For the year-end ask game, 1 and 2? 👀
Sorry for the late reply! I wanted to come up with different answers for those two so that there’s variety. But after reviewing what I’ve read this year, most novels were better at romance than plot… so I guess I’ll just give the two crowns to the one novel I enjoyed most:
Overall Favorite Novel and Novel with Best Plot Development: Forced to Share a System with Long Aotian
Genres: Xianxia, Rebirth, System-based, Unlimited Flow-ish
What it’s about: Gu Ran, a genius sword cultivator from the prestigious Mirror Void Sect, fails his tribulation and dies—but not long after, he wakes up in an unknown sect in the body of a cultivator who is also named Gu Ran.
Gu Ran doesn’t know why he died, and now he also doesn’t know why he has to keep living. But having found a new life in a family that actually cares for him, perhaps it’s not bad to just stay in the small sect and leave the glories of the wider cultivation world behind.
But unfortunately, even that isn’t allowed, as there’s a System in his head always urging him to do missions. This System has also assigned him a partner, who is all too eager to complete those missions. And their biggest mission yet is to participate in the inter-sect competition.
My thoughts: This, by far, is the best novel I ever read this year. I check out around 5-10 novels each month. Some I complete but just like a bit, some I forget coz they were mediocre, and some I drop halfway coz they got boring. But this one? This got me so hooked, I couldn’t stop clicking on the next chapter. I haven’t been this invested in a novel since I finished Fourth Perspective last year.
There are so, so many things to like about this novel. But first and foremost is its characters. Whether it’s the protagonists or the side characters, they’re all so thoughtfully written.
The protagonists, although strong and with a System to boot, don’t feel overpowered. And as someone who is not allo, I absolutely love how the story treats its romantic and platonic relationships. ML and MC don’t get together quickly. Their relationship is built up slowly through a strong friendship, then followed by a heart-wrenching slowburn brought by the angst of mutual pining. Author also isn’t quick to define ML’s feelings for MC as romantic, even when all the other characters, even ML himself, might think otherwise. The main CP’s feelings for each other are treated so tenderly that you can’t help but ache with them.
And the side characters, though not as powerful as our protags, are not treated as mere props to highlight them as stories in this genre tend to do. They too have their own strengths, and altogether they make a great team. The author even assigned the strategist role to a side character and not to either ML or MC, as it usually is in cnovels, and I like that. There’s also a secondary cp, but nearly 200 chapters in, I still can’t guess who the actual pair is gonna be. Just that this guy has a crush on this other guy, and said other guy is also said to have a crush on someone, but we don’t know who it is. Danmei tends to make cp’s obvious at a glance, but for this, I honestly can’t tell. These characters also have great chemistry with the others, so the possibilities are endless.
Story-wise, the structure is similar to an Unlimited Flow once the sect competition starts. There’s even a “livestream” with a “bullet commenting” feature, so you will get to see the reactions of the “audience” as the main team go on their adventures. Some people might find that annoying, but I promise you that the enjoyment you get from the novel as a whole makes it worth it.
And if you like the plot tropes of xianxia mixed with the thrill of an unlimited flow, then you will definitely enjoy this story. I don’t want to give away too much, but I assure you that the arcs are fun and engaging. They’re also not episodic, as actual unli flow stories tend to be. There’s an overarching plot brewing, and every important character also has its own subplot.
The novel has been ongoing since 2020 but is currently at only 205 chapters. At that timeframe, other novels would’ve already hit the 500-chapter mark, but I can see that the author cares a lot about quality more than quantity, as they have taken several breaks in-between. The latest chapters were just recently released, though, so we can be assured that it’s not gonna go unfinished
