>>702109
Oh, the ALCHEMY. I understand that this is a story about an alchemist, but descriptions and the preparation process should not take up two or four chapters each time. I'm much more interest in the plots and the characters in the story, not reading about a fake process that the author just pulled out of butt. There are a bunch of fighting tournaments for the MC which features the usual. MC joins, audience thinks he has no shot, wins. These are alchemy tournaments in addition to martial arts tournament. Although the latter drops off eventually, the alchemy tournaments persists all the way up to chapter 3,400. Same pattern, MC always win. Then there are the experiments that he does with alchemy which sometimes leads absolutely nowhere. Like, he learns how to combine alchemy and weapon runes to increase the effects of his pills by at least 10x, but he hardly ever uses this discovery again (I'd say never, but I think he may have used this one other time) cause it's apparently too hard. Oh, sure, like two thousand chapters later, he finds out about a similar process, but this and that are two different things. Different runes, different system. So yeah. That was a waste of time.

Then there is a Level System. It is complete bullshit. Like, there are a lot of stages where it took most people thousands of years to reach, centuries if they're talented. Okay, MC does it in a couple years. Which is nothing compared to his friends, who achieve even it earlier than the MC because they are lucky as heck or their master essentially have a Hyperbolic Time Chamber that only girls can used for some reason. And rarely does the other character react to this miracle. They did it and that's it. So no matter how powerful the MC becomes, his friends/lovers will either be ahead of him or be not that far behind because of stupid reasons. All the way up to the end. Seriously. Power levels are bullshit.

Which leads us to the Irregular Timezones. Oh boy, the MC keeps getting screwed over by this. In this story, there are a lot of worlds, and they almost never the same. Say, if MC becomes stuck in some place and is forced to spend two months there, as much as NINE thousand years could have passed in his world. This idea probably came from the old Chinese belief that one year in our world is like a day in the Heavenly world. But this is crazy from a reader's point of view. This process rarely works out in our MC's favor. It's just a plot point that the author relies on to let his friends/lovers/enemies catch up to him when he becomes too OP. It's as frustrating as it sounds and it feels really cheap whenever it happens. At first, it was just one century or so, then it become thousands of years, then tens of thousands of years. The last time dilution condensed millions of years into ten days. Fortunately for the MC, this one worked out in his favor. So if you intend to read this, prepare to experience a lot of jumps into the future.

And also fortunate for the MC, the Romance in this story is pretty simple. The girls are all beautiful or at least attractive. Their hearts are very easy to capture. Some female characters barely has any interaction with the MC but somehow fell madly in love with him cause he did one good thing for them. Still, as flimsy as that sounds, they remain very loyal to their man. Even if that same man leaves them for hundreds, if not thousands of years without any communication between the two and is constantly out there seducing the underpants off other girls, they remain as chaste as nuns. Just like in real life! Okay, I can accept that cause this is a fantasy, but then... they just outright disappears. Even the original women who had accompanied the MC from the very start disappears for hundreds of chapters (if not a thousand) without much fanfare and by the time they make another appearance, they are reduced to cameos at best and their roles by the MC's side are replaced by OTHER women. Some of the best characters in the story are these original love interests, and then, poof, they're just gone. I'm serious, they're just phased out. They have absolutely no roles in the end game arc other than the fact that helping MC get back to their world (which is around 3,400 chapters onward) and are barely mentioned at all afterward.

A lot of Plotlines are also dropped too. Like, you can tell when the author introduce some stuff, like some new information or named characters, to set up a future storyline. Then, they are never mentioned again. I understand one or two dropped storylines, but this happens a lot. The author seems to just set stuff up on a whim and drops them just as quickly. This wouldn't be so bad if they don't suck up so much words and chapters. Like, MC creates a sect of his own later on that took a lot of chapters to set up and a great deal of the story involves its conception and survival. Eventually, while all of his friends and lovers ascend to a higher realm of existence, the MC choose not to ascend so fast and waits a hundred years. (*actually 30 years) Why? To do nothing but create pills for this sect so that it would have a strong foundation and would be able to endure against the obstacles ahead. The result? The sect falls apart in his absence and its existence is never brought up again. A second one is the existence of dan lings, spirits that are born when alchemist creates pills that have reach the peak of their potential. They have the talent to become even better alchemist than normal people cause they were born of alchemy and have the ability to "eat" alchemist in order to steal their skills. Apparently, every alchemist worth their salt have at least one or two in a "higher realm". We do not see either of these two abilities used in the story. Ever. In fact, after their arc, we do not see any dan lings ever again. As if MC is the only one who has it. Lastly, have MC finally found something that that stupid needle couldn't pierce through?

If that were not enough, the MC's Intellect starts to decay badly later on. Like, after a while, he just runs into every problem without any consideration for himself, his situation, or the strength of his enemies. Most of the time, he has absolutely no plan on how to face his enemies/threats which are often a lot stronger than he is. He just throws himself into bad situations and hope for the best. It's only by luck that he makes it out alive and ahead every time. Like, his arrival just happens to coincides with an opportunity that ensures his safety and eventually leads to his rival's downfall. Gosh, I know he's never been some super smart genius, he's a C+ student at the beginning, but by the end, I'm sure he qualifies as mentally retarded. It's just that he's the cleverest retard in the story.

Speaking of retards in the stories, I have to talk about the Villains. If a male character is talented/handsome/famous but is not MC or a clear ally, they are always evil. No exceptions. They will always be stupid and greedy people who wants MC's treasure or some super technique or even his lovers. They always will resort to either numbers and underhanded methods to get their way. Not only that, their families (or a whole set of families) will also be evil and greedy, and they will always be pulled into direct conflict with the MC so that he can destroy them later on without any sort of guilt on his conscience. It's fine cause they are all horrible people with no redeeming traits at all. Most of the time, these families or sect will be connected to someone even more powerful that wants to revenge or for sake of his treasures/technqiue. Then the MC has to destroy them too and...Well, the circle of life, everybody! And, the ones that MC hasn't got time for? Well, they will all join the next big antagonist that comes along cause they are evil and evil people always work together. This will make MC's victory all the more awesome! Or not. And, the villains are just worthless. They are often set up as the big bad, cause a lot of trouble and pain for the MC when he's still weak. Then, once MC becomes powerful, he just bloody kills them off instantly cause he's 10x more powerful than them now and they are nothing compared to him. Or, if they're really unlucky, they are killed by MC's allies offscreen cause karma? All that built-up and conflict that the author created between a hero and his rival... Ended with one stroke.

Finally, one of my biggest problem with the story... The MC is always a Subordinate. Okay, he made his own sect. Okay, he becomes a very powerful alchemist and he's killed a lot of people... But I never got the sense that he ever becomes his own man. He's always the underdog, working his way up to the top. Though he eventually get there, comes the next arc, he's reduced to a nobody once more and has to start his rise all over again. Like, one of the last arc in the story, we see him in a new society, with everybody and their uncle is considered stronger than him, where he takes a job as part of a patrol company guarding a bloody tree! Really? 3,600 chapters later and our MC still has to rely on the good will and protection of others to cover his butt? Haven't we done this already? Repeatedly? Did the author really have to make him take a job as a glorified redshirt cause he couldn't think of any fresh ideas for his story? This is in the last hundred chapters. And don't get me started about the number of times where he is stuck in another realm where he can't use his normal powers and has to learn to use another kind of energy! The last arc is all this.

I know some of you guys hate this so lemme just tell you first. Except for his father, the Shen family (in fact, everyone from the entire area he came from) will eventually ends up extinct/dead. As per usual, MC had to save his father's ass later and his father doesn't appear again. And MC never had any children with his love interest even though he promised his father he would after things "settle down". I think he's sterile by now.