view it was always there to further highlight the "look at that fang yuan c grade talent, I heard about him, isn't he the rank one gu master who blah balh blah. I thought he was just insignificant and arrogant, to think he was this ruthless!"

I can't even imitate the bad writing

It was along the lines of this tho, if not this then its the opposite, but pretty much all of it felt forced, just as though the author programmed it to pop out to state the obvious or to add nothing. Bc ultimately this so cold reputation and whatever he tried to garner never really held much value, the author tried to act like it had an impact on his life in the village but it was just a bunch of repetitive nonsense that the MC oh so wisely worked around. It was there to seemingly prove that the MC despite his "500 years of cultivation" still needed to put in a lot of effort and thus is not backed by plot armor, weirdly enough most things were unnecessary and just there to further rub it in our faces, that there's no plot armor and everything the MC is getting is due to his hard work and intelligence... But meh, it felt forced too.

On another note this leads us to the inner monologue which was horrendous, sometimes it went ways no actual person would think. The MC would come across an enemy or sth and in his mind for example, he'd explain every little crook and cranny from who the person is to what he thinks of them to what gu he's going to use, what he's not going to use and why, what he wishes he had, what in the fight is to his advantage and blah blah. This ultimately gave the impression that he's narrating and not actually thinking, because no kind of inner thoughts would go as rigidly as this. It made his actions fail to seem automatic towards certain situations like they should be due to his years of experience, and thus these block of text were seemingly just there to prove to the reader that he's calculative and knows what he's doing? So it was just a bunch of unnecessary explanations that were either obvious or defeated the purpose of inner thoughts. Because inner thoughts are supposed to be smoother... and messier. It's usually these inner thoughts that convey the essence of a charac, however the inner monolgues of all characters kind of flowed the exact same way, with the same order of thinking, as though all of them possess the same arrangements of thoughts and flow of ideas. For a more accurate description, it's evidently clear that they're "coded" by the same person.

•blandness of emotions

There was no flexibility in their showcasing of both thoughts, actions, and emotions. Their state of being was: worry, pride, fear, anger. But even then, the emotions felt bland, like they've hardly scratched the surface of the complexity of human emotions. For a more accurate comparison, it's like they've been simplified or categorized into these 4. I can't explain it better, the best way I can put it is "they've been simplified"

In a sense, it could be because the characters seemed to lack a bit of a free will, as though their every day life was scripted, which it was. But that's what made them a bit predictable and plain. Everything was kinda in plain view with plain driving forces, but I guess this is my like for psychological themes speaking. (Which is subjective)

•mc

There comes the icing on the cake

Ultimately I can summarise as: He was robotic, very robotic. His 500 years of past life shouldve made him smart and wise and what not but he seemed very one-track minded and a little inflexible in his world views and beliefs, which is fine, if he wasnt as much of a chunnibyou as he was. Although I'd like to say every action of his had a goal, it didn't. Sometimes he took the extreme route which would give him the most trouble even when he's claiming he's tryna keep a low profile and not invite trouble. Other times, he did things for ruthlessness sake despite the author and himself repeatedly emphasizing that he's only ruthless when need be.

He was... Predictable. Nothing ran deep so after some chapters and some inner monologues you'd have most things about his personality down and it becomes easy to guess how he thinks and such. I couldn't feel that there was any layers underneath the descriptions the author provided for us on a silver platter.

His motivations were supposed to be intriguing but idk I didnt feel any intrigue towards his character. His beliefs and stuff can be summarized into "resources matter the most, survival comes first!"

Thats it

Everything else is a manifestation of that one, there's no inconsistencies and such because the author made him walk on a rigid straight line, actually it was like you wrote that sentence on a paper and pasted it onto the eyes of a horse and they forever ran in a straight line with their eyes trained on it. It kind of makes him lack a personality. Its just a goal that he has, I think it was eternal life? Not sure, anyways yeah its definitely not a good model of a deep character. Or a smart character. I'd say... He's smart enough to be a cultivation novel's MC. Because there doesn't seem to be any complexity involved in these worlds, perhaps it's just bad writing. But it's a bit of an offense to actual intelligent MCs to praise his nonexistent iq. Actually nah that's an exaggeration, but what's not an exaggeration is his *intelligence* and *cunningness* being nowhere near enough to hit the mark. You can just tell his actions don't really stem from careful judgement and wit. Experience? Sure. That might be it. His saving grace is his lack of attachments or fear of death, which makes it possible to accomplish stuff daringly, that would have him hailed as *smart*, but he's not that much of a challenge to outwit.

Also it's hard to imagine there's anyone who can recall the most insignificant details of their past life unless they had some kind of photographic memory, so this bit of a plot hole was left hanging there.

•writing style and storytelling

There comes the cherry on top.

Boring. Repetitive. The author is terrible at writing in a smooth flow. Each chapter was following one template, where every little detail needs to be repeated and explained hundreds of times in hundreds of different characters' heads, ofc after the author gives yet another explanation through another charac's pov. Its to the point where whatever happens, the MC needs to explain the scenario and situation from all sides, whenever he does an action and after its over he just needs to sit down and reminisce on the exact steps of his plan, how and why he did what he did, when most of the time this is unnecessary bc his motivations are plainly obvious, just like the plan itself. And AFTER that, there comes another summary about what happened, and a few chapters later when sth comes up the author would re-mention this thing and restate the motivation and steps and goals and everything surrounding that one incident as though the reader either has amnesia or is a ret*rd. And if this isn't enough, most of the time it's to re establish how ruthless the MC is *BUT FOR A REASON* and how only the ones who discard the system succeed and how the relationships between people are so ridiculous and unnecessary and weak and would not aid him in achieving his goal, and also how much of a lone wolf he is and how he's not like these s*upid people because he only does what benefits him to achieve greatness while they care about meager stuff only the lowly and failures would care about because relationships wont aid him in success and and and and

ITS THAT BAD

its so so repetitive

It's not his values and beliefs that irked me as much as it was just the repetition.

It makes him appear chunnibyou because he just keeps repeating this like a broken record and the character's attitudes and reactions go to further emphasise on this as though we haven't memorized it already, its like his whole life just revolved around that paragraph, to the point that whenever he does sth he needs to think the words I just wrote in his head and re -establish the fact that he always does ruthless things for a reason and isnt naive like the common people and has a goal and whatnot and how he did this specific thing correctly or knows this specific thing because of his 500 years of superior experience

Like what human would just repeat these in their head like a broken record

We got it from like the 2nd chapter, and we memorized it by heart by the 10th

The author just has a knack for stating the obvious in a sh*t tone of colorful ways. We can remove half of the novel and still be left with unnecessary fillers. You have to skim read to actually get to the stuff that are consequential. I must say it prolly contends with naruto and it's likes when it comes to filler. Even then, nothing comes close to the snail-pace riddled with filler.

Would I suggest not reading it? Probably not. It's not my business whether anyone reads it or not. It was my own personal taste that made me judge it as a waste of time to me. However theres tons of songs of praises about it so obviously it's not complete tr*sh. I suggest to always give things a try. Maybe it's for you, maybe it's not. <<less

This novel is about the dark side nature of the primitive, real human, would do when he was just a bit above animal. You can see this nature in ALL kill-kill-kill eSport. No matter how soft those games were, you must kill all the characters in the game who dare obstruct you. No mercy, no sympathy, no second thought. Why? Because they are just game character, no more. The MC treated all the characters in this world just like that too. This world was just a game for him. He had no any desire to go back to Earth again. I love the Dream Land the most. What's wrong if you killed million of sane people, child, baby, innocent girl, old age people CHARACTERS who existed only in your dream, or your game?

Some reviewers were mad at the go-back-in-time ability of the MC to correct his falling. ROTFL. These reviewers never played any killing game. All games have one common feature to survive the cruel game market, Save Point. Once your avatar was killed, you would be revived again at that pount. That happened in this novel too.

Bad (??) part of this novel :

There is no FL, thus no love, and absolutely no harem. No friendship, no trust, no agreement, no honesty, no sympathy, no regulation, no laws, no morale

The worst of this novel is not the MC's heartless, or some repeated arc, but the .
Read it if you like, drop it if you're bore.

By his decree, complaint or negative review is absolute b**s. rules all. Period.

PS. Do not trust my review. Go to The second one is only 500+. Good or bad, you decide.

It's a good novel, but I can't keep going.

The simple fact is, it's rather boring. There is so much useless details and excessive padding it becomes a chore to read. The reason main characters have excessive luck/plot armor is so a hundred chapters aren't wasted getting something rare thats completely irrelevent in the long-run. I mean, seriously. The main character early on constantly talks about getting a healing gu. Over and over. Whenever he gets a injury it's mentioned. Whenever he has a chance to get some gu it's mentioned.... more>> But alas, there is no healing gu.

It's really irritating reading this novel. It's really interesting too, I like the world and all but it's just too slow for me. As cool as it is to read about a "fleshed out" world like this one, it's even more frustrating when the main character kills someone then the next two chapters are spent describing that character's history and what he would've done in the future.

Plus, like other people have mentioned, the main character seems kinda robotic. I don't think it's a problem with the main character per say, but rather the situations the author constantly describes him being in. He meets new character, new characters entire situation, past, history, etc, are all described for an abundant amount of chapters. The main character will travel with character, and inevitably kill them. Some last longer than others, but its the same.

Overall, it's pretty good, a little slow and little too much padding for me. <<less

"A man lost in the scramble for his own gratification. He can be destroyed or locked up. But if you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, and if they can't stop you, then you become something else entirely.

A Legend"

RI is a tale of all these legends, each character being a star and having their own aim, the plot is the finest, most consistent characterization and mindset.

While this series has a lot of great things about it the flaws sometimes make it unbearable to read.

Here's my take on it:

1. A very determined protagonist. Fang Yuan is a very determined individual. He never strays from his goal and thus uses all means to achieve it, going so far as to give up on love, kinship and friendship. This trait is central to his character but can also become a double edged sword at times. Of course as a villain the MC not being swayed by anything to... more>> reach his goals is very interesting but he sometimes feels like a robot more than a person. Fang Yuan literally doesn't evoke any feelings for him in me. He feels like an AI tasked to complete his mission and he does so.

2. The cultivation/combat systems are unique but due to the vast amount of Gu it's really hard to properly explain it. Fight scenes feel like Pokemon battles sometimes.

3. The side characters do have some personality and are not cardboard boxes so it's not unbearable. Also the antagonists are not s*upid fools waiting for a face slap. MC needs to use his wits and plan to take them down.

4. The info dumps are annoying especially in later chapters. Also the author's tendencies of immediately killing off useful Gu that MC needs or haves. Fine we get it, Fang Yuan needs to work hard to get an awesome gu, but if you kill it in the next battle or before MC gets it what's the point of telling us how useful it is.

Anyways this story is peak 3.5 at it's best moments and 2 stars at it's lowest. It's better among the usual Chinese webnovels at least. <<less

Reverend Insanity is a work of art. I could not recommend this novel enough. This timeless masterpiece follows the main character as he plots his way to the top of this world of Gu. The literary prose in this novel is amazing and every plot is reasoned and explained extremely well.

This is the most overrated novel i've ever read. From the beginning I tried my best to keep it going. So reading untill 2000th chapter is not mean I liked it.

They say he is demonic etc, hell no its, there is only few scenes of cruelty. Very boring cultivating, Lack of creativity. Poor battle scenes, Poor describing.
Narrating is the worst, if you intoduce a character then first you have to portray it right? Author has a problem with narrating, You can't turn words into scene well. If you have read another well written novels you guys will understand what I said automatically once you start to read. It doesn't create any hype, killing motives are not satisfying. I feel like betrayed.

So everything is so poor.

Instead of this just go read Renegade Immortal, Wang is much more demonic than Fang Yuan, It has more creativity etc.

It's my first time getting disappointed to read a novel from getting high hopes from rating and comments.

Synopsis:

It's good. Really good. But, it is also not for everyone. In short, it is a decently written cultivation novel with unique system, smart and realistic characters, deep worldbuilding (unfortunately, most of the foreshadowing does not pay off until over 2000 chapters later, but boy does it pay off) and a very, very ruthless and cynical core philosophy. In addition, it's dark and very realpolitik-ish, not "edgy", though it may seem this way for those, who equate anything not rainbow-coloured with this word. Moreover, it is mature, because it's characters... more>> are very mature, most being over a hundred years old, and it is actually believable for once. For those who can't stomach genuine villain's perspective, it is better to avoid it.

Characters:

Do you know what Unfettered means? Fang Yuan is this trope, taken to it's logical conclusion. Unfettered is a person that has only one goal, only one value in their life. Most of us have myriad of different things we value and treasure, and we construct a constantly shifting hierarchy of values, that guides our every action. On the contrast, without any value at all, a person falls into apathy. They simply cannot function and so they do nothing. A rock is a good example of such. Without values and goals you are as good as dead.

Unfettered though is someone who has only one value in life. I repeat this, because it is important concept to know to properly understand the MC. His actions, depending on the perspective, can be seen as (all taken from reviews over here) : "machine like", "too ruthless", "not ruthless enough", "cowardly", and even "self-righteous". What all those review do, however, is evaluating his actions in the absence of his goal.

Taken with the view of the goal, they can be best described as "singleminded determination". Trait we usually value in our heroes when the value they aspire to is something like "save everyone in front of me". When it is something as ultimately selfish as "eternal life for me"? The actions that follow are appropriately selfish as well.

I am talking so much about MC because, in the end, MC is the key characteristic of this novel that makes it shine so much. Very few other literature works in general manage to portrait in depth the psychology of someone truly ruthless, truly single-minded. This is what we usually see in the cultivation novels most of all, and usually, it's not up to par, so from that point of view, Guniverse can be seem as a deconstruction of your usually xianxia novel and "ruthless" protagonists.

Two big downsides of Fang Yuan is that he is a person on the apex of their personal development. Which means, first and foremost, that we can't see any character growth, because he already reached the end and secondly, that it is really hard to truly put yourself into his perspective. How many of us can truly discard everything but one thing in their lives? Almost noone, I dare say. How can we comprehend something we can never do? This novel is a good attempt to answer that.

Thankfully, FY is not the only person in this novel. The supporting cast is appropriately rich and diverse, albeit not all that well-endowed in the life-expectancy department. My personal favourite character is someone Fang Yuan uses and then backstabs in the end. Which should tell you my personal opinion of him. But that is the point, that MC is not someone we should aspire to be. But he is someone we should damn well admire still.

Plot:

Ever heard of people calling novel "smart"? This is it. First of all, the worldbuilding is good, deep and properly foreshadowed. It is a truly unique and mystical world, with it's own logic, history and secrets. The cherry on top is a proper intertwinement of the "Legends Of Ren Zu", which is a fairy tail book in the Guniverse, which is actually secretely a truly profound cultivation guide. Every line from it pays of later in many, many ways, and it truly makes the world feel alive.

The main tool of plot progression is scheming, as opposed to fighting. And scheme they do. MC is smart which is a given and immensely competent in politics, but his enemies are usually as good or better and there are almost not a single person who gets handed a Idiot-ball for the sake of portraying MC as smart. Every victory he gets is richly deserved. Thankfully, Fang Yuan isn't OP in that either, because even though he has some half a century of experience and a sort of natural cunning, his enemies live and scheme for hundreds of thousands of years, and it really shows. MC never gets handed easy victories, instead he gets ruthlessly used and thrown out, and so it is up to him to snatch so scraps from the table before tailing it somewhere very far away.

All and all, the plot is appropriately interesting, dynamic and unpredictable, to keep you invested for a long time.

Conclusion:

In the end, I think this just may snatch a place of my top xianxia novel that I've read, just for the sheer uniqueness, depth and intellect shown. It says a lot that I registered specifically to write this review. It is no masterpiece, and webnovel format as well as some imaginary bears that will go unnamed deal some severe blows to it's quality, but even with those drawbacks weighting it down it is genuinely amazing experience. <<less

The best Chinese novel I've read. The world building, politics and attention to details is insane to the point you can write a book just on the 5 areas, the sects and their history.

So instead of pointing out the many good I'll focus on the two issues I have with it:

1. The obsession of the main character is gaining immortality, to the point where he would die gladly in pursuit of it. Despite how important it is to fang yuang, even after 2300 chapters it's still not explained WHY he... more>> is so obsessed with it. I mean he has no one he trusts and absolutely zero friends or loved ones. He clearly doesn't fear death or has any attachment to the world so I don't get how it will change anything after he gets immortality.

2. The build up can be a bit chunky and sometimes useless to the point where you'll come very close to dropping it if not for the amazing ending of every arc before it. E.g. I know who one of the smallest of side characters would have married 400 years in the future and how they would get together, if not for fang yangs shenanigans changing the time line. <<less