“His name is Meng Hao,” said Bai Yunlai quietly. “Have you heard of him? Recently, everybody in the Southern Domain has been talking about him.”

In The Honor of Violet Fate, former scholar turned cultivator Meng Hao continues his efforts to become one of the most powerful magic users of his era.

He has made the decision to learn alchemy because of the unfortunate ingestion of a highly toxic magical plant which is slowly killing him. If he can learn everything there is to know about how to create medicinal pills, maybe he can concoct a cure before it’s too late.

Every cultivator knows the most talented alchemists can be found in the highly selective and secretive Violet Fate Sect.

“His true goal in joining the Violet Fate Sect was to become a novitiate of Grandmaster Pill Demon and study the most powerful Dao of alchemy in the entire Southern Domain. Then he would create his own branch of alchemic arts.”

The concerns I had in the last two books were mitigated somewhat in this entry in the series because of the introduction of alchemy to Meng Hao’s cultivation. He finally has some time to stay in one place and have a break from continual attacks from other magic users, which had a lot to do with the repetitious nature of the other books.

That’s not to say that there isn’t some monotony. It may be due to translation issues, but some phrases are used over and over again. It reminds me of passages from Homer or other stories that were originally transmitted through live storytellers. I imagine that if you read this story aloud, it might have a hypnotic quality to it through the repetition.

But I wasn’t reading aloud and it doesn’t really work.

“It felt like being slapped across the face, like having a dagger plunged into his chest. As an alchemist, all of it was a direct attack on him.”

It’s still annoying that all of the women in this world are in love with Meng Hoa like in the previous books. However, there seems to be a major love interest developing and the passages where they interact are actually quite touching.

“She wasn’t sure when it had happened, but Meng Hao’s figure had at some point become deeply ingrained into her; he was now a part of her very heart, a part that would never leave her.”

The romantic in me likes that very much.

The more I read I Shall Seal the Heavens, the more I realize that I am not the intended audience. This fantasy is more about spiritual cultivation and competition, than the relationships between the characters or character development. The fighting and acquisition of magical items is more important than the embodiment of spiritual virtues or enlightenment.

But even knowing all of that, I still want to know what Meng Hoa is going to get up to next. So I’m going to press on!

Only recommended for fans of the genre, wuxia.

Thanks for reading!

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