Aspirations of a Future Househusband

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

To be a Cultivator is to defy the Heavens - to seek to change your fate and rise up to become Divine. For many, it is a chance and opportunity to become powerful, crush their enemies and be showered in glory - but it is only a chance, as many who walk the path fall, and only a few reach the coveted Heavens and ascend as Immortals.

For Hei Lian, one who lacks in talent and can only be considered 'below average' at best, his goals are much less lofty. A nice home, a loving partner, and a stress free, peaceful life shouldn't be out of reach for him.

Right?

What to expect:

- A subversion of 'typical' Xianxia elements, with the MC in what is traditionally a side character's role (the 'Fatty sidekick')

- Occasional bouts of loving descriptions of food and cooking

- A story about chosen family, love, and what it means to choose to do what is 'right' instead of what is 'easy'

- Slow, gradual power progression.

- A slow burn gay romance.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2023
Author: Owlrageous Jones

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.5/ 5.0
Followers: 289
Views: 109,966

Reviews

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Community Reviews(6)

Lord_of_AvalonRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A gentle non blood thirsty and power hungry xianxia transgrimator/regress or and gay MC. A rare find here on royalroad.com. Plus this story is well written, with cliché and tropes of xianxia yet the MC is well aware of them and does not judge other characters too harshly on them and is aware that there is more to these people than the cliches and tropes
The OxRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The story is fairly new, but the adherence without falling into slavish devotion to standard Xianxia tropes sets the worldbuilding of this story in pretty select company.
As a genre, Xianxia can be a very mixed bag. I often feel that some popular Chinese Xianxia stories exist as an outlet for negative, frustrated emotions in a (possibly) deeply repressed Chinese male readership. Frustrated that you can't get ahead in life? Read a story about a dude who has infinitely powerful cheats that rocket him to the pinnacle of the Mahayana stage!
Can't find a girlfriend/wife? Read a story about a dude with so many jade beauties in his harem that they need to wear nametags so he can remember when he banged them last!
Don't get any respect in your work/life? Read a story about a guy who cuts anyone who disrespects him down with a single sword slash! If he gets really steamed, he kills the guy's whole family to the nine generations.
I like Xianxia, but a great deal of it is very heavily weighted towards insane murderhobo protagonists. It also tends towards simple plots (in the bad stuff) where the protagonist receives exactly the power-up item he needs to deal with the latest obstacle he is facing. There is a lot of self-insert wish fulfillment in the worst of the genre.
This story seems extemely carefully crafted. The author has a clear affection for the genre based on his exquisite descriptions of the sect politics and cultivation system. All of this attention to detail creates a richly familiar but well imagined world for our story to take place.
Our protagonist is a laid-back guy. Happy to cook good food and practice alchemy without engaging in aggressive striving and competition for cultivation resources with his fellow disciples.
It looks like this will be a well plotted slice-of-lifey Xianxia. Very reminiscent of the best examples of Western authors attempting the genre, like Beware of Chicken. I have high hopes for this.
bgc5676Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The premise, while kind of a cliche Xianxia, is pretty nice and has the added spin of not having a protagonist whose sole goal is to advance without a care for anything else, displays other interests and feels like an actual human being (which, well, it has been done before, but I feel like pretty much almost everything has been done with Xianxia settings by now with many authors trying to add their own spin). So, backtracking;
setting: Classical Xianxia we all know
Coherence: the story flows nicely and the narrative is easy to follow
Grammar/Style: Pretty good, as in his other fics, his grammar tends to be consistent and I've never had any problems with it.
Characters: Mhh, how to say this. I don't mean to say the characters are bad or anything, as the characterization has been solid and consistent. But, sometimes the secondary characters feel forgettable?
Like, each of them has their “stereotypical role” combined with a cartoonish personality such as the “icy maiden”, “leader”, “mountain”, etc. While this makes them more prominent at the start, but I honestly couldn't tell you what their names are if you asked me.
I could tell you there's an “icy maiden” in the group, but could not tell you what her name is. I've read other books in here such as “Surviving the Succession” which has a ton of different and complicately named characters and I could tell you their names off the top of my head because they feel important. Idk how to frame this, but I feel like all secondary characters we've seen up to now could just die off and the story wouldn't lose much or anything at all narratively speaking (Rereading this, I've been a bit too harsh bc there have only been 20 k words and we haven't really had the time to see that many interactions between Mc and them). I just feel like the secondary characters don't have that much narrative weight because the narrative is mostly “MC wants to live in peace and eat good food, yet gets dragged to do other things along the way”, and
AthenianGuardianRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Honestly one of the most refreshing and well written Slice of Life Xianxia stories I've had the pleasure to read. Didn't know what I was getting myself into but I wasn't expecting a gem that left me unable to put it down.
The characters seem simple and cliché at first, but those are just first impressions. Mostly wrong too as the characters actually have a lot more depth that you get to experience as time goes on. They are still cliché but that fits with the genre.
Excited to read more and looking forward to seeing how the relationships blossom.
(While there was a segment with a lengthy Alt Pov, I don't think it was unjustified in how it showcased the issues and devotion while furthering the stage for the hinting of future developments. But it did feel a just little long before we got to see our favourite "fatty" again.)
IdentityRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Despite this being a BL, with the MC having a clear goal, we still seem to be far from any romance. As of now we're still advancing through the starting cultivation stages through cooking. With the MC being 12 we're most likely still far from a romantic relationship
Though I would say that there might be a bit too much focus on cooking. It gets very detailed when cooking is in play, which doesn't mean that other areas are neglected, though characters other than the MC and his friend haven't had all that much time to shine yet. All in due time.
I'd say this is pretty great for now. Nothing too special, but the execution of the familiar has great seasoning and the MC is very likeable.
CMWRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
Fun story. The protagonist has a very interesting outlook in a xianxia world. The slice of life stuff is cool, the cooking stuff is entertaining, and the bits on MC progression have been very interesting. Entertaining enough that I've caught up to the current location in the last few hours.
There's a 'dream sequence' that goes about a chapter and a half too long.
The last 14 chapters I've read are deep into an alternate pov, random adventure. By the time the arc is done it will be close to half of the published content.
Feels like a bit of a bait and switch. Maybe mark the story 'multiple lead characters' so others like me who hate that will know to avoid? Might let some chapters pile up so i can skim until we're back to the pov i actually care about.