What always bothered me was that there are clans/sects/kingdoms with THOUSANDS of years of history, each generation married to several women over hundreds of years, yet the most promising young master is coincidentally born around the same time as the MC?
Like there is usually no age difference between the MC and the young master.
What happened in the last 500 years? Did the old man JUST now decide to have children?
And even when there are older siblings, the difference isn't that much.
2. The world is static.
Like others before me have pointed out, there are no new technologies/innovations, no introduction of anything remotely useful. Time is still measured in "cups" and "breaths" after millions of years. Like really bruv?
3. Unrealistic reactions.
"You dare hurt XX Master?" cliche needs to die out FAST.
4. Too many lucky accidents, MC finding exactly what he needs without much effort. No work involved. It becomes so boring.

ludo2776 I aree with everything from point 2 on. Point 1 is a different story. The regression is logical due to the isolationist tendencies of the cultivators . They segerate themselves from "mere mortals" and then seperate further into sevts and clans that have little to do with each other. Even within the sect and clans, they compete for resources as well as the attention of elders. These policies encourage regression rather than innovation.

In essence, in order to see more progress and less regression, one would have to foster a ciultivator society that looks outward as a whole instead of inward.

    Also "reincarnating" into the body of a dead cultivator, keeping memories, acting completely different and yet either no one notices or they are happy that they finally turned their life around and are taking cultivation seriously.

    What is reincarnation? You taking control of an another intelligent organism or even objects while keeping your previous life's memories? Or You inheriting your past memories in the context of you still bring you? Where do those memories come from? Your soul, brain, limbic system, nowhere,2.5 Petabytes with a RAM of 100 TB? Is reincarnation simply moving original inside you then pasting it to others, much like simulation theory? Or an actual feat that's unanswerable now by our current technology? Maybe rebirth by traveling to the past isn't actually your past, but a different plane or a parallel universe with almost perfect similarities compared to earth? Haha joke.

      Woebegone I've always thought that Spirits/Souls/Consciousness that makes up us humans was a particular electromagnetic wavelength unique to each person. This contains all of one's experiences and memories in stasis, unable to change on it's own.
      On the other side is the human body with it's own magnetic waves (Alpha waves/Theta waves when you dream) that is able to affect the Soul's own fields, much like how information is written onto a hard drive.
      In this example the Soul would be a program, telling the body how to operate; and the body would utilize it's ability to control physical space to give feedback to the soul, overwriting previous thoughts and memories and thus making the soul stronger/smarter.
      Without a body the soul cannot change by itself. This is why you hear about ghost being trapped in a cycle of confusion is ghost stories. This also makes them more susceptible to outside influences such as Mediums who's bodies have a higher level of spiritual attunement and can affect wandering spirits.
      So when someone "Reincarnates", their spirit is taking over the body of someone who's own spirit was too weak to handle the stress it's body experienced and "Died" prematurely, even though the body was still salvageable. Then the protagonist's spirit is altered by the new bodies unique electromagnetic composition and has memories/thoughts/skills added to it's previous one's when the story starts.
      This is just my personal headcannon about how these things work, who really knows.

        I'll just write something I really, really don't like seeing in cultivation novels. No offense to authors who write it like this, just my personal opinion:

        Loser MC is treated bad by their powerful family
        Finds a hidden ancestral relic/item/cultivation method/etc.
        Becomes super strong and takes revenge

        Aims for the world(?)

        Why can't there just be a cultivation novel that's easygoing and wholesome. Not some grand plot about revenge or getting the girl/boy. Just an average cultivator cultivating in earnest and reaching the fruits of hard training and really just living. (maybe there is one like this out but... eh...) Like, they can just be a small side character living their life while witnessing the epic adventures of other cultivators but it's really wholesome.

        Sorry, I just had to rant a little.

        Just saying this again. None of this is meant to offend anyone, just me stating my opinions with no malicious intent directed to anyone or specific novel.

          Not as ridiculous as some previous points were made, but in a broader view, why not a single "genius" was born?

          Let me phrase it differently, you have the standard genius, for cultivation, like reached Sage Level in 10 years, WOW SUCH A GENIUS WOW! But why there is not a single "genius", great minds, like we have on Earth. In fact, there doesn't seem to be anyone even remotely interested in finding answers in the world they are living in. Could be anything, from Archimedes to Lavoisier, Newton, anyone? Why in the 100000000000000000 years (because each time, you had thousands of years to the story) that those countries existed, not a single peasant or officials began to ponder on basic things?

          I mean, yes, cultivators exist, so why should they wonder about why gravity is present or stuff like that. But at the same time, isn't the comprehension of those laws part of the "DAO", never truly understood that term. I mean, the MC look at a pond created after two minutes of rain, and he immediately understands the Dao of Water. But no one else, like with the permanent regression of technologies and cultivation methods, wondered if it was possible for real humans, not cultivator, to still influence the world.

          In that scope, I would greatly appreciate that one day, on any novels, just one, the MC stumbled on a mad human that was trying to sell one of his inventions to cultivators. Not something one cultivator created, with his Qi or the inner force of that world. No, just random Michel that was previously studying something came up with a principle similar to a water mill, allowing his country/city to be more prosper and show growth. Not asking a lot, but each time the MC looks at the peasants, it's like "they are weak, tired of working every day, dumb, dirty." There is never an aqueduct or even use things like black powder. I mean, the Chinese invented it, but I can't seem to recall a single time where I saw it. In cultivation novels, I speak, because in isekai like Release that Witch, yes, the white powder is used.

          Loving the thread. Just a general comment on technology though: The tech tree of computer games is not an accurate depiction of how technology improves in human civilizations. Technology does not neatly "level up" to a certain state after the following prerequisites are met and by building the appropriate buildings and waiting a set amount of time.

          According to wikipedia the stone age lasted about 3.4 million years. So a few million years of using literally stone age technology. So many thousand years of history is nothing in our history when it comes to technological advancements. We are currently living in a period of time where our technology level is improving at a literally unprecedented rate from what our ancestors would have experienced. Its not that there were no improvements in technology, but they were at a much slower pace. And technology and information was not shared as frequently as it is now.

          And that does not take into account that technology levels can regress. The great pyramids of Giza were built ~2600BC. It would be thousands of years before buildings as tall would be constructed that tall in Europe. The method of making greek fire was lost. Presumably for forever. And even though they had a clear use for it, what with enemies all around. Some of whom eventually broke into their city, took it for their own and renamed it (and not before another group of enemies beat them to it first). Ancient mathematical proofs have been lost. Some probably for all time while others are being rediscovered. Some by mathematicians figuratively reinventing the wheel and some old documents are being recovered. The oldest are from thousands of years ago.

          TL:DR version - Technology is a strange thing and does not progress at a set rate or even in a consistent direction. Our perspective on it is very skewed based on the period of time that we are living in.

            Yuyumamoru Are you asking for a Slice of life Cultivation novel?
            I'm sure they're out there but that niche would be a hard one to properly tightrope walk between staying casual and actually having interesting things happen on the cultivation side sans overused cliches.
            I've never read "Cultivation Chat Group" can anyone attest to it's similarities?

              Just thought of another one.
              When the MC is a lone cultivator and has no backing he's at the mercy of the Sects who all support each other. If he insults one of the members, all the others will put aside their differences and hunt him down to the bitter end. It is explained that the MC is only having troubles because he's not part of an organization, and that if he just joined one he wouldn't be having all of these problems. (But he wont because our Protagonist is just too Cool for School!)
              But then the next Novel will have an MC who has been in Familial Sect his entire life, but it's His Own Family Members that are holding him back and causing him problems, even though this MC is a really nice and cooperative person. And no matter how much he ends up doing for his Clan, or how many External threats he handles for them along the way, his main antagonists will always be the same kind of Proud Sons who refuse to cooperate with each other to keep Family harmony when it comes to the MC but will all lock arms and run into the Meat grinder when it's the Hero from the First example!
              Basically no matter who the MC is or where he comes from or what background he has, Everyone will bend over backwards and break all societal norms just to mess with him: His Cousins, his Clan Elders, other Clans, random Bandits and sometimes even the very Gods he prays to!

              For me, it's the culture, it makes no sense for a male dominated culture like ancient China, when female cultivators are no weaker than men of equal rank.

              mng I believe war, control and envy hindered technology advancements for those times. Leonardo Di Vinci formed blueprints of an aeroplane, but various "Holy Wars" ensured those designs weren't implemented. It wasn't until the Wright Brothers came along that the designs of a plane could literally take flight.

              As human beings who crave for advancement we also self-sabortage our technological growth by caving to our dark sides (war, mass destruction and so forth).

              Well that's my take anyway. :smile_cat:

                  Yuyumamoru you should try lady cultivator!
                  the FL/MC is basically just trying to cultivate so that she's safe from other people who want to use her for her constitution. it's not the most slice of life, but she's not all about revenge & the romance hasn't really played a big part yet. I think you'll like it if you haven't read it yet. :)

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