Battle Through the Heavens

Description

Links are NOT allowed. Format your description nicely so people can easily read them. Please use proper spacing and paragraphs.

In a land where no magic is present. A land where the strong make the rules and the weak have to obey. A land filled with alluring treasures and beauty, yet also filled with unforeseen danger. Three years ago, Xiao Yan, who had shown talents none had seen in decades, suddenly lost everything. His powers, his reputation, and his promise to his mother. What sorcery has caused him to lose all of his powers? And why has his fiancee suddenly shown up?

Associated Names
One entry per line
Battles Breaks the Skies
BTTH
Fighting to Break the Skies
斗破苍穹
Related Series
Wu Dong Qian Kun (Shared Universe)
The Great Ruler (Shared Universe)
Battle Through the Heavens Prequel – The Legend of Yao Lao (Prequel)
Dragon Prince Yuan (Shared Universe)
Absolute Resonance (Same Franchise)
What Do You Call a Benevolent and Reasonable Person in Xianxia? An Impossibility! (BTTH) (Spin-Off)
Recommendations
Wu Dong Qian Kun (6)
The Great Ruler (6)
Coiling Dragon (4)
Against the Gods (3)
Pivot of the Sky (3)
Sovereign of the Three Realms (3)
Recommendation Lists
  1. Action-Cultivation-Fantasy
  2. Novels that I have read
  3. Novels I have read
  4. My Main Novels 2
  5. Manhua

Latest Release

Date Group Release
04/08/15 Wuxiaworld c50
04/08/15 Wuxiaworld c49
04/08/15 Wuxiaworld c48
04/08/15 Wuxiaworld c47
04/08/15 Wuxiaworld c46
04/08/15 Wuxiaworld c45
04/08/15 Wuxiaworld c44
04/08/15 Wuxiaworld c43
04/08/15 Wuxiaworld c42
04/08/15 Wuxiaworld c41
04/08/15 Wuxiaworld c40
04/08/15 Wuxiaworld c39
04/08/15 Wuxiaworld c38
04/08/15 Wuxiaworld c37
04/08/15 Wuxiaworld c36
Go to Page...
Go to Page...
Write a Review
155 Reviews sorted by


strixflash
strixflash rated it
May 15, 2016
Status: c377
I had high hopes for this novel seeing it's popularity but I was totally disappointed. The story itself is bad but the translations further ruins the fun for English readers as its full of pinyins for even common words which can be easily translated.

Why am I saying it's bad? Let's see...

MC's luck is so good that even the Lady Luck would die from jealousy. I understand that in such genres MC should have heaven defying luck but BTTH crosses the line. MC would find that even his sh*t... more>> is gold.

Author would waste chapters in introducing some beautiful one dimensional female character in every arc. They would fall for MC because of his awesome powers and superb looks. Author doesn’t focuses on any character development for the female characters... they are their just to fangirl and bring trouble for MC as arrogant young masters can't stand MC's charm *cough* The female characters are all looks but zero personality.

Battles are dragged out and honestly most of them are hardly any impressive. The most annoying part is that author would define MC's handsome features during the middle of a fight ~_~ We already know that MC is syper handsome as author explains it in every two chapters but does he have to mention MC's handsome features during the middle of a battle?!

The training is the most annoying part. Honestly the cultivation levels are hardly any impressive in this novel unlike ISSTH. Author would waste dozens of chapters for the process in which MC refines Heavenly flame. Chinese novels are 60% training and 40% adventures but in other novels at least the training part is good... BTTH has the worst training arcs. I get headaches whenever I read training arcs and that includes him refining heavenly flame or pills.

Boring world building. From what I have seen so far there is nothing impressive or unique. Perhaps that will change later on. <<less
122 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Conspiring Cactus
Conspiring Cactus rated it
June 14, 2017
Status: c833
BTTH in a nutshell: Here's a girl, there's another girl, MC nearly died here whew, here have another girl, power up, oh no girl A went back to her clan, power up, another girl please, the girl from before that disappeared returned, oh that girl almost died, filler chapters, power up again, girl hates MC but doesn't kill MC even though she wants to, another girl, more pretty girls, girls.

I love this novel. A competent MC that isn't hung up on "justice", hard working, who gives back all he receives... more>> with interest. Cast of characters is decent, the setting is interesting. Other than dragging out events and the antagonists being repetitive in personality, it's a good read.

Just kidding. Kill me.

On a more serious note, this novel is bland. The fight scenes are half-assed and the story makes no sense. Please don't get me wrong. The world that the novel is set in is fantastic but the characters and their attitudes make it s*upid. The protagonist is a plain idiot, his chick is a Mary Sue character that apparently loves him but doesn't trust him enough to tell him important things (ffs I'd enjoy this more if this novel were NTR), his side chicks are annoying (Yun Yun is s*upid - perfect for him, Yanran is a dolt, Yan Fei is plain annoying Medusa is a snake - no pun intended - and wants to *spoiler* but chooses not to; and don't get me started talking about that loli and the relatives). You may find this opinion s*upid but take a good and hard look at the story again. Look at the female characters. Are they good characters on their own or do they just serve the protagonist's needs, wants, and desires?

Now, the badly written harem is just one issue. The second is how typically cliched it is. Compare BTTH to nearly every other novel on the Chinese web literary world and you'll find at least 20 other works that are similar. About 3 or 4 are translated and can be accessed by foreign readers. This needs no explanation. The third is how it seems to drag on and on without inserting important information within chapters. This led to me skipping chapters entirely without bothering to even go through them.

"Oh Cactus but you skip chapters so how do you know whether it is important or not?"

Because I've read up to chapter 600+ before putting it on hiatus and reading it from the beginning, and realising how much time I've wasted on a piece of garbage. Then I proceeded to skip chapters entirely even after 600+.

Overall, I'm tempted to drop this god-awful novel but then started thinking about how much time I've invested in it. I'll probably read till 1000 to see whether it improves or not. Knowing web novels, best of luck to me. <<less
66 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
omarct
omarct rated it
October 9, 2016
Status: c270
I despise this novel. Everything in this novel feels generic, from the auction house, to the old dude in the ring, to the alchemy, to the MC from another world, to everything else. The fact that it uses it these well used things doesnt bother me, it is the fact that there is nothing unique to any of it. Its like the author just decided to put every xianxia cliche into the story to try and make it interesting. Some of the things dont even play a role in the... more>> story, like him being from another world it is just a gimmick to I guess make the readers relate to the MC, but it has nothing and I mean nothing to do with the story, it is mentioned at the beginning and never again. If what I am telling you isnt bad enough, then there is the writing, oh god the writing. This author is the worst writer I have ever seen, there is so much PADDING every f*cking chapter. It gets to the point where I am rushing trying to get through all the nonsense, as a matter of fact I started skipping entire paragraphs altogether, I would read the first few words and just from that I could tell what was coming. Yes thats right it got to the point where I could recognize whether a paragraph was padding or not just from reading the first sentence. Do yourself a favor go read ISSTH, ATG, TMW, MW, DE, TDG or any other recommendation before reading this piece of garbage. <<less
56 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
kalp456
kalp456 rated it
April 23, 2017
Status: c817
This is a series that promotes self-centeredness. Not just this novel, all of the novels written by the author promote self-centeredness. The MC expects that everything must go the way he wants to. Someone broke up with him? Then that person X must suffer. Author must create scenes wherein regret will be etched on X's face and bone or whatever. Someone wanted to be filial to her master but at the same time try to stop the madness that is currently happening, nope, that means that that person Y was... more>> just betraying him. Everything must go his way, whether you like it or not. Many things in the novel are like these examples.

But of course, this is but a natural course of events. I mean, what would you expect from a novel that has 1 dimensional characters only, except if the said character is someone who the author wanted to be someone who will be filled with regret later, which then becomes a 2d character, obviously. That's right, even the MC is a one dimensional piece (piss) of shit. He was supposed to be from another world, supposedly earth, where morals and such are the norm, but then... yeah, just some gimmick to attract audience.

Now, why was I am I still reading this piece of sh*t after 700+ chapters? People might think it is the plot but no. The plot, admittedly, is better than the characters but that's just in comparison. It is still shitty. Note: I'm talking about the plot, not the story. This series is just some mushed-up cliches to form some painstakingly designed poop for others to somehow admire without any themes whatsoever. There would be some gimmicks that might fool the viewer, like how

Spoiler

his teacher would be in a slumber or a "precious" comrade of his is abducted but these are all just excuses since these people are not needed in the current plot. The former, for example, was temporarily removed because the author don't want him in the alchemist competition (if I remember that correctly). On another slumber of his teacher, it was done because plot armor. It was one of the excuses in order for Xiao Yan to survive his ordeal. You can easily notice this by how the author made the priority of awakening the master a second matter. When MC was preparing to fight his senior apprentice brother, he didn't really bother to awaken his master. In fact, even the thought of awakening him didn't appear. This is just an evidence of the teacher not being needed so he was temporarily removed by the author.

He was awakened again because (1) Xiao Yan would've lost without his teacher in the current arc, which is defeating the Misty Cloud Sect and (2) there should be a large enmity between him and the Hall of Souls. Basically it was all for the plot. The little girl's abduction, on the other hand, the one with special eyes, if I'm not mistaken, was removed because she would've been a hindrance or to put it in other words, she would've caused the inflexibility of Xiao Yan to do the things he want, basically to make things easier for the author.

Another gimmick that is in the series is the death of Xiao Yan's clan members and its consequences. Although admittedly, death is a good thing to have since it shows how "the stakes are high" or "even the MC is not safe" or things like that, in this case, it was just a s*upid gimmick. Why? Because (1) the clan members aren't really important and (2), aside from the MC's direct relatives, he didn't really cared about the others. The 2nd reason might perhaps be about filial piety or "blood is thicker than water" but it is more likely about face or pride of Xiao Yan.

[collapse]

Of course, even though they are gimmicks, these things are at least commendable since it shows how interconnected actions are present,

Spoiler

X happens so Y and Z happened. A happens, so B and C happened. Since A and Y happened, D will happen and since A and X happened, E will happen. The combination of Z, D, and E

will cause F to happen.

Something like this but less complicated.

[collapse]

Only, I don't think it is that amazing.

Spoiler

There's actually a reason why but I'm now too lazy.

[collapse]

Since I said that it was designed to be admired, that would mean that it has something that keep me going, aside from the things that is not "in" the series, that I'll mention later. This thing, of course, is the world created by the author. By world, I'm not talking about the people in the setting but the rank levels, continent, etc. I am always interested to these kinds of things and these are honestly the only reason why I read most novels in this site--to know what part of the world created will come next. Unfortunately, this series' bad parts are now just too much for me to tolerate, which by the way include the writing.

The author writes too much description. And each description is composed with too many words. You can literally read just a word or two in a paragraph to understand what the author wants to convey. If the writing has the elegance Ze Tian Ji has, I might be able to tolerate it (the writing in ZTJ is not like that of BTTH, by the way; I'm just talking about the elegance). Unfortunately, it doesn't have an ounce of it. It's just a chore to read it. Although I said that the writing is bad, this does not mean that it doesn't have any redeeming qualities. The fight scenes, for example, if one wants to imagine how the battles are actually enacted, then they could read it wholeheartedly for all they want but then again, as the first paragraph hinted and what I said in edit 1, the show is very bias towards the MC. You already know that the MC will win no matter what will happen, or he will attain benefits wherever he'll go or whatever he'll do (just like any other xianxia/xuanhuan actually) so the fight scenes being long just makes things boring, personally. A battle of tactics would of course be different.

Now, for the other 2 reasons why I still read it even though it is shit. It is actually one of the first translated Chinese xianxia/xuanhun web novel translated. I discovered wuxiaworld on late April or early May 2015 and binge-read CD and BTTH was already there, if I remember correctly, when I noticed it. It only had a few chapters back then, not really even reaching a hundred. I still remember a commenter in WW that created a pdf of it, lol. And the last reason is good translation quality and currently fast releases.

Excused Scoring: 1/5

Spoiler

Story: 1/10

Premise and Setting: 1/3 (Nice setting with generic premise)

Pacing: 0/2 (writing made the feeling to be very slow; little to no progression in 2-3 chapters)

Complexity: 1/3 (The world revolves around the MC so you won't feel any complexity, even the world of the series itself, plot even less; will still give 1 for the effort)

Plausibility: 0/2 (plausibility and consistency are sacrificed for plot to progress)

Characters: 1/10

Presence: 1/2 (aside from the MC, others don't have any presence)

Personality: 0/2 (1D characters; if you think being an as*hole is a personality, then...)

Backdrop: 0/2 (if not an excuse for further plot, there really aren't any so 0)

Development: 0/2 (this is obvious)

Catharsis: 0/2 (this is obvious)

Writing Style: 3/10 (too descriptive and descriptions are too long for readers to read them all; I personally skim through paragraphs)

Enjoyment: 5/10 (hey, I still am happy if the MC defeats his opponent, alright)

Total: 11/40 = 2.75/10 = 1/5

(refer to my review of Genius Black Belly Miss for the reason why)

[collapse]

Edit:

Spoiler

Perhaps I should clarify that although the hint of romance between Yun Yun and the MC has an interesting concept, it was a wasted potential. It was actually alright in its execution but the following events, which is like the first paragraph of the review, ruined it all. This is also why even though Yun Yun, and other people like her, felt regret in their actions, I still deemed them as 1D characters. The conflicts were only cheap ways to say that the MC is always right; the MC is a flawless character that everybody must revere.

[collapse]

Edit 2: Writing section is edited.

Edit 3: Plot section is edited.

Edit: Minor change on the excused scoring part.

Edit 4: I will be changing the writing section because the redundancy of the dialogs and descriptions are really getting on my nerves now, to the max level. Back then, I was still able to tolerate it but now, I cannot! <<less
35 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
kcz117
kcz117 rated it
May 14, 2016
Status: --
A good novel. A competent MC that isn't hung up on "justice", hard working, who gives back all he receives with interest. Cast of characters is decent, the setting is interesting. Other than dragging out events and the antagonists being repetitive in personality, it's a good read.
34 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
RarestProGamer
RarestProGamer rated it
October 15, 2016
Status: c450
Disappointing! The novel started out really great and had an awesome premise, but yet again it turned out to be a cliche and mediocre novel like the most of the wuxia with an OP protagonist with lady luck whoring around MC.
... more>>
Spoiler

-Aside from that, the author of this novel drags and far-stretches the chapters so much that it will bore the hell out of you. I just somehow manage to complete the long training arc of the MC which should have lasted for a year, but it felt like eternity because so many meaningless encounters with MC which I remind you all of them are females just to show how badass MC is to save damsel in distress all over the place and holygod, does the author waste so much time in describing every beauty that MC meets along the way. I would not had any problem if this Novel really is Harem, but I am not sure anymore. Most of the females that MC encounters are forgotten as soon as the side arc is over, then what was the point of beginning that arc in the first place? Just to show how wrong those females are who acted all hawty and ignorant before meeting the MC? Who the hell cares man.

-The 2nd main problem is with the translation. Why the translator isn't properly translating the ranks too? What the hell is Dou Zi Li, who is Dou Zhe and Dou Shi? How am I suppose to remember them in rank orders? If you are translating it in English for god sake translate the ranks in English too for e.g Dou Zi Li=Beginner<Dou Zhe=Battle practitioner and so on. You will have a hard time remembering these terms when reading this novel unless of course, you write down all the ranks in a note pad in order with their English meaning, and also as an English reader, the English ranks of the novel would of course will have more impact on me. I just usually shrug it off when characters in the novels make big deal out of higher ranks which I don't even know the meaning of and for that I had to check the ranks orders and I already got spoiled, now that I know what are the highest most ranks in this novel by the end which kills any of remaining interest for me regarding this novel

-I heard people said that the novels turns out really great after 600 or something chapters, but I don't have the patience to read it till that far. After reading the long atrocious training arc of MC from dense forest to some desert with tons and tons of mindless encounters which only further distracts the MC from his main quests. It is like reading an RPG where MC only cares about boring and repetitive side quests. Did I mention that it took 10 chapters just for MC to consume heavenly flame and 10 more chapters to recover his Qi?

[collapse]
<<less
29 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Parth37955
Parth37955 rated it
March 30, 2016
Status: --
Here's a classic. It's a 4.5. Genius MC falls to tr*sh and raises back up. It's a harem btw. Now some people may accredit his power up to his teacher but in my opinion, seeing as how he had already mastered the beginner level when he was young, he would have been fine had the ring not been siphoning off his Qi. He may not have been OP, but he surely wouldn't have been tr*sh.
Some people complain about the long training arc, but it's really a buildup for the... more>> novel. You could say the story really starts around @chap300. If you've never read this novel, I'd recommend giving it a try. If you read the manhua and didn't like, I ask you to try the novel, cause the novel is much better, imo. <<less
26 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
cheesediamond
cheesediamond rated it
December 24, 2019
Status: Completed
I have found it. The bottom of the barrel. The pile of crap under the porch.

The worst xianxia novel too be ever written.

I say this as someone who had hate read this atrocity of a fiction to the very end. To the horrible fricking end.

... more>> But let's break it down.

At the beginning it doesn't seem that bad. The mysterious teacher + a disgraced genius cliche. Let's ignore the whole isekai thing since that is there literally only for the tag and has a screen time of about 2 sentences in over 1600 chapters. We get introduced to the concept of the so called heavenly flames and how MC is going to search for them in order to get big power boosts. We also learn that MC is ridiculously talented in alchemy and martial arts, but that is pretty standard in this kind of story.

So the first 100 chapters pass and it seems even above average, if you ignore that the author is sexists like a 16th century monarch and that MC is in a relationship yet still has time to mol*st his older cousin. But then you realise that you have already read the entire story. Form then on everything is just a reskin. I am being serious, after about 100 chapters the author just ran out of ideas and for the rest of over 1500 chapters he does the same thing over and over and over and over again, somehow making it progressively worse. At most he sometimes manages to add an extremely overused trope our cliche from other xianxia fictions. That is already horrible, but I would like to highlight some other aspects that are particularly aggravating.

1) the power levels are less consistent than relying on the lottery as the only source of your income.

I wish I was exaggerating, but I am not. The power of every enemy is never determined by what makes sense, but always by what is the most convenient for the plot. No exceptions. Here is an example: MC leaves a region which is supposed to be weak for the central continent which is supposed to be the strongest place for cultivators. In the weaker region, the absolute undisputed overlords are at the bottom rank 7 (random number). 800 or so chapters later MC returns and somehow he fights someone in the middle of rank 8 who was supposed to be some local clan leader or something. Do you know what is the most ridiculous thing about that? In this region that is supposed to be so garbage it is not even worth taking over by factions that could achieve it in a literal week this random ridiculously powerful character we have never even heard of appeared. How strong is middle of rank 8? Enough to literally singlehandedly slaughter everyone in 4 (6 if we only consider the information available at that time) out of the 8 factions introduced at one point as the strongest in the whole fricking world. And to a lesser degree this happens dozens of times over the fiction. The author has object permanence capabilities comparable to a dumb toddler and not just when it comes to power levels. The world just straight up freezes outside the spotlight and is then adjusted to be convenient for the plot wherever MC goes.

2) The MC's plot armour is so thick that if you smelted the metal you could build an entire company of armoured vehicles from scratch and still have materials to spare.

Plot armour is common and can be healthy for a story if used with care. Instead author used it as a patchwork solution to as many of the countless plot holes as he could. MC did something s*upid with less than 1% chance to survive? How convenient that this seemingly impossible coincidence happens just at the right moment to save his life and give him a major power boost in the process. For the 2452543th time in a row. MC is in a situation where he faces certain death? Good thing this random one dimensional side character from 1200 chapters ago which had no real reason to be anywhere near useful to the current MC had appeared just the chapter before and has the perfect solution.

3) The fights are more bland than an undercooked grass stew.

Every single fight comes down to who can punch the other person harder. Occasionally when the author was feeling particularly creative, one of the characters decides to use some strategy to weaken their opponent first, though that is very rare because the entire world has the collective intellect of a below average middle schooler with the exception of situations where the author suddenly decides that a character suddenly has the foresight of a god for the next two paragraphs only to then return their usual toddler wit. Moreover, somehow everyone is fast enough to instantly appear behind their opponent without them even realising, yet no one, not a single character has ever figured out that maybe rather than going behind, waiting for a paragraph and only then attacking, it is actually possible to punch someone while you are moving. I know, an insane idea.

4) The first photographs ever made were colourful when compared to how black and white this story is.

It doesn't matter that the deeply hypocritical MC does the exact same thing he killed people for as something unrighteous. The moral compass is very simple, so I will describe it how I imagine the author drafted it: MC good, not MC bad. It doesn't matter what or why the characters do, going against the MC is the act off greatest evil, so everyone who ever goes against MC must always be one dimensional arrogant psychopath who enjoys killing people and practices some sort of 'evil' technique and they are all struck down by karmic justice in the form of the MC. Yet when MC is acting needlessly arrogant, enjoying killing people or using those evil techniques he looted from the previous villain's corpse, he is the fricking paragon of righteousness.

5) Few things make as little sense as running down a street naked while yelling profanities at bystanders. The alchemy in this story is somehow even more nonsensical.

First of all, I just hate that the author attempts to represent success chance in percentages. It just makes no sense that a singular event dependant only on human error would be determined by a precise percentage. You are either very confident it's possible, sure it's not or it's a coin toss. 'I have 60% chance to fail' doesn't mean anything. It's a made up number that's just artificially forced into the character's mouth by the author to create some cheap form of pressure which is just undermined by the plot armour which straight up prevents MC from ever failing when it matters. Also, somehow searching for the main ingredient of the newest highest tier pill always takes multiple chapters, yet the moment the MC creates a pill of that tier for the first time he somehow never has to search for any ingredients as they apparently just materialise in his as whenever he needs to make another pill of the same tier. It just straight up baffles me, how author describes the incredible rarity of some ingredient which the MC had to spent lot of effort and resources for, only so that 10 chapters later MC is literally swimming in the ingredients of that level and burning through them like through dry firewood.

6) Watching paint dry had more suspense than the artificial last second arrivals.

On average, I believe that MC arrived at the literal moment someone was about to land a killing blow to one of the one dimensional side characters about once every 20 chapters. Most of the time that is also precedented by a filler chapter where literally nothing happens and it's there so that we can see how badly someone is losing so that MC can save the day. It's annoying when this happens twice in a single fiction, but this garbage author somehow manages to force this exact same scene multiple times into every arc. It's infuriating, sad and straight up painful when you open the chapter and after the first paragraph realise your are about to waste 5-10 minutes of your life in futile hope that something even remotely interesting or important might happen. Let me tell you, nothing ever happened. Not even once.

7) The conclusion is about as satisfying as being tortured to death by a medieval executioner.

Spoilers ahead.

Spoiler

The final fight is just as lackluster the rest, if not worse. The ending is an uninspired happy conclusion with some open ending elements. But what infuriates me is something else.

That one thing that is unique to the story: The technique that evolves when MC devours heavenly flames. Guess f*cking what. After MC swallowed the literal third ranked flame, author just forgot about it. It didn't improve a single rank. The only thing that had been decent about the story and author just promptly told us to f off.

[collapse]

That about concludes my rant. There is probably more, but I already wrote enough that it should discourage anyone sane from reading this garbage pretending to be a book.

Please, just don't do this to yourself and go read something else. There is plenty xianxia on the internet. <<less
20 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Teunayven
Teunayven rated it
May 14, 2016
Status: --
The story is impressively fleshed out and entertaining. The novel is basically split into many different kind of arches. Fights, Alchemy, cultivating, and story. Each side is given its time and described in amazing details. I personally really enjoy the sheer amount of detail the author describes the alchemy in the story with. How the flame used to create pills is moved and controlled. As well as the varying steps in mixing medicine. It makes you feel the effort and difficulty people are having crafting their various medicines. A nice... more>> part of these arches as well is if you get bored of one of these parts you will not have to wait too long to get to another part. It leads to an extremely varied and interesting story with many aspects to enjoy and pay attention to.

I also enjoy the MC who is very complex and follows his own internal code of right and wrong. Watching him get vengeance on those who slight him make for some of the most amusing and bloodiest scenes you will ever get to read. The MC's connections and the burgeoning romances among many different characters is also interesting to see as circumstances brings the MC close to a variety of characters and type of people. All in all it is a very enjoyable read that I think anyone can enjoy. I would especially suggest reading this if you enjoy stories about underdogs and bullies getting their comeuppance. <<less
20 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
mechafanboy
mechafanboy rated it
August 2, 2017
Status: c623
Edit: Alright, was happy to give it 3 stars at c400 since I thought it was just generic but at 600 I'm done. The chapters are slightly longer than average and convey less meaning than most novels because nothing important ever happens in one chapter.

The level of chick magnet this dude has is off the scales, like I'm used to women falling over themselves trying to claw themselves onto a chinese novel's d, but it's rarely as shamelessly done as it is here where legtitimately, if a chick isn't involved,... more>> the MC isn't involved either. There's also that probably infamous spoiler by now....

The plot is consistent..... in it's inconsistency. MC is a genius, except.... not really since everyone and their grandmothers are magically on the same level or higher, oh upgraded technique? doesn't matter, next opponent is gonna be around the same level of strength regardless of how far he should be leaving the competition in the dust judging by the words of bystanders about how hard cultivation is.

Plot's also done in such a way that foreshadowing is a joke, the author is about as subtle about what's going to happen as a shovel to the face.

Overall, there's some reasonable setup near the beginning, except it never comes to fruitation because the interesting points take forever to start and the boring plot takes forever to end. Also once the interesting points start, you find the logic there to be insanely childish as well so it becomes a boring part, all in all, just lose lose. <<less
17 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Zerofault
Zerofault rated it
August 6, 2017
Status: c600
Started interesting, then quickly devolved into a boring, inconsistent, un-disbelief suspendable mess. Eventauly I was just reading the chapter titles and topping in on the non fight chapters to skim them and discover, nothing interesting happened.
15 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
DarkD
DarkD rated it
June 7, 2016
Status: c736
As of chapter 250

The story is pretty good, don't get me wrong. I read up to chapter 249. The plot works and is careful to tread around the "so OP it's just s*upid" problem that so many fictions have. The story is something I would call a downhill slog. It starts out with a lot of promise, but the further you go into it, the more predictable and monotonous everything becomes.

The criticisms I have is mainly the over the top descriptions in the fiction. For every piece of information... more>> we have to read through five pieces of fluff information. Someone says something, then there's like five paragraphs describing every detail you never cared to know.

Secondly, the plotline around 200 becomes increasingly predictable. It's what caused me to stop reading. I just felt like I knew exactly what was going to happen. Reading something so predictable just felt incredibly tedious.

Aside from that, if you're looking for deep characters... The protagonists might be a little deep at first, but he becomes rather shallow after the first story arc. The other characters also trail off quickly. The author has various character archetypes he uses, and once you know them, you know it all.

Feminists might also dislike this book. The protagonist often makes vulgar threats about raping girls (which he never carries through with) to get what he wants from them. Beyond that is just standard stuff for the time period, but is rather heavily prominent (arranged marriages, prostitution). Also, the author has made the protagonist get intoxicated a couple of times at which point he does unintentionally r*pe some girls.

I know he's done this at least once, maybe twice.

The story format is also extremely repetitive. Protagonist goes somewhere to get training, runs into a group who rubs him the wrong way, spends the next several months slaughtering them. It's very entertaining the first few times, but gets a little repetitive later.

EDIT as of chapter 628

OMG the plot armor is thick in this one... The protagonist will regularly disappear on long training jouneys as is typical of wuxia novels, however, when he comes back, like clockwork, the current antagonist will make his move just as the protagonist finishes. Literally, everyone welcomes the protagonist back after not seeing him for two years then tells him how his brother is about to be killed tomorrow unless he goes and saves him....

That's not even the end of the plot armor. The protagonist will literally show up to defend his friends and family the second before a death blow is about to fall on them. I mean c'mon author, after 600 chapters, you still haven't figured out how predictable you've just made the series like this?

Spoiler warning, Xiao Yan will always show up at the last second and save the day. Just imagine the most cliche timing possible. There, I've just spoiled most of the series for you. End of spoiler.

I'm not even exaggerating. I just read a section where Xiao Yan shows up at the last second like three times withing a few chapters of eachother. OMG such cliche timing...

The BS luck is also very real. If the protagonist goes to the auction to get an incredient, he'll somehow BS his way into leaving with every valuable item he didn't even know he wanted.

I also feel the need to restate how drawn out the explanations of everything is. They literally dedicated a page to describe a scroll being opened.... I am not even exaggerating... I realize that wuxia novels often use a lot of adverbs to describe everything, but this isn't even that. It's just drawing out the scene from a paragraph to a page.

As of chapter 650 the pacing of the story has become overly fast. The main plot line seems to be the only thing being developed and the slow paced fun adventures seems to have halted. It seems obvious that the author wants to hurry the plot line at this point. It's sad because the main plotline is probably one of the worse aspects of the story being as predictable as it is.

Spoiler warning: Just assume that every bad guy will never back down until they're either crippled or dead. There, I've spoiled the other half of the story for you... End of spoiler.

There's also an incredible amount of term reuse. No matter who it is, what country they're from, everyone describes everything the same way. "Dog who's lost his home" "Completely lost his face". I don't care what culture it is, you go to any country in the real world and they'll describe things a hundred different ways depending on the person.

In most good stories, the characters get more interesting as the fiction goes on. In BTTH, they get worse.A guy who had an interesting personality at his introductions, usually loses any unique traits he has after a couple arcs. If a character is a good guy, they'll become more happy and jolly as the story goes on. If a character is a bad guy, he'll become more evil and plotting as the fiction goes on. Basically, they'll become more like generic good and bad guys the more they're used.

My end opinion of this novel is that you should read it until the uncountable flaws wear on you. This is an author who is INCREDIBLY consistent in his writing style. There is literally no improvement at all from one chapter to the next. In fact, I'd say the writing style devolves a little as it goes on.

As of chapter 730ish, the protagonist starts getting things too easily. and things start getting boring. There's no longer an "underdogs struggle" and instead becomes a "top dog negotiates with underdogs and gets everything he wants". This is a problem because the most interesting part of this series until now has always been the protagonists underdog struggle. That's gone now. I'd even call that 80% of my reason for reading this series until now.

Ugh, how many times does the author have to reintroduce Xiao Yan. Every chapter he spends like 3-4 paragraphs describing "Somewhere over the magical blah blah mountains, a black figure was blah blah blah" OVER AND OVER AGAIN. This is something an okay author would do once every book just to quickly reintroduce the protagonist a little. This author does it nearly EVERY CHAPTER...

The gloating from the bad guys is killing me... Every battle, it takes at least a chapter for the villain to finish gloating about how hopeless fighting them is going to be... You think reading my review is long? Well, this is about how long a villain in this series gloats for....

More bullsh*t timing. The protagonist learns a skill that has never in history been used before under an EXTREMELY harsh and SPECIFIC requirements and within 30 chapters he encounters a recipe that requires EXACTLY that specific skill to make use of. As a hypothetical comparison, imagine a skill that requires a person to have been a 5 time Olympic gold medalist while also being the worlds tallest man, and you only find the recipe a short time after becoming the first person in history to achieve that feat.

Consistency is also a problem. In the first couple hundred chapters, they made this certain tribe out to have only one or so dou huang and a huge amount of dou wang level combatants. But after a time skip there are dou huangs EVERYWHERE. They pop up one after the other now. <<less
14 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Tasear
Dream Seeker rated it
May 20, 2016
Status: c127
Honestly, I don't know why I hold exceptions for some good writing from Xuanhuan and Xianxia, but this one isn't so bad. What hold this above the rest is alchemy, and strong female characters that seem to have more meaning than the usual fan service. Unfortunately, it's missing some important aspects of value including, pacing, tension, messages or lessons, character development. But writing it's beautiful, so lets say 8.1/10

Translation is of most excellent quality.
13 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Colihuacho
Colihuacho rated it
September 11, 2017
Status: c1057
General-wise:

I think I´had a similar experience to most peapole reading this novel, at first it was fun and some things were ok for normal chinese novels of this type, but the story start to lose a lot of tension after the tirth or four power up with the main character, beside how cliche the situation was, there was this sense of urgency to get power as fast as posible because of the agreement and the progresion is more intresting here because we see him srtuggle a lot more and more... more>> importantly, because the same thing happens in later arcs and you stop caring so much. In the early arcs he is a lucky bastard who gets a lot by just luck, but he at least try not to do everything himself, and lets other pepole stronger than him do the fighting by making deals with them while he grows, sadly all that kinda starts to dissapear after the tree yeas agreement and MC turns more shallow than before in every arc.

World construction-wise:

its huge and never stops growing but that is a problem in the long run, at some point you start to realize that it does not matter how much the world evolves, this does not mean than the MC journey will becmome tougher, in fact he grows in power at the same pace in every arc and if he gets in trobule he just gets power ups inmideatly, also is rather thedious watch the same clans say the same bullsh*t to MC just to get their asses kicked by him. The power levels dont mean anything, the MC or any other character dont change their way of behaving because of the power ups and they remain two dimentional for the whole story, about that....

Character-wise

I can say few good things about most of the cast, because they become worst as long as the story progreses, xiao yan is the very cliche character and hypocrite that is very common in this type of storys, who becmoes even more broken and lucky as he gets power ups and if he faces any difficulty he just has to say '' I dont belive I cant beat/control/ refine/understand you'' and the problem that had so many chances of faliure resolves in a flash, to the point that is annoying to watch

around his harem, Xun er is there for an amount of chapters and then dissapears, she just has two basic characteristics, she is very mysterious and comes from basically the strongest clan on earth, and she loves Xiao Yan for ''reasons'', if you realize she doesn't do anything of relevance if Xiao Yan is not involved, she does not exist outside of him and she is just there to be some sort of final prize once the story ends. Besides her precence destroys the tension greatly in the story, if she and her clan are so strong, to the point than the struggles at the early arcs are merely a joke compare to her and her clan, then a lot of the problems were avoidable by just sending some dou zun experts or something. I really dont enjoy the ''romance'' part ether, it's bland, boring and static, there is no dynamic at all, no evolution, she is perfect waifu for the whole novel, thank god she dissapears for a good amount of the story.

all the otrher girls by that matter are automatically better than her by the simple fact that their relationships with the MC are more dynamic and fun to watch, but also are far from good overall, the author had some good ideas, like nalan yanran not willing to marrying someone else just because an agreement, or medusa hate relationship with the MC over the years, or the little fairy doctor complicated storyline, but again, as the story progreses they all become less and less interesting to the point in wich they becmoe decorational background or are lost in the sea of characters.

i guess its fun for a while and it has a cool videogame mechanic in it, but at the long run it does not get better and the problems with the series become more evident, so I recomend only read until you're consider its stops been fun and its just the same thing over and over again, dont force yoursef to keep reading expecting things to get better story-wise, because its not going to be like that, dont waste your time with more because youre going to be disapointed

2.5 <<less
11 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
hero
hero.storm rated it
March 24, 2016
Status: --
2.5 / 5

I waited for the conclusion of the “3-Year Meeting” before making a review and all I can say is that it was disappointing. While I was excited when the battle was inching closer and closer, I didn’t feel the least bit of excitement while reading the actual battle. This is huge letdown since everything that happened to him up to this point was for the sake of getting strong enough to beat Nalan Yanran yet the concluding battle actually had no impact for me. I was so disappointed... more>> that I actually read the manga to for the sake of comparison and surprisingly, I enjoyed the manga version of the alchemist tournament and the 3-Year Meeting battle more (which is extremely rare for adaptations novel -> manga adapations, or any sort of adapation to be honest).

What’s even more bothering is how Yun Leng keeps sprouting sh*t about beating Xiao Yan, underestimating him, etc when he’s pretty much fighting a kid half his age. This is normal in most web novels but don’t forget the fact that the invited spectators are all “overlords” of the region they’re in. Add the fact that the reputation of the Alchemist’s Guild and the Kingdom was saved by Xiao Yan during the Alchemist competition yet there the “overlords” are, watching while some old guy tries to kill their “hero”.

Saying all the above, I'm dropping this series. This means that I'll be dropping 2 of the 3 novels written by Tian Can Tu Dou. I'm actually still unsure if BTTH was written before or after WDQK since the wiki says WDQK was the second story written by the author while the review written below mine says BTTH was the second. If BTTH was written before WDQK then that just means that the author's writing actually became a lot worse (seriously, WDQK was a trainwreck for me). If BTTH was written after WDQK then that means the author really improved though. As for the 3rd novel the written by the writer, TGR, I'm currently still reading it but since not a lot has really happened, I'm still undecided whether I'll be continuing it (the uselessness of the people around the MC is appalling though). It's translation has currently stalled so I guess I'll just have to wait and see whether I'll end up dropping all of Tian Can Tu Dou or if one of his works becomes worth completely reading for me. <<less
10 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
krakers
krakers rated it
May 18, 2016
Status: v3c420
Guys I can only tell you 1 thing... read this. This is my favorite novel among all xianxia's out there (issth, atg, tdg, csg, tmw.... etc). First, the concept is fresh, you can never find the same plot, story building, power development, relationship progress, and balance aspects in any other novels.

2nd.) He is OP for me but the opness doesn't just pop out of nowhere. His strength was well developed and very reasonable. The training arc is boring but once you get yourself out of chapter 300 you will think... more>> that the novel changes it's author or the author himself is enlightened. Starting from the point he fetch his very first heavenly flame the story becomes much more interesting.
3rd.) The story revolves completely around the MC... because other novels out there tend to focus on side characters that it seems like they can be the MC if the author changes his mood. Don't get me wrong because I also like those novels that builds the side characters but please men know the limits... it's suffocating to see other characters get ahead of MC in terms of development.
4th.) the idea of flame mantra is really good. It keeps me interested to the point where I even want to read the brain wretching machine translations.
5th.) Just read it and you can even create 6th, 7th... 100th good points out of it. Enjoy!!! <<less
9 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Shikaz
Shikaz rated it
May 15, 2016
Status: c406
This review is mostly based on what I like about BTTH from my own personal taste.

The story starts out al right, crippled genius turns into genius again and with a bit of help from a spirit in his ring, he embarks on his journey for power to settle a "minor" dispute between his ex-fiancée. Nothing special, but it was O.K.

It takes a dive for the worse after that though. The spirit in his ring helps him with basically everything. The MC is never really in any danger for his... more>> life, because his spirit/teacher gives part of his powers or/and takes over his body whenever he's about to die.

Now that would've been fine, but he uses his teachers power all the time, fighting people way stronger than his real strength, which just makes it boring to read.

I guess the author kinda figured that out though, since MC's teacher have a "restriction" to make it less convenient for the MC to use his powers later on (around 380+ chapters in)

It just comes of as lazy writing. Another gripe I have is MC's heaven defying luck. For example, if MC gets something precious and useful to increase his strength, it usually comes with other benefits, such as hidden effects later coming from said precious object, or if there's a tiny chance of something occurring taking said precious thing, it will happen, because of luck. This keeps occurring during the novel and it just keeps getting more and more ridiculous as the story progress.

Now, for romance, I, personally hate Harems, and the author has made it possible for it to take that route, because several love interests coming up numerous times, but nothing has ever happened between them, which I'm kinda glad for, since he's still weak and should focus on cultivation instead.

The MC... He's your average calm and collected character, but never think things through really, because OP teacher is behind his back and lady luck, so it never really builds up to any interesting risks or of the sort because of that and becomes super predictable as to what's going to happen. There's not much to say about him, he's not complex in any shape or form. But despite all this, he's still a very likeable MC and is a very solid one.

Overall it's an average story 2.5/5. Not bad, but not great either, just average.
Edit: I'll be updating this Review as the story progress, so maybe it becomes better, maybe not. <<less
9 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Aicila
Aicila rated it
November 30, 2015
Status: --
Time of Review: c226

Battle through the Heavens shares a lot of features with other similar xianxias. Considered tr*sh, finds a teacher, fixes the issue and becomes strong. BTTH for me suffers from some (small) rather bland patches, although the majority of it is well written and interesting, including the opening 100 chapters. The alchemic elements of the story are quite well done and the flame concept is well thought out.

One of my major gripes with BTTH is that after the initial 100ish chapters the main character begins to have less... more>> and less input on what their plan of action is, and is simply directed around by his mentor who resides in him. Most of the decision making lies with this mentor who is very knowledgeable and as a result the main character is able to navigate through many dangerous situations with relative ease.

Despite this, BTTH is still a well written story which should definitely at least be given a try. <<less
9 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Fluffums
Fluffums rated it
October 24, 2016
Status: c500
This story teeters between "pretty interesting" and "wish fulfillment" constantly.

Story: Pretty common fare even if you've never read xianxia. Xiao Yan travels around looking for MacGuffins for his training, meets beauties along the way (most of whom fall in love with him, of course), gets in fights with lots of random guys, trains in a crafting skill (alchemy, of course). I doubt you'll ever think "wow, that was a twist I didn't expect!"

Characters: This is where it gets interesting. The main character, Xiao Yan, is... insane. And the reason the... more>> story can be pretty interesting is that everyone notices, and even people who are on his side draw back from him because he's obviously unstable. And it even makes sense for the women to fall in love with him, because he's crazy, but he's also successful. The important thing is that they tend to back off when he does the more insane shit. The only people who consistently stay by him are his teacher (ghost grandpa who's kinda stuck with him), his pet (much more powerful than him), and his childhood friend (girl with mysterious background who's also yandere).

Setting: Honestly, the setting is as unstable as the main character. You might wonder after a while why everything hasn't already fallen apart by the time of the story with every location Xiao Yan visits being on the verge of disaster. Power levels and skill levels are fine, except that Xiao Yan's teacher and pet are way too convenient. There's a feeling that most established powers are either corrupt or incompetent or both, but that's pretty normal for xianxia.

All told, I don't recommend this for people who haven't read xianxia before. Most xianxia elements are exaggerated almost but not quite to the point of parody. If you have read xianxia before, accept that the narrator is
Spoiler

https://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Unreliable_narrator

[collapse]
and you might be able to enjoy it. <<less
8 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Bdragon83
Bdragon83 rated it
May 21, 2016
Status: c416
Every chapter that is released always is a new adventure to read, you never feel tired of reading, instead you want more and more.
8 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
1 2 3 8
Leave a Review (Guidelines)
You must be logged in to rate and post a review. Register an account to get started.