Sovereign of the Three Realms

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Jiang Chen, son of the Celestial Emperor, unexpectedly reincarnated into the body of a despised young noble, thus embarking on the path of the underdog trouncing all commoners. No one has the right to call himself a genius in front of Jiang Chen, as no one has a better understanding of the heavens than the son of the Heavenly Emperor. “Genius? He who adheres to me shall ascend. Those who oppose me can find solace in hell!”

Associated Names
One entry per line
Sanjie Duzun
Sole Venerable of the Three Realms
SOTR
Tam Giới Độc Tôn
三界獨尊
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
Emperor’s Domination (18)
Against the Gods (9)
Zhanxian (7)
Transcending the Nine Heavens (5)
I Shall Seal the Heavens (5)
Otherworldly Evil Monarch (5)
Recommendation Lists
  1. Novels that I have read
  2. Op Mc / simulation systems
  3. Novels I have read
  4. Must read cultivation novels
  5. Not top tier but enjoyable

Latest Release

Date Group Release
04/17/16 Wuxiaworld c100
04/16/16 Wuxiaworld c99
04/15/16 Wuxiaworld c98
04/14/16 Wuxiaworld c97
04/13/16 Wuxiaworld c96
04/12/16 Wuxiaworld c95
04/11/16 Wuxiaworld c94
04/10/16 Wuxiaworld c93
04/09/16 Wuxiaworld c92
04/08/16 Wuxiaworld c91
04/07/16 Wuxiaworld c90
04/06/16 Wuxiaworld c89
04/05/16 Wuxiaworld c88
04/04/16 Wuxiaworld c87
04/03/16 Wuxiaworld c86
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Keimichi
Keimichi rated it
July 23, 2016
Status: Completed
[Warning: spoiler tags in this review contains stuff from the raws. Read spoiler tags at your own risk]
This had such an interesting premise, but it was poorly executed.

Every arc had a very strong setting at the start, and it gives you lots of anticipation. There's lots of clever foreshadowing that suggests that something great and mysterious is happening, and that at each arc you will progressively know more and more about it. Especially with the world building. The first arc is set in the MC's native country, but... more>> eventually the scale becomes larger.

(Becomes the top dog in his kingdom? But wait! That kingdom is only the smallest kingdom in the Union! MC moves to strongest kingdom of the Union? But wait! There's these powerful clans that control the whole Union of kingdoms!... But wait!
Spoiler

There's not only one Union! There's multiple unions! These clans are only the lowest level clans! But wait, there's more!!! There's the human territory! With the top ranked clans! But wait, there's more! There's even stronger groups! Bigger territories! Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc.

EDIT: I mean, I don't think that's a bad idea, except I'm not sold on how the "scales" gets bigger. We're *told* he's fighting on a bigger stage (aka, bigger territories, stronger enemies, on matters that have a greater impact), but in the end it doesn't really feel that way because we never actually see it. I feel like he's still fighting in the same limited scope as he always did: only a handful of people appear whereas the rest of the supposed army/territory is glossed over and isn't even mentioned in the background. It doesn't feel like a war between countries, or a war between territories, etc., it just feel like the same old fight between small groups of a selective few people.

[collapse]

The main character's backstory also suggests some deeper great plot behind his reincarnation. At each arc you feel like the scale is grander, and that you're closer to unveiling the mysteries of the world building. It really makes you want to read further to unravel each of the mystery despite how long the story is.

Sounds great, right? Except that it feels like the author spent so much building up all that wonderful material only to waste it on either half-assed answers, or left very nice materials unused. It doesn't matter if they were plot elements, weapons/skills or characters. There has been some great characters that were set up to have beautiful character development, only to never actually getting those development? So in the end you're left with 2 to 2.5 dimensional characters. Some characters are also replaceable. For example MC would have a sidekick kind of friend in one arc, only for MC to get another sidekick with almost the same personality in the next arc. And yes, this means that characters either get left behind after the arc, or only briefly mentioned like they had no presence at all. It doesn't matter if they are villains, sidekicks, potential love interests, mentors, elders, etc.

Spoiler

I hate that when you feel like your side characters are starting to be developed into 3 dimensional characters with their own will... You suddenly move into the next arc and they are just left behind. Then they become mindless background character that only knows how to accept the grace of our MC. Once they're past their usefulness, they drop down to one dimensional characters.

Like even though the author is always describing how the MC keeps training his team/family/subordinate, 99% of them never actually does anything to the story after their initial introduction. So the training is pretty useless to the plot. The other 1% of his team that actually help the MC and does something in the story... Aren't humans. They are mythical creatures or similar and are always "with him", but disappears and never says a word unless they are needed... So they are more like hidden sentient weapons, than true companions.

A lot of the weapons also plays into the same pattern of being forgotten.

Often, he would spend a lot of effort in a dungeon to get them. Were told how strong these weapons are, only to have them used only ONCE before we never hear about them again. And often they are not even used in any way of importance. More like a "there was a pen on the table, he needed a pen, so he used the pen on the table" type of way. It could have been any pen, wouldn't have mattered. The further you go in the story the more frequent it gets. It sometimes make you wonder, what's the point, then? Why give so much weight/importance to the treasures and go so much length to get it, but then when the MC uses them they are barely more useful than stuff you'd get at a convenience store? Same with many martial arts, techniques he inherits from lots clans of the past era. By the time he should be using them, the author has already made him so powerful that the techniques are barely useful, if at all. At best, they end up as being convenient (and cheap) Deus Ex Machina in one of the following arcs. And that's it.

[collapse]

Events were made to be really grandiose, only to have a medium to mediocre delivery that doesn't match up to the scale it was supposed to have. Like the conflicts/problems just mysteriously "deflates" at the end. Lots of foreshadowing is just left hanging or never used. It's like the author had a great idea but then forgets where he wanted to go with it.

The format is repetitive as well. Competition, dungeon exploring, competition, dungeon exploring. MC is underestimated becomes of where he comes from, MC enters into competition and proves everyone wrong. MC becomes the top dog. MC gets reward (aka, enters a dungeon and finds treasures). MC moves to a bigger stage where he is underestimated again. Rinse and repeat.
There are some very interesting plot twists though. Except, once again, the delivery is...

Also, everyone is too dependent on the MC to solve all their problems. MC is practically a one-man army. Quite literally.
Spoiler

Even in wars! When the author has the MC pretty much win the war by himself, the wars lose their value. It stop feeling like a large scale battle. Yes, he builds his own army. He talks about reorganizing the human territory so they have power to fight off the demonic invaders. We see scenes where he give them weapons and feed his beasts.
Except no one ever does anything because the MC pretty much solve it all highhandedly, with no sweat. And even if anyone does anything, it's off screen. The readers are given such a sense of urgency during the story about the invaders. You can literally feel the time bomb ticking, and it felt like it could have exploded at any moment. The tension is set up so high for the climax... Except the climax feels so anti climatic. Where has the sense of urgency gone to? What about that border that was set to collapse "very soon", and thus urged the MC to get stronger? What about all that talk about training your troops to get stronger because they would never hold off the invaders otherwise... Only to never have those trained people do anything, literally, ever?

[collapse]

PS: "Sovereign of the three realms" is a flashy title. Except it is a really unworthy title:
Spoiler

First realm takes 2300 chapters, the second takes about 50 and the last realm takes like 1 chapter if we're being generous.

I think the second realm was supposed to be the big mystery + finale, the author just had no idea how to wrap it up.

A more appropriate title would have been "Sovereign of One Realm and the 50 Chapters of Epilogue that Attempts to Wrap Up its Premise"

[collapse]

And no, this is not like Ze Tian Ji. It's not on the same level of depth. Ze Tian Ji is slow, but the character depth and development is fantastic. The plot is well-written and tragic. SoTR is... subpar compared to ZTJ.

I feel like if someone took all the ideas of SOTR story and rewrote it, it could have been a really awesome webnovel. Like the other reviewers said, it has A LOT of POTENTIAL. Except that was lot of wasted potential.

EDIT: On the bright side, the MC is very likeable. Very Gary Stu maybe, but a fresh breath of air in the mass of arrogant-bastard Xianxia MC's. MC is reasonable, and doesn't engage in mindless violence. He has pride but isn't arrogant. He has this royal "presence"/"air"/"manners" that sets him above other people over how generous and open minded he is, and how he is able to take everything with stride. That's something that comes from his identity as the son of the Heavenly Emperor, and sets him apart from the typical "I kill U" narrow-minded stingy Xianxia MC's. Makes him a very pleasant MC and a decent human being. A bit too perfect, and flat as a character, but I'll take nicely mannered flat character over a bastard flat-character. <<less
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readingdigest
readingdigest rated it
May 5, 2016
Status: --
This is not like ZTJ. Not by far. You would have to have some really terrible reading comprehension to judge this story in the same caliber as ZTJ. Every character in Ze Tian Ji is multidimensional, the plot is interwoven, the past affects the present, and there is a reason for everything. I honestly can't see how any one can compare the two stories. In Sovereign of the Three Realms, you have characters who are overly obnoxious and have no depth of character; her only purpose is to make the... more>> readers hate her. You have a bunch of young master types antagonists that appear for no good reason other than to serve as the MC's punching bag. I'm actually offended that there are readers that would actually compare this series to ZTJ.

This story starts off well enough but the transition had exhibited poor writing masqueraded as cheap reaction chapters. The difference in the quality of the first 100 chapters and the next 20 is night and day. I think it’s a great example of an author who had only brainstormed what is the first arc of the story but hadn’t really planned out how he would connect the major plot points from there onwards. What had once been carefully fleshed out characters now became one-dimensional and easy to hate, so that the author can throw in some reaction chapters that are predictable and frankly lazy writing. The enjoyment factor has definitely gone down and it’s not a must-read for me anymore. <<less
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UsernameJ
UsernameJ rated it
November 22, 2016
Status: c308
What DimensionalControl wrote is 100% correct. This story started out pretty good, but now the author's terrible writing has been revealed completely and this story is just a f*cking piece of garbage.

The thing that makes me the angriest about this story is just how f*cking repetitive the author is. The author's repetition makes me angry. The anger I feel reading his repetitive work reaches the heavens. Only a tr*sh author repeats himself so much, worthy of only disdain.

Now imagine that level of repetition every other paragraph, spending an entire paragraph... more>> to do so. In fact it's so bad I'm convinced the author, to write a new chapter, all he does is write 10 lines and then figures out how to repeat himself as much as possible between those ten lines. Or he adds completely pointless sentences that don't add any new information at all.

MC learns a new skill by meditating. This new skill, learned by meditating, was learned. And it's helpful!

That's literally how this story goes. Such f*cking hot garbage. It legitimately started out all right, but now it's just not worth reading. I'll give it 2 stars if only to set it above the even worse f*cking garbage that are the jap stories on this site. Either do not start reading this story, or just drop it. It's not worth it. <<less
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jacobpaige
jacobpaige rated it
March 25, 2016
Status: --
Its good, but it would be much better if the author didn’t waste so many words constantly repeating the same things over and over again. Sometimes word for word. Seriously, some chapters can be completely skipped without any loss of information.

That aside, its well written and the MC frequently solves problems with his head rather than relying solely on his fists. He is however a bit of an as*hole and it has the common problem in harem stories of every woman fighting to be the first to rip her underwear... more>> off for him for little to no reason. Though anyone wanting him to actually do anything with all the women tossing themselves at him, will be sorely disappointed.

Edit (chap 100) : I find myself less and less impressed by the MC’s intellect with each passing chapter. As someone else put it, “the plot induced s*upidity is strong in this series.” Though, to be fair, it doesn’t just affect the MC. Most of the characters seem to be taking turns passing around the idiot ball.

Edit (chap 107) : I've given up on this series. The wasted space in the chapters has grown to DBZ levels. Things that should take 1-2 paragraphs are taking 1-2 chapters and the plot (if it can even be called that) has come to a screeching halt. If you decide to read it, skim the chapters in bulk. There's no point to 60-70% of the words in most chapters, so skimming is more than enough and doing it in bulk will give the illusion of the story moving forward at a reasonable pace. <<less
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DimensionalControl
DimensionalControl rated it
September 3, 2016
Status: c232
I've been reading sovereign of the three realms for awhile now and I'm starting to get pissed every time I read it. I hate when a writer waste time; and this writer does it all the time. This story biggest issues is giving way to much spotlight to characters that will be completely forgotten in a few chapters. And most of this story is pretty much the writer repeating the same bullsh*t we already read previously. To the point were I might drop this story sometime soon if the story... more>> doesn't change. Another issue is how long the story is it has over 2000 chapter's and recently we've been getting 1 chapter out of every 2 days making this story feel even more slow. I could come back and read at one point; maybe when it actually finished it's translation in 5 -6 years, but by then I won't really care I'll probably be wasting my time reading something better. So I just can't see myself reading this story in the future.

It flaws are slow pace, repetition of the same stuff constantly, has the same issues tmw has. Very forgettable cast of main characters. Most characters aren't well written. It has over 2000 chapter meaning the whole story line probably written at a snail pace for no reason besides for the writer to make more money or cause he couldn't think of anything. And finally it's translated at a snail pace making this story feel even slower. I think it's something the original readers from China probably didn't have to suffer so I have write this as a negative point. Anyways this story deserves a 2 maybe even lower. But if you like TMW you will most likely love this story because is has the same problems TMW has besides the slow translation speed. So all the negatives I have of this story of positive for you because you like TMW. Unless you don't like TMW than I would recommend for you to not read or be prepared because you will rage quit multiple times every time the story's flaws keep popping up. <<less
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BlinkToThePast
BlinkToThePast rated it
May 15, 2016
Status: c131
This is one of the better novels where a person is taken from a high level/ class and transported back to scrubdom. The MC starts off as a person who is so knowledgeable that all problems he faces should be inconsequential, then author realised this is bad so then underpowered him. This results in a bit of disappointment in what is otherwise a solid novel, it will probably be better in the long- run though. So, Initially we have a MC who was previously a super super important cripple. He... more>> had access to the highest level information (so far) and was well researched in cultivation methods, power-ups, alchemy etc etc. Man, the way the novel spun it he was the scholar to end all scholars. The only problem was he couldn't cultivate, super cripple FTW. This is all fixed as he has now reincarnated into the body of some backwater scrub, whoopie!

Happy days right? Well initially yes. He sets about being awesome with his knowledge and powering up his new base body in a pretty rapid way, as you'd expect with someone so knowledgeable. But then suddenly it's like the author realises that this will become boring if he simply steamrolls everyone so he abruptly makes it so the access the MC gets to that massive store of knowledge is limited. This feels like it came out of nowhere. Couple that with him now struggling against what to the past him are minor scrubs and it gets a bit offputting at times. I do realise however that this will probably be better in the long run because OP people get boring if they have nothing to challenge them. It just feels like a cop-out way of doing it because we know how strong he should be.

One way a novel with an OP protag can still be interesting is by having good character interaction. This the story could do that better. This has a romance tag but so far it feels like while the female characters may be trying to live up to it the MC couldn't care less. He is a super prince at heart and all these people are just stepping stones, that attitude colours his interactions and makes them feel transitional. One of the things you *do* feel from him is that he really enjoys being able to cultivate now, being a super cripple was sad for him. This in part drives one of the better character interactions with another cripple, empathy is a beautiful thing.

In terms of side characters, they started off impressive. You get your standard idiot young masters but the "big baddy" in the initial part of the story seemed sort of intelligent, the other sides were calculating. There was political machinations and such I was enjoying. That is until around the time the MC got info capped then everyone except for the MC just sort of became dumber at the end, IDK. A major arc just ended and the story looks like it will be heading into bigger and better things. I look forward to how that pans out. Like other have said this novel feels like a better TDG, I just hope it does not fall into the same pitfalls. I have not read OEM yet so I can't comment on that parallel.

All in all, this is a good novel. It deserves its 4 stars overall but I feel like it could drop off if the author isn't careful. I may have been harsh but that's because I have high expectations of this novel. <<less
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bookwormer
bookwormer rated it
November 5, 2016
Status: c283
McDonald’s, this is not. If you want your typical OP MC killing people left and right, or breaking through five realms in one power up, bedded the greatest beauty in all the lands, and having the current Emperor bow down to him in defeat ALL before chapter 20, don’t come here.

If you want a harem of girls falling all over themselves to sleep with him, don’t read this.

If you want fast paced action and a brainless read you can finish on the toilet, don’t touch SOTR.

If you do want solid... more>> world building, fantastic side character exploration where the sidekicks are more than a piece of paper, political intrigue, fights in which the MC uses his wits as often as he uses force, and complicated relationships, then DO read SOTR.

SOTR isn’t the typical run-of-the-mill xianxia on the market now and it’s suffering in the ratings because of this. The interplay between characters is complex. I love the dialogue, it ranges from thigh slapping hysterical to blood rushing indignant, and I confess that Gouyu’s struggle brought a tear to my eyes once. I love the exploration of the side characters, it’s a really fully fleshed out world.

I really appreciate that brains are used just as often as brawn in the SOTR universe, but you can see a lot of reviews bashing the novel for this. This is something you pick up for the long haul.

Yes the pace is a bit slow. I think the author had grandiose plans for this novel and you can see it in chapters 100 - 200, where the novel struggles for a bit as he strives to bring his vision to bear. It’s taking us almost 300 chapters to really reveal the mysteries of this world. Yes he’s wordy, but honestly, what novel is perfect these days? I can overlook these flaws for the brilliant work is it.

The translator, etvolare, is also one of the best I’ve ever seen. Her command of the language, her diction, and her painting of scenes is masterful. She usually does seven releases a week along with three of GDK and works full time. I still don’t know how she does it, and will always read something she puts out. <<less
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clowred
clowred rated it
May 28, 2016
Status: v1c134
SOTR had a somewhat good start considering the story is another ... more>>
Spoiler

strong practitioner gets to inhabit the body of a weak character that dies because of its s*upidity or misfortune and nobody sees any difference when the character suddenly changes

[collapse]
. Well, jumping straight into the fray, I can say the development from the first ten, or maybe twenty chapters was outstanding. A complex political viewpoint, enemies with brains and connection and a protagonist that can use his knowledge to raise his power faster than anyone. Then we are get hit with cliches..
First one?
Spoiler

Women start to do anything for him, even if it meant r*pe. Oh, I should also add that one of them includes her own disciples and another one her sister.

[collapse]
Now, this is a little funny. Don't get me wrong. But the characters that behave this way do it without any strong reason. One of them is even at odds with him but "slowly" which actually means fast as hell, at most 20 chapters, decides that becoming his s*x s*ave would be a good idea.
Second?
Spoiler

He is "special". How special? He read everything. No really, everything. Playboy, Hustler, you name it. Thousands of prodigies were trained by him. He is better than anyone and is able to fight against other cultivators even if they are more than one realm above him. What does it mean? From not being able to put up a fight with someone a LEVEL above you, he suddenly manages to beat cultivators two realm higher. His is already the sovereign of the Three Realms when it comes to his pride and self esteem. You all should known about plot armor. This one has something different. Very different. I call it, memory armor. How so? If sh*t happens, he needs two seconds to remember where he read that sh*t and how to resolve it. Yeeeah, I love that kind of reasoning.

[collapse]
And now lastly,
Spoiler

Inconsistency. From the scary emperor that has a strong personality and a clever mind, later on he becomes some sort of vegetable that makes simple mistakes. From a spiritual vein in fields owned by our protagonist family that may be a huge danger, we go to the civil war. To a kingdom where those that reach the eleventh level of the first realm are considered some sort of rarity we find out that the kingdoms around them have a lot of cultivators two realms higher than their rarity and for some reason never decide to attack them. Cultivation is a joke, he somehow finds a shortcut, makes a big point about not disclosing the means, but later on he starts giving it left and right. His best friends simply become some old memories about debauchery. And with the new arc we get the true plot armor. Sincerely, I'm just reading it because its on wuxiaworld.

[collapse]
In conclusion, this novel is worth about twenty chapters. The rest is a complete mess. Without the first twenty chapters, one star would have been enough for this novel. I recommend you to read it just to see how hard can you cringe when the flood of s*upid replies and events starts hitting your screen. <<less
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Elementarteilchen
Elementarteilchen
September 10, 2018
Status: c1174
How to describe this novel in one word? "ROLLERCOASTER"

At some points in the story it is extremely good and you don't even care about other novels anymore and on other points in the story it gets really bad.

Sometimes I think I want to drop this novel and other times I want to pay for advanced chapters and I'm thinking to myself: "how could I ever have the thought of dropping this?"

Overall I can say, the author is a master of the dao of word count. So you have to master... more>> the skill: "skimming".

BTW the translation quality is top notch and etvo (the translator) is a GIRL. I hope you get it already. Geez :D <<less
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niks27
niks27 rated it
June 26, 2016
Status: c167
SOTR started with strong plot and nice 20-30 chapters but then after the mess of the test for Duke's ranking everything went to the gutter. Smart king became dumb, arrogance of the arrogant enemies increased and then the girl who was supposed to die in battle got an plot armour even stronger than the MC. Then same thing is repeating again in a new Kingdom. Like wtf man I was hoping that he would go on adventuring and at leave these politics behind but nope we get same thing again.

Translator... more>> releases chapters at a good pace and translation is pretty good too. Pacing of the story is decent but sometimes author tends to drag things out which gets quite annoying.

If you are new to CN then it should be pretty good read for you but if you are a regular reader then I'm sure you won't like this novel after a certain point. <<less
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Zackarotto
Zackarotto rated it
June 16, 2016
Status: Completed
When SoTR started, it was a decent, simple, over-the-top sort of cultivator novel. It was never my favorite, but there were some fun parts. Jiang Chen taking in a dragon, unleashing a swarm of rats on his enemies, shocking people with absurd pill recipes... it could get me hyped or make me snicker. Then it got repetitive. You see the same mediocre formula of throwaway sects and characters on loop, but there are lots of novels like that, and I kept reading. Then it became terribly plotted and outright bad.... more>> Still, I kept on hate-reading it, because I'd picked the novel up when there were only like 200 chapters out, and after three or four years, I had sunk enough costs to justify reading to the end. If you're in the same position and have stopped to read reviews, quit now. If you have never read this novel, don't.

I take no pleasure in saying this after sticking with it for so long, believe me. But what did sticking around turn out to be worth? Loose ends are either forgotten, retconned, or resolved so late that the original drama just dwindles to anticlimax and afterthought. (Sorry Etvo. I appreciate your years of work on the translation, okay? Don't be mad at me, lol.)

Bad writing
I thought it had a good hook at first -- the son of a Celestial Emperor replacing a useless lout, and so on. Admittedly, even that part was messy. It never really sets limits on what Jiang Chen's past memories can do for him, so you just kind of swallow what the narration says about this at any given moment. If it says a mental exercise is a breeze for him, we nod and go along with it, and if it says some pill or formation is seriously challenging, we swallow that too. But we have no investment in what he can do; there's no tension. At most, he should have remembered the recipes and academic details about ingredients from his past life, having to figure the rest out for himself.

Cultivation development is a stand-in for character development, which is common enough in these low-intellect novels, but him already being like a million years old doesn't really help either. His love interests may as well be toys for him to play with and throw away.

I thought the romance with Huang'er was good, at first. I like a scenario of star-crossed lovers kept apart and all that. But the author apparently gets bored with Huang'er and once she's all sorted out, decades pass without her even being mentioned. Imagine if halfway through Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare said, "But what if... there were TWO Juliets?" It loses all impact. A star-crossed polycule is flat-out ridiculous, as is a large gang of beautiful women tripping over themselves to prove how magnanimous and cool they are in sharing their boyfriend. Meeting different women is cool and all when you're a ronin, but not when you've settled down.

The novel is also quite pointlessly sexist elsewhere. "Women only exist to be beautiful, " one chapter goes, and that one's more cringe than offensive. In one chapter much later, JC reaches a base and is shocked because they put a FEMALE in charge. What? Huh? Was this world always like this?

JC feels inconsistent and fails to impress me the way he constantly impresses everyone else in the novel. In one chapter he mutilates an innocent kid to get revenge on the kid's grandfather, but he's treated like a saint. He exterminates a clan's whole bloodline -- I'm sure they were all total brats down to the last five-year-old, though. You know, "Against The Gods" gets a lot of sh*t for this very thing, but it actually has character development and comeuppance... In SoTR though? We forget about it a chapter later.

He often gets into arguments where he says some extremely childish crap like "I know you are but what am I?" and the entire rest of the cast marvels at this as if he just nailed 95 theses to the front door.

The pacing is terrible. Several times, I built up a stockpile of 200 chapters or so only to read them all and realize that nothing happened. The chapters are short to begin with, but it burns a lot of time on recycled commentary and padding chapters that recap the present state of progress instead of advancing it. Even when there are only ~400 chapters to go, it's surprising how much time is spent stalling or repeating things.

Bad planning
Worst of all is that this novel clearly just bullshitted for thousands of chapters with no clear plan. A well-planned dumb novel is as enjoyable to me as a smart novel, or even more so. But poorly planned xianxia novels offer nothing.

Treasures are picked up, never to be used, or dismissed later anticlimactically just to tie up loose ends... storage rings he went to great trouble to wipe the seals from, only to never examine. For example, what the hell was with that highly special piece of Bluesmoke Jade he fought to acquire after it rippled the seal in his consciousness, and then he never did anything with? Did he just sell it with the others in a single line 300 chapters later?

He rarely ever actually uses up his consumable talismans. Some, like the Divine Veluriyam Defense Talisman, he doesn't use at all. If you give your character a talisman that you can use three times, you should plan three uses for it. You should not use it zero times and then forget it in your storage ring. This goes for the talisman he gets at the end which can attack with 100% of his dad's power, too.

It isn't just about items. JC found a secret realm in Celestial Cicada Court territory on one returning visit. Did it ever come up again? Of course not.

It's also a problem of missed opportunities -- and I'm spoiling things here, but you should be glad I'm saving you the trouble. Early on it's noticed that due to JC's celestial heritage, his cultivation breakthroughs are causing more dramatic effects each time, and it becomes clear that he won't be able to hide the next one, and the "low-profile" status quo will be shattered. It's something in the future the reader can actually get excited for -- only, the next time he happens to be in a secret realm during his breakthrough, so he successfully hides it again. The next time after that, it's again hidden, and there's barely one line about it -- all that promise dwindles down to nothing.

It was very clear that the novel never originally intended to stick around in one plane for so long. The messiest example would be what happened with Emperor Peafowl -- when he was introduced, he was "close to ascending" to a higher plane, but the author wasn't nearly done wrapping up things on the continent, so that got retconned as a mere "rumor". Even if you ignore the fact that they later introduced a large number of recluse Empyrean Realm figures that Peafowl probably was in a position to have caught some wind of (and even later than that, a couple of Divine Realm recluses hidden about)... he's talking to the son of the Celestial Emperor. Jiang Chen didn't know that Peafowl wasn't going to be ascending? Or didn't think it was worth mentioning? What a joke.

The consequence of this poor planning is that things lose their value after so long. Peafowl returns; so what? It's not for any dramatic purpose, but just an afterthought, even though he was initially set up as this character who could see the threads of fate, and would be considered "formidable even on the divine plane". Mang Qi is freed from confinement after like two thousand chapters, but then he's no longer an awe-inspiring creature stronger than JC, just another minion at a lower cultivation realm, who never does anything. And with the novel revising everything upward, it has to pretend everything else was better than it initially was. When JC finds the legacy of the Ancient Crimson Heavens Sect after passing all their crazy succession tests, the formations become a major tool in his arsenal, but later this is all retroactively deflated when the continent is supposed to have Divine Realm heritages. "By the way, " the novel goes, "that heritage Jiang Chen found was actually a fake one." Riight. Wasn't that the one he passed with flying colors due to his super-godking dad personally having taught him the same puzzle?

Nothing comes of JC taking a disciple, or having a child. Their only purpose is to be ignored. When JC's surprise daughter entered the story, I was expecting something huge to come of it -- she's the direct lineage of the Celestial Emperor! Wouldn't it be expected if crazy phenomena started happening around her, or something, at least? But no. She seems like a sweet kid, and then he ignores her and cultivates for like 50 years. Eventually, he gives two more children to Huang'er just so the main girl doesn't lose out to the sidepiece. The author doesn't even bother to name them.

Bad ending
The last several hundred chapters are like tedious housecleaning. All difficulty or suspense are foregone. JC gets a lamp/torch with like a dozen described abilities, overpowered even before he's fully mastered using it. This is bad enough, but then he starts unlocking the gifts from his father, and can suddenly one-shot the invading demons we've been warned about for the last thousand chapters. He can bind or kill enemies stronger than himself, without limit to these items' uses. He doesn't even need these new invincible cheats, because the demons are incredibly s*upid, and they split up their numbers over and over again so they can be outnumbered by JC and his pokemon army, even after their leaders arrive.

Hundreds of chapters are wasted on an utterly joyless war arc killing dozens of divine-level demons, an uninspired box-checking exercise where they'll introduce a fire demon whose name is like "Forefather Hotfire" or something, kill him, and move on to a winged demon named "Forefather Birdflight", and kill him the same way. It couldn't be worse.

This one's a bit nitpicky, but his new absurd tools are all given the properties of "feigned mundanity" so the terrifying figures in the higher planes won't recognize or come looking for them, except that one of them is just his dad's undisguised signature sword, so uh, nevermind I guess, forget about all that mundanity stuff.

I began to think the novel would never even get to JC's father, but they clear up the demon stuff and rush toward a resolution with about 60 chapters left to go. It provides a little burst of life at the end, but it still has all the problems of the rest of the novel. Our understanding of the conflict on these upper planes originally seemed so much grander. In the early setup, it sounded like the novel spoke of the apocalypse -- the Great Cataclysm, the shattering of the heavens -- but we get there, and there is a chapter with the line "the previous so-called shattering of the plane simply referred to the disruption of the political ecosystem..." Lol.

The final chapters on the higher planes even include a (very short) tournament with arrogant buffoon characters, even though all these people are in the later stages of the Divine Realm. I think "Divine thug" should be an oxymoron, don't you? But the author doesn't know how to do anything else.

The climax is a farce. We spend a handful of chapters questioning who out of seven or eight characters is responsible for actually putting JC's dad behind bars, and then it commits a cardinal sin for mysteries: the actual culprit isn't even among them. In the words of Ronald Knox, 1939: "The mysterious stranger who turns up from nowhere in particular, from a ship as often as not, whose existence the reader had no means of suspecting from the outset, spoils the play altogether." There was no ship here, but the final battle is against someone introduced like two chapters earlier. It feels so utterly pointless, and again: an afterthought. I'm also not sure what the point was in having JC's dad bust out before JC can even step forward in the meeting between the godkings. Apart from the fight itself, which happens *after* his dad is already freed, his only role in the end is handing off one of his cheat tools to his new girlfriend! It all happens off-camera and I'm not even convinced she wouldn't have gotten it done without him.

So, awful to the end. Again, let me be clear that I'm not gloating. I had far higher hopes for this. And to Etvo, welp. All I can say is I hope you've picked your next projects better. <<less
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deelaW
deelaW rated it
March 30, 2019
Status: c1314
After 100 chapters, it's just repeating same script over and over again. I'm finally leaving it at Ch.1314 since it has now become f*cking unbearable for me to read forward.

Here are few of the reasons, apart from main one mentioned above, why you should stay away from it:

  • Every time something good happens, its soon dissolved by another distasteful event.
  • Take 50 chapters to perform a Major Task, however, afterwards expect for reference or just for being there, you won't hear about it anywhere.
  • Author says, MC f*ckin' lived for millions of years and yet every time villain#945432 jeers or talks tr*sh to him, MC acts cowardly except when he does not have to.
  • Every time some weak idiotic bully come over to call him tr*sh and garbage, he just stands there like sh*t. Apparently, he is bidding for "right "time.
Congrats F*cking Author, you are on second position on list that is about moronic authors whose sheer s*upidity and talent of mind raging readers is second to none. The first place is still secured strongly by author of MGA, for whose I have read 2700 f*cking chapters. Gimme a break.

If you have read till here then forgive me for any uncivil words but this is already me being polite. Ah, I really want to f*c... I mean talk about them more but I'll refrain.
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TheDarkness
TheDarkness rated it
April 29, 2016
Status: c132
Honestly this is like ZTJ, except the pacing is bit better, the character motivation is more clear and the fight scenes are not horridly paced. Now here is a few things about STR, there is a lot of foreshadowing. In fact, other than ZTJ, this is the only novel I have seen mention something minor several times, well it seems minor, but later plays a role in the story. Now I could elaborate, but that ruins the fun. However there is a case of Deus Ex Machina, a bit later... more>> into the story, naturally I was a bit annoyed, but because it was in the beginning (about 100 chapters in) and it served the purpose of furthering the plot, I am not too mad. Now some people are going to think about one instance in the story, and assume that I am referring to that, they are wrong. That was foreshadowed, now for the select few who know what I mean, congrats. Now onto to the main topic, this novel heavily relies on the interplay between scheming and human interactions. And often makes the writing and characters deeper than other works. Now here is the issue, pacing. A lot of works in this genre have consistently fast pacing, with a few breaks here and there. However here is the thing, in order to further the plot, or develop characters. The author slows down the pace a lot. This is probably the biggest issue so far and honestly annoyed me a bit when etvolare used to release about 2-3 chapters week (on to that, the translation quality is on point). But with about a chapter a day, the pacing isn't so bad that it left me craving for more, like a drug fiend. I gave this a 5/5, honestly it is a 4/5, but I really like the story. It gets all the things I like, I just hope the author adds a bit romance. <<less
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clashina
clashina rated it
December 28, 2018
Status: c1100
This novel starts out pretty good. However, very quickly turns devoid of logic, reason, and entertainment. The novel suffers from all of the worst kind of cliches and jumbled mess that other CN novels falls victim to.

  • Repetition... The author repeats himself multiple times a paragraph within the same chapter for no reason at all. The story line and elements that occur repeat multiple times within the same arc!
  • Characters... Literally every enemy in this novel is an idiot, from disciples, to elders, to sect heads. The main character is someone whose lived for 1m+ years, and is still an idiot to the most mundane shit.
  • Relationships... This is probably the worst offender in this series. The author creates these illustrious relationships with females that he completely throws away for the sake of a few who earned nothing. The main harem members are undeserving of said role and the author is too ignorant to understand.
  • Tragedy... I don't know why this novel doesnt have a tragedy tag, literally anything the main character is involved with, from friends to family, almost no one is safe from suffering unheard of difficulties.
  • Power Creep... The main character is supposed to be 1m+ who can have a significant advantage within the scope of cultivation and powering up. However, anyone else within his age and level are simply much faster than him. This novel falls in the trap of "I must enhance my abilities before cultivation" blah blah blah. Then, the main character cries about not being strong enough cultivation wise. Ya think?
  • World Building... This is the dumbest concept known to man. All realms and domains are in the same planet... From lower to mid to upper realms. Is the author an idiot?
Save yourself the trouble and skip this sh*t immediately!
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CaptainToast
CaptainToast rated it
October 27, 2016
Status: c100
This story could of been amazing. The premise is actually rather interesting, but the final outcome makes it all go to waste.

The story is abysmally slow. Considering his experience as a million year old scholar, I'd expect him to easily coast along the initial stages of cultivation. It's literally 100 chapters in and he's not even close to being out of the first realm of cultivators, in what is likely to be at least a dozen f*cking realms. The MC is forced to go from random event to random event... more>> clawing his way through menial bullshit. No one gives a f*ck about these minor realms. Literally nothing that happens in such a low realm actually matters to the story at large. It's so aggravating to see such a good premise go so horribly wrong. <<less
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Daoist LastWish
Daoist LastWish rated it
March 7, 2017
Status: c410
Fairly Bland, Formulaic Novel. If you have read TDG (Tales of Demons and Gods), and you want to read the same story again, feel free to read SOTR.. And SOTR is actually better written than TDG.

Of course since the TDG author has mostly stopped working on that right now, so reading SOTR may be your only option!

*Pros & Cons:
... more>>
Spoiler

Pros:
* Writing isn't bad and the MC is not a mass mu*dering ret*rd.
* Story starts of very well, with emphasis placed on martial arts and excellent battles,

Cons:
* Battles have become very bland and very boring.
* The novel right now has devolved into MC worshipping:

Jiang Chen. Chen. Jiang. Jiang Chen. Chen? Jiang!? Jiang Chen. Jian Chen. Chen. Jiang. Jiang Chen. Chen? Jiang!? Jiang Chen. Jian Chen. Chen. Jiang. Jiang Chen. Chen? Jiang!? Jiang Chen. Jian Chen. Chen. Jiang. Jiang Chen. Chen? Jiang!? Jiang Chen. Jiang Chen.

Every one is bending over to lick MC's boots and as you can see, its not very interesting.

[collapse]

*Reccommendation:
Instead of reading this novel, read:
ISSTH, Death Sutra, Instant Kill, RMJI, History’s Number 1 Founder, History’s Strongest Senior Brother. <<less
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Harens
Harens rated it
July 28, 2016
Status: c200
This is my first review so I'll try not to go into a rant immediately.

Now, first thing's first, I've just dropped this novel. I actually really liked this at the beginning, it seemed really interesting and it was also at the same time I started reading Otherworldly Evil Monarch, both started off similarly and I liked the premises. Although, as time went on, I began to see the problems with this novel... and as of the end of the previous arc, I've been forcing myself to read every chapter that... more>> comes out, this last chapter I couldn't even finish reading and have dropped it.

The way I see it, the major problem with this novel is the author. I just don't like the way Li Tian writes.

Everything gets explained to death. I swear, in the latest chapters it's like I'm reading the same paragraph three times because most of it is filler explaining what was already said.

Jian Chen doesn't act like his character. He's supposed to be a great sage that has trained a number of geniuses that eclipse any martial artist that has appeared so far, but he sometimes has problems with things in his current (spirit) realm. Think of it like this, if he can train people to lvl100, how come he has problems to train to lvl2? You could say that he has theory not practice, but he sometimes appears to not have even that.

Spoiler

And can someone actually explain to me what was the deal with the 12th level of true qui realm? Jian Chen basically said that he knew that there was another level to the true qui realm and that it would allow him to be stronger in the spirit realm, but by the end of the chapter he said that the level doesn't exist... AND HE DIDN'T KNOW IT BEFORE!? There's a limit to filler!

[collapse]

The other characters! So far they are just there to rely on Jian Chen for everything and praise him at every chance, do s*upid things in order for Jian Chen to go and save them and continue being the only competent person in the story (seriously, Dan Fei in the latest chapters just grinds my gears -.-), or, as this is a standard plot, just act as foils to Jian Chen for no other reason other than 'He didn't immediately bow down before me! I'll show him his place!'.

The sexism! I may be overreacting, but in the latest chapters every irrational behavior that any female character shows (Dan Fei in particular) gets dismissed with 'she's a woman afterall'. What the f*ck? I don't usually care about things like this, but since the start of the latest arc this keeps showing up at least once every chapter...

The filler! What the hell? Not even mentioning the chapter I talked about in the spoiler tag, the last arc was completely filler! Who cares about a side character that Jian Chen met twice? What can he do to impact the story? As for that matter, what do most of the characters in Jian Chen's entourage do? Instead of devoting an entire arc to a character that not even Jian Chen cares about that much, why not try to develop one of the already present characters??
Spoiler

Seriously, I'm beginning to think that his bodyguard team was filler too, they were used in one arc and never did anything useful to the story, the two brothers even acted as 'damsels in distress' because why not? Better not to have anyone else remotely competent.

[collapse]

So... end of review/rant, I actually wanted to give 2.5 stars, it started of good, but it eventually turned into a boring bellow-average story. <<less
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Slashs
Slashs rated it
February 7, 2017
Status: c382
The MC is reborn into a noble family, like his previous life he gets a loving father. He replaces the previous good for nothing owner of the body. In his previous life he could not practice martial art because of his body, but this has now changed. His adventure starts from here.

Every Xianxia novel's MC has a cheat, and this is very much a standard Xanxia novel. His cheat comes from his life's previous memory where he has accumulated a million year's worth of knowledge of the highest level. This means he can pull out extremely powerful martial arts, pill recipe and so on.

The MC is a hit or miss depending on your tastes. It's a MC that knows better than everyone else and he keeps reminding us that... more>> every precious thing in this part of the world was nothing more than discarded grass in his previous life. The MC looks down on everything but keeps saying that he has never done so. He is so very arrogant and is always doing outrageous things yet the author tells us "he is always keeping a low profile".

I am a bit conflicted by this novel, it has good points... but a lot of bad ones. First, it's so very predicable (the MC will NEVER loose out on anything, if he seems to, it's only because it means by loosing out on that tiny thing he just opened gains 20 times larger a couple of paragraphs laters). He will never loose a fight, he will never have anything stolen, he will never be ranked anything but first. There is no suspense. The MC will prevail and will never loose face. No matter what.

There is a lot of "resets". Like many Xianxia novel the MC starts in a somewhat secluded region of the world, where the top practitioners are nothing and he will move on to other regions regularly and slowly reaching stronger part of the world with each new move bringing him to a place that completely crushes the previous one in resources and talent.

When the MC moves to a new place the author always tries to "awe us" at how different it is compared to the previous place only to tell us a little later that it is actually quite lowly, tr*sh, ordinary compared to the rest of the world, this is obviously to prepare us for the next move. Those moves from place to place always mean that there is a "heavy reset" on characters, a few will still follow the MC, only to be somehow be dispersed during the upcoming arc to be replaced by new ones... before the MC moves again. Which means that all characters are throw aways. Friends, family, disciple, rivals, will quickly be forgotten as the MC moves on to the next part of the world.

Enemies are ridiculously one sided and death feuds will start for nothing, I really mean nothing. After a while I don't even think the author tries to give us decent justifications, they are hostile from the get go "just because", and there are always people ready to jump in to be humiliated by the MC once those bad people are defeated.

"Defeat a random dude that was doing evil -> random connaissance takes an interest and tries to interfere with MC -> MC makes it out -> uncle of dude shows up -> MC makes it out -> sister of uncle shows up with powerful husband -> MC makes it out -> father from powerful husband joins in -> MC makes it out and so on. You can double the length of that succession of characters and you won't be far off from one of the many "chains" of bad dudes we have in the current translated part. They are of course just there so that the MC can shine and trample them and "awe us".

This means much of the drive in this novel is the frustration brought by the bad guys' ridiculous demands and the satisfaction you get when the MC trample on them a little later. Characters are often not believable : women are all ready to fall in the love with the MC, people will swear loyalty to him at the drop of a hat... And so on. You get it, this is not the novel of the year.

It does have some good point which makes reading it bearable. There are a few story points that are kept in the background and will surface from time to time. Nothing outstanding but they do a good job to keep us on our toes and it does make us feel that the author might have some handle on where he is going with the story. The frustration generated by the bad guys' ridiculousness is actually kind of a motivator to see how they are going to be defeated. And the author always has many ridiculous conflicts ready to start as soon as one is closed... Yes the conflicts are ridiculous but the frustration they bring is real... And you need vindication... so you keep on reading :).

In the end I rate this 4 stars... Because even thought I felt frustrated during the whole read I still continued reading. It's... an okay novel. <<less
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strixflash
strixflash rated it
May 21, 2016
Status: c245
Interesting premise but sadly poor execution. s*upid enemies who continues to underestimate MC even after knowing that he is unusually strong for his age and background.

The repetitive format of the story is so annoying :

Offend some bullies -> Has connection with general-> General has backing of vice-director-> He has backing of prince-> He has backing of outer sect discipline-> They die but then you realize that the unimportant vice- director has connection with a Sect's Elder ~_~

Really? If you had such connection then why were you sucking up... more>> to a mortal prince? Talk about author not planning things in advance

s*upid unimportant characters would get dozen of chapters for monologues even though they can be easily completed in a single chapter. Unnecessary dragging.

Then there is the annoying plot armor which author shouldn't need for his main character given MC's extraordinary past. MC is supposed to be wisest guy in the world but instead of using his brain to solve the problem... author uses plot armor.

Example: His duchy is about to be invaded and thanks to plot armor MC finds a battalion of magical strong birds who are under his command so that he can easily resolve the biggest crisis he is facing. How convenient. <<less
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alenotbeer
alenotbeer rated it
November 30, 2015
Status: --
I'm reading ahead of the translations. This is an okay series. There are a lot of unnecessary fat and fillers. The author tends to be a bit overzealous with his details and expositions. Sometimes, whole chapters, or at least half of it, will be devoted to expositions or be used to tell us about stuff that we have already been told repeatedly. Every time Jiang Chen becomes overpowered and crowned the greatest genius around, he immediately discovers there’s another place somewhere else with people who are at least several levels... more>> above him. And it’s always because they have more money (resource) than him. After this happens a couple times, you tend to get pretty jaded at these developments. Jiang Chen is a good protagonist. He isn’t a pushover, but he also isn’t evil and ruthless either. If someone piss him off but makes a real effort to make peace or make up for their actions, he will usually forgive and forget. He isn’t a walking disaster like some protagonists, but, if pushed too far, he can be very heavy-handed in his punishments. Jiang Chen is pretty powerful on his own, but his greatest asset is his brain and the memories of his former life. Sadly, while Jiang Chen is smart most of the time, when he is dumb, he can be REALLY dumb.

There are also a ton of characters, but other than Jiang Chen’s core followers, they are simply given attention and then drop out of the story. There isn’t much romance either, at least for a long time. Strength is Jiang Chen's top priority. A lot of girls fall for him, but they either bury their feelings and stay around as backdrops or hop onto a bus and disappear for a thousand chapters. This seems to be the trend for most characters. Overall, this story is fine but it can be very exhausting to read sometimes. <<less
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