- #1
Zanxing is your basic modern girl, named Yang Zanxing (hence the title), getting transmigrated to a cultivation novel type of story. She was originally a cannon fodder that antagonized the original ML's love interest and was killed off in the first 7 chapters. She has basic cultivation level and obtain this special item that originally belongs to the novel's original ML that started the change in ML's fortune. So she already caused the original story to changed quite a bit, however surprisingly original ML still followed his trajectory. She original just want to live and cultivate to be strong enough to live independently away from the main story. However she eventually found out her actions cause drastic changes in the original story including element, characters, and storyline that never existed in the original novel which slowly she to her being the FL. So it's a rather interesting premiseA cultivation/martial art fighting based story is quite a change for the author's previous work. I've read several of the author's previous work starting with Malicious Empress, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Overall, at the moment, it's a decent cultivation novel. And for most part author don't write super drawn out story and do have an ending.What drew me into this specific author's work is the author ability to establish intrigues and interest. However as I read more of this author's work...I'm noticing more and more flaws. The biggest, to me, is shallow and often unrealistic characters. First of all, all of the author's MC are a bit of a Mary Sue, which in time make certain scenario comes to a rather anti-climatic and unearned solution. Sometimes it doesn't matter, but sometimes it'll bother you so much that it takes you away from the story and make it hard for you to invest in the story but there are so much plot armor that you start to not care about any situation the MC gets into. Malicious Empress was mild enough that I just don't care about. Reborn General is a bit of the latter where MC is just too unrealistic. Zanxing, at the point where I'm at is a mixed bag for me at the moment. Zanxing is not too OP and her plot armor is not too thick... lol...One negative to me and is rather annoying that I have to address is how shallow and cartoonish the author's made people behave. One particularly grating point is that the MC, Zanxing, is originally supposedly to be a very very pretty girl that's the fiancee of this shallow domineering young of the town the original ML lives in. So if this s*upidly shallow character that doesn't hesitate to flirt with any girl took her as his fiancee solely for her looks, cause she doesn't have a particularly impressive family background (in fact I still know nothing about her family.... only 1 maid and a butler), it means she should be a very very attractive woman. In the beginning when she obtain the special item from a monster, the monster injured half of her face. The injury was described as black streaks on half her face. Note the other half is perfectly fine and it's hinted that her face will heal eventually since this is a cultivation world where magic exists. So as a result, throughout the story she's been constantly called "fugly" directly and indirectly by.... pretty much everyone... including the new ML and I assume love interest. Characters often are quick to point out how ugly and undesirable she is and men actively avoided her... it's rather ridiculous really.Based on what I've read, it sounds like the FL is simply a beautiful girl with a scar on half of her face. However, every characters acted like she's horribly disfigured. I mean it's grating and annoying. Look, the real world is shallow, I get it. Realistically, the world would be divided into those that care about her scars and those that don't. And between them, those that'll openly express it and those that won't. Sure there will be a few that'll openly attack her for her looks simply based on how she stands out and antagonized some of the character's in the story. However, this world everyone besides a handful of character acted like she's the ugliest person in the world and most don't hesitate to show their disgust. Why the author feel like it's necessary to establish the world like this...I dunno. I just don't know how it's narratively important for me to be constantly reminded how ugly everyone sees her. I just don't.
2nd Edit:I wrote my first review after 155ch and this second one at 245ch. I'll probably drag myself to finish the rest of the story since I'm almost there... if I don't I'll give final thoughts on the novel.However, as of now... this novel is not what something I'll actually recommend simply because I felt the author greatly regress compare to their earlier work. I actually wanted to drop it down to 1 or 2 stars simply because it's not getting betterFirst of all. To address the my earlier grip on the Zanxing's scarred face... the author kinda defended it by saying the original story was based off a cultivation novel with harem which are terrible to female characters.... so I guess it's a social commentary...I dunno. Sure but imagine a person spending 15 seconds telling a joke and then proceed to spend the next 5 minutes explaining the joke. That's basically how I felt. Now if this story is a satirical piece and constant make fun of cultivation novel tropes... then it's a different story. As of now... it's weird.Now why am I rating it lower after reading it more.The FL, Zanxing, is not a good compelling main lead. Here's why
2nd Edit:I wrote my first review after 155ch and this second one at 245ch. I'll probably drag myself to finish the rest of the story since I'm almost there... if I don't I'll give final thoughts on the novel.However, as of now... this novel is not what something I'll actually recommend simply because I felt the author greatly regress compare to their earlier work. I actually wanted to drop it down to 1 or 2 stars simply because it's not getting betterFirst of all. To address the my earlier grip on the Zanxing's scarred face... the author kinda defended it by saying the original story was based off a cultivation novel with harem which are terrible to female characters.... so I guess it's a social commentary...I dunno. Sure but imagine a person spending 15 seconds telling a joke and then proceed to spend the next 5 minutes explaining the joke. That's basically how I felt. Now if this story is a satirical piece and constant make fun of cultivation novel tropes... then it's a different story. As of now... it's weird.Now why am I rating it lower after reading it more.The FL, Zanxing, is not a good compelling main lead. Here's why
- She relies on too much plot armor. All her successes from all the challenges she encounter is not because she outwit her opponent or she pulling move she had cultivated herself. She consistently fought above her weight class and defeat them mainly because she's "special"... it's as if the author the trying to say she can't be defeated because she's the protagonist. Why is she not affected by illusion? "Well she's the protagonist... illusion can't affect protagonist... naturally." Why is she not affected by poison? "Well she's the protagonist... these poison can't affect her at all" Look a few plot armors are harmless but a lot her victories just doesn't give me this satisfactory feeling.
- She's contradictory. She's a cannon fodder who wanted to dodge her doomed fate by trying to get stronger through cultivation. So her existing is going against the natural order. If she wants to obey the "natural order", she simply have to die like she's supposed to be. When she realized the "novel god" is adjusting the storyline after she "stole the thunder" from the original main character. She has a mark on her hand the getting darker and more detail for every change she main. So what's her solution? She retreated and try not to stand out too much... not to get stronger... trying to push her "good luck" back to the original main character. Look her mere existence is already defying the natural order. So why is she so caught by some kind of "natural retribution" that... she doesn't know whether it'll happen or not... she merely think this random mark that appears on her hand is telling her to stay in line. A lot of her decision and inaction is based off this assumption.
- She's not smart. In fact, she's kinda s*upid. Look I don't need genius level protag. I simply need a main character that thinks before they act. And maybe plan ahead. She just never seem to think beyond the surface level on anything and everything. She consistently put herself in dangerous situation and never once I felt she has anything under control. She's weirdly bold when she thinks she's doing that right thing, like saving life or helping other. Like she put other above her life. Then next moment, she's all "oh no, this random mark is the novel god telling me I'll die a horrible death. help I dun wanna die." then next moment she's all "oh yea, i'll totally jump into the fire pit to help you martial uncle. what about my life? yea I don't care about that." followed by "oh no, this mark getting darker, I'm totally getting closer to death. noooooo....i dont wanna dies" and it goes on and on. smh