|
It was discussed a fair bit a while back. I figure everyone is just quietly reading it but not having much to say. XYR owning on old man Shang is well past due but I'm sad she'll never get to fully avenge her master and take the throne. T I A N H A I W A S R O B B E D
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2018 12:17
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 18, 2024 16:42 |
|
|
i read it in about 50 chapter batches, infrequently. i don't really like reading individual chapters of anything once a week, much less a story i enjoy because it is good.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2018 12:28
|
|
|
I recently ran into a specialized translator's page: http://prosperousfood.com . The page is full of food based webnovels where the main character devotes their webnovel based overpoweredness to cooking. I haven't read through all their novels yet, but most seem fun. The only one I would unquestionably recommend is Here Comes The Lady Chef.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2018 14:12
|
|
|
FrantzX posted:Am I the only one here reading Way of Choices? I would think for all the complaints in this thread, a story like this would be mentioned more often. There's not a lot to say about really good stories. They are really good and you wish they updated more. Even Way of Choices, which is twice daily.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2018 14:21
|
|
|
I love Way of Choices but don't post about it because every post would just be incoherent yelling about how impossibly cool every character is. Time to own some sexist old men with the love love halving blade sword array. 
Sindai fucked around with this message at 15:26 on Jul 24, 2018 |
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2018 15:23
|
|
|
For the kumoko fans, the latest chapter of the manga is the demons pre-war conference: http://kissmanga.com/Manga/Kumo-Desu-ga--Nani-ka/Ch-029-002---Read-Online?id=432134#1 Lots of the demons got designs that we've never seen before. Balto looks a lot younger then i imagined. Also weird seeing ariel in that skimpy outfit, but that was her design from the books.
|
|
#
?
Jul 26, 2018 13:24
|
|
|
I forgot how hard it tries to trick you into thinking Ariel is the main character. That is definitely not how I pictured Wrath.
|
|
#
?
Jul 26, 2018 16:39
|
|
|
Everyone talks about Way of Choices as the hands down best cultivation novel, so I'm finally giving it a chance. I tried reading it a few years ago and dropped it because it seemed too slow, but I've picked it back up again and am now partway through the Grand Examination.... I'm not that impressed. Its prose is well enough written and the Gravity Tales translation is fine, but the plot has started to feel a little too generic for the amount of praise that gets heaped on it. I was especially not happy with how his Purification problem was resolved. CCS gets built up as this super genius who can solve unsolvable cultivation problems, but his own problem gets solved by a Dragon feeding him blood? On accident, not even by his own design? Boring. And obviously dragon blood body is the best body anyone has every seen, because xianxia. And then when that dragon turns into another beautiful chick to join his harem (the 4th? Phoenix, princess, Mo Yu, dragon, maybe Empress in the future)... give me a break. I'm about to check out. I'm going to finish this arc at least but I don't know if I have another 900 chapters in me, plus whatever is still left to be translated.
|
|
#
?
Jul 26, 2018 18:52
|
|
|
I wouldn't even call WoC a cultivation novel after the first third or so, it turns into a political intrigue novel that takes place in a cultivation world with thousand year old dao wizards and takes that into account. It certainly doesn't fall into the trap of repeating the same story arc with different names and cultivation levels. When CCS's power and status in the world changes, the whole story changes with it.
Sindai fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Jul 26, 2018 |
|
#
?
Jul 26, 2018 19:02
|
|
|
Autonomous Monster posted:Sometimes you get terrible garbage that's fun to read! I'm sure that used to be a thing that happened and I didn't hallucinate it theres that fish story
|
|
#
?
Jul 26, 2018 19:11
|
|
|
But enough about trash like Way of Choices, this is the best webnovel ever written: https://ensjtrans.com/2016/05/28/invisible-dragon-chapters-1-9-20020725/
|
|
#
?
Jul 26, 2018 19:22
|
|
|
In Forge of Destiny news the main character busts out some King Fu Mean Girls level shade and then air drops her snake turtle onto a giant bears face before dunking on her opponent.
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2018 02:18
|
|
|
Its Rinaldo posted:In Forge of Destiny news the main character busts out some King Fu Mean Girls level shade and then air drops her snake turtle onto a giant bears face before dunking on her opponent. it was beautiful and everything i ever wanted to see, a flawless victory over a superior cultivation opponent i also really enjoy the conversation before the duel, what ling qi said was completely true so chu song has no real response beyond incredible rage, and that rage meant ling qi got to control the pace of the entire match e: also on a broader strategic level, ling qi didn't reveal anything new that she can do, nothing, that's gotta be making ji rong think a bit
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2018 03:30
|
|
|
I read "Kumo Desu Ga Nani Ka" a few years back when it got really popular here and kept up with it up until the Oni VS Vampire fight, or thereabouts, at which point either the publication or the translations stagnated so I lost track of it. Back at Christmas I received the first volumes of the English translated novel and manga and fell right back in love with it, although I only read those two until now. I've been buying the novel and manga releases here in Japan but I haven't actually been reading them, until now when a surplus of time at work and a desire to practice Japanese got me to start rereading it through the Japanse web novel and it's amazing how good this series is every time I read it. I really want to catch up on both the novel and the manga and I am unreasonably hyped that it is finally getting an anime. I hope they do it justice. Not much more to add than that, I just love the murder-spider.
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2018 04:13
|
|
|
Its been agonizing waiting for the official translation just to catch up where Blastron left off. Although, the volume coming out next Tuesday should mostly be new stuff.
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2018 04:26
|
|
|
IShallRiseAgain posted:Its been agonizing waiting for the official translation just to catch up where Blastron left off. Although, the volume coming out next Tuesday should mostly be new stuff. Wow, really? I thought they were only up to Volume 3, just how far did they cover in Volume 2? I know they changed the pacing a lot, or I've heard anyway since I've only read the first one, but that would be a lot of ground to cover in only three volumes. Fake Edit: While writing this I realized you wrote Blastron, who did the way better translations, not the uhh serviceable Turbo/RTD ones that I read way back. Looks like they got up to 120ish which sounds about right for three volumes. I'm really excited to read them!
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2018 04:39
|
|
|
Silynt posted:Everyone talks about Way of Choices as the hands down best cultivation novel, so I'm finally giving it a chance. I tried reading it a few years ago and dropped it because it seemed too slow, but I've picked it back up again and am now partway through the Grand Examination.... I'm not that impressed. It feels like you read all the cultivation parts of Way of Choices in a severely reductionist perspective and ignored all the non-cultivation parts. If CCS had solved his purification problem with his super-genius Dao canon, that would have been boring and formulaic because it was the same way he'd been solving all the other problems around him. As it was, it showed that CCS is not infallible; that he could be surprised and mystified like a normal teenager instead of the ultra-mature persona that he came off as. The dragon blood body is eye-rolly, but it's mainly used to make up for his crippled cultivation-body so he can fight his peers evenly. That you consider the Empress as a possible inclusion to his harem leads me to think you probably missed all the hints suggesting that she is his primary antagonist. This "harem" is only incidental, by the way; its possibility dies when CCS falls in reciprocal love with his soulmate. To be honest, I don't know whether or not I should recommend that you keep reading. Up to the end of the Grand Examination, WoC is maybe three-quarters cultivation, and one quarter drama/intrigue, with a lot of that one quarter being mainly set-up. After the Grand Examination is when the story really takes off (the Garden of Zhou was when my interest really solidified), and the cultivation part becomes gradually but noticeably less integral as the drama/intrigue starts paying off and chaining into more setup, but if you're reading this for the cultivation parts and ignoring all the setup then this shift will leave you alienated and confused.
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2018 08:05
|
|
|
I don't know, I think it's kind of cool how he got almost literally everything that is going on wrong. That in itself is almost impressive.
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2018 17:51
|
|
|
Way of Choices is much more about the relationships between the characters, the politics between the different human factions, relations with the demi-humans, and war with the demons, etc. Cultivation is intrinsic to the world and the story but I think this story would hold up even if you removed all the cultivation and other fantastic elements. It would lose (by removing the fantastic elements) the decades/century long plots/relationships but you could drop this story into a warring states type time period and it would be fine. The different races just become different human nations and it would all pretty much work out A-Okay.
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2018 19:59
|
|
|
I'm glad to hear that the story goes in a different direction than standard Chinese cultivation fantasy; while I've read a ton of those, they are increasingly hard to swallow. My growing disdain for the genre is mainly why I posted that first rant - the dragon blood deus ex machina resolution to the main character's long built up cultivation problem felt too cliche and I was frustrated that the story went in that direction. I'm also glad to hear that it doesn't descend into a harem novel, although I'm a firm believer that female cast members don't need to be the actual love interest to be a part of the harem. Even if Luoluo never becomes an actual lover, if she keeps being 100% obedient to CCS and never regains her agency as a character then I would still call her a harem member and I hate that poo poo. It sounds like that's not the case, though, so no problem. As for the Empress, where I am in the story there's definitely been no major hints that she is the primary antagonist - she's stared wistfully at the sky and philosophized about his connection to her fate or something like that, and she's also gone out of her way to help his growth (or at least has avoided stunting it). Other characters have repeatedly pointed out the contradictions in her actions, so I'm now interested to see what her motivations are.
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2018 20:35
|
|
|
standard cultivation wn's are actually pretty interesting in a sense. they are usually about a weak, oppressed young man who attains ultimate power, and inevitably abuses that power at every opportunity. except, it isn't presented as abuse of power which says volumes about the authors. or at least it did before malevolent rape goblin protagonists (figurative rape goblins for chinese wn, literal for japanese) became a genre staple, so presumably a lot of those wn's are just imitating what's popular. they still aren't interesting as stories to be read, though.
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2018 20:55
|
|
|
I'm looking forward to binging Forge of Destiny again. I think it's been about a couple months since I last read it; the tournament hadn't started yet. The longer I wait, the longer I can enjoy reading it. I'm trying to get to the point where I'm actively following enough web serials that there's always something to read, but it's tough because my standards are too high for most WNs (which isn't exactly a high bar). Sindai posted:But enough about trash like Way of Choices, this is the best webnovel ever written: This part was totally epic: quote:
edit: Like I'm just imagining the look on invisivisible dragon's face, as invisible dragon reveals he can see with his mind's eye, and it's basically like when Goku first goes SSJ Silynt posted:I'm also glad to hear that it doesn't descend into a harem novel, although I'm a firm believer that female cast members don't need to be the actual love interest to be a part of the harem. Even if Luoluo never becomes an actual lover, if she keeps being 100% obedient to CCS and never regains her agency as a character then I would still call her a harem member and I hate that poo poo. It sounds like that's not the case, though, so no problem. I think most harems are actually like this (where there's an obvious main love interest and never any doubt that they're who the protagonist will end up with, but other girls are still interested in the protagonist and accompany him). After all, the main wish fulfillment fantasy is usually the "girls are interested in me" part. Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 23:52 on Jul 27, 2018 |
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2018 23:43
|
|
|
Ytlaya posted:I think most harems are actually like this (where there's an obvious main love interest and never any doubt that they're who the protagonist will end up with, but other girls are still interested in the protagonist and accompany him). After all, the main wish fulfillment fantasy is usually the "girls are interested in me" part. It's certainly a type of harem situation that seems to be more popular for the wish fulfillment aspect than the more typical fanservice aspects.
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2018 23:58
|
|
|
Ytlaya posted:I'm looking forward to binging Forge of Destiny again. I think it's been about a couple months since I last read it; the tournament hadn't started yet. The longer I wait, the longer I can enjoy reading it. The tournament stuff is really some of the best stuff so far. Some great political and action stuff in it. Some real surprises too.
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2018 01:11
|
|
|
Turns out for an inhumane monster that demands total obedience to her imacullate order and dabbles in selective emotional surgery on her kid, Kung Fu Stalin is actually pretty funny.
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2018 04:51
|
|
|
Megazver posted:So in 'Am I a God?', which is a new release on Qidian, a magic meteor flew over Earth or whatever and now (some?) cats have superpowers and our protagonist was bitten by his cat just as the meteor flew by, so now he can talk to the now human-level intelligent supercats and gain use of their powers if they acknowledge him as their human. And of course, there is the usual reality gamification aspect, where he now gets cat-related missions and experience in a special book in his head and gets to level up himself and his cats. I am still reading this. It's still not exactly high-brow litfic and I still enjoy it way more than it deserves. On the upside, the translation is actually decent(I wish this guy would take over Release That Witch. Or anyone, really. Just let Alexa do it, I bet she'd do a better job.) the cats are still entertaining and while the protagonist is your typical shameless money-grubbing slacker, he's not too bad of a person.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2018 23:37
|
|
|
I've mostly dropped it. I have less time to read WNs anyway, and the joke of 'cats are assholes' was slowly wearing out its welcome. Also, it has one of the more egregious instances of including RPG mechanics in the plot for no reason that I know of.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2018 03:58
|
|
|
Saved by darling Tang Tang the sword squirrel. I'm dying. I'm loving dead.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2018 20:52
|
|
|
ZTJ's ability to make the epic duel culminating the last 500 chapters both ridiculously badass and hysterically funny is great.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2018 21:00
|
|
|
Autonomous Monster posted:Saved by darling Tang Tang the sword squirrel.  I can't believe Tang Thirty Six hiding swords for shits and giggles led to this. It's great thematically too, because Shang Xingzhou keeps claiming that he gave Chen Changsheng everything, and he can take it all back. But this really shows that Orthodox Academy has changed, and it is truly Chen Changsheng's now.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2018 21:11
|
|
|
quote:More importantly, it sounded like some incredibly annoying person was incredibly pleased with themselves.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2018 00:55
|
|
|
I've been catching up in Forge of Destiny, and I'm pretty sad about the end of the year, because unlike most stories I actually entirely believe that the writer will let certain characters mostly disappear from the story (because their lives are just naturally going in a very different direction than Ling Qi's and the author is extremely good at having other characters interact realistically with the setting). Su Ling, for example, is almost certainly going to mostly disappear, and the same is going to be true for the Golden Fields characters who don't make Inner Sect. I bet Meizhen is also pretty sad that she's not going to get to live with Ling Qi anymore. One thing I'm really curious about is whether new characters will be introduced in the year below Ling Qi, and how they'll interact with the plot. It would be neat if some other hyper-talented character(s) show up.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2018 02:52
|
|
|
I thought Kumo was on a long long haitus but it was just the translator group switching websites without notice 
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2018 03:28
|
|
|
What do you mean? Raising the Dead doesn't seem to have moved. edit: oh you're reading old chapters. If you aren't already use novelupdates to keep track of series that switch translators and websites. Sindai fucked around with this message at 03:47 on Aug 2, 2018 |
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2018 03:45
|
|
|
Ytlaya posted:I've been catching up in Forge of Destiny, and I'm pretty sad about the end of the year, because unlike most stories I actually entirely believe that the writer will let certain characters mostly disappear from the story (because their lives are just naturally going in a very different direction than Ling Qi's and the author is extremely good at having other characters interact realistically with the setting). Su Ling, for example, is almost certainly going to mostly disappear, and the same is going to be true for the Golden Fields characters who don't make Inner Sect. I bet Meizhen is also pretty sad that she's not going to get to live with Ling Qi anymore. Thinking about it, all the Outer Sect disciples that Ling Qi had 3 dots of relationship with (or more) got into the Inner Sect (well Li Suyin probably did, won't know for sure until next update). So it won't be so bad, all the major figures will be there. And some of those provide connections to other Outer Sect characters, plus Ling Qi will have a professional connection with some of them for many years.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2018 08:19
|
|
|
Ytlaya posted:I've been catching up in Forge of Destiny, and I'm pretty sad about the end of the year, because unlike most stories I actually entirely believe that the writer will let certain characters mostly disappear from the story (because their lives are just naturally going in a very different direction than Ling Qi's and the author is extremely good at having other characters interact realistically with the setting). Su Ling, for example, is almost certainly going to mostly disappear, and the same is going to be true for the Golden Fields characters who don't make Inner Sect. I bet Meizhen is also pretty sad that she's not going to get to live with Ling Qi anymore. The tutoring system is set up for Ling Qi to show up and dumpster some poor 2nd realm who asked for help with like spiritual defense and gets popsicled for a week or fire arts and they have to fight a turtle the size of a humvee who’s snake tail is spiting literal fiery acid at them
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2018 20:43
|
|
|
Is there a translation of Kumo that doesn't suck and doesn't get dropped early in the story?
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2018 21:58
|
|
|
No. Read blastron, then turb0 (bad but unfortunately the only one for a big chunk of the middle), then Raising the Dead. Or just wait for the LNs, manga, or anime. Sindai fucked around with this message at 01:00 on Aug 3, 2018 |
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2018 22:04
|
|
|
I assume you're reading the official LN translation and then continuing with fan translations? Yeah, you're boned.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2018 22:05
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 18, 2024 16:42 |
|
|
So I'm caught up with FoD now. Even though it was extremely predictable, I'm sad Han Jian lost. At least he's pretty much a shoe-in for getting inner sect next year, barring a bunch of extremely talented new disciples coming in; I think he's probably the strongest of the losers from the first set of tournament rounds. Gan Guangli, Xiulan's recent opponent, and maybe Lu Feng might be stronger than him (despite getting knocked out of the prelims), but that still gives him good chances. From what I can tell, people like Bai Meizhen/Sun Liling/Cai Renxiang/Ling Qi/Ji Rong (these are probably the five biggest outliers by either background or talent) are very uncommon. That one mook whose perspective we saw during the prelims made it sound like reaching third realm this early is very rare and peak of second is usually enough to get inner sect. If I had my way, I would have preferred Ling Qi more heavily involving herself with the Golden Fields folks. Both Han Jian and Gu Xiulan are among the more interesting of the cast, and the situation of their home province is also one of the most interesting. Becoming Jiao's disciple was always the most "obvious" cultivation choice, so I can understand wanting to avoid that, but it really feels like Ling Qi is forcing herself into a role that doesn't fit her personality as Cai's vassal. edit: Every time other characters fight I find myself wishing Ling Qi didn't just spam mist/frost at people and had a more "involved" fighting style (like Ji Rong's kickass lightning poo poo). Speaking of her techniques, almost everything she has is some AoE thing. Mist, frost, illusion dance party, and the abyssal thing she never uses (though at least that has worms she also never uses). I'm guessing she never uses the active effects of her non-mist/frost just because those arts aren't ranked up as much and are flat-out inferior right now. One thing I really like is that even random mooks have their own unique abilities with non-trivial effects. Ling Qi is specifically specced to easily beat large numbers of weaker enemies, but Gan Gaungli's soldiers were able to put up some resistance against Ji Rong and their attacks couldn't just be shrugged off. My only gripe about non-Ling Qi combat abilities is that other characters seem to 100% stick to their "themes," while Ling Qi has stuff like Thousand Ring Fortress that is totally unrelated to her "main" elements. Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 00:47 on Aug 4, 2018 |
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2018 23:40
|
|