Blog Post #11 Consistency
For the first time in my life I have been able to consistently read a story without wanting to binge it constantly, while also feeling satisfied and not wanting to read anything else. The story I am reading is called Library of Heaven’s Path and its a reincarnation cultivation story, I can’t put my finger on exactly why but I am incredibly interested in the story while not feeling the need to binge it constantly.
I actually tried reading this story a year ago and stopped only about 200 chapters in, I am currently on chapter 1130~ so I have definitely been reading it with much greater interest than before. The reason I stopped before was that it was quite similar to a lot of other stories where it started off interesting but then got quite stale after the first arc, but there was a manga released of it that reinvigorated my interest and pushed me to pick it up again. Needless to say I have really enjoyed it, but I am at a loss as to what it is that allows me to not feel the need to binge it.
I know it isn’t as simple as enjoying the story because intuitively I think if I enjoyed the story enough I would absolutely want to binge it constantly, which does happen occasionally. On the other hand I am at a loss as to what is different about this story that allows such continuity without indulgence. I will leave that be for now and just talk about what I like about the story and what I have learned from it.
A quick summary of his power is that in his mind he has an omnipotent fact checker that can be used to compile together different cultivation techniques into one that is “Heaven’s Path” AKA perfect. This extends to more than just cultivation however it also includes secondary occupations which essentially limits his growth to his ability to facilitate his growth through spiritual essence, as well as actually having the corresponding Heaven’s Path manual for his current cultivation. It has other uses and its in the form of a library in his mind.
There are a few features of this story that I think work very well in the reincarnation cultivation genre-trope. The first is the concept of master teachers vs regular cultivators. Naturally the MC is always going to slowly get farther and farther ahead of everyone due to his ability to forge perfect everything, because his foundation will be perfect throughout all stages of cultivation. That’s pretty common in these types of stories, what is more interesting is that in this story there is something called a Master Teacher who is essentially a genius cultivator. Now obviously this is a very prestigious occupation, and our MC naturally becomes one, but the motivations behind being a master teacher allow our MC to change throughout the story.
Being a master teacher is not as simple as just being a genius cultivator, there are a bunch of strict requirements including secondary occupations as well as having students having a certain level of trust in you that for laypeople would be extremely strict conditions to meet. There are tiers to being a Master Teacher and as your tier goes up the requirements get much more strict and the most difficult aspect of these is the tempering of ones mind to being a true representation of a “good” teacher. Of course this means our MC is immensely ahead of the curve on this aspect as well which has been a good catalyst for growth throughout the story.
I really like this concept and think it works really well, but this by itself wouldn’t be everything. I can’t get into every aspect as I have read 1130~ chapters but to be concise, Master Teachers, Kong Shi, Otherworldly Demons, and the translation are the reason I enjoy this story so much. Now it’s rare to mention the translation as being why a story is so good, but I have to mention it because I think it’s really good but I also can’t really tell if it is. All I know is there was an absolutely insane pun that blew me away and it was literally TOO GOOD that I can’t tell if it was intentional.
Since the first major major arc hasn’t fully finished, I am hoping that the author has a plan in mind for what they will do once it has been finished as I have read plenty of stories where after the first major major arc ends they have no idea what to do anymore. Crossing my fingers but I have thoroughly enjoyed my reading experience and hope I can read every chapter of it released :)
