Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices) by Mao Ni

Synopsis

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.