Xianxia Encompassing the World! (Xianxia Rec Discussion and Idea thread)

[SCDarkSoul]

Ascending, Do not Disturb has finished. It's been mentioned before I think. Really different for a xianxia setting as it's romance/slice of life based rather than action, adventure, and drama. MC is female, she's talented, and joins one of the top ten sects. The top sects are all righteous and more or less get along, and even manage to not bully the smaller sects too much. Like this world is peaceful to the point where the top powers even managed to get together to make a legit ideal starter cultivation method for everybody in the world to use, and when they manage to find a powerful lost art later it even gets shared around.

There's still some evil cultivators around trying to stir up trouble. There is some conflicts with them and t hey help drive some of the plot, but they aren't really center focus. Quite a different sort of story, pretty short, only 158 chapters including the epilogue, breath of fresh air.

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Building the Ultimate Fantasy is continuing along. Glimpse of the first invader from another world. I find it interesting that their stages are different from the ones in the MC's world which I suspected might happen. When the MC introduced the second realm to the world it did sound like he had personally "designed" it using the system, so it wouldn't be unusual for foreign worlds to differ. Other worlds seem to go by a more standard route, second stage "Foundation Building" and third stage "Golden Elixir" whereas the MC made second stage "Internal Organs". Also seems like the MC's system is probably unique and not something that shows up in every world. Would've been interesting if there were more copies of the system out there, though also a big headache. Maybe later.

The politicking that's happening is far less interesting than the development of the world's cultivators. The main politicians aren't nearly strong enough as cultivators to even matter if one of the top cultivators decided to enforce their will, let alone the MC. Starting to get a little annoyed at this impotent little emperor flailing around.

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Started reading A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality since I saw a comment on that royal road novel I mentioned before say that it was similar to this. Old and large enough novel that this has definitely come up before in this thread, though not recently I don't think.

Distinctly untalented MC, but with a cheat item he finds really early he is able to power through it. Strange medicine bottle that condenses a drop of liquid from moonlight that is able to rapidly age plants. He uses it to make really old spiritual medicines he can refine into pills, and then cultivates using the power of steroids instead of talent.

It is interesting seeing a xianxia that takes place over long periods of time, the MC actually secluding himself for decades at a time so far to slowly make breakthroughs even with tons of medicines because he lacks the natural talent. He still manages to be quite powerful for his realm though, lots of lucky encounters getting him a lot of equipment, as well as being far less sheltered than natural geniuses raised carefully by sects meaning he has gotten a lot of battle experience. Little weird that thus far it seems that equipment is in fact a huge part of most cultivator's strengths, at the lower levels the chants for their spells is just too slow or something, and most cultivators lean towards spellcasters rather than martial skill.

Characters are kinda eh. MC started out okay, but became increasingly jaded, selfish, and ruthless over time. He isn't a complete sociopath, he still has some bottom line of morality, but he outright says to people that he is not a gentleman and does not do kindnesses for free. He's a very selfish person and won't help people unless it is either very easy for him, or he gets something out of it. Doesn't normally initiate a conflict but if you give him half an excuse he will gladly finish it.

Characters aside from the MC are few in the number that stick around. The MC fears disclosing his cheat, his low potential is known early on so its really weird that he manages to progress anyway since nobody else knows about his infinite pill hacks. Thus he avoids getting close to anybody. There is also this strange thing where everybody in this world seems to be ready to backstab everybody else at a moment's notice. Often cultivator's in xianxia have some kind of honour at least, but this novel takes a very cynical view of it all. One of the ones that derides the "righteous dao" as being extremely hypocritical and not all that different from the "devil dao" and the like.

 

[Leingod]

One of the ones that derides the "righteous dao" as being extremely hypocritical and not all that different from the "devil dao" and the like.

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Admittedly, I do tend to like it when it's pointed out that it's easy to call yourself a righteous and virtuous sect (or to label another as heretical/demonic) if you've got the power and clout that no one's really willing to call you out on it, and that a name is ultimately just a name. It calls to mind the works of Jin Yong, where there are many periods where a "righteous sect," even one that's walked the walk in previous eras, is now villainous in all but name, and on the other hand the not-remotely-evil Ming Cult is branded as evil simply because they have the bad luck of being a sect of foreign origin at a time when China and the Wulin are feeling extremely xenophobic.

 

[veekie]

Completely different topic... is anyone else super tired of 'sister not related by blood', who inevitably ends up as a "love interest?" It mainly shows up in reincarnation themed novels, and it's soooo... skevy. It also seem to follow the pattern of 'useless adopted male son gets replaced with awesome reincarnator. Sister tries to push protagonist, but he's now dominating and masculine, and can't help but fall for him after he dominates her.'

It's just... preditory. That's the only way I can call it.

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Depends on which particular variant of the trope is in play.

Theres some language baggage you need to watch out for first, because Chinese and Chinese derived/influenced languages has many respectful or intimate terms of address referencing family connections in order to establish that they are close. Secondly, the simplest way to establish familiarity and intimacy is to use a dimunitive...which means that [Something] Brother becomes just plain Brother.
Translation conventions can't handle it well at all, same way Japanese translations tangle up on honorifics and the mess of conditionally insulting, affectionate, creepy or respectful usages depending on the relative social statuses of two parties. Or more visible on Korean dramas, every goddamned love interest goes "Brother"/"Sister" as their go to term of address while the actual siblings get yelled at using their given names.

A teacher is a parent under Confucian values.
Thus your fellow students are your siblings and your Elders are your grandparents, but your seniority is determined by your position under said teacher. A Sect is a Clan as a result and behaves like your extended family.

However, as they aren't actually blood family, theres no bar to a romantic relationship, and for the classic Sect environment, there's nobody else to have a relationship with.

Now if you're referring instead to the "oh you are adopted, so you forbidden love isn't actually forbidden" trope, that seems rarer?

Admittedly, I do tend to like it when it's pointed out that it's easy to call yourself a righteous and virtuous sect (or to label another as heretical/demonic) if you've got the power and clout that no one's really willing to call you out on it, and that a name is ultimately just a name. It calls to mind the works of Jin Yong, where there are many periods where a "righteous sect," even one that's walked the walk in previous eras, is now villainous in all but name, and on the other hand the not-remotely-evil Ming Cult is branded as evil simply because they have the bad luck of being a sect of foreign origin at a time when China and the Wulin are feeling extremely xenophobic.

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Isn't the terminology used for "righteous" actually closer to "official"?
With most uses of "evil" actually being "deviant"(uses poisons, or other suspicious practices), except for "Mo", which would be demonic and unabashedly evil which usually have no problem attracting a coalition to take down the universal threat.

Intersecting with Ancient Chinese Morality is usually best read as a Law vs Chaos thing, with the Empire being the Law as derived from the Mandate of Heaven(and thus Heavenly Law) and bandits/barbarians being Chaos.

 

[TheLastOne]

Now if you're referring instead to the "oh you are adopted, so you forbidden love isn't actually forbidden" trope, that seems rarer?

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Literally just drop something on the first chapter because of that.

I'm not talking about people using a sister as a diminutive. I'm talking about specifically ' oh you're adopted.'

And about half the time the main character only discovers that as the plot begins.

 

[Sirrocco]

Completely different topic... is anyone else super tired of 'sister not related by blood', who inevitably ends up as a "love interest?" It mainly shows up in reincarnation themed novels, and it's soooo... skevy. It also seem to follow the pattern of 'useless adopted male son gets replaced with awesome reincarnator. Sister tries to push protagonist, but he's now dominating and masculine, and can't help but fall for him after he dominates her.'

It's just... preditory. That's the only way I can call it.

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Gotta admit, I'm not a fan... but almost all of the original-from-China xianxia that I've seen that pulls in a romantic component picks up so much skeeve that I can't say that it's a particular kill-button for me. For me, it's more of an "add to the accumulated ugh, and when the overall toxicity gets too high, stop reading".

The fact that I've seen one or two things where the context makes it pretty blatant that the "but he's adopted" was shoehorned in for the translation to make it more salable in the US really doesn't help, though. Neither does the fact that they generally utterly fail to explore any of the parental reasoning that led to the situation. It's a check-the-box fetish.

Like, have you ever seen this in any story where there weren't 5 or more other girls who were also falling over each other to get at the protag?

 

[veekie]

Gotta admit, I'm not a fan... but almost all of the original-from-China xianxia that I've seen that pulls in a romantic component picks up so much skeeve that I can't say that it's a particular kill-button for me. For me, it's more of an "add to the accumulated ugh, and when the overall toxicity gets too high, stop reading".

The fact that I've seen one or two things where the context makes it pretty blatant that the "but he's adopted" was shoehorned in for the translation to make it more salable in the US really doesn't help, though. Neither does the fact that they generally utterly fail to explore any of the parental reasoning that led to the situation. It's a check-the-box fetish.

Like, have you ever seen this in any story where there weren't 5 or more other girls who were also falling over each other to get at the protag?

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Wish fulfillment is wish fulfillment.
I've seen a fairly big share of female protagonists with a half dozen extremely attractive men into them as well.

After the power fantasy, may as well hit the popularity fantasy.

 

[Sirrocco]

Wish fulfillment is wish fulfillment.
I've seen a fairly big share of female protagonists with a half dozen extremely attractive men into them as well.

After the power fantasy, may as well hit the popularity fantasy.

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Sure, but that's kind of my point. For the most part, it seems like not-incest is a matter of "well, while we're here hitting fetish checkboxes".

...though in retrospect I'm realizing that I don't really *want* to know what a story that decided to go all-in OTP on the not-incest would look like, so I think maybe I'm glad. I'm going to wander off and not think about this now.

 

[veekie]

Sure, but that's kind of my point. For the most part, it seems like not-incest is a matter of "well, while we're here hitting fetish checkboxes".

...though in retrospect I'm realizing that I don't really *want* to know what a story that decided to go all-in OTP on the not-incest would look like, so I think maybe I'm glad. I'm going to wander off and not think about this now.

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Not Xianxia, but OreImo is basically that.
And the winning official ship as per the author is the full sister by blood(the fans rioted)

 

[CircleTheSkies]

So I've been re-reading (and then reading past where I last stopped) Forty Milleniums, and I noticed something that happens a couple times - a hidden threat to Li Yao (in his mind or soul) is resolved as a consequence of the suicidal attack of an major enemy.

On one hand, it kind of cuts short an anticipated 'thread', which always seems to be a bit of a waste in a story. And it perhaps is a sign of the author deciding to go down a different path (and thus needing to tie off a loose end). But on the other hand, it does make it harder to guess as to whether a certain bit of foreshadowing will actually mean anything or not.

(There's also several times where similarly an enemy's brutal attacks solves an internal problem for the protagonist - which I recall seeing occasionally in other stories as well)


EDIT: That said, the story also has a number of cases where Li Yao is genuinely clever in his plans to deal with a hidden threat or enemy plot, so it kind of balances out.

 

[Sirrocco]

I don't know if I've run into this one recommended here or not, but Heart of Cultivation is looking pretty solid. It's another one of those well-written, interesting and believable characters, living in a world built out of xianxia tropes, written in English rather than translated. Interesting because the MC is very much a crafter - in this case a maker of permanent items using runework, powered by spirit stones. As a point of reassurance to those just starting out, he totally has a plan on how to improve his cultivation. As a point of reference to those considering it, we're currently on Chapter 32, and while the plan is progressing reasonably well, no MC cultivation improvement has yet occurred. It's interesting, and not at all terrible. There was even a bit that I expected I'd have to cringe about that turned out to be not at all cringeworthy... so that was cool. I encourage anyone who's a fan of xianxia crafters to give it a look.

 

[NMR-3]

Why do so many lategame Chinese webnovels have to involve genocide? I'm so tired of this shit.

"Oh no, the [insert brawny race] have invaded our realm! It is time to totally eradicate their race, from the ones instigating this calamity deliberately to the innocent children, and take their dimension for ourselves in a story arc that will drag on for two books' worth of chapters before ending in a meaningless tragedy that sets up the next book or two!"
Or, similarly:
"We've lived for literal millenia with the [insert brawny race] and finally now that the protagonist is here, we have the power to avenge their raping our women and taking our jobs! We must secure a future for the human race! Brothers, let us all shout 'Kill'!"

 

[Sirrocco]

Why do so many lategame Chinese webnovels have to involve genocide? I'm so tired of this shit.

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Genocide is dramatic, and low-grade chinese webnovel xianxia is all about finding cheap ways to crank the intensity.
Genocide is thorough. Once you've done it, you don't have to worry about long-term implications of what you've done to those people because they're all dead. It simplifies the space.

 

[NMR-3]

Genocide is dramatic, and low-grade chinese webnovel xianxia is all about finding cheap ways to crank the intensity.
Genocide is thorough. Once you've done it, you don't have to worry about long-term implications of what you've done to those people because they're all dead. It simplifies the space.

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I just wish more xianxia had an actual moral core, tbh. Not even necessarily 40k Years-like depth in actually exploring morality, but a protagonist who won't just go looking for excuses to wipe clans off the map.

Anyway, that aside, what prompted that particular complain was reading Divine Throne of Primordial Blood. Liked the research, liked cultivation method actively needing to be found instead of being known to literally everyone, liked the crazy four-backstab pileup in the second book. Loved how the protagonist actually distributes his knowledge freely, instead of keeping everything for himself and blocking off any similar paths for others. Then it ramped up into very uncomfortable race stuff and mass murder and I read on, until the protagonist jumped three entire realms and I realized it wasn't worth it to keep reading anymore.

So, my question: is there similar xianxia where cultivation is a path that hasn't been fully trodden yet? Where the steps in the Powerlevel Staircase aren't clear-cut and obvious for everyone? I've already caught up on Lord of Mysteries.

 

[CircleTheSkies]

So, my question: is there similar xianxia where cultivation is a path that hasn't been fully trodden yet? Where the steps in the Powerlevel Staircase aren't clear-cut and obvious for everyone? I've already caught up on Lord of Mysteries.

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You occasionally get the protagonist breaking in to methods or variations previously unknown (ie, going 'beyond' the normal number of stages in a realm, etc), certainly. And I think there's a story or two where the protagonist is the one forging the path (in a world without cultivation or nothing beyond a basic level).

But more often the protagonist's cultivation path is from some secret heritage or the like - ie, unknown to the rest of the world, but he's still following an existing path.

 

[Yeangst]

I don't know if I've run into this one recommended here or not, but Heart of Cultivation is looking pretty solid. It's another one of those well-written, interesting and believable characters, living in a world built out of xianxia tropes, written in English rather than translated. Interesting because the MC is very much a crafter - in this case a maker of permanent items using runework, powered by spirit stones. As a point of reassurance to those just starting out, he totally has a plan on how to improve his cultivation. As a point of reference to those considering it, we're currently on Chapter 32, and while the plan is progressing reasonably well, no MC cultivation improvement has yet occurred. It's interesting, and not at all terrible. There was even a bit that I expected I'd have to cringe about that turned out to be not at all cringeworthy... so that was cool. I encourage anyone who's a fan of xianxia crafters to give it a look.

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I've started it and liked it, but decided to take a pause a while ago to let chapters build up. The fact that it's Chapter 32 and the MC's cultivation still hasn't improved isn't reassuring.

My general attitude towards webnovels is that the latest chapter could easily be the last, so I generally like some decently quick movement towards wherever the author is going with things. It's less of an issue with webnovels that have hundreds or even thousands of chapters since you know there's at least some plot that's been going and chances are I'll drop it before the author does. But if a work has the same chapter-pacing as a Chinese xianxia, but without the daily release schedule or the hundreds of chapters already written, then I dunno, it's often worth getting invested in, in my experience.

 

[Nervaqus987]

So, my question: is there similar xianxia where cultivation is a path that hasn't been fully trodden yet? Where the steps in the Powerlevel Staircase aren't clear-cut and obvious for everyone? I've already caught up on Lord of Mysteries.

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This is somewhat the case in Tales of Herding Gods.

A quick summary of the cultivation system; within people are seven divine treasures. They are(in order): Spirit Embryo, Five Elements, Six Directions, Seven Stars, Celestial Being, Life and Death, and Divine Bridge. Past the Divine Bridge is the Celestial Palace that contains the realms corresponding to the gods.

Although the overall system is widely known to people, one of the themes of the story is the constant desire to improve and develop. To change the way things work for the better. One of the side characters, for example, devises a technique to fuse the Six Directions and Seven Stars Divine Treasures together, greatly increasing the amount of qi they have and how fast they can use it.

There's a drive to improve, not just the spells and divine arts, but the very foundations of the cultivation system.

 

[maggiemee]

So, my question: is there similar xianxia where cultivation is a path that hasn't been fully trodden yet? Where the steps in the Powerlevel Staircase aren't clear-cut and obvious for everyone? I've already caught up on Lord of Mysteries.

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Tales of herding gods and Rise of humanity all have explict settings about cultivation being an exporation of the unknown, and side steps the whole usual issue of past knowledge being uber powerful by explaining that past knowledge isn't necessarily more or less powerful than the present knowledge, but died out due to natural selection as it was harder to learn. developing new skills and coporate espoinage to steal new knowledge is something done explictly by both the good guys and the bad guys.

 

[FriedIce]

I just wish more xianxia had an actual moral core, tbh. Not even necessarily 40k Years-like depth in actually exploring morality, but a protagonist who won't just go looking for excuses to wipe clans off the map.

Anyway, that aside, what prompted that particular complain was reading Divine Throne of Primordial Blood. Liked the research, liked cultivation method actively needing to be found instead of being known to literally everyone, liked the crazy four-backstab pileup in the second book. Loved how the protagonist actually distributes his knowledge freely, instead of keeping everything for himself and blocking off any similar paths for others. Then it ramped up into very uncomfortable race stuff and mass murder and I read on, until the protagonist jumped three entire realms and I realized it wasn't worth it to keep reading anymore.

So, my question: is there similar xianxia where cultivation is a path that hasn't been fully trodden yet? Where the steps in the Powerlevel Staircase aren't clear-cut and obvious for everyone? I've already caught up on Lord of Mysteries.

Click to shrink...

Empire of Salt (https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/28062/empire-of-salt) is sadly on hiatus but has a strong focus on figuring out how to do cultivation.

 

[CircleTheSkies]

This is somewhat the case in Tales of Herding Gods.

A quick summary of the cultivation system; within people are seven divine treasures. They are(in order): Spirit Embryo, Five Elements, Six Directions, Seven Stars, Celestial Being, Life and Death, and Divine Bridge. Past the Divine Bridge is the Celestial Palace that contains the realms corresponding to the gods.

Although the overall system is widely known to people, one of the themes of the story is the constant desire to improve and develop. To change the way things work for the better. One of the side characters, for example, devises a technique to fuse the Six Directions and Seven Stars Divine Treasures together, greatly increasing the amount of qi they have and how fast they can use it.

There's a drive to improve, not just the spells and divine arts, but the very foundations of the cultivation system.

Click to shrink...

Oh, right! I'd forgotten about the situation in Tales of Herding Gods. And yes, that story has a lot of seeking to improve upon the cultivation system done by both the protagonist and other characters. In fact, later on this goes into overdrive.

Spoiler: For after chapter 800 or so?

The protagonist travels back in time and witnesses (and even participates in) the last steps of the known cultivation system - Divine Bridge and Celestial Palace. Later on, he goes about developing alternative after alternative to the Divine Bridge and Celestial Palace as he tries to figure out a more complete way.

At an earlier point, he collapses (in conjunction with another character) two of the realms together, and then yet another character figures out how to do so with a third. The "reformers" collectively establish and spreads knowledge of the "Celestial River" (replacement of the Divine Bridge and even the realms before) along with other improvements to the cultivation system already in place.

And then he rebuilds his cultivation out of necessity in a brand new direction. There's actually a part that really stuck in my mind where he's faced with the decision of whether to continue on that path - to develop an entirely new (and potentially better) system from scratch... and then reluctantly turns away to short-cut with parts of the existing system because he can't afford to take the time to do so.

I also like how the meat of main conflict is over such "reforms". It's a refreshing feel, actually. Even in the early story, the conflict between the empire and the sects is about reformation (if not necessarily of cultivation) - and then as the story expands in scope, the theme stays but on a grander scale.

I honestly do put Herding Gods in my top five in part because of this consistency of theme.

 

[SCDarkSoul]

So, my question: is there similar xianxia where cultivation is a path that hasn't been fully trodden yet? Where the steps in the Powerlevel Staircase aren't clear-cut and obvious for everyone? I've already caught up on Lord of Mysteries.

Click to shrink...

Maybe Pursuing Immortality or Building the Ultimate Fantasy? Ish. I've mentioned them before, the latter recently, the former not for a while.

Pursuing Immortality has cultivation / world essence returning to Earth after having dissipated over millennia. There are scraps of cultivation methods still remaining they seek out, and they put together a tentative list of cultivation realms from mythology, but they're kind of making it up as they go along. And since it encompasses the entire Earth different cultures have vastly different "cultivation" methods, and nobody has any idea wtf they're doing. MC's morality is fine as far as I remember. Sadly this novel has stopped being translated though.

Building the Ultimate Fantasy has an MC in a high wuxia world tasked with bringing it up to xianxia/xuanhuan levels. The MC is actually creating the cultivation system/methods for his world using the system as he goes along and dispersing it to everyone else. There are other worlds out there that seem to use a more traditional system, i.e. Qi Refining -> Foundation Building -> Golden Elixir. MC has a temper here though, will slaughter clans.

 

[Nervaqus987]

I also like how the meat of main conflict is over such "reforms". It's a refreshing feel, actually. Even in the early story, the conflict between the empire and the sects is about reformation (if not necessarily of cultivation) - and then as the story expands in scope, the theme stays but on a grander scale.

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Honestly, the conflict over the reform of cultivation is pretty mild compared to the reform over attitudes and beliefs. This bit from early on in the story is, IMO, the part that really sells the motivation behind it.

Spoiler: Chapter 258

Emperor Yanfeng was in a daze for a time. Then, he suddenly said, "When I was young, Eternal Peace Empire didn't have such a large territory and the emperor wasn't so respected. At that time, all the sects and influential families were still riding roughshod over people. I had once followed an envoy out of the country to visit a place called Yuanqi Country, which is now Yuan Prefecture. There was a lightning disaster there, and the sky was covered in dark clouds which shrouded Yuanqi Country. The lightning crackled and struck non stop, killing livestock and common people alike.

"The emperor of Yuanqi Country brought his civil and military officials to kneel and beg for forgiveness from the lightning disaster. The common people of that country were also kneeling on the ground, begging Heaven to grant them a pardon. In that lightning disaster, the emperor was electrocuted to death. Only after the event did I learn the Heaven in their words wasn't the heavenly gods but Hidden Lightning Sect.

"That year, the harvest hadn't been good, so the goods offered to Hidden Lightning Sect were lacking, and Hidden Thunder Sect sent a calamity on them. What had caused the disaster was the cult's legacy spirit treasure, Nine Heavens Lightning Luring Cover. The emperor had put all the blame on himself, which was why Hidden Lightning Sect had electrocuted him and changed the emperor. At that time, I was already thinking…"

He looked at Dao Master and Rulai and said slowly, enunciating every word, "I had to overthrow you guys! Now, I have done it, but what Imperial Preceptor and I have done is still not enough, so there is this snow disaster. It was sent by a god? Then I shall overthrow that god!"

 

[Sirrocco]

I've started it and liked it, but decided to take a pause a while ago to let chapters build up. The fact that it's Chapter 32 and the MC's cultivation still hasn't improved isn't reassuring.

My general attitude towards webnovels is that the latest chapter could easily be the last, so I generally like some decently quick movement towards wherever the author is going with things. It's less of an issue with webnovels that have hundreds or even thousands of chapters since you know there's at least some plot that's been going and chances are I'll drop it before the author does. But if a work has the same chapter-pacing as a Chinese xianxia, but without the daily release schedule or the hundreds of chapters already written, then I dunno, it's often worth getting invested in, in my experience.

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His cultivation hasn't improved primarily because he started out with a massive cultivation block. He's been making some solid progress, and I'd expect to see him jump forward within, say, the next 5 chapters or so (he's currently on a hunting trip to get the last ingredient for his intended solution). He's also managed a bit of progress in other ways. Still, I do understand and respect your concern, here. If it keeps being alive and keeps being good, I'll probably post links to it again from time to time.

 

[veekie]

Why do so many lategame Chinese webnovels have to involve genocide? I'm so tired of this shit.

"Oh no, the [insert brawny race] have invaded our realm! It is time to totally eradicate their race, from the ones instigating this calamity deliberately to the innocent children, and take their dimension for ourselves in a story arc that will drag on for two books' worth of chapters before ending in a meaningless tragedy that sets up the next book or two!"
Or, similarly:
"We've lived for literal millenia with the [insert brawny race] and finally now that the protagonist is here, we have the power to avenge their raping our women and taking our jobs! We must secure a future for the human race! Brothers, let us all shout 'Kill'!"

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My understanding of it is that its a bit of a side effect of nationalist propaganda hitting echo chambers, since the whole thing sounds awfully similar to the archetypical ultranationalist chinese netizen's posts.

 

[SITB]

It's kind of hilarious that Reverend Insanity, the WN whose gimmick is that the protagonist is the worst person in the world, is one of the few cultivation novels that has the protagonist fight on the side of the oppressed 'other'.

How the hell do you end up being more morally bankrupt than Reverend Insanity?

 

[The Grey Mage]

It's kind of hilarious that Reverend Insanity, the WN whose gimmick is that the protagonist is the worst person in the world, is one of the few cultivation novels that has the protagonist fight on the side of the oppressed 'other'.

How the hell do you end up being more morally bankrupt than Reverend Insanity?

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Because RI is written by a good writer. Also, FY not being particularly worse than most other RI characters is kinda a key part of it.