This is one of my favorites by Alenotbeer on Novel Updates, regarding a story called Eternal Reverence:
This does have some similarities with BTTH, such as broken engagement and MC's focus on fire cultivation, but after the initial chapters, it becomes very clear that this is not BTTH at all. BTTH is a far superior piece of work than this one.
Spoilers abound. Most of the story is basically like this:
MC has terrible talents, at least on the surface, but gains a pretty powerful cheat. He joins a medium-level faction for cultivation resources, where he is initially ridiculed by his fellow peers cause he sucks or his body sucks. Everybody and their mother are so arrogant that it's almost pathetic to read. MC has to endure mockery and threats, but will eventually retaliates when someone inevitably attacks or challenge him. Of course, he always win these. After this, when our MC shows his value, he is finally appreciated and praised to heaven, until a bigger talent comes along and he is suddenly the scum of the Earth again who doesn't know his own place.
In every faction that he joins, they don't simply invest or teach you. Oh no, they're all run by capitalists, you see. If you want something from them, you have to do missions for them and earn these arbitrary points, which you can tend buy it from them. Skills, weapons, pills, utilities, etc. And forget collective knowledge, since only the things you mulled over and realize with your own power will be helpful to you so there's almost no actual teaching involved in these factions and they literally expect you to figure everything out. 90% of MC's techniques and skills are earned this way, while the remaining 10% are from adventures.
Once MC reached a certain level of power, then it's tournament time. First, there are tournaments in sects. Followed by tournaments for the main tournament. Then there is finally the main tournament, supplemented with a detailed dossier of each opponent that MC will face, which includes information of their sects, their power level, their skills, their specialty, their weapons, their rivals, their friends, their mother, their father, their dog, their shoe size, their last meal, and a five page essay about the day they took their first baby steps.
All that matters is that MC wins. And all these poor bastards cease to matter anymore.
And he is then declared the best all around. And... that's about it. Author finds a reason to switch maps, transports MC before he reach the level cap where his cultivation starts to slow down, to a new better area and the cycle repeats. Mm? Oh yeah, there'll a war and... a treasure hunt... and a chase... And okay, maybe he comes back for some payback... But all in all... Rinse. Wash. Repeat.
Sounds familiar to anyone? Hm? Maybe it's because this is the same scenario as every single xianxia you've ever read in your life. Chances are, if you're reading this review, then you already know the xianxia mantra by heart.
I mean, This is a fine story to read if you just want to past the time, but don't expect anything more than a generic xianxia story. Except without romance. Yeah, that's right. This has a thousand chapters and there's no romance whatsoever. Maybe. I think this is the story's biggest failure. Some girls obviously like him. Some even throw themselves at him. But I'm at chapter 600ish and MC seems determined to star in the much anticipated sequel to the 40-Year-Old Virgin. I don't know where the author is going with this, but the joke here is that the author is married now and he's too scared of his wife to add romance into his story, let alone a harem.
Damn, the TMW curse strikes again! The MFer who put harem in the tags, you better be talking about the later chapters, because I'd sue your pants off for false advertisement otherwise!
Anyhow, let's talk power-levels, yum, my favorite. The power creep in this story is terrible. I've already read three map changes so far, and basically, the power levels are bullshit. Take the Yunhai level for an example. In MC's home, Yunhai level is so powerful and legendary that no one even knows about it. To even have a chance to cross the sea that separates each major continents/map, you have to be Yunhai or stronger. In the second map, Yunhai are the key powers of the sect that MC joins, just a level or two beneath the level cap. Third map. Yunhai is so bloody common that each one is basically the mayor of a city or some shit. And you don't even want to know how common MC becomes after each map changes, it's hilarious. I know, it's expected of xianxia, right. But it feels especially bad here because it's only been 600ish chapters and already the power hierarchy makes no sense. This is way too early, and I realize, this may be a sign that the author doesn't have a firm control of his story.
And another problem, let's talk about MC's cheats now. You know, the prizes that MC gains from adventure/killing/achievements. Except for a few key items (Golden Talisman, Star Sword), they're really pretty underwhelming. Most of them aren't all that flashy or impressive, and are basically just slightly better-than-normal weapons/techniques, which when collected together, makes MC a real powerhouse. But eventually, they become pretty worthless. Some of them will even beaten out by the stuff that MC buys from his sect once he reached high enough in the hierarchy. Basically, our MC is "normal overpowered", not "absurdly overpowered". There are geniuses around that have their own inheritance/cheats that are just as powerful as MC's. And the primary way MC eventually outgrow them is by gaining and quickly learning more powerful skills and techniques that will be completely common in the next map. So his cheats are now worth about nineteen dollars on amazon.
And, because of MC's main cheat, the Golden Talismen, his soul is incredible. This is his real cheat. While everybody else's soul is just default gray, his is purple (previously green and blue) and extraordinary powerful for his cultivation. This not only makes him learn quicker (10x, 100x, 1000x, etc), it makes him naturally inclined towards spirit and mental abilities. But, for most of the story, you'll see him choose to focus largely on his physical cultivation and won't touch any of the other stuff (illusions, spirit attacks) until much later. I honestly don't know how to feel about that.
But I really like MC's character. He kills, yes, but he's not ruthless or vicious. He's not the type to murder whole families and cities just to end a potential threat "at its roots". He actually have a conscience, he cares about people and actually try to protect the weak when possible. He loves his family and invest a lot to help his parents cultivate and live longer. He calls himself a loner, but he still make friends with people and even have a healthy bit of respect for his rivals. He's actually worked with weaker people before and pay them their slice of the pie, their just dues even when they've barely lift a finger to contribute to their success. He hold grudges, but at the same time, he won't take a rivalry too far and even forget past wrongs after a certain point. I see a lot of people calling MC arrogant, and yes, he is, but no more than anyone else in the story. It's pretty normal for him because he's a prodigy, a genius of his field. Aye, this MC is arrogant, but he also have class.
All in all, a very generic story with a decent MC that hits most of the typical tropes, but not quite as satisfying as some of the other stories that are already available. Seems like something the author wrote just to make a little extra money and haven't really put much thought on. Nonetheless, I will make an effort to read up to the most recent chapters and update this review later on if I can. I feel like I haven't actually encounter any major problems yet that would turn me off. The only major issue I have is the lack of romance. Otherwise, this would be a good xianxia to read in my spare time. The rest are minor problems that, you have to admit, pretty much comes with the genre.
But.
If anyone thinks that this actually deserves to be compared to a classic like BTTH, meet me outside when we lunch, we'll brawl it out, kay?