Soul of Negary (奈格里之魂) is a dark fantasy with world hopping. It's a very cruel story... the MC transmigrates to a world and is promptly killed by his system to harvest his protagonist qualities. As a remnant soul, he tries to survive by killing others and take their souls into him - but that turned him to an unclean spirit that can only harvest others' soul to complement itself. By the middle of the first volume, he's changed enough that he no longer calls himself by his old human name...... more>> rather he calls himself as the God he's pretending to be to the nearby tribe, the God of unclean things... Negary.

I kept thinking about how this story was somewhat of an antithesis to Lord of the Mysteries. LotM was about Klein trying to keep his humanity despite his incipient Godhood. He was a crippled god trying to be human. Soul of Negary is about a crippled human soul trying to be God.

It's not in the same class as LotM, but it's better than most of the crap that calls itself fantasy in the webnovel scene. <<less

One of the best novels which I would like to be translated.

"This work is really great for those who seek new idea, creativity and tired of the same old model. This novel has a logical power level unlike other Xianxia, Supernatural. Evolving into a new type of life form is a process of changing in thought, ideology of emotion and world view.

Opposite to the kind of story where the MC only cultivate and level up (Maybe for hundred, thousand or millennium) until he/she become invincible, become the omniscient and omnipotent.... more>> However, if you remove the super power then the protagonist doesn't change much (You may argue that the MC become more mature or the kind of that, THAT RIGHT! Every writer know what is character development thus there is no way the MC character remains the same as the beginning). What I want to stress here is that after the MC becomes invincible, gets married and haves offspring, achieves the "Happy ever after ending". There is almost no difference between the mortal at the beginning and the omnipotent being at the end, except for some kind of special power level- cultivation.

Things are different in this book, It clearly explains the process of one kind of life form evolving into a higher one. The things you lose and the things you need. At certain level, there no longer exist the concept of good and evil, only one own stand point.

That is a reader's opinion of this novel <<less

Hauntingly beautiful. That's the only way to describe this story. The Journey of the protagonist in this story is... Just Lovecraftian in nature. He changes, he changes, he changes... until what's left is a true horror. A horror which grows, and grows... and grows... until it consumes everything in its path.

What I also like about this story is the philosophical, and political trivia. There's pieces of wisdom in this story that are just so amazingly insightful.

Highly recommended.

First of all, let me say that this novel is a unique creation in the webnovel universe and everyone should try to read it once just for the sake of exploring something new.

The story is laden with horror and mystery elements, giving it a similar vibe to Lord of the Mysteries. On top of it, the main character is incredibly badass (due to very solid reasons). He is very similar to Fang Yuan from Reverend Insanity which is another huge plus. There is world-hopping involved, so it also gives similar... more>> vibes to Carefree path or dreams and others in the genre. Frankly, I don't like the world-hopping genre that much but this one has pulled it off quite well.

Before going into the depths of pros and cons, I want to debunk the most common negative point I have read in other reviews. "There is not enough world-building / The pace is too fast / I can't guess things, sh*t happens and I can only read it and it feels like asspull from the author." All the above points are features of the world-hopping genre, so this novel should not be bashed based on these. It is quite clear that every large arc will end up exploring a different world altogether. This gives the author about a hundred chapters for world-building, character introduction and integration and the plot of the arc. All this has to be done so that there is a consistent progression element for the main character. In this situation, it's obvious that the world-building for any single world will not be very detailed and that the pace will be very fast. It also gives readers less information to guess the flow of the story. So, what are the plus points to balance all of the problems pointed above?

You get to explore many different worlds in the same book. You also get to read many different stories in the same novel as each arc has different characters and a satisfactory ending to it. The first world is a low-magic world that is set in an ancient era. The second world is then set in a modern era with espers and so on. Every world comes with its protagonist, antagonist and backstory. There are also twists, turns and plots in each world. At the same time, you get an overarching story from Negary's perspective. Lots of characters are maintained throughout different worlds as well. It is one hell of a ride if you think about it.

The above pros and cons are common across the world-hopping genres in my opinion. Thus, before getting into this novel, it is better to know these. Now, let's get into the unique points that this novel brings.

First of all, the mystery and horror elements are done very well. Negary is not a human being but more like an entity that has evolved from evil spirits. He is a monster that has grown due to extremely unlikely circumstances and is going to evolve into a horror that would become unstoppable if left unchecked. He would probably be an epic last boss. Given that such a monster is the main character, one can easily guess that things don't end well for the good guys in this novel. The thrill of such a main character is perhaps only obtained in Overlord.

Another thing going for the novel, as I mentioned before is the main character. As I said, Negary is not human, so the way he thinks, evolves, plans and fights becomes more and more monstrous and things go on. Negary slowly transcends what a human can be. It is not only a change in his strength level. He doesn't behave like a more powerful human but like something beyond human.

Also, the novel is very unpredictable. This should be clear from the points before. But it has great twists and endings in different arcs. Even though you can't, in any way, guess what will happen, when it does happen, you still end up enjoying it. This is very important for a book in this genre because that is the major selling point. If you don't enjoy the disparate plots, you will not enjoy the book as a whole. But this novel has some really great plots. Also, the plot is extended logically, so while it might seem like an asspull by the author, it actually isn't.

Another pro could be that there is very little plot armour. Negary comes through in such situations when there is really no chance for victory. And when he does come through, you get greatly exhilarated. This is because the way he wins is actually by optimally using his powers, knowledge, situation and so on rather than getting random boosts through breakthroughs. In fact, he has to struggle quite a lot before every breakthrough.

This novel is written very well and the author is very capable. I am pretty sure that if the author had taken this idea and written a non-world-hopping fantasy, it would have been better than Lord of the Mysteries, which is a very high rating! I have perhaps read more than a hundred webnovels and this would be in my top 5. Given that I don't pick up tr*sh novels to read, I would say that this is one of the best and readworthy webnovels out there. <<less

I am writing this review as at chapter 331.

The first 200 chapters are fantastic. 10/10. The character of Negary is unique and I haven't come across any character like him in a CN Novel before.

Initially the MC is a pretty standard protagonist, but within first 20 chapters, you gradually see him begin to change. He sheds his flaws one by one, absorbs the best elements into himself and evolves from his humble human origins into an ideal in and of itself.

Then however, roughly around chapter 220, the story turns to... more>> shit. From this point the MC starts becoming a background character and the power system starts breaking down becoming too metaphyscial (i.e. Think of the standard xianxia post-Nascent Soul level asspulls).

The story begins to follow some uninspired throwaway supporting characters as the MC himself begins to spend his limited 'screen time' discussing the convoluted power system and planning his behind the scenes rise to power. The vibe of the whole novel changes, before it was intelligent and had excellent flow, but from chapter 220 onwards it feels more as if a 'dumb author' is trying too hard to write 'intelligent characters' and 'clever plot twists'. (Google 'Smart characters written s*upidly sherlock holmes copy pasta' to understand what I mean)

I basically skimmed over the next 100 chapters, and up to chapter 330 its been much of a muchness. However, I haven't dropped the novel yet, In hopes that it will eventually return to form. <<less

Not bad, but better when you turn off your brain.

The currently translated chapters (50+) should be enough for you to judge if it's for you. I'm more than 300 chapters into the raws at this time.

It has world-hopping and power progression that reminds me of the Plagiarist's writing (e.g. Warlock of the Magus World). Like Reverend Insanity, it also has a villainous protagonist who has a lot of edgy thoughts. Unlike Fang Yuan, the protagonist's edgy mindset isn't driven by some bitter pragmatism in a dog-eat-dog world but by becoming... more>> a higher lifeform no longer shackled by the narrow perspectives due to human limits.

I find its main flaw to be inadequate explanations for stuff that matter. In particular, there isn't enough setup for reveals so they often feel like ass pulls. I'm often confused about the scope of Negary's powers and also about how Negary would know certain things.

I understand that writers want to follow the law of conservation of detail to speed up the pacing but even in this aspect, the writing doesn't do well. Once the reveal is done, the author tries to make up for the lack of prior explanation so we get an infodump anyway, which ruins the pacing. Sometimes I wonder whether the author is covering his ass for the lack of setup or because he is making up the plot as he goes. In contrast, I think the Plagiarist tends to telegraph or foreshadow a lot of things so his reveals are easier to accept and don't require long infodumps after the fact.

Again, I suggest reading the currently translated chapters because we may have different standards of what passes for enough explanation and good pacing. Despite my misgivings I will continue reading this novel. <<less

I 100% agree with ngheems review on this novel. Particularly the part where they say "It clearly explains the process of one kind of life form evolving into a higher one." This is the most exciting and enjoyable aspect of this novel.

Actual power level shouldn't affect character development, and character development shouldn't affect power level. This novel does this very well, it ensures that the development of power and character go hand in hand, simultaneously changing.

Great. Its an awesome, well thought out book and it shows.

It starts with a protagonist who got his protagonist aura stolen by the system. All thats left is an incomplete soul who turns into an entity who symbolizes betterment.

The author carefully crafts the worlds, not the micro stuff but more like the powers system, the world history, the powers and how they are connected to the core of the worlds.

World hopping is one of the tags, Negary has an attitude of an student, who studies phenomena and the workings of... more>> the new worlds. Its the charm of the novel If you are intending to skim that part then its not the novel for you.

drollawake doesn't understand the difference between edgy and evil protagonists. Don't be like drollawake. Feel like asspull? Negary is also discovering things as he goes.

Whats the problem with focusing on side characters? They show whats happening in lower power level but their plot is interesting.

If you want to read the usual template of the protagonists, making friends, getting a teacher, getting emotional read something else.

If you want something different, try it.

Be patient with the novel. And don't skim. <<less

Great. Although the start was almost uninteresting to the point there wasn't much to be engrossed with, It quickly vanish when he decided to finally part of his 'humanity' and Ohhh boy that segment was a whole rise of quality. It took me a quite surprise with that. I only continued because some say it's good but when I saw the first few chapters that made me doubt their words HOWEVER it was worth continuing reading this novel. Read the first 50 chapters that it in includes the quality rise... more>> of content and plot or even continue to the latest chapter, I think you will like this if your into grey evil MC. <<less

Starting is very good. I wish I could read whole book in a day. Very entertaining story about a naive guy turning into true evil MC.

Had potential but after few chapters in it becomes a hogsmash of events that one can't even make sense how it came to be.

world building is ok, things are skipping forward so fast one can't keep up with the world.

plot, well the idea is good, it what got me in, but the way it is written really puts one off, I mean is it a kingdom building?, a political drama?, Negary's journey?.... its bits of these thrown together, and not even the best of them mind you.

Theres no struggle, ... more>> timeskips solve all of mc's needs and upgrade's in strength, which feels like this should be more of the kingdom building type, but even that just gets skimeed away in the timeskips, you don't even get to understand the world and MC and even connect with him before a timeskip changes it from head to tail.

maybe it will get better? idk, I will update this if I change my view. but for the ones who are thinking of reading this, know if it is your first few novels then it might interest you, if not then other than the notion of his unique existence everything else will feel repetetive and amatuer. <<less

A refreshing start after reading hundreds of transmigration novels.

The start itself has common sense and you'll see that the story is progressing in a very unique way. Unlike the sh*t ton of crappy novels I've read.

It's worth the 5 star rating for sure, so give it a read.

I agree with what Queen of Sheba wrote and to add on, the initial "lead" is a naive human who gets betrayed by his world hopping "system" and his remnant spirit is what becomes the MC. The MC understands humans but is certainly not human and is a true evil creature. If you liked Warlock of the Magus world, reverend insanity etc. You will probably like this. Since not many chapters have been translated, I am not sure how important the side characters will be in the future, but so... more>> far (c58) they are interesting (even the "hero" types who are going against the MC to save their world). <<less

I thought I'd give it a try. I couldn't even get past the 1st 100 chapters. The thing that made me drop it was the atrocious world-building.

A lot of novels have a problem pacing. They add in a bunch of irrelevant details but this novel has the opposite problems. The pacing is too quick. And there is a severe lack of detail in everything. How our protagonist progresses, how the world works, some background on different characters that suddenly make appearances. In like the 1st 20 chapters, the author gets... more>> these things right but not even another 20 chapters later, the author starts using these time skips like the readers have accompanied the MC for hundreds of chapters. We don't get any details. He leaves off with a cliffhanger of the MC needing to progress this far then uses a timeskip to solve it. The reason I picked up on this in the 1st place was because it was compared to Reverend Insanity. The protagonist in both stories are definitely similar but the world-building in this one is so bad that I had to drop it. After a certain point, everything just becomes a mix-match of different events with no prior connection. No foreshadowing, no nothing. Just sh*t happening. Especially after chapter 30 or so. I can't believe this has a higher rating than reverend insanity.

To sum it up, read the 1st 50 chapters or so and see if it's your cup of tea. As for me it clearly isn't. <<less

A great beginning but an equivalent disapointment after the first chapters...

I have to agree with others reviews, that the beginning and concept are great: the MC betrayed by his goldfinger/system tries to survive in an unknown world. Then the shift from a normal human being to a ghost state is very well written, and it's interesting to see how progressively the MC loses his humanity.

But once the "MC" becomes an "entity" ... more>>

Spoiler

and calls himself "Negary", there are several "MCs" (contaminated/possessed by Negary) and the story is much less interesting: you will have several POV, with characters that are not really interesting to follow/read about and the evolution of the "previous MC", is no more interesting as the author spends few sentences to explain.

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After the "MC" becomes this Entity, the plot becomes predictable and the story boring. The political context is really not exciting at all but do his job to keep you motivated to read a few more chapters, but the time skips kill what was left of the entertainement...

From the early chapters, I was expecting the MC to become more like in WMW, a MC with a lack of humanity but with only the POV of the MC. Here the author's choice after a few chapters is not what I was expecting... <<less

TL;DR: The journey of an incessantly unsatisfied manipulator who wishes to grow at the cost of himself.

The main draw of this novel is the main character himself.

He is an entity beyond humanity who has the sole goal of becoming a better version of himself. This is consistently taken to an extreme, as he is forced to sacrifice his emotions, past, and even his soul to move further on this path.

As written in the novel, the main character in the later chapters is not the same as the one in the... more>> beginning, it is a more refined and perfect being that only carries the same name.

This is written perfectly. The main character is extremely logically consistent, his decisions never sway from his ultimate purpose of improvement.

Another large draw of this novel is the world-building.

This is a multiversal novel, where the events that take place span many different worlds, each with their own uniqueness.

This is also done very well, as we learn about the natives living in each world and the stories that they all contain. We are brought along and immersed in their cultures while Negary schemes in the background.

This situation, however, has a flaw.

This novel has a fantastic main character, but the story is very centered around side characters. Additionally, many of these side characters have an insignificant level of strength in comparison to Negary. This leads to their stories feeling slightly pointless, knowing that a breath of air from Negary could resolve all of their troubles.

The author also struggles with pacing these side stories, often writing dozens of chapters sequentially where we do not see a trace of the main character. This issue is further presenting itself as the novel carries on, slowing down the pace of the novel as a whole.

However, even disregarding the aspect of the main character, this novel has many phenomenal aspects in terms of writing. The worlds that are built are entirely unique and the characters encompassed within are also interesting to follow. Therefore, I believe this novel deserves 4 stars as the minimum regardless.

I would recommend this novel to anyone who can stomach a slower pace and an antihero protagonist. <<less

I've read The Lord of the Mysteries (LoTM) before I read this and... this became my new #1 novel.

The writing style/worldview is very... some other commentor said "cruel" and yes it does be giving xianxia, Gu Zhen Ren (Reverend Insanity) or say WMW vibes.

There's a philosophy in it and... it brought me out of a depressive episode back in 2021. No surprises the author said he started the book wanting to write an idea he had he couldn't name as "Negary" out (or at least that's what MTL got me).

It's... more>> quite rushed at the end, but it sure is entertaining (if you like those scheme-heavy stories) & a story that's not empty. If you're struggling in this world (typical leftist Gen-Z attitude's to the world), it's an interesting book for sure. Nowhere near political though. There's a political passage for sure, but that's just one or two chapters and not the theme, similar to, say how LoTM did it. But the central theme of "Negary" (and its nemesis) is actually spread throughout the book. It's a book with a plan, like LoTM is, or like RI is.

p.s. I compared it to LoTM not because of how similar they are (they are not), but just because I liked these stories so much. I liked LoTM mainly because (1) story thought out, (2) hardly any -isms (many good novels are ruined by casual h*mophobia, transphobia, as well as sexism), (3) no love (I'd call it NL but that got claimed by nonke or straight people), and (4) likeable protagonist, long story, good writing/TL/editing; so to say it passed the bare-minimum and was well-written. At least 3 out of 4 of those points also apply to Soul of Negary. I like Soul of Negary specially because of its style (similar to RI that I just mentioned) (very much to my liking) along with the plot which then needed to come with it, and its substance. It's not a sh*tty substance as well, so there's that.

Final Notes:

If you read this story I recommend reading it while thinking about the philosophy it and its characters present, and if it applies to you and/or your surrounding society. Don't just turn your brain off. <<less

This novel is quite good, although there is much tropes i've seen already, like in WotD, CPoD, etc...

Not enjoying it now. And yes, there is so much cringe references... facepalm

The first two volumes (~100 chapters each) are really good. They both explore some really good concepts, and the main character is relatively unique. Those two volumes I would rate 5 stars each. However, the story really starts falling off. The third volume is really boring, plain and simple. The main character doesn't really get much screen time, all of his subordinates do instead, taking the route of hidden mastermind. While on paper it sounds cool, theres never really any true action.

The forth volume is where the story takes a... more>> complete nosedive. Instead of exploring unique concepts or something interesting, it turns into an amalgamation of how many anime references they can fit inside a paragraph without the reader vomiting.

I recommend reading this novel, albeit only to the second or third novels. <<less

After the 2nd arc, the whole novel became Author's chunibyo diary of some sort. He was out there writing all sort of nonsense that doesn't make sense. You are introduced to a new character every chapter and the worlds are so muddle up at one point you can't tell whether it's up or down.

I am tired but I some how managed to MLM to the end. The story has so much potential than it was I don't know a whirlwind, something can't be unseen, I am embarrassed he actually wrote... more>> some of the things he wrote,

Anyway Killer J best character, I felt like the author want to be Killer J through out the novel anyway, He was the best written one. <<less