Shi Fang Wusheng

In the desolate wasteland of the apocalypse, during the third year of Emperor Shizong's reign, the world was in chaos, and the people suffered greatly. Demonic sects and evil factions lurked in the shadows, wreaking havoc, and factions fought amongst themselves, creating utter chaos. Amidst this turmoil, various sects and factions emerged, vying for resources and territory, and striving to establish their own independent rule. Some ambitious individuals sought to conquer the world and establish dynasties, while others, driven by righteousness, aimed to save the common people. Wei He, possessing a Breakthrough Pearl that could allow him to break through realms, traversed this chaotic world, step by step forging his own legend.

(Source: Bilibili, translated)

Wei, He Main

Li, Ni Planning Producer

Reviews

Mar 19, 2024

GPDonghua

Recommended

his donghua is an adaptation of novel by the same (Chinese) name. I haven't read the novel so I won't be speaking to how this does as an adaptation.

Plot Summary: Wei He, the youngest of 3 siblings, is a sheltered and somewhat naive young man. His family is supported by his eldest sister's reputation as a fierce martial artist of the slums. Believing that their parents are still alive despite their disappearance, his eldest sister regularly goes out on searches to find clues about their whereabouts. Before one of these trips, Wei He has a bad prenomination, prompting him to join his eldest sister. On ... this trip, they encounter an accident leading to his sister going missing. Once without their protective shield, he and his second eldest sister are at the mercy of thugs around the slums. Faced with these new harsh realities, Wei He joins a martial arts school in order to become stronger so he can protect his family and continue to search for his parents.

Plot and Setting
Our MC (implied to be a transmigrator), first starts off as a sheltered and naive young man, who quickly mans up to protect his family once tragedy strikes. The transition is a bit abrupt, but given the condition the world is in, makes sense. While the story and plot are mostly focused on the MC, there is a factional war going on in the background over control of the city, which the MC becomes an unintentional catalyst in escalating the conflict. In regards the the ongoing factional war, it is a bit difficult to understand the web of alliances at first, but as you get furthur into the season, we can get a clearer picture. The highlight of the show is really the MC's growth and character.

The setting of this donghua is fairly typical, set in an ancient world during a chaotic time (modeled after ancient China). However, what really stands out is the mature depiction of the world: casual murder, attempted kidnapping, attempted s**ual assault, selling one's children for food, etc are all depicted in the opening episodes. There are also rather gruesome displays and gore, though they tend to tone down some of this (likely for censorship reasons). All of these explicit depictions are quite unusual for donghua.

Characters
The main character of importance is, of course, the MC. He starts off as a bit sheltered and naive, but quickly steps up and grows once he loses his shelter. His growth throughout the season, his compassion for friends, cunning, and ruthlessness towards enemies makes him a compelling and relatable main character. As for the other characters, they have their own unique quirks and traits; there isn't anything that breaks the mold, but they flesh out the world.

Animation
The animation and character modeling is done very well for this donghua. The character models are detailed, reflecting a high budget style, and has the usual xianxia/ancient world type style. The models for characters are both unique and uniform, allowing viewers to easily identify characters and factions. The animation for normal movements is smooth and the choreography for the fights is good, though there are times when there are minor kinks in this fluidity.

Final Thoughts
This donghua was much more enjoyable than I anticipated. The story was engaging and characters likable. There was a greater conspiracy plot that gets a full reveal at the end (it does get hinted at throughout the show if you pay close attention). If you are looking for a cultivation style donghua with a more mature tone and world depiction, this is a highly recommended watch.

Score: 8/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jun 2, 2025

TasRook

Recommended

A fun donghua.

It's about a young man who, due to adversity, wants to become a powerful warrior. He joins a martial arts school and thanks to his weird unexplained sci-fi ability and hard work becomes stronger and rises through the ranks. It's not that simple though.

The story shifts and develops multiple times throughout. It starts off just being your regular martial arts anime and then becomes a multi-plot medley of friendships, ambition, revenge, scheming and broken promises. There whole story is based around one geographical area with a multitude of small factions, two major factions and one prominent city. A city that one major ... faction holds, and the other wants. No one is safe. It's a ruthless place, and the main protagonist just wants to live in peace.

The action and fighting are pretty mediocre, but enjoyable enough. The fun part of the combat is how savage it is. Getting stabbed through with blood spattering, necks snapped, throat punches, acid burns etc.. It's got a good balance of being graphic without being gory.

The animation, art style and music are all fine. Subpar at worst.

I enjoyed this a lot more than I though I would after the first few, pretty meh, episodes. I'm glad I didn't drop it.

7/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Feb 5, 2025

Crichigo

Not Recommended

Uhh, so the MC in this one is a mediocre dude with no talent for martial arts. He has a cheat where when he eats monster meat he accumulates energy and can go up in realms that way. Even though he's hard working and probably has more practical experience than his peers he can barely occasionally fight above his realm, but not really. Let's say he's in the 3rd level, he can at most fight peak 3rd level but it's not guaranteed. As for multiple opponents, there's no way. Also, even though he often dreams about his past life in which he was a genius ... scientist in a sci-fi world, he's really fucking stupid. And I mean REALLY FUCKING STUPID. He constantly thinks about how to not leave evidence that he was the one who killed someone and how to not implicate his friends/sect, however the precautions he takes are literally what exposes him. Leaving the corpses alone would be better than what he does. It's as if he's intentionally asking to be found out.

Aditionally, the animations are trash, the choreography is trash, the music is worse than trash (it'll put you to sleep), there's no plot at all (we don't know why everyone is fighting, it never ever gets mentioned and we're just supposed to accept that the factions are killing each other just for the sake of it), the power levels don't get explained at all, the environmnet and the world in general look like bland asset generated items (it's as if the animators intentionally picked the ugliest grayest and dustiest looking assets and randomly put them everywhere), and the prettiest girl/character in the donghua is MC's biological sister and it's not even close.

So yeah, it's a complete waste of time.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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