Probably good, but unreadable.

The setting seems interesting, the author is known to be very talented, but the huge problem is the translation.

I mean, a below than average translation can be tolerated in a simple story, but with this one, with many characters and stuff going on, the translation just butchered the story, breaking any immersion I could have.

What a waste.

A main difference between this series and other "game/competition/test world" novels is that most other series have a safe, normal world and an alternate dangerous world. In this series, both the "normal" world and the Samsara worlds are filled with danger and opportunities to grow stronger. I really like that the pace doesn't slow down regardless of which world the MC is in. All-in-all, it's an interesting combination of the Infinity and Xuanhuan genres.

Good story that is ruined by a sh*t translation with MTL quality. Especially when it's based on Chinese mythology and better academic translations for specific terms are available online. What's worse is the translation got even shittier around chapter 778 with a new translator. And they totally changed the vocabulary for worse.

The Sage Who Transcended Samsara is written by Cuttlefish That Loves Diving, my favorite Qidian author, and so I checked it out. I was not disappointed! The MC is a guy who transmigrates into the body of someone who appears to be a former aristocrat. The first mystery is this body's identity, and the MC doesn't even know his real name. Like the other web novels by this author, this one has two main genres. For this series, they are Xuanhuan and mystery.

Like his other series, this one starts off... more>> by establishing the setting during the first few chapters before shocking readers with a twist in the genre in chapter 8. The battles are exciting, the character development is smooth, and I love seeing the characters train hard to develop new skills (or else die).

The mysteries that have appeared thus far are intriguing and not straightforward, even leaving the MC at a loss until he gradually uncovers clues one by one. Mu*der and thievery abound, but the motives of those involved are not always clear. The suspense keeps me on the edge of my seat, and the life of the MC at his temple is sometimes just as deadly and threatening as his tasks in the World of Samsara.

The plot is still unfolding like a walk into the mist with me never knowing what is about to jump out around the next corner. <<less

Interesting start but quickly devolves into the same old generic garbage so common in this scene. After a certain point in this novel you can safely skip a couple dozen chapters and miss next to nothing in regards to story or interesting developments. My suggestion is to read the beginning books, then drop it once

This is a good quality Xianxia without usual tropes. MC is not OP, and others have same 'cheat' as he has. Young masters don't seek trouble, nobody calls MC loser, no constant upgrading by drugs. MC does not massacre sects or clans, he kills decisively but only when necessary.

MC transfers into body of young master, but he won't get any memories, he does not know even name of the guy. He gets dropped into Shaolin Buddhist monastery, so nobody finds out. He has likable personality and sense of humor, he's... more>> not at all psychopath like so many CN heroes. <<less

More lows than highs and would be better if not for the translation [B-].

The settings are heavily based on Buddhism, Taoism and Chinese mythology and classics such as the "Journey to the West", and with the mix of the infinity genre for the first half of the series.

There were a few fun arcs; some from the Samsara worlds, those with Gu Xiaosang, and some minor characters' mini arcs with their point of view. The majority of these mainly occur before chapter 1000, because from the 1000s onwards, the accumulation of... more>> more characters appearing with different titles and many things happening makes it confusing to read. This is more so with the inconsistent names/titles at times due to the translation. Many of the characters later on are taken reference from "Journey to the West" and it would be even more confusing for those with no knowledge of it. I am lost at times wondering what is going on and who is on which side.

This is a novel that is difficult to translate especially with the names/titles and the Buddhism/Taoism terms. The translation was bearable and I decided to switch to reading the MTL early from chapter 715 onwards while cross-reading with the translation as I heard that many terms/names have changed in the late 700s. The translations from the late 700s onwards are ridiculous and incorrect with the context, for example "divine weapons" becomes "heavenly troops", "immortal" becomes "fairy", "grandmaster" becomes "guru", "old demon" becomes "witch", "seclusion" becomes "isolated practice", "karma points" becomes "good deeds", "heavenly execution axe" becomes "scorpio axe", and "pure maiden sect" becomes "plain girl sect". You get what I mean. Even if they refer to the same thing in Chinese, depending on the context, it can refer to different things and the translation is just horrible and awkward sounding. Another thing is the entire series uses "Vacuum Hometown", I believe a more accurate term would be "Void Origin". The MTL (wnmtl. org) I use is better than most MTLs sites and have more accurate terms/sentence structures/elaboration (don't worry it is not broken english) compared to the translation. The only huge problem is that the pronouns are often mixed-up. For example, "I, he, her, him, she, you, they, we, them, yours... " are often interchanged and it can be slightly confusing. Overall, I feel that the entire series needs to be be re-translated by a highly qualified translator with more accurate terms to really show the truth worth of this novel. It is really a pity.

There a couple of times where I wanted to drop this novel, the first which I remember is around the early 800s, but I persevered and around chapter 820, there was a fun arc which made me read on (this will happen a few time where the lows are truly low, worsened by the translation which makes it weary to read). Ending is kinda anti-climatic but the author has mentioned about it in his afterword. He understands the flaws and know his areas of improvement. Epilogue was good and there was a decent closure.

This is my 4th series read by Cuttlefish That Loves Diving after LOTM, MAM, and TOMA.

Good but butchered by the translation. Way too many characters in the later half with info dumps and is partly confusing (might be due to translation as well).

Thanks for the work author.

Date started: 27 Feb 2022

Completion date: 17 Mar 2022 <<less

It reads a bit dull. Also the translation leaves a lot to be desired.

Pretty okayish novel, but seems like infinity & xianxia genre is not this author's forte, it lacks the power of sucking you into the world.

Good news for folks who can't withstand first arc about monks: the pace picks up later on, especially after chapter 140.

But there's nothing mind blowing that would make me stick to it, nothing to make me glued to the screen (Zhen Hui and Xiaoshang tried their best, alas...). Most characters have no character... more>> at all, so we are indifferent about them.

The part of infinity world is most of the time boring and despite bringing impact on the plot, it very much reminds the filler dreams in Carefree Path of Dreams, which were a lot more interesting but didn't impact plot in any way. If you are a fan of infinity genre, you're better off reading mainstream novels.

I'm not saying this novel is bad or generic. But I can't think of any future arcs being any better than what was shown until 261 chapters; and thus I am not interested in further grow of MC and unveiling the mysteries of the world. I'm a little disappointed having read Throne of Magical Arcana by the same author. That said, I'm going to dig into his two other novels as they are higher rated. <<less

Decent novel.

Good plots with depth, no one chapter characters.

As for translation, I really liked TransN translation until chapter 778.

After that you are better off using Chatgpt to translate raws. Whoever picked up translation after should just cut off their hand.

Also, after "someone" dies, the novel and latter story becomes messy and very uninteresting.

I just can't get on board with this forced infinity genre where some entity holds the life of our MC in his palm. I know its pretty popular genre but it just feels that everything now is forced plot armor.

Transmigrating into martial art world from modern world? That's cool beans, I'm on board. Easy to relate characters, easy to feel for action since we're of 'the same origin'.

Transmigrating into martial art world from modern world then be pulled into a modern style infinity genre 'game of life' where you're forced... more>> into doing quests for unimaginably powerful entity who kills you if you fail, well it just seems too much.

It's not completely about the plot setting either, I mean obviously the MC is going to slowly wiggle out of this sticky situation and beat the game of life, maybe that'll be before the book ends maybe that's the ending, its not even important. It's just that there was barely any hook for me in these early chapters at least. Main character was kind of chummy, slightly witty guy who did nothing of interest and had no original ideas of his own. I might give this another chance later but for now I'll leave it to rot. <<less

I have mixed feelings about how to rate this. I'm going to choose to do it based on the book itself, not based on the translation.

In short, there's a lot of Jargon, and the story does need that Jargon. The issue is, the translators shifted at least twice. When it shifted, the quality of the translation dropped, and a lot of said jargon started being translated completely differently. Immortal turns into Fairy is an example, and probably the least confusing one. More confusing is that the names of places change... more>> too. You'll eventually understand what is what, but it is indeed a downside.

But that's a problem with the translation. As for the book itself: this is a novel written by Cuttlefish Who Loves Diving. I don't need to say more. If you're familiar with the rest of his work, you know what to expect. Of all the modern webnovelists, this person has the most consistency out of all of them. Every single novel he has written (and I've read all of them!) is incredible.

As with the rest of his novels, similar to Er Gen, it takes a while for it to really start accelerating in pace too. This happened in the first arc of Throne of Magical Arcana, Martial Arts Master, Lord of the Mysteries, as well as Embers Ad Infinitum. Some would call this a downside, but the archetypical tendency of this author is to start the novels off with it being a Fish Out of Water situation, where he has to learn about the new world he has found himself in. Sometimes, this is just metaphorically (like in Martial Arts Matter), in all the other ones, it is quite literal.

This slow portion is where the world-building happen. The reason why this section doesn't suck in any of his novels is that this is *also* where he develops his relationships, and for a lot of those, they will last for the ENTIRE novel. Short of a character dying, this author does *NOT* abandon story threads, or most importantly, characters.

I fully admit that I am biased in favor of this Author. This is why, I'll rate all of his novels 10/10 (5/5) except for one. And it's all for the exact same reasons. The quality of these novels is consistent, contained, and complete. They feel like regular novels! No writing for word count, no bullshit, no nonsense, just pure story and pure character arcs.

If you were wondering what novel isn't 10/10, it's Lord of the Mysteries. That's because that novel is an 11/10.

So with that said, if you are able to read Chinese, that is absolutely the way to go for this one. The translation is the major downfall of this novel. Everything else? Immaculate. Deep, thoughtful, full of emotion but not in the telenovella kind of way (*cough cough* Against The Gods). Deals with philosophy, deals with mythology, deals with the questions of the human condition and morality.

So that's the big friggin asterisk to this review. The translation isn't good, because of it changing hands. For many, this WILL lower the score. So I'll say it again: My review score intentionally does not factor this into it. I am choosing to review it purely based on the book itself. <<less

the start is really interesting and fun but along about c200 it started to feel dull and I found myself skipping chapters, and then couldn't tell if he was in the real world or a copy. Eventually I just lost interest. I might come back and try it again later but for now it's a solid 3.

It's a really underrated novel imho, a good mix of the infinity genre, cultivation and mistery and more importantly no harem.

The level of BS compared to other xianxia is relatively low and the story tries hard to be coherent and surprising at the same time. The plot is pretty good and keeps you hooked, slowly revealing itself at a decent pace.

Disregarding 2 or 3 -main- characters the rest of the cast isn't too detailed but not too flat either so they fit pretty well in the story and the romance... more>> is fresh although extremely slow paced.

I didn't find the various realms as confusing as others said but around chapter 775 the translation quality plummets and the story becomes unreadable, not MTL levels bad but all the naming convention change AT THE SAME TIME and it sucks so I had to drop. <<less

Even though the translation quality becomes incredibly bad at around chapter 400, the story is still unbelievably amazing. The author's ability to mix in different myths together into a convincing story is simply god tier!!

If you can read Chinese, then I suggest you read the story in its original language. Otherwise you'll need a strong dao heart and a deep understanding of LNMTL to bear through the horrible translation. It's even worse than machine translation 🥲.

All in all, a worthwhile read. Another book with a somewhat similar idea when it... more>> comes to gods and deities would be: Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint. That one is also worth checking out <<less

Well, The author of this book is probably the best chinese author I have read till date. All his works have distinct quality and a great story while this novel itself isnt bad rather story has many twist and turns which makes it very good and it is definitely far better than any other cultivation novel you will find but this novel sometime feels like wishfullfillment all because of edgy MC. I expected much more from author who has written such great novels like Lord of mysteries, Martial Arts Master,... more>> Throne of Magical Arcana.

I definitely wont discourage you from reading this though cause This novel itself is very good and what I didnt like is the MC, he is very different from this author's usual works. MC is like the edgy teenager you would find in xianxia novel. But the story is very high quality there are many twist and turns just bear with it even if you didnt like the MC. There is room for lots of character development.

4/5 <<less

I'm just at chapter 7 but holey effing info dumps batman!... the novel is literally LITTERED with info dumps that its like I'm in the middle of a typhoon flooded river, drenched among tons of tr*sh floating all around---I'm drowning.

all these terms are totally new...i was still getting to know the power ranking levels and these stories about the heroes in the world and his storytelling about the wuxia from his (the MC) world made it all the more helpful... NOT it added to the confusion instead. from what I'm... more>> reading, there are two super saiyan forms: the one where his buddhist sect/cult is and a rival group.... and I think there are other groups insinuated as well...

I'm giving this a hundred more chapters and will slog through it but after a hundred more and its still all these crap things... then I will give up.

based on first impressions, my ranking will be below a 3 star on this one.... <<less

It's okay... definitely the author's weakest work, but it was interesting enough that I made it to c840 even past the garbage translation change (c778 is barely readable, then it either improves or I got used to it... still not as good as before, but not actively annoying except for certain terms that I know are totally incorrect like calling male Taoist Immortals as Fairy or Buddha). I would've kept going too, but the time f*ckery became really excessive and I personally hate time stuff. Minimal spoiler explanation: ... more>>

Spoiler

someone gets an item that allows them to go into the past and kill someone there, thereby affecting the future

[collapse]

The MC is fun and likes to show off, a bit naive but not too bad (he tends to avoid killing guards and such if possible, but he does do it sometimes and even slaughters a couple criminal groups). I also like that some of the important characters can actually die, and stuff doesn't always go as you expect.

If you've already read the author's other works then I recommend reading this one too. Aside from the second half TL it's not bad, just doesn't really fit my taste nearly as well. My personal ranking of his stuff: EaI > LoTM > MAM >> ToMA > this <<less

The book is good in my opinion, such as the MC being op yet not really op. Plus side characters are actually not just characters that are there and get weak, they stayed up with the MC. Only thing is that you gotta mind translation not being that good, but if u can get past it then I recommend this novel to you.