Reverend Insanity

Absolute masterclass novel, one shown the journey that fang yuan has completed throughout his life. Although it is a MASSIVE letdown that the novel was banned. Truly a sad moment in history

Fang Yuan, is a refreshingly ruthless and cunning anti-hero who uses intellect over brute force. The world-building is deep and meticulously crafted, with a unique cultivation system centered around gu insects. Morally complex and thought-provoking, the novel explores themes of freedom, ambition, and human nature. Every arc is layered with strategy, twists, and philosophical insight. It's a bold, uncompromising story that challenges readers while delivering a gripping narrative.

This novel is one of the classics, with legendary mechanic and lord of the mysteries, so it should be obvious this is a good read for many, right?

many anti-hero novels don't really have a truly heartless MC like this novel. Oh and the power system is pretty unique, instead of cultivating with weapons, you 'grow' your weapons as semi-living creatures/insects which means they can evolve, reproduce, or die. And that's pretty cool!

Ah yes, Reverend Insanity, the “masterpiece” where the protagonist is so perfect, so cold, so calculating… that he might as well be a walking calculator. Fang Yuan has no emotions, no friends, no rivals… but wow, he’s so smart! Every arc is him cheating the system, humiliating everyone, and walking away untouched like some undercover screenwriter.

Tension? Doubts? Character growth? Nah. This guy was basically born with a strategy guide in hand. And of course, every other character is so useless they seem to exist only to be his stepping stones.

The most exciting part? Reading about how he cultivates a worm… then another worm… then a worm that eats another worm… thrilling! I almost fell asleep three times.

And there’s always that one fan who says, “You just didn’t understand his genius.” Bro, I understood everything. That’s exactly why I got bored.

If you want to read about an invincible sociopath who never loses and never changes, go ahead. For the rest of us, there are novels with real cha.

Love it, peak fiction, this novel drives us to question life and fang yuan, the mc presents his philosophy rather then asserting it onto us, the readers. He is probably my favorite mc in the WN industry, the world building is immaculate and the various characters make sensible and smart decision to the point where you are in awe of how much thought Gu Zhen ren has put into writing his Magnum Opus. Fang yuan rather then being the centerpiece of the entire Gu world is just like any other character as the world does not actively revolve around him, he instead needs to make tremendous effort showing his determination, perserverence (ofc) and resilience and imply various schemes to gain the upper hand from his opponents. I recommend this even if you don't like evil mc's as fang yuans journey is much more then that, you'll surely come to appreciate his character no matter how much you disagree with his actions. Also I hate you CCP, for banning RI.

Peak. You will never find a cultivation novel like this, the characters, world, power system, mc etc are some of the best I've ever seen. Only downside? You're gonna be unable to read mid novels after this

Its's the best book i have ever laid my eyes on, be it persverence of fang yuan, the life lessons from ren zu, the back stories of the side charcters or the poems  the amount of depth to it and the world building is insane. I highly recommend it

10/10 read. It is so good and the world building is top teir. The characters have alot of depth and personality. The power system is unique and interesting. Overall a great read.

So, I finally hit chapter 2000 of Reverend Insanity, and I thought it was time to share my honest thoughts. This novel is often hailed by fans as the greatest piece of fiction ever written. Personally I don’t agree. While it has its strengths, it also has its flaws and some of them are pretty significant.

Starting with pros, 

One of Reverend Insanity’s biggest strengths is its unique perspective. The story is told through the extremely evil and ruthless protagonist. Fang Yuan is probably the best representation of philosophically evil main character I've seen. Whether you agree with his worldview or not (I certainly don’t), it makes for a fascinating character.

It has extremely well written philosophical exploration. It's even more praise worthy because this type of philosophical work is not often seen in web novels. And narrative peaks and hype moments are some of the best I've seen. 

But with this RI also has some very jarring issues. 

One of the first issues that jumps out is the translation quality. It’s frankly janky in many places, and while readable, it often breaks immersion especially when the text is trying to convey complex philosophical ideas. Sometimes it feels like a lot of the depth is being lost or muddled due to awkward sentence construction or inconsistent terminology. It’s not the worst I’ve read, but for a novel that depends so much on nuance, it’s a big setback.

What bothered me even more was the way Fang Yuan’s philosophy is delivered. The novel relies heavily on internal monologues where Fang Yuan reflects on his beliefs, often right after taking some action. But the way it’s done doesn’t feel organic. He’ll do something, then immediately start mentally explaining his worldview in a way that feels like he’s talking to the reader more than himself. It doesn't feel natural at all, especially considering how detached his character is. If the author wants to explore these philosophical ideas, doing it consistently through narration would’ve been much smoother. As it is, the narrative  uses third person commentary and sometimes Fang Yuan’s monologue, which ends up making the same points over and over again. It comes off as repetitive and forced. So it's a problem with a execution. Author can convey Fang Yuan's philoshopy through narrative (which many times he does) instead of making Fang Yuan repeat his philoshopy as monologues.

Speaking of repetition this is one of Reverend Insanity's biggest structural problems. There’s an almost formulaic loop that repeats across volumes, Fang Yuan gets a massive upgrade near the end of every volume, only to be nerfed at the start of the next. Then we spend the next 100+ chapters watching him slowly climb back up. It’s not just once or twice either, this happens in every volume. 

By the conclusion of vol 1 Fang Yuan gets A grade talent but loses his cultivation which he tries to regain for next 100+ chapters in vol 2. In vol 2 conclusion Fang Yuan gets Fixed immortal travel gu and Hu Immortal blessed land but then in vol 3, blessed land gets corroded so he goes out to find solution for it while ofc he can't use FIT bc he would get exposed. Same thing repeats, in vol 4 he becomes Zombie, in vol 5 he loses his gu worms and in vol 6 his Gu aperture becomes unstable. 

This repeating cycle of gain and loss is not only overused but becomes an artificial mechanism for driving the plot forward. It erodes tension because the outcomes become foreseeable. 

The author loves to ramble on about things that are of no consequence to the plot, which essentially turns a great many chapters into a chore to read. There is so much pointless information that could be removed, which would shorten the novel yet detract nothing of importance from it. 

Then there’s the writing itself, which goes from well to outright horrendous. There are some genuinely cringe worthy moments, for example how certain female characters are described. One  example literally goes, “Her skin was like Itachi whose skin had just been removed, her eyes hiding enormous lakes, and her breasts were very big and waist thin.” Like… what? Is she supposed to be attractive or some kind of demon? Descriptions like this feel more like parody than serious writing, and in moments like these, Reverend Insanity feels no better than your average low effort xianxia novel. 

Lastly, Reverend Insanity is banned and unfinished. For most novels, that might just be disappointing, but in this case it genuinely hurts the entire structure. Fang Yuan is a goal driven character. His philosophy, his actions, his entire identity revolves around his pursuit of eternal life. Without a conclusion, his arc feels fundamentally incomplete. So his also effects his execution.

So despite all the overwhelming praise it gets from the Reverend Insanity fandom, I just don’t see it as the masterpiece it's often made out to be. If I’m being generous, I’d say it’s the best xianxia cultivation novel but it's nowhere near being one of the best piece of fiction.

Reverend Insanity is PEAK FICTION..

It Deserves to be on top #1

No one can dishonor it in my watch....

It will always be on top one. As long as i open this site..

Reverend Insanity is PEAK FICTION