A well written adventure story about the unluckest Heavenly Offical. It's an exciting journey through various Chinese Myths, Legends and Gods. With an ADORABLE romance on the side! I'm so in love with the main characters, you have no idea...

I found this book shortly after watching the first season on Netflix.

The story and worldbuilding are really quite interesting. If you're not familiar with Chinese xianxia I think this is probably a good starting point, because I certainly didn't know anything about the genre when I first watched and read this book. I read it alongside Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's other works, Grand Master of Demonic Cultivation and Scum Villain's Self Saving System.

Unlike a lot of romantic stories, the lead characters here feel quite grounded and dynamic. A character like Xie Lian would be very easy to fumble and make too perfect and pure, but you can tell the author has put a lot of thought into how real people would crumple under such pressure and the pitfalls of such lofty goals. He's got flaws despite being a wonderful human being, and he feels genuine. San Lang straddles the line between flirtatious and awkward, as well as thus far successfully being a bit of an arsehole to everyone except Xie Lian without it feeling disingenious or like a red flag.
Sometimes such romantic figures fall into the 'bad boy' stereotype where you worry for the hero's safety if the relationship ever goes sour, or he's abusive. But not San Lang. He's got that trickster vibe. He's not malicious, nor even really much more than an immature troll, but he's certainly dangerous.

If you're not used to translated books, be warned this does read a little awkwardly in places. I don't speak or read Mandarin, but I can there are some areas where the authors have probably tried to preserve the grammatical structure a bit more than necessary. It reminds me of some similar issues that sometimes crop up in Japanese-to-English translated novels. Nothing you can't get used to. But it might be jarring at first.

The translation is quite lovely in places, there's some really beautiful prose and visual language that's simply gorgeous. It sucks you into the scene and stands on its own even when you have watched the show. The comedy also comes across quite well. It's really pleasant to read and genuinely relaxing for an evening in. You will get through it quite quickly and want more!