/lit/ - Literature

If you acknowledge the demise rapidly approaching you as externally-caused and preventable, then doesn't that mean that any act, no matter how ruthless, to prevent said demise becomes self-defense?

>>17650639
There's Reverend Insanity, the one and only truly great xiaxia. A totally coherent well-planned plot, well thought out and logical characters and setting, and consistently high quality over thousands of chapters. Highly philosophical and introspective of the genre as well. It's a pretty good summary and conclusion of the entire concept. If you're only going to read one xiaxia, Reverend Insanity has to be it, but if you've read many of them it's even better by contrast.

For a quick intro, the story is about Fang Yuan, a 500 year old demonic path cultivator who managed to send himself back into the body of his 15 year old self in order to continue his quest to become immortal, something no one's ever done before. His main, and almost only, advantage is experience. He schemes and manipulates people like they're children because to him they literally are. Not by being a galaxy-brain super-genius, but just by knowing what motivates people and what they expect of him. He's the only 500 year old character I've ever see in a story that's actually believably that ancient. His mindset is truly something interesting.

>>17443608
If you want Xiaxia, look no further than Reverend Insanity. It's by far the best. As for challenge, in a truly unique circumstance we're several thousand chapters in, the MC has snowballed to a ludicrous powerlevel, and he's STILL just barely managing to keep one step ahead of the grave. I'd say it's sort of a sine wave, he has high points where he shits all over everyone, then once he's strong enough he take INSANE risks to get even stronger, nearly dying in the process.

It's also just generally good. Total villain protagonist though, sort of. If you've read Bakker, imagine Kellhus but less super-intelligent. AKA a total amoral sociopath who sees people as tools and obstacles only.