Following the events in the spirit woods, Cha Ming and his friends make a complete recovery. But not everyone is the same, and more trouble is on the horizon. Guided by destiny, Cha Ming and Huxian face a sinister plot. In his penance, Feng Ming discovers a horrifying, devil-worshipping cult that will change the fate of the Song Kingdom. Meanwhile, Gong Lan struggles to find her way, her grief fueling an insatiable lust for power. Can she use this power wisely, or will she hurt her friends in the process? Facing the rising tide of darkness, Wang Jun fights the oracle’s apprentice, Zhou Li, in a battle of wits. The forces of evil are mobilizing, and the coming struggle will change our heroes immensely—for better or for worse.
This novel is an Eastern fantasy novel, which means it contains a lot of martial arts, Asian mythical creatures, and many references to Buddhism and Daoism. Cultivators fight to pursue immortality, fight demons and devils, and engage in ancient crafts like alchemy and weapon forging. If you've never tried an Eastern fantasy novel before, give it a try. You'll like it!
Patrick Georges Laplante was born in a small town in the Canadian prairies in 1987. He began publishing Painting the Mists online under the pseudonym RedMirage in January 2018.
An engineer by trade, he graduated from the University of Alberta in 2009 and completed his master's degree in 2011. While writing and engineering have little in common, he actively utilizes his experiences and attention to detail in fleshing out a vivid world and answering the "whys," which are often left unanswered in Xianxia fiction.
As an avid vegan, he aims to prompt internal reflection in his readers through various themes like non-violence, choice, and begging the question: Is personhood restricted to humanity? And what is proper conduct, morality, and love?
His work is inspired by a combination of Western fiction, Dungeons and Dragons, Chinese web novels, and various Japanese, Korean, and Chinese comics and illustrated novels.
Patrick's hobbies include: reading, board games, and taekwondo.
Really interesting storyline could use a bit more editing though. A lot of superfluous explanations and a lot of effort went into developing side characters which took away from the main story. It is reaching the point where there are at least five subplots and that is just the good guys. That said, it is a fun read and the main characters are all likeable. I will get the next book in the series when it comes out.
Have been reading wuxia for a while and i truly enjoyed the first book. Unfortunatelly the second wasnt as good as the aforementioned one but still readable. I think i will follow the story
The author has continued to build his world and develop the characters as the plot is unfolding. The pacing was good and I enjoyed the progression of the characters. Overall I enjoyed it.
I dislike several of the side characters. I'm absolutely sick of Gong Lan.
The scaling of power in the novel is also just dumb. One tier above me and you are basically god like in comparison. Dumb. He gets all this training and hardships and she is basically his equal and then suddenly jumps far ahead of him at the end. Dumb.
The bad guys always make him feel like he is way behind. This leave you frustrated. Honestly the scale of the big bads in book two were just too much. I found myself skipping large sections of the book. It felt like a ton of filler in the bigger picture. To me this is a huge step back from book 1.
It also doesnt feel good that the fox is so much more powerful. It just doesnt. I'll read book 3 I guess. The author has too many points of view, it is getting old.
This book shows the same disconnected weirdness of the first, large parts are very nice reading some bits just feel 'off' and incomplete sometimes even out of place. I noticed i tend to start skipping the villain parts of the story, never a good sign. The story does pick up speed, but it still feels a bit disconnected certainly near the end of the book where everything gets rather splintered. I get why, but it makes you lose connection to the characters that were on stage.
It annoys me to no end that a cool concept like this is left feeling incomplete and unfinished (also the proofreading has been very superficial, as i keep stumbling over errors and inconsistencies in the text). It just feels like a thorough session of disassembling and rewriting bits and pieces, keeping the good stuff, would make this a great series, instead of the mediocre one it is now.
Alright I am done with this one. Soooo many freaking full named characters in this book that serve no point, and the repetitiveness of the names is mind numbing. Story going in 50 different directions. What fight scenes there are, they are not believable. Kind of like the last book, a student being able to block 3 different attack directions at the same time and pulling crap out of his ass.
This book was as the last. Struggling hard to get more power. I don't think anything was worse this novel (nor did anything improve). The quality was the same as the last book.
I don't have much to say. It was nothing groundbreaking, just entertainment. I will probably be reading the sequel.
Does the mc know about girls? A lot of great action in this book. Combats, intrigue, foul play, a few stolen chickens and many talismans. I had a great time. Bonus points for some really good explosions.
There are some parts with too much gods in them(which I detest as rule breakers), but overall this is a very informative entertaining story that I really enjoyed reading.
I'm new to this genre and so far I at least love this series. The first book Murphy some people off, but as lo g as they get past everything explaining the mechanics of the world you find yourself the middle of a lot of adventure.
This is an awesome story with a solid plot and very interesting characters. Although it follows the classic “underdog becomes strong” path it does so in a refreshing way. For starters the secondary characters are as central to the story as the main guy.
Solid sequel. I love the main storyline but I get lost with some of the side characters. At times I feel like there is too much going on. There is some really cool development that occurs. I’m definitely going on to the next book.
All of the side characters and different perspectives aren't really doing it for me. I only enjoyed the 2 or 3 main character's POV's and skimmed through the rest. Also, for a series predicated on the importance of choosing your own path, every character has been railroaded pretty hard.