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The Sword and The Shadow
Type
Web Novel (CN)
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Rating(3.2 / 5.0, 159 votes)
5    38% (61 votes)
4    7% (11 votes)
3    14% (23 votes)
2    18% (28 votes)
1    23% (36 votes)
Language
Support Book (#ad)
Author(s)
One entry per line
Artist(s)
One entry per line
N/A
Year
Example: 2012
2014
Status in COO
Status in Country of Origin. One entry per line
670 chapters (Completed)
Licensed
Yes
Completely Translated
Original Publisher
One entry per line
English Publisher
One entry per line
Release Frequency
Every 142.3 Day(s)
Activity Stats
[Graph]
Weekly Rank: #2000
Monthly Rank: #2000
All Time Rank: #1124
Reading List
[Graph]
On 2976 Reading Lists
Monthly Rank: #2871
All Time Rank: #2757

Description

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Leguna. An orphan. His life changed dramatically the day the thieves’ guild happened to select him for training and development. He would go on to become lifelong friends with a loyal mercenary, the partner of a beautiful magus who was cold as ice, the savior of a mysterious disfigured dark-elf girl with a talent for the Breath, and the unlikely caregiver for a feisty young maiden. And yet, who would be with him to the very end?

In a twist of fate, the child who fought stray dogs for food emerged to be the most infamous assassin in the world. But the intricacies of power are not so easily grasped, and the price of protecting those that he loves is not as simple as he once thought…

Associated Names
One entry per line
TS2
剑影传说
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
Destroyer of Ice and Fire (2)
Against Heaven (1)
Against the Gods (1)
Recommendation Lists
  1. What I read
  2. novels
  3. Fantasy Stuff
  4. RiceHot's Collection

Latest Release

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02/05/18 Wuxiaworld v1c20
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02/05/18 Wuxiaworld v1c10
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02/05/18 Wuxiaworld v1c6
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25 Reviews sorted by


CreamPuffDelights
CreamPuffDelights rated it
June 27, 2018
Status: c146
I dont need to say anything about the plot. Fairly normal strong to weak. The problem lies therein; I can't say how this will change in future chapters, but after enduring for nearly 150 chpters, I've already lost count of how many freaking times our dear MC will scream to the sky because some idiot young master somewhere let their dicks take over their brains, try to take the girl, get his ass kicked, involve his guild/family/ancestor, get someone hurt badly, or mu*dered, or r*ped, and yes, it happens which... more>> is surprisingly good since it means people will die.

My point being, once his valuable people suffer from whatever said guild/family/ancestor has done, he will go berserk and scream, regretting his weakness, and utterly lose his shit, leading him to do VERY s*upid things. This rage will result in him going into his Bad ass mode (the black eyed, black everything mode someone mentioned in an earlier review). Sounds good right?

Not exactly. Said mode will let him deal with the matter at hand, except the people he kills are usually just the middle boss at most. So the big boss is still around, and causing trouble. And it DRAGGGGGS on and on and on. This pattern, repeats itself AT LEAST five times (before I lost count). Despite ALL his f*cking upgrades, grandma ghost and what not, he's basically still a weak as sh*t (comparatively considering the enemies his facing at that point of time), emotionally imbalanced 15 year old with a horrendously self damaging legacy.

I got nothing against the plot, its normal. A lot of powerful people take interest in him for whatever reasons, all of them step in to stop him just right from dying (PLOT ARMOR FTW AIMIRITE?) but they won't do a single thing to stop the suffering. They help him get strong, give him armor and education etc, but it's never really enough. The story just doesnt get going, and the MC stays weak, always playing catch up while the people he values suffer.

Long story short, pre-150 the story is draggy as shit, the protag is whiny/weak as sh*t and quite frankly, I really feel like torturing myself by reading about a whiny/weak protag. <<less
60 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Skoll028
Skoll028 rated it
February 6, 2018
Status: c31
I personally saw the tags Harem/Action and decided to check it out. Glad I did.

While the story is nothing ridiculously revolutionary, it is still interesting. Our main character is an orphan, and as many orphans do in medieval-esque settings, he became a thief. Sadly, our thief was in the wrong place at the wrong time, which led to him being caught (by an extremely strong individual at that).

However, he didn't get apprenticed to this person, nay! He instead is jailed, and shipped off to be a s*ave!

... more>>
Spoiler

He escapes of course

[collapse]

By the time we finish with the short portion of the story that is up until the leaving from the ship, we realize there is something... unusual about our main character. Personally, it is this bit of unusualness, as well as the main character's rascally nature that keeps me going. If I were to compare the main character's personality to a well known character, I would have to use Zhou Weqing from Heavenly Jewel Change. Albeit, this character is a bit more of a coward initially. I hold hopes for him getting better
Spoiler

especially after seeing his Determinator/Superpowered ultra focused state from chapters 28-31

[collapse]
.

If this doesn't sound like it's for you, I would wait until around chapter 50 to give it a go, but at least our wonderful translator gave us 31 chapters at once to cut our teeth on, and thank goodness they did, since it gave us a glimpse of what to expect in the future.

TLDR: If you enjoyed Zhou Weqing's personality from HJC, give this one a go. <<less
24 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Flufflebutter
Flufflebutter
February 5, 2018
Status: c13
Saw a mass release. Thought: Why not, I'll try it.

Dropping it at c13.

Mainly due to this,

... more>> Its dry AF. Ignoring the story completely, there is no style to the prose. It is rigid with large amounts of info dump and detail (and not the good kind that actually tell you anything.)

The dialogue is awkward too. Seriously people dont talk like that... but seeing as how its a translated CN, that might just be due to the losses in translation. It seems like the characters are talking from a script rather than actually conversing.

Actually, dont take my word for it and read it for yourself. Regardless of the plot, the execution is terrible and almost as basic as can be. <<less
19 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Tobi
Tobi rated it
May 17, 2018
Status: c54
It's bad.
You see, one of the things that made this novel kinda unbearable to me is the lack of the MC's development.

54 chapters have been dedicated to purely side characters with a few hints of the protagonist's contribution to the story.

It's like this. When you're expecting a good food that you ordered and you waited for over 2-3 hours, then came the waiter shoving side dishes straight down your throat expecting you to like it, there are some that like it and there are some that go "What the... more>> f*ck dude?". The latter is me.

The plot is scattered, one second we're on the pier of meeting the mercenaries, next second we're on the random and forced plot of Orc "Subjugation".

The dark "split personality" that the MC suddenly decided to take part of is very... forced? Granted that he is still a kid and still naive, but talking about naivety... you have been living in the slums, basically treated like hot garbage and tragedies happen around you, you change, you won't still be naive after experiencing such childhood, but the MC doesn't f*cking change! This... is forced to me. <<less
17 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Anonymousse
Anonymousse rated it
October 10, 2018
Status: c201
Theres a reason why this novel is unpopular.

Half of the book is about how MC progress from a dumb naive midget to a rather decent MC. sometimes he goes berserk with blackeyes (reminds me of the demon in supernatural tvseries), but most of the time he just a joker who made alot of unecessary mistakes/troubles. his personality also doesnt progress much. hes reckless, arrogant, ignorant, the braindead type of character that died as fodder in other novels but not here, bcoz hes this novel MC with super thick plotarmor.

A gametheme... more>> world with all the jobs n creatures (rogue, berserker, orcs, thief, mage, werewolf, etc, etc,). but still... boring? bcoz so much filler in it. lots of unnecessary problem that appears bcoz our MC is kinda dumb... u might wonder why with his past of slum n poverty life he still doesnt grow up brains n be mature? me neither...

So far MC party include a braindead brawny swordman as party leader, a busty archer girl with temper, the first fodder rogue guy who died early for the sake of plot, a poor naive cold introvert mage girl that fell without reason to the MC (probably bcoz hes the first boy she really know...), and the joker MC as an assassin bcoz he hv a really thin pressence... n probably more ragtag team member in future chapters.

Overall, if u a manga reader, u`ll be familiar with this kind of plot. a s*upid protagonist brat with his ragtag team who kickass all over places with super thick plotarmor. <<less
12 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
slaider23
slaider23 rated it
March 23, 2018
Status: v2c78
Started reading this today and it turned out alot better than I expect... only regret it that I couldn't wait for more chapter before I begun reading. Before I hesitated whether to put it on my list bcuz of the first review about the info dump but then I realized that was literally just one chapter that explained the entire world setting I kind of regret not starting to read this earlier.

Story so far is just about this orphan kid who although is rash at time he knows when to... more>> not overestimate his abilities to the point that he is actually at the start very cowardly. But as he grows slowly he starts dropping all those negative tendencies he has and starts to develop into someone dependable. Through a lot of circumstances we already know from the get go that our MC isn't normal, but when a little bit about it is revealed later it wasn't anything mind blowing but it allows you to understand why other have an interest in him.
Spoiler

MC is a shadow dancer which is the term given to people who are born with high affinity to darkness elemental attribute. There are naturally also people that have affinity with other attribute like him but they are all very rare.

[collapse]

MC is a bit naive in the beginning as naturally he's inexperienced and still growing and almost everything he is encountering is a new experience to him but most of these change after the time skip a bit later on. The characters introduced are pretty good and help to develop the Mc's growth especially the Mage (Waifu #1).

Overall I can't really say much as even though 78 chapters are down so far nothing really significant has happened in terms of our MC's story (Well alot has happened for other characters but yeah) as right now he's just trying to get stronger but there also some prophecy he received a while back and we know he will encounter a few tribulations on his path so it's something to look forward too. I'll give it a 4/5 for now as it has me interested and I hope it continues to get interesting... <<less
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Minokyuu
Minokyuu rated it
May 14, 2018
Status: c33
The story was average at best.

The protagonist has boring personality, it doesn't have anything interest but rather dull, I'm already at chapter 33 nothing interest interest me yet, It couldn't be considered slice of life, but its not some interesting action either.

At chapter 31.

After being indecisive and being a coward which is fine with me, he suddenly transforms into a bad ass black eyed cold blooded killer? What the f*ck is this shit? The power of rage?/revenge? Seriously the most boring fact is that it will probably happen, it felt... more>> like any shounen type of novel/manga where at the brink where everything is going down the protagonist will suddenly become op after a short period, so my judgement is 2.5/5 not bad, but not good it lacks something that will make it interesting, the story don't flow right it feels like it was written by an amature author. <<less
10 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
KirbyReviews44
KirbyReviews44 rated it
June 17, 2019
Status: c100
This novel is simply difficult to read. The author is incapable of stringing together an interesting plotline that drives the interest of the reader.

He also fails at story pacing. He injects way too many useless dialogue into the story. The MC joins a mercenary crew of 3 people and its good and fine to establish character traits and behavior through banter. Its NOT good when that banter goes on for literally 5+ chapters. Its useless text at that point.

The characterization of the MC is atrocious. He is a coward. He... more>> is moody. He is irrational. He makes zero sense. <<less
7 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
TheWanderingDragon
TheWanderingDragon rated it
April 25, 2020
Status: Completed
The story of Leguna, is infuriating. The first two Books are fairly well written and show good, progressive, character depth.

Unfortunately, from Book 3 onwards the author (who personally admitted this). Went off the deep end with a certain character because he liked them. This is to the detriment of Leguna's character development and the entire story itself.

... more>>
Spoiler

A female side-character becomes a Mary Sue and eclispes the MC and the female lead at every turn.

Every struggle the protagonist has is solved by a wave of her hands and his development in Books 1 and 2 is flushed down the drain, spat on and covered in excrement to fester.

Then after 3 Books of making the protagonist worthless the final book tries to encourage the reader to believe that the protagonist is both powerful and knowledgeable.

As the final nail in the coffin, the Author proceeds to kill the Mary Sue because 'The enemy can use the only unlockable ability', cripple and blind the female lead and the turn the tertiary love interest into a pus and wart infested hag due to necromancy. Did you think that was it? Nooo, the author also leaves the story on a cliff-hanger then States in the afterword that his next story would probably only mention Leguna and Co. As side characters.

[collapse]

The spoiler contains my rant. I give this two stars and not one or less, because the first two books are a good read, until the sudden and catastrophic mu*der of the story. <<less
5 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Tiranu
Tiranu rated it
June 10, 2019
Status: c437
I give this novel a 2.5 2.0 1.5/5. The best rating I have until today given a Novel is 4.5/5 (which was for ZTJ)

I will update this review when the novel is completly finished.

€ I can't. I will not force myself to continue wasting my time with this trainwreck. Sad to say even the most generic 0815 xianxia story might be easier to stomach. €2: I finished scimming through the last 1/4 of the novel instead of really. Nope, just don't. Sorry.

Generic xianxia plot but set in a western... more>> themed sword + magic world instead.

MC starts without any reincarnation nonsense and is insufferable at the start. Sometimes you have some hopes that he is growing up but nope; until now I have been only disappointed by the MC.

The supporting cast is better and also develops instead of getting dumped into the story and then show a few times - an open question is why the hell MC doesn't grow up when the support cast is able to; it is just frustrating at this point.

The author some serious issues in terms of writing style - most glaring is that why the **** does he continue to 'spoiler' instead of just letting the story progress? Most times he does this it just kills any suspense. Not that anything other than expected happens.

Translation is (as always by Ryogawa + Prince) very good.

tl;dr: There is only so much an in general decent (basic xianxia with the western 'twist') to good (large parts of the support cast) story can carry if your MC is insupportable from a readers point of view. <<less
5 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
The Reading Knight
The Reading Knight rated it
October 17, 2018
Status: --
It definitely feels like like a novel written to appeal to young teens. Once you are about age 18 or older the novel loses a lot of it's appeal. The characters in the story have a personality and mindset that would would appeal to young teens, even the adult characters in the novel. To me it feels like a novel written for a younger audience.
5 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
SrPyro
SrPyro rated it
December 25, 2019
Status: c392
I really really wanted to finish reading this novel but I couldn't torture myself any longer. Story is okay but the MC is insufferable to the point this story goes from a solid 3.5-4 on 5 ⭐ to a 1 ⭐.

As of chapter 392, all other characters besides the MC has experienced character growth. The MC is literally dumb as a rock. Even a freaking barbarian known for his dumbness compares his intelligence to MC and he is right, MC is indeed dumber than him.

The MC is supposedly from a... more>> background of living miserably and fighting to survive, from his youth in the slums. But all he has to show for that is his low self-esteem to the point of sabotage and an apparent desperation to die.

Every time anything happens to any of his three girls, he goes berserk and lacks any capability of thinking. He says he doesn't want anyone to hurt them but time after time, he is the one that hurts them most. Pretends he cares about them but forgets about them and puts them aside until he needs them. At first, he only loves one person. Then he hurt her. Oh and then, he also likes his long-lost childhood friend. He also saves a child and is SOOO in love with the others that he can't possibly deny letting a third lover in his harem. Right, love is about hurting others right? If it is so, he does love them because he INSISTS on loving all of them and not one less.

Literally any side character would make a better main character than him. He is "gifted" but can't learn anything by himself. Talk about gifted right. His affinity was given and everything he knows was taught, yet conveniently he always forgets and never learns from his many many lessons. Everybody tries to teach him, yet he never learns. High talent doesn't excuse this rock-like brain of his.

I usually like to finish good novels I start, but this isn't one. <<less
4 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Pranefuji
Pranefuji rated it
May 30, 2019
Status: v4c381
This novel is well translated and relatively better reading than the majority of fantasy novels on novelupdates.

Unfortunately I think the novel is suffering from it's length. The main character has not seemed to have significantly grown as a person in the 381 chapters I've read so far. That said, other characters do successfully experience somewhat of an arc.

At this point in my reading, instead of encountering situations wherein one might be on the edge of their seat with concern over dramatic irony, I was left feeling like the character would... more>> continue to fail and succeed in the same manner and circumstance without much surprise or growth.

I think the world building and scenes of conflict are genuinely exciting for the first several volumes, but tends to continue to be more of the same.

Relative is a strong aspect of this review. I would say it's still better than a majority of the novels in the genre.

The characters are unfortunately dogged by the same biases as in other web novels, but to lesser degrees of extreme prejudice.

The first and later thoughts of someone being LGBTQ in this novel series, is still paired with concern over r*pe or s*xual harassment, and still generally played for derogatory laughs.

The novel does seem to occasionally handle the main character using disguises of different genders with some degree of maturity.
The women in the novel are written into a significant portion of the novel, but half of these characters tend to be obsessed and defined by the main character, and generally fall into less interesting tropes and character stereotypes.

I would say these characters are better written than other, far hornier novels wherein all of the characters have the same personality and are solely described by their appearance and relationship with the main character.

This story has devolved into a uninspiring version of the harem story, and includes a underage child as a love interest. It's gets to pretty dang gross territory at some points. I'm rarely struck with the idea of these characters engaging with plausible romantic feelings and character motivations, which is key for selling a tale of love.

I hope this review can temper expectations. I think you will likely enjoy reading the first several volumes, particularly before the introduction of several characters. <<less
4 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Suzzie
Suzzie rated it
March 14, 2018
Status: v1c54
I enjoyed it a bit, maybe you will too. The story basically revolves around an orphan who gets under certain circumstances and meets friends that will travel with him. It’s a little bit slow and most of the time you’ll get annoyed if you don’t like weak main characters. However, that is understandable at the moment because he’s still a kid. It’s obvious he will become op eventually. The reason why I’m going too stop readin this for a bit is because I highly predict that many close to him... more>> wil eventually be killed off. Rip fellow mate #1 <<less
4 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Mlodyowiec
Mlodyowiec rated it
July 11, 2021
Status: Completed
Yeah, the rewiew is almost the same as TheWanderingDragon wrote so the spoiler is just me being pissed off by the ending
Spoiler

f*ckk if you don't want to end a book, then don't end it and don't make such ending if you don't want to write a second book

[collapse]
3 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
deathmine31
deathmine31 rated it
April 23, 2020
Status: v6c669
Lack of conclusion. Not a real conclusion but rather an invitation for a continuation novel. The ending chapters were pretty lack luster. The plot was different at the beginning but yielded to typical tropes as the plot concluded.
2 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
THUNDERFART
THUNDERFART
October 18, 2019
Status: v1c47
This novel requires so much patience and masochism to its readers.

Besides the grammar everything else is not edible. You would be in a constant state of "expecting something good would happen to the MC" atleast a bit of development to his power like being able to control it, and towards his newly aquired skills from the guide book that he constantly read, like being able to apply it without being in his unpredictable OP mode but, "NO". This novel sucks at making progress but is so good at making its... more>> readers feel cringy when it comes to how the author portrays the interaction of the MC and the people around him. It's was also so good in stacking tragedy after tragedy at the MC's back that the MC couldn't even get a proper closure and he's against another tragedy again.

Waste of time.

PS: im not an expert or anything like a professional writer but as an avid reader for more than 18years, the thing I like the most when reading tragedy literary works is that some authors are able to deliver a proper closure to it and not dump more tragedy to incite useless foreshadowing that in turn would be solved so easily later on because the MC is already so OP. It basically ruins everything. <<less
2 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
OrderedChaos
OrderedChaos rated it
April 10, 2018
Status: --
Dialogue's a bit weird but thats probably due to chinese syntax and translators style. The story is a great one even with all the cliches and predictability (mostly, there are surprises though). It's been a while since i've actually read a story that actually has adventuring (which most stories leave very very quickly) and has a better build up than suddenly thrusting the "hero" and "save the world" to MC. Rather than that, the MC trying to survive is a very common plot point yet the main difference is that... more>> he isn't op, just lucky and talented, due to this we can actually see character development that most novels in this site sorely lack. Characters actually have some sense (most importantly feel alive and realistic, imagine yourself living in their world and putting yourself in their shoes, the way they live fits the world they are in) and the reasons for conflict aren't so s*upid. The politics serve to keep the plot slightly more interesting (though I do hope "people who can blow up the world" wont show up as that will probably f*ck up a story like this). The main drawback of this one is just the general cliches of medieval fantasy but otherwise if you're looking for an adventure novel not to dissimilar to western medieval fantasy, you should try this.

Edit: Well looking at it again, basically, after the big fight, MC's development has stalled and kinda made him stale. The writing's also gotten weirder in later chapters so thats a thing too. The story quality dips to 2-3* but still enjoyable. <<less
2 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
atomsphere
atomsphere rated it
April 7, 2021
Status: c200+
It is both quite good and annoying af. It's annoying because the MCs personality is just gross. He's lazy, conceited, a bit of a hypocrite, cowardly and naive. His personality infects everything, from the pace of battles to the cringe dialogue. The author has a pretty good sense of humor about it though; he's a bit of a troll tbh. However, that's not enough to not enjoy the book; it's actually the opposite. Having flawed characters that the author spends time developing is the novel's strongest aspect.
1 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
cadvan
cadvan rated it
November 29, 2019
Status: c400
The MC is weak as hell even at ch 400 despite the fact that it is a novel consisting of 670 chapters. I am still to encounter a decent fight where he can triumph easily over his enemy. Too much melodrama. See somebody dying, going insane and then becoming sane again, repeat.

In nutshell, it is shit.
1 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
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