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I Shall Seal the Heavens 我欲封天 #5
Nirvanic Rebirth. Blood Everywhere!
I Shall Seal the Heavens is currently one of the most popular xianxia stories in China. It is about a failed young scholar named Meng Hao who gets forcibly recruited into a Sect of Immortal Cultivators. In the Cultivation world, the strong prey on the weak, and the law of the jungle prevails.
Meng Hao must adapt to survive. And yet, he never forgets the Confucian and Daoist ideals that he grew up studying. This, coupled with his stubborn nature, set him on the path of a true hero. What does it mean to “Seal the Heavens?” This is a secret that you will have to uncover along with Meng Hao.
Chapters
629 - 800
Meng Hao must adapt to survive. And yet, he never forgets the Confucian and Daoist ideals that he grew up studying. This, coupled with his stubborn nature, set him on the path of a true hero. What does it mean to “Seal the Heavens?” This is a secret that you will have to uncover along with Meng Hao.
Chapters
629 - 800
1400 pages, ebook
Published January 1, 2016
166 people are currently reading
134 people want to read
About the author
Er Gen
125 books271 followersName: Liu Yong (刘勇)
Pen name: Er Gen (耳根)
Born in Heilongjiang Province, Mudanjiang prefecture city.
Er Gen is a platinum author on Qidian who used his love for classical chinese myths as a foundation on which to build his webnovels. He has become a pillar of the xianxia genre, and his flagship novel, Renegade Immortal, placed within the top ranks of Qidian’s monthly recommendation charts for many months.
Associated Names:
* Er Gen (English)
* 耳根 (Chinese)
* เอ่อร์เกิน (Thai)
Pen name: Er Gen (耳根)
Born in Heilongjiang Province, Mudanjiang prefecture city.
Er Gen is a platinum author on Qidian who used his love for classical chinese myths as a foundation on which to build his webnovels. He has become a pillar of the xianxia genre, and his flagship novel, Renegade Immortal, placed within the top ranks of Qidian’s monthly recommendation charts for many months.
Associated Names:
* Er Gen (English)
* 耳根 (Chinese)
* เอ่อร์เกิน (Thai)
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
September 2, 2016
Good story and an even beautiful ending.
March 31, 2025
This series again manages to surprise me again: the beginning of this book has a long section where Meng Hao and Patriarch Reliance are allegedly engaging in a battle of wits, though obviously we're supposed to laugh at Patriarch Reliance. But Meng Hao still doesn't do anything truly clever, so Patriarch Reliance needs to be so stupid he's basically out of a comedy sketch. This cements in my mind that when Meng Hao previously used his strength to steal from others, the story honestly believed those are clever schemes.
Funniest detail: the ranks of foundation apparently go "Shattered, Fractured, Flawless, Perfect, Dao Fruit, Eternal". That's right, "flawless" is actually one of the worse types, in fact very flawed. Maybe this works better in Chinese, but this series has been so ill-considered that I'm inclined to think it's just gacha game silliness where "rare" is actually a common result.
Meng Hao actually faces a real setback this book... for all of a couple chapters, before it's revealed that this apparent loss of power was actually the exact step he needed to take to become even more powerful. I think this is one the laziest power-ups yet.
Incidental observation: I knew Cradle took a lot of cues from xianxia, but I didn't realize how many elements it just copied directly. I have my issues with Cradle, but it actually put a modicum of thought into how everything works together.
In this book, the leader of the Blood Whatever sect makes Meng Hao into the Blood Prince, putting him over everyone else out of nowhere. This makes all the members of the sect angry and they start attacking one after another, dozens of them getting blown apart as Meng Hao keeps escalating the conflict. Eventually, after he cows everyone, the leader shows up to spent almost an entire chapter repeating everything Meng Hao has done and flattering him with how amazing he is, after which everyone is suitably amazed. They turn into his allies/lackies for many chapters after this.
So this is, by any reasonable standard, a display of rank incompetence if not idiocy. Both Meng Hao and the leader display lack of foresight, inept leadership, and emotional immaturity. The key thing is: the story honestly expects us to believe this is awesome. Meng Hao is awesome when he's slaughtering the sect and then awesome when they're all his allies. The story does keep bringing back old names, but in terms of themes it has the memory of a goldfish.
Around this time, we suddenly get what might be the thesis statement of the whole series. Someone is watching Meng Hao throwing his weight around with no thought for strategy and then thinks:
"He suddenly realized that this was not a situation in which (the protagonist) was being immature. Quite the opposite, his cultivation base was so high that he didn't need to bother with any sort of strategy or planning. He took out all of his opponents in one blow!"
And again, the reader is supposed to think this is cool. Meng Hao is SO POWERFUL that he doesn't need to think, he just BLOWS UP EVERYONE!
People use words like "stupid" as insults, and reviewers (including myself) tend to overuse hyperbole with words like "braindead" and similar. This leaves me without the proper vocabulary to describe something like this.
This series is just astonishingly unintelligent. It presents a world in which intelligence is not relevant, because everything is resolved by the dumbest possible use of force. It is power fantasy written by and for people who just don't really understand how the world works, on a personal, sociological, or tactical level.
It's a wonder to behold, honestly.
Funniest detail: the ranks of foundation apparently go "Shattered, Fractured, Flawless, Perfect, Dao Fruit, Eternal". That's right, "flawless" is actually one of the worse types, in fact very flawed. Maybe this works better in Chinese, but this series has been so ill-considered that I'm inclined to think it's just gacha game silliness where "rare" is actually a common result.
Meng Hao actually faces a real setback this book... for all of a couple chapters, before it's revealed that this apparent loss of power was actually the exact step he needed to take to become even more powerful. I think this is one the laziest power-ups yet.
Incidental observation: I knew Cradle took a lot of cues from xianxia, but I didn't realize how many elements it just copied directly. I have my issues with Cradle, but it actually put a modicum of thought into how everything works together.
In this book, the leader of the Blood Whatever sect makes Meng Hao into the Blood Prince, putting him over everyone else out of nowhere. This makes all the members of the sect angry and they start attacking one after another, dozens of them getting blown apart as Meng Hao keeps escalating the conflict. Eventually, after he cows everyone, the leader shows up to spent almost an entire chapter repeating everything Meng Hao has done and flattering him with how amazing he is, after which everyone is suitably amazed. They turn into his allies/lackies for many chapters after this.
So this is, by any reasonable standard, a display of rank incompetence if not idiocy. Both Meng Hao and the leader display lack of foresight, inept leadership, and emotional immaturity. The key thing is: the story honestly expects us to believe this is awesome. Meng Hao is awesome when he's slaughtering the sect and then awesome when they're all his allies. The story does keep bringing back old names, but in terms of themes it has the memory of a goldfish.
Around this time, we suddenly get what might be the thesis statement of the whole series. Someone is watching Meng Hao throwing his weight around with no thought for strategy and then thinks:
"He suddenly realized that this was not a situation in which (the protagonist) was being immature. Quite the opposite, his cultivation base was so high that he didn't need to bother with any sort of strategy or planning. He took out all of his opponents in one blow!"
And again, the reader is supposed to think this is cool. Meng Hao is SO POWERFUL that he doesn't need to think, he just BLOWS UP EVERYONE!
People use words like "stupid" as insults, and reviewers (including myself) tend to overuse hyperbole with words like "braindead" and similar. This leaves me without the proper vocabulary to describe something like this.
This series is just astonishingly unintelligent. It presents a world in which intelligence is not relevant, because everything is resolved by the dumbest possible use of force. It is power fantasy written by and for people who just don't really understand how the world works, on a personal, sociological, or tactical level.
It's a wonder to behold, honestly.
February 8, 2017
The first arc will make you laugh out loud, the second arc is really good, the third is phenomenal, the fourth will have some pretty good surprises, the fifth is full of plot twists and then this great book has ended.
Two thumbs up for Er Gen!
Two thumbs up for Er Gen!
May 19, 2022
halfway through the issth reread
January 31, 2025
Solid 4.5
This might have been my favourite one so far. Was is without a doubt the bloodiest one? Yes, very much so. However, it was also fun, funny in a lot of places and it didn't focus so much on battles and duels as it did on Meng Hao's growth not so much as a cultivator as much as a person and a character.
First we have the brilliant brilliant chapters of Meng Hao just really fucking with Patriarch Reliance and that is *chef's kiss*. 10th Wang Clan Patriarch going insane and murdering the entire clan. The random second Lord Fifth showing up, or rather his divine sense.
Then we have Mang loosing his Cultivation base, his Perfect Foundation that we have seen him build for 200 years only to discover there is an even better way of cultivating. We finally see again his human side and some emotion with him accepting and choosing to spend life and marry Xu Qing. The whole development with the two of them was brilliantly written, and while I see why she had to die in order for the story to progress, it was sad, but I think it was done in a right way. It was needed for him to fully embrace the Devilish side so that he may later sever it. I am glad he was led into severing the Devil because that was just going into slippery territory of him becoming a sort of a villain.
The reunion with his parents and we finally get the true story of why they left when he was 7 years old. All great storylines. And an honorable mention for the dad, because he is a badass.
This might have been my favourite one so far. Was is without a doubt the bloodiest one? Yes, very much so. However, it was also fun, funny in a lot of places and it didn't focus so much on battles and duels as it did on Meng Hao's growth not so much as a cultivator as much as a person and a character.
First we have the brilliant brilliant chapters of Meng Hao just really fucking with Patriarch Reliance and that is *chef's kiss*. 10th Wang Clan Patriarch going insane and murdering the entire clan. The random second Lord Fifth showing up, or rather his divine sense.
Then we have Mang loosing his Cultivation base, his Perfect Foundation that we have seen him build for 200 years only to discover there is an even better way of cultivating. We finally see again his human side and some emotion with him accepting and choosing to spend life and marry Xu Qing. The whole development with the two of them was brilliantly written, and while I see why she had to die in order for the story to progress, it was sad, but I think it was done in a right way. It was needed for him to fully embrace the Devilish side so that he may later sever it. I am glad he was led into severing the Devil because that was just going into slippery territory of him becoming a sort of a villain.
The reunion with his parents and we finally get the true story of why they left when he was 7 years old. All great storylines. And an honorable mention for the dad, because he is a badass.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 27, 2023
Review of entire series
Starts off a bit slow, but still decent..and then books 3-9 are absolutely phenomenal. I wasn' a fan of Book 10 as it suffers from the tepid melancholic finish typical of Er Gen books, but still one of the best in the genre.
Deathblade does a stellar job with the English tranlation too!
Starts off a bit slow, but still decent..and then books 3-9 are absolutely phenomenal. I wasn' a fan of Book 10 as it suffers from the tepid melancholic finish typical of Er Gen books, but still one of the best in the genre.
Deathblade does a stellar job with the English tranlation too!
January 31, 2019
So much conflict (boring garrulous fight sequences) and barely any meaningful story progression for 90% of this book. The other 10% that was pretty great I suppose, but over a hundred chapters could’ve been entirely skipped without any impact overall story.
June 23, 2017
The rating given is not a correct portrayal of the individual book's rating but as a general rating of the series as a whole.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 10, 2017
If you want a good xianxia, pick this book.
July 27, 2017
So many ups and downs. The battle chapters are especially awesome to read. Off to the sixth.
June 27, 2018
i think this will be a good start for me? guys can you suggest another novel, interesting that the mc is too cool and badass and overpower character, that kind of mc that i like!
May 13, 2019
Loved the entire series! Anyone who is looking for a good story with plenty of character development and really good plot, I'd say this series is really good!
January 22, 2021
Woah! This is an epic addition to the series.
While I felt the Northern Army needed better motivation to attack, and more foreshadowing, the scale of the battle was huge.
While I felt the Northern Army needed better motivation to attack, and more foreshadowing, the scale of the battle was huge.
February 19, 2021
Read this twice, scroll down for the second review.
---------------First read:-------------------
I ended up leaving the series here.
I felt like the main character became a different person, and the story also lost contact with all of the other meaningful characters of the story, so I couldn't bring myself to continue. I understand that the changes in the main character were intentional and are a part of the story, and I can see how the main character logically morphs into the man that he is at the moment (chapter 750/1614). However, the person he is now is fundamentally not the same person that he has been in the past, so I have lost all investment. This is basically a different book in my eyes. While I am also aware that the main character will eventually transition again into something that I'm more invested in, I'm not willing to keep reading based on that hope when there are many "sure thing" xianxia novels out there to be read.
In regards to this "new book" that the story has become, there are a couple reasons why I won't even read it for the sake of reading a "new book".
1) Too much meaningless content. The story at this point is on a masturbatory streak of battle after battle. Some people like battles, but personally I'm only interested insofar as they affect the actual story, and these battle scenes are getting far too long for the amount of story that they provide. Before, the story was plot driven, with battles never taking more than 1.5 chapters. I would frequently scroll to the end of fights, skipping them entirely and just reading the conclusions. Now they are full on battles, and thus the scenes are extending for tens of chapters. In my mind, this isn't even the same story style that I've been reading for the last million words, so I won't enjoy it at all.
2) Too slow. This is related to the last thing. The story is moving too slowly, and it's a pain in the butt to go through a series and scan first sentences of paragraphs to find out when the book is touching on actual story.
---------------Second read:-------------------
I picked it up fresh 20 days later and it was a good book. I haven't been reading as much as I was in January, so that might also have influenced my liking of the book.
---------------First read:-------------------
I ended up leaving the series here.
I felt like the main character became a different person, and the story also lost contact with all of the other meaningful characters of the story, so I couldn't bring myself to continue. I understand that the changes in the main character were intentional and are a part of the story, and I can see how the main character logically morphs into the man that he is at the moment (chapter 750/1614). However, the person he is now is fundamentally not the same person that he has been in the past, so I have lost all investment. This is basically a different book in my eyes. While I am also aware that the main character will eventually transition again into something that I'm more invested in, I'm not willing to keep reading based on that hope when there are many "sure thing" xianxia novels out there to be read.
In regards to this "new book" that the story has become, there are a couple reasons why I won't even read it for the sake of reading a "new book".
1) Too much meaningless content. The story at this point is on a masturbatory streak of battle after battle. Some people like battles, but personally I'm only interested insofar as they affect the actual story, and these battle scenes are getting far too long for the amount of story that they provide. Before, the story was plot driven, with battles never taking more than 1.5 chapters. I would frequently scroll to the end of fights, skipping them entirely and just reading the conclusions. Now they are full on battles, and thus the scenes are extending for tens of chapters. In my mind, this isn't even the same story style that I've been reading for the last million words, so I won't enjoy it at all.
2) Too slow. This is related to the last thing. The story is moving too slowly, and it's a pain in the butt to go through a series and scan first sentences of paragraphs to find out when the book is touching on actual story.
---------------Second read:-------------------
I picked it up fresh 20 days later and it was a good book. I haven't been reading as much as I was in January, so that might also have influenced my liking of the book.
April 6, 2021
This is definitely an engaging cultivation series for those that like the genre.
The one thing I'm noticed in this particular series is that well there is a feeling of a little bit of a beginning middle and in the end with each story any story does contain its own story with no cliffhangers at the very end, thank goodness, the stories seem to meander from beginning to end. The series still pulls you in as this book did for me. Most particularly this book had some of the most emotionally engaging scenes throughout the entire series. Particular scenes spoke deeply to me as it spoke of parental love and loss. I do not think this is a perfect book or series but I gave it a five-star because it definitely engaged me all the way through despite the reader's speed bumps.
This is a long book and a long series. That particularly gives it that meandering feel because within each book contains enough storylines to make multiple books at times. It does repeat itself and it does feel as if every single time you turn around everything the character does is the Pinnacle that has never been reached before. Once again the word unprecedented was particularly popular with the author translation but not nearly as badly as it was in the previous book.
While we are following a single character in this third person omniscient series it seems that each book is about him gaining abilities that's never been seen before or levels of abilities. He's always reaching for the maximum and tends to consistently coldly snort. At the same time some of the humor and down-to-earth emotions really made him relatable in this book. It became more of a emotional story where you can become attached to the character than the previous books.
There are some interesting characters and the author keeps up with him quite well to the point that I think they have a tremendous story Bible because there's been very little that I found contradictory in the story. Little things that the author has thrown in terms of background and story arcs will pop up at times just want to thank the author has made a mistake.
That said there are a lot of things getting juggled and a lot of new things getting thrown in at random times. This gives the story and feeling of constant growth and movement but at the same time it might become a bit much for a reader to hold on to. We get to see so much stuff that sometimes past parts of the stories are lost.
There are some annoying things such as repetitive use of certain words and changing a character's name in this book and the previous book from what it was in the first several books but overall I can't really complain about the series it was good it was entertaining and long. It might not be the cup of tea for those winning a concise tight story with the beginning middle and end with a small number of characters that you see growth over a short series.
There is some language but this story remains appropriate for young adults and above.
The one thing I'm noticed in this particular series is that well there is a feeling of a little bit of a beginning middle and in the end with each story any story does contain its own story with no cliffhangers at the very end, thank goodness, the stories seem to meander from beginning to end. The series still pulls you in as this book did for me. Most particularly this book had some of the most emotionally engaging scenes throughout the entire series. Particular scenes spoke deeply to me as it spoke of parental love and loss. I do not think this is a perfect book or series but I gave it a five-star because it definitely engaged me all the way through despite the reader's speed bumps.
This is a long book and a long series. That particularly gives it that meandering feel because within each book contains enough storylines to make multiple books at times. It does repeat itself and it does feel as if every single time you turn around everything the character does is the Pinnacle that has never been reached before. Once again the word unprecedented was particularly popular with the author translation but not nearly as badly as it was in the previous book.
While we are following a single character in this third person omniscient series it seems that each book is about him gaining abilities that's never been seen before or levels of abilities. He's always reaching for the maximum and tends to consistently coldly snort. At the same time some of the humor and down-to-earth emotions really made him relatable in this book. It became more of a emotional story where you can become attached to the character than the previous books.
There are some interesting characters and the author keeps up with him quite well to the point that I think they have a tremendous story Bible because there's been very little that I found contradictory in the story. Little things that the author has thrown in terms of background and story arcs will pop up at times just want to thank the author has made a mistake.
That said there are a lot of things getting juggled and a lot of new things getting thrown in at random times. This gives the story and feeling of constant growth and movement but at the same time it might become a bit much for a reader to hold on to. We get to see so much stuff that sometimes past parts of the stories are lost.
There are some annoying things such as repetitive use of certain words and changing a character's name in this book and the previous book from what it was in the first several books but overall I can't really complain about the series it was good it was entertaining and long. It might not be the cup of tea for those winning a concise tight story with the beginning middle and end with a small number of characters that you see growth over a short series.
There is some language but this story remains appropriate for young adults and above.
April 23, 2021
This is a copypasted review that regards the entire series. Be warned, because I Shall Seal the heavens is millions of words long, approximately 4 times the length of the Bible. The story of I Shall Seal the Heavens is crazy to those unfamiliar with the magic systems this genre uses.
It's pretty good. I give it a pass. Some parts toward the end involving The Big Bad Guy of the series are really weird, but everything else is great and I read through it just fine. Not much I can say about a 3-million-word-long story that I read several years ago.
It's pretty good. I give it a pass. Some parts toward the end involving The Big Bad Guy of the series are really weird, but everything else is great and I read through it just fine. Not much I can say about a 3-million-word-long story that I read several years ago.
October 2, 2021
Really fun addition to the series. I love the cultivation improvement that occurred in this book. The begging was a little repetitive with fight after fight. I think things really picked up in the second half of the book.
September 22, 2016
This was great. Er Gen is now my favorite xianxia author.
April 5, 2021
This one just made me laugh.
April 9, 2021
Absolutely Amazing and Profound
I’m continue to be amazed by Meng Hao’s growth as a cultivator. This book also has many funny moments, and also many heartfelt, tearful moments.
I’m continue to be amazed by Meng Hao’s growth as a cultivator. This book also has many funny moments, and also many heartfelt, tearful moments.
May 7, 2021
Good read
This is a little more crazy as to the cultivation magics and techniques and some cheating on the MC's part but overall a good read.
This is a little more crazy as to the cultivation magics and techniques and some cheating on the MC's part but overall a good read.
Read
January 11, 2019I want to find that person that Meng Hao found in Xu Qing.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews