It's another fun power fantasy, better than most in the genre, but if I'm being honest, that's not saying much. There's not really much to say on that front; it's only slightly above average for a Chinese power fantasy. If you've read any, you know what to expect here. Translation quality stinks, though. I mean, it's readable, but that's the bare minimum; it's pretty much just MTL. I'm not sure if it's even edited or not. Just look at how little effort they put into translating the literal title of the novel, and you can see what to expect. There's also a constant problem with the names of the cultivation realms and stages being switched around every other time they're mentioned, so you have to play a guessing game about whether the realm they're talking about is the same one they mentioned earlier or some new realm that's being brought up for the first time. It seems cool; I just wish some other website/translator that actually cared would pick it up so I could read it there instead.

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Pretty much everyone would, and if they don't, it's because they were already insane.

What's so unfair about the piints?

It's a fun webnovel so far; it's definitely a lot better than most of the stuff on this cursed website. The only real weird part of the story was the interviews, where you get some kind of 4th walk-breaking interview from his family's POV about the changes in the MC, like it's the office or something. I don't think those interviews are canon. Well, I think the thoughts themselves are canon, just not the weird interview; whatever I'm getting off track, it's kind of immersion-breaking but not a big deal overall. If I had one real worry, it's that the author, to put it bluntly, doesn't have a good track record, this is their sixth novel, and none of their previous ones have been completed; in fact, two of them haven't been updated in a whole year, and the remaining, with the exception of one, are getting close to it. The exception is the only other novel of theirs I've read, The Game Maker System, which was fun in a similar way to this one. I'm not sure how reliable that one is, either. Just something to keep in mind going forward if anyone is interested in this novel; it may very well end up being dropped. It doesn't affect my rating, though, as I think it'd be unfair to rate it for something that hasn't happened yet, even if I think it's likely.

The name of the song is literally "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath, or at least I assume that's the one they're referencing; maybe there's another super popular Iron Man song I don't know about. The author just used "Metal Man" for copyright reasons, I guess? I'm not sure why.

To be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about the whole interview aspect; it kind of takes me out of the story, but I do like the concept of getting the POV of other characters and their reactions to his changes.

Every 60 seconds, a minute passes in Africa—surprising, I know.

Well, of course, it is not possible, but being absolutely perfect is kind of the definition of a utopia. I guess the MC was just using hyperbole.

Dude's more like a Twilight vampire at this point (the most boring kind, IMO); he has no weaknesses and is basically just a superhuman that happens to drink blood, which doesn't even have to be human blood, knocking out that whole interesting moral dilemma. My guess is he'll start sparkling next. I'm whining a lot, but I'm just disappointed. I was expecting a lot more actual dark themes or conflict, but so far, it just seems like it's going to be smooth sailing for the MC, and he can barely even be counted as what I think of as a "vampire.". Maybe something that changes that will be revealed later, but I'm skeptical.

I don't know how he'd pull that off; so far, he can only manage to keep down very specific foods for 30 minutes, not to mention most foods that he can't even make it that long with and immediately throws up. It's not like it just tastes bad and he can tough it out; his body is involuntarily throwing it up because it can't digest or process it. Maybe he can become a magician and use sleight of hand to hide food in his sleeves and make it look like he's eating it lol.

I'm not sure how I feel about this version of vampirism so far; it seems way too easy and like this is just a slightly convoluted way for the author to make the MC look more handsome and stronger. IMO, the whole interesting part about vampires is how it's a double-edged sword.

Maybe its going to be like some vampire interpretations where the more ancient and powerful they become, the more sunlight is dangerous to them. Or the author is just trying to make him super OP and is removing all threats to him.

MC is THAT guy in zombie outbreak movies.

Now that I think about it, a really OP way for him to progress would be to just start taking a bunch of wives/concubines since it has already been confirmed they count. Or he could even adopt a bunch of children and train them; although we haven't been shown that it'd work yet, I don't see why it wouldn't.

Yeah, I feel like a lot of people forget how messy and nasty killing somebody actually is, especially since cultivation novels romanticize it and completely gloss over the actual act. Until you get to higher levels of cultivation, you aren't going to be slicing through people like butter from miles away; you're going to get sweaty, and so are they. Blood and whatever other nasty fluids they have inside of them are probably going to spray on you. If you aren't careful where you choose to stab and cut, unless you have really high-quality weapons, you're going to be stopped by bone and have to repeatedly hack at them several times. If you do manage to kill them, they'll shit themselves or even throw up whatever's in their stomach at the time, etc. Most people are capable of coming to terms in their mind about having to kill someone once their life is threatened, but those same people tend to freeze up when it comes down to the actual physical act of doing so, because it's normal. I think I got a bit long-winded. I just get a little annoyed at how much Chinese authors gloss over such a major and integral part of their stories lol.

It's always just "handsome.". The funny thing is, in all the trash Chinese novels I've read, I don't think any of them have ever bothered to mention something as simple as the MC's eye color.

She's not wrong; he's just an ordinary guy now, aside from his alchemy talent, but they don't know that. If the whole point of sending him away from his family was to make sure he wouldn't suffer as an ordinary person, then isn't marrying him to one of the most important people of his generation even worse?

What contrived reasoning.

I hope she turns out to genuinely want to be friends with him. In too many Chinese novels, a girl can only either be one of the protagonists love interests or just a villain.