recently, im so invested with shui qian cheng's novels. ive become part of the 188 scum gongs fanclub lol.
anyways, my beloved fool and my beloved enemy was my starter pack. sqc really made sure her gongs are scum and toxic men bec she really got me with that.
just a heads up for those interested, her novels are huge red flags since his MLs are red flags too. if you are not into these types of novels, don't even touch it.
魂兵之戈/"Jiang Chao Ge and the Spirit Weapon" by Shui Qian Cheng
I can't believe this is my 10th SQC novel!
I always thought of SQC as the queen of dogblood scum gong crematoriums novels angsty urban romantic drama, but her action-adventure stuff is surprisingly fun and engaging!
Synopsis
Ruthless businessman Jiang Chaoge accidentally gets transported to an alternate universe that is built around Spirit Weapons. In this universe, the spirits of everything from mice to mythical beasts can be sealed into items made from their remains, and then summoned in their full form to perform the bidding of compatible humans who have special spirit powers.
(Someone on Weibo called it "Shaman King but with monsters from Chinese Mythology" and I can't stop about the story any other way now.)
Jiang Chaoge unwittingly proves himself to be compatible with a highly-coveted spirit weapon. He must figure out how to cultivate spirit powers, survive in this new world, defend against others who also want his spirit weapon, all while looking after an ill-tempered mythical spirit in the body of the most unruly toddler, whose real identity is his gong seems to be much more troubling that he already seems.
Hoping to return to his own world, Jiang Chaoge embarks on a dangerous mission with a gang of new friends, and eventually discovers the terrible secrets that may seal the fates of both worlds.
What I like about the story
Complex (and a little sue-ish) protagonist. Jiang Chaoge is a machiavellian business man, always analyzing the situation and trying to find the best deals for himself. He is an orphan street rat who had to learn to be ruthless to survive, and continues to be cynical, suspicious, manipulative, and unapologetically self-centered. He uses his street-smarts, business skills, and high EQ to cultivate useful friendships and quickly build a comfortable life for himself in this new and dangerous world. He also becomes the brain and emotional core among his companions, whom he chose carefully for their talent and usefulness. However, over the course of the story, his band of mutually-beneficial acquaintances become real friends. I don't always like it when a character who is alleged flawed (e.g. calculating and self-centered) but never demonstrate for face any negative consequences for it (e.g. betray or lose the trust of his friends.) However, Jiang Chaoge manages that balance that keeps him both interesting and sympathetic.
Intriguing plot. We start with Jiang Chaoge exploring an alternate world as a transmigrator, learning its rules while trying to make a living and return home. However, only the most powerful beings in this universe have the power to send him back home, and Jiang Chaoge must find and bargain with increasingly powerful and dangerous entities -- from the High Priest of the land to the most powerful of beast spirits. All of them have their own secrets and agendas, which involves finding god-like powers that are only known to the mystical beast spirits, and discovering the terrible truths and bitters betrayals from the ancient battles that killed all the mythical beasts millennia ago.
A dynamic supporting cast. A heroic prince a bit too idealistic for his own good. A teenage trafficked slave-turned-bounty hunter who wants to return home. A feudal lord's illegitimate daughter who wants a free life on her own terms. An introverted genius who, ironically, got tricked into joining the most dangerous journey due to his anxiety and OCD. And a curious local explorer who final leaves home. Each one of them has (or eventually gets) a spirit beast, who are their most important allies in battle, and are also simultaneously their most complicated and most important relationship.
Friendships! The main gang initially only came together due to a web of mutually-beneficial incentives weaved together by Jiang Chaoge. Most of them are loners who do not easily trust people, but the friendship between them develops gradually and organically as they help each other through life-and-death situations. I especially love this development in Jiang Chaoge, who gets to feel missed, loved, and taken care of despite his harsh upbringing, and learns to feel this way for others. We also see the interesting friendships and frenemy-ships between the legendary mythical beasts, who have known each other since the literal dawn of time so their relationships can't be not-complicated.
The implications of spirit weapons and spirits beasts. The high-level spirit weapons wielded by the main cast are made from the souls of mythical beasts who have cultivated human-level sentience. Naturally, they have *feelings* about being killed and made into a weapon for perpetuity. Even if the spirit and wielder can get along, the relationship is inherently unequal on every front: a living human vs a dead beast, a mortal human vs a immortal spirit, the fragile source of power vs the fierce creature who can maximize the power's potential. The more energy a spirit receive from their human wielder, the more powerful they become in battle, and the greater their chance of reversing the relationship -- using the human's spirit energy to return to life and turn the human into a spirit weapon instead.
Further complicating this dynamic is the fact that a spirit weapon can formally bond with its wielder. No one else can use this weapon while the current wielder lives, and the spirit becomes one of the most important relationships that will last for the rest of that human's life. A bonding can be achieved through an exchange of blood or sexual intercourse, and of course the second option is very relevant to the plot and the main couple.
On the other hand
The main relationship is not boring or unpleasant, but it's just not to my taste. The gong is fierce and protective in his love, but also has the temper, maturity, and sometimes the intelligence of a petulant child despite having lived for millennia. This makes for a lot of great comedy and fun interactions with the protagonist, and I really like seeing them gradually becoming friends, but the romantic component didn't feel too compelling to me. However, I love the conflict this couple get into later on in the novel, which is a bit cheesy and cliched but also plays perfectly off the character flaws they already exhibited in the story.
The rushed ending left many loose ends in the plot. I read that the author originally planned for a much longer story, but a host of problems with the platform and censorship hampered her writing. Some characters and couples are left in awkward or unsatisfying places in the narrative, if not downright forgotten, so it feels like their story has not been in explored in full. The climactic battle itself is one shocking reveal after another; and it feels a bit like an info-dump that has dragged on for too long. The ending is technically happy, but I think it's a bit silly and leaves a lot of problems open in the future.
Finally, while SQC is incredibly skilled at crafting emotionally complex stories and character, and the action feels very tight from scene to scene, I feel like the story is still missing several important pieces that keeps it from being super-amazing. So many interesting story elements are left under-explored, like the powerful anti-monarchist secret society, the complicated power dynamics between spirit weapons and their wielders, the other nations/continents in the alternate world, the pseudo-immortality of spirit beasts, and what do you mean we don't have another 50K of extras picking apart Yin Chuan's tragic relationship with Di Jiang and Yuren Shu's complicated dynamic with Tian Rong?!
P.S. This story has no explicit smut scenes, kind of a real shock considering this is SQC's work ...
Overall
This is a story with a refreshing concept/premise, good writing, fun characters, deep relationships, and very creative plot and use of Chinese mythology. However, it leaves me with a "4/5" kind of feeling, because even though there are so many good things about it, I feel like it just left so much unexplored.
It's like looking at a really interesting painting, but with areas that are incomplete and some patches done very roughly compared to the rest. I have high expectations because the artist created such a wonderful sketch and did so well on most of it -- but it's still one of the most best works I have seen recently.
Finally,
I discovered this story through its audiodrama, which is surprisingly very good and unsurprisingly not reaching that many people. Season 1 covered half the novel, and I hope the word spreads so we get a second season to complete the story.
The theme song -- a rock song with Chinese instrumentals -- has also been stuck in my head on and off for weeks now ~~
Don’t you know you had me…had me at first sight.
Your words, refuse, and the way you waste my time.
But I can’t help myself falling tonight.
I’m falling for you~ Oh
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I've finally finished reading this massive series!
Just finished reading this massive series, and WOAH I have a lot of thoughts.
Imagine you are in a Disneyland Ride. You're in the dark, you go in, fasten your seatbelt-- expecting to have a roller coaster ride. The ride begins to move forward, no ups or downs yet--then, it drops down. And down. And down. When you expect it to finally climb upwards, it drops you down again and again and you begin to wonder if you went to the wrong building and sat through a ride that only drops. Makes you wonder when you'll finally stop taking all that beating. This is that story.
I have high respect for the author who is able to evoke that sort of feeling while reading the story. Countless times I've gritted my teeth in anger and want to step into the world and grab Xie Bi An so he can have the peaceful life he wants. I cannot stress enough how good this author is in making you feel just as beaten and battered as the main character. The first half definitely had the most impression on me in the story. The mystery, the hopelessness, the despair-- everything in it had been done well IMO. I agree with other people's assessment that if I was to rate the first half of the story, it'll probably be 4.5 or 5/5.
The second half still kept me interested in what was going on, but it's not as interesting as the first half. I'll be more specific down below. If you don't want any spoilers, I suggest you stop reading here.
!!SPOILERS AHEAD!!
First Half
I loved the palace politics in the flashback. Everything was laid out nicely, and I love the contrast between how the Eldest Prince (ZZH) and the Ninth Prince (ZZX) were treated. The fact that they adored each other despite how different they were treated made the dynamic interesting to me. I didn't really mind ZZX acted like a spoiled brat. He was powerful, doted on, and he was used to getting his ways.
I liked how the present was weaved into the past with mysteries around XZN and LBY. How we got to know about the past because of the crimes committed in the present. I couldn't stop reading.
Second Half
I consider the second half of this story after XBA remembers all of ZZH's memories. It wasn't completely boring, but it was sort of bland? I was expecting to have an idea about what XBA would do to make sure past tragedies wouldn't happen again, but the story just kept throwing him around. Basically I was expecting all the suffering to end, but it just continued LOL. Everyone was out to get XBA and he wasn't even powerful enough to defend himself.
I'm not too disappointed in the second half since it's understandable all these characters moved for their own gain. XBA who didn't have any selfish desires would of course find it more difficult to fight against enemies who didn't care about killing people or breaking some rules that can lead them to the deepest layers of hell after death.
Main Character
I wish we saw a little more of XBA's urgency. I was invested in the whole Celestial being and Imperial destiny and how it breeds calamity, but we never really understood why XBA needed to go through all that BS.
I also wished we had a plot point where XBA realizes how to fulfill that destiny and willingly take on power if it means maintaining the peace of the world. Because that's what he lacked on his previous life. He didn't have much urgency. For most of the story, it just felt like XBA was a billiard ball that world liked to toss around, and he's on the defensive. I definitely liked his change at the end but DAMN I wished we had more glimpses of that internal conflict and the moment he finally realized for himself that he needed to take on power to suppress others from causing harm.
The Main CP
Lastly, let's talk about the controversial.
I hated FWS for tormenting XBA both in the past and present. I also hated how prideful ZZH was and refused to coax his brother in the past. But the way they acted based on how their characters were introduced was reasonable to me.
It was incredibly frustrating, sure, but it didn't feel like it was put there purely for angst. The characters stayed consisted throughout the story, and their stubbornness really encapsulates how stubborn people could be imo lmao.
The change in how they interacted changed a lot throughout the story and I find that interesting. We start off with a hateful FWS flirting with XBA, then ZZX's first love for ZZH, then ZZX's obsessive and hateful love for ZZH, then FWA and XBA's ignorance is a bliss love, then FWA coaxing XBA and acknowledging he was wrong for the things he's done in the past. One thing I noticed tho, I think the author has trouble writing fluffy smut cause the scenes were either kinda fluffy but still kinda noncon, or we just don't see it at all. But the hard noncon scenes always gave me a punch in the gut.
!!SPOILERS END!!
Overall, I think this story has its own merits, and it definitely delivers as a dogblood novel. It definitely made me feel pain I haven't experienced before. It made me feel angry in a way I haven't been angry before (and not at the writer, but at the characters and their situation).
But would I reread this? No. Would I be reading other stories from this author? Nope, and it's not because I have beef with their writing, I just can't handle that much suffering anymore XD. If you like to suffer, I definitely recommend this novel.
