Edit, i've read near 700 chapters now, and all the issues pointed out by @LehaJuiced only gets worse.
3 main reasons for the downvote,
1-insane amounts of filler ruining the novel, it's genuinley just unbearable.
2- Broken Powerscaling, this is not an alchemists path to eternity when he is quite literally the strongest character within his major realm by a longshot, as in he can 1shot other top-chars in his realm, and easily fight across major realms (Winning against golden cores as an initiate), you can remove the entire alchemist aspect of this novel and he would still be a legendary figure, in fact by chapter 600, his combat prowess is way more known than his alchemical prowess which is just heavily system reliant. Due to the horrible powerscaling, all side characters within his major realm are pretty much pointless and ignored until the mc decides to start another faction war. Also there's a recurring theme of only the mc understanding the grand ambitions/plots of other sects, everyone else is just lowkey braindead.
3-Inconsistent writing, early on in the novel it established a cultivator who killed hundreds of qi cultivator to experiment his new 'soul' path on was hunted down by the entire world as an initiate, Luo chen kills thousands of qi cultivators in one faction battle, while many people watch and he faces ZERO social reprecussions?!
The novel gets worse and worse as it goes on, rip to the excellent start.
Old review:
I'm currently 590 chapters in.
I normally review novels within 100 chapters, but I've always felt hesitant on this novel as my opinion fluctuates (for good reason).
Honestly, despite being a system novel, it's actually really good, especially early on (despite getting worse later, but it's still good), and yes the system does give him an unfair advantage but its nothing crazy early on, only giving him an ass pull much much later on where it was somewhat earned.
The mc starts off as a pure alchemy genius, before also becoming an elite fighter within his realm, however he still needs others and this novel turns into somewhat of a sect-builder, where it truly shined in the moments it focused on this as well as Alchemy discussion.
Side-characters had established roles that made up for the Mc's short comings, helping them stay relevant.
The best thing about this novel is the plot continuity and alchemy. Plots and foreshadowing from the very first arc are still extremely relevant and get developed heavily as the novel continues, I was genuinley impressed at several points, the author definitely put some effort into thinking it all through. When the author did talk about alchemy, the explanations were all really interesting, however despite being called an alchemists path to eternity, alchemy discussion becomes more and more minimal, like barely discussed in the later chapters (past the green pill valley arc), and when alchemy is involved, it's more of a crafting sim, where the mc just makes pills infinitely for money.
This novel should and could have been a lot better.
There are 2 main reasons which hold it back, and realistically would give it an 8/10, despite me really enjoying it for 590 chapters.
1. Word padding, while the plot and translation by itself are normally great, past chapter 450, the novel engages in the demonic practice of filler. Lots of things which are obvious, and can be easily understood by the average reader will get entire chapters to be explained, when it could be done in one or two sentences. And it will also repeat this information when needed to word padd several hundred chapters later as if to remind readers, but the issue is, the content explained is so basic no ones actually forgotten.
Another way the author word padds, is he makes side-characters stupid, and has a wiser individual be it the mc, or someone else, explain things to them which should be obvious as 1+1=2, for ENTIRE CHAPTERS, it will genuinley piss you off how often this is done later on, and how obvious the point is.
2. Alchemy takes a backseat past chapter 500, and the the mc eventually becomes a omnipotent do it all. You have to understand, in this novel, the gap between major realms is huge, especially between Fe's and golden cores. And several of the best side characters, e.g Wang Yuan had major importance for their battle prowess and understanding of combat, which is why the mc needed them.
However the author decides to give the mc an entirely uneeded power up, and not just any regular power up, a fucking titanic unheard of in history power up in the context of this novel, which made all of the combat side-characters essentially irrelevant unless they engage in a faction war.
So in summary, word padding ruining the pacing, side-characters losing their uniqueness as the mc just becomes a combat god, as well as an alchemy god, and alchemy itself just not being discussed for a hundred chapters, with it soley focusing on combat were several of the things that hold the novel back in my opinion.
Oya, there's also a pretty badly done harem between 2 women and the mc, as essentially one of them is goated, doing all the business and maintenance side of the sect for the mc who's just a combat bum later on,
where as the other woman is just a pity fuck and there's a complete character assassination on her, it was very annoying how she goes from well-liked to complete bimbo (dumb blonde if you get what I mean).
Keep in mind it was entirely unnecessary, the author just felt horny one day and decided why not have both, despite the plot clearly pointing to the more suitable candidate, and girl 2 becoming entirely irrelevant until suddenly harem.
Edit, i've read near 700 chapters now, and all the issues pointed out by @LehaJuiced only gets worse.
3 main reasons for the downvote,
1-insane amounts of filler ruining the novel, it's genuinley just unbearable.
2- Broken Powerscaling, this is not an alchemists path to eternity when he is quite literally the strongest character within his major realm by a longshot, as in he can 1shot other top-chars in his realm, and easily fight across major realms (Winning against golden cores as an initiate), you can remove the entire alchemist aspect of this novel and he would still be a legendary figure, in fact by chapter 600, his combat prowess is way more known than his alchemical prowess which is just heavily system reliant. Due to the horrible powerscaling, all side characters within his major realm are pretty much pointless and ignored until the mc decides to start another faction war. Also there's a recurring theme of only the mc understanding the grand ambitions/plots of other sects, everyone else is just lowkey braindead.
3-Inconsistent writing, early on in the novel it established a cultivator who killed hundreds of qi cultivator to experiment his new 'soul' path on was hunted down by the entire world as an initiate, Luo chen kills thousands of qi cultivators in one faction battle, while many people watch and he faces ZERO social reprecussions?!
The novel gets worse and worse as it goes on, rip to the excellent start.
Old review:
I'm currently 590 chapters in.
I normally review novels within 100 chapters, but I've always felt hesitant on this novel as my opinion fluctuates (for good reason).
Honestly, despite being a system novel, it's actually really good, especially early on (despite getting worse later, but it's still good), and yes the system does give him an unfair advantage but its nothing crazy early on, only giving him an ass pull much much later on where it was somewhat earned.
The mc starts off as a pure alchemy genius, before also becoming an elite fighter within his realm, however he still needs others and this novel turns into somewhat of a sect-builder, where it truly shined in the moments it focused on this as well as Alchemy discussion.
Side-characters had established roles that made up for the Mc's short comings, helping them stay relevant.
The best thing about this novel is the plot continuity and alchemy. Plots and foreshadowing from the very first arc are still extremely relevant and get developed heavily as the novel continues, I was genuinley impressed at several points, the author definitely put some effort into thinking it all through. When the author did talk about alchemy, the explanations were all really interesting, however despite being called an alchemists path to eternity, alchemy discussion becomes more and more minimal, like barely discussed in the later chapters (past the green pill valley arc), and when alchemy is involved, it's more of a crafting sim, where the mc just makes pills infinitely for money.
This novel should and could have been a lot better.
There are 2 main reasons which hold it back, and realistically would give it an 8/10, despite me really enjoying it for 590 chapters.
1. Word padding, while the plot and translation by itself are normally great, past chapter 450, the novel engages in the demonic practice of filler. Lots of things which are obvious, and can be easily understood by the average reader will get entire chapters to be explained, when it could be done in one or two sentences. And it will also repeat this information when needed to word padd several hundred chapters later as if to remind readers, but the issue is, the content explained is so basic no ones actually forgotten.
Another way the author word padds, is he makes side-characters stupid, and has a wiser individual be it the mc, or someone else, explain things to them which should be obvious as 1+1=2, for ENTIRE CHAPTERS, it will genuinley piss you off how often this is done later on, and how obvious the point is.
2. Alchemy takes a backseat past chapter 500, and the the mc eventually becomes a omnipotent do it all. You have to understand, in this novel, the gap between major realms is huge, especially between Fe's and golden cores. And several of the best side characters, e.g Wang Yuan had major importance for their battle prowess and understanding of combat, which is why the mc needed them.
However the author decides to give the mc an entirely uneeded power up, and not just any regular power up, a fucking titanic unheard of in history power up in the context of this novel, which made all of the combat side-characters essentially irrelevant unless they engage in a faction war.
So in summary, word padding ruining the pacing, side-characters losing their uniqueness as the mc just becomes a combat god, as well as an alchemy god, and alchemy itself just not being discussed for a hundred chapters, with it soley focusing on combat were several of the things that hold the novel back in my opinion.
Oya, there's also a pretty badly done harem between 2 women and the mc, as essentially one of them is goated, doing all the business and maintenance side of the sect for the mc who's just a combat bum later on,
where as the other woman is just a pity fuck and there's a complete character assassination on her, it was very annoying how she goes from well-liked to complete bimbo (dumb blonde if you get what I mean).
Keep in mind it was entirely unnecessary, the author just felt horny one day and decided why not have both, despite the plot clearly pointing to the more suitable candidate, and girl 2 becoming entirely irrelevant until suddenly harem.
