As the head disciple of the number one sect in the world, Luo Jianqing had a brilliant reputation. He was the most respected senior brother of his junior brothers and sisters: the last disciple of the cultivation world’s number one cultivator, Luo Jianqing greatly respected his master’s teachings, not crossing his limits by even half a step.
Afterwards…… he was stabbed to death just like that by the main character with his sword. His master’s sword. Luo Jianqing: “……” The heavens wants me dead, yet I refuse to die! See if the will of the heavens is more fearsome, or if the will of my sword is more stubborn!
Wu Yin: “Jianqing, I have something to say to you.” Luo Jianqing: “Master, I also have something to say to you.” Wu Yin: “… you speak first?” Luo Jianqing: “You speak first.” Wu Yin: “I like you.” / Luo Jianqing: “I want to top you.” Wu Yin: “……”
This is a transmigration novel where the protagonist (Luo Jianqing) was a villain who was killed by the actual 'protagonist' and was resurrected. There were tropes from 2ha and Scum Villain because of the master-disciple relationship/pairing and there were A LOT of angst and misunderstandings.
There were some issues with pacing because the middle part was quite slow and nothing much happened, and the angst got a little repetitive after a while. Once the book gets to the halfway point, the main plot of the story takes over - war between the humans, demonic cultivators and demons while unravelling the mysteries of the plot and going back a few hundred thousand years.
The war plot was also a bit repetitive but the unravelling of mysteries and the plot-twists were very interesting: a sort of fourth-wall breaking arc where Luo Jianqing tries to kill the villain, who is the supposed 'protagonist', but Luo Jianqing fails to do so because the script grants the villain plot protection and incredible power and luck. This is tied to an exploration of agency and the concept of Tian/Heaven (我命由我不由天).
Unlike 地球上線 The Earth Is Online , this book focuses a lot more on the emotions of the two characters (until the second half takes over). But I kind of liked TEIO more because this was really draggy at points, I like contemporary settings more, and I mostly read on because I was dying to unravel the mystery behind everything. This author is really good at writing complex plots with a lot of mysteries and plot-twists.
The extras also went a whole different direction - pretty much a total re-writing of the past and really makes me wonder isn't there some kind of time-travel paradox? But it was nice seeing all the characters happy. I love the whole cast. I actually loved the side pairing, Mo Qianqiu and Jin Li far more than the main lol...
Note: This review is for the novel in the original Chinese, as the English translation past chapter 21 is very low quality.
This is a transmigrator vs transmigrator novel, featuring the main character Luo Jianqing, who is reincarnated as the villain in a harem novel vs a second transmigrator who was reincarnated as the "protagonist" who killed him in the last life. In this new life, he has to figure out what went wrong in his last life and how he was framed/killed in the end by his own master's sword. The main pairing is Xuan Lingzi/Luo Jianqing, and it's a Master/Disciple relationship. There's a lot excellent self-denial, mutual pining (because of the master/disciple taboo), and just amazing sexual tension and angst based on the tragedy of their past life.
Unlike the author's other novel, The Earth is Online, this one has a very heavy focus on the emotional arc of the main character and the progression of the romance. Which is not to say the plot of this book is bad. It's pretty solid and keeps me curious about the unraveling mystery and backstory, and there's always something fun happening. It has a lot of the best tropes of xianxia, which is the adventure, strange spirits, living pills taking human form, making friends along the journeys.
But the main beat of the novel is Luo Jianqing being in love with his master, and hurt that in his last life, his master's sword was the one that dealt the killing blow. Meanwhile, Xuan Lingzi (who also seems to retain some memory of a past life, though it's unclear how/why) seems determined to protect him in this lifetime more than the last, heavy with guilt. I actually cried reading one of the flashbacks, and that's very rare for me. The secrets between them get slowly revealed at a very good pace and it kept me very invested.
The only reason I can't give this a book a perfect score is because once the main war plot kicks in, the novel gets a little repetitive and tedious, and we lose the emotional connection in favor of politics and battles and chase scenes over and over and over. There is an eventual (very sweet) happy ending, but it feels like we're slowly dragged towards it. I also feel that the author tried too hard to give *everyone* a happy ending, and practically retconned Mo Qiu's entire character storyline in the main novel during the Mo Qiu extra.
Other than those quibbles though, I still recommend this book to anyone who can read it in the original language. You'll be hard-pressed to find better pining and angst!
Well I finished... what was translated But since the translation isn't finished, I cannot accurately rate since for me an ending could make or break a book
I'll be back!
update 18.04.2025:
I saw it on my timeline and I remembered it lmao. As you can see I never came back to this and I probably never will knowing it's been almost 2 years.
I vaguely remember shipping the MC with a secondary character, but definitely not with the ML. I was close to the end, Chapter 169 and I do remember enjoying most of it but it got messy, the rest of the translation was MTL and I can't, for the life of me, read that. Ig I'll keep it without a rating since it wasn't notable enough for me to care about finishing.
All of a sudden things were very angsty and the ending felt rushed but I enjoyed it. The extras were a nice epilogue. Last year, I left this book on hold. Now I felt like finally finishing it only to find that I remember a lot of thr plot but not where I last read. So I had to start from the beginning lol
Xian Lingzi, the male lead, reminds me so much of Chu Wanning. Both are Masters/Shizun with cold personalities, and both are willing to do anything to protect their disciples, even at the cost of their own lives. The difference, though, is that Xian Lingzi is the gong in this story. Honestly, I didn’t expect him to be the main lead.
What puzzles me is why the story spent so much time focusing on the second transmigrator if he wasn’t going to be the protagonist or the male lead. The lengthy chapters detailing their previous relationship felt completely unnecessary. It’s almost like the author was trying too hard to make readers dislike the second transmigrator, but instead, I ended up disliking both him and the MC.
I understand why a lot of people dropped this book—the beginning is painfully slow. The story drags on for hundreds of pages before even hinting at romance. Normally, I wouldn’t mind if the plot was strong enough to carry the slow burn, but the cultivation world in this story just didn’t feel compelling. On top of that, I couldn’t sense any real chemistry between the characters. Maybe it’s an issue with the translation, but the emotional depth didn’t resonate with me.
For now, I’m dropping this at chapter 54. Maybe I’ll come back to it in a month when I have more patience. I really hope this gets licensed and properly published in English someday because the current translation didn’t do the story justice. Sometimes I wish I’d taken the time to learn Mandarin when I had the chance.
This book started off as a very good meal. Though a tad confusing at first, the premise was easily the best part of it. Without spoiling anything, this book is essentially about a villain getting revenge on the crappy main character. It was so satisfying to read. The romance was pretty nice with a good amount of angst. And surprisingly, I loved the platonic relationship the main character had even more than the romantic one. It's very rare for me to prefer the friendship in a Danmei novel.
The lore of this book was so good. I was constantly eating it all up and loving it.
The issue lies with how the original plot was scrapped and basically forgotten about. Honestly, it feels like two different books with the second half of the book feeling like a pale comparison to the great beginning. The beginning was 4/5 while the second half was a 2/5.
3.5 tl:dr at 50% Era una hermosa historia, excelente idea dentro de su cliché, un bonito cambio de roles y un protagonista complicado, entendía por qué le llamaban villano y al mismo tiempo entendía lo injusto de todo, el ML también era un misterio, pero lit se está alargando innecesariamente y se está volviendo repetitivo y hasta aburrido, no hemos avanzado con los misterios hasta el punto que termina siendo tedioso, quizá algún día vuelva a leerla, porque en serio me quedé con muchas preguntas que sí quería que respondieran :( y nomás no, puros arcos que no sé ni a dónde están yendo.
y tiene mucho potencial, pero me hartó por el momento idfsiv
The only drawback was the slight incest mention between the two brothers, but other than that the angst, romance, and action was all very well written. The worldbuilding was fantastic and overall this was an eye opener for me. It made me tear up a little bit towards the end and it was also pretty funny at times. Luo JianQing's flawed character (like being stupidly dense about Mo Qiu's identity) and character development were artfully depicted... nice. 8.5/10
I really liked this one. It was funny and cute the first half, then you want to rip out your hair the next half before in ends on a good note and then the extra chapters make everything worth it. Mo qiangiu best character