With the passage of time, after the 'newness' wore off, I began to see the flaws of ToDG. And boy, was it flawed!
At the start, Nie Li did not have any capital, so he went for a few nights of hunting. He used his knowledge to bring down a lucrative but normally difficult-to-hunt animal. Even so, he had to hunt a few hundred of them to earn enough capital.
This was the first problem. Would there be hundreds of such animals? The answer was obviously no.
The second thing was, Nie Li created a miracle cultivation pill using common ingredients — again from his vast knowledge. Everyone was buying it, even his enemies. Low cost, high profit, monopoly. How not to make money? Nie Li became the richest man in the city. Money was no longer an issue.
The third thing was, Nie Li's cultivation was unique. Everyone could only have one spirit, but he could have multiple. He was the only one who had this ability, yet no one made a big deal out of it. It should be a super big deal. It made him very flexible in battles and allowed him to defeat stronger opponents. The drawback was he leveled up very slowly — a clutch put in by the author, or he would have overpowered everyone just by consuming his endless cultivation pills.
Arc 1 had variety. Nie Li went to several places, including 'small worlds' for his adventures. The main adversary was someone called "Demon Lord". But somewhere along the way, the author decided to make it 'multi-realm', so Nie Li went to a higher realm in Arc 2. The higher realm was much more powerful, so nothing in this world mattered anymore. All foreshadowed plots were abandoned.
There are a total of five cultivation levels: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Black Gold and Legend. Pre-Nie Li, Gold was considered very high. Nie Li's family was a declining one and had only one Gold cultivator — the family head. There was only one Legend cultivator in the whole city.
Post-Nie Li, everyone was at least a Silver. His friends leveled up by leaps and bounds to Legend. They had to reach that level to qualify to enter the upper realm.
Arc 2 is effectively a reboot. The sect Nie Li joined in his past life was destroyed. This time, he wanted to save it! It was a race against time. This place was nostalgic to him and he got to see younger self of people he knew in the past — people here live hundreds of years.
There is no more cultivation pills. It is all about spirits and spiritual stones now. Nie Li had a magical pot that could create higher-tier spirits from lower-tiered ones. He found an ally who could supply him lots of spirits, so he started his spirits business and had an income stream right away.
With his newfound money, Nie Li could outbid everyone at an auction and won a 'Myriad Miles Rivers and Mountains' painting which no one knew the true value of — except Nie Li, of course. This was a 'small world' with abundant Heavenly Energy. It was also very portable and could hold people as well — very useful to bring an army along with you.
Spiritual stones are needed to cultivate. They come from "Deity's Lakes". Deity's Lakes are basically mines — except they are floating islands. They are quite plentiful. A small group (of tens of people) can own a low-grade dying one producing 3k stones per year — they need to guard it 24/7. Even a big faction of low thousands has only 3 low-grade ones, each producing 30k stones/year. I don't know if the math checks out.
Nie Li was of course different. He had a way to transplant the core of a Deity's Lake into his MMRM painting, where they flourished due to its dense Heavenly Energy. He bought several Deity's Lakes and stole some from his opponents. Spiritual stones are also currency. Once Nie Li achieved this, he was basically printing money.
Nie Li needed loyal servants. Just nice, there was a group of people who were cursed to remain in their cursed lands. The only way they could leave was to be enslaved. They agreed to do so because their lands were infertile — all food had to be imported. They were also extremely loyal. Nie Li purchased a large number of them despite their high cost. Everyone could only afford one or two. Nie Li bought a few hundreds... and stuffed them into his MMRM painting.
Nie Li is using pay-to-win strategy. I actually pity his foes.
This realm also has five cultivation levels: Heavenly Fate, Heavenly Star, Heavenly Axis, Dragon Dao, Martial Ancestor. Heavenly Fate is an extension of Legend. Real cultivation begins at Heavenly Star.
Pre-Nie Li, Dragon Dao was very high. Only top disciples were at this level. MA is sect elder level. A sect's strength is determined by the number of MA it has. Nie Li's sect is one of the weaker ones and has only 5 MAs.
It would take Nie Li forever to level up. This time, instead of relying
on his formulas, a Deity-level conscious passed him unused pills he left
behind when he ascended. With it, he created a ton of power pills. He used
these pills to bribe convince sect elders into making him
the sect leader. Later, he used these to negotiate with other sects. He not
only powered up his entire sect, but also allied sects. Dragon Dao was now
entry-level.
Why the power-up? The Big Bad, the Sage Emperor, is two levels above Martial Ancestor. So Nie Li has a long way to go — and the author wanted to end the story quickly.
And so we enters Arc 3. Nie Li ventured out of his sect and interacted with other sects at sect leader level.
The author stopped at chapter 496 for a long time. Later, he released another 11 chapters, then stopped again. I did not read them as I had lost interest.
Surprisingly, the manga is still continuing. It is at chapter 506 now — coincidentally. It has gone past the novel and doing its own storyline now — I think. I didn't read.
(A tale from the past. I wrote this in Nov 2021, but never posted it.)
Tales of Demons and Gods is a 'manga' (actually web-toon) I started reading last year during the Covid-19 lockdown period.
The basic premise is that the protagonist, Nie Li, lost the final battle against the Big Bad, but instead of dying, he time-travelled back to his 13 years old self. This time, he would use his past-life knowledge and experience to change the outcome.
Is it good? Well, at the time when I read it, I thought it was a masterpiece. :-P
Okay, it is not that great, but I like it — it is like reading a game walkthrough.
Later, I discovered it was based on a web-novel, so I started to read that. Unfortunately, the author had lost interest since around 2018 and released only one chapter a month. It has stalled completely at chapter 496 (Jan 2021).
The webtoon is still released at a chapter a week. It is now at chapter 352, which corresponds to web-novel chapter 330, so it has a long way to go before it catches up.
There are 3 arcs, using novel chapters:
The three arcs are mostly self-contained. Very few people and items cross over, so it is possible to read arc 2 before arc 1.
Arc 1 is good. While it has its problems, it is generally a good read.
Arc 2 is good for most part, but from ch 432 onwards, the stakes are raised way too high too quickly.
Arc 3 has just started. It is now Big Leagues time.
The problem with Tales of Demons and Gods is that Nie Li is too over-powered. In arc 1 and 2, he struggled a little at the start due to lack of money, but that did not last long. Once he got his "economic engine" running using his past knowledge or out-of-the-world tool, there was nothing he could not afford. In both arcs, his wealth was unimaginable.
And this became a problem, because after a while, you start to realize he was using money to solve problems! What he could not solve with money, he had his vast past knowledge and various excellent skills to use.
Is there any challenge for him?
I have been looking for good web novels of Release That Witch calibre since "forever". I have failed, until now. (*)
Incredibly, I came across three in a short span of time:
All three are Korean.
StGB and TRMM are ongoing. HaHitA is completed. It looks short, but that is due to its .1, .2 numbering. There are 741 chapters altogether.
In StGB, the protagonist is 'transported' to a game world and he has to keep his true identity hidden. This provides tension and suspense. Although it is not regression, it is similar because the protagonist has completed the game, so he has fore-knowledge. He is always in danger of being exposed. Will the story remain good?
TRMM has time regression. This is a common trope in web novels and is generally hard to write well. If you have future knowledge, you have a great headstart even if you start from zero. You know the hidden talents, who to trust and where the treasures are. It's sure-win. Time paradox and butterfly effect? The whole idea is to change the future! The protagonist has gone beyond the future he knew, so now he is in uncharted territory. Will the story remain good? Let's see.
HaHitA has poorer translation, but it is still acceptable. It is not as well written as the other two, but it is still pretty good (B+ compared to A). It is written in first person, so you only see things from the protagonist's perspective. What I like about the story is that it subverts your expectations, and key characters are 'semi-complex' — they are not one-dimensional good or bad, though they are not really fleshed out much. Weak point: the world feels a little small — the protagonist travels to different places quite easily.
(*) Not strictly true. I came across the recommendation Reverend Insanity and read it. It is very well written — better than RTW — but it is not the type of story I like to read, so I stopped quite early.
Newsflash: CCP banned it in 2021. The story was too against social values and the protagonist too amoral and ruthless.
I read Chinese web novels with a pinch of salt. You never know how they were changed subtly to reflect 'social norms'. The stories can never have government corruption or authorities portrayed negatively.
It is said RTW was changed due to CCP censorship as well. In the story, the Central government creates country-wide policies, maintains strong control and has absolute say. This can be seen in frontline sending latest information to the Capital and waiting for their reply before acting.
This came up especially strong when the protagonist discussed the style of Government with someone from the 'old system'. But in the story, major cities or regions have a capable mayor and they are highly autonomous (they have to implement policies from the Central government, though).
A new form of Government is not the only reform the protagonist introduces. I always felt the reforms took effect too quickly and easily — it's not realistic.
Jews voting for a Muslim mayor?
There are some things you must not do, some lines you must not cross.
The reason is obvious. You treat people fairly, you assume they will treat you fairly, but they do not.
If you don't understand, you have to learn it the hard way.
It has a total of 2,700 songs in a 32 GB USB drive:
It uses 320 kbps MP3, which still stands up to the test of time.
The songs sound extra crisp. The vocals are boosted at the expense of the instruments which sound softer. It sounds off when listening in a home environment.
I forgot why I buy this, I don't have a habit of listening to music, much less Chinese music. Sometimes I like to listen to DJ version for their 'high-energy' take. They can transform a slow song into a fast song!
