Reincarnation Of The Strongest Sword God is a Chinese web novel written by Lucky Old Cat, 天运老猫. It's a mix of Chinese martial arts, LitRPG, and science fiction, and currently on Volume 29 and Chapter 2850. It is still ongoing.
The premise of the story is very simple. The protagonist who spent last 10 years of his life trying to make a name for himself and achieve greatness in an online game called God's Domain gets fired because of hostile takeover. And he starts over. 10 years in the past. This magical device was never explained but it serves as the central point that allows Shi Feng to take advantage of certain situations in the game because of his memories of, let's call it his past life.
From here on the adventure begins, and the story never disappoints.
The structure itself is rather simple, but it works. The author introduces an obstacle for the protagonist, the protagonist must overcome the obstacle. On his way on overcoming the obstacle Shi Feng meets new adversaries. Shi Feng overcomes the obstacle and attracts new enemies. Shi Feng must get stronger. On his quest for more power he meets new allies. And the cycle repeats.
But no matter how repetitive the structure of the story is, it never gets dull or boring. The author has a gift for epic storytelling, and I don't mean that in a way we would describe a novel as "epic fantasy". No, the story itself is epic. It's badass, it keeps the reader excited to see what crazy thing will happen next because the reader knows it will be worth it, and it always is.
The author is not trying to subvert the expectations. Rather opposite, he's trying to exceed them. This cannot be emphasized enough in my mind. The author actively works on exceeding the reader's expectations so that no matter how at some point you are certain Shi Feng will most certainly succeed in his struggles, you're actually looking forward on seeing how he does it. At times the author starts explaining things beyond the point of anyone caring, but that can be forgiven. And at times the author really
Lucky Old Cat loves tropes and uses them to great effect. I'm judging on basis of English translations, but the language is nothing special. It's simple, It's only purpose to transfer the information of the story to the reader. And I love it.
The thing is, I've read modern pulp, sci-fi and fantasy that had far more complex plot, far more intricate language, or even themes that were far closer to me. And yet after I read first book of the series, I felt like story was concluded and I could move to something else. I would come to second book of the series some time later. Rarely would I read them back to back.
Not with Reincarnation of The Strongest Sword God. That story doesn't let go. When I discovered it at first, it consumed me. I burned through chapters when I should've slep, I read it on my way to work, I was reading it every chance I got to scroll on my phone. Because the structure of the chapters is such, that you always want to find out what happens next. There is never a sense of finality to it. Only a question of what will happen next. And that is the best thing a story can give.
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