The Nine Heavens Swordmaster

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I get that some people don't like some of the elements in this story and that it uses classic tropes of many stories in this genre but I think the story still has value and should be read.

The story uses the underdog but actually power mc but the way it does it is acceptable. Yes, the mc is abused and is unwanted by those who should be his family. Yes, the daughter of the Nangong family fails to protect him after saying she would. Unlike what some may say I think it is all within reason.

His father's failure to accept the death of his mother ... (the second wife/concubine) is what essentially leads to the first wife having free rein to do what she wants to the mc. He if anyone is more to blame for being that weak but he also explains to the sworn brother of the Nangong family that he could not bear to look at his son, in fear he would hate him.

The story is of course a murim tale and as such I think somethings cannot simply be scoffed at because it doesn't fall within what one would consider as common sense. There is the saying "Common sense, isn't that common", we can think actions and outcomes are dumb or make no sense but it doesn't always have to, to us. This applies to person's not like Nangong daughter's failure to protect the mc. No matter what others may think, she is a child and as such, it is really her parents who are ultimately in control. Another thing is this story comes from a light novel and this is important because like with other stories from light novels, I doubt that what all is told there is shown in the manhwa. Because of this many things we find strange, may very well be explained upon there occurrence but was left out and thus leaves the context of certain things up for the readers imagination.

One thing that stands out is the disheveled look the mc would have had when he arrived home with the Nangong daughter and yet her parents paid it no mind. It is also a point that the daughter's said to have a illness of sorts and this may very well be why even if she did communicate to her parents that the mc is in danger/abused they may not have taken it to heart. Also since the Nangong's are sworn brothers to the mc's family, they may very well not want to simply disrespect the first wife. This can even be seen as they approach the mc's home and the father makes it a point of telling his son to not mention the second wife.

How the mc starts to become powerful may seems like plot armor and it is but it is also within context of how he was treated by his stepmother and the life he lived up to the point of him leaving. When the mc learns the family art, one needs to pay attention to the time the mc's father has a conversation alone with the his sworn brother, as there is a clue that may seems weird but comes into play after he dies. Now after he learns the family art, many fights and things he learns may be weird in some aspect because it feels like plot armor but I take it as the mc now being able to actually experience and enjoy life, makes the talent that he always had start to blossom.

On the airt, I don't have much to say. I like it though some may consider it ordinary.

Like I said at the outset the story has value as does many other stories. At the end of the day it is whether you enjoy reading it that matters.

7.2/10

To keep it a buck, my first impressions were not that good. The art was average considering the standards manwhas have set so far and the storyline wasn’t anything new. However, one of the two did change, which was the art. I don’t know if the art progressively gotten better or there were more instances to showcase the artist’s real ability in fights; but, my impressions certainly did improve from the former. But here’s my problem with the manwha in general. Which is, it is a very predictable story. Time after time, the Mc gets enemies, who doubt his strength, and wipes the floor with ... them without killing them. There is no struggle, or the struggle is very slight. Even with what we consider “strong” mcs, they, in one way or another, get humbled. Also, another issue I have with the storyline is that the family arc is virtually nonexistent once it is over. Either way, the story in its entirety is it being a “Mc gets strong, goes into world, thinks he’s weak, realization that he is strong, builds empire of friends,” that we see so often in mangas. Yet, the only difference is that it’s set in a murim world. Though the plot is lacking, I enjoyed it in general. It’s basic, but not too basic where it is on the verge of annoyance. I would give it a shot if you like mcs easily take care of his enemies with some cool and flashy colors; but do not expect any intense, deep lore.

Reading Rankings (Portnoy inspired)
10 – God’s penmanship
9 – Must-read. Drop everything else.
8 – Instant bookmark
7 – Entertaining
6 – Good to past time
5 – Why are you reading this?
4 – Bad.
3 – Typical garbage.
2 – My head hurts.
1 – Retirement is a thought.
0 – “Did they even give you a story?!”

This is probably one of the most frustrating, infuriating and headache inducing manhwas I've read. TLDR at bottom
Beneath its pretty art lies a sea of superficial stupid characters, a bunch of dragged out arcs with chapters that feel absolutely useless, senseless plot armor, nonsensical power scaling and comically evil villains that barely get punished for their actions

Art 9/10
Legit the only thing that's good about this manhwa

Plot 3/10 - *very minor spoilers that won't affect your reading experience
This is another typical murim plot about an underdog who everyone hates that magically stumbles upon some secret plot no jutsu and ends up becoming super OP; also his ... dad used to be super OP. I'm not against cliché stories, as long as they're entertaining or stand out positively. Unfortunately, that's not the case
Anyway, as a former noble, he ends up joining a group of bandits and from then on, it's just MC reacting to a bunch of external factors. He has absolutely no goals other than "protecting his bandit family" nor does he have any sort of action himself. Every single plot point is about some random external people that try to piss him off and then he reacts to them, because the MC has barely any personality or dreams outside of OP character who protects his family. Instead of trying to i dunno, become the fcking pirate king or something to actually have the status and political influence to protect his family, all he does is passively wait and scratch his nutz, so that the author can show off his skills when the next villain suddenly decides to piss him off
A lot of plot points are basically nonsensical - if the characters had even a single brain cell, there would've been no conflict at all. Half of the fights on this manhwa could've been avoided if people had common sense.
Most of the villains who show up end up getting no punishment at all. One dude even tried to r*pe the girls from MC's bandit family and all he did was kick his ass and let him go. That same dude was later caught blatantly lying to his superior and once again, suffered basically no real punishment at all. Another villain, due to a case of negligence that lead to a misunderstanding, nearly kills people from MC's family - once again, they fought and then there was no real punishment at all. A bunch of demon cult infiltrators were found but they let them go, because reasons lmao
The worst about all of this is that everything is so freaking artificially dragged out. Every chapter ends as a cliffhanger. Every chapter barely has any plot progress. Most fights are like this - random dude underestimates MC and messes with him/his family, tons of talking, MC fights and overpowers him - CLIFFHANGER - more talking, villain gets serious and uses secret skill, MC looks like he got hurt - CLIFFHANGER - MC is actually fine and uses bigger skill, MC wins fight, but lets villain go after giving him a beating, more talking, villain swearing he'll get revenge - CLIFFHANGER

Characters 3/10
Characters have barely any development at all. I legit don't give a single sh*t about any of them from how absolutely lifeless they feel to me.
MC's strength feels completely undeserved; his bandit family's strength also feels undeserved since they also get OP due to plot no jutsu magic; everyone's character motivations are weak af or just make no sense at all
Villains feel petty, incredibly arrogant and just annoying - author always loves to shove the sexual assault trope for some characterization. Instead of being actually threatening, they're like annoying flies that you wish would disappear; and obviously, there's no tension because you just know that MC can beat every single one of them. But none of them get actual real punishment and end up returning later just to mess with the MC again, so it just gives you the feeling of being constantly blueballed/cucked after every fight
Characters are stupid, rash and act nonsensically - a big part of why this manhwa is so bad

TL;DR save yourself some brain cells and go read another manhwa. If you want to look at pretty pictures, you're better off searching random posts in pixiv than reading this blueballing garbage