Five Element Overlord: I Can Upgrade Everything!

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Li Hao is transmigrated into aXianxia Cultivation World, and thrust into the life of a servant in the Azure Cloud Sect. He has the worst quality trash five element spiritual roots. Any other wastrel in his position would be chopping wood and eating inferior quality pills for the rest of their life. However, he binds with a system that canUpgrade Everything. Received a burnt and blackened pill worse than poison? No Problem! It is only 1 upgrade away from a priceless golden three pattern Marrow Cleansing Elixir! Found an old cracked and rusty butter knife? Easy fix! Let’s turn that into a dagger sharp enough to slice through Demonic Serpent Scales! What to expect: -Weak to Strong -Magic Items, Spirit Stones, and Wealth Accumulation -Kingdom Building -Sects, Clans, and Royal Dynasties in Constant War

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2026
Author: KaeNovels

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.1/ 5.0
Followers: 2,620
Views: 184,424

What readers say about Five Element Overlord: I Can Upgrade Everything!

“I haven’t read a lot of Xianxia books, but having read Kaenovel’s other story (Dungeon Diver), I have a lot of hope for what they can do with this series. Given how their writing has grown and evolved subtly over the three years of Dungeon Diver, this will…”
lando175Royal Road5.0 / 5
“I love the idea behind the story and the execution of it is good. The author manages a nice pace that leaves space for world building and the story while keeping a good progression. The main character is interesting and the dialogues feel natural. I am real…”
Pilipi123Royal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

lando175Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I haven’t read a lot of Xianxia books, but having read Kaenovel’s other story (Dungeon Diver), I have a lot of hope for what they can do with this series. Given how their writing has grown and evolved subtly over the three years of Dungeon Diver, this will be a great story to follow.It will be hard to not see parallels between this story and Dungeon Diver even though it’s a completely different story.
Pilipi123Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I love the idea behind the story and the execution of it is good.
The author manages a nice pace that leaves space for world building and the story while keeping a good progression.
The main character is interesting and the dialogues feel natural.
I am really looking forward to the next chapters!
Wheelchair ShinobiRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Regardless of what people think of the MCs ethics, the story has good pacing; it keeps driving progression with it’s plot devices, keeps us gratified as the MC achieves milestones, and introduces or brings back recurring characters to further world building or create plot points. With such good pacing I can look forward to the next chapter without worry of drawn out exposition or superfluous thoughts.
As for people complaining about a sociopathic MC, that is very much true and it’s actually quite fitting for a martial arts/cultivation world. The MC has to be cold and calculating and can’t afford to be a hero all the time. After all, this is a world where lives of all ages are treated like flies. I also feel that the low star reviews due to a sociopathic MC are coming from readers that aren’t as familiar with martial arts or haven’t read extensively into the genre, because a sociopathic or psychopathic MC is not uncommon. In fact, some of the most popular light novel series have sociopathic or psychopathic MCs (e.g. Nano Machine or Myst, Might, Mayhem). Having the MC be a cold bastard doesn’t make the writing worse, it just sometimes comes with the genre. So if you like cultivation novels and can at least tolerate cold, calculating, or sociopathic/psychopathic MCs, then this series is for you.
WilberforceRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is an excellent read honestly. For the people complaining about the MC, the author has already put antihero in the tags so...
The MC didn't show much connection to his original village but it was later explained so no problem there.
My only complaint is about the story. After reading 23 chapters, I still can't pinpoint the MCs long term promise/direction beside just survival. But I can see kingdom building in the tags and it would be fun if that's the direction. Most xianxia story miss this opportunity and they will have 2000 chapters without any long term promise. So the MC will be leveling up forever for basically no reason other than more strength. Don't fall into that trap. Another thing is the emotional promise in the first few chapters, there's really not much emotional attachment there besides the fear for his life. But you can always correct that by giving the MC a good long term promise that the audience can attach to.
Sign in systems also tend to have the MC getting too strong without anything happening in between while the MC is hidden on an island somewhere. I see you have already avoided that trap by putting the MC in the sect as a servant.
Great work. Excellent beginning. Keep it up.
Grammar and style is good. So no complaints there.
gaz26Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I need more of this quickly I have already read up to the current chapter and this is by far my favorite cultivation total so far!! I was a fan of the authors work already and so happy to enjoy another! Great work keep it up can’t wait to see what this goes!
kanenod007Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
so far i read up to date i find the story good, the mc is realistic and logical planning things out while avoiding sticking their head into problems they don't need.
the golden power he has seems balance with their trash starting stats.
the plot with the other sect and girl seem interesting aswell.
Hope to see where all this leads to
alarubra123Royal Road
★★★★ 4.0
I’m really enjoying the story so far, and the MC isn’t an idiot, plus I’ve read Dungeon Diver and know the author is pretty decent. Other reviews are correct about the MC being sociopathic and a little boring, with very little in terms of emotional response, or reasons to care about him, but I’m hoping that’s resolved soon.
My only other complaint would be that it’s a bit slow paced, but I see a lot of potential for it to get better.
bencel88Royal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Look at it this way, what would happen if you, a person conditioned by social media and instant gratification to look towards casual cruelty and mass murder through boring numbers, gets transported into a world where the cruelty is more visible? I think more than likely we would do as we did, ignore the homeless, cruelty and abuse as we have so far done. It's natural right? We were powerless then, we're powerless now.
Then we gain power. We're given agency. What do we do except emulate those that have power. Hurt people hurt people. We do harm so none comes to us.
I'd say this is pretty close to home. The overworked father beats his kids, the kind grandma becomes berates the immigrant worker because she can't afford the things she enjoys and no one visits her anymore.
We lost compassion and at the end, we become our oppressors given the chance because, we hate ourselves just a bit less that moment when we hit something that reminds us of how messed up the situation is.
This isn't escapism, it's a mirror.
NaumFaruqRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
Standard xianxia transmigration fic. the plot is ok, grammar and spelling are good, dialogue is fine too. The weakest part of the fic is the mc, he has the personality of dried cardboard and kinda dumb to boot. The mc is like a talking animal, same amount of motivation, thoughts and feelings.
YabasRoyal Road
★★ 1.5
The MC is not fun to read about. I've read quit a few stories with downright villainous MC's, who commit the kind of crimes MC is only ignoring.But those authors knew that an ethically dubious MC should still be likeable. The MC's were either charismatic, simply had fun personalities or explained the reasons of their psychopathic behavior to such a degree that it convinced the readers they were in the right.This MC is simply a blank psycho. It's his only defining character trait. He isn't smart. He isn't funny. He isn't charismatic. The only thing to say about his personality is that he as an adult reincarnate spends chapter after chapter complaining like a boomer about how a 12 year old kid slave who gets beaten everyday is lazy, and how he needs to pick himself up by his bootstraps. When the MC himself initially had had time completing the same task, with an adult mentality, a system hack, and without the daily beatings.It would be understandable if he had a 'they might notice if I help him, so I won't because I've got to put me first' kind of mindset. Instead he got a strange superiority complex about how he's a superior slave that actually puts in the work.This would be ignorable if it was an one off thing, but the author spends a couple paragraphs, chapter after chapter describing this, till he just killed the kid off. The MC still feels zero emotions about this, and what I thought was buildup (because it was the only thing happening outside of his cultivation) just ended without any satisfaction.I continued a little, and it seems like this is a trend. Something happens that logically should have an effect or consequences, but nothing comes out of it and we move on to the nest story beat.