Martial Arts Master

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Here, martial arts are no longer legends. They have been passed on from generation to generation, from century to century.

After being confronted by science and technology, they have completely integrated into modern society and all kinds of martial arts competitions are taking place across the country as the consensus between who’s superior among scholars are hard to reach, but among martial artists, it isn’t that difficult!

Lou Cheng has found an unknown cultivation item that fuses with him and helps him with the first part of martial arts, meditation.

Facing his dream and the glory in his heart, he will advance step by step, becoming the warrior of this modern city and the hero of the era!

Associated Names
One entry per line
MAM
武道宗师
Related Series
N/A
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Recommendation Lists
  1. My next 5 out of 5 !!!
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  5. All Novels Read

Latest Release

Date Group Release
10/09/17 Webnovel c13
10/09/17 Webnovel c12
10/09/17 Webnovel c11
10/09/17 Webnovel c10
10/09/17 Webnovel c9
10/09/17 Webnovel c8
10/09/17 Webnovel c7
10/09/17 Webnovel c6
10/09/17 Webnovel c5
10/09/17 Webnovel c4
10/09/17 Webnovel c3
10/09/17 Webnovel c2
10/09/17 Webnovel c1
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cantera
cantera rated it
October 18, 2017
Status: c702
I have read a lot of novels and am lookout for new novels with are little different from the norm like Ze Tian ji, WoC etc. This I feel is one of the novels which is written well as is close to best novels I've read. I have read upto latest chapter and my review can be considered more upto date with little bias. I think I can provide a decent review having read upto latest 702nd chapter.

Basic Info:

This novels is about martial arts set in modern world. The martial... more>> arts in this novel is like other sports which is divided into professional level and amateur levels. So expect lot of inter-club, collegiate and country fights. The martial arts is realistic and power of person depends on how intelligently he adapts and uses the techniques he learnt to counter the situation which makes fights interesting. Please don't expect people to destroy planets.

The main character obtains a some-what Cheat item which helps him kick-start his entry into the martial arts. However unfortunately it doesn't help him much later and MC has to solely rely his hard work and comprehension of martial arts to become stronger. The cheat item is like ignition of the car so don't expect it to be too helpful once the car has started. The the story has a solid romance rarely seen in cultivation novels. Even though the main point of the story is about martial arts, the story focuses on how MC develops as he becomes stronger with terms to his relationships with other characters - friends, love interest, his idols, his fans and his rivals.

Good things

    1. No young masters and random xianxia cliches
    2. Very good character development of MC - he evolves from a newbie in cultivation and interaction with girls to someone who can deal with better. His personality and feelings change as he becomes stronger.
    3. One of the best things is MC doesn't always win. So many times he has lost and so many times his club, university has lost. So in many fights you don't know what will happen. There are lot of people and peers who challenge MC.
    4. No harem and one of the best romance I've read in cultivation novels. The MC has to struggle hard to woo her and the process of how the relation develops very interesting and long. The best thing is girl acts like any reasonable person unlike, you know, xianxia girls.
    5. Very Good fighting scenes which are highlight of this novel
    6. Absence of any big cheat. There is a cheat item but that does not play much role in story.
    7. Good dialogues and interactions between different people.
    8. Quite realistic and absence of random powerups or treasures (unlike Invincible, ATG)
Bad things

    1. Excessive tournaments (but fight scenes are all different and techniques used are different so that's not too bad)
    2. There are lot of chapters dedicated to non-fighting chapters.
    3. MC is not very OP like in ATG, MGA. He is strong but there are always people challenging him.
There are some concerns which have been raised which I want to clarify:

    1. Firstly about the Cheat Item - it barely helps him in cultivation.
      Spoiler

      The main purpose is use in fights but MC barely uses it as he doesn't want to rely on it to get stronger. As the story progresses, it becomes more and more irrelevant.

      [collapse]
    2. MC is not OP. At first his speed of cultivation is very fast but that's not unusual. (As we learn later) Later cultivation becomes more challenging and there are many peers who are talented and rival him in speed. So, MC is little OP but not OP like ATG or ED and the cultivation and levelups are very realistic and well done.
    3. About the background of girl he is with is not as simple as it appear and it plays important part in story. But some readers make conclusions too quickly without reading further.
    4. Yes. Initially MC is ignorant about talking girls like some college students. Nothing wrong with it. But with greater interactions with other girls and his GF he improves and is not so awkward with them anymore. This is called character development.
    5. Yes his initial reason for joining is because of the girl. But obviously he later revaluates why he wants to get stronger and is just not only for the girl.
At the end of the day, there are some shortcomings which surely some people will not like but no story can be perfect.I am sad that there are negative reviews for absurd things

which change as story progress. I know the rating is only 3.4 because it's on qidian. That's too bad.I feel the plot, fights, dialogues etc far are very good to overlook reading this story just because of some small details (which I don't understand why are even bothersome to some people as that's heavy nitpicking) . The author is well known and has written very good novels, so one can expect quality from him.

Bottom Line:

Personally I think there are only positive things to say about this novel and pace is quite fast. And once you start it, it very hard to put down. Why I say so? Quite different to genetic xianxia novel and very realistic and very very few things to complain about. There will be very very few people who will not like it. But there are some negative where

reviews even the best things about the novel are written as criticisms and I don't know what to say other than being pained and writing this long of a review. I have not written lot of reviews. But for this I am forced to write as it's very good novel and I don't want people not to read it by being misguided with wrong info provided by other reviewers.I hope the long time I have spent in reviewing will at least force some people to read it. <<less
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WinByDying
WinByDying rated it
November 21, 2017
Status: c192
Genres: Sports, Romance, Xuanhuan.

Come on, this really is a sports novel. If you change the cultivation by bodybuilding then you get a fighting sports novel. And a good one at that. Like romance? Like some good dialogue, some sports, and a little bit of MC OPness? Read it!

PROS:

    • Well written dialogue;
    • Great romance;
    • Good cast of varied and slightly unique characters;
    • Characters all feel normal or relatable at least in some way;
    • Calm, collected story progression, good flow;
    • Warm fuzzy story of romance and martial arts, warmer than a hot chocolate;
    • Fast translation pace: 3 chapters per day, and the quality is good;
    • Cliches out of the window: no arrogant young masters, no need to conflict over everything;
CONS

    • Lack of conflict may make it seem dull to read;
    • Unexplored world background (not yet at least, we're far from the end) ;
    • Not a very elaborate cultivation system, not much explained.
Overall, not perfect but makes me feel fuzzy and warm and occasionally provides the adrenaline kick only powerful MC's give, 5/5. More detailed explanation down below.

I feel disgusted by some of the lower scoring and reviews on this webnovel:

    1. Do some of you seriously downvote every Qidian International published novel? I understand you want to boycot them, but you know who's collateral damage? The author, who wants his novels to be popular (and in my opinion rightfully so) and readers who never learn of this great novel because it gets buried with a low score.
    2. This is for a significant part a romance novel. This is not like Coiling Dragon or Martial World or whatever cultivation novels you think of. Giving a low rating because the novel is not what you want it to be, is so... childish.
    3. As for the romance itself; giving it a low rating because the MC is "ignorant of girls" is preposterous. Nothing about the romance in this novel is unrealistic. Longtime crushes exist. Calling the MC a stalker is... like... you don't know what a real stalker is. Saying he avoids other girls because he already has a girlfriend is completely unbased. Oh and the guy saying this is like a Japanese novel because of the martial arts and romance: I don't get what you're saying. This guy may be humble, but he actually knows he's good at martial arts. He's not a self loathing coward or a giant pe*vert. He's a pretty normal guy
    4. As for the cheat: in xianxia for example cheats are rampant, for better or worse. In this novel, the cheat is rather unobtrusive. It enhances his attacks with two elements, and improves his stamina. Whether it improves his talent, that's unsure so far. Maybe he really has a lot of innate talent, even without the cheat? For the record, this may be kind of a wish fulfillment novel, but as much as a good romance story is one. It's not like xianxia's with uberpowerful MC's that collect harems or revive their parents.
    5. The tournaments: ofcourse there are a lot of tournaments, martial arts is a sport in this novel and sports are tournaments and vice versa...
I just don't get it those ratings... There are legitimate points of criticism but those bad reviews don't mention those at all. On to the real review.

PROS:

The three genres given earlier are more accurate than what's given by NU. So far, it's been a (martial arts) sports story with a sweet, very prominent romance subplot. User ipapotihus is about right, it's "45% martial art, 45% romance and 10% bro". There isn't much real cultivation, it's mostly martial arts. And the fights are pretty well written.

I like the calm progression in the main character's strength and sports achievements, the slowly but naturally and really well written romance (I was constantly reminiscing about my first love/girlfriend, what's written didn't feel unnatural or unrealistic at all). It's unlike most Chinese webnovels, which is a really good thing. 192 chapters in and it's not like he's far from the best martial artist ever. His talent is great, and slowly getting recognized, but that's it.

This is going to be such a warm, fuzzy and satisfying read, I feel it. The calm progression is gonna make me feel real good and when it's finally completely translated, I'll reread it (something I rarely do).

This brings me to the last point; most cliches out of the window (apart from the "cheat" and "powerful master"). No arrogant young masters, no constant scumbaggery, the character cast doesn't seem like the scum of humanity. The MC is a normal guy, the girlfriend is a beautiful but feisty girl. The people around them feel like real persons with their own quirks as well. The writer could have made the girlfriend a bit less pretty and it wouldn't have been much different. Again, this novel feels normal, feels warm, makes me happy while reading it.

And o thank god dear lord hallelujah not everyone is after the MC because he's together with a really pretty girl, this must be like the first time that happens in a Chinese novel.

The dialogue is great, and the character building is good as well. I didn't instantly forget who everyone was, because even most sidecharacters talk in their own way, or have their own characteristics,... The sidecharacters feel unique, feel alive.

CONS:

The one thing that might be a black mark is the lack of conflict. This is both a good and a bad point, depending on how you look at it. The conflict in most xianxia novels is luckily absent in this novel, but strangely enough the typical sports rivalry isn't there yet either. The best candidate for a rival, someone in the same martial arts club of the same age, actually isn't a rival at all, more like an acquaintance or even a bit of a friend. I'd like maybe some more conflict in the tournaments?

Another problem was that it was difficult sometimes to follow the cultivation system and the ranks. Not much time is invested in explaining ranks, cultivation and techniques.

I also want to know more about the world. How cultivation declined, how techniques were passed on, why the world of martial arts is like it is in the webnovel. So far, not much has been explained but that will probably still come?

OVERALL:

First review. Way too long, no regrets because it's worth it. This webnovel is great, I want more endorphines. 5/5
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Varno
Varno rated it
November 3, 2017
Status: c99
Reading this story, feels like reading a guide about relationships, and it goes in dept.

How to help a friend, what to say to a girl and when to say it. This title needs to be changed to something like ' Making friends, While wooing a girl and I am martial arts master'. Yeah it sounds Japanese.

Thirty three chapters of low quality fights (mostly by side characters), playful banter between men and an MC desperately chasing after a girl for no other reason than she's pretty.

Maybe I would take the romance... more>> in this story seriously if the girl actually had something special about her other then being 'very beautiful'.

She has a back story but nothing resembling a real personality, she's cute though so its forgiveable.

Anyway my real problem with this story is that it doesn't seem to have an aim other then building fictional relationships. He doesn't want to change his life with martial arts for any other reason than because he had the opportunity to do so.

Yusuke wanted to save a kid from getting run over, naruto wanted to prove himself to the village and Lou Cheng caught a fish! No character depth, no travesty and no reason to care for anything in this story but love and bros!

Campy shit. 3 out of 5.

PS: please know that I prefer loner characters and that should be taken into consideration. <<less
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Scandalf
Scandalf rated it
November 14, 2017
Status: c174
Before I start my review I just need to say to the future readers to not care about the rating at all. This novel is much better than what the rating suggests. Especially if you want a good, cute lil' romance with main focus being martial arts- mostly tournaments. (Martial arts-romance ratio is like %65- %35). And also, the cheat power MC obtains in this novel is not really at the level of being OP. MC certainly becomes strong real fast at the beginning but it's already started to slow... more>> down and even though he was and still is getting stronger faster than others, there are still some few rare geniuses who can keep up with him and even stay outside of his reach for a few years to come from how things are looking. His cheat (?) power also doesn't win him the fights at all, it's mostly something he has to use for training himself rather than fighting. It can give him energy to keep fighting but it is only pyhsical energy. He still gets tired mentally and he still gets injured (and no it doesn't heal injuries at all) so he has to stop fighting at some point. And he himself knows the best way to utilize this power is to use it for training a lot more than he normally could so in the future he won't need to use any external help at all.

I can't say this novel has the best fighting scenes or technique names but they're 10 times better than most of the xianxia/xuanhuan novels you'll read. So you won't just read about the name of the move and then 10 sentences of how much damage it does or anything like that, no. This novel is much better than that.

Other than that, romance is definitely the strongest point of this story. It's just much better compared to the other chinese novels I couldn't believe this was a chinese novel while I was reading it. Development of their relationship takes time, girl doesn't just fall in love with MC simply because he is talented or praises her for a few times. It takes him several months to be able to get her to see he loves her and kinda say yes to him. And even after that things don't just become like cliche chinese romances. He still has to work hard to keep the relationship steady and strong, he has to be careful with what he does and says so that she doesn't get uncomfortable and other stuff guys have to do in case they are the one who confessed first.

His relationship with his male friends is also well written in my opinion. I read a lot of chinese high school/college life novels and in around %90 of them the relationship with male friends is waay too unrealistic and sappy. The way they act usually make no sense and it's usually too childish, but I think author managed to avoid that in this novel. There are still some unnecessariy stuff that happens between MC and his male friends but author stops himself before it's too much for you to handle without getting annoyed or bored.

Also, I saw 2 reviews saying the same thing about how the girl MC fell in love with has nothing special about her at all. I mean, what do you expect? Does she always have to be from the strongest family in the martial arts universe or something? Aren't you tired of that same sh*t being used over and over again already? I'm pretty sure everyone who's complaining about how the girl has nothing special about her except for her beauty has never fallen in love before. You don't fall in love with someone just because they have something special. <<less
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TheJudge
TheJudge rated it
October 15, 2017
Status: c32
Not sure why so many people are giving this 4 stars and up, I would rate this 3 at most atm. I gave this a try after skimming through the reviews, however im starting to regret wasting my time even reading this. It's a chore now to try to read through the end of every chapter.

This MC gains a cheat like ability where he can put very little work in and still become strong vs others that's been training their body for years and decades, okay sure that doesn't sound... more>> too bad since he's the MC and we all like self fulfillment. My problem is how ignorant the MC is with girls. In his mind, he thinks that he should stay away from all females as he already has someone he "likes". The MC has been stalking this girl that is from his home town and is crazy over her. That's his sole reason for joining for martial arts club in the first place, prior to this, the girl that the MC is so in love with didn't even know who he was.

Nothing from the story really catches my attention, we know the MC is op with his cheat ability, however all he thinks about is how to woo this girl whom he's stalked for years. As for the female he's in love with, she's just your typical female, nothing special about her at all. <<less
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Vlaeghe
Vlaeghe rated it
October 11, 2017
Status: Completed
This novel I affectionately call "Romance Arts Master". It is one of the better and more enjoyable novels I've read over the years.

The well-written fighting and realistic romance is what did it for me.

Below this line is my old review about it, which is essentially still accurate although it might feel a bit lacking. And it was made relatively early on (like ch. 137), but I still feel it's still spot on.

I was just checking out my old reviews and I came back to this one in 2023, just to... more>> add on how I still feel about it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Martial Arts Cultivation novel.

The Main Character/protagonist is an university student that started off late with his martial arts practice. He joins the university martial arts club, but at first not entirely with pure motives. He actually wants to woe a girl. The way the author slowly weaves the MC's motives and oppurtunity together in a realistic way, coupled with the advise of his friend, just to pursue his dream (s) is truly admirable.

It really gives you the sense of wanting to root for the protagonist. Both in his attempts to woe the girl and his goals in Martial Arts.

Granted, the protagonist did pick up a 'cheat'-like item to help propel his dreams forward.

Spoiler

He picked up a 'Jindan'. This helps relieves his fatigue and gives him tremendous endurance to keep going, both in practice and actual fights. It also has a few other nifty side-effects, but that's best left for when you're reading the novel itself.

It doesn't appear overpowered or overly useful except for getting our MC started on his journey to become stronger.

(Jindan = golden egg-like object. It's contained within the body. Most chinese novel readers will be familiar with this term.)

[collapse]

Martial Arts competitions (Tournaments) are prevalent in the MC's world. The MC's fights are actually detailed enough for you to imagine what the fight is like, but still leaves you wondering a bit... since not everything is explicitly explained. Some of the Martial Arts moves have rather flashy names (thank god they're not actually shouting out the moves as self-explanatory objects) . Personally I think the fights are well-written.

Originally I gave this novel 4 stars, but I find myself wanting to read more and more. As it keeps me entertained. I simply gave it a 5 stars. (might be effected by the many unjustified 1 stars as well)

If you're looking for an entertaining martial arts novel, that actually has some proper romance in it. This is the novel for you. The romance and interactions of the characters is what makes the novel stand out. It feels genuine. <<less
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kkgoh
kkgoh rated it
August 18, 2020
Status: c230
A romance novel disguised as a battle/cultivation novel. Should be renamed "Pickup Master".
It's literally a CN version of "King of Fighters" (1994) + "History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi" (2002) .
It's technically shounen. Decent binge read if you have nothing better to do. 3 out of 5 stars.

No idea what all the reviewer grief about Qidian translation turf wars are about. Most reviewers covered a lot of problems so I'll just point the main issues.

(1) QUESTIONABLE ROMANCE GENRE & GOALS
As a university freshman, MC has a better... more>> handle on respecting women, which is applaudable compared to most other CN MCs. But for a supposed relationship newbie, MC suddenly becomes incredibly suave just from random words of advice from his best friend. And yet he is incredibly needy, constantly spending every waking/sleeping moment with his love interest. MC's entire life revolves around his gf.

At least Kenichi grew to love martial arts after his initial interaction with the FL, and became a genuine warrior in his own right. MC Lou Cheng openly states that he wants to be a great martial artist so he can continue pandering/supporting his gf. Ugh, there are family-men I can respect, but this is kinda ridiculous.

I can understand why some readers really like this, IF you are an adolescent teenager with no relationship experience. Otherwise the lengthy arcs of chapters devoted entirely to cheesy dialogue, romantic banter and a needy-af MC is an incredible pain in the a*s.

You get the sense that author is dictating his cultural norms and relationship experiences to the readers, and all other forms of romantic love besides the way MC does it is inferior, especially since author constantly contrasts other couples relationship against the MC's.
Again, if you're a teenager, that might be interesting but it's pretty cringe-worthy for adults. Feels like someone forced me to read "Twilight" or "Hunger Games", declared that it's the greatest romance ever, and the readers must be fools if they don't recognize it.

(2) COMPLETE FAILURE OF A CULTIVATION SYSTEM
The whole modern martial arts idea is interesting, but poorly developed.

-- Levels are not clearly defined. There's Amateur Pin 9-1, Professional Pin 9-1.
You can easily jump levels and kick someone's a*s. There are no real criteria for being awarded different levels, either you official kick someone's a*s in lengthy, scheduled fight rounds, or you kick someone's a*s at a higher level (thereby meaning you're as good as that opponents level).
So technically if you're REALLY lucky and no one registered to fight for that Pin level in that location, at that time of the year, then you'll automatically qualify. Huh??

-- MC progresses through major martial stages by nonsensical allegories. Literally.
Hey I just realized the Dan I was trying to cultivate so hard but couldn't sounds similar to the JingDan that I luckily obtained. How about I just use the JingDan as as substitute?

Hey I have completely no clue how to simulate Force. Why don't I imagine my JingDan as a substitute?

Hey I..... why don't I imagine my JingDan as a substitute?

Hey...

H...

-- The same punch, jab, hook, elbow, front kick, back kick, side sweep, etc gets elevated to ridiculous proportions once author throws in randomly named skills with different backgrounds.
e.g. Check out my <name1-goes-here> right punch!
Check out my <name2-goes-here> right punch!
Check out my <name3-goes-here> right punch!
Makes no difference why one is better than the other. We're told it just is. At best, author will say one martial artists trained some random internal cultivation method that boosts his strength, but....

the physics and body development is straight up weird.

-- Men and women can fight in the same ring with little/no physical differences. Some female martial artists have "herculean strength", just because.

-- There's no discussion at all about bone refinement. Even below the "body refinement" stage, opponents fists can constantly connect with each other and no bones break. A super punch blocked by crossing your arms together won't break your forearms, only your stance (which technically exposes you to a finishing blow). Yet the same punch delivered to a "weaker" body structure (e.g. shoulder) can shatter it. Random powerful moves under fighters' feet (running, jumping, etc) can shatter the stones beneath them. But most kicks can't break bones.
Huh??
-- No idea about the parallel cultivation systems that never gets properly explained. Ancient times had cultivators, more modern time have martial artists, MC happens to inherit powers from an ancient cultivator but wants to continue being a martial artist??
Wouldn't the normal, more logical plot be that ancient cultivators were too OP but died out, while the lesser martial artists tried to imitate but failed, and the MC just happens to find an ancient legacy that allows him to transcend current martial artists? Not sure if this will be retconned.

(3) QUESTIONABLE WORLD BUILDING
Not sure if this will improve, but we're told that this version of Earth has a pugilistic background, with martial arts having slightly more omnipotent powers than our version of Earth.

Martial artists can train to awaken some supernatural powers to complement their martial arts. It still doesn't make them completely invulnerable to modern weaponry (despite the term "physical invulnerability" constantly being thrown around). i.e. a trained platoon of soldiers should be able to take out mid-to-top tier martial artist.

With this background, martial artists should theoretically just be at the level of our Earth superstar athletes.
So it doesn't make sense that author continually elevates the martial artists as people with vastly greater social status/power (i.e. similar to cultivation novels). It's not like being a martial artist makes you a better general, better leader, or better entrepreneur.

(4) BAD TRANSLATION
While I applaud the translation effort, the quality is pretty rough and becomes a real problem when the characters speaking them are constantly misquoted.
e.g. Character A saying something clearly gets mistranslated as Character B saying it. And this happens A LOT. <<less
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Ikan
Ikan rated it
November 13, 2017
Status: --
The excessive romance development makes me drop this novel. It has good story and some pretty good fight, but the excessive romance kill it. It is a martial arts novel. Yes we need some romance but if every time he fight, he will flirt with the female lead. What the hell dude.
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Umeshchandra98
Umeshchandra98 rated it
October 31, 2017
Status: c133
Important Note : If any novel is from qidian please don't check ratings but reviews instead.

Reason : because some immature people rate 1 if it is from qidian. And mind it there may be genuine 1 stars too.

Anyway this novel is absolute gem. My reasons for 5 stars :

... more>> 1. Very well developed romance even better than many romance novels out there. (I'm a big sucker for romance and yes I'm a guy, so what, gonna bite me???)

2. Deep and realistic character development. (I didn't like MC at first but right now he is one of my favorite MC and also I like female lead too, she's pretty much my type)

3. Intense and interesting fights. (We can't even say if MC will win or not just like audience in the novel. And also this is xuanxuan, in my opinion fights in xuanxuan are better than that in xianxia)

4. Character interactions are great. (My favourite side character is MC's best friend, he is really a genuine love guru, even you learn some points on how woo a girl from his teachings.)

PS : even in reviews look for above 40 chapter ones because I too didn't like it as much as right now before that.

PPS : This is my first review, so please forgive my grammatical errors.

TL;DR : one of the best translated novel with romance and martial arts. <<less
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Arrogance
Arrogance rated it
April 22, 2018
Status: c345
Ok, so I wrote this review because a lot of people seem to have gotten the wrong idea about this novel and rated it based on that. The best way to describe this novel would be: non-generic. The MC is a relatively calm and collected person. He gains his cheat power pretty early on but it isn't an extremely OP ability or something. The author focuses on MC's progression overall: in martial arts, in romance, and as a person. The fight scenes are written very well (except for this weird... more>> fetish the author has with spines :D) and the characters are real. They aren't just emotionless foils meant for the MC to trample on.

Now I want to talk about how the novel compares to other novels. This novel is different from the common sorts of martial arts novels you'll find. There's no tragic past, no cycle of moving through worlds and basically casting aside everything and everyone time after time. The novel is about an average person's rise. MC isn't super smart or super dumb or super talented, he just finds a way to let his relatively normal potential show. You won't find face slaps and all the generic dumb stuff where MC's talent is immeasurable and all that sh*t here. Also MC's love interest doesn't get involved in all of the normal dumb stuff. She doesn't vanish for hundreds of chapters then comes back for some reason, she doesn't have to suffer for some nonsensical reason like a certain body type or a random young master. And above all, she has a personality, she doesn't ignore MC then suddenly need him for something then suddenly fall in love with in the span of one chapter. In addition, young masters aren't important in this novel. There also isn't a big emphasis on sects. Everything is very human, very real.

For me the things stated above are a pro, but if any of you guys are just looking for a nonsensical tr*shy martial arts novel to binge through while convincing yourselves that MC's should always be OP and this MC's no good cuz he has a cheat power and all that, then just turn away. Don't read this novel. And by no means should you pollute this novel's ratings due to this novel not being a generic pile of steaming feces with a small twist that somehow makes it different from the competition.

This novel is simply good. If you think otherwise, that isn't a problem, so long as you're judging it based solely on itself, and not in comparison to other novels. The novel's pacing is unique, as is it's flow. For me it just felt good to read this, to see something that much closer to reality among webnovels.

Basically, this review comes down to: "I sincerely recommend this novel, as long as you aren't looking for a chuuni binge to read." (Yeah fk all you people who don't like this novel, you must have bad taste or smthing (I'm jk ofc)) <<less
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kjoke
kjoke rated it
October 11, 2017
Status: c47
Like the authors other novel, Throne of Magical Arcana, this one also avoids most of the typical xianxia/xuanhuan cliches. So far there are no jealous young masters, no "ice-cold-beauty", no instant-love, no tragedy/revenge plot, no powerful families/sects oppressing everyone not belonging to them, no overly arrogant yet weak young masters or generally anyone trying to kill the MC. This alone makes the novel worth reading.

The story is about a young university student joining the martial arts club, initially to get closer to his crush. As he optains a "treasure" his... more>> training progresses fast and he gets infatuated in martial arts. So far the novel focused on his training and social life/interaction with his crush and also on martial arts in general.

The beginning is a bit boring and slightly confusing but bear with it. In the past few chapters the MC had his first public appearance and the story is gaining momentum.

(4/5) <<less
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WENTIAN1O1
WENTIAN1O1 rated it
October 10, 2017
Status: c81
Alright guys, first of all, don't look at the ratings for the book. Those 1 out of 5 ratings are from haters. There have only been 15 chapters released and they already gave it a 1 which shows how they think. I'm only writing this review because of the haters. I would have waited a couple weeks before writing a review as this novel is releasing at 14 chapters per week rate which is high but decided to write one to convince people to give this book a try. First... more>> of all the reason why these people rated it a one was that it was TOO SLOW. Which makes no sense as the novel just started. In my opinion, the starting was moderately fast paced. In my eyes slow would be something like ISSTH. That took a long time before it started to pick up the pace. Compared to ISSTH Martial Arts Master is clearly faster. In the first 15 chapters, they have already introduced the love interest, a master as well as all the basic levels. This concept of martial arts in a normal modern world, in my opinion, is very interesting. So please guys just hop on qidian and read the first 15 chapters. If you guys are a light novel reader like me 15 chapters goes by really quick and who knows, you might find a novel that is really good.

Update: ch.81

It's getting better and better. You can see the relationship between the love interest and MC getting better. For those who said this book had only slow development, this is one of those rare books where the character's personality changes. For example, he is a wimpy kid in the beginning but after he starts doing martial arts he gets calmer and analyzes situations better. This is a book I would definitely continue to read. <<less
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ofriendship
ofriendship rated it
December 18, 2017
Status: c276
I don't know why the rating of this novel is so low. Seriously, it should at least be around 4.2-4.5

Martial Arts Master (MAM) really gives me a shounen sport manga feeling, because over 90% of the action scenes are tournament (there are few of fighting life and death scenes too, but not that much) However, instead of focusing about sport (action) and friendship like normal Japanese manga, it focuses on sport (action) and romance. Like other reviews said, 45%action 45%romance 10%friendship. And the romance scene in MAM is truly... more>> well-written, actually it should be in Romance genre instead of just having Romantic subplot.

I'm not really good at review so this is all I can say. I just feel bad to see a good novel have a very low rating that I myself have to come and vouch for it.

Give yourself a try, don't care about the rating. Else you miss this piece of gem. <<less
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omgitsaray
omgitsaray rated it
December 18, 2017
Status: c207
It's a slice of life novel with some martial arts thrown in. This is a different breakup of the novel:

25% chatting on QQ
10% chatting on the forums
50% chatting with each other in real life and info dumps
15% training and fights

The fights use many terms of fighting styles that the reader will be unable to understand thus cannot imagine what's going on. The romance is kinda cute at times. Translation speed is fast so quality suffers with many broken English. Overall, a decent enough novel to kill time.
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RajSanthosh
RajSanthosh rated it
May 2, 2020
Status: Completed
Romance: 5/5

Story: 4/5

Martial arts: 4/5

Slice of life: 4/5

MC & Female lead : 5/5

A good & heartwarming one.....
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Expatamoeba
Expatamoeba rated it
October 12, 2018
Status: c450
Don't trust the ratings. People just gave one star whenever they saw a novel translated by Qidian. Ok let me be brief.

Pros:

  • AWESOME ROMANCE: Like seriously. This novel have the best romance I've seen in my years of webnovel reading experience. It's feels really real and I can relate with most of it. Here we can see how the MC pursuing his lover little by little, from getting her number to texting, how MC slowly make the girl open up to him, his effort for his girl and then there's more development after they establish their relationship and how they cope with it. It's fun, it's sweet and bring back my memories when I was pursuing my girlfriend in highschool.
  • Character Development is top notch. You can see the MC from being weak, shy and kinda dumb evolve little by little to be strong, confident, smart and calm. There's also the development from the side characters. They also develop together with the MC and not one dimensional.
  • Side characters is great. Everyone has their own unique personality and they are not abandoned after a few chapters like most CN webnovel. Even the rivals is likeable. They have their own motivation and problem on their own. And they will stay around and have their own character progression even after their fight with the MC.
  • Comedy is also good. It's fun seeing they joke around and banter with themselves. The conversation between the MC and his girlfriend can also be funny sometime.
  • Plot is excellent and beautifully paced. There are no awkward timeskip or plot hole.
  • The MC have a cheat but it's not OP at all. Even his master doesn't give a sh*t about his cheat. The MC is not overpowered as he also lose his fight.
Cons:

  • The translation quality is really bad. It's almost MTL level of bad. It's readable if you shut down your brain a little. But because of the bad translation, the fight scene become garbage as I cant imagine it well. Honestly I will re read this novel from chapter 1 if they got a better translator. Another thing the translator keep on dropping the novel for few months before resuming it because they cant take people criticizing their translation.
  • Power level is not properly explained or it was explained but I couldn't understand it well because of the garbage translation in the earlier chapters.
Overall I give this novel 10 star for the romance... more>> alone. Try it out. <<less
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Tobi
Tobi rated it
August 18, 2018
Status: c450
Varno is the prick that never actually dated someone before.
What? You can't like a person because of her looks? Hey, let's be realistic for a bit. At chapter 99, they've just started to connect to each other. Yan Zheke has just begun to like Lou Cheng and Lou Cheng has been entranced by her beauty and wants to get closer since forever. THEY INTERACTED LIKE NORMAL PEOPLE, SURPRISED?! And later on, she is one of the best character I've experienced, period.

Back to the actual review.
Simple percentage for it
[60% Romance / 40% Action] or 50/50

The fights are detailed, it's quite hard to follow if you're illiterate, which some... more>> of us in the review section here are clearly one. Except for a few Translator mistakes here and there, it's basically manageable with quite a collection of unique powers like some of Lou Cheng's future opponents, for example, they're good.

Characters are simply great, everyone is likable, everyone makes sense, and everyone is humble. Because who likes rude people? MC's rivals are good and not arrogant, they rise up the pins together and there's a lot of characters that strikes me interested like the MC's master... He's quite unique!

Female Lead is basically unknown to us at the beginning (few 90 chapters), but we get to know her when the MC took the initiative to actually know her as well. That's why the prick who never dated someone complains about the Female Lead, because he expects the MC and the readers to suddenly know her without exploring her character. Hush all of you, because she's one of the best characters yet.

Romance is f*cking amazing, not gonna lie, it's one of the best. Although I'm someone who very much enjoys harem... This novel does not need a bit of it!

World Building is basically meh, you've got a mysteries like the MC's "cheat even though it's not really a cheat"... Let's call it a fortune, the MC's power does not deserve the title of [cheat] because it's simply not that overpowered.
Because of the power levels, they kinda make sense? The mysteries won't get revealed until the later stage when the MC joins the ranks of the Physical Invulnerability which a lot of people have achieved by the by.

Plot armor is not there yet there at the same time. The MC does lose an averagely understandable amount of time. The fortune is explained simply at the beginning, read through it.

DO NOT LOOK AT THE RATINGS, THESE HIPPIES THAT JUST BLINDLY FOLLOWS QIDIAN HATE TRAIN (which is understandable, though currently, the hate has settled a lot and Qi has mellowed a bit) AND VOTE 1 STAR FOR NO f*ckING REASON!! I'm pissed!! Also read the reviews carefully, the people that voted lowly are neanderthal that likes action without brains and emotions. Ye, s I'm insulting you guys because you're making people leave this gold! <<less
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QueenShiro
QueenShiro rated it
February 23, 2018
Status: c70
The plot is good but the same time quite annoying.

The MC was like: Yan zheke here, Yan zheke there, Yan zheke, Yan zheke, Yan zheke, Yan zheke, Yan zheke, Yan zheke, Yan zheke, Yan zheke, x9999999999

the MC brain was 90% Yan zheke.

... more>> He joins the Martial arts club because of this girl, (alright I understand that) she's the reason he start with his martial arts path but is it necessarily that every chapter I read it's all about this girl.? to please her. to woo her.

overall the story is good...... without Yan Zheke. <<less
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ipapotihus
ipapotihus rated it
October 29, 2017
Status: c127
No idea why the romance genre is locked. The story is 45% martial art, 45% romance and 10% bro.

Its quite good. Would give a 4.5 if possible, because I get confuse in combat as they are way to much explained. Being not a native english speaker reading a fan translation of a chinese novel must not help.

No r*pe, no dark story, no crystory. No blood revenge, no unwanted violence, no bullying. This author his at peace with himself and doesn't bring his rage into this work. No social unjustice.

Its really... more>> a good read. The protagonist growth and become stronger, while pursuying his girlfriend. I get the same feeling, when im reading this, as the one I get for Pet King. If you want blood, violence and gore.... go to Against the god or I got a mansion in an apocalypse world. <<less
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Poireau
Poireau rated it
January 6, 2020
Status: c740
A good martial art novel with super powers and a true romance.

The romance here is really good: it's a really a breath of fresh air, it is really well decribed and is told with examples of every day live of lovers. If you never read a good romance before, then this novel is a for you.

Still, what this novel is also really successfull in, is the description of all the martial art fights. Surprisingly, even if there are no "big" enemies in this novel and most of the fights are... more>> friendly (very few fight to the death), none of the fights are boring.

The main cons in this novel are that sometimes, there are lack of action and that there are too many secondary characters to remember/get attached to, even if they are all well developped.

A good read. <<less
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