It is hard for me to review this, knowing full well that I have given this only 3 stars when it is such a nice series from Er Gen. So, why is this getting an ordinary rating from me?

AWE has stuff that you know Er Gen is good at. The good peppering of comedy, the relatively very poor romance, cultivation system that eventually puts emphasis on actual understanding and a good ability to connect the plot. However, in AWE, Er Gen fails in some of these, while being spectacular in... more>> others. Perhaps, this is due to the high expectations I have from him but this is a very telling drawback to this series which forces me out of my engrossment.

AWE has a lot of emphasis on comedy right from the beginning, and this is an excellent plus point to this series had that comedy either changed/evolved overtime, or decreased over time. Instead, towards the end, the comedy is pretty much awkwardly forced upon us. Perhaps, Er Gen was trying too hard to be funny, taking inspiration from ISSTH which actually stopped being funny at the right time.

Poor romance. Perhaps terrible. Er Gen is not the best romance writers, but that is something I assume he knows. Generally, he doesn't do harems but this time... There is a harem. And eventually, the woman who we feel deserved to be with him simply because of how much the MC cared for her ends up not being part of it. (Cue Chu Yuyan)

The romance is so so poor that the only way Er Gen could think of getting them involved in sexy times was with aphrodisiac pills leading to a reverse r*pe. Multiple times. With multiple women. That is how very bad the romance is, and I have to sit through multiple such romance phases. In a relatively shorter series.

The cultivation system puts emphasis on understanding, and I am very happy with such types except... That happens very, very late. In a manner that can only be called... Disappointing. Yes, I like the mix of philosophy and science in a particular arc but even that arc... Suffice to say, I was skipping multiple chapters towards the end simply because of how I knew these stuff were essentially coming out of the blue. The philosophical concepts weren't really able to hold my attention.

A good ability to connect the plot and thus form a good system of foreshadowing is a major plus for any writer. And Er Gen does it very well in AWE as well. Unfortunately, he still decides to not go a 100% into this, overshadowing it with needless comedy and romance.

The characters? The MC is very good. He sicks true to his character throughout. Yes, he might seem like a Naruto wannabe at times but its a nice timeout from the overly violent MCs. And yet, the MC has no support characters for whom we feel. Unless, maybe his disciple who eventually fades away. And the initial antagonist.

AWE is essentially two parts. The first part is a nearly 4.5/5 story with a good antagonist and all. Yes, there is the romance as well but the comedy manages to hold up. But after that, the entire series very quickly falls to a subpar 3/5.

Is this Mango approved? Definitely yes. Simply because of the very excellent first few hundreds of chapters. But, does Mango regret approving it? Also true. God I wish these writers could pump out chapters like most TLs where they don't need to write daily. it would give them time to identify their shortcomings. <<less

I enjoyed it at first, but the comedy got repetitive and a funny situation can only be funny so many times. Maybe it gets better later on, seems like a lot of people like it, but it wasnt for me. I jumped off somewhere around chapter 450. Maybe i'll give it another shot in the future when I run out of things to read.

Fun read, love the MC personality; SHAMELESS, scared to die (it's his motivation to cultivate; becoming immortal), a right amount of genius (an even bigger amount of mad genius), love the attention (when it is safe), bully and bullied. My kind of novel; cultivation, comedy, fights, craftsmanship. It is not boring at all and you re always expectant of what comes next or rather what is Lord Bai is gonna do or get himself into.

Love this author.

The novel was okay at the beginning, especially the parts where the MC is researching alchemy [pill refining or w.e] being unique and also the fight when the MC was chased by Luochen clan was great. But afterwards it just seems to be going downhill with plain and boring way of how MC is acting.

I can understand fear being a factor for motivation to cultivate or survive, but when I read how MC acts, it just seems plain s*upid. Anyway I can usually get hooked up with novels within few... more>> tens of chapters and this one isn't for me sadly. I just caught up with RMJI too so reading this right after that feels bad... <<less

Till now, not disappointing. Steady, clear, no obvious contradictions. There is a plot, action, funny situations, some good laughs.

Well done.

Something I've noticed in certain types of comedy novels is that at one point in time, the novel HAS to turn into a grimmer and darker turn for various reasons such as keeping the freshness as well as taking away the limiter on the characters' development. Take it from The Experimental Log of the Crazy Lich for example, where although it still is funny even after hundreds of chapters, the characters feel more deeper and humane rather than just being straight out silly since the novel took effort in fleshing... more>> out the darker side of the novel. Or maybe to an extreme extent like Marquis of Grand Xia that has basically already removed the comedy aspect and pretty much turned into The Torture Log of the Crippled MC. While that may sound a horrible and wrong way for an originally funny novel to go, it has actually transformed the novel into a deeper and more meaningful piece of art where each of the later chapters cuts directly to the heart.

Now A Will Eternal, 250 chapters in, has not yet made this turn, and not any time soon as well it seems from what I can tell by the 400~ chapter reviews. It might've been all well in the beginning arcs, but ever since he's infiltrated into a sect where the disciples supposedly kill other people as breakfast, this type of lighthearted writing felt off and dissonant. It's weird because the writing feels like it's trying to show the more relevant and important characters in said evil sect as good people just because it would look bad on the MC to hang around with people who probably performs demonic rituals and human sacrifices every month or something. And if they don't do those type of things or any other deeds in the same caliber, then the whole evil sect fiasco would seem like just a big piece of farce that Er Gen decided on since he probably thought it would be cool to have the MC go to a sect that's the direct opposite of his original one.

I loved this novel for its comedy. I still remember dying in the middle of the night when I first read the north bank vs south bank arc, as well the following arc where he focused on alchemy. Now there's just so much the author is trying explain and add in the novel that there's barely any room left for comedy. In fact, some of the supposedly funny scenes sometimes get too much. There's this ongoing gag where other people gets misfortuned due to the MC's crazy antics like his bizarre alchemy side effects. And now there's this weird thing going where the people affected are actually affected in a way that would make the MC a big a**hole, except the readers aren't supposed to be bothered about it since they're somewhat kinda the bad guys anyway? Like I said, it's weird. There's this one guy who acted as a major antagonist for an arc and now he just gets constant abuse from the MC and his clan.

Now of course comedy isn't the only aspect of this novel, although I might as well say that comedy is the only thing going for it. There's a weird harem that's very undeveloped where most of the members are mostly offscreen or sent away to return only much later on in the novel, probably. A not so strong and important girl MC meets and comes to like when he still wasn't strong yet happens to be a spy infiltrating the sect (for some reason...) with a very big background of a much stronger sect (daughter of the sect master or something, don't remember). To be honest the way it was revealed was like the author thought it would look bad if one of the harem members was a low teir sect member so he decided to suddenly add a big mysterious background to her, making it very unconvincing considering how this supposedly "I'm someone important's daughter since I have this strong and mysterious expert come pick me up just when the MC and I were about to hit it up" almost died in this supposedly unremarkable place to her, and quite miserably at that too. All the relevant females are either harem candidates or are too old to be considered. Too bad MC doesn't spend too much time with any of them, except for this one big sister type girl who he constantly thinks is seducing him.

The cultivation system is simple and easy enough to understand, except we never really get a grasp at how strong the MC is recently. We only know his limits when he fights enemies and beats them 'just barely.' He's got this heaven foundation thing going on for him, except it doesn't really give him much of an advantage despite spending an entire arc getting it. And it's ridiculous how he's not sweeping the floor with the others considering how much he leeches off of all the blood energy stuff in the sect he infiltrated that he happens to be so good absorbing (cause MC has a special cultivation method, amiright?). Although now that I say that, it did say something about hiding his identity and not being able to use most of his strength and skill, blah blah blah. Going to an enemy sect without informing anyone in his previous sect does sound really s*upid doesn't it, although it all luckily went well for him since he can cultivate faster there with all the blood energy stuff (which he had no prior knowledge of). Yep, so many things are coincidentally going way too well for him, the author should've included something along the lines of that karma thing in ISSTH by now to easily explain all of this. Like fate must've guided him there and whatnot, I'd buy that.

I was originally planning on keeping this short, but once I started I couldn't stop myself. Before I make this too long, it's about time to give out my verdict.

Despite all that I said, this novel is still deserving to be one of the better-best novels on this site. It was unfortunate for me to have lost my interest in it after being drifted apart for so long. I just didn't like it as much as I did back when the previous translator was translating it. Don't get me wrong, the current one is by no means at all inferior to the previous one, in fact the previous one had quite a lot of issues. But maybe there's just something special about being the first version that I read back when it was still translating (I've read both), and having lost that special something, the novel never felt the same way and from then on it just wasn't as good as it was to me before. Recent chapters were kinda tedious to read and there's barely anything to look forward to at all in the novel. I got bored to hell by this trial by fire thing going on, I hardly care about the results or the people participating in it, in fact at this point you might as well say I hardly care about the MC anymore. He's always been rascal, but I wished he at least could've matured mentally.

Well who knows, you might still be able to enjoy the novel to beyond where I stopped at. Regardless of all that I've said, this novel is still definitely worth a try. It's a lot more decent than most of the novels here, just an unfortunate case on my part where I wasn't invested enough into the characters to overlook and ignore the flaws. This novel still deserves a 3 stars from me. <<less

You know that one friend who does and/or drag you into really s*upid/embarrassing situation that makes you go "WTF.... why!? just why!?" but at the end of the day it becomes one of the best memory you and your friends ever had. Yeah this novel is the equivalent of that for xianxia genres. The MC in this novel is cunning and shameless..10 times more then Meng Hao from ISSTH but that's what makes him interesting and likable. Along with the personality of side characters and their interactions, it makes for... more>> a great story and enjoyable read. Initially, I was hesitant about reading this one, but when I did..I was not expecting it to be this much fun. Give it a try, might be the same for you as well <<less

Before I begin, know that this is a very subjective piece and might not agree with your views. I hope we can move on from that peacefully. There will be minor spoilers written as normal text, major spoilers will be hidden.

One question that every reader must ask themselves upon reading AWE or reviewing it is : what kind of a novel is AWE? He's still in a sect ~450 chapters in, so this is definitely not going to be a rogue cultivator novel. I have personally found it difficult... more>> myself to not compare it to ergens previous works, which were heavily based upon sect-less cultivation.

Aboutme :

I have been reading AWE since DB started his TL on wuxiaworld. I indeed have read some of Er Gen's previous novels, namely Renegade Immortal and ISSTH.

About the AWE world :

I believe every novel gets some concessions based on the world it creates. What I mean is, the same decision can be very foolish or very smart depending on which novel it takes place in. If the world is full of deception and lack of trust, then it makes sense to hide your secrets, like in WarlockMW. But then there are novels written by the author of Douluo Dalu, like HJC.

The AWE world is very "nice". Because the world has been built as such, rogue cultivators find it immensely difficult to cultivate. This story so far takes place within sects, and the sects aren't cruel amongst themselves. When core formation elders monologue that they won't stoop down to check a junior's secrets, surprisingly, they mean it. As the main character spends most of his time (see : practically all) in the sect, we get barely any description of the world apart from the sects.

Pro cons : +Only what is needed is mentioned -Not enough worldbuilding -- Lore fcking sucks. The novel has nothing of what makes it fun to read things like greek mythology. +Characters and places aren't discarded. - Can feel congested at times. --The niceness of the world means there isn't enough smarts (if you're coming here from Renegade Immortal, prepare to be disappointed)

Verdict : There are better sect cultivation novels. For comedy novels, I suppose this is up there with others.

The first part (chapter 1~ inside blood sect) :

The novel begins great. There are enough humourous incidents to deserve the "comedy" label, while also infrequently spending a few chapters on serious topics. The theme of the novel is cemented in this part, and it can be best described with one of MC Bai Xiaochun (BX) 's trademark lines : "With a snap of my finger, I reduced XYZ to dust." The theme of the novel is that wherever the MC goes, he's a star. It is done moderately, however, and that keeps the novel's "negative ridiculousness" in check. This is arguably the best part of the novel because everything is fresh and likeable.

Spoiler

His connection to the blood anscestor isnti so much as convenient as it is a concession by how the world is built. His cultivation style starts deteriorating, as it's simply an absorption game now, unlike the relatively smarter thing he had to do when he was learning to manipulate Qi.

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Spoiler

Perhaps the cultivators at core formation would truly feel some belonging to the blood sect, but life for qi condensation and mortal dao dao Foundation establishment cultivators is a living hell. Wanton fighting, severely injuring people, stealing, humiliation. How can these average cultivators, who never got the chance to use the system to one-up someone, feel like the sect did anything for them? Before anyone comes up with a counterargument, remember that things like these are "oh so obvious" when main characters from other novels say them (e.g. RMJI main character, WMW main character). This is why I said the world is too "nice".

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Pro Cons : ++The MC isn't an eunuch and doesn't take himself very seriously. + He isn't shown to be a genius, although he is better than average. (Except for his medical skills) +++His cultivation is shown to be based upon hard work and smarts (like how he practiced his violet qi cauldron arts). ---The plot isn't mind boggling or very smart. Entertainment > Making an impression on the reader. --Whats written in the spoiler tag 1 --spoiler tag 2 +The restriction on his power during infiltration.

Verdict : Started off really great, but has devolved slightly since. Would've liked the MC to be different from meng hao. Still a 4/5 easily, if not too lengthy.

Part 2 (Unification War ~ post getting mountain incantation) :

His cultivation can be summarized as such : absorbing, "enlightenment", heaven dao. Breaking through stages is no biggie for him. An important war is going on, but until the end we only get funny scenes. It is not fine because then it makes the novel primarily comedy, and then story elements like love, tragedy, death fights, etc. Don't carry the same weight. Now the funny scenes and incidents start getting a little boring. They aren't repetitive, but you can only laugh so much from a single formula, i.e. "it's funny because someone got hurt".

And now I present you, the BX conundrum : BX can't grow into a serious direction. Er gen refuses to change his "scoundrel/coward" traits, which means that all the non-comedic events that take place from now on will lack real flavour. Prime example is the war.

Spoiler

The unification of the four sects is shown to be much easier than it could possibly be. Real blood was spilled. The author simply excuses the actual process by superficial explanations. To explain what I mean, here's a hypothetical situation. Imagine suh a war, and a seperate MC (or even BX). If no one close to the MC dies, it's fine. But if, say, Mc's girlfriend dies in the war, then wouldn't the situation devole to "Either they live or I do"? The grudges formed can't be erased so easily, especially with how nice the world is, relations between fellow disciples are very strong.

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Pro/Cons : -- War without any flavour or repercussions. ++MC keeps building up over a strong foundation, so everytime he breaks through to the next Level (qi-> foundation -> core), it's not the same effect as "Ash's Pikachu". ++For once, the romance is "youthful" and "fun", much more relatable to modern times. --Because of a lack of world building and lore, the middle reaches (the big change in the novel) is drab and uninteresting. +-The plot hasn't had any surprising leaps or changes. Strengthens the genre, but loses against the expectations from er gen. --Things have started conveniently falling into MC's lap.

Verdict : Still a fun read, but it is strengthening itself as a (mostly) peaceful sec cultivation tale. As someone coming from Renegade Immortal, it is disappointing. Yet if I were to judge it as what it is (and not what I expect it to be) even until this point it's a 4/5.

Next parts later. Might edit above parts after some thought. <<less

one of the things I liked about past Er Gen novels was that there's no harem, so seeing one in the tags for this novel leaves me really disappointed; it feels like he sold out (or gave in under pressure).
sigh.
the beginning is very funny and reads like a romp but honestly just seeing that tag has dropped my enthusiasm for the story by at least 2 stars. I'm so tired of wish fulfillment stallion novels that I just can't handle yet another novel where the author focuses more on the MCs d*ck rather than on telling a real story.

edit: I did finish and despite the humor, which gets a little old sometimes, it's my least favorite out of EG novels (even POT/ BtD - and I dislike stories that are pure MC abuse). I enjoyed the parts of the story where he was adventuring or cultivating or just blowing up the sect/town/empire he was currently in but I disliked the harem. they had a little more face time and personality than the FL in ISSTH but not enough for me to feel anything and Er Gen is terrible at writing romance; he can't even do a single FL relationship well so I don't know where he got the belief that he could handle more of them. I ended up skipping many chapters in the second half because I didn't care about him being led around by the... nose... and wanted to get to the actual story.

in the end, all of the people around the MC remain mostly one dimensional (the MC himself is not fleshed out very well with not much to him other than being quirky and annoying). as someone else put it, everyone except the MC is an npc or less. if you think that turtle will be the new Lord 5th, well, you're wrong; he's just another side character that rarely shows up. even that would have been ok but there is no character growth for the MC. he's doing the same s*upid crap in the 1000-end that he did in the beginning arcs; there's little to no maturing or growth at all. overall I was pretty disappointed, given that this is the same author that gave us something as complex and interesting as Xian Ni I know he can write much better than this. this is his most generic novel so far.

This story started out great. Really great. As a comedy, anyhow, with a main character who is super afraid of death, or even being wounded, or anything that involves pain. Not sure how that will keep up as the character grows stronger.

Then the translator changed. And the new translator started over completely, from chapter 1.

And I couldn't help but feel that the new translation was worse than the old one. The old translation had typos but a good flow that just made you laugh outright. The new translation seems to... more>> be edited properly for typos, but the language felt a lot less natural and the humor seemed to fall short of the mark somehow.

I put this on hold to re-read later when the original translation is no longer present in my memory banks. <<less

This novel has so much potential to be better than any of Er Gen's previous work but it only ended up being above average. There were so many missed opportunities for character development and world building but somehow Er Gen never followed through and left the world a bit hollow.

Story (0.5/1 stars) : The story is ok, it's a bit weaker than some of the other Er Gen novels but still better than most of the stuff out there. It is however the most generic out of all Er Gen's... more>> novels. It feels like a cookie cutter xianxia at time with MC just styling over everyone. There is a central storyline but it felt very generic and weak.

Character (0.5/1 stars) : BXC is a very fun character at first. He's unlike any of Er Gen's previous character. He's like the shameless side of Meng Hao on crack. However his character development is a bit lacking. He never really matured and while his antics are funny, they get stale later on in the story. I'm not saying he should lose all of his playfulness and shamelessness but I expected him to round out as a character later in the story (which he never does). There are many side character that stick around but Er Gen never developed them further than NPC that just hangs around the MC and get a couple of paragraphs once in a while. This is really a shame since some of them have so much potential to be interesting like Song Que, Bruiser,...

Writing (0.5/1 stars) : Er Gen's writing is top notch but there are still many flaws in this novel. Some part were overly long and some part feels overly short. Once BXC reached higher level cultivation it feels like an action movie with set piece after set piece wizzing by. Like I said above, some of the characters need more attention and development. The world overall feels a bit small compare to the other novel (except for the very end). This is because Er Gen is rushing the story to the next set piece later in the story so there are very few world building chapter. Overall, could use more polishing.

Enjoyment (1.5/2 stars) : With all that being said, I still enjoyed the story immensely. I didn't skip and of the chapters and while some part left me a bit bored I was still hooked until the very end. I enjoy that fact that this novel does connect to Er Gen's massive novel universe (You won't see much until the very end though). While it's not as good as some of Er Gen's previous work it is still very enjoyable. The type of story is very different from all of his previous work with lighter tone and characters. There are still sad moments but those are few and far in between. If you like a good romp then you'll probably like this novel.

Overall: 3.5/5 -> 4/5 (0.5 for the translation speed of Deathblade). <<less

Started off well, but eventually devolved into the typical generic Xianxia. After reading a few of these novels, you can pretty accurately predict what will happen, and characters don't really develop. I expected more from Er Gen, but I was let down by this series.

I decided to write this review because I quite like the story and the MC.

I give this series a four stars rating because of certain reasons.

... more>>

Spoiler

MC is straight forward to his goal. No matter what happens he is sticking to it and the story revolves in how he could achieve his will of eternity.

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I read some of the reviews and they don't like about the fact that the MC have a OP cultivation method when everyone is treating it as a common cultivation method. But let me clear the misunderstanding.

First of all that cultivation method where they treat as common and not worth their time learning is very hard to learn and torturous so many people who tried to learning gave it up half-way.

Secondly the cultivation method that the MC learned at the sect is not complete and by chance did he able to learn the rest or should I say the continuation of it.

So base on the second reason, the elders and other powerful people could have know that the cultivation method is powerful if they saw the complete form. For example, how would you treat an egg in a box where there's also many different kinds of egg that you don't know what species did it come from. In some way I could say that it's the MC's Luck and willpower that led him learning and studying the cultivation method through and through.

This is my first time writing a review so... just excuse me if something is wrongly grammar-ed.. <<less

I just love this novel so much, normally in other novels when the MC concocts medicinal pills you would you instantly know that they would succeeded but in this novel be prepare for extremely funny moments that'll make you laugh.

the only downside to this novel is that once you read it any other novels feel dull.

Wow. Holy S**t. This novel is the definition of pure awesomeness, comedic gold and epitome of epic storytelling for this genre.

Only at Book 2 but if story progression can maintain or get even better, it will most likely surpass Er Gen's previous novels and become his magnum opus.

My first ever review and also my highest recommendation of any novel I have read for this genre. It will probably only go down from here.

Conclusion, OMG read it!

"Shameless Eternal" indeed - I don't give out 5's lightly.

The MC is a trip, as you watch him deal with his obsessions on a long and dangerous road.
The only downside so far is

However, Er Gen has definitely learned and combined the best ideas from his previous novels. There is no stuffing and the MC is relateable.

So far, one of the best novels I have come across. In my experience, countless novels have so much filler that it makes them almost unreadable. A Will Eternal is one of the few exceptions which why I will keep reading without hesitation.

Recommend everyone to read it!

Its a hilarious story about somebody who wants to be immortal. MC's purpose is not to be the strongest, just to gain endless life. Its not your average c*cky Xianxia story where the MC is meeting everyone head on, this MC is afraid of dying so much, that he tries to avoid every dangerous task. Being shameless and getting into bad luck all the time makes the story really amusing and it offers a refreshing viewpoint in contrast to most other stories of that genre.

Story isn't... more>> repetitive and monotone, its not the classic "everyone in your sect wants you dead" story and the characters are reasonable.
Enjoyable read with lots of laughter. <<less

It starts out with a writing style that is similar to half way through ISSTH. Aside from being a coward, the MC is just as shameless as MH. Same OP item from first sect as in ISSTH. Humor is even better than ISSTH. Worth the read. Depending on how long it goes, how it develops, how consistent the comedy is, character development, and the ending, this might be the first series to maintain 5 stars from me in the end. We shall see...

Extremely funny, the MC is often misunderstood for his good will, which makes it funny.