Though the Heavens Should Fall

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

An action packed twist on Xianxia from the author of The Iron Teeth.The Heavenly Empire expands ever onward. Its loyal and disciplined soldiers march forth to conquer and destroy all of humanity’s enemies while its priests preach the word of the Archon, the long-ago ascended incarnation of God.Verus is a simple young temple ward whose natural talents have earned him a chance to travel to the provincial capital and learn to cultivate ki among the disciples of the Great Wind Sect. Competition is fierce within the sect, but immortality and incredible power await those that triumph.However, nothing is as it seems. Hungry spirits lurk at the edges of reality, treacherous forces swear themselves to dark gods, and there are even greater threats. Evidence of an ancient injustice lies within Verus’s own soul, making him the key to secrets that many will stop at nothing to keep hidden.

Information

Status
Hiatus
Year
2019
Author
ClearMadness

Tags

ACTIONFANTASYADVENTUREMAGICMARTIAL ARTSMALE LEADHORRORREINCARNATIONGRIMDARKHIGH FANTASYMYTHOSCULTIVATIONWUXIA

Royal Road Stats

Rating
4.5/ 5.0
Followers
1,290
Views
499,084

Chapters(62 total)

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

  • DjRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Ok I think Iron teeth is where most of us are coming from and when we see this we see it's not the same and alot of people are getting upset that we don't have another murderer goblin being a badass. However it is a great story even if it is a little slow story I know that's not for everybody however going off story and grammar it great so read it give it a shot love madnesses work
  • PeoplePersonRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    This is a great story. People keep comparing it to Iron Teeth, but it in itself is amazing. Each character actually has a personality that I recognize and the main character isn't your normal bland MC that you see in almost every Wuxia novel. I read all 56 chapter in a single day and cannot wait for more!
  • Errant-KnightRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    This was such a great story. Extremely well-developed characters, unique setting, a main character who has to work his butt off to even become half-way decent as he starts the story off with a hinderance to his cultivation, and a hint of an overarching plot that can span several hundred chapters. It's honestly a huge shame the author gave up on it so early. My #1 story that could have been here on RR.
  • 13lack12oseRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    ClearMadess, the author of The Iron Teeth, has started a new story!
    Find his old story here - Iron Teeth:
    This novel is CM's take on cultivation (an eastern style gimmick). Luckily his ability to develop novel and fresh ways of looking at stories is still running at 100%.
    I'd say that this on a par with Forge of Destiny () in its depth and character development. Which is a bold statement seeing as FoD is a huge favourite here RR.
    tl;dr This novel examines the cultivation journey from a different perspective and is a fresh take on an old and washed up trope.
    Give it a go, its great :)
  • toddRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    Xianxia can either be fantastic stories built around hard work and overcoming difficult obstacles or trope ridden power fantasies pulled along by smirking protagonists. For anyone familiar with Iron Teeth, it shouldn't be surprising that the author has thus far avoided the pitfalls common to the genre. While the story starts slowly and with the implication of large shadowy forces, the worldbuilding is subtle and comprehensive and further reinforced with competent characters. There are some lucky breaks that set the MC up as unique, but, there isn't anything as of yet that gives him a direct power advantage. Whether their progression stays this way remains to be seen but for the time being, the MC continues to grow through hard work and skill rather than plot-delivered power.
    The one warning that I have regards the slow start. It's not painfully slow, but be prepared for a decent chunk of the beginning to be spent in a somewhat stagnant space. Things begin to progress a much quicker pace once he gains his attunement, but there is a noticeable stretch where it seems like he isn't improving and that there isn't anything he can do to improve. Whether intentional or not, seeing other characters advancing while the MC doesn't seem to grow in any way sets up a period where I was just waiting for him to get to the next step. Afterward though, things start moving rapidly and I can't wait for the upcoming chapters.
    The main character is well-written (if not as unique as a bloodthirsty hobgoblin) and doesn't harbor an MC complex. His personality is consistent, he's generally polite, even if others are rude, and conveys the sense of a normal sheltered monk attempting to navigate the competitive waters of a prestigious sect. I look forward to seeing him work through the inevitable conflict that his future holds.
    Overall, this is a significant departure from the author's previous works, but a worthwhile entry in the Xianxia genre.
  • Henry MorganRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    This story is well written, the MC iis intelligent and works hard to hone his skills, they don't fall into his lap with minimal effort on his behalt.
    The worldbuilding is engaging, there haven't been any info dumps that i've noticed to fill out the world.
    So as of chapter 17 its shaping up great, hope it will continue to be so, but judging as the author produced the excellent Iron Teeth series I reckon this story will work out well.
  • ZethuronRoyal Road
    ★★★★ 4.0
    (this review is outdated, things have changed, and im not sure if it was in a good way.)
    This turned out to be quite the surprise, when i found out that ClearMadness is writing this new story.
    Normally i avoid reading stories of the Xianxia genre, unless they are well written, considering the huge amounts of cliches, badly used tropes, terrible throwaway characters and sheer unrealism in many Xianxia stories. Even this early, this story proves that it is so much more than being a normal Xianxia, and it is being written by ClearMadness, a author proven to be a very capable writer with Iron Teeth. If the author can keep what made Iron Teeth great, and add that to this Xianxia story, it could be a truly great story.
    As expected from a author as skilled as ClearMadness, the grammar in this story is near flawless with barely any mistakes to be spotted.
    The writing style of this story is like the other story by this author, Iron Teeth. It feels very realistic, the writing is thoroughly descriptive yet not excessively so,  the story grips you in and keeps you reading until the latest chapter.
    Anyone that has read Iron Teeth: A Goblin's Tale will feel at home with the writing style used for this story.
    I will be fair that the story so far has a slow start, but a good one, this story is surely set to kick off soon in pacing, and then the fun part can begin.
    The one main flaw of this story, is that there is not enough to read and most likely never will be!
    There should be no doubt at all, that this will be one of the best written Xianxia stories on royalroad if not the very best, one that goes on a different path from the usual Xianxia stories and avoids their mistakes, while also being on the quality of a professionally written story. I have seriously high expecations for this story and i know i most certainly wont be disappointed by this story, ClearMadness is just that good as a author.
    Review edited on 23 July, original review on 23 June.
    I am totally hooked to this, and
  • luda305Royal Road
    ★★★★ 4.0
    This is another hard one. There is so much to love about this. How high it aims. The wonderful writing style. But ultimately the flaws render it an altogether unpleasant experience.
    The first major issue is that it plays the Xianxia tropes straight. But, because it is serious writing, this causes some really weirdness that sneaks in.  Like how does the empire hold itself together given cultivators anarchic tendencies? Why doesn't Verus follow his heart and quit the sect? These are the types of things that don't matter in a lot of Xianxia because it's fantastical, but not terribly grounded. But because this story is so grounded, it really rubs me the wrong way by not addressing these.
    And then there's the plot. The plot is. .... All over the place.
    First, the best friend is killed like a few dozen chapters in. This seems cruel to the audience and the protagonist and the way Verus grows as a character afterwards is deeply unsettling. And he essentially becomes a loner.
    Second, the arcs tend to revolve around these events where the disciples test themselves. Frankly, the structure gets boring fast.
    Third, there's a bit about Verus retaining memories from a past life. Most such stories start with those memories coming back. Here, that doesn't happen until several dozen chapters in. Then, that's handled fairly ham-handed and Verus basically dies. Well, for one chapter, and then you can't tell a chapter later that anything happened.
    Fourth, one thing that Xianxia handles well is clearly delineating where some power comes from. It's usually a messy, inconsistent, non-systemic chaos, but it's clear to the reader that the Arclight of Heavenly Power or whatever is the thing that gives a power boost. Here, that's really unclear most of the time. Verus starts on the backfoot by being unable to identify his rare qi (which is its own long and ultimately pointless arc), and then within the space of a chapter or two, several sudden developments happen that all point to a power boos
  • LeRoyal Road
    ★★★ 2.5
    One of the biggest strength of The Iron Teeth was its main character. Blacknail's unique perspective was funny and interesting to follow. I read 30 chapters at this point and the main character of this story seems very ordinary. His point of view isn't interesting enough (compared to Blacknails). This might change in the future but I hope the author would try to incorporate multiple viewpoints to spice things up a little. I am unsure how to rate this at the moment, I hope I will get pleasantly surprised how this story will turn out.
  • GaskRoyal Road
    ★★★ 2.5
    The story so far amounts to nearly 50 some chapters of introduction as the MC goes through his initial arc to find a way out of ending up as an average foot soldier.  Ironically I would've preferred reading that perspective over what we get here, which appears to be the average Xianxia concept except without all of the initial wild ups and downs that typically define the genre.  The problem is that nothing of substance has been inserted as a suitable replacement.
    As a reader of the genre it's normal to find a character's origin story and initial hurdles condensed into a few chapters at most.  Then the miracle happens and he discovers his spirit grandpa or some treasure that solves most of his problems.  I'm usually not a fan of this setup but for good or ill this almost always happens but not in this story.  Instead of the usual quick change in circumstances, here we get a plodding narrative focused on this character's road toward the same outcome as the aforementioned grandpa/treasure scenario.
    He limps along trying one thing after another (using the same method) to discover his ki attunement while receiving some very limp wristed pressure from his peers by Xianxia standards.  If he leaves them alone then they'll follow suit but he has to challenge them to duels in order to win spirit stones to continue his ki testing, thus the conflict.  It's a fairly mundane problem that only has importance because the MC doesn't want to join the army.  This desire to not be average is what consumes and defines him along with his surface politeness and resentment toward the nobility.  As such there isn't much meat to him and the longer the first phase of the story drags on the more obvious this becomes.
    As a result of this and the lack of an interesting supporting cast the story becomes quite dull as the arc drags on.  Truly it would've benefited greatly from some more dynamic perspectives to break up the tedium.  Instead we're trapped inside the main character's skull as he face