Coiling Dragon

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Empires rise and fall on the Yulan Continent. Saints, immortal beings of unimaginable power, battle using spells and swords, leaving swathes of destruction in their wake. Magical beasts rule the mountains, where the brave – or the foolish – go to test their strength. Even the mighty can fall, feasted on by those stronger. The strong live like royalty; the weak strive to survive another day.

This is the world which Linley is born into. Raised in the small town of Wushan, Linley is a scion of the Baruch clan, the clan of the once-legendary Dragonblood Warriors. Their fame once shook the world, but the clan is now so decrepit that even the heirlooms of the clan have been sold off. Tasked with reclaiming the lost glory of his clan, Linley will go through countless trials and tribulations, making powerful friends but also deadly enemies.

Come witness a new legend in the making. The legend of Linley Baruch!

Associated Names
One entry per line
Bàn Long
CD
Pan Long
盘龙
Related Series
Stellar Transformation (Sequel)
The Desolate Era (Shared Universe)
Recommendations
The Desolate Era (21)
Stellar Transformation (18)
Against the Gods (11)
I Shall Seal the Heavens (8)
Warlock of the Magus World (6)
Tales of Demons and Gods (3)
Recommendation Lists
  1. My novels
  2. ALLCN+
  3. My Gem Collection
  4. want read
  5. Wow there's a manhua version (ML)

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183 Reviews sorted by


ZhaWarudo
ZhaWarudo
August 24, 2017
Status: Completed
It's classic and a must read for xianxia fans, though this is a xuanhuan. The difference isn't much but it makes this one unique and of the best xianxia-like stories, anyway it's just english names and magic + cultivation. Yes english names, they aren't supposed to be CN so quit complaining about that. Honestly this is my 2nd CN novel so I've read it quite a while ago... so you're just gonna have to trust me that this is the best xuanhuan out there, awesome and cute battle pet, his... more>> OP grandpa, grandpa who teaches the MC we all love, somewhat disappointing romance but who cares, it's never great in these kind of stories. Epic magic and cultivation system that will leave you binging this and wasting a weak of your life, worth it. No doubt it's also IET's best work, followed by ST, DE, LXY and TNC.

Some are complaining about a bad ending supposedly all IET novels have, I say it's ok and they're exaggerating, see for your self and don't listen to haters. <<less
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Endyyy
Endyyy rated it
July 23, 2017
Status: Completed
The first time reading CD I dropped it after 20 chapters. Only after reading Desolate Era and finding out that this is the prequel I got myself to read this. The story was good, but the second half of it was rushed. In the first few books they explain everything slowly and have a "normal" pace, but in the last few books his power just randomly goes from 1 to 100000. Maybe the author just wanted a fresh start for a new story.
Spoiler

The book was basicly him fighting enemies for reasons like love, friends, family, until he has no more enemies because he is equal to the creator. But what was the purpose for all this now that he is the god, what will he do? What happens to the famlily and the other characters?? If he fused with highgrade sparks would he be stronger??? After the author writes enough books and all their MCs reach the "godrealm", will he make a book where they all discover a new realm???? My problem is we read CD, but what for? The ending is not a real ending, the author could atleast have made one more chapter to clear some questions..

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mechafanboy
mechafanboy rated it
May 28, 2017
Status: epilogue
There's a lot of good.... and a wholeeeee lotta bad in this one.

Firstly, the pacing for the storyline for the first 10-13 volumes or so is excellent, gradual increases in enemy power, good motivation for each character to act the way they did and somewhat realistic power levels. It's very easy indeed to get attached to some of the characters, the romance subplots are simultaneously the best and the worst subplots depending on how you want them to pan out. No complaints at all on that end (in fact a... more>> fair amount of praise for making me "care" about some of them) Once the novel starts pushing towards ridiculous levels of absurdity though, much like most reincarnated/overpowered MC storylines, the focus gets lost and there's a GIGANTIC drop in quality, to the point where there were at least 3 points where I wanted to just drop the storyline. Overall, I think the storytelling is pretty strong but just flat out falls off a cliff about 2/3rds in and then falls off an even steeper cliff near the end.

The characters are fairly cookie cutter (and in truth, one of the core protagonists really got on my nerves with his insistent on being aggressive even in scenarios where a small amount of humility would do much more), there's a lot of characters that are introduced and then dumped by the wayside as the storyline moves on, most of them don't even have anything remotely similar to an epilogue. Most of them have basically 0 relevance (and even the ones that do have some relevance very quickly lose all relevance near the end.)

I personally enjoyed the overall trip, but I think anyone who reads this will have either a good or a bad impression of it. For myself, I felt it more good than bad, but it has a lot of flaws, most of which are glaring enough that I couldn't even pretend to not notice them, hence my rating is going to be in the middle, but make no mistake, this novel does a very specific set of things very well, and does almost everything else very poorly. <<less
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Nargol
Nargol
April 24, 2017
Status: Completed
Coiling Dragon was, as it was for many, my first foray into Chinese WNs. With Ren's high quality translation, the journey was a good one.

I won't be longwinded, but make it simple.

Coiling Dragon has everything that you would expect from a Xuanhuan novel. All the good stuff, as well as all the bad.

... more>> I think the story holds up pretty well, even after having indulged in many stories like it afterwards.

I don't find it extraordinary, but I do think it's better than average. It's as good a place as any to start your trip into the world of cultivation. <<less
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Xane
Xane rated it
March 19, 2017
Status: v15c1
I'm only 3 books in and the most glaring issue I have with it is the author (or translator's) overuse of the phrase "In the blink of an eye". Such frequent occurrence that I searched through the entire thing to count them.

314 with nearly 200 of which occurring within the first 11 volumes.

Edit: Managed to get 15 volumes in and I just can't read it anymore. I Eat Tomatoes has a terrible problem with constantly increasing the worlds scale both in terms of size and power. No matter how long... more>> the story will drag on his series will eventually overturn itself into some outlandish escapade. If a Main Character is able to punch through a wall at the start then they will eventually be able to punch through a planet, it's really an inevitability with his stories. There is a definite power creep, the world scale eventually becomes millions of kilometers (at least at the point I stopped, wouldn't be surprised if the next world they go to is galactic scale), and the interactions never change. The same scenario will play out wherever they go. Enter new location - Be seen as weak - Display power - Someone covets said power - Destroy enemy - Repeat.

But that's a pretty common occurrence in most cultivation stories where "strength is authority". <<less
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calenm
calenm rated it
December 13, 2016
Status: Completed
Just like many of the readers here at Novelupdates. Com, this was the first series that I read that got me hooked on the translated novels (Wuxiaworld ftw!) with wuxia, xianxia, japanese fantasy, and korean fantasy. I will say that it has its ups and downs just like any other story that we can think of, but what sets this out from the rest is that it follows the protagonist from the beginning all the way to the very end without omitting anything. Characters are for the most part not... more>> rendered obsolete completely, and have later relevance in the development of the character as Linley becomes even stronger through the course of the series. I also am in agreement with a lot of the other readers that the ending was pretty rushed, and even the last few developments seemed to be pushed to an extreme pace in comparison to the way the rest of the series develops the action. Overall, this novel should be the start of anyone's journey into Wuxia, and taking it in with the laughs, the cries, and the triumphs.

Spoiler

I will say that I liked how he was given an open ended ending, since I think it is very annoying how some other novels I've read will either kill them off, have them become sacrifice for the greater good, or such. Also, I appreciate the tie ins IET has with his other novel, so we do know what happens to Linley after becoming the top of the top. Lastly, romance was ok, but I really felt something when his first girlfriend dumped him, so I have to tip my hat for the way that the heartbreak was conveyed. Also, since this is an action adventure it didn't really need to have heavy romance to begin with. That's all from me, but I hope you enjoy the journey!!!!

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zaal
zaal rated it
September 12, 2016
Status: v15c1
Review as of book 15. Out of the other novels written by IET, I have read all of Stellar Transformations as well, and I actually enjoyed it a bit more since it wasn't as hard to finish.

The issues I have with this novel,

It's a constant formulaic method of writing, repeating the same thing over and over. I'm not talking about the normal chapters either, oh god, IET will repeat the same thing 6+ times per chapter as if we all had alzheimers. But the actual story itself follows a... more>> very specific pattern over and over. I'm rather tired of it at this point, at least stellar transformations was somewhat interesting.

There is very little character development outside the main characters, at most IET might do 4 at a time, but he really has issues doing more than that. There were a lot of interesting characters that he absolutely did nothing for. Even if there are plenty of characters introduced within a specific book, almost none of them get fleshed out at all beyond the basics besides Linley & bebe. I personally thought Zassler could have offered a good story line.

Every character has the emotional depth and wisdom of a 10 year old.

Fighting scenes are not depicted well and descriptions of environments leading up to fight scenes are very poorly executed, if I were to give an example of a book where it's done well, then it would be from Upgrade Specialist in Another World. <<less
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DarkD
DarkD rated it
June 28, 2016
Status: v13c4
I am so impressed with this series compared to all the other Wuxia crap I've read. This author actually gets it, he understands how to write... I know, it's hard to believe. Not only that, he removed all the chinese cultural crap from his fiction and used proper western names. He doesn't even use confusing terms to describe the cultivation levels. Each level is simply a number.

As I read to the v13c4, I found the plot lines in the story started to become forced and in bad taste by... more>> that point. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of good reading here, but it just got progressively worse as time went on.

Actual storyline, real character development. This stuff exists here.

If you don't believe me about the story being good, look at this example.

Spoiler

Counting on his fingers, little Wharton said, “First I used the rags to wipe the floors, then the toilet chamber pots, and lastly I wiped... wiped... right, I wiped the plates!” He looked excitedly at Linley, awaiting Linley’s praise.

“You wiped the chamber pots, and then wiped the plates?” Linley’s eyes were huge.

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Explanations on how the magic system worked were leagues better than most asian authors do them. Rather than those s*upid textbook explanations, they were broken up into dialogue. As in, Linley would ask a question about magic and the saint mage guy would then explain it in his grandpa tone. However, the author still could have done a bit better here. The author explained too much that weren't relevant to the story yet. Things should be explained when they become relevant to the story. Just because you can list out all ten of the ranks of every class, complete with descriptions, doesn't mean you should.

The various plots could also use some work. I first had trouble with this book when Linley left for the Magical Beast Mountain Range.

Spoiler

The protagonist first fell into a difficult situation he had little hope of overcoming immediately after leaving. Some mage archer killed his classmate and his allies were next. He knew he couldn't win because the enemies stealth and strength made them too dangerous to fight, but our protagonist refused to use his magical beast pet. This was a pet which specialized in speed and stealth, IDEAL for the current situation, but Linley intentionally held the pet back allowing another one of his allies to die. He even said that if the situation got out of hand, he'd let him fight. Also, keep in mind, this pet was actually stronger than Linly by ALOT. Getting the pet to kill the strong enemies was what he was there for. In the end, our protagonist simply ran away while the pet screamed "let me fight" in his ear.

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To a lesser degree than many other wuxia series, Coiling Dragon is about revenge... The protagonist constantly deals with how to get revenge on everyone and everything that has ever lived. If someone wrongs him, of course they have to die. In this manner, you can guarantee yourself that no matter how well a group treats Linley, they will eventually slight him somehow (intentional or not) and Linley will reap divine revenge on them. It's a very tiring and predictable theme in wuxia novels.

This novel series has a lot of anti-religious themes in it. I count three religious antagonists where the religions hold "deeper darker secrets" than what's revealed on the surface. I'm atheist, so I don't mind too much, but I understand it's kind of annoying when a novel makes favoritism clear. A religious person will probably feel rather smothered by this book series.

Wuxia novels always have such thin morals. It's rather annoying. Coiling Dragon is leagues better than Against the Gods, but that's like comparing hi*ler to a hitman. At no point will the protagonist actually say to himself "this is too vile, I'll never accept such a horrible practice." Whether it's s*avery or soul collection, the protagonist draws thin lines of sort of using them, but not really.

I finally quit reading at volume 13 chapter 4. The author ran out of material because he'd resolved pretty much every plot, so instead of ending the series, he made up some apocalyptic accidental plot twist which blew everything apart. I found the story of this ark awkward and in bad taste.

Started out as a breath of fresh air, ended with a pounding headache. When a plot line gets excessively grim, I start dwelling on it and it leaves me in a bad mood. I'd recommend you quit reading somewhere in volume 12. <<less
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pandicorn
hakim.rz16
April 12, 2016
Status: --
Most of the people here gave high reviews coz its their first novel. Lol. I guess bcoz of he-man n RWX. A lot of ppls first xianxia is CD n tho that's good. I personally thought that CD was a bit hyped. I mean IET's novel always have a certain quality they mantain (i.e world building, powerups, conflict). I liked how there's no offend a clan n destroy n rinse n repeat. U see a lot more going on. Wars. Well mainly wars. Overall. A good book to start your... more>> journey <<less
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Waffle
Waffle rated it
November 24, 2015
Status: --
It's over, and it was amazing. The book that introduced me to the xianxia genre, and also in my top 3, if not my favourite. Thank you to RWX for translating this novel and not stopping. A simply amazing book.
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GianCarpio
GianCarpio rated it
February 25, 2024
Status: --
Bias bias bias bias bias. Thats why this is 4.5 star. I’m ashamed to see this quality getting a higher score than Reverend Insanity.

In truth, the only one who can rate this ‘thing’ 5 star are the ones who have NEVER heard of something like this before. When you open your first book and everything is new and sparkly and shiny. Unfortunately this is my 200th book, I know the differences between whats good, whats bad, and whats terrible.

first sin:

A lot of cultivation levels are skipped and jumped over making... more>> this whole power system just seem flimsy and irrelevant. Breakthroughs and learning spells are made in time skips so we don’t really connect and have the moment to visualize and imagjne the application of his powers.

mortal world - He has 9 stages and we barely have 2 powers when there’s supposed to be more than one spell per stage. Most of his skills after that are conceptual yet the author isnt creative nor skilled enough to construct meaning and depths to the mc’s power.

Sin 2 : pointless mage cultivation

The amount of times he used the elements in combination in the mortal world could be counted on two hands. I laughed out loud when a commenter said that “The only thing dual about Linley is that his family dies TWICE as fast.”

Also it just never gives us the wonder of the spells mentioned in the first chapters. We get great concepts but when it comes to execution - well imagine the most boring application of an element, the wallow in depression, thats how exciting the author makes the mage thing to be.

sin 3 - I don’t like how the pet talks.

sin 4: I hate the auction there’s literally one item.

sin 5: saving b*tches in distress - one who betrayed him and one who essentially has no part of the plot.

sin 6: I can go on and on but honestly its not even worth it. This novel is so tired. <<less
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BoriCats
BoriCats rated it
June 26, 2023
Status: --
Prior to this, I've read two of the works of IET and I dropped somewhere along the way. It could have been good, you know, at least IET knows about system magics and cultivation but the same with most of the male author writing the same type of novel, they are really poor on interpersonal relationship and the romance part that just disgusted me. If you don't know how to interact and manage relationship in real life then don't put it on your book. This was one of the many... more>> faults IET has in his novels, he could have forgo with the romance and just focus on the battle stuffs and maybe put the romance on the later part of the story.

As I've read and heard of his books, the MC's share the same pattern of being a terrible partner and father. Which turns me off. He treated women as a trophy that he can showcase from time to time and they have to be something (emphasis on something as they are not someone) people are envious of, either they have significant standing or they are tremendously beautiful or talented. Worse, the MC was not even that attractive on the eyes of the women, I'm a girl so I know. He even has to be a father, gosh, these MC don't even knows how to be father as they usually travels around the universe leaving their kids around. The very purpose of this kids was just they are talented and thus they can be show-off to other people. What a dense kind of author.

If you are wondering why am I reading this type of novels when I'm a girl, and I could just read on those fantasy and romance books. Let me ask you? Why not? I also enjoyed this types of books and they are entertaining. One problem they always have was they are crappy in terms of the female gender. Sexually objectifying them, treating them as one dimensional characters, making them with no dignity and making them damsels in distress. The Japanese works also love Loli, for god's sake. The Chinese are obsessed with beauty and talent like they have to be the best, what a vain. At least the Korean works, there are passable works in there. I just sometimes find some exceptional works on C and J novels so I was expecting this could be one of them seeing the 4.5 stars and I really thought the author develops from those prior books but sadly this one was a no for me.

I understand that this was one of the early translated works and was one of those cnovels that made you stay with webnovels but it's 2023 and I've read tons of these kind of works already and reading this was just a battle of my drowsiness. That's why C, J, and Knovels should strive for originality on their future works. Like creating a unique work was more exciting than copying some existing trope. I know because I'm also a writer. I hope you strive for greatness and not copycats. <<less
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Oblos
Oblos rated it
April 12, 2023
Status: Completed
CD has really shown its age, and I can see why it has as many 1-3 and 5 star ratings as it does. While not my first, it was a very early cultivation novel for myself and others, and I still enjoy going back and reading Linley's story.

With my bias aside, I think the series is flawed and it has the old reliable "failure to stick the landing" cultivation novel classic. Outside of that? While showing its age, CD doesn't really put itself in a lot of pitfalls like other... more>> series do. Does it pull anything good to counteract that? Not really. It doesn't do anything spectacular but doesn't really do anything too badly either.

Spoiler

I know there are those of you who want to complain about how the emotional teenager/early 20s guy acts like an emotional idiot, but that makes sense, at least. Adding to that, a lot of characters from before the "live essentially forever" Saint stage are forgotten because they are all dead, or unimportant, or both after a few hundred, let alone a few thousand years. It is a big lazy for IET to not tell you about how every single character is doing at all points in time, but that would be superfluous information that would overclog, even though CD as a whole might need extra padding and development of that nature to really improve the narrative.

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MaybeI am a bit biased because I still think CD is a good read even to this day, but you can definitely do worse and CD is short enough for you to enjoy it all the way to the obligatory surprise ending. <<less
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QB
QB rated it
April 8, 2022
Status: Completed
Well, as a native Chinese reader, I'd like to share a different angle to comment it. Honestly, CD is also my first online novel, so it means a lot to me. Nonethless, I was merely a primary student when I first read it---and I never read it again since I graduated. The reason is simple:CD can bring us some kind of gratification, but the kind of fleeting、illusory and addictive gratification.

Therefore, this unsustainable satisfaction will separate not only the feeling of a single reader towards it (depends on the time) but... more>> also a polarized comments due to readers' knowledge background.

I would argue that the popularity of "xianxia"or"wuxia" is declining. Instead, sci-fi and "Aerial Historical Fiction" are developing. Such logical and creative novels are becoming mass point. In sum, CD is a pastime book, but not a representative book of Chinese online novels. <<less
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Lovelywuju17
Lovelywuju17 rated it
June 30, 2021
Status: Completed
AMAZING. SPECTACULAR.

It's been a long time that I actually read a full-length novel. And I completed it in one week, that's how interesting the story was. Happy Ending. I just can't describe it, it was amazing.

But there's some quite regret there that I wish the author could bring more in the novel.

... more>>
Spoiler

Jeane. The second FL or should I say potential love interest which turned into MOB CHARACTER. ISTG I never wish a harem novel or where MC has two or more than one wish. But this? I really wish this character at least could end up with the MC. Man what a waster, she was no less inferior than FL (Delia), but I guess when compared to her, Delia is more superior. But man, she was in the end really become A MOB CHARACTER. I thought that the author's introduction to her will make her a potential love interest, but no. Man she was, in the end, has a bitter-sweet ending. I really wish she was happy at least, married, or become some WOW figure, but now she didn't marry anyone, single forever and she was only 7th rank mage, then she died after passing of time. Wow, I feel really sad for her

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Spoiler

PLOT ARMOUR. But, I like it. It doesn't necessarily bad, it was reasonable. With a lot of potential foreshadowing, so the reader now where and why the events happened. So I think technically, it's not that kind of ridiculous plot armor where the MC is OP from the beginning or no people could spar with him. He ridiculously works hard for it. Compared to other deities, he was said as a genius, but although he was a genius, he knows himself well and works hard for it. So For me, this kind of character is admirable. So those MC halo things, okay fine he has those, but he DESERVES THAT MC HALO. Because he strives for it!

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Spoiler

Grandpa Doehring, Man I wish they could bring him to life again at least in the end where Linley reunited with him. But, although they can't it's fine too, I think. But in the end, Linley really desperate to make another Doehring, man that's quite obsessed lol. What I think when reading this, that Linley's true love is Grandpa Doehring LMAO. (Kidding).

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Spoiler

To be honest I was quite bored in the arc where he became HighGod to Sovereign level. It was boring, but it was quite worth it also because I could see the continent where Linley built it and the plane that he built. I think it was worth the journey. But I wish there was a side story where there's a POV from the lives of the people living in Linley's self-made country, continent, and plane. That would be amazing!

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Kelroar
Kelroar rated it
June 28, 2021
Status: Completed
This was my first cultivation novel, I loved the world created by the author, the MC seems a bit contradictory to me in certain actions he takes but in general terms I really liked his personality. The story even managed to trap me into wanting to find out what was really going on. The secondary characters and the relationship with his wife was also satisfactory for me.
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-Aditya Priyadarshi
-Aditya Priyadarshi rated it
June 28, 2021
Status: v6c26
Spoiler

The novel from its start to the end of ML's relationship and him sculpting the statue about his heartbreak--was a solid 4 out of 5. After, it's a complete mess.

The FL buys the masterpiece stature about our ML's first love and heartbreak for a hugeee sum of money in a bidding war with no basis for it whatsoever, then she taunts ML's ex-love, again, with no basis for it whatsoever.

The ML suddenly gains a iota of powers, gets a magical sword-swings it around and learns swordsmanship. Then his father dies, he goes on a revenge spree and turns into a heartless monster, who whipped his servant to death cos he disturbed him during training. Also, ML's pet magical rat suddenly turns into a pe*vert.

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Luminescent
Luminescent rated it
June 3, 2021
Status: Completed
This is a really good novel! I really like how Linley is truly blessed by the heavens, and it also spreads to those around him. Although he does acquire treasures like other novels, he has amazing talent, background, luck, and so much more. Of course the novel isn't perfect, there were some parts I didn't like too much, but it was definitely a good novel. This wasn't the first novel I completed, but it was the first Chinese novel that I completed (not including other ongoing Chinese novels that I... more>> caught up to), and it definitely deserves to be there. <<less
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Cinemote
Cinemote rated it
May 21, 2020
Status: rwx's afterword
One of the first wuxia/cultivation novels I ever read, so I guess I have a bit of nostalgia for it. It's quite possibly the most popular cultivation novel to date.

As with most stories on this site, it starts off strong and starts to fall off. That's not too bad considering the length of this series. Linley isn't a terrible character, but he's also doesn't have many distinguishing personality traits that make me want to root for him. Same goes for most of the side characters. But this is more of... more>> an issue that pervades any wuxia novel, so I guess I won't be too harsh on CD specifically.

Personally, I've never been a fan of characters getting so strong to the point that they can blast mountains apart and tear open dimensions and what not, a general issue with power scaling.

If you're a fan of characters training up from being weak to being the strongest person on the continent after years of training, this is probably your cup of tea.

I do think that the first couple hundred chapters are worth reading and they remind me of Dragon Ball slightly. It's definitely not 5/5 but it can be enjoyable. <<less
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Jusbored
Jusbored rated it
March 20, 2020
Status: Completed
The first Wuxia I ever read and it has a special place in my heart. It's honestly one of the best introductory novels you can try.

Great character development with solid worldbuilding. The main character is determined, focused, and reasonable. The story itself is pretty normal as compared to the other hero-stories but it's translated really well for English readers!

Highly recommend!
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