u/DesperateBaseball614

Why tf would he call out the Heavenly Lightning Banner's true name just because it asked him to bro. He knows it's a True Immortal treasure and he's seen it cause disaster multiple times, yet he trusted his own meager Nascent Soul level ability to read fate to decide whether it was safe or not to call its name.

Worst of all, He KNOWS the Heavenly Lightning Banner is connected by fate to a True Immortal (Yang Dujin's repeated warnings), AND that the connection is strong enough that the True Immortal typically finds the Banner around 70 years after regression (Which was coming very soon btw), AND he JUST talked with two True Immortals (Bong Ryeong and Black Dragon) about how names have a very powerful attraction to fate (which is also what Seo Hweol's whole naming project is all about and the reason SEH had Hong Fan's fate read before giving him a suitable name, aka what the whole arc has been about).

A blind dog could tell where this is going.

And if that wasn't enough, in the next chapter he goes like 'Shit shit shit, how could this happen, I even read fate'. Come on bro, could've at least played it off by saying the lightning banner had been influencing his mind or something. As it stands it was just my goat being a dumbass

PS: Yuan Li/Yu is broken asf. Just his luck that the one nascent soul stage cultivator left on the head realm was equivalent to at the very least 5 high ranked nascent soul stage elders

Warning: Long asf

Felt like it might be fun to do some progress updates and get some banter going.

So I made a post about a week ago about how everything in the 13th regression was dogshit; SEH was wildly out of character and the worst he's ever been, there was a total lack of both thematic and plot progression, and I'm not even gonna talk about kim yeon's romance, the least appealing relationship I've ever seen.

Anyways, I'm getting carried away, that not the point.

Despite almost dropping it, I kept going, if for no other reason that to see Kim Bro again. Now I'm about halfway through the 15th regression, Gyu-Ryeon was just betrayed by the blue lizard and dropped into the lower realm. The 14th and 15th regressions have definitely been far better than the 13th, especially the 15th.

I don't feel like it has reached quite the same peaks as the lower realm arcs, but it was fun nonetheless.

14th: The gym bro sect was fun, and rip Azure Saint but his sacrifice didn't really touch me like Peak Hyang Hwa's death or the farewell to Cheongmun GOATryeong. Oh Hyun Seok is a nice dude, and the devil realm stuff was cool. Not sure how I feel abt the memory loss stuff, it was inevitable that it would happen but in the way it was executed, it just felt like a throwaway plot beat for him to create that technique that lets him transfer cultivation progress across time. Kim Yeon's rescue was also kind of weird. It was many chapters of setup for her rescue but once she's rescued she becomes a complete and total non-character in the arc, with no screentime or acknowledgment of her existence whatsoever.

15th: Seo Hweol's and SEH's mind games have been excellent. Dude is such an asshole lol. Getting more lore from Bong Ryeong and the Black Dragon immortal was dope. There was some very well placed comedy and lightheartedness in a way that didn't sidetrack from the plot progression at all, like SEH and Gyu ryung plotting to marry off Seo Hweol, it's both funny asf and rational for the current plot. And finally seeing SEH have a martial artist duel again was awesome. SEH's character shines the most when he's doing martial arts. Very excited to see what will happen now that SEH and Gyu Ryeong dropped to a lower realm. I wonder if it's the same one or different. Didn't expect this at all.

Very fun arcs.

And on the topic of martial arts, let me bitch abt Kim Yeon a bit more. God fucking damn, even the Heart Tribe Spider lady has better chemistry and a more interesting dynamic with SEH than Kim Yeon.

I mean, at least we know stuff about Yu Hwa (despite her having no screentime), unlike Kim Yeon (who had a whole ass arc).

What do we know abt Yu Hwa?

She had a tough life as a slave, abused for her music talent, and never allowed to sleep through constant narcotics. After many years in suffering she decided to pour her all into her music, even if it was the source of her pain, because that was the only thing that distracted her. Still, all this time she longed for rest more than anything else (Weirdly almost identical but simultaneously almost the opposite of SEH's enlightenment). After diligently perfecting her art for years, she manifests her First Stage of Manifestation, the ability to put people to sleep, escapes her captors, and joins the heart tribe to help others around the Vast Cold Realm who go through terrible ordeals like she did. And despite not being a typical martial artist, she seems to shine the brightest when pushing herself and her art in a spar, as the only time SEH noticed genuine beaming joy in her intentions was when they pushed each other in their martial arts spar.

What abt Kim Yeon then?

Uhhh she had a crush on SEH on Earth and after 1000 years her only character trait was still her obsession with SEH. That's it really.

Goddamn how did Peak Hyang Hwa get sidelined for this bum.

Anyways, great novel, looking forward to what's coming next.

So I recently started RTOC and have been loving it but am I crazy or did the quality plummet in the 13th cycle compared to previous cycles?

Every cycle moved the story or created setups for future events in some way, but nothing about this cycle progressed the story whatsoever, it feels like the cycle could be cut entirely. Especially when the first few chapters of arc 14 are SEH learning all the basics of the Bright Cold Realm and acknowledging he learned nothing in the previous cycle. Like ok, we're back to step zero.

The only "progress" was in the relationship between SEH and Kim Yeon but that too was abysmally executed. Shortly after a damn near 30 chapter romance with Buk Hyang Hwa, and the setup that she might regain her memories and reunite with SEH, we're tossed into a 5 chapter romance that failed to elicit a singular emotion in me.

Ofc, it's obvious that SEH wouldn't stay single forever until (or if) he reunites with Buk Hyang Hwa, my issue isn't that. (In fact, as much as I liked Hwa, I hoped he would move on even if they reunite down the line, since that was the logical next step after he resolved his heart and returned the norigae to Hwa). The issue is that after a thoroughly developed 30 chapter romance, we're thrown into an underdeveloped 5 chapter romance and expected to feel anything from it. From SEH's point of view he spent more time with Kim Yeon than anyone in his life so it's reasonable that he would form a deep attachment to her. But the issue is that, (in my view at least) those emotions aren't conveyed to the reader whatsoever (again, because of how short and underdeveloped their romance was).

At this point I feel like the arc would have better served it's purpose if the relationship had been removed entirely and it was just SEH slowly going insane stuck in a puppet body until he died a futile death. That would still have driven in the point that he just can't be complacent with certain people even with his ability to regress, without muddying the focus of the arc with a poorly written relationship.

If there's one thing I enjoyed, it was the Mad Lord's antics. He's just fun to read.

Would love to hear your opinions, maybe what I'm saying is stupid, but this is the first arc I actively disliked so I had to share it.