It took me a while to finish this book, primarily because I was traveling but also because I personally found it too slow paced.
It follows the story of Xi Jia, who was born with an extreme yin body and has always attracted the attention of ghosts. When his talisman that protects him breaks, a malicious ghost attacks him and he's saved by Ye Jingzhe, one of the most powerful celestial masters. For various reasons, they start spending lots of time together and tackle cases in the supernatural world, one case at a time.
The main characters are cute and I found parts of the story quite funny, but ultimately I think it dragged for me because there was no main conflict and consequently no climax. Each incident involving a ghost or some other supernatural being happened independently, so as each issue was resolved, I'd find myself wondering exactly when the story would end. Plus some of the incidents were more interesting than others. For example, I found myself completely uninterested in the ghosts of Ziying and his father emperor, which was unfortunate because they made multiple appearances.
The romance was cute but had me feeling quite frustrated at times because it also moves slowly. Initially there's a huge misunderstanding where YJZ thinks of Xi Jia as his fiance, but XJ doesn't take it seriously and treats YJZ as a friend. Even when that's resolved, it takes them forever to get to their first kiss, among other things, because this is the first relationship for both of them and they get really shy about any intimate contact. Plus it was kinda annoying how YJZ flips out over every single little thing XJ does, like when the XJ eats less of his homecooked food because he's getting fat, he'll wonder if XJ doesn't like his cooking. Or when XJ stares at him for too long, he'll think that there's something wrong with his face or hair. Still, their interactions were super cute and YJZ is such a pure and innocent boi. Can't stay mad at him for long.
I got a huge kick out of how the author describes the world. According to her, the other celestial masters, and especially the older generation, are all a bunch of gossips you can't take seriously. They constantly fight over who can submit the gossip first to 'Ghost Knows' for points, and they bicker over the stupidest things. They had me constantly cracking up and are what made the story interesting for me, outside of the romance.
Here are some of my favorite moments:
"Ghosts Know" click baiting all of their readers XP
Until now, “Ghosts Know” unexpectedly released an article on the front page headlines——
《 When He Found His Fiancée, His Hands Held Something Long and Thick……》
No name was mentioned; however, once it mentioned fiancée, everyone immediately realized: Hell King Ye!
If it’s like this, they could forget it, but seeing “something long and thick,” countless Celestial Masters became dumbstruck one after another and rushed to open the article. Within a short three minutes, several thousand comments immediately exploded in “Ghosts Know”’s comments section.
【 Clickbait! This old man’s hates clickbaits the most, editor, do you dare tell this old man where your HQ is? This old man is determined to ask for advice! 】
【 666, clickbait, I can only admire “Ghosts Know,” a broom can also count as something thick, lol. But I originally thought this was some pure clickbait and wouldn’t find Hell King Ye’s future wife at all, but I didn’t think that this article actually did! 】
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These old men are so silly. Here they're fighting over how many power banks they can take to the Celestial Masters Representative Assembly to just make it under the weight limit, cause they need to make sure their smartphones have enough juice to last the full 10 days XP
Zhuzhao-zhenren wholly couldn’t believe it, “38 power banks is just right. Qishan, you went over.”
Qishan-daoren glared, “Nonsense!”
The two masters hadn’t even entered the capital yet and started to quarrel above the clouds. This time, no one believed the other. Zhuzhao-zhenren insisted that 39 portable chargers were absolutely overweight. Qishan-daoren claimed that it was just under the limit. The two of them flew to the Celestial Masters Representative Assembly’s meeting place in a rage. Master Buxing was currently holding a huge pile of compressed biscuits and was about to go in when he got knocked away by them.
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Xi Jia being angry at his past self for buying an overly big bed haha
Xi Jia had changed the bed last week because he felt that the bed was too small. Before, he and Ye Jingzhi had slept together on a 1.5 meter bed. The two grown men were shoulder to shoulder. All along, it was a bit too crowded, so he intentionally changed to a 2 meter large bed while thinking: It would be much more convenient when they sleep together forever.
However, it had only been one week, and Brother Jia was regretting, regretting to the point his insides were green.
How large was a two meter bed?
Large enough so that when Brother Jia tried to feel out next to him, he wasn’t even able to touch Master Ye’s hand after groping around for a long time!
If this was the original 1.5 meter bed, their shoulders would be pressed against each other. With “skinship,” there would be some reasoning if something happened next. Now, it was just great. The two were lying on the bed, yet no one could bump into each other. Even if Xi Jia really wanted to do something to Master Ye, something that would ruin Master Ye’s innocence, he would have the intention but was powerless to do it. He could only stare at the ceiling helplessly.
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Even in serious moments, the author lightens things up by making things end on a funny note
Brother Jia calmly swallowed the Gu Mother's corpse into his stomach. When this Gu Mother's corpse came into contact with stomach acid, the Yin Qi actually dissolved faster. Xi Jia felt that his neck seemed to move now, but he still couldn't move under his shoulders. Therefore, he stared coldly at Jiuyi Jun without saying a word.
Xi Jia was speechless.
Lord Jiuyi was speechless.
Xi Jia was speechless.
Lord Jiuyi was speechless.
Suddenly, Jiu Yi Jun grabbed Xi Jia's shoulder and roared in disbelief,"Where's my Extreme Yin Gu Mother?" Where's my Extreme Yin Gu Mother? What did you do to my Extreme Yin Gu Mother?