Adagio of the Enlightened

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

The Elders will tell you the stories and lore. Of our ancestors, their deeds, and of the foes of yore. They will praise to you the chariot, and how it flew to the stars. How it stole the sun's light and slew the night’s roar.The Shamans will tell you the tales of their wisdom. Their wars on schism, and the unlettered world of ours before. Perhaps they will sing you the songs of what our clans' ancient customs tore.Poemsof how our ancestors took what the discs had offered them, the manna and the mundane, and made it more.The kings will tell you of the follies, the sins, and the anecdotes of all our ancestors' wrongs. They will curse to you their names, the Ender of Fate and the Ruined Song. How they had dug up the hearts of the discs, euchred its relics, and blasphemed its prophecies, with oracles withdrawn.But they will only tell you the legends, recount the myths, and sing the allegories washed ashore.The Elders, the Shamans, and the kings can only retell what the storytellers of their own time had voiced. What they have read in books or heard in the minstrels' songs they adore.They don't know what really happened. They were never there.They can't tell you how our ancestors slew the angels from the sky, and sent them back to where they belonged. How they poisoned our minds, and made our people slothful and feeble, with the reforms they had undergone.ButIcan.I can tell you how the Ender of Fate severed destiny's strings, weakened them, and weaved them to our feeble flesh and souls.I can tell you how the Ruined song razed the heavens with her blood-stained melody, and reshaped our hell into utopia, with the deaths she deplored.Because I was there. I can tell you thetruth, with my virtue strong.

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Disclaimer:This will be a slow-burn, character-driven, non-harem, slice-of-life web novel with cultivation and kingdom-building elements. Also known as "The Hidden Sage and the Star Chariot" on "Reddit HFY".

Schedule: First 7 days, 3 chapters daily. Then 1 daily chapter until November.

[participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge]

Chapters(88 total)

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

  • ArtherixRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Great story, sure there is the regular reincarnation and stuff, but the story is well written and enjoyable. I read it all in a day. Would like a bit on info on the cultivation part, but we are still workdbuilding so give it time. Definitely give it a try. Great book
  • SR FauthRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    OVERALL: I loved almost everything about this story. from the character development, to the overwhelmingly in-depth thought process between characters. The preface of the novel was great, and left you wondering what was really going on, only to explain in slowly later. Teasing it out over the span of several chapters. Even now the author leaves you hanging bya  thread, making you wonder what really is going on.
    STYLE: The style and world setting are amazing. To say the least. The detail and explaination of everything going on around the MC, and what seems to be multiple MC's, is great! I thouroughly enjoyed learning more about the world. There are several chapters that spins a slow tale of development and communication. it can get a tad tedious, but the later chapters ensure this makes a lot of sense in the overall arch of the story line. At least so far.
    STORY: The story is in depth, defined, and well written. I got a bit confused in the early chapters because of sooooo many moving parts. And I did have to go back and re-read a couple chapters for a few later events to make sense for me. But this is a serious page turner and I have enjoyed reading it so far.
    GRAMMER: This part will probably be the same for most of my reviews unless I see something that even I can recognize. If someone finds a magical Grammar Hammer then please, beat me to death with it. Then I can leave better feedback here.
    CHARACTER: I enjoyed the unique developments with the world building as well. The author does a good job of describing what is going on and developming, what seems to be, both MC's while adding details to their environment over time. I am very curious about what is going on with this inter-family dynamic, however I am sure it will make more sense as I read more chapters. It is a very interesting read in regards to how the characters are reborn, die, remolded, evolve, and change within the restrictions they are given.
  • WeavervaleRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Style 5/5 Nice and even style. I can respect this authors work. It looks professional. There are a lot
    Grammar 5/5 I wish I could say that there is a problem, but I'm not seeing anything. Write on.
    Character 5/5 The characters shine a bit here and I am enjoying the characterizations that I do see.
    Story 5/5
    I'm going to just drop a really good section here to demonstrate how to do world building well. This is something that other authors should seek to emulate.
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    Elder Croneira thought for a while, then asked. "Do you know of those high-level slave sigils used on other discs?"
    "Yes. They say it is a much stricter form of the servants' sigil we use here. It comes with many heartless restrictions. Though, what does it have to do with my daughter?" Bromwyn asked back.
    "Your daughter was born with something similar to the slaves' sigil imprinted in her soul. Closer to Geist or spirit contracting sigils than slaves actually, if I were to be accurate. But the functions are similar without the restrictions for forceful obedience.
    Yet one of those restrictions must've been about distance. She and her contracted were too far apart when she was birthed. We have moved them closer together now. Hence, she was cured."
    Realization finally dawned on Bronwyn's face. But it didn't give him the peace of mind he wished for. "So my daughter is a slave now? No, A beast of burden for this other person, this soul witch?"
    The elderly woman denied with vexation, "I doubt both of those, my lord. From what I have seen, this sigil-like-tether—not any sort of soul manipulating magic, goes both ways. I reckon it occurred naturally. Past cases testify to this, at least.
    Before the two were brought closer together, the other party was also at death's door. However, we might need to do some more auguries to better our knowledge of the situation."
    "Truly? Then, her well-being?"
    ---------------------------------------------
  • WhitebloodRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Well for starters, what I like about the start of the story is that it manages to make the Isakai a bit 'scientific' and not just a random spirit / god / truck-kun incident. This gives the story a lot of structure and makes it unique, in a sense. The grammar is also excellent with occasional typos but no glaring issues that might break the flow. However, the description can be flamboyant with sometimes convoluted sentences that make it harder to wrap the mind around. All the characters are 3-dimensional with unique personalities with different likes and dislikes, creating a very organic flow to the story and almost no forced actions to drive the plot forward.
    However, it can be a bit jarring to read it if you are trying to binge-read it and want an action-filled series or rapid shotgun marriage, though there is a shotgun marriage. Also, the romance is cute and fluffy but more on the best-friend side so far(ch56).
    The style of the story is also suited for a slow-paced slice-of-life series with lots of random details in detail.
    Nevertheless, this story is absolutely fantastic for a fun time couple romance series and you won't regret reading it. Take my word. (Though you have to be patient.)
  • KarmaARoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Excellent Worldbuilding, interesting mysteries and engaging characters. Definitely worth a read, we're starting to see a large plot arc with external conflicts since much of the work so far is an extended prologue and the protagonists adjusting to their newfound circumstances. The web serial format naturally slows down how quickly things occur but knowing that going in leaves me with no complaints on that count.
    Some minor characterization issues the author is working to resolve and since I don't remember glaring grammar issues this is an easy recommend from me.
  • MowtineRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    For the story: Its an Isekai from a futuristic earth. For those of you (like me) who don't care about the earth part, you can skip it, it goes back to it in an early chapter but so far the earth part is irrelevant other than its why the MC's love each other.
    Its long, with decent prose and characters so far, has a few awkward character interactions which I would like to give feedback to the author to below, but its not so major.
    Do give it a try ;)
    Feedback for the Author (Hiding for spoilers, if you don't like them read it first! XD):
    The biggest turn-off for me so far is a few actions of the MC’s which are really not what you would expect from a genius (or even just well-educated) scientist. If you ever go over the story, I would recommend revising the character’s thought pattern and dialogue, if I was almost turned away by these then I’m sure there are many others who have been.
    Making a promise of celibacy… and then not wanting to break it.
    This whole plot line to me was just super cringy and completely unrealistic. You don’t need to promise someone you won’t ever look at them in a romantic way to promise them you will take care of them. 1. You can’t change how you see someone, so promising you won’t see them as a potential partner is just silly in the first place, 2. Why? What does that even achieve?
    Then for the next part, if the other party makes it clear that they want to be in a relationship with you, and you feel the same, why would you say no? Just so you don’t break your word? It’s just stupid and makes the character look stupid (which makes the story cringy because the character is not supposed to be stupid)
    The only reason this seems to be in the story is some dramatic tension when they get betrothed. Maybe I just don’t care about romance since I basically skipped all this, am not interested in relationship drama which could be fixed by just communicating properly, but if you want to keep it I’d strongly recommend re-working the MC’s reasoning. He can
  • NeoremRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    I really like the fluffy feeling this story gives me.
    Interesting reincarnation and how adult minds are being tied to restrictions of baby bodies.  Characters feels real despite them being more fantasy type. Depictions of the world are amazing and I love the creatures that are completely wild. Can't wait to see more development of them and the world.
  • LPummill3Royal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    I feel like I missed something or that the author forgot to explain something its kinda confusing at times for example the cultivation and how it works wasnt explained at all, or sometimes there are specific words I dont understand or that some of the people have like animal parts or something and there are different races that he doesn't go into detail about. Everything else is fine though give it a chance its pretty good.
  • Breno RanyereRoyal Road
    ★★★★ 3.5
    This is kinda tricky to review.
    There are some elements that are interesting to see playing out such as the relationship with the two isekaied main leads and how they react to the new sci-fi world they were brought into.
    The first two or three chapters were really hard to get through as it dealt with a LOT of exposition and explaining and stuff like this in order to set up for future events, and I just feel it wasn't done in the best way.
    But once we are done with that and begin to focus on the two leads it gets infinitely more interesting and easier to follow. They are both charming and have distinct personalities that gives birth to some nice chemistry.
    Sometimes their banter goes on for a tad too long, sometimes the pacing can be a little slow, and other times it gets hard to even grasp what is happening... (for me at least), but I think if you managed to get past the first few chapters and still enjoyed it, everything after that point basically just gets better and better.
    I feel like the author really wants to build up this lore and this relationship, and in my case, the relationship drama is what grabbed me the most, but I know there are people out there that will love this lore set up.
    I recommend giving the first 5 chapters a try and see if its your kind of thing. Not everyone might like this, but those that do, will probably love it.
  • zeel steelRoyal Road
    ★★★★ 3.5
    tl;dr: The story has a lot of potential, the potential to be great, but it's taking forever to realize that potential.
    Like the title states, this story has a lot of potential. The story takes place in a large and complex world and the magic system leaves room for a lot of creativity. The dynamic between the MCs is enjoyable and the other characters are believable too.
    All of that being said, the story lacks clearity and straight forwardness. I spent a lot of time throughout the begining chapters confused about what all the fantasy words meant. The author doesn't do a great job of explaining them through the text, at least in the begining. I also feel that the story meanders a bit. Not in the sense that a lot of things outside of the main plot line happen, but in the sense that it takes forever to get to the point. Relating to that, the story is very slow paced. I am 42 chapters in and the characters are still toddlers in this world and we've barely explored the magic system of this world and how it works (which is a large part of why I read fantasy).
    A slow paced story isn't necessarily a bad thing so long as each chapter advances the plot or shows us more about the characters and world. This just feels like a bunch of filler episodes. The chapters still technically expand on the characters and world, but I can't help but feel it does so in a in a bland way. It feels like filler because so little has happened from the start of the story to chapter 42.