It is extremely difficult to try and rate this novel. Another reviewer explained, "... it had all the elements for a fantastic story, but fell in the second half, " and I believe it completely encapsulates reading the novel.

To be perfectly honest, it was extremely inconsistent in terms of quality. Its best qualities, which I think include its premise, captivating writing style and in-depth characterization (where all characters are not exempt from this!) also work as it's worst qualities.

To start with, the beginning of the novel was addicting to read. The scenes were vivid in imagination but subtle in tone, and as another person described it, "... beautiful scenery as it changed from one scene to another." Although Lin Rufei was a classic sick beauty, I loved reading how he lived on Kunlun Peak, and his characterization fit well with the surrounding scenery. When he left Kunlun Peak to start his adventure of traveling Jianghu, it really did seem like he was an exiled immortal descending to the mortal realms. Coming with that impression, it would have been amazing if Lin Rufei really took this as an opportunity to explore Jianghu and everything it has to offer. The novel literally quotes this every once in a while, like a means to the end of the arc (which I have a problem with too...), but the writing itself does not deliver.

Firstly, the novel seems to move away from its languid and descriptive writing style later on in the novel, seemingly becoming less "slice-of-life". I put that in apostrophes, because it's not actually a slice-of-life, but just has a picturesque way of describing everything.

Secondly, while the novel has an episodic-like pacing, there is not much emphasis on the world-building.

The side-characters have unique temperaments and backstories, with the only thing in common between them is that all of them comes in different shades of grey; none could be considered to be good nor bad, they really were just people who had different ways of handling problems life throws at them. I love this, and I also really like how there are no inherently bad antagonists- only those who just coincidentally have different motives to Lin Rufei. However besides that, nothing is done to show anything else, and we will always have a very shallow understanding of them.

For example, characters such as his maids, Fu Hua and Yu Rui, are superficial. They don't seem to have any motives, ambitions or literally anything fueling their actions throughout the novel. For characters who were present from the first chapter of the novel to the literal end, this is extremely disappointing. Although they are side-characters, something could have been done over the course of the ~90 chapters they were in. The only time they aren't forgotten, is when they are necessary for exposition or to get rid of tedious obstacles in the way.

Another character that faced the same fate was Gu Xuandu. There are other reviews that better explain this, but the author failed in retaining the tension behind Lin Rufei and Gu Xuandu's shared past together over the course of the novel (which was essentially the whole characterization of Gu Xuandu anyways). The author seemingly withheld every single bit of information for most of the novel (although it wasn't hard to guess), but then relinquished some of the biggest mysteries with no suspense whatsoever at the very end. There was no smooth build-up to the climax, which resulted in little to no satisfaction when actually reading it.

Speaking of their relationship, what the f*ck happened genuinely. Their confession scene was spontaneous and sudden, and there was also no build up to it at all. I didn't really feel their chemistry, and they seemed to be more like traveling companions. I think it would have been cool if that was initially the case, with Gu Xuandu just suffering with a permanent case of unrequited love, whilst unable to do anything about it. (Also, if we had access to more of Gu Xuandu's thoughts throughout the novel, it would've been great!!) That would have made a much more realistic development of their relationship, I think.

Furthermore, is it really necessary to have so many couples within this book? I understand they were there to teach Lin Rufei first and foremost about how love could exist in many forms, and can persist no matter how tragic the lovers' fate is. However, I really began to dislike it because it is very perfunctory. If you were to not tell me in advance that they were in a romantic relationship or there was no scene of them kissing, I would simply think they were acquaintances. They had no chemistry at all (or had no time to showcase their chemistry).

Also, forgive me for being biased but it was tragic seeing so many gay couples but no lesbian pairings. Every single man that we came across either was ostentatiously gay, or rarely, was straight. Yet for women (if there even were a lot of prevalent female side characters) they fell in love once coming across a man.

Anyways, to add an extra layer of depth and contribute to the overarching theme, it would have been amazing if different types of love were explored within the novel (besides romantic). For example, the relationship between Lin Rufei and his maids, or the exploration of Lin Rufei and his childhood best friend's past. Like you're telling me that the author did not write about his dynamics with his childhood best friend, and his servant? It was a missed opportunity to reflect on their changing dynamics as they grew apart.

Another one was the emperor and his third daughter. Think of the endless potential about a father who seemingly favors his third daughter only because he wistfully remembers his first love whenever he sees her.

It seemed as if the author wanted to add a lot of moving scenes but did not want to spend a lot of time completely exploring everything in depth. The ideas behind subplots, were amazing to imagine but were stringed together quite clumsily in context to the main plot. Further contributing to the lack of build-up for the climax of the novel. I felt like I was constantly getting edged but there was no release at the end.

Moving on, there is no exploration of the Xuanhuan aspects of the novel. At first I was excited for how Lin Rufei will overcome his conflicting state of having an overwhelming sword Qi (despite having a frail body that cannot handle it), but the author shallowly brushes over this. Lin Rufei's powers does not serve to open up his character, and rather just acts as another means to the end for the convenience of the plot. Lin Rufei himself also doesn't seem keen to explore his new discovery about himself, and his brief lessons with Gu Xuandu feel forced.

Honestly this leads to the other great problem I had with the novel. Lin Rufei was not proactive at all within his own story, and the only time he was doing something of his own initiative, it was for Gu Xuandu, not for himself. It could have been a more interesting development if he initially was proactive because of Gu Xuandu's unique situation, but then as the story progresses, he himself became more interested and took the initiative to discover himself and their shared past.

I always mention something along the lines of, "take the initiative himself" because everything seemed to be handed to him. Does he go out of his own initiative to actually do something himself? Either his maids were gathering information for him (before he can ask), Gu Xuandu is conveniently there so he can simply just hide in plain sight, or the book mentions that Lin Rufei was not really interested in finding out, before there is a development in the plot which coincidentally handed him the information.

Anyways, despite the lengthy criticism, I still think it's a nice book to read. Think of this entire critique as how I express my love for it, because if someone truly does not like it, they wouldn't spend as much time writing a review talking about its limitless possibilities.

I was disappointed with that ending. It seemed like everything was rushed towards the end, because let's be honest, the side characters had better written mysteries than the mains.

MC really embodied the dense protagonist tag because it was so obvious at the end that a blind man would have seen it coming from a mile away.

This is my personal opinion: but why didn't they just switch the formation bodies back to the original guy? The rules never said that it couldn't be fine and it wasn't like he needed a soul to do it.

And what was with the time skip? And the little man? ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ

ㅠ.ㅠ so many questions...

" MC however, knew the name of that madman. His name was SC1 and he was once a very good chess player. Only later, when he lost the most important bone in his life, did he go crazy''. This f*cking side agst story just to brewed MC opinion on malexmale romance. For the mystery part.. If u're an old novel reader u actually can really guessed 40% of it after ch 25 or so bcs they always mention it, agree with someone who say that author and ML like to be ''mysterious'' is a bit annoying look at this ''ML could have said it directly, but he chose not to.'' Thing.. Or this “It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just that I don’t even know myself so how can I explain it for you to understand?”-hmm ML, your excuse is so lame, isn't it, plus we have more than one support character that also being mysterious, author and them are refuse to open the box although they already give the box in front of us this author I have to say that they really have such a dark jokes on their bone that make me feel guilty to laughing at some arch, but what pissed me off actually not just the way of mystery unveil but our MC is kind of dumb in critical way, want to say that this novel is beautiful but I keep remember the dumb mystery thing, really want to cry and laugh at the same time

i also hoped that the author would've give more details about MC past life when he was the Heavenly Ruler.

Definitely unsatisfied with how the novel ended. It was so rushed that the author wasn't able to put into detail how MC was able to build ML's body back. Also the events that lead up to that point were so disappointing. Sad as well for Wu Ao. If I were him, I would've wished MC didn't find me and just left me to die lol. All I can say is I wasn't wrong for giving this novel a 3/5.