Xianxia: What do you dislike about it?

#1
There's a lot to be said about most Xianxia stories, both good and bad.

I hit critical mass a few months ago, when it started feeling like each Xianxia on my reading list was the same story. I was introduced to my first Xianxia, Coiling Dragon, by my older brother. I liked its beginning but, somewhere down the line, the story lost me. I then moved on to more traditional Xianxia, and that's where my burnout started.

That's unrelated though.

My question to you, RRL community: What are your problems with Xianxia?

This doesn't include personal qualms with individual stories. No, this is about things you dislike about the genre as a whole. Chomping on pills for ten chapters straight, with only introspective narrative provided to keep you interested. One-dimensional villains that exist solely to be defeated by our needlessly powerful protagonist. So on and so forth.

I personally dislike when a love interest is introduced in the early-game, only to disappear for most of the story. It's even worse when they're a non-factor until the chapter our protagonist swoops in, abruptly finalizing the canon pairing. It doesn't help that usually other, more interesting character have been introduced and tossed aside by that point.

How is it? Did you think I was talking about Coiling Dragon's Delia romance? In reality, I was talking about another Xianxia entirely! Regardless, let's get this show on the road.

Discuss.

RE: Xianxia: What do you dislike about it?

#2
I honestly haven't read the original stories which prompted this whole Xianxia fad, but I've read some of the stories styled after it. I think that the biggest issue is with the depth of the story. There is only so much one can do with a premise following this: MC is uniquely weak in an OP world, MC has special meditation power to counter said world, MC meditates, meditation = extreme power growth, power then is used to destroy Villain A/B/C/etc. who has little to no development.

With a character who achieves almost everything on a whim with little effort, there's pretty much no tension or character growth. They're more like a bag of desires which get fulfilled as the story progresses.

Well, they're still popular so I guess it's more a question of my tastes. As long as both author and reader/fan is enjoying the experience, I'll just leave them be. I might make a comment here and there suggesting further development or to ask a question, but they're just suggestions and questions. They don't have to be acted upon so I just wander off in search of something else to read.
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RE: Xianxia: What do you dislike about it?

#3
I hate how the main characters of Xianxia warp reality around them. There's never anyone they can't befriend, enemy they can't defeat, or girl they can't seduce. Usually they don't even try to seduce women, it just happens without any effort on their part. Most of the time it's even the world's most beautiful woman or something like that, and they have no character whatsoever beyond existing as a status symbol for the main character.

It became obvious to me that most Xianxia are blatant wish fulfillment stories with absolutely no depth. Not that they're alone in that. A lot of recent Japanese light novels like Re:Monster are the same.
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RE: Xianxia: What do you dislike about it?

#4
@clearmadness seduction and flirting is lacking on both japanese and chinese "light" novels... in j-ln, mc says "you look cute" she fall all over him... XD. i wont deny wunxia and xia xia lack in this area lack a lot and badly... they remind me of cowboy western stories, where the mc appears shot the bad guy, bang the girl and leave the place... XD

what i dislike ... "i dont want the most beautiful woman that is in this town... yet... i want da drug(pill, concoction , etc) cuz in an addict" XD... heck they even show drug withdrawal syndrome (mc totally unable to lvl up in a normal way or the like)

or the lack of maturity of their side characters... i mean literally, there are some novels that have women of 24 years old body and a mind of a 6 year girl... though it is sexy is disturbing XD.

i would say plot armor as well... but plot armor exist everywhere... without it all our protagonist will have a lame dead :/

RE: Xianxia: What do you dislike about it?

#5
The problem is 99% of Xian Xia is copying each other to the point of saturation. Reading one (preferably a good one) then you have read pretty much all of them all. I'd read Coiling Dragon - got bored after 100 chapters or so, then by friend's recommendation, I went to read "I Shall Seal The Heaven"? It's was great the beginning because the MC background was different, but it turned out the same.

I made a point of this on MangaUpdate and got shot down by overbearing fan boys.  Anyways, these are my annoyances with the whole Xian Xia genre in general.

- Too much Rare Candies. Xian Xia teaches that swallowing drugs every seconds makes you invincible (sigh)
- Too much arrogance and overbearing disposition. The MC is as arrogance as they come, and no one had problem with this despite them flaming other character's arrogance.
- Almost everyone is a one-dimensional characters to the extreme. Good guys versus bad guys. What happened to all the grey amoral ones?
- Severely lack of romance. For stories that have thousands of chapters, it severely lacked what we all craved the most - realistic interaction between polar opposites. Gender is as polar as they comes.
- Eventually Generic protagonist with the same goal. If you swap out the character's name, the story wouldn't change at all. MC was a scholar? He will forgets everything about that world as soon as he hit his first cultivation level. What is the use of a character's background yet?

The biggest problem I have with the story is the OPness of the MC. Powers has to be earned, not granted, for it to be of any substances. Being born with unique Qi pathways is not EARNED. Being given godly skill technique is not EARNED. Finding weapons of unfathomable power is not EARNED. Having items that give you hacked stats is not EARNED!

These damned things are all granted, granted by the author himself. The only thing Xian Xia teaches is that hard work and talent could only go so far. You need hacks to becomes an immortal. How many times the MC beats up those who have spend their entirely life to reach where they are with their talent alone? How many MC in XIan Xia that reached level of overpowering in such a short amount of time simply because he's the MC?

Xian Xia is probably one of the most self-fulfilling fantasy genre I have come across to date. Everyone want to live forever, having limitless power, and thousands of beautiful girls bowing to their every whim. I have not run across a Xian Xia's story where the MC legitimately cared about others more than himself.

I wish that there would be an MC who started out the best at everything, but was forced to destroy his own internal  Qi pathways because he wanted to save someone (preferably the mother who loved him) and started from the bottom with a handicapped. He would eventually rose to the pinnacle of cultivation through real hard work without having hacks, but also matured throughout the journey and understanding the values of mortality.

Dark Mage (Korean)  was something similar. The MC actually was killed and turned into an undead servant. He groveled for years, training in secret, just to be free from his fate. Even dying won't free him from the chains of slavery. That and I kind of want him to win because of those arrogance dragons asshole. Just because you having great powers doesn't mean you could just wipe out an entire continent's worth of humans. Genocide of any race is a bad no no.

Anyway, that just my own thoughts and likes. You don't have to agree with it, but you don't need to flame me about it either. Everyone have different taste after all. We are all unique - are we not?

RE: Xianxia: What do you dislike about it?

#6
Xantar, I applaud you. You summed up many problems I see with a lot of stories I've tried to read but have given up on. The biggest point that follows along with my own thoughts the most is that a bunch of stories these days follow in the wake of others and make extremely similar stuff. This might be why I stopped reading these sorts of stories. I'll still check out a fic, but if the path parallels that of others well into its own plot, I'm just done with it.

About the self-sacrificial MC, there's a martial arts manga that actually does this. It might have been two series or simply a long continuation of a series. Anyways, MC does get a drug power boost, but he actually struggles to the top. In order to save his family/family(yakuza style)/friends/martial artist faction, he self destructs his own Qi lines. Powerless, he is the equivalent to a fit normal person but he later struggles to regain his former strength. It's unfortunate, but I can't remember what the title was. I didn't even manage to finish it. Sad
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RE: Xianxia: What do you dislike about it?

#8
'Xantar' pid='484505' dateline='1452392306' Wrote: The problem is 99% of Xian Xia is copying each other to the point of saturation. Reading one (preferably a good one) then you have read pretty much all of them all. I'd read Coiling Dragon - got bored after 100 chapters or so, then by friend's recommendation, I went to read "I Shall Seal The Heaven"? It's was great the beginning because the MC background was different, but it turned out the same.

I made a point of this on MangaUpdate and got shot down by overbearing fan boys.  Anyways, these are my annoyances with the whole Xian Xia genre in general.

- Too much Rare Candies. Xian Xia teaches that swallowing drugs every seconds makes you invincible (sigh)
- Too much arrogance and overbearing disposition. The MC is as arrogance as they come, and no one had problem with this despite them flaming other character's arrogance.
- Almost everyone is a one-dimensional characters to the extreme. Good guys versus bad guys. What happened to all the grey amoral ones?
- Severely lack of romance. For stories that have thousands of chapters, it severely lacked what we all craved the most - realistic interaction between polar opposites. Gender is as polar as they comes.
- Eventually Generic protagonist with the same goal. If you swap out the character's name, the story wouldn't change at all. MC was a scholar? He will forgets everything about that world as soon as he hit his first cultivation level. What is the use of a character's background yet?

The biggest problem I have with the story is the OPness of the MC. Powers has to be earned, not granted, for it to be of any substances. Being born with unique Qi pathways is not EARNED. Being given godly skill technique is not EARNED. Finding weapons of unfathomable power is not EARNED. Having items that give you hacked stats is not EARNED!

These damned things are all granted, granted by the author himself. The only thing Xian Xia teaches is that hard work and talent could only go so far. You need hacks to becomes an immortal. How many times the MC beats up those who have spend their entirely life to reach where they are with their talent alone? How many MC in XIan Xia that reached level of overpowering in such a short amount of time simply because he's the MC?

Xian Xia is probably one of the most self-fulfilling fantasy genre I have come across to date. Everyone want to live forever, having limitless power, and thousands of beautiful girls bowing to their every whim. I have not run across a Xian Xia's story where the MC legitimately cared about others more than himself.

I wish that there would be an MC who started out the best at everything, but was forced to destroy his own internal  Qi pathways because he wanted to save someone (preferably the mother who loved him) and started from the bottom with a handicapped. He would eventually rose to the pinnacle of cultivation through real hard work without having hacks, but also matured throughout the journey and understanding the values of mortality.

Dark Mage (Korean)  was something similar. The MC actually was killed and turned into an undead servant. He groveled for years, training in secret, just to be free from his fate. Even dying won't free him from the chains of slavery. That and I kind of want him to win because of those arrogance dragons asshole. Just because you having great powers doesn't mean you could just wipe out an entire continent's worth of humans. Genocide of any race is a bad no no.

Anyway, that just my own thoughts and likes. You don't have to agree with it, but you don't need to flame me about it either. Everyone have different taste after all. We are all unique - are we not?

Your points make a lot of sense and I completely agree with most of them, no matter how exaggerated your opinion made them. 

Point about swallowing pills. It's actually stated in every Xianxia that I've read (from what I can remember) that using too many pills can harm the body and slow cultivation. Most antagonists (more like dolls that just go around acting arrogantly for no reason) don't care about this detriment since they're able to cough up literally crap tons of blood (referencing ISSTH here. Like, really? You cough up large amounts of blood over several DAYS. Doesn't matter if you're a cultivator or not, you're dead for sure.) Regardless of this, ISSTH's story and lore is very well written and planned. Meng Hao worked very hard to get where he is. His adventures are not short of hardships. 

Second point about arrogance. THIS. My goodness, the story basically contradicts itself. Completely agree here. Though, some MCs aren't so arrogant. Some are very arrogant, like Luo Feng from PMG, Chu Feng (MGS) and a few others. It's faintly justified by the MCs' own way of understanding. Mostly it's just: "Hey, you're trash." Then the MC goes, "You're trash. Die." Boom, MC kills the "bad guy". This is very prevalent throughout PMG and MGS.

Third point. Completely agree again. What can you expect, though? I've read some Xianxia that have character development, but it's not significant. There's one exception to this, in my opinion, which is Luo Feng from PMG. His character development actually helps his cultivation and progresses his power (Definitely didn't see that coming. Change in character = more power? Why not? -sarcasm-). I actually like the romance between Luo feng and Meng Qing (whatever her name is, ice girl). Not too fast, since Luo Feng doesn't have any experience with woman, vice-versa with Meng as she was alone in the mountains before Luo Feng found her. They didn't immediately get together either, took about 200 (maybe 150?) or so chapters I think.

Fourth point. Completely agree again. Except for a few, PMG being one of them. Wait a minute, that's the only one. Yep, just one. Even though I'm pretty sure Romance is not a tag for PMG, or at least it's a secondary tag. Better than most out there, anyway. I could saw ISSTH has some too, but Meng Hao and Xu Qing almost never meet, ever. Oh well.

Fifth point. I can sense a clear reference to ISSTH here. Also, Meng Hao never forgot his scholarly past, as he thinks about quite often. He even goes back to his old country and ventures around for bit, gaining some enlightenment while he's thinking about his scholar past and how the cultivation world completely changed his character. In my opinion, Meng Hao has one of the best character developments in any Xianxia that I've read. I clearly experienced the change in his view about the world and other people the longer he was within the cultivation world. He even stated that he had to let go of his scholarly rules and adhere to the rules of the cultivation world.

^Continuing. Most of the MCs' backgrounds only come into play or are significant later on in stories. Except for a few, like CD, ST (stellar transformations) DE (Desolate Era)...mainly IET novels lol. ISSTH: Meng Hao's background turns to out to be incredibly important once he reaches a certain level of cultivation. ATG: Yun Che's background is quite important (during the current arc at current chapter). MGS: Chu Feng's background is very important and only gets significant once the story reaches higher than like chapter 600 or so. I can't remember any others, but certainly not every Xianxia's MC has an important background. Some MCs' backgrounds are completely insignificant, like IET novels, MGS, BTTH, Tales of Demons and Gods, and a few others.


Next point about MCs' OPness (say that slowly). Most of the time, the MCs have to go through excruciating pain while training, even if they are completely story-breaking geniuses (Linley...Higher than Paragon level in a just a few thousand years while others take  billions of years? LOL.) For example, in ATG when Yun Che (after being relentlessly bullied, humiliated, and even dying from being poisoned in one of his lives) replaces his profound veins with the Evil God's veins has to go through a process that presents pain beyond any normal human can sustain. He does retain consciousness throughout the process (plot armor anyone?) so he had to suffer through every single second of the however-long event (I think it was an hour or something?) of incredible and terrifying pain. In ST, Qin Yu has to train his physical body to the Xian realm, which he does. However, he had to train his body past its limit every single day or years before achieving it. That's a lot of work for a kid to do, even with the meteoric tear helping improve his strength. And actually, every IET MC has to go through some type of hell-training to get powerful.

^Continuing. BTTH. Xiao Yan bitterly endures hell-training along with using this type of fire liquid over his entire body that feels like his body is being burned alive every single day for months. Then, he goes on to train in even harsher conditions a few weeks later for a couple more months of time. TDG (Tales of demons and gods), although Nie Li retains all of his memories, he still bitterly trains. Although he has it a bit easier because of his supremely vast knowledge, in the most current translated chapter, he willingly endures large amounts of indescribable pain that greatly harms himself just to improve his power and the power of his friends. ISTTH: Meng Hao. Oh, Meng Hao. He's almost died on several occasions, I've lost count. He's sacrificed his own life span just to escape a few times (ultimately being saved by...you guessed it. plot armor), and, Meng Hao works very hard to improve his power. His scholar background also helps him achieve Grandmaster status in alchemy (with the help of the Resurrection Lily). Also, it takes a long time for Meng Hao to achieve the next higher stage. The pacing of ISSTH is fantastic. Roughly 100 chapters or so between each new stage, and Meng Hao has to get all the materials and everything just to do so, since he's going against Heaven itself. He even seals a giant fist of Tribulation Lighting after mocking the Heavenly Tribulation for being too weak (although it really wasn't and Meng Hao was really injured).

I can go on and on about it. You get the idea. 

I completely agree with some of your opinions. Xianxia is a genre that has lots of self-fulling fantasies. However...doesn't Japanese Light novels do the same with their crazy and logic-less harems (same way with Xianxia, though).  You can argue that j-LN MCs have actual motivations to gain power, but Xianxia MCs are the same way. Every MC has a reason, no matter how broken they are.
 
There are definitely some Xianxia stories that I just can't read because it is just so bad. I personally like ISSTH the most. Even though it is the very definition of a traditional Xianxia, the characters, story, plot, and lore are all very well written out over the entire story. You can't fit an entire world's lore and an entire story-worth of plot and characters within 100 chapters. At the beginning of ISSTH I was bored. I pulled through the first 60-80 or so chapters until I finally started to actually enjoy reading it. Now, I freaking love it because everything is coming together perfectly.

As you can hopefully understand, I am in no way shape or form flaming or trolling you. I even completely agree with most if not all of your statements/opinions about Xianxia. Regardless of that, I still enjoy the genre. Probably because the powers in Xianxia aren't puny and underpowered like in some novels (mainly Japanese Light novels.). Comparing LN powers to Xianxia powers, yea LN powers can be considered underpowered. Greatly. Depending on they story, of course.

This is way longer than I intended so if anyone actually read all the way through, you deserve a cookie. Congratulations, you probably wasted a good 30 minutes because I feel like I accomplished nothing after half an hour of typing. Go me.

RE: Xianxia: What do you dislike about it?

#9
Is this still being debating? I just came back here and read some of the latest replies, and I'm glad you guys are more mature than a bunch of other forums.

@ShiftyCake
Xian Xia is a sub genre (derivative) of Wuxia. It's basically a exaggerated version of Wuxia with mythical beasts and gods. Unlike Xian Xia, Wuxia emphasis greatly on morality and the values of friendship/honors/family etc etc... Not really sure what Xian Xia teaches since the MC tended to contradict himself more often than not.

Wuxia is one of my favorite genres by the way, but Xian Xia is giving it a bad name among the Western readers. Now there are people confusing Wuxia and Xian Xia? I'm sad.... :(

@Sitrix
I agreed with you about IET MC has to go through some kind of hellish training to get strong - but most of these "hardships" are glossed over - finishing in a few paragraphs. Barely a chapter in rare case. It's too short to make any lasting impact - basically IET tells the reader the hardship instead of showing it - letting us feel what the MC feel. If I don't relate to the MC during these "hardships" moment, then they aren't illustrated properly (or realistically). They might not be expanded vividly enough to draw out my sympathy. This is where Xian Xia is the weakest in my opinion. I'm sure IET could describe them in great details, eliciting great emotions from the audience from all the colors he managed to woven into the portrayal of his fictional world, but he simply choose not to.

I don't know why though. This take me to my next point: Useless Information

Xian Xia is usually have over a thousand of chapters, telling an epic journey of a hero (?). That's great and all, but it does not mean the author can shove loads and loads of characters in our face every chapter to create subplot. Most of these plots had no bearing on the main arc so why are they even there? Is it for taking up space? There is a quota the author must meet each day, but seriously? Don't introduce characters if they are meaningless to the overall story! Some NAMED characters only appear for one single chapter before never be mentioned again.

There is one chapter in Martial God Asura that he talks to his family members. I had a really hard time of tracking who was actually talking to. This isn't because of the complexity of the conversation, but rather their name. They all so damn similar - having identical tone of voice (arrogance). Well, at least it not as bad as David Weber's Safe Hold series. I couldn't remember (or pronounce) most of the name in that series.

I forced to remember details that only come in play several hundreds of chapter down the road then it is just goddamn awful writing. Write less, mean more! You can write as much as you want, but each sentence should be relevant. It should have an impact on the plot. Don't add in useless information only to paraphrase them when they mattered like hundreds of chapters later.

Finally, I don't agree with you on the comparison between Light Novel (Japanese) MC and Xian Xia (Chinese) MC. Xian Xia one can be summed up with one word: Selfish. They don't really care about anyone except for themselves. Standing on top is all that mattered to them. If someone stopping them from reaching the pinnacle of their powers, they will push that person under the bus. In contrast, Light Novel MC shows emphasis on companion ship to the point of absurdity/stupidity. The power of friendship is so strong that it becomes endless plot armors (Fairy Tail eh?). I generally like Light Novel MC more due to self-sacrifice, and their actions isn't initially derivative from momentary gain. They do gain something in the end, but their thought process isn't about gaining something for themselves, but rather doing what a morally right person would do.

I reckoned the biggest difference between Japanese and Chinese is their attitude to life and death.
Light Novel MC - Anyone's life is sacred and should be preserved (sometime more than their own). Can we put down our weapons and talk about this?
Xian Xia MC - My life is the only one that mattered. If you get in my way, I will butcher you and then likely massacre your whole clan to the last baby!

This is obviously stereotyping. There are some hidden gem. For example, Shen Yin Wang Zuo (Sealed Divine Throne) MC actually put others before himself, but then again, this MC is something akin to Wuxia MC rather than Xian Xia. The whole story is about personal honor (Knights and all that). It is an interesting tale, but the romance it illustrates is cringed worthy. Every time couples interaction appears in the story, the plot plummeted into rubbish territory.

The author doesn't really know how romance works at all - really disappointing.

RE: Xianxia: What do you dislike about it?

#10
The MGA part: I completely understand. I just stopped caring about any character in that story that wasn't directly related/significant to the story whatsoever. Just one of those things where the main character just gains so much power than he leaves everyone behind.

The part about useless information. Completely agree. I actually remember this one chapter in CD when Linley was talking with some completely random dude on a transport thingy. They talk for a few lines of dialogue, Linley finds out this random dude out of quadrillions of possible people actually knows one of his friends from his same original material plane. Then what happens? The transport vehicle gets ambushed and the dude Linley was talking to gets killed. Talk about completely useless character, he was even named with a small bit of backstory too. Like, wtf?

I would like to point out something about the comparison I used between JP LN and Xianxia. I only compared the MCs' power levels, not their individual motivations, ideologies, or philosophies. I'm not saying that your opinion is incorrect, because I actually agree with what you stated about Xianxia MCs and JP LN MCs, but I just wanted to state that I did not compare them with anything else. 

Also, pretty much every Xianxia's romance is within the lowest tier of enjoyment. Considering that the main reason for the story is, in fact, training, fighting, pain, etc. etc., I wouldn't expect the romance is be perfect. But from what I've read, the romance in every Xianxia (that I've read) is basically a sub- of a sub-category. Like I stated in my previous post, the only Xianxia with romance that I did like is PMG (Peerless Martial God). This is because the MC and ice girl don't get together straight away; there's a good 150-200 chapters or more before they kiss for the first time. And, fortunately enough, there's quite a bit of interaction between the two of them, although the significant scenes were quite small but powerful. Even if the MC found ice girl completely by the most randomness luck plot armor. Like, who the hell lives secluded in the deepest parts of a mountain range behind a large, famous sect? Ice girl, apparently. Doesn't really matter though, most stories are like that.

And yea, I actually brought back the debate. I was bored so I thought, why not? Also, I made a mistake in my previous post but I was too lazy to correct it. PMG's MC is not Luo Feng, it's Lin Feng. So many Fengs....

RE: Xianxia: What do you dislike about it?

#11
Quote:The part about useless information. Completely agree. I actually remember this one chapter in CD when Linley was talking with some completely random dude on a transport thingy. They talk for a few lines of dialogue, Linley finds out this random dude out of quadrillions of possible people actually knows one of his friends from his same original material plane. Then what happens? The transport vehicle gets ambushed and the dude Linley was talking to gets killed. Talk about completely useless character, he was even named with a small bit of backstory too. Like, wtf?
XD

Anyways... on a side note of wuxia/xiaxia stuff, any things of the sort that you guys recommend reading? I've tried reading one, but gave up shortly after.
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RE: Xianxia: What do you dislike about it?

#12
'j0nn0' pid='495189' dateline='1453090513' Wrote:
Quote:The part about useless information. Completely agree. I actually remember this one chapter in CD when Linley was talking with some completely random dude on a transport thingy. They talk for a few lines of dialogue, Linley finds out this random dude out of quadrillions of possible people actually knows one of his friends from his same original material plane. Then what happens? The transport vehicle gets ambushed and the dude Linley was talking to gets killed. Talk about completely useless character, he was even named with a small bit of backstory too. Like, wtf?
XD

Anyways... on a side note of wuxia/xiaxia stuff, any things of the sort that you guys recommend reading? I've tried reading one, but gave up shortly after.


Unfortunately, I don't know which one you dropped. Anyway, I'll recommend you some.

ISSTH (I Shall Seal The Heavens): This one is by Er Gen, who is notorious for fantastic world building, characters, and story pace. ISSTH starts off slow, seriously, I had to pull through the first 60-80 or chapters till I started to actually enjoy the story. Now I absolutely love it. Er Gen spends a lot of time building the world and the main character, in this case Meng Hao. You can clearly see the change in his character as he interacts with cultivators. It has over 400 chapters translated so far, and oh man. There's a mix of battles, debates (which are actually pretty badass), and all that good stuff. Highly recommend this. (Er Gens' other novel, Xian Ni or Renegade Immortial, is also being translated. The buildup for Xian Ni is longer than ISSTH though. Still worth it. MC in Xian Ni may be a bit more bad ass, and Xian Ni is darker than ISSTH) Both can be read at WuxiaWorld.

PMG (Peerless Martial God): This one may seem like a generic reincarnation story for the first 10-20, maybe 30 chapters. However, once you get past the initial buildup, it gets good. Lin Feng, the MC, learns the rules of the cultivation world through harsh experiences. He's also badass AF, harem (though the more into the story it goes the more it focuses on one girl), insane OP powers that are logically OP. Then again, Lin Feng's comprehension level is above genius, so he's just OP in general. The "antagonists" in this one are quite annoying, which is a downside. They're literally all the same, no changes whatsoever. Just slap on a new name and face. Other than that, great novel. You can find this at totallyinsanetranlation (No, that's not a typo)

MGS (Martial God Space): Ye Xiwen is the MC here. Another reincarnation, but this time the MC stumbles upon this white thingy in a lake or something, granting him a special mental space within his mind that opens the secrets to any and all skills, no matter is they're common tier or legendary tier. Not much to say about this one other than badassery and...well, arrogant bad people that are insanely arrogant for no reason. MC deals with them like it's nothing. (NovelSaga)

MGA (Martial God Asura): No, this is not related to MGS. Chu Feng is the MC here, and he is insanely OP. He never gets tired in a fight because of his special thing within him that has basically limitless energy. Literally like 1 year after he starts cultivating he becomes the strongest cultivator in his entire continent. Or something like that. It's...quite repetitive, though it does have its very badass moments and some originality as some points. (WuxiaWorld)

ATG (Against the Gods): This is another novel that builds up a lot. Like, a lot. However, it's not like the MC is doing nothing during this build up period. He reincarnates (within the same world) and keeps his legendary artifact with him from his previous life. He also keeps all of his previous memories, which hold a supreme amount of knowledge about medicine and poisons. His legendary artifact increases the potency of his knowledge. When he gets the ability to gain power again, he becomes Godly-OP. Literally, too. The most OP MC I have ever read about, for good reasons of course. He would be putting the gods to shame if he was weak. (WuxiaWorld)

Coiling Dragon: Classic Xianxia. Written by famous author IET (I Eat Tomatoes), it's about Linley who wants to train to be an Immortal. The first few arcs are amazing (of course, beginning is some-what slow, but only for about 5-10 chapters? Not as bad as the previous ones), I absolutely loved them. The half-way point is where most people begin to lose their high interest. The ending was extremely rushed. The last two chapters could have been written out into like 20 chapters. The last chapter itself could've had several chapters. Anyway, CD is fully translated. I recommend it. (WuxiaWorld)

Stellar Transformations: Classic Xianxia, once again by IET. The first novel written by IET, technically the sequal to CD. Qin Yu obtains a mysterious thing he calls the Meteoric Tear. It helps him train (greatly, I must say) and of course, he becomes OP. It got a bit boring around the 4th book-ish, but it picks up from there. This novel is basically what started the Xianxia translation community. (TranslationNations)

Desolate Era: Classic Xianxia, once again by IET. Ji Ning, one of the most broken and OP MCs. Pretty much like the other IET novels. (WuxiaWorld)

(Basically all IET novels....this includes SS (Swallowed Star [TranslationNation])

TDG (Tales of Demons and Gods): MC is Nie Li. Reborn into his 13 year old self after being killed by the Sage Emperor when both of them were at the peak of cultivation. Nie Li retains all of his memories, which are, of course, basically everything about cultivation, alchemy, skills, abilities, cultivation techniques, etc. He's basically a walking encyclopedia. He's badass, logically OP because of his seemingly vast knowledge (which may or may not act like "plot armor"), get's the two most beautiful women b/c why not. The world has more than meets the eye. (WuxiaWorld)

Those are just a few. There are many more translations out there:

WuxiaWorld
TranslationNations
NovelsNao
NovelSage
TotallyInsaneTranlation


And then SPCnets Wuxia translation threads. WuxiaWorld also has forums where you can look for other translations and even other original stories, as well as spoilers and just regular discussions.

Hope this helped:)

RE: Xianxia: What do you dislike about it?

#13
I guess for me is that in pretty much in every xianxia they kill off the main characters parents at some point... and also how every woman introduced in the story has walking pair of breasts that have snow white skin and jade like bones, and every woman introduced is more beautiful than the one before. Also how they describe the "skills" -he mastered rank 2 skill that is comparable to rank 3 skill, but his opponent mastered rank 3 skill that is comparable to rank 4 skill- like cmon what's the point of ranks on skills then.

RE: Xianxia: What do you dislike about it?

#14
Jade like bones... The only way to know that is if you cut them open or if they're a skeleton... Or have an extremely horrific injury. Is that MC a necrophiliac? XD
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RE: Xianxia: What do you dislike about it?

#15
I smell another challenge..... but first I must finish my harem challenge.

I have read coiling dragon and like most the women are basically only an accessory and the author does not develop on it much he gave the girl who cheated on him more time and chapters. I stopped when they entered the other world because it started getting pretty boring by then. Against the gods is pretty good but also falls into the same type of things happening. (liked the rat though and those sound effects lol!!)


"I will cut your body into a thousand pieces!"- They should also explore insults other then that one. I know in their culture its pretty bad and when you say it, shit just got real, but to say it every-time a villain wants his revenge because of some reason most of us would be like "get over it" is a  bit much.
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RE: Xianxia: What do you dislike about it?

#16
I assume that's a cultural thing along with trying too hard to make things dramatic. It doesn't translate over very well without the background or references ingrained into our heads.
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RE: Xianxia: What do you dislike about it?

#17
Speaking of girls being walking pair of breasts, God and Devil world novel turns them into cattle (not literally) around chapter 80. That novel is Xian Xia even though it started out with game elements. Game elements dropped half way through the story in favor of horror/hentai with several sides of lolicon - I'm not kidding! The author didn't seem to notice that his protagonist had degenerated into a power-hungry scum bag that preached hypocrite shits to antagonists who are much 0better human than him. That, and he's an crazy racist with frequent comments about Non-Chinese. The last comment is about the author, not the MC even though he tried to play it down through his narration.

I read most of Sitrix's suggestion, but I dropped them half way due to absurd jump in plot line/world-building or MC becomes an in-denial douche bag. Nie Li is one of those douche bag even though he claimed he is a good guy. Right. Also, the blatant Naruto's art style in the manga adaptation kind of pisses me off.

I'm only reading A Step into the Past at the moment, but so far, the story bored me. By the way, are all chinese women that slutty back then (~250BC) ? Chinese Drama always shown them as "pure" maiden, who protected their chastity greatly. But In A Step into The Past, they will screw the first man that actually talk to them normally (MC). This behavior included princesses and noble ladies.

Maybe there are mature Xian Xia story that tell a proper struggle of the hero out there without pointless wanking, useless introduction of characters, endless plot armors, realistic interaction between the main cast, but at the moment, I gave up on Xian Xia. Wuxia is way way better.

Anyway, I'm going to write my own story. See you guys (and girls) around.

RE: Xianxia: What do you dislike about it?

#18
I think the best one out there right now. May be DE(Desolate Era) so far there are no women in the story and he does not run after every jade boned beauty out there.

Don't get me wrong, it still has a lot of useless info, but I think the authors put it in there as fillers since they have to meet some sort of quota or something.

I did not even know, they made an adaptation of God and Devil world. I really didn't like it from the beginning though. So I stopped two chapters in.

This is unrelated but a manga I really enjoyed reading was The breaker new waves. I think its origin is South Korea. If there is an LN, I would like to know where I can find it.
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RE: Xianxia: What do you dislike about it?

#19
'Mr Sir' pid='497815' dateline='1453270532' Wrote: every jade boned beauty out there.

...Stuff...

This is unrelated but a manga I really enjoyed reading was The breaker new waves. I think its origin is South Korea. If there is an LN, I would like to know where I can find it.
Seriously, i'm confused on the jade boned thing here... how does that come about?

About the manga, I need to finish that one and have you read "Holy Land"? It's good.
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RE: Xianxia: What do you dislike about it?

#20
Are you kidding! Holy Land is my all time favorite!

It actually spurred me on to join a fighting club and I have been in it for nearly a year now. I got DQ'd for my first fight though. Holy land is awesome, the ending was a bit confusing though. I wont say what it was cos it may spoil it for those that read this and go check it out.

As for the jade limbs. I have no idea, I just through it in their. I think because in their culture jade is a very precious thing comparing something to it, is like woooow! As for the bones- don't worry, does not make sense to me either.

Maybe all xianxia MC's have x-ray vision by using their heavenly power on their heavenly eyes to look at the heavenly beauties that are simply just heavenly..... with jade bones.
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