This is a masterpiece. While it is a cultivation novel, it will ruin other cultivation novels for you when you read it. The power system, despite being incredibly simple and divided into 9 ranks only, is expanded and diversified by the presence of Gu. The expanded range of abilities later in immortal gu masters just makes it even better. It's amazing overall. The construction and worldbuilding of the world is also amazing. To go to Fang Yuan: he's brilliant. He's ruthless, callous, shameless, and completely immoral, but he's also terrifyingly intelligent and cautious. All this comes together to form a main character who is captivating, never knowing what scheme he will come up with next and what insane thing he will do in his quest. And through this story, it's never forgotten what his quest is: immortality, or death trying. Fang Yuan is almost a complete character from the beginning, but the relative lack of character growth or change is not a detriment to the story as that character growth is instead found in side characters like Fang Zheng or Feng Jin Huang, and never feels out of place nor confusing. Referring to the story as a whole: absolutely insane. Widely, it's a criticism and parody of the typical cultivation novel's tropes and stereotypes. It's also a story about perseverance, gruesome and grotesque murder, the true nature of humanity and the human self, and a man's journey to immortality. In fact, I could probably write an essay on the shockingly deep philosophical content in this novel, but it's better that one reads and understands it for themselves. Even when it's not weirdly philosophical or strangely moving, the story is amazing. At my peak reading speed, I was reading over 100 chapters per day. That is how good this is. It's not for everyone - you can probably tell whether or not you can stomach it by the end of book 1 - but if you can, you'll stick with it. Of course, if you've made it to the end of book 1, you'll also stay because of the endings of each of the books. They are, without question, Peak Fiction. Not one of the five book endings is any lower than a 10/10, and there are ones that I would rate somewhere around 50/10 or higher. It's that good. Reverend Insanity is, without question, the best cultivation novel I've ever read. It is also, without question, consistently a (at least decently) well translated novel. This shouldn't be your first Xianxia novel. It is, by large part, something that is made better by understanding common Xianxia tropes and systems. But when you get here, be ready. You'll be hooked.

My first cultivation novel, and still one of the best. It falls into the common tropes and pitfalls, but it's also consistently at least good, and the last greater arc is genuinely just well done. I also love the uniqeness of the Open Heaven realm. I'd recommend reading the Manhua however, it's a very good adaptation and is almost completed as well. Of all the manhua adapations i've read, it's by far the best. It basically condenses each chapter of the novel into bout 1.5 chapters and they're still pretty d*mn short. Overall, this is still one of the best Xianxia novels i've read and it's definitely the one of best completed ones.