The Quest for Immortality Chapter 683 Discussion

I love it. The world building is amazing and the characters are great. I love the character development of the MC as well.

The story isn't quick, in terms of cultivation levels, like those other xianxia that uses quick cultivation for the reader to feel good and run out of cultivation level/ranks leading to titles like God king level being outclassed by Holy Dragon Ancestor level and so on.

The story is slow, in terms of cultivation levels, but even if his level hasn't increased his power has. The story itself tells you this is a different path the MC walks on, divine sense, as he isn't as good as the other top tier talents. The MC grows and we see him grow with his divine sense from one pattern, two pattern, three pattern, etc.

What's great about this is that even if there is a focus on formation power, divine sense and not cultivation, we see the story not leave behind characters and world building. The world's secrets still gets introduced to us, we get to see new characters, old characters still appear or are mentioned and we get to sometimes see the end of their path like Spoiler

Instructor Yan settling down, establishing a sect and marrying someone.

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The character development for the MC is nice. We are told early on that the MC should stick with his original heart so I expect him to somewhat stay with his innocent self like spiderman always being the guy who quips with his villains even as he grows. But the MC does change and learn. We see him from a somewhat mischievous child to becoming more cautious and can be brutal towards his enemies so he can be safe, like attacking corpses. He learns from those around him like Elder Yu with his insults to the Dao courts methods of torture. There are more but these two are the most prominent in my mind.

And I agree with @pane that there is a cycle when looking at it that broadly (like saying hero or villain [mc] goes fighting big bad or good guy [antagonist], like theres a ton of different ways it happens but that is what it is at the heart of a lot of stories) but it isn't just pure filler. And it only happens three times as of now. And each time it is different and pretty much shows the MCs growth, in power mostly, in the story. Spoiler:

Spoiler

In the first one the MC was just more or less played around by the biggest bad guy (Eerie Daoist) with him surprising the MC and antagonist, leading to the MC running away scared, he was always one step behind the antagonist and Eerie Daoist and it was through learning that grand formation from his master that he beat the monster. The second one has the MC actively sabotaging the next villain and controlling the main monster, even preventing the Eerie Daoist's plan because he controlled the monster. And this is just the finale, there were already differences before this, from how the villains deal with the MC, not knowing the MC and the other kidnaps him to use him, to how the MC deals with the problem.

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If you like a somewhat op MC but not an invincible one then you may like this one. As the Mc's op power is shown when he assists others in battles rather than just direct confrontations (he can face direct confrontations but he either struggles and needs to deceive the enemy to win or has to hold out for his allies to help him compared to him more or less overwhleming the enemy with his formations and ambushes when with allies)