Zhanxian

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Gripes have their origins and debts have their debtors. We haven’t crossed each other in days past or present, nor formed any grudges. I am but duty-bound to carry this out, so apologies in advance!

In his past life, Yang Chen was a gentle person who was oppressed for his whole life.

Now that he’s reborn, he chose to become an executioner and severs ties and grudges with his executioner’s blade, killing all that climb onto the Immortal Executioner’s Platform!

Heads will roll! Humans’ in the human realm, demons’ in the demon realm, devils’ in the devil realm and immortals’ in the immortal realm!

Associated Names
One entry per line
Immortal Executioner
Slaying Immortals
ZX
斩仙
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
Tales of Demons and Gods (10)
The Human Emperor (9)
Transcending the Nine Heavens (6)
The Ruler Of Darkness (5)
Against the Gods (4)
Cheeky Sword God (4)
Recommendation Lists
  1. Novels That I Have Read Over The Years
  2. Op Mc / simulation systems
  3. My Main Novels
  4. what webnovels have to offer, my favorites
  5. KR Novels I'll Read When They Finish (and some CN)...

Latest Release

Date Group Release
02/14/24 Xianxianovel c809
02/12/24 Xianxianovel c808
02/08/24 Xianxianovel c807
02/05/24 Xianxianovel c806
02/03/24 Xianxianovel c805
02/01/24 Xianxianovel c804
01/30/24 Xianxianovel c803
01/25/24 Xianxianovel c802
01/23/24 Xianxianovel c801
01/22/24 Xianxianovel c800
01/18/24 Xianxianovel c799
01/16/24 Xianxianovel c798
01/12/24 Xianxianovel c797
01/11/24 Xianxianovel c796
01/08/24 Xianxianovel c795
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98 Reviews sorted by


GrumpyNPC
GrumpyNPC rated it
May 31, 2022
Status: c290
This is a relatively generic cultivation story, but ultimately it falls bellow average. I dropped it for 2 reasons:

  1. It is in serious need of editing. To be fair, the translator did acknowledge he needed an editor and could not find one. Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery, but as a reader what ultimately matters to me is that the reading experience was not consistent.
  2. The story could go many chapters without dialogue, it made the story feel so dry and slow at times.
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Yepangzki
Yepangzki rated it
May 6, 2020
Status: c165
If you have nothing to read and just want to waste some time then this novel is for you, first let me state some reason why I rate this 2 stars

1. The MC doesn't have the bearing of an immortal executioner.

The MC's personality is very unclear ... more>>
Spoiler

first part of the story he was introduced in the immortal executioner stage beheading a lot of high level immortals without even having shred a bit of pity and mercy, then this happens after this part he joined a sect but one thing made me annoyed he acts like an obedient and too respectable to the higher ups, this guy is an Reincarnated immortal, isn't he suppose to act the opposite?and even when he was chased ganged up by his enemies on the mountain sure he killed most of them but one thing he did that annoyed me is the last guy was left alive and was even rewarded, so much for a bullshit, he was Reincarnated but it seems it wasn't enough for him to learn some of his past mistakes, imagine beheading a lot of people in the executioner's stage without even considering if the prisoner is guilty or not but ended up letting a person live who tried to kill you

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2. Too much narration.

The content of this novel is mostly about narration of this and this. Conversations and interaction between people aren't balanced because mostly are narration.

3. Not enough fight scenes

C'mon it's a cultivation novel where we should be seeing kamehameha, Ray gun and ultra instincts but what happened during the fight scenes is mostly subduing the enemies using killing intents and aura of higher cultivation and punches, you heard me right this turned out to be a boxing novel hahaha. Jokes aside, just read some other novel instead. <<less
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Laveniel
Laveniel rated it
June 6, 2016
Status: --
I've finished reading Zhanxian recently, and I can't describe how much I like this novel... Excellent world building, smart and badass MC (being and executioner makes him even more badass), and good side characters. Novel's pace is slow and dragging, but it is one of the cases where a slow pace makes the story even better. Action scenes seemed to be a bit lacking, but in overall Zhanxian is a top class novel.
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Diedonetw
Diedonetw rated it
April 22, 2016
Status: --
So far the world building is sorta slow, coming in batches/waves. We don't know much about the world but the main character's awesomeness compensates. There is indeed harem tag, but no signs of it being too bad or showing up any time soon (as of chapter 54). If you like to see heads rolling off this is your thing. Ruthless + pill refining = profit.
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Ardavix
Ardavix rated it
April 6, 2016
Status: c46
I was very fortunate to have picked this up after the chapters were edited. As of April 6, I can happily say that you won’t have to worry about unedited chapters (at least up to chapter 46). With that said, reading this novel is still very difficult ~ and in particular chapters’ 3-25 [or so].

GENERAL ISSUES/PROBLEMS

You need to keep in mind that Chinese novelists are usually paid by the character meaning that longer chapters (complete with lots of ramblings) are very common. However, Zhanxian/Immortal Executioner takes this to a... more>> new level. If you’ve ever read Martial Emperor Reborn then you already kinda’ know what I mean. This novel is full full full of endless information monologues especially but not limited to cultivation. In short take MER and then double the chapter length and add triple the information paragraphs and ~ voila ~ you have Zhanxian... it’s no wonder it took so long for this novel to be edited. Worse still is the fact that the cultivation monologues are incredibly incredibly confusing. I kid you not, in order to understand everything I needed to go back an re-read many of the l-o-o-o-n-g chapters, take notes and still somehow manage to not understand much of what the MC was saying in later chapters (i.e. CH 14 or 16-25).

[Edit 1 (4/24/2016) : It seems that the information monologues were only at the beginning of the novel {i.e. chapters 3-25} ~ there hasn't been any recently at least]

WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT?

In any case, with that out of the way, the story itself is still very good. Especially the first few chapters OMG!!! This novel has one of the best starts I have ever read and likewise ~ this means that it’s potential is HUGE! Indeed, despite everything I said in the above paragraph, I still cannot recommend this novel enough! Essentially what you need to know is that our MC is a reincarnated immortal who isn’t a know it all. He decides to pursue a devil arts path of [executioner] in order to improve his talent and future cultivation prospects. Our MC is an avenger by nature in lieu of what happened to him in his previous life (major theme) ~ such that he decided to forgo kindness and mercy in favour of apathy, utter resolve and Old Yi’s devil arts ~ immortal executioner/Spirit Root Improvement devil art.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE READING

Aside from this you should know that our MC is not a super fast cultivator... he really really takes his time (I can’t stress this enough so be advised) ~ as I said in order to make sure his base/starting point is supreme. That said, it doesn't feel slow because his strength is still sufficient to be competitive (relative to his peers/sect disciples) ; In contrast to, for instance, ~ Nie Li ~ who managed to break through realms every [+-]60 or so chapters.

Likewise, for any new reader, start reading this using Blue Silver Translations [Daoseeker ~ the guy who did Otherwordly Evil Monarch] and then jump straight into Weletranslations in order to get the best translations of this novel.

RATING

As of chapter 46, I give this novel a 4.5/5 ~ if not for the long winded information monologues that are arguably a little bit too unnecessary this would definitely be a 5. <<less
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Araragi Koyomi
Araragi Koyomi rated it
March 26, 2016
Status: --
Really nice story and concept where the title is explained right in the first few 10 or 12 chapters.

The protagonist feels incomparably lonely. I cant point out the reason though, maybe its because of so many chapters with pretty much no interaction with any harem or whatnot.

I love it.
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Sprinxter
Sprinxter rated it
November 9, 2022
Status: c1200
Unless you are done with all you novels and have plenty of time and bored, don't go into this. If you are new to this type of novels, there are better, much better ones imo to read.

  • Chapters are lengthy sure but 95% of the chapter contains explanation about situation or a treasure or a method or MC's technique or some late plot of cliché villains written in multiple ways to fill in the word count. Only 5% is actual conversation and progress.
  • Most s*upid antagonists for silliest reasons. I read MGA and still can't read this novel, you should understand the level of s*upidity here.
  • I originally came with a lot of expectations seeing the high ratings. But after I read the novel a bit and came back wondering why it has such high ratings. I can see that those who give 4/5, most of them don't specify clear reasons and just say amazing. Those with low ratings are few in number but they had valid points to back it up. I guess I need to look into the novels myself and not judge based on the ratings.
  • MC is supposed to be a reincarnate-r with lot of knowledge, but he realized he cultivated wrong and redoes it after freaking 900 chapters.
  • The immortal arc is rushed in just 150 chapters which had 4 realms. It happens in most novels, but still...
  • Parents are not mentioned after MC gets them settled in a safe remote place.
  • MC is kind of obsessed with his master, it makes some sense because she sacrificed herself - not a spoiler. But there are much better ways to repay them than him struggling, keeping himself restrained even slow his cultivation just to again get her to be his master.
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Little Rookie
Little Rookie rated it
February 17, 2022
Status: c520
It would easily have entered my top 10 cultivation novel list if not for this one fatal flaw.

Ofcourse from other's point of view it's not a huge deal but for me it matters a lot and is a deal breaker for me.

... more>>
Spoiler

The MC doesn't care about his parents. The MC DOESN'T f*ckING CARES about his parents. I don't know what is going on in mc's mind. Whether he thinks that since he has lived for more than 1000 years in his past life he doesn't have to care about his parents or he thinks that it is enough to just give them some money like beggars and be done with it.

Mc's parents are mortal and they don't go on the path of cultivation. Which I am fine with. MC doesn't increase their lifespan which I am still fine with.

what I am NOT fine with is that.

    1. The parents are only mentioned like once in the beginning with MC setting them up with cash and big house and thats it.
    1. Since MC is already more that 100 years old and since mc's parents are only mortal, they are already dead but there is no mention of it in the novel. There is no greiving, no crying, nothing. It's like they vanished from reality and everyone forgot about them including MC AND THE AUTHOR.
    1. Never once... legit not even once MC goes to meet his parents after going on the journey of cultivation. On one hand MC is "shown as" one who respects the elderly on the other hand there is no mention of his parents. From my pov, MC is pure scum.
    1. Think of it from the parents pov. They might just have died sadly and in pain not even knowing whether their child is alive or not. ANd here the child is enjoying his life with his "multiple girlfriends".

I would have no problem if the parents didn't go on the path of cultivation and stayed mortal throughout their entire life and died as a mortal. I would have no prolem if it was just mentioned in the novel. As long as they were in the picture it would have been fine. But no, there is no mention of them.

I even would have been fine with the author using mc's parent's death as a character development plot for MC. But ignoring them all together is on whole another level.

I legit don't know whether the author is an orphan or not but even if he is, it was a scummy move from his part.

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At this point it feels like one of those wish fullfillment novels. <<less
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Ornoth
Ornoth rated it
September 3, 2021
Status: Completed
I hated it. 2/5

The Author did such a good job on Mortal World plot, how can he fck up so much after ascending to Spirit World?! What a bloody shame.

Story just got progressively bad when he ascended to Spirit World and then went to tr*sh bin when he went to Immortal World. There's a lot of plot holes small and big. The Author also forget some important details and this happened at least 3 times and it really affects the story.

Around ch1700+ (ch650+) I started to have feeling of wanting... more>> to drop this cause the story really have gone sht but still went on thinking it's going to be better. But after reading around ch2000+ (ch1000+) I stopped reading for a few days because MC did something incredibly s*upid as if he didn't learn anything at all on his previous life.

Spoiler

He revealed a treasure that can refine the whole World. No surprise everyone got really tempted to take it away from him even his allies (4 Dao sects) except for 1 but that was because he saw through the MC's background

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I was waiting for the huge backslash of this to happen Immortal World and he get sieged again but nothing like that happened which is quite disappointing. He did get chased around by some others but I was waiting for a bunch of big sects to take it away from him and even some betrayal from his allies but nothing. Of course with the exception of Zhao Family cause they want to kill him regardless.

What I hate the most is that the Characters gradually lost their dialogues! I find it pitiful that I can only remember in my fingers the amount of time the Murong Quintuplets had a dialogue in the whole story. Jesus. There are even times that there's no dialogue for the whole chapter! Am I reading an essay or story? I don't know.

World Building on this is really shtty too. The story mostly revolves around the 5 Dao sects and 2 Demon sects and rest are just spectators.

I really liked his treasure hunting he did in the Mortal World but, he almost did none of that to the rest of the story even tho there's so many hints he got from the people he executed.

At least the ending is okay. But, overall I don't really recommend reading this story. <<less
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maddox9
maddox9
January 31, 2019
Status: --
It was a very nice and interesting read up until the 200s chapter where he accepted that bit*h that used him as a shield, the MC has favours from so many dancheng cultivators and 3 tops sects so why the f*ck cant he stand his ground and reject that bit*h he fought a life and death duel which ended with him killing an opponent that has a higher cultivation level than him. The whole thing was planned so that when he dies in the duel the bit*h will say she... more>> is mourning him and will never marry any other man but it failed because he survived. The only reason why she decided to be engaged to him was because he became her heart demon and stopped her cultivation from improving. From the start of the novel the MC has killed everyone that tried to kill him or meant him harm but choose to accept this bit*h and even gave her Peerless techniques and took her treasure hunting. <<less
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EvilGenesis666
EvilGenesis666 rated it
October 17, 2017
Status: Completed
Very good novel, would rate it 8.5 / 10. Extremely recommended if you like slow progression. if we go by arcs it would be - 9.5 / 10 for mortal world, 9 / 10 for spirit world, and 7 / 10 for immortal world.

... more>>
Spoiler

Immortal world arc could have extended for a 100 more chapters to explain everything and explore other places in Immortal world, but oh well.. he did do his job so it wasn't that much unsatisfying. Also author could have at least given us 1-2 chapters of MC's daily life with his girls and friends, but I guess this kinda works too, since he introduced a new world and that would be another adventure altogether. Overall, it doesn't lower my rating too much because the rest of the story was great.

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About MC - he isn't all over the place and actually spends time with his girls and chills, instead of instantly going from 1 adventure to another without any breaks, he isn't brainless or hot headed going into fights against stronger people without preparation or thinking - he actually plans ahead and lets his goons (and sometimes even his enemies) do the dirty job of destroying each other, he only fights when he absolutely needs to or to sharpen his skills.

Harem - surprisingly, it was decently developed for a xianxia. It actually took some time for girls to like him, and it wasn't a bs like in other novels where women fall in love with MC over the course of several days (or even hours). And MC actually trusts and cares about his girls, he doesn't keep secrets away from them (except that he is reborn, he didn't tell anyone that) and gives them treasures and helps them in cultivation so they kinda balance out later on. Every girl is also unique in their own way, each one has a special trait that differs them from others, so they don't like too plain and 1-dimensional. Oh yeah, they also fight, and surprisingly the direct battles they had amount to more than those of MC.

World - it was kept simple with the 3 realms (Mortal, Spirit and Immortal) which is very good since they were almost explored entirely (almost every place / hidden spot and treasure were found by MC or people who are with him) beside Immortal World since author rushed it...

Cultivation - author went with the default route of gold core, nascent soul and immortals, however the cultivation was very slow since the MC cultivated 10 types of systems and helped his wives catch up to him in cultivation so they always ascend to higher worlds with him. <<less
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sonny
sonny
September 4, 2021
Status: c1 (d)
There are many things to say but ill just go with the earlier parts of the chap to not make it long.

Initially it is good. With the executioner thing, but when he start cultivating. It become worse, I mean it has an overpowered tag and with whats happen in the immortal executioner platform youll expect something. Alas when he start cultivation he is no different from ordinary disciples. Just an op spiritual root but it did nothing. Even the other cultivator can match his achievement despite having a normal spiritual... more>> root. The knowledge and the location he gains from the immortals are also useless cuz even if there a one nxt to him. He go thousand miles just to get to another one and ignore the one thats nxt to him (his for immortal kill).

The nxt is when he get to to the sect. His plans are really not that good, it just work out because of plot armor. Then all of a sudden he become famous. Apparently all the disciples had nothing to do and pay so much attention to one insignificant figure that just enter the sect. There are also some deciples that will spend their precocious contributions points and time just to observe MC and ridicule him in their mind.

Well dont want to write more bad points and english is not my first language. Writing this already took several minutes.

Just another point. MC is not op author just want us to think he is with all the advantage, but if you read a minimum of 100 chap. Youll easily realize that MC is kinda d*mb and just an above average cultivator despite his advantage op advantage. <<less
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taimoor2
taimoor2 rated it
June 21, 2019
Status: c320
Lovely novel. Many many complaints I have about Xianxia novels are all solved by this novel.

The protagonist is kind, generous, considerate towards his master, sect, and lovers, and is an upright person. He is intelligent, not afraid of getting in trouble but at the same time not an idiot, and is always making allies. Love the novel. One example, he says:

„Disciple never thought that escaping leads to loss of face. Deceased people do not have any face to lose." (Chapter 351-2)
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Jiuyin
Jiuyin rated it
March 31, 2019
Status: c1330
About 3/5th of the whole novel is describing the development rather than letting the development happen.

So instead of "He walked to the park", it's more of "He was breathing really rapidly, and moved forward. The location of destination is not remote as people visit it often..."etc. Full of redundant details which helps make the setting but makes the pace of the story incredibly slow.

Best comparison to this novel is watching a sink-hole being created as the hole underneath the road gets bigger and deeper. When the road collapse, it's satisfying,... more>> but not enough. You expect some explosions or some form of 'big' scene but it's just a sink hole, it's what you expect.

About the main character

Spoiler

It uses so many word count each chapter to explain how the foundation of the MC and his wife had upgraded but the whole novel, he really never fought any one. No major enemies other than leaders of the sects which he doesn't even really fight. There is such an emphasis on power development but in the end, it resolves with a 'small' plot and the enemy surrenders. Nothing to put the power to any use.

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If you want to have fun do this activity:

Spoiler

Drink every time:

- a whole chapter is dedicated to describing his development of fire

-a time skip thats says X years past, in order to advance the plot

-he gives his wife something to upgrade them

-he actually fights

-he sells pills and negotiates

-he goes on a 'retreat'

-The Palace Master says he's proud of this disciple

-"Pure Yang Palace has such dogpoop luck"

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In the end, the author had very good imagination and goal in mind, but the approach wasn't the right fit. <<less
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ItsAlive
ItsAlive rated it
January 7, 2019
Status: c269
The "core" story is decent with some believable romance. But there is a huge amount of the usual webnovel issues.

Spoiler
  • huge dumbster fire of repeating words to "get" higher wordcount. You pretty much want to skip all the tool refining passages.
  • unnecesary long discriptions, which spoils the story.
  • powerlevels are pretty vague, especially for the MC. It's partially confusing how exactly his op abilities work besides MUH stronger.
  • numbers in all ways. Processed Flames, MC current "real" powerlevel, the years, MC riches
[collapse]
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Crea
Crea rated it
December 1, 2018
Status: c34
Felt interesting at the start but gets progressively stale as no noteworthy events happens.

Lots of descriptive writing instead of actual story and dialogue. For example, before MC enters his sect, he decided to hide his parents since they were targeted in his past life but only mentioned it vaguely. His parents were not named by author, no explanation in dialogue or in description given why they have to hide or how he gets his money to his parents. The parents have no names, no roles in the story or any... more>> use in progressing the plot/story. Might as well just say they died or he is an orphan instead of wasting time mentioning them at all.

Dropping it. Might be better if read further but I don't want to force myself reading this. The only selling point of this story to me is only that it is not too cliche compared to most Xianxia. <<less
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AlanJones
AlanJones rated it
July 18, 2018
Status: c521
Well what can I say, it has a nice story, but the cultivation is annoying and tedious.

The MC is not s*upid and does not even act like a 15-year-old son in the heat. which is a very rare thing

One of the good points in the novel is own MC.

... more>> He's not going to go around making enemies, he's very cautious, he's always trying to make alliances with strong organizations, and only when he really needs to get into 1 fight.

The leaders of organizations are not a bunch of old fools and idiots.

The MC shows a lot of talent in the cultivation, managing to defeat enemies with the level higher, and showing his talent in alchemy.

Very different from many other novels where MC just shows a little of his talent so that everyone wants to kill him, here when the leaders see MC talent, instead of killing him, they seek to make an alliance with his sect, always trying to stay on good terms with him, in addition to his talent in cultivation, he is an alchemist with a great future ahead of him, who can help everyone cultivate in the future.

Cultivation

Tedious as hell.

No matter if it is cultivation or when he is in alchemy doing some pill, everything is boring and tedious.

The author of much information on cultivation, if MC cultivation were interesting, I would not mind reading, the problem is that it is not.

Alchemy then... MC most of the time will need years just to make some pills. Worse than cultivation of MC, is only when the author will show MC in alchemy. When it has 2/3 chapters just showing how the MC is refining pills, you feel will spitting blood, it's very tedious.

Persecution

I thought Meng Hao liked being chased, I was completely mistaken.

The chase here turn out to be ridiculous, had a moment when MC was chased for 5 years by one person.

It's a good romance even with your problems. <<less
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knightandstars
knightandstars rated it
May 19, 2018
Status: c135
Cultivation/power ups, etc in this novel is pretty boring and doesn't make too much sense. I basically skip all the power up chapters.

Plot is alright though
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Chachingmel
Chachingmel rated it
January 5, 2018
Status: v1c14
Honestly this story started of great but I didn't even get passed chapter 10 before I realised this story had a huge problem. It rambled. A LOT. Am I the only one who realises the author pretty much glossess over everything just to go into an unhealthy amount of depth when it comes to cultivating techniques? From what I read from other reviews these techniques can take up to several pages. From the little experience I have. I would completely believe them. With a story like this I only got... more>> to chapter 4 before calling it quits. This is obviously not for me. <<less
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Anonymousse
Anonymousse rated it
September 28, 2017
Status: c211
I start read this after a certain chapter in Emperor domination, and regret it.

this is one of the most unreasonable novel.

MC get killed and back to the past.

... more>> The story are good at the beginning until MC mindset seems kinda ret*rded with his obsession.

MC too obsessed with his teacher to the point of s*upidity. Even with his knowledge of the future, he almost disregard all good stuff that he found so that he could met his teacher again.

The author seems want to make his teacher be his lifetime goal, but as an unhealthy obsession. All the story after MC met his teacher are declining...

Good for timewaster if we dont mind a halfasses MC. You know... The kind of MC that even when he had all he need to reach apex in a fast pace, he just wasted it by lazying around and progress slowly like a turtle for his teacher (probably become lover in the future). on one word, he is DUMB.

romance 1/5, plot 2/5, MC brain 0.5/5, TL quality 3.5/5

Now i`m gonna going to find an executioner blade to beheaded this MC. (# =_=) <<less
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