In a world
full of might and magic, gods and demons, and stars birthing powers strength is
the only thing you need to go against fate. As the human and the race of Yao –beastman
with great physical strength– wrought war against the demons for hundreds of
years, what significance does a man have only depends on his will.
At the
beginning of time, a mystical meteor came crashing down from space and its
pieces scattered around the world. A piece, filled with mysterious totems
carved into it, landed in the Eastern Continent. The people gathered and
studied the carvings. They discovered The Way and established The Tradition.
This is a
story about choices, picked by Chen Chang Sheng, a young orphan scholar born
thousand years after the fall of the meteor. Chen Chang Sheng left his master
and his serene hometown to cure his illness and change his fate. He brought a
marriage vow with him to the capital, thus began the journey of the rising
hero.
Review – What I read this week
Way of Choices
is not exactly a book or novel as it’s much more known as a webnovel, a keyword
known and used increasingly in the last few years. It is written under the
genre of Xianxia or in English we describe it as Martial Fantasy which include
other famous titles such as Stellar Transformation, Martial God Asura, Tales of
Demons and Gods and much more. This webnovel is now being translated to english
by a dedicated fan. Currently it has 98 chapters of translation and is still
ongoing.
Way of Choices
tells about the story of a 14-years old orphan scholar name Chen Chan Sheng
(further we will shorten his name as CCS) as he was trying to find a way to
cure his fatal illness, which will kill him when he is 20-years old. It begins
with CCS goes to the Royal Capital of Zhou, first to return the marriage vow
and later to enter an academy of martial cultivation. The marriage vow was
given to his master as a reward for curing an illness that inflicted a powerful
army general. It offered a marriage between the general’s granddaughter and one
student of CCS’s master, which turned out to be CCS.
The meeting
between the general’s family and CCS didn’t go well however. They think it’s absurd
for CCS to marry their family’s young lady Xu You Rong (XYR) as she has Phoenix
Bloodline flowing in her vein (practically makes her a genius martial
cultivator) while CCS is no one, nothing. Their attitude made CCS took back his
intention as to give them a lesson. Little did he know that such decision would
make his life harder.
Next, CCS
trying to fulfill his other purpose, to enter a martial cultivation academy. He
tried to enter 5 of the 6 most famous academy. Somehow or another his admission
is always denied, even after he scores well in all their test. He knows, the
general’s family must have done this. Fortunately or unfortunately, he managed
to enter the last academy. However, never did he imagine that the Tradition
Academy has been closed for years and he is now the only student, teacher and
staff of the aforementioned academy. One good thing though, on his trials to
win the right to enter martial cultivation academies he met Tang Thirty-Six and
Xuan Yuan Po, both will be fellow students in the same academy. That is however
is for later story.
Review – The Good, The bad, and the… quote?
Way of choices
is not like other webnovel in the same genre. Most webnovel have main
characters who are: handsome, lucky, talented but hardworking in the sense of
Martial Cultivation. In the first 20-30 chapters or so, most main characters
have started their martial cultivation and most likely will have killed some
enemies. Most main characters have the same purpose: they want to get stronger
because they want to be the strongest person in the world. The differences are
only in why they want that, and how they get their super quick and super strong
cultivation technique. Way of choices are not the same. CCS as the main
character started weakly, and after 40 chapters he’s still weak. You will find that
he’s probably the most bullied but likable main character in the Xianxia genre.
It’s a fresh
change from the usual xianxia stories. He mainly solves his problem with his
mind, his words, his luck and his unexpected social connection. There are so
many fun moments when CCS’s comments, feedbacks and words makes the opponent
speechless.
The writing
style of the author is also amazing. It describes things, places, weathers and
events in subtly exaggerated way like how chinese classic literatures is. It’s
difficult to portray this style of writing in english translation, but I think
the translator does a good job with this one. Also like CCS’s fun comments, the
author also has his fun moment. I don’t want to spoil.
Now the bad.
The pace is very slow. Probably the slowest one I’ve ever read. This can be
particularly boring and make you feel you have enough of this. One thing that
my fellow readers have been waiting is CCS begin his martial practice, which
after 90 chapters has not been done yet.
One feeling that
you may get while reading this is “what? How come does that come to be”. There
are a lot of deus ex machina used in
the progress of the story. It makes you wonder whether the author properly
builds the story, or does he just write as he goes. That may be blamed by the
fact that usually webnovel are continuous, like serial comic. The author will
upload and update a new chapter weekly, or even daily.
Overall, Way
of Choices is a good read for those who like genre. It’s necessary to be
patient while following the progress of the story however this can be ignored
by CCS awesomely fun words. It isn’t recommended now though as the translation
has been going slow. Better let it accumulate a lot of chapter first.
Lastly,
“Perhaps it’s because I have a good heart.”
–Chen Chang
Sheng, when asked why the first princess of Yao race wanted to be his
apprentice.
p.s. actually I read further than
that, but I don’t want to write it now.