The Human Emperor

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Forcefully brought over from the modern world to an alternate world, Wang Chong felt detached and lived his life aimlessly.

However, when calamity struck and he saw his family and everything he cared for being torn apart, he felt regret.

Thus, he stood up and eventually became the Grand Marshal of the Central Plains, leading an army against those who sought to destroy all he cherished.

Yet, despite all his efforts, it was already too late to reverse destiny.

But before his death, a shooting star, the same one which brought him to this world, appeared before him, and he was given another chance to undo his regrets.

Associated Names
One entry per line
Fani İmparator
Nhân Hoàng Kỷ
Records of the Human Emperor
Ren Huang Ji
T.H.E
人皇纪
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
I am the Monarch (12)
Reverend Insanity (10)
Zhanxian (9)
Transcending the Nine Heavens (9)
The Second Coming of Gluttony (9)
Cheeky Sword God (8)
Recommendation Lists
  1. Male Protagonist (No CP)
  2. Novels that I have read
  3. Op Mc / simulation systems
  4. Novels I have read
  5. Win Life with War Strategies

Latest Release

Date Group Release
07/01/21 Hosted Novel side story 40
07/01/21 Hosted Novel side story 39
06/30/21 Hosted Novel side story 38
06/30/21 Hosted Novel side story 37
06/29/21 Hosted Novel side story 36
06/29/21 Hosted Novel side story 35
06/28/21 Hosted Novel side story 34
06/28/21 Hosted Novel side story 33
06/27/21 Hosted Novel side story 32
06/27/21 Hosted Novel side story 31
06/26/21 Hosted Novel side story 30
06/26/21 Hosted Novel side story 29
06/25/21 Hosted Novel side story 28
06/25/21 Hosted Novel side story 27
06/24/21 Hosted Novel side story 26
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171 Reviews sorted by


NoobaLoob
NoobaLoob rated it
July 4, 2019
Status: C1000
The fact is this novel has good and bad. For the first hundred or so chapters it's a 5star novel, but as you read further along the bad becomes more and more apparent. Before I say anything else, let me say, without a doubt if you changed the words "Han" and "Great Tang" with "White" and "USA" no one would pick this book up and the author would be labeled racist beyond reproach.

Putting aside the racist/nationalistic side of the novel (which gets worse the further along you read) this novel... more>> also suffers from that every problem the MC faces is supposedly a huge game-changing issue.

Early on in the book there's an incident with 'foreign' generals getting more power at the borders they guard - the MC must change this because it leads to the downfall of Great Tang. As soon as this incident is over there's a series of battles at the south western border and the MC must change this because it leads to the downfall of the Great Tang. In between all this there's Korean spies/war of princes/preventing famines/getting warhorses and better armors/etc. And you guessed it, each of these events lead to the downfall of the Great Tang if MC doesn't handle them.

By chapter 900 the MC is facing the 'largest threat before the calamity' but it's hard to care because, after everything he's done, if the Great Tang would still 'definitely collapse' then maybe the country isn't as great as the novel reassures us time and again. But of course, as explained multiple times, the Great Tang really only falls because foreigners living both inside the country and out plot for Great Tangs downfall.

I really do like certain aspects of this book, but the main 3 issues I have are;

- Blatant Racism and Nationalism (I mean, they literally call Great Tang "the world")

- Every crisis is "do or die" and the cause is foreigners in some way

- Single Battles take way too long, the longest battles take 50+ chapters the short skirmishes take 3-4 chapters. <<less
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deathcoy
deathcoy rated it
June 21, 2020
Status: c2145
Story is a mesh of historical with a Wuxia touch and takes place during the Tang Dynasty. Protagonist transported from our world to this semi-fictional world, dies in apocalypse, turns back time and reincarnated in the past again.

I'll start with the positive.

The story setting is good, ancient china Tang Dynasty during the An Lushan Rebellion which kinda takes the center stage. Author crafted quite a beautiful world with the addition of Wuxia elements like cultivation, martial arts, supernatural low fantasy. A lot of the story revolves around the historical events... more>> during that time period. Pretty good world building all in all.

Another aspect I enjoy is the court politics and military bureaucracy. The cunning and guile is not at the level of novels like Kingdom's Bloodline but its fairly well done. It does take up almost half of the written content, so it might bore some people cos theres quite a lot of talking.

For the neutral.

Romance and harem. If thats what you're prioritizing then drop the novel. Its not the main focus and theres hardly any, at least not enough to make you happy. "Don't you know we're at War!!!" - Lotr

The cultivation system is the usual mediocre stuff but theres one interesting part which is the inclusion of halos and formations. This novel is centered on war and commanders leading their armies so halos are like a buff and debuff aura that cultivators practice. So while strength of the individual is important, command abilities from halos introduce a new dynamic to the battles.

The protagonist also tries to implement modern policies and technology into the fictional world. Though not extensive but I do feel its a missed opportunity to expand on this further. Some work out fine but others not so as they don't integrate and gel well with the world and story itself as the novel goes from a conventional world with Wuxia to a high fantasy Xuanhuan theme, explained further way down.

Now for the bad.

Lots of plot holes. Its like the author didn't map out a plan for the story and just writes what comes to mind. And when author tries to "fix" them, he just retcons the story in later chapters which ends up making it worse, story basically ends up with a lot of inconsistencies. Also because of this the various plots thrown into the novel seems too obviously opportunistic and convenient rather than well planned.

Certain events and parts of the story are severely underdeveloped. Either they are too short despite being a major event or author dumps the plot in and somehow forgets about it, to later pick it up and shape it then forget about it again. Its plain to see author does not plan the story well. He has too many plots in mind which are beyond his writing capabilities. Ends up with poor plot structure and organization of events in the novel.

There are a lot of side characters but they're mostly disappointing or just average. They lack proper character development and substantial presence in the overall storyline. They literally feel like convenient characters for the sake of the plot than a full fledged character. Antagonists are also kinda dull and bland. Some have been dragged too long in the story its detrimental to the novel. Maybe because of their incompetence. Characters are forgettable overall.

Now for the main character. I'm kinda in favor at first but later on it starts to fall apart. He turns into a one dimensional character in a way. In my opinion author made a mistake by making him too invested in his goal, kinda like he gets dehumanized. Good characters are written to be human-like with strengths and flaws, wins and loses and how he reacts and behave differently to different situations and characters so that they can be relatable to the audience. But in this novel, author lost touch and just made the MC a single minded being, hes like a doll rather than a true character. It doesn't help that he made all the obstacles and maturing opportunities for the MC too easy to overcome. The enemies are pretty much dumb. Almost everything is handed to MC on a silver platter.

Moving on to the battles and fights, I'm not a fan. Besides being lacklustre, author seems to have trouble translating epic battles into written words. Expect a lot of "Leaping Leopard Art, Dragon Claw, Stellar Energy Yin Yang Art" and sound effects like "ting, tang, cheng - hong long long".
I also take issue with the fact that author touts the novel as a conventional warfare with armies lead by generals with emphasis on the "Art of War" but it turns into something else later. In the early parts of the story we're seeing Wuxia genre elements with martial arts and cultivation but then turns into Xuanhuan with godlike abilities and strong fantasy elements. Whats the point of having an "Art of War" kinda novel when later on characters cultivate to get nuke levels of abilities? Switching genre and having no restrictions on power levels just kills the intended focus. Historical with low fantasy suddenly gets escalated into high fantasy. Remember when I mentioned modern technology being implemented into this world? Yea, this here makes it irrelevant.
I'm frustrated with the so call strategy and tactics of war in the novel. Xuanhuan replacing it is one, it turns into a s*upid overpowered ancestor vs another overpowered character. The other is the flow of the battle, initial stages we get to see some interesting strategies and tactics but it always happens that towards the climax and ending it ends up with both sides throwing everything at each other and screw all warfare strategies and culminates in, as mentioned before, a powerhouse vs a powerhouse to wipe the floor. We only see some resemblance of strategy and tactics in small skirmishes.

We come to last point and I guess this one is more of a sensitive topic.
Racial Bias and Nationalist Pride but its NOT blind racism or nationalism.
This novel has some hardcore undertone of the die hard nationalist with the 'china number one' mindset and the chinese being the superior race. Nothing surprising really, this is a norm in chinese media and literature. However this is not like the usual mindless racism we see in chinese novels. In fact I'm somewhat inclined to agree with the arguments laid out by the MC. Hear me out.

More or less, the nationalism and racism were fueled by the fact that foreign power & influence has already invaded China, from their government to their military, economy, trade and even the daily lives of their citizens. It jeopardizes the safety and sovereignty of the country, it also jeopardizes the stability, jobs and livelihood of the locals and their families. I quote a statement from the MC when he vehemently rejects the bill for forming the Regimental Commanders and proposal for increased intake of foreign talent; "The Tang will promote both the Tang and the Hu (foreigners) but the Hu will only promote the Hu". In a way, this is NOT merely blind racism and nationalism. Author goes through several underlying issues on the heavy reliance on foreigners, how they can endanger the livelihoods of locals, the danger of foreigners in various positions of power in the country, how they are effectively strangling the nurturing of local talents who are supposed to shoulder the future of their people, how constantly recruiting foreign talents is NOT a long term solution but instead digging their own graves, how naturalized citizens are a risky gamble and a dangerous double edged sword, the political ramifications and conflict of interest involved and much more.

Personally, as someone who is living in a country where HALF the population are expats and foreign citizens, I can understand and empathize with this. The struggle is real for the local citizens. I do not advocate racism nor a fan of nationalist pride. However the cause of all of these is undeniable and instead we should tackle the problem from the roots itself, reforms to governing and policies geared towards supporting and nurturing local talents and businesses to cut off reliance on their foreign counterparts.

A long review but I believe its quite accurate and concise. Overall I do enjoy reading some parts but- its ok at the start, drops in the middle and gets dumb later on. <<less
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Streuya
Streuya rated it
February 20, 2019
Status: c580
Suffers from usual Chinese novel issues: word padding, needless repetition of details (more word padding), and excessive/non-sensical worship of the MC by his allies.

By chapter 100 it was wearing thin, by chapter 300 I just accepted that while this novel had the potential to be outstanding, it has unfortunately been hindered by the limitations of every creative work subjected to profit minded oversight: deadlines imposed without regard to their effect on the storyline and a reward/payment system designed to emphasize quantity over quality.

All that being said: this novel is better... more>> than most. By chapter 10 (4.2), by chapter 100 (3.9), by chapter 300 (3.7), by chapter 500 (3.6).

As much as I'd love to round up to 4, I have an overwhelming premonition that the downward trend will continue and have instead (perhaps unfairly) rounded down to 3. At chapter 580 (most current I've read at this time) I would rate this between 3.5 and 3.6... crazy as that sounds.

Worth reading? Yes. Worth finishing? Possibly.

Potential: Moderate - High.

Creativity: Moderate.

Plot progression: inconsistent (alternates between slow and fast), but not a complete mess. <<less
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AllHailMyBanana
AllHailMyBanana rated it
February 15, 2019
Status: c72
I thought before this novel is good, but the first thing I read this novel is too much racism.
Read this make you kinda disappointed.

If you didn't like novel whos have many RACISM, PATRIOTISM, or from other country other than chinese. BETTER DONT READ THIS.
Actually, the novel have good plot, but too many racism going around the novel.
I think its better if author use fantasy name and make the world histories not from our true world.
This novel only mislead history so have wrong impression in reality because... more>> you never read the true history.

Spoiler

This novel is like author want to blame the fall of Great Tang because of invasion from Abbasid Caliphate. lul... if you have ever read history of Great Tang, Tibetan Empire, Abbasid Caliphate you will know the truth. Here is it en (dot) wikipedia (dot) org/wiki/Battle_of_Talas

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SilentReader963
SilentReader963 rated it
May 12, 2018
Status: c388
This is definitely the best "second chance" novels I have ever read in my life. The plot line of protecting the country and ensuring the survival is awesome. I would really like to read more of it.
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Anonymousse
Anonymousse rated it
February 12, 2018
Status: c394
Read this in my free time n kinda disappointed.

The plot taken from a real history of ancient china, Tang dynasty to be exact, with "What if..." as the main plot from the author. u may take it as an alternate ending of the tang dynasty. google if u wanna know more bout tang dynasty, but beware that it might spoils a bit about future plot.

MCs father is an brainless general, probably had lower IQ than other ppl rather than the so-called straightforward and honest.

MC so lame at his effort to... more>> change the future. he sucks at explaining or reasoning for his plan, create lots of misunderstanding. He also act like a living budha which always only care about his goal, sometimes end up with disadvantages to his own (once, the imperial financial minister comes to pressure him with low prices, yet hes dumb enough to even lower it further, and he complain bout how hes always lacking of money??). Hes a great general, yet hes got scared of ppl like his cousins (a teenage girl), some girls (yet another teenagers), his uncle, etc (like WTF?!)

The title also a mislead I think since MC have a very soldier-minded thinkview, not the so called "THE HUMAN EMPEROR".

Overall, I just view this novel as a way to brainwash its readers to always put the nations affair high above personals affair. <<less
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gryffinpuff
gryffinpuff rated it
August 2, 2019
Status: c444
Okkish story - basically a one man army, MC has barely any interactions with friends/family. People get introduced and are then forgotten until some plot armor asks for them... initially some politics was involved making the story interesting, but now it's just s*upid warfare. No intelligent schemes from MC, the other people (future generals/enemies/etc) are s*upid...

Very racist novel. Indians are impoverished hungry and desperate people. Tibetans are unwashed barbarians. Koreans are scheming opportunists etc...

No money sense. In one chapter, 90k gold taels are too much, even for a top clan.... more>> In another chapter, they are casually taking out 3 millions gold taels... and then really gold mining in the kingdom is limited to 2 million taels etc... the MC got a get- out- of- jail card due to his genius paper currency, but was then soon forgotten, and a year later (in the novel) he's still lugging his gold in chests...

The author introduces some new concept once in a while and then forgets about it, only coming back to it when he remembers or as a filler. The MC makes swords and has a contract to make thousands of them. He took advance money and then forgot about them. What happened to making swords? He has already used the advance money. But no one comes to ask him about it...

The MC spends so much effort to get THE ultimate cultivation manual/ fighting technique, and then he gets another one and another, and keeps forgetting about the old ones. They just appear out of blue, when author remembers them, apparently...

Even more ridiculous are the female characters - they are annoying, arrogant, and for some reason, always, way too powerful than MC and other guys int he novel... if these characters had been male, they would be a perfect fit for those arrogant sect guys the MC (and readers) always hates and crushes, but since they are female (in this novel), they are supposed to be cute!? <<less
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Onponmon
Onponmon rated it
May 4, 2019
Status: c708
To be honest, the first 450~ or so chapters were solid reading. I felt like I couldn't put the novel down and I wanted to keep going. Unfortunately though, for me—that's where the fun ended. The battle scene in this part takes over 100 chapters to complete and things just drag out. I also found myself disliking the MC more and more as the story progressed. Part of it was the MC always being right but the other part for me was his smug attitude about it. There's probably a... more>> thin line between confidence and c*ckiness but he just started to become more like a prick than anything in my eyes. I found myself rooting for the enemies to give the MC a big L.

So quick background, the MC deserves to be smart and have intimate knowledge of war and strategy. This MC is a dude living his 3rd life. If you can't have a grasp on certain things at this point...I mean come on. Anyway, I've got a huge rant coming up so stick with me.

This might be considered a spoiler, I mean, you'll learn most of this in the first 10 chapters or so but a few parts are gleaned from various comments/chapters/flashbacks as the story progresses so here goes the spoiler alert:

Spoiler

The MC's first life is only mentioned (up to 708) in a few statements here and there. I'm paraphrasing but it basically amounts to: the MC was a gamer in his past life and was known as some War Saint in a strategy (VR??) online game. Next the MC is a "transcender" who finds himself in the body of this 15 yr old kid in a new world (universe? reality?). He lives a detached life with the motto, "not my world, not my problem" and allows himself to fall into debauchery and becomes an all around POS. Then sh** hits the fan when he's around 25 and the world gets invaded by some "foreign invaders." His family bites the dust and because he never trained or cultivated his pleb status makes him a burden. But being the upstanding family of generals and ministers that they are—they one-by-one basically all die to protect him and he realizes that he should never have acted like they didn't matter and should've embraced his life in this new world. Cue the sad music. Next is the vaguely explained power-up sequence. The wastrel MC decides he needs to help the empire, so being the war strategy gamer-god he was in his past life, he makes a name for himself in the military. The elders of the military realize they need him and channel all their strength to the MC, thus creating a god-like general from a total pleb. He becomes the head of the military and is known as the "War Saint" - remember this, as it gets mentioned repeatedly. His War Saint status apparently makes him top sh*t in every aspect. He's among the strongest (cultivation-wise), knows every martial cultivation technique (including secret/sacred ones for the royal-lineage only), is a master of every weapon, can speak all foreign languages, is better at strategy than anyone, he's also a master blacksmith, architect, engineer, mason and he knows the chemical ingredients for concrete and brings it to the imperial era. The 2nd life ends when he is 45 and dies fighting the foreign invaders. He gets a redo and wakes up in the 15 yr old body of himself to start his 3rd life. This time he vows to do it all differently. So now he's a 15yr old debauchee who decides he's going to prepare the empire for the foreign invaders.

In the beginning this is all kosher. He uses his knowledge of major events regarding the empire in his 2nd life to know what to prepare for and which major players to connect with and to avoid. He remembers key dates regarding his family and their deaths which makes sense because he felt such enormous guilt for how he treated them. Where I begin to have issues with the story is when the MC starts to gain massive power-ups and have intimate knowledge of minor characters or even "brothers/sisters" he fought with in his 2nd life when they were young. I.E. he knows everything about them and it makes them easier to manipulate. Now remember: during this period of time in his 2nd life, he was "mr. worthless debauchee-guy." He wasn't friends with these people and when he does learn of their existence it's 15+ years later (after the foreign invaders and after he got crazy power-up status.

I started to get irritated with this novel when the MC openly flaunts his prowess as a divine figure and nobody calls bullsh*t. A 15yr old well-known debauchee suddenly understands an exclusive blacksmithing recipe and monopolizes it—ok? Then the same worthless debauchee now knows martial arts and is cultivating himself at a rate which puts longtime geniuses of the younger generation to shame. Then that same debauchee who turned his life around now understands strategies better than the "War God" Old Marshall Su Zhengchen (big-wig). He achieves all of these feats as a 15/16/17 yr old boy. It starts off like a longterm training novel like legendary moonlight sculptor but he gets a cheat code and skips all the hardwork to become a supreme expert. Even with this, I was trying to be patient. I finally abandoned this novel when the MC visits one of his (past life) general's village (chapter 695) while she's still a child (in this timeline). My problem, is that he knows exactly where she's going to be and exactly what she's doing at a specific time of day. It doesn't sound like this should drop the immersive element but for me it did. I mean, just think about it. Even if he fought wars with this chick general and became intimate in his past life or stayed as just friends (who cares?), it's impossible for him to find out what she was doing 15-20yrs ago on a specific day and time. There's no way he would ever know the exact day and time she was out in this cavern with a mission to look for grass. But the author specifically states, the only reason he went this round-about way to enter her village was to look for her because he knew she'd be there; on this day, at this time. The author also said he left it up to his most trusted dude to handle this recruitment mission (to her village) and had no intention of personally attending. So he wasn't specifically planning on this date/time to enter. Yet it just so happened that when he got word sh*t went wrong and he had to intervene it just happened to coincide with the exact day/time this girl is outside doing a mission. So serendipitous. These eye-rolling moments happen with ever-increasing frequency as the novel progresses. Just major gaps and plot holes that are masked with lazy writing.

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Okay, my rant exceeded even my own expectations. If you read it all, hopefully you found it somewhat useful, otherwise, sorry. For what it's worth, the book is a decent read and starts off really well. The fight scenes are descriptive and the environment is rich. I made it all of the way to 700 before deciding to abandon this series. <<less
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Nic
Nic rated it
March 21, 2018
Status: c335
I've been reading this for quite awhile now and I would say that it's worth waiting for a chapter release everyday.

So far, among the countless novels I have seen in NU, The Human Emperor is one of the very few that I keep on reading (*cough* that is not in anyway BL-related *cough*) because I like the way how transmigration and rebirth made the plot more engaging.

The male protagonist's (Wang Chong) personality is very likable. All side characters play vital roles in Wang Chong's goal and weren't just there to... more>> be mere cannon fodders.

The show of patriotism here is something that can stir up one's emotion and that's also the main reason why I admire this novel a lot!

Overall, THE is really good! Even a BL fan like me was hooked! Lol!

Salute to the author! Well done, translator! You have all worked hard! <<less
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prakx_rj
prakx_rj rated it
December 23, 2017
Status: c1
My only prob is that the story contains very heavy Chinese propaganda.. However, the story is great. Tang is China, Gogureo is old Korean nation, Caliphate is Arab kingdom, Monks who bring Damascus metal is India, Kitan should be Mongol (i guess). Now, the invading foreigners should be colonising European nations which defeated China is 19th century. This is mostly retelling actual history while protagonist is trying to change future. I think the author actually believes that Tang (China) is best nation while rest of the countries surrounding it are... more>> A-holes and B-tards. <<less
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SayMrrp
SayMrrp rated it
August 19, 2017
Status: c178
So far, it's the best 'Second Chance' novel I've ever read. Well-written and interesting.

I was totally hyped to read it months ago, and when I continued reading, it was still just as good (maybe better) as before. It might be a slow novel (I dunno, I feel it's fine...), but it's good.

MC's currently flawless. Hasn't done anything childishly (at least not on purpose) and hasn't screwed up. That might be an issue for character development, but there's no way he'll be perfect. He hasn't messed up YET, but he doesn't... more>> always perfectly achieve his goals. (20% completion lol). The MC isn't OP yet. He's definitely getting there though. Lots of talent and teachers. Training camp seems to be coming soon! Also, I find the MC interesting as a character even though he hasn't faced any major setbacks. Good portrayal of a character. Hmm, MC's a hardcore patriot (morally righteous too...), so I wonder why it's named The Human Emperor. Well, I guess the racism tag is because the MC fights for his country against its enemies. I don't really think that the story really deserves all the negative connotations of racism. MC interacts fairly with some foreigners (allies).

There's an explanation for why the MC received a second chance. Interesting system.

MC doesn't really have any cheats beyond knowing sometimes vague details of the future and valuable skills (that he has to train in and develop). He does seem to have a bit of plot armor and luck though.

Side characters are interesting. Can't wait to see more of the MC's family. MC's future masters are going to be fun to interact with. Also, the politics are actually not boring. I don't really like political stuff, but the politics are decently understandable and not utterly dull. The MC gets the most focus though. Some side characters might show up less than you like. I don't mind though. The MC's interesting enough for me, and new characters I like always show up. There aren't dumb enemies either, besides the ones that are supposed to be dumb (young kids).

The MC isn't all-knowing. He's encountered some mysteries that he didn't know about. He also hasn't become absolutely dumb because of silly stuff like women issues. There hasn't been much romance.

A really satisfying read. Totally worth the 5 stars.

EDIT Chapter 1162:

Well, it became a novel about war, so I hope you like reading battles! I usually don't, but this novel has some interesting ones. They're a bit dragged out sometimes, but they're well-written and full of hype.

Also, this novel isn't racist. If you look at it from the MC's perspective, then you'd see a bunch of invaders coming at your home. The way the enemies are written is also really good. A lot of the notable ones are really respectable, and I cried when some of them died. The novel makes the enemies feel human and likable, even though there are moments when they're looked down on (wartime, duh). The enemies were super intelligent, enough to fight and trick the MC, so yay, smart characters~ <<less
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Kefi
Kefi rated it
October 31, 2018
Status: c312
This is a time-traveling do over with a bit of a twist.... more>>
Spoiler

A mysterious game-system that the MC has to accomodate to survive the penalty for changing destiny

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It's a somewhat enjoyable read, due to the quality of the story and the translation, with a solid background anchored in history.

The story is not without defaults but is quite interesting as it encompasses politics, economics, cultivation and warfare. And althought the MC is presented as a genius in all these topics, it's often presented in a clumsy fashion as everyone is dumbed down to make him shine in contrast.

The first of my main problems with this story is that the writer floods his story with entire chapters of repetitions, obvious explanations of what has just been told in one sentence and paragraphs from the point of view of irrelevant characters...

Secondly, the MC's blind patriotism to an empire that fosters corruption, betrayal, cruelty at every level instead of focusing on saving the actual people in it, finally made me wish that the great tang actually gets destroyed.

Spoiler

In no specific order, here are some of the things that annoyed me and ultimately made me drop this story:

  • The "great sage" emperor initially left his empire fall due to rampant intestine conflicts, shitty weapons, armors, lack of rations for the army... I wonder what he should have done to be dubbed a fool...
  • The MC supposedly becomes rich while consistently making bad deals and spending more than he's supposed to have
  • The best secret teacher at the school that the MC manage to get, tries to kill his five student by a surprise attack the first night and laments that he only killed one them... and that's the only "lesson" we ever see him give.
  • The same first night, the school for the young elite is attacked by enemy army and the tang army stationed outside of the camp that is aware in advance of this attack lets them die for the same shitty reason: you can't count on anyone is this s*upid empire
  • Despite having all the cheats and future knowledge and being OP, the MC systematically gets tr*shed by every female he encounters and never develops a grudge about that like he consistently does with male rivals

Believe me, I have more, but this is already too much of a wall of text...

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All in all, if you don't expect too much, scroll through the s*upid fillers to get to the action and don't mind the nationalist propaganda, it's a somewhat passable read imo. <<less
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2Girls1Cupcake
2Girls1Cupcake rated it
April 8, 2018
Status: c858
TL;DR:

This is a decent novel.

The fact that the novel is heavily reliant on wars while the author is clearly lacking in understand of actual art of war really drags it down. Art of war is put on center stage in the novel while taking a backseat in wars where it's clearly more about cultivation styles and levels.

... more>> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The MC is transmigrated into a different world which he rejects until calamity strikes and he finds out that you don't know what you've got until you've lost it, luckily he gets a second chance by going back in time to a time shortly after the initial transmigration.

His journey to change the destiny of his country and him learning how his involvement can bring both favorable and unfavorable results is interesting despite the clear nationalism shown by the author, just to be clear, what you see in this novel is justified by the author through the MCs knowledge of what will happen in the future, everything he does is to prevent the calamity, it should however be noted that the clarification made by the author about the difference in culture between the races can't be called racism and is pure fact. Many correlations can also be drawn between this novel and the modern western world including its different political movements.

There are however several infuriating things in this novel, like how things that we already know are repeated constantly, especially before conclusions of wars or fights as a filler.

Worse than this however is the fact that he's called the soldier saint, the top commander and strategist in his previous life, where he could easily take on armies that had 10 times the number of his own, this is consistent with real world history and has been accomplished by using the art of war, however in his new life he is incapable of doing this, at first it is explained away through the quality of the soldiers being low, the different powers in this world making sieging easier and the quality of the enemy commanders being higher than after the calamity. It is infuriating though how even after picking up top level troops he 's reliant on cheat powers and superior equipment and despite it being pointed out how superior his tactics are and how perfect his planning is he keeps getting surprised by the enemy and they keep escaping despite traps laid for them. They are like c*ckroaches that just skitter around, there just to be annoying, it's fine if it's once, but repeated escapes just to act as filler is annoying.

The last and worst sin commited by the author is iron and steel cities, seriously, are they swimming in it?! This has no relation to reality, these resources were hard to come by in the historical period of the Tang dynasty and despite the special powers in this fantasy world it's still just plot armor to be honest, even if it could be explained it's just dumb. Especially when he later makes concrete which should be cheaper and if reinforced with steel it should be sufficiently strong, but worst of all is that it isn't stainless steel, seriously, that sh*t will rust in no time. <<less
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ZhaWarudo
ZhaWarudo rated it
June 18, 2017
Status: c117
Politics and kingdom building - good things

Bad things

Lame cultivation system (monkey stealing the peaches, white ape turning it's head and other silly animal tehnique names)

... more>> Word count filler - I basically skip read the text sometimes because it's not saying anything at all

You get into the wuxia feel, all historical and chill, and then bam xuanhuan punches you in the face, a booming mechanical voice appears in the MC's head and says some sh*t like you got the title Destiny's Struggler! It just doesn't fit, in wuxia kind of world what the hell you need that for? Fortunately that rarely happens, well that actually makes it even more out of place.

Someone said the MC is not like other transmigrators where they know all the tehniques, alchemy, arrays...

Seems to me the MC does know really all tehniques, and even though he wasn't a blacksmith he makes the world's best swords you know bcoz he probably watched some katana making documentary lol and out of the first try without experience he perfectly replicates it.

Still worth reading though. ~7/10 but I chose 4 stars because out of all the ***** novels here this one deserves a higher rating <<less
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BAttle_God
BAttle_God rated it
November 18, 2021
Status: c1251
Other than the disgusting nationalism and fanatism the MC has for the Sage Emperor and the royal blood, plus the digusting amount of fillers which I skipped in the hundreds of chapters this novel is quite good.

But honestly I really wanna puke from the overwhelming nationalism in this novel. The MC's character on this part almost ruined this novel for me and now i'll take a break before continuing because im very disgusted and need to take a break.
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DekuHero
DekuHero rated it
August 19, 2019
Status: --
I liked the story a bit but I started noticing that the females in this story were just not likeable the more and more I read.

In the early chapters his sisters and mom are so much more powerful than him. His mom is constantly telling his father to be quiet when he's trying to discipline or talk with the kids. His sisters basically man handled him all the time, but I ignored this and thought it was because he was very weak and also trying to act like his old... more>> beta self. I noticed the more I read the women just got more powerful and arrogant while the MC is always scared of them while sweating due to the fear. The person who wrote this is probably a Masochist that likes the thought of women using his balls as a punching bag.

Just not my cup of tea and I wish I would have known this before reading and that is why I'm writing a review trying to save those from reading it that don't like this type of crap. The whole reason I read Chinese stories over japanese stories is because they are typically more manly and don't do pathetic shit. <<less
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hanlerris
hanlerris rated it
April 7, 2019
Status: --
The novel starts out fairly strong, but it devolves after 200+ chapters or so. In the beginning, the main character's opponents were not brainless idiots and you can see the author putting in the effort to develop their thoughts, their objectives, their needs, which was a breath of fresh air in this genre of Chinese novels. However this does not continue (maybe the author was running out of ideas and pressed for time?). Also on a side note, the novel is clearly geared towards Chinese nationalism, as they adopt the... more>> age old Chinese proverb of "Barbarians to the North (Mongols), South (Vietnam/Thai), East (Korea/Manchu), West (Turkic Khans) " concept where everyone who's not Chinese are enemies that needs to be conquered/slaughtered. I found this a bit laughable as political/diplomatic situation throughout Tang dynasty was more nuanced then that. Well if you are in the mood for a mediocre Chinese web novel to burn time, you should take a look. <<less
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JohnnyBeGood
JohnnyBeGood rated it
March 14, 2019
Status: c769
It started great. The MC manipulating those around him to stop various plots against his family and clan and later the Country. But then the Author started expanding his World building and failed. There is neither external consistency (matching reality/common knowledge), nor is there internal consistency (the fantasy elements matching together). Externally most of the knowledge the MC supposedly brings back from our modern world and applies is pure Bullshit. Internally neither the cultivation, military nor the economic and social aspects fit together (a great example of this is the... more>> Author claiming that a single powerful cultivator can´t beat armies by himself and then having mid-tier generals doing exactly that). It's like a cook thinking this ingredient is cool let's just throw it into the pot without caring about how it fits with the other ingredients.

Another thing when designing a MC giving him genius IQ/sage level wisdom/knowledge without a good excuse for why he does not or cannot use those awesome abilities most of the time, will usually lead to a never ending list of plot holes and dumb downed villains and side characters, while still making the MC look s*upid as f*ck. In this story the MC supposedly has high Mental stats (IQ, EQ, Wisdom, Cha etc.), modern knowledge and rebirth knowledge as well as very important reasons to use those three to their fullest, but nope they are only used when the story needs and conveniently ignored otherwise. An averagely smart person in place of the MC (given the same knowledge, resources and time the MC had) should be able to come up with a dozen's of counters and guards to the first invasion and have them in place long beforehand. The MC only comes up with three and without plot armour would have lost that war. <<less
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ZeroBlink
ZeroBlink rated it
February 1, 2019
Status: c400
My tolerance for this novel wears off around chapter 200

Pros:first 100 chap, Politics, Economy, Technology and Grand Strategy.
Spoiler

Let's get the obvious faults out of the way before I get into the meat of it.
Firstly all women are the same, if you erase the name of a character and put their dialogs next to each-other, You would not be able to tell who's talking. 99% of girls are constipated, no matter if of higher or lower birth than MC.

The author throws a shitton of absolutely usless fodder characters at you while sidelining important once, like the MC's father and brothers or even gramps. In 400 chapters I've seen the gramps once

Then MC knows everything about everyone so it doesn't matter.

The MC is still from power standpoint barely gotten trough first Realm breakthrough that is going from level 1.4 to 2.1 and he's like "wow I leveledup 6-7 levels DAUMN IM FAST"... no you're not you're putting me to sleep its been 400 chapters already you realize that right?.

In short the novel has abysmal pacing and power progression.

I liked the fact that the MC was weak physically and stronger mentally, however it is different now author gives him all of the best SECRET techniques in the world, and he still cannot compare to his peers.

Now then STRATEGY... I'm sorry to say but it's simplistic beyond simplistic.... I get that the empire is in decline, but my god!
In most scenes the army acts like 9 yr olds
"yeah so we attacked them and we lost, idk what's wrong.. teheeeee" - and we're talking here about young leaders who were in training since birth, coming from general families.
"REALLY THEY HAD SENTRIES?" - *facepalm* no ret*rds they were waiting for you to come play at the playground.

My point here is that there are no standards in this army, in fact instead of these YOUNG PRODIGIES you could pluck out any peasant, huntsman or even housewife and they would do a better job, because at least they fear death and value life.

When the prodigies make massive blunders and say loose 300 / 1000 for no reason at all, they're flippant about it.

Most strategy conducted in this novel so far is like one move chess, every move is a checkmate.

Where as a battle SHOULD BE a dance. It's SO strangely Close to a dance that some boxers take dancing classes and fighting styles like capoiera were disguised as a dance.

Same goes for grand strategy, if you're not dancing, you're not evenly match or you are blind (in strategic sense)

[collapse]
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Oukis Lips
Oukis Lips rated it
November 11, 2017
Status: c227
The concept is great but the author lacks the ability to follow through. There's no romance, barely any drama, a little warfare, some martial arts, but 90% of this story is politics and scheming. The problem is that politics and scheming are only entertaining if the characters are intelligent, and the most intelligent character can only be as intelligent as the author... In this case, the MC, who is supposed to be a genius, really only has average intelligence at best. His "genius" is derived from a combination hindsight and... more>> plot armor. I really, really like the concept, but the author simply placed too much focus on an aspect of the story in which he is lacking.

Additionally, this series, like so many other Chinese series which are evaluated by word count, drags on way too much. The author repeats the same information several times, and over-describes things for the sake of filling the word count. I remember there was an entire chapter that was wasted simply describing the MC walking a few dozen steps.

As such, I wouldn't recommend this series to anyone who isn't particularly partial to reincarnation and time travel genres. <<less
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