Why the fuck are chinese web novels suddenly so popular

yes it does

I mean Chinese novels are a blast but what OP meant is a bunch of WN.

hold on, i'm going to look those up now

~Chapter 1: Son of the Celestial Emperor, Reincarnation and Rebirth~

>Jiang Chen felt like his brains were made of mush – as if he was in a dream, but this felt much more real than that. Every inch of skin, every bone in his body cried out in agony.

>“Am I dead? Am I suffering through the fires of purgatory that burn in hell?” Jiang Chen’s first instinct was that he was dead, but the tenuous hint of breath in his body seemed to remind him otherwise – that he was still alive.

>After who knew how long, Jiang Chen suddenly forced his eyes open with a struggle, but found himself in a coffin.

>In a coffin? Then, I’m really dead? Jiang Chen became depressed.

i'm liking this so far

cont'd

i can't read chinese, i just googled for the title

>“How laughable. I, Jiang Chen, son of the Celestial Emperor, was born with a yin constitution and thus could not practice martial dao. Even when father refined the Sun Moon Pill so that I could enjoy life as long as the heavens exist, I still became father’s burden and succumbed to my death when the cataclysm descended from the heavens….”

>“Eh? What’s going on with my meridians? There’s true qi flowing through them?! It’s quite weak… wait! This… this isn’t my body, this is definitely not my body! I was born with a yin constitution, so how could I have true qi present in my body?”

>“And, if I was truly dead, how could there be true qi flowing through my body?” It was as if an electrical jolt passed through Jiang Chen’s brain as he laid in the coffin. At the same time, he realized that the body lying in the coffin didn’t belong to him.

>“This… what is this? Whose body is this?” This unexpected discovery brought both surprise and joy to him. He quickly discovered a few fragments of memory in the body.

>“This body’s owner was also named Jiang Chen? The son of the duke of the Jiang Han province in the Eastern Kingdom? The name is right, but this is obviously not me! I am the son of the almighty Celestial Emperor – how did I become the scion of such a mundane kingdom?” Jiang Chen’s mind was filled with questions.

>“Did I really die in the cataclysm? Is this the reincarnation referred to in legends? The heavens were shattered and the wheel of life smashed… I should’ve been annihilated in the cataclysm with no hope of traveling along the wheel of life! So this means… I’ve really reincarnated?” Jiang Chen finally confirmed this new reality after perusing the fragments from the past Jiang Chen’s consciousness.

>“To think that I was the exalted son of the Celestial Emperor in my past life, yet was barred from cultivating due to my yin constitution. Yet, now that I’ve reincarnated into the son of the duke of such a humdrum kingdom, I’ve gained the potential to train… Oh the irony!”

>“The heavens were shattered and order crumbled… I, Jiang Chen, lived a million years in vain in my past life. Although I died with the sun and moon, I couldn’t offer any help when the cataclysm arrived. A yin constitution cannot train, and thus is doomed to always be at the mercy of others. My fate was like that of a floating speck of dust – easily dispelled as the wind blew.”

>Jiang Chen grew somber, lost in his thoughts as he thought of the treatment he’d suffered in his past life, and of his father who had developed the Sun Moon Pill at such a great cost, so that his son’s mortal body could enjoy life as long as the sun and moon’s.

>He knew that this life and death separation was possibly an eternal farewell!

this stuff makes robert e howard sound like william shakespeare. not bad tho, i can see the appeal

Doesn't sound too bad suprisingly

Was Jiang Chen the one who got beaten to death for farting during an important ceremony?

Is this an actual thing

>But just as the king and his nobles had kowtowed on the temple steps in prayer, Jiang Chen let out an earsplitting fart. One had to know that kowtowing in prayer was the most important part of the entire rite. Absolute silence needed to be maintained during this part. This was how one could communicate with the gods and demonstrate their devotion.

>However, Jiang Chen’s fart rudely broke this silence and shattered this dignified gathering.

>Everyone knew that farts were comprised of unhealthy gas and were extremely unsound. If this had happened during a regular occasion, it would have been simply passed over as everyone else held their breath. However, Jiang Chen’s regrettable fart was smelly and long. It was an affront to the gods! The high priest in charge of the rite’s proceedings was appalled and started cursing loudly, as if the fart had destroyed the pillar of the world and was causing the sky to cave in.

>This aroused the great wrath of King Eastern Lu, as he doted on his beloved daughter so, and he called for the guards to drag Jiang Chen away and beat him to death! Even then, his anger was not abated and he gave the order to hang Jiang Chen’s corpse on the city wall for vultures and scavengers to pick on. Jiang Chen wouldn’t even have had a body left if the kingdom’s nobles didn’t persuade the king otherwise, pointing out that openly displaying a corpse was vulgar and uncivilized, and would adversely impact the kingdom’s fortunes.

apparently yes

it kind of grows on you.

>Even though he’d lived a million years, even though he possessed great intelligence – when he thought of his father the Celestial Emperor painstakingly taking care of him, hot tears still spilled out of his eyes.

>He knew, the heavens were shattered. Even if one were as almighty as the Celestial Emperor, it was almost impossible to survive the cataclysm. Jiang Chen became upset as his thoughts traveled to the end of this path.

>However, it was as if a bolt of thunder crashed into his soul when his soul touched upon his body’s meridians. It was like a man dying of thirst finding a sweet spring! The slowly moving true qi was so weak, weak to the point of almost flickering out. But it was this fragile hint of true qi that stoked his flames of life and swept away those depressing thoughts.

>“Train? Heh, cultivated! This was once a ludicrous thought for someone with a yin constitution like mine. I couldn’t train in my past life, but never acceded to fate. Now that I have gained the potential to train due to reincarnation, is this not an opening that the door of fate has cracked open for me?”

>“I was the exalted son of the Celestial Emperor, and held charge of the Tianlang Library for millions of years. I have perused countless books and scrolls. I was familiar with all disciplines and methods of training. I was unparalleled and renowned for the accomplishments in my dao of alchemy, but my knowledge was forever halted and just theoretical, at an abstract level. Now that I have gained the ability to train thanks to reincarnation, what cause have I to fear? For what reason would I, Jiang Chen, bow my head in defeat?” Jiang Chen felt a weight lift off his shoulders as he explored this line of reasoning.

>Those negative emotions he had slowly disappeared. He felt that this reincarnation was a turning point that would interminably change his life! Indeed, from the perspective of Jiang Chen’s past life, the identity of the son of an ordinary noble was completely inconsequential. But even the lowliest person possessed one quality that he did not in his past life, and that was the qualification to cultivate!

>The qualification to cultivate was like the starting line of a race.

>Although he was an eminent person in his past life, as lofty as dragons and phoenixes, he could only watch on the sidelines. Now, despite his commonness in his current life, despite being like an ant, he had the qualification to step up to the starting line and take his place.

>The path of training was ceaseless and boundless. As long as one had good fortune, one could transform and become all powerful. Even wings could be stuck onto ants for them to soar in the heavens! And now, an opportunity had come!

wuxiaworld.com/sotr-index/sotr-chapter-1/

>web "novels"

>weeb novels

because this generation of young adults spends several hours playing MMORPGs every day, so they don't really find any stories relatable unless it's about a high school kid being transported to the world of an online fantasy game

that's in japan. chinese web novels aren't like that. instead it's sometimes adults who start as children and then become adults. a lot of times it's actually just children who grow up as well. chinese stuff isn't teenager goes to another world and then the rest of the novel is him being a teenager. it's got the growth cycles you'd expect.

there's a number of game stuff too, but chinese have got their own system to describe it better. they use dao and buddhism. they don't need western fantasy since they've got their own

So is this shit just a exagerated description of dragon ball esque power levels going higher and higher, with extra pills?

This. Reading about 4 year old lifting a 2000 jin boulder because muh lucky encounters can get annoying though.

Yes. They MCs even get to become gods.

it's like if stirner was born into a universe where he can train to become a god of the universe

If you guys want to read chinese novels then I suggest you to not read anything bellow 4.2 in novelupdates rating.

are all of these just powerlevel grinding and wish fulfillment, or is there anything with an actual plot?

There are but they are a very small minority.

So I take it that this is a case of "8.5/10 it's OK"?

There really needs to be some sort of re-balancing or white leveling or something on all these shitty rating systems. .

Could you give me some names? I might be interested.

depends on the novel but some have a good plot and involves philosophical concepts of buddhism and dao as the core story. it's sort of wish fulfillment, but it's not as well. in japanese self-insert stuff the protagonist gets lots of allies or is just completely overpowered while winning because of friendship even while making the villains his friends. the most central system to wuxia/xianxia stuff is self-torture as in willpower and self discipline. the best stories are ones where the protagonist is tormented, loses his family, betrayed, and alienated in a world where he can only rely on himself. so do you self-insert as somebody who is the embodiment of the will to power? there's naturally real self-insert stuff with silly harems, but you can avoid them too

It's a shame that most of those suffer from villain of the week syndrome. The protagonist just can't stop getting himself in trouble.
Like he can go to a fucking restaurant without getting called commoner, fight to the death, or making some random noble cough blood.

chinese novels are really involved. some of them are like 80 novels long so it's filled with a lot of minor things. there is really poorly written ones that just mess it up using tropes like that, but i've only been really offended reading two chinese web novels. meanwhile some japanese web novels i've read made me frustrated and angry somebody would actually write it and then i spent my time reading it

>the fires of purgatory that burn through hell
What?

SO instead of casual discussion on a niche subgenre, can we get a list of solid titles that have good english translations?

Can't remember any good enough at the moment. There is actually one but it doesn't feel chinese at all, so I don't see the point.

I agree, but I have to say that I found absolute choice and some parts of ATG pretty insulting.

Given that 'fixing' a rating system is pretty much impossible (good luck telling people how they should rate things), it's best to just move our goalposts to what is considered good.

I Shall Seal the Heavens(Deathblade is one of the best translators out there)
Desolate Era(RWX is one of the oldest chinese translators currently and is the owner of the site this translation comes from, Wuxiaworld so quality translation is guaranteed.)
Release that Witch(Haven't read it yet but heard it has a MC make use of modern technology in a fantasy world without it being too stupid)
Douluo Dalu(MC can be considered too OP and has quite ridiculous luck, otherwise good story)
I'm Really a Superstar(Comedy/Entertainment and Literature references everywhere)
Once Upon a Time, There was a Spirit Sword Mountain(This makes fun of Xianxia/Wuxia novels so you might want to read this after reading a couple of other stories like them)
Tales of the Reincarnated Lord(Again haven't read this myself, but heard its very good)
History’s Strongest Senior Brother(Another kind of parody novel but still very good, the protagonist is one of the template villains you see in other novels but he's genre savvy and doesn't let himself become the villain)
Swallowed Star(Same author from Coiling Dragon and Desolate Era wrote this, its sci-fi xianxia)
Transcending the Nine Heavens(This one is really fucking good)

Off the top of my head those came to mind.

>Release that Witch
The mc is a mechanical engineer if I remember correctly.

atg is too hung up on his ideal of honor. his choice to spare people doesn't really make sense but the author does it anyway just to keep a plot point later in the story. he's also restricted by the choice of other characters a lot as well. i like stories where the protagonist slowly figures out his own sense of the world. a lot of these characters who reincarnate are too childish and straightforward. there's some characters who are written so they simply can't bend ever but it's difficult for authors to make it convincing instead of just forced. it's like an idealism where there's no point in living if you bend the knee and keep going upward, but it's too difficult for most people to write

stuff where the protagonist is crafty like renegade immortal are my favorite

>renegade immortal
mah nigga. I think the guy from otherworldly evil monarch is a pretty decent character who he is not talking about his pride/past.
Then we have characters like Invincible and Peerless something MC that act lie complete dicks for no reason and believe they're above everything. It doesn't help that they get everything handed to them for free, and that they're able to kill people left and right.
SotR started okay, but the lotus and mountain are too damn convenient for my taste.

I wonder if there's any art of the characters.

So do you all read these at wuxia world?

the way of choices is really aesthetic. it's a really good a character who just genuinely is indifferent to his life and death so he simply is straightforward and totally unflinching.

usually the peerless mc who kills others like grass is burdened by random people he meets. they always drag it down for really lame reasons. there's only been a few who realize the protagonist needs to just go off by himself against the entire world if he really is going to just kill others like flies when they disrespect him.

emperor domination seems like a self-insert as first, but then later it's actually pretty mind-blowing when you think about the dao and buddhism it's predicated. i'm possibly reading too much into it but i like it a lot

>wuxia world
So is any of these novels actually wuxia? You know, just martial arts with some ki powers. Reading the thread it seems like it's all reincarnation and hax and fighting gods.

That's the main site, but other novel sites such as volarenovels, Gravity Tales, LiberSpark, Qidian despite all the drama surrounding it now etc. Wuxia World only started expanding these past 2 years, there's always been translation group sites and even sites that translate one novel like Blue Silver.

nah it's a site for translations I think

what drama?

I didn't like Emperor's at first because the MC is too ridiculously OP, but the story seems to be building up for something 'big'. It's better to save some chapters and read them in one go imo.

Qidian are being dicks and going back n their word. Only God knows why Ren didn't make them sign a freaking contract or something.

Here's a link to pretty much all the drama surrounding it: forum.novelupdates.com/threads/mega-merged-ww-qidian-thread.37665/
Basically Qidian tried to publicly call out Wuxia World on translating more novels than they should've, Ren(Owner of Wuxia World) was having none of that and reminded them that the entire world isn't like China and countless forum citizens are outraged at Qidian because Wuxia World is one of the first web novel sites with consistent translations every day and quality ones at that too, on top of the fact that many people talk to Ren and the other translators as well too.

so you're saying only use wuxia world

I guess, but a lot of good novels are on Qidian so unless you're willing to pass them up maybe? Just remember the translators translating the series' aren't at fault, they just work for Qidian and their contract is very... Strict to say the least. Some only make 5 USD per chapter when other places give as much as 50 per chapter and the translator owns the rights to their translations.

TTNH
RMJI
Way of choices

>Swallowed Star(Same author from Coiling Dragon and Desolate Era wrote this, its sci-fi xianxia)
Holy shit, this reads completely different from DE,i guess this is the power of different translators

Probably because one got an anime adaptation recently, it's quite popular.

That MMO one?

Yes. Don't remmber if the original was a webcomic or a webnovel, but weeabs have started to accept korean/chinese stuff as part of anime.

no we dont, fuck korea

NTRfags maybe.

So this how far Veeky Forums has fallen

I'm not from Veeky Forums but, even though the writing is bad they are still interesting because of the difference in cultures.

>reincarnation and hax and fighting gods.
Xianxia