Review Detail of Pooky_EggBuster in Unable to Cultivate, I Can Only Raise Soul Pets

not sure if you got around to reading this novel now that there are over 300 chapters released but this novel is one of the few novels which has implemented the references to a different anime/manga/novel the right way, at least in my opinion 😉 This novel does not play out in the world of Pokémon but the author created a world which uses a lot ideas that are taken the world of Pokémon. The most obvious is off course the pets but there are services like the PokeCenter and the Pokémon Research Institute too. Most pets can evolve, pets are categorized in rarity and pets elements are categorized with the same categories as used in Pokémon. Humans and Soul Beasts work together like in Pokémon, for instance a fireman uses water pets in their job and pets can have jobs too. The civilization works in many ways similar to Pokémon. There are also clubs that are a bit similar to Pokémon Gyms, the main difference is that they are not assigned an area and that they have a different role in society (more like the guilds in Japanese Isekai novels). And there is even an organization that could be compared to Team Rocket, and some of their characters are just as humorous as Team Rocket. But there are also a lot of differences, and many of those differences are used to explain why the world looks so much like Pokémon instead of more like a Xianxia or Wuxia world. Actually it used to be a world more similar to a traditional Xianxia/Wuxia world where the main cultivation technique was to cultivate the Martial Soul by killing Soul Beasts and using their remains to create potions and weapons. But around 3000 years ago the world was invaded by warriors from a different world that used different cultivation energy that clashed with Soul cultivation used by the humans and Soul Beasts. There were heavy loses on the sides of both the human Soul Masters and Soul Beasts and they were losing. Eventually one of the strongest Soul Beast or Soul Master changed the Dao so that from that moment on humans lost the ability to cultivate their Martial Soul in the traditional way and they could only cultivate through a Soul Contract with a Soul Beast. In the old days cultivation was very slow for Soul Beasts and their strongest were killed by the invaders and they were worried that there was nobody left to protect and guide the young Soul Beasts. The humans had the advantage of having a relatively fast cultivation speed and high intelligence (creating weapons, potions and soul cultivation diagrams) but they were not strong enough and also lost a lot of their strongest elders so they were faced with similar problems. The Soul contract allows the beasts to cultivate much much faster and the humans would not only increase their cultivation speed but also higher combat power due to being able to use multiple beasts and apply smart strategies. Once the human reaches a certain level the Soul Contract is represented by a Soul Ring, this serves as a sort of Pokeball. It allows the pet to recuperate and have its own personal space. This background story answers a lot of questions that someone might ask about the world of Pokémon. The story is very well written and that makes it a very enjoyable read, and I always had to chuckle when I recognized something was suspiciously similar to Pokémon. The main character has transmigrated from a Xianxia world that has traditional immortal cultivation with Qi. He remembers his previously live after he first cultivayed Soul energy after he contracted an useless green caterpillar. First Wang Che tries to see if he can cultivate the techniques that he knows but eventually realizes that this world has no Qi and only has energy that helps cultivate the soul. He quickly figures out the rules of the world and adapts his old cultivation techniques so that he and his pets can use them in the world of Soul cultivation. He quickly becomes stronger, in some ways even overpowered, but there are still a lot of people and Beasts that are far stronger than him. Because of the memories of his previous life he has a very different personality than you normally see main characters have. Outwardly not arrogant or pretentious or anything like that. In his thoughts he is always super confident, that could be seen as arrogant, because of his previous life experiences. A mix of standing out without attracting a lot of aggro.