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Qi=MC^2) #1
The First Law of Cultivation
Lu Jie woke up in a world filled with scheming sects, arrogant young masters, and the mad chase for the immortal heavens. He wanted none of it, and soon finds himself beaten bloody in a spar he didn't remember and treated as less than worthless.
But his plan to escape the sect is interrupted by an old Alchemist's pills that heal him within moments—a magical cure.
These medicines ignite the flame of curiosity to learn true magic in him, rekindling his love of discovery. Lu Jie sets out to study the immutable truths hidden within the world, and soon finds an all-new path of cultivation that could take him to the very top.
Time to make some drugs... err... "alchemy pills."
Don't miss the start of an epic Xianxia Cultivation Series perfect for fans of Beware of Chicken and Cradle . The series features weak-to-strong power progression, a light scientific approach to magic, tons of alchemy, spirit beast companions, and so much more.
But his plan to escape the sect is interrupted by an old Alchemist's pills that heal him within moments—a magical cure.
These medicines ignite the flame of curiosity to learn true magic in him, rekindling his love of discovery. Lu Jie sets out to study the immutable truths hidden within the world, and soon finds an all-new path of cultivation that could take him to the very top.
Time to make some drugs... err... "alchemy pills."
Don't miss the start of an epic Xianxia Cultivation Series perfect for fans of Beware of Chicken and Cradle . The series features weak-to-strong power progression, a light scientific approach to magic, tons of alchemy, spirit beast companions, and so much more.
680 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 6, 2023
1254 people are currently reading
549 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 124 reviews
July 7, 2023
This bills itself as "for fans of Beware of Chicken" and that's an expectation it just doesn't live up to. I mean, there are similarities, sure. Isekai dude nopes out of Xianxia cultivator nonsense to forge his own path with spirit beast companion. So yeah, the pattern is there. Only, Lu Jie has half the charm of Jin Ru and a quarter of the brains. I mean, Qi=MC^2 is a brilliant series title, but it also awakens expectations that your protagonist is going to be doing more than faff around with random spirit herb he's stealing from his sect in formulas that he mostly pulls out of his hat.
Anyway, I'll admit my expectations are problematical for the rating of this story. But then, the book raises those expectations itself. So I'm going to give it the one star it meant to me and move on.
Anyway, I'll admit my expectations are problematical for the rating of this story. But then, the book raises those expectations itself. So I'm going to give it the one star it meant to me and move on.
June 26, 2023
Dnf pretty early. The narrator was good, but the story wasn't what I was promised.
The "dude tries to figure out magic with science and logic" premise quickly became "Failed copy of Beware of Chicken with alchemy instead of farming".
Also, I hate it when misunderstandings are the main driving force behind relationships/storylines.
The "dude tries to figure out magic with science and logic" premise quickly became "Failed copy of Beware of Chicken with alchemy instead of farming".
Also, I hate it when misunderstandings are the main driving force behind relationships/storylines.
August 27, 2023
Reads like fanfic. Flat. No struggle. No grind. No people. Similar to beware of chicken, but missing all the charm. Like this review.
partly-read
August 2, 2023I almost need another tag stronger than "seriously needs editing" for this one.
Look, I can put up with some errors for the sake of a good story. If I couldn't, I wouldn't enjoy reading much; most authors these days make the same ten types of errors at least occasionally, because they haven't been taught not to. But by the time I abandoned this at 4% I'd marked about 40 issues, most of them to do with the fact that the author has no clue, absolutely none, about how to write a narrative in the past tense. I'm used to the occasional missing past perfect tense when referring to something happening before the narrative moment, and the occasional "may" when it should be "might," and even the odd slip into present tense, but this book makes those errors constantly, on practically every Kindle page (which is smaller than a print page). Not to mention frequently writing something as two words where it should be one, and occasionally the other way round, and the usual excess coordinate commas between adjectives that don't need them, and some sentences that are phrased so awkwardly it's hard to figure out what they mean, and most of the other common errors. It's a constant barrage of bad mechanics, which distracted me so much that I couldn't get into the story and see if it was any good.
The opening is extremely reminiscent of Beware of Chicken Volume 1 : person from our world is suddenly dropped into the body of a young cultivator in a xanxia world who has just been beaten to death by more senior cultivators, who use "sparring" as an excuse to bully the weak. (I'm not sure if it's directly ripping off BoC or drawing on a widespread trope of the genre, because BoC is the only other such novel I've read.) But where the protagonist of BoC was a farmer and wants to be one again, this protagonist definitely does not want to farm; he was a chemistry student, and takes up the study of alchemy (or Alchemy, since it's capitalized for some reason). He apprentices himself to an old alchemy master with that goal in mind.
That's as far as I got before the terrible mechanics drove me away. Reading other reviews convinces me that I made the right choice. The quality of the mechanics doesn't absolutely predict the quality of the story, but there is a strong correlation.
Look, I can put up with some errors for the sake of a good story. If I couldn't, I wouldn't enjoy reading much; most authors these days make the same ten types of errors at least occasionally, because they haven't been taught not to. But by the time I abandoned this at 4% I'd marked about 40 issues, most of them to do with the fact that the author has no clue, absolutely none, about how to write a narrative in the past tense. I'm used to the occasional missing past perfect tense when referring to something happening before the narrative moment, and the occasional "may" when it should be "might," and even the odd slip into present tense, but this book makes those errors constantly, on practically every Kindle page (which is smaller than a print page). Not to mention frequently writing something as two words where it should be one, and occasionally the other way round, and the usual excess coordinate commas between adjectives that don't need them, and some sentences that are phrased so awkwardly it's hard to figure out what they mean, and most of the other common errors. It's a constant barrage of bad mechanics, which distracted me so much that I couldn't get into the story and see if it was any good.
The opening is extremely reminiscent of Beware of Chicken Volume 1 : person from our world is suddenly dropped into the body of a young cultivator in a xanxia world who has just been beaten to death by more senior cultivators, who use "sparring" as an excuse to bully the weak. (I'm not sure if it's directly ripping off BoC or drawing on a widespread trope of the genre, because BoC is the only other such novel I've read.) But where the protagonist of BoC was a farmer and wants to be one again, this protagonist definitely does not want to farm; he was a chemistry student, and takes up the study of alchemy (or Alchemy, since it's capitalized for some reason). He apprentices himself to an old alchemy master with that goal in mind.
That's as far as I got before the terrible mechanics drove me away. Reading other reviews convinces me that I made the right choice. The quality of the mechanics doesn't absolutely predict the quality of the story, but there is a strong correlation.
October 12, 2023
Was reading this alongside MDZS, and that made it so much funnier
June 18, 2023
not really 5 stars
I read the whole thing. There are some ideas and concepts that are really neat. The writing is clear and clean.
But there are some pacing and plot issues that don’t help. It takes a while to settle on a single driving concept. And the end Opens up several gaping plot holes in.
I don’t think I’m going to continue reading this series. It’s not bad, it’s just not calling me.
I read the whole thing. There are some ideas and concepts that are really neat. The writing is clear and clean.
But there are some pacing and plot issues that don’t help. It takes a while to settle on a single driving concept. And the end Opens up several gaping plot holes in.
I don’t think I’m going to continue reading this series. It’s not bad, it’s just not calling me.
June 15, 2023
A Fun Twist!
Qi is a well written entry into a genre that is increasingly crowded. It’s a fun twist on a the typical transmigration concept. The MC finds a niche in crafting pills! Definitely give it a try if you like cultivation novels!
Qi is a well written entry into a genre that is increasingly crowded. It’s a fun twist on a the typical transmigration concept. The MC finds a niche in crafting pills! Definitely give it a try if you like cultivation novels!
June 24, 2023
3.5 stars. Realized early on that I'd read this on RR already, but not really worth re-reading so skipped a lot of it. Stuck at home with my second bout of COVID-19 and just don't have the energy to say much about this book.
July 4, 2023
Starts of as normal Xianxia novel. For a minute I thought I was reading Beware of Chicken. However, when decides to stay at the cult, I mean SECT, AND prursue alchemy I knew I would find it interesting. It's different from the regular trope that's for sure. Instead of some Lord's children yelling out "YOU DARE?" it's the sect leadrr's grandkids. Of course MC is OP. It wouldn't be Xianxia without it. Friendly Spirit beasts galore. MC runs foul of antagonists (yes they are Twins) and is rumout of sect. Can't wait to see what happens in book 2
September 7, 2023
This touches on lots of tropes that should appeal to me but it ends up being just sort of tedious and not very much fun. A story that purports to focus on scientific investigation of cultivation needs both a strongly structured system and some sort of compelling research horizon and this has neither. The characters and plot really aren’t enough to make the rest worthwhile and I abandoned after about 60-70% when we get hints of a plot twist that really made me groan.
September 12, 2023
I am getting the feeling that the author took inspiration from "beware of chicken". I could be wrong, but you rarely get forgoing the cultivation and making your own path.
The detailed breakdown of pill improvements, profits and expenditure is getting annoying. I hope this isn't going to be the author's version of "stat sheets".
I don't know how I feel about this book, or if I want to continue the series.
It was a hodgepodge of Pokemon, other cultivation books, and the isekai genre.
Overall it was a "meh" for me because the story didn't interest me much.
3/5 Stars
The detailed breakdown of pill improvements, profits and expenditure is getting annoying. I hope this isn't going to be the author's version of "stat sheets".
I don't know how I feel about this book, or if I want to continue the series.
It was a hodgepodge of Pokemon, other cultivation books, and the isekai genre.
Overall it was a "meh" for me because the story didn't interest me much.
3/5 Stars
March 2, 2024
3.5/5 stars ,
A pretty standard xianxia.
The only new spin was addition of science, while that was fun for the beginning the later half of the book felt somewhat dragging and I was tempted to just drop this book.
It picked up the pace again at end of the book, the action was nice and the one good thing was that it actually attempted to explain the workings of the world.
Most often it's just insane-levelling up with no explanation whatsoever.
There were cons on this book as well, and while it was fun it would be some time before I pick up it's next part.
A pretty standard xianxia.
The only new spin was addition of science, while that was fun for the beginning the later half of the book felt somewhat dragging and I was tempted to just drop this book.
It picked up the pace again at end of the book, the action was nice and the one good thing was that it actually attempted to explain the workings of the world.
Most often it's just insane-levelling up with no explanation whatsoever.
There were cons on this book as well, and while it was fun it would be some time before I pick up it's next part.
July 4, 2023
I don't know who disliked the book more - the author or me. I DNF around 40% and the author just dogs the genre the entire time. Sure, the MC is worthless and only his over powered turtle gets him by, sure his mentor ignores him except for very brief times when we need the story to get back on track, sure the gods are too dumb to read English and our MC's note stays secret. It's the constant sideways comments about cultivation and the extreme meta of the book that got to me in the end
February 18, 2024
This book takes a lot of turns I did not expect so I will name a few before just saying you should definitely check it out. The MC turns away from the path of Cultivation, his rat companion transforms into a little girl, he is able to fix a broken core, and applys real science to the mystic universe. I hope book two is as intense. You should definitely pick it up if you like Cultivation, Isekai, or just snarky fantasy.
July 30, 2025
not my type.could not complete it.teaching physics and chemestry in cultivation world is not my thing.not now not ever.
June 27, 2023
DNF at 60 %.
The book started with a strong "beware of chicken" vibe that made me very excited but unfortunately it concentrated on teenager interactions and learning alchemy in an Wuxia setting. The book is not bad but i got bored and didn´t believe it to become more interesting...
The author is very "modern" as he has both an (assumed) gay relationship and a transvestite character so the actor can ask him about his pronouns... Unfortantely, that doesn´t help against the protagonist´s conflicting origin stories..
The book started with a strong "beware of chicken" vibe that made me very excited but unfortunately it concentrated on teenager interactions and learning alchemy in an Wuxia setting. The book is not bad but i got bored and didn´t believe it to become more interesting...
The author is very "modern" as he has both an (assumed) gay relationship and a transvestite character so the actor can ask him about his pronouns... Unfortantely, that doesn´t help against the protagonist´s conflicting origin stories..
July 27, 2023
Starts a bit cringey but becomes really fun and engaging!
September 30, 2023
Good book but uber slow at the beginning
June 28, 2023
This one is a bit odd.
But still pretty good. The details can be a bit convoluted , but again, still good. As cultivation books go, this is original while still hitting all the usual notes. I look forward to the next one.
But still pretty good. The details can be a bit convoluted , but again, still good. As cultivation books go, this is original while still hitting all the usual notes. I look forward to the next one.
July 4, 2023
Starts out as as a parody of your stereotypical Xanxia novell but later devolves into a stereotypical Xanxia novell. I found the latter 1/4 of the book to be somewhat disappointing
June 23, 2023
This book is yet another bait-and-switch novel, promising you something a little different than the usual isekai and xianxia crossover before defaulting back to all of the things you have read many times before.
The premise is a really good one. A boy reborn into a cultivation world decides that the constant violence and life-risking isn't for him. Instead, he wants to apply the scientific method of our world to this world's magic system to change that world for the better. It is supposed to be a path without violence and a focus on exploring magic; in other words, a story I really want to read but should have known better than to expect.
As usual, it's not long before the author forgets this premise and goes straight back into cultivation in the usual way, turning this into another paint-by-numbers action novel rather than the grander story that it promised from the outset.
As frustrating as all that is for this reader, it's a bit subjective and it's not something I would normally want to knock three stars from a review for. However, there were quite a few other niggles I had with this book. The first of which involves the character names and how they sound in audiobook form.
I am sure they are all spelled very different when written down, but when listening to the story, they all sounded the same. It's like having a novel based in western culture with three main characters called John Jones, Jim Jones and Jack Jones. It's not going to be long before you start to get those mixed up and you're constantly second-guessing yourself about who is who. Scale that up to the entire cast of a novel and you kind of get to what is happening here.
My second frustration was how familiar a lot of the elements in this story were. The concept of an isekai protagonist who wants nothing to do with cultivation because of the violence involved, and chooses an alternate path to power, creating a family of sentient spirit creatures along the way is the same premise of the outstanding Beware of Chicken series. The 'ruthless heavens' that provide tribulations against the character who has two cores of life and death attuned energy is right from The Defiance of the Fall series. The dialogue and the way the characters were written felt like it was pulled from the Cradle series, and I am sure that there were a load of other borrowed elements here as well.
I'm not going to go so far as to say these were stolen storylines because these might be tropes familiar to non-western isekai and xianxia stories that I haven't read. However, being as the main character mentions multiple times that he has read a lot of cultivation novels, it does make you wonder, especially because this story does none of those things as well as the stories that they were taken from.
The most original element of this story was the concept of using science to master the magic system in this book. Unfortunately, it just didn't get explored anywhere near enough, and soon just becomes a gimmick to explain away the protagonist's jump in cultivation rather than the core of the novel as was promised.
So in summation, this novel wasn't for me. It felt like an amalgamation of better novels, and overall felt like it lacked focus. It was trying to accomplish too much too fast without concentrating on the core element that would set it apart from the rest of the competition. So it's 2-stars from this reader and I won't be reading on in this series. It gets one star back to account for my subjective issues with this book.
The premise is a really good one. A boy reborn into a cultivation world decides that the constant violence and life-risking isn't for him. Instead, he wants to apply the scientific method of our world to this world's magic system to change that world for the better. It is supposed to be a path without violence and a focus on exploring magic; in other words, a story I really want to read but should have known better than to expect.
As usual, it's not long before the author forgets this premise and goes straight back into cultivation in the usual way, turning this into another paint-by-numbers action novel rather than the grander story that it promised from the outset.
As frustrating as all that is for this reader, it's a bit subjective and it's not something I would normally want to knock three stars from a review for. However, there were quite a few other niggles I had with this book. The first of which involves the character names and how they sound in audiobook form.
I am sure they are all spelled very different when written down, but when listening to the story, they all sounded the same. It's like having a novel based in western culture with three main characters called John Jones, Jim Jones and Jack Jones. It's not going to be long before you start to get those mixed up and you're constantly second-guessing yourself about who is who. Scale that up to the entire cast of a novel and you kind of get to what is happening here.
My second frustration was how familiar a lot of the elements in this story were. The concept of an isekai protagonist who wants nothing to do with cultivation because of the violence involved, and chooses an alternate path to power, creating a family of sentient spirit creatures along the way is the same premise of the outstanding Beware of Chicken series. The 'ruthless heavens' that provide tribulations against the character who has two cores of life and death attuned energy is right from The Defiance of the Fall series. The dialogue and the way the characters were written felt like it was pulled from the Cradle series, and I am sure that there were a load of other borrowed elements here as well.
I'm not going to go so far as to say these were stolen storylines because these might be tropes familiar to non-western isekai and xianxia stories that I haven't read. However, being as the main character mentions multiple times that he has read a lot of cultivation novels, it does make you wonder, especially because this story does none of those things as well as the stories that they were taken from.
The most original element of this story was the concept of using science to master the magic system in this book. Unfortunately, it just didn't get explored anywhere near enough, and soon just becomes a gimmick to explain away the protagonist's jump in cultivation rather than the core of the novel as was promised.
So in summation, this novel wasn't for me. It felt like an amalgamation of better novels, and overall felt like it lacked focus. It was trying to accomplish too much too fast without concentrating on the core element that would set it apart from the rest of the competition. So it's 2-stars from this reader and I won't be reading on in this series. It gets one star back to account for my subjective issues with this book.
September 29, 2025
1.5 stars. Listened to the audiobook version of this, which was probably my first mistake. There’s nothing wrong with the delivery, but the pronunciation of virtually every single word of Chinese/xianxia inspiration was wrong. Totally butchered.
This includes:
- The main character’s name, Lu Jie. Considering how this name was repeated in every other sentence, it was PAINFUL hearing it pronounced “Loo Gee-yay” over and over again. My god.
- Xianxia: This is literally the genre for this book! I couldn’t understand what I was hearing the first time and had to relisten to it three times before I realised what “zee-yan-zee-ya” was meant to be.
- Qi: The series title itself - and also what Lu Jie and all the other characters are trying to channel in their cultivation - is pronounced incorrectly from the opening minute and continued to plague me throughout. It should be pronounced like “chee” and not “key.”
And I could go on forever, but it made it next to impossible to enjoy the otherwise fine narration when everything from the names of all the characters to the key terminology was nearly incomprehensible.
For the story, despite trying desperately to set itself apart from “regular cultivation novels,” this is precisely that. It’s a very formulaic MC-gains-power ups-and-cultivates novel, despite how badly the synopsis/Lu Jie wants you to believe it’s something else at the outset. I don’t mind this setup because there’s some enjoyment to be had in seeing the MC defeat his enemies and get stronger in these types of stories, but the problem here is that Lu Jie was obnoxious as hell.
Despite being from an English-speaking modern background and with zero skills in or understanding of cultivation, our “delightful” MC spends most of the first half despising cultivators for being arrogant. The reality is that he’s arrogantly looking down on everyone around him because he feels his modern scientific mindset makes him superior. Cultivators = bad, gatekeeps knowledge, while Lu Jie himself = a lover of science, wants to use his knowledge for good to save the world. Who does this guy think he is?
It’s ultimately made more ironic by the fact that he ends up having to cultivate to become stronger anyway, and benefits from the system that he keeps railing against. Lu Jie talks a big game but it’s cultivation and alchemy that saves his butt - not modern science. For all that he rants about “cultivator bullshit,” that’s precisely what he spends most of the second half of the book doing.
Aside from his adorable spirit rat, the rest of the characters are okay but fairly forgettable. Like everything else in this book, the characters and their relationships are flat - we’re told they’re friends and have a bond, but not shown much to back it up.
I finished the book unconvinced of everything Lu Jie was trying to achieve; the only thing I’m convinced of is that there’s no way I’m buying book 2.
This includes:
- The main character’s name, Lu Jie. Considering how this name was repeated in every other sentence, it was PAINFUL hearing it pronounced “Loo Gee-yay” over and over again. My god.
- Xianxia: This is literally the genre for this book! I couldn’t understand what I was hearing the first time and had to relisten to it three times before I realised what “zee-yan-zee-ya” was meant to be.
- Qi: The series title itself - and also what Lu Jie and all the other characters are trying to channel in their cultivation - is pronounced incorrectly from the opening minute and continued to plague me throughout. It should be pronounced like “chee” and not “key.”
And I could go on forever, but it made it next to impossible to enjoy the otherwise fine narration when everything from the names of all the characters to the key terminology was nearly incomprehensible.
For the story, despite trying desperately to set itself apart from “regular cultivation novels,” this is precisely that. It’s a very formulaic MC-gains-power ups-and-cultivates novel, despite how badly the synopsis/Lu Jie wants you to believe it’s something else at the outset. I don’t mind this setup because there’s some enjoyment to be had in seeing the MC defeat his enemies and get stronger in these types of stories, but the problem here is that Lu Jie was obnoxious as hell.
Despite being from an English-speaking modern background and with zero skills in or understanding of cultivation, our “delightful” MC spends most of the first half despising cultivators for being arrogant. The reality is that he’s arrogantly looking down on everyone around him because he feels his modern scientific mindset makes him superior. Cultivators = bad, gatekeeps knowledge, while Lu Jie himself = a lover of science, wants to use his knowledge for good to save the world. Who does this guy think he is?
It’s ultimately made more ironic by the fact that he ends up having to cultivate to become stronger anyway, and benefits from the system that he keeps railing against. Lu Jie talks a big game but it’s cultivation and alchemy that saves his butt - not modern science. For all that he rants about “cultivator bullshit,” that’s precisely what he spends most of the second half of the book doing.
Aside from his adorable spirit rat, the rest of the characters are okay but fairly forgettable. Like everything else in this book, the characters and their relationships are flat - we’re told they’re friends and have a bond, but not shown much to back it up.
I finished the book unconvinced of everything Lu Jie was trying to achieve; the only thing I’m convinced of is that there’s no way I’m buying book 2.
February 15, 2024
This is the series for anyone who enjoys spirit animals. Xu Jie finds a spirit rat and they work together. The rat, unbelievable is very fun and works well. A turtle joins in and a plant spirit. I do see similarities to 'Beware of Chicken'. I like how Xu Jie is trying to avoid dying by cultivators.
This also seems to be one of those reincarnation stories from someone from our modern world is put into a cultivator of that world and they get us use their modern understanding living in this Cultivation world. Xu Jie is a physics geek and he wants to understand how Qi works. He believes that he can uncover the rules of Qi and help everyone live better lives.
Being a cultivator is tough work.
I was very engaged with the cultivator and how this world worked. The system is well thought out and set up. It's basically about Yin and Yang, life and death, Qi and Gu. It's pretty cool. I'm very interested in this story and I will totally be reading the next volume at some point.
This is also about alchemy and the study of plants. I am an herbalist and so I love plants and how they aide in healing. I love all the talk of plants and elements and how to work with them. Of course, this is all pretty much fiction and I haven't really seen much based in Chinese Medicine at this point, but still, it's cool reading about a plant guy. Xu Jie is a total geek, for certain.
There are many jokes about cultivation stories and our world. He even puts in a joke about BL in here. It was great. I appreciated it so much.
There was a lot in this story. The story could use a proofreader. There were a lot of issues that way. I don't think it makes it terrible, but it totally needed some help. Even some names were misspelled. That's my biggest gripe about this series. It needs some proofreading love and editing.
I still enjoyed it.
This also seems to be one of those reincarnation stories from someone from our modern world is put into a cultivator of that world and they get us use their modern understanding living in this Cultivation world. Xu Jie is a physics geek and he wants to understand how Qi works. He believes that he can uncover the rules of Qi and help everyone live better lives.
Being a cultivator is tough work.
I was very engaged with the cultivator and how this world worked. The system is well thought out and set up. It's basically about Yin and Yang, life and death, Qi and Gu. It's pretty cool. I'm very interested in this story and I will totally be reading the next volume at some point.
This is also about alchemy and the study of plants. I am an herbalist and so I love plants and how they aide in healing. I love all the talk of plants and elements and how to work with them. Of course, this is all pretty much fiction and I haven't really seen much based in Chinese Medicine at this point, but still, it's cool reading about a plant guy. Xu Jie is a total geek, for certain.
There are many jokes about cultivation stories and our world. He even puts in a joke about BL in here. It was great. I appreciated it so much.
There was a lot in this story. The story could use a proofreader. There were a lot of issues that way. I don't think it makes it terrible, but it totally needed some help. Even some names were misspelled. That's my biggest gripe about this series. It needs some proofreading love and editing.
I still enjoyed it.
September 12, 2023
It is a Good-Read. The characters and story are positive. It is the first time where I read that an Engineer tries to bring the science that he knows into the isekai-ed (world that he was reincarnated to). Logical, rational and common sense solutions to problems in another world. The original character died from the consequences of losing a duel to a pair of terrible/arrogant/evil twins that are "favorites" of this martial arts sect/clan. So, to try to not re-live the bleak and unjust past of the past-owner of his body, the reincarnated/teleported into another body main character, decides to dedicate his scientific-method-knowledge towards the improvement of the Alchemical algorithms of this other world. With the help of a Rat-Spirit-Lab-Rat (Labby), a tortoise (Sheldon) and other spirit animals that he makes into his retinue, this story is quite good, until about the 90th-100th chapter, where the story has some cringe-worthy moments, but in the end, everything turns out alright (or at least as good as can be).
It is not really a cultivation/wuxia story in that the main character focuses all of his time in improving the quality of the "pills" and says repeatedly that he wants to become this world's best DRUG DEALER/Drug Manufacturer. Maybe the Cartels should be trying to isekai themselves to alternate reality worlds to improve their market share??? The story has no maps, no real world-building (geopolitical, economic, social, religious, etc. systems in place in this other world, with a decent descriptions of the territories, population, food, and other characteristics).
It is not really a cultivation/wuxia story in that the main character focuses all of his time in improving the quality of the "pills" and says repeatedly that he wants to become this world's best DRUG DEALER/Drug Manufacturer. Maybe the Cartels should be trying to isekai themselves to alternate reality worlds to improve their market share??? The story has no maps, no real world-building (geopolitical, economic, social, religious, etc. systems in place in this other world, with a decent descriptions of the territories, population, food, and other characteristics).
October 17, 2025
Definitely a little disconnect from the title and the description of the book to what it actually is. If you are looking for a guy that basically does what "Beware of Chicken" does and leaves then gets really strong by just doing his own thing well look elsewhere. This book is mainly cultivation. He really does very minimal scientific experiments and most of the ones he does are off screen. Basically he finds a bunch of stuff he wants to research then gets sidetracked by something else that catches his interest. This then morphs into something else that catches his interest and sidetracks him. This is basically the beginning of the book and is dull to read.
The book really begins about 40% of the way through when an actual plot starts to happen. The story that is presented is very well thought out and I'm excited to see it play out. The characters are also well done and have a lot of depth to them that was a nice surprise for a cultivation book.
I will put a note saying I wouldn't be surprised if this series turns into a harem. While there is no romance in this book when most of the characters that are his friends are woman it's hard not to think along those lines. I will also say that every character appears to be bound to a spirit beast and this seems relatively normal if they are above the second realm. This took me a bit to understand so this is to help out those that got confused like me.
The book really begins about 40% of the way through when an actual plot starts to happen. The story that is presented is very well thought out and I'm excited to see it play out. The characters are also well done and have a lot of depth to them that was a nice surprise for a cultivation book.
I will put a note saying I wouldn't be surprised if this series turns into a harem. While there is no romance in this book when most of the characters that are his friends are woman it's hard not to think along those lines. I will also say that every character appears to be bound to a spirit beast and this seems relatively normal if they are above the second realm. This took me a bit to understand so this is to help out those that got confused like me.
June 17, 2023
Like Beware of Chicken but the MC actually wants to cultivate
This book definitely reminds me a lot of Beware of Chicken and if I had read this before BoC, I would be saying the exact exact opposite where BoC reminds me of this. However the noticeable similarities in tone are only strong in the first half of the book, and take a back seat after that as we see more and more of The First Law of Cultivation's unique storyline begin to shape in in the second half.
The only real complaint I have is the many grammatical errors. If my memory serves me well then I'd say there was 1 about every 2 or 3 pages that could easily be cleared up with a light amount of professional proof reading. They didn't make my reading experience any worse, however I do know there are people who find small errors to be complete deal breakers for whatever they read. The grammar errors only detracted from the quality of the book but not the story. The character arcs, pacing, and other aspects of the story remain just as good in my opinion even with the errors, so if those don't bother you then I'd definitely recommend this.
This book definitely reminds me a lot of Beware of Chicken and if I had read this before BoC, I would be saying the exact exact opposite where BoC reminds me of this. However the noticeable similarities in tone are only strong in the first half of the book, and take a back seat after that as we see more and more of The First Law of Cultivation's unique storyline begin to shape in in the second half.
The only real complaint I have is the many grammatical errors. If my memory serves me well then I'd say there was 1 about every 2 or 3 pages that could easily be cleared up with a light amount of professional proof reading. They didn't make my reading experience any worse, however I do know there are people who find small errors to be complete deal breakers for whatever they read. The grammar errors only detracted from the quality of the book but not the story. The character arcs, pacing, and other aspects of the story remain just as good in my opinion even with the errors, so if those don't bother you then I'd definitely recommend this.
June 19, 2023
Rating 3.5 stars
This one wasn't bad. It didn't have as much science or cultivation as I was expecting with the title. typical isekai storyline. Guy wakes up in another body after the body, one that was accidentally killed from a "training" spar on a world with cultivation. The MC decides to nope the hell out of that and wants to bring science to the world. He will use alchemy to get to that point. He becomes an apprentice to an alchemist and along the way picks up spirit animals that follow him around because he gives them spiritual herbs, causing most of them to become awakened. There is a little more to his backstory and how he ended up in this body and what it means. There is the typical cultivation tropes of arrogant nobles and cultivators which would drive any modern person insane, While it wasn't bad, it was pretty slow at times. I either needed more science or more cultivation. The relationships between the characters were better than in most cultivation books but to be honest these books are notoriously poor at that aspect, so that isn't saying much. Overall it was good enough for me to pick up the next book when it is out.
This one wasn't bad. It didn't have as much science or cultivation as I was expecting with the title. typical isekai storyline. Guy wakes up in another body after the body, one that was accidentally killed from a "training" spar on a world with cultivation. The MC decides to nope the hell out of that and wants to bring science to the world. He will use alchemy to get to that point. He becomes an apprentice to an alchemist and along the way picks up spirit animals that follow him around because he gives them spiritual herbs, causing most of them to become awakened. There is a little more to his backstory and how he ended up in this body and what it means. There is the typical cultivation tropes of arrogant nobles and cultivators which would drive any modern person insane, While it wasn't bad, it was pretty slow at times. I either needed more science or more cultivation. The relationships between the characters were better than in most cultivation books but to be honest these books are notoriously poor at that aspect, so that isn't saying much. Overall it was good enough for me to pick up the next book when it is out.
June 27, 2023
That was such a great read! It's caused me to actually be wordless at the end!
I picked up the book because a friend I trust on FB posted a great review. She said it reminded her of both Beware of Chicken by Casualfarmer and Cradle by Will Wight and she was not wrong. Not like a copy as Krazykode takes the best of both books and bounces from them to the First Law of Cultivation thus creating their own delightful story in the process. After waking up Lu Jie practices his cultivation and gains his first Spirit animal a Rat named Labby that can smell Spirit Plants absolutely gaining more Qi. And helping him practice alchemy.
So grab this audiobook and enjoy Pavi Proczko's pitch perfect performance.
I love finding great quotes and sharing them in my reviews, this quote is one of the reasons why the book landed on my favorites list!
"The cutness attack. The cute meter exploded from overdose."
I picked up the book because a friend I trust on FB posted a great review. She said it reminded her of both Beware of Chicken by Casualfarmer and Cradle by Will Wight and she was not wrong. Not like a copy as Krazykode takes the best of both books and bounces from them to the First Law of Cultivation thus creating their own delightful story in the process. After waking up Lu Jie practices his cultivation and gains his first Spirit animal a Rat named Labby that can smell Spirit Plants absolutely gaining more Qi. And helping him practice alchemy.
So grab this audiobook and enjoy Pavi Proczko's pitch perfect performance.
I love finding great quotes and sharing them in my reviews, this quote is one of the reasons why the book landed on my favorites list!
"The cutness attack. The cute meter exploded from overdose."
September 17, 2023
Lu Jie from Earth is reincarnated (?) into the mind of a struggling kung fu student on a magic kung fu world. He isn't interested in fighting. He is fascinated by alchemy and trying to use an Earth inspired technology / science approach to study magic or Qi or Chi or whatever the hell this series calls it.
So, obviously these books are going to be very precise and scientific focused, right? Oddly, this series is probably the most woo-woo "I flow with the cosmic Dao" of any I've read. Weird. Book 2 almost entirely dumps the scientific angle.
It also leans into the foreigner savior trope quite a bit. Sure there is an ancient culture that has been dealing with magic for years, but the new Lu Jie is smarter than all of them combined because he is from Earth and any push back against his way of doing things is basically evil.
Some side characters are moderately interesting, the writing is minimally competent, so I'll leave it at 3 stars despite its problems.
So, obviously these books are going to be very precise and scientific focused, right? Oddly, this series is probably the most woo-woo "I flow with the cosmic Dao" of any I've read. Weird. Book 2 almost entirely dumps the scientific angle.
It also leans into the foreigner savior trope quite a bit. Sure there is an ancient culture that has been dealing with magic for years, but the new Lu Jie is smarter than all of them combined because he is from Earth and any push back against his way of doing things is basically evil.
Some side characters are moderately interesting, the writing is minimally competent, so I'll leave it at 3 stars despite its problems.
June 23, 2023
My Rating System:
5- Perfect for my taste, I could not physically stop reading/listening and wanted more afterward.
4- Almost perfect, could not stop reading/listening, probably wanted more afterward.
3- I enjoyed the book and could see others loving it, I need to think if I want more.
2- I can see why others might like the book, but I could not, I do not want more.
1- What is this? What went wrong? Why did they do this? This doesn't make any sense! (No idea who it is for, but definitely not for me).
[Audiobook Version]
Another great start to a series. The primary problem with this book for me was the pacing. While it wasn't bad for the most part, there were times when the story slowed down so much that I ended up tuning the book out and had to go back and relisten to parts. Otherwise, this is one of the better cultivation novels I read and I can't wait for the next.
5- Perfect for my taste, I could not physically stop reading/listening and wanted more afterward.
4- Almost perfect, could not stop reading/listening, probably wanted more afterward.
3- I enjoyed the book and could see others loving it, I need to think if I want more.
2- I can see why others might like the book, but I could not, I do not want more.
1- What is this? What went wrong? Why did they do this? This doesn't make any sense! (No idea who it is for, but definitely not for me).
[Audiobook Version]
Another great start to a series. The primary problem with this book for me was the pacing. While it wasn't bad for the most part, there were times when the story slowed down so much that I ended up tuning the book out and had to go back and relisten to parts. Otherwise, this is one of the better cultivation novels I read and I can't wait for the next.
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