I Watch Blue Seas Become Lush Fields

I Shall Seal the Heavens 我欲封天 #10

by Er Gen, Deathblade (Translator)

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!

Genres: Fantasy, Light Novel, China, Fiction, Novels

650 pages, ebook

About the author

Name: 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)

Reviews

[David U. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding series.

Over the years I’ve read a lot of books, and often times I come across stories that stand above the rest. I am fortunate to have found a whole series that is uniquely entertaining and engaging.

The I Shall Seal The Heavens book series is more or less a blueprint of cultivation novels done right. It was by no means perfect as towards the end the power scaling got ridiculous, the MC’s good fortune was clearly plot driven and new antagonists were seemingly recycled from the same selfish and irrationally confident mold; however, the good parts heavily outweigh the bad. The MC has his flaws but his cultivation journey was simply inspiring. A true underdog. I especially liked the MC’s alchemy hobby and his propensity for getting people to owe him money. The Parrot and Meatjelly were also constant forms of humour in this series.

The world building and ultimately the large scale war were well written. I also want to show appreciation to the author’s level of self awareness and his deep insight for his explanations of the Dao and it’s never ending cycle. There are sooo many quotes in this series but the one that stuck with me was -

“Life is a series of decisions. Whether you make the correct decisions or not doesn’t matter. The important thing is to keep going forward. Years later, when you look back, perhaps you’ll find that the incorrect decisions you made…weren’t really incorrect. Similarly, the correct decisions… might not necessarily have been correct. “Why struggle with frustration? Why proceed with confusion? In all things… resolution only comes from continuing to move forward.”

This quote was from nirvanic rebirth: book 6.

Overall I am very grateful to have found this series, and I would highly recommend it.

[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Metric system - Those are my personal opinions, you may discord, my final rating of the book is not necessarily linked to this system and may diverge from it.
Book Storyline
- Originality: 5/5 stars
- Development: 5/5 stars
- Enjoyment: 5/5 stars
- Writing stile: 5/5 stars
- Funnyness: 3/5 stars
- Epicness: 5/5 stars
- Scaryness: 2/5 stars
- Smartness: 5/5 stars
- Addictiveness: 5/5 stars
- Plot twists: 3/5 stars
- Pace: 5/5 stars
- Storyline planning: 5/5 stars OR /5 negative stars
- Ending: 5/5 stars OR /5 negative stars
- Holes: 3/5 negative stars
- Self contained (Y/N): ○
- Cliffhanger (Y/N): ○
- Adult (Y/N): ○
- Mystery (Y/N): ○
- Treasure Hunting (Y/N): ○
- Violence level: Very high
- Tech level: irrelevant
- Religion level: Fictional Daoism
- Main genre: Xianxia
- Subgenre: Epic Fantasy
- Point of view: Main Character centered
- Aftertaste: Fantastic
- Quote: The Mountain and Sea Realm has Nine Mountains and Nine Seas. This Xuanwu turtle bears Mount Daqing upon his back, my Dao Corroboration Mountain. Let that mountain become the Mountain among Mountains!”
World
- Originality: 5/5 stars
- Variety: 5/5 stars
- Consistency: 3/5 stars
- Impact on the story: 5/5 stars
- Maps: -/5 stars
- Real world (Y/N): ○
- Fantasy based on real world (Y/N): ○
- Journey (Y/N): ○
- Main scenario: The Starry Skies
Characters
- Total amount: lots
- Points of view: only 1
- Main characters: Meng Hao and Allheaven
- Secondary: 20 ~ 30
- Ordinary: millions
- Overall quality: 5/5 stars
- Main: 5/5 stars
- Secondary: 5/5 stars
- Consistency: 4/5 stars
- Connection: 3/5 stars
- Dialogs: 4/5 Stars
- Interactions: 4/5 Stars
- Romance ( Y/ N): ○
- Underworld Crew (Y/N): ○
- Training (Y/N): ○
- Notable best characters: Lords Third & Fifth, Pat Relianse
- Notable worse characters: "Little Tiger"
Setting
- Historical importance: 5/5 Stars
- Historical deep: 5/5 Stars
- Historical score: 5/5 Stars
- Geopolitical importance: 1/5 Stars
- Geopolitical variety: 3/5 Stars
- Geopolitical score: 3/5 Stars
- Setting overall score: 5/5 Stars
- Tension: 4/5 Stars
- Atmosphere: 5/5 Stars
- Supernatural (Vampires, werewolves) (Y/N): ○
- Superpowers (√/○): √
- Non-human races (Y/N): √
- Virtual Reality (Y/N): ○
- Monsters (Y/N): √
- Historical relevant period: ...
Rules
- Devised system: 5/5 stars
- System complexity: 5/5 stars
- System explanation: 4/5 stars
- Impact on storyline: 5/5 stars
- Rulebreaker (Y/N): √
- Type of Rule: Xianxia
Xianxia
- Battle phase: 4/5 stars
- Skill innovation: 4/5 stars
- Treasure hunting phase: 3/5 stars
- Cultivation phase: 2/5 stars
Series Storyline
- Impact of this book in storyline: 5/5 stars
- Originality: 5/5 stars
- Development: 4/5 stars
- Enjoyment: 5/5 stars
- Writing stile: 4/5 stars
- Funnyness: 4/5 stars
- Epicness: 5/5 stars
- Scaryness: 3/5 stars
- Smartness: 4/5 stars
- Addictiveness: 5/5 stars
- Plot twists: 3/5 stars
- Pace: 3/5 stars
- Storyline planning: 3/5 stars OR /5 negative stars
- Ending: 4/5 stars OR /5 negative stars
- Holes: 4/5 negative stars
End of the serie
- Best book in the serie: The Honor of Violet Fate
- Best character in the serie: Meat Jelly
- Best moment in the serie: chapter 311 - Now that's a cultivator! "Whithout a face! A single word!"
- What went great: Treasure hunting, epic battles, cons and scans.
- Worst book in the serie: Patriarch Reliance
- Worst character in the serie: Wang Tenfei
- Worst moment in the serie: The first chapters, when Meng Hao goes around in the forest killing stuff with the mirror
- What went wrong: Sometimes Meng Hao simple dont give a $#! about people around him, feels like a filler to the story, like when he was in the black lands or in Planet Vast Expanse
- Worth to read: 5/5 stars
▶◀
Meng Hao's adventures are over, I'll miss him.
I would go as far as put it in the top 10 best reads I enjoyed.
Definitely worth as one of the great modern Chinese literature.

[Saurabh Modi · Rating 5 out of 5]

In many ways, this fantasy series has brought about a change in what I think about literature. Given that this entire series has moved me so much(for all its faults), I'll post a much longer review for the series. As of now, I've spent over a year and a half reading this book and following it alongside the translation.

[Marijan Medved · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly, the culmination of these 1614 chapters, and books in the series in general, were a huge amount of deus ex machina and nonsensical rhetoric. Thereupon, this has probably been one of the most pointless series I have read, and one of the longest. This is probably what an existential crisis feels like.

[Mada Linx · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a ride! Can’t say I didn’t enjoy it, just glad it is over.
I spend almost a whole two months on ISSTH, and I must say how disappointed I am by the ending.
Personally I feel cheated and left a tad upset. It’s like working hard for something and in the end you can’t fully enjoy it.
I will take a break from Chinese novels for a while, I’m suddenly lacking the courage to start something new.

[Marko · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 GR stars

So this is the first Chinese epic fantasy (xianxia) web novel that I've read, all 8700+ pages of it. And it's been quite a ride.

When I Shall Seal the Heavens is good, it is really good - impactful, emotional, hillarious, and very addictive. But when it is bad, oh boy... Plot holes and inonsistencies abound, overly repeated catchphrases and sometimes blocks of text, scenes or events dragging out over multiple (sometimes dozens!) of chapters, story elements that get repeated over and over again just with a new coat of paint...

After all, ISStH is a web novel, so a lot of these problems are to be expected. But considering how great the aforementioned good parts are, it does leave a bit of a bitter taste at times.

That being said, I definitely don't regret reading ISStH. Its mythology and philosophy is something quite different from regular Western fantasy, it gives a fascinating glimps of actual Chinese culture, and the translation quality is just great. In addition, reading comments of other readers on Wuxiaworld.com after each chapter makes you really feel like a part of a community of people sharing the same experience.

[E B · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh.

One of the challenges of this genre is shifting the scope of the world to accommodate the central character’s increasing power without undermining what has gone before. The author does this masterfully.

Other pluses: it’s inventive and periodically griping.

The downside is that in order to enjoy those pluses you have to turn a blind eye to the faecal mess of inconsistent characterisation, repetition and plot holes.

One of the major problems is that the main character himself is completely reprehensible. This makes things boring. As time goes by, one becomes less and less invested in the main character and less interested in his success. He’s a bully, a boor and a misogynist. His only redeeming characteristic is family loyalty, but that is strained by the indifference with which he races about slaughtering sons in front of father’s and otherwise abusing the power that he is.

In the end, it’s all an exercise in onanistic wish-fulfilment by the author. It’s adolescent. It’s all skin-deep. It’s a shame because otherwise there would be a lot to recommend.

[Jekka · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finally finished ISSTH. Deathblade is a perfect translator. Er Gen is a fabulous author when it comes to character development and life interactions but leaves a lot to be desired in fight scenes and epic grandeur.
I could read the chapters on pill concocting and conning forever and never grow weary of this novel, but the battles between MC and super-god beings of limitless power were agony to get through. In the end, I'm giving this series a solid 4 stars, but many aspects of it excelled into 5 star and others descended into unreadable filler.
This particular arc (I Watch Blue Seas...) was tedious and flawed. I feel as if Er Gen just needed to finish it to complete the arc in a way that tied into his other works (which I honestly haven't read yet). The conclusion chapters pulled me back into a satisfactory mood so I'm keeping my 4 star rating as an appreciation for the work as a whole.

[Hoang Viet]

so many feelings and emotions from this book.

[Victor Tempest · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

This was an enjoyable conclusion to the series, filled with action, love, betrayal. I am looking forward to reading what the author does next.

[Michael Handlin · Rating 1 out of 5]

gave up

I kind of scanned book 9 and 10 as had long given up on it having anything that made sense.

[Brystene Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

For this genre there's a suspension of belief you have to begin with but this story is rife with bullshit and plot armor but I enjoyed the ride. Like I lost count of the amount of times the mc dies and miraculously survives for *insert crazy bullshit reason*
But the lil parrot and meat jelly. Best side kicks of all time. I couldn't have pulled funnier stuff out of my ass.
"Believe in lord fifth, gain eternal life. When lord fifth is around, who dare causes strife?"

[Donald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable Read

I LOVED this book series! There were plenty of action, character development for the main protagonist and secondary characters were well thought out. The humor through out the whole series had me in stitches! I've read many series in this genre and I have to admit this was the BEST one so far! Usually these translations are horrible with the pronouns and constant repeat of the same paragraphs, NOT in this series! I HIGHLY recommend this series.

[erik · Rating 2 out of 5]

overly drawn out

I have enjoyed this series from the beginning, and understand that it is written in a way to increase word count and not quality, but having a single fight between two people last for hundreds of pages, all while using the exact same abilities they have for the last couple books gets to be too much to continue with.

[Sunny Butterfly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Shall Seal the Heaven was my introduction into the wonderful world of Xianxia novels and later wuxia novels. So, I am biased towards this novel.. I read for weeks with many enjoyable memories of the MC and his side characters especially Lord Fifth!
It’s long, very long. I don’t regret reading it. Highly recommended.

[Bender · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 translation too!

[Zorgo Crypton · Rating 4 out of 5]

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!
Love Er Gen for the great time I had reading the series and for Death Blade for translating this series to English.

[Eli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lord Third, Lord Fifth, and Patriarch Reliance.
One of the first Wuxia Novels I read.
It's been a while so I vaguely remember what happened but I do recall liking the series as a whole, and that there's a good amount of Deus ex machine involved. Very addicting.

[Liam · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the greatest adventure action light novels! Follows the general cultivation stories of slowly getting stronger but with a mc that is interesting and seeing how those around effect his personality and actions.

[Bayu Suharso · Rating 1 out of 5]

many inconsistencies

If you read from the 1st book to the 10th, you’ll find too many inconsistencies in the baseline. Many things aren’t added up. It’s a fantasy story but please at least make it consistent and makes sense.

[Mnoraznan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hopeful ending. A long mental journey finally ended.

[Collins Hilltop · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cried while reading this but also laugh my butt off so hard. Truly a great novel that will make you crazy for it! Mixing your emotions and teasing you hahaa

[Mahesh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, the end, what a fantastic series, I had fun time reading this, it has so many things going and have so many emotions. All hail Lord Fifth!!!!!!

[Najla Zalif · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful

I’ve read a lot of cultivation series, but this one, by far, ranks with the best. I give it a 4 out of 5 for my all time favorites. A 5, if there is a continuation series.

[Jose Logrono · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good series, a lot of touching moments.

Good series, a lot of touching moments and profound truths. A lot of characters and funny moments that make it a good read.

[Bruce Kandle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding

This was a very good series and would highly recommend if you are looking for a good read in the wuxia genera, and the translator did an outstanding job.

[Tyler And · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a good end!

So interesting and fun to read. It is so intense and amazing how crazy the combat is, and the story is so compelling.

[Marwan Amrhar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good but gets a bit bad

[Anastasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first and only Wuxia series I read to completion. Loved Meng Hao’s shamelessness.

[Charley · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely amazing journey. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this whole series!!