One Step Divine Fist

Apologies, but I’ve stopped reading at chapter 44. The adults at the Shaolin temple were just too frustrating. I like a slow paced progression story, but the challenges that the mc is facing feel farfetched. These shaolin monks feel like nonsense antagonists.

1. The main character lacks any real goal besides having to adapt within the confines of awful luck and bad guardians.
2. While I like the character’s design, and some parts of his personality, he feels like a robot learning to interact with humans rather than a child his age. Like a Steve Urkle-esque creator who will do something amazing and then go “Why is everybody so weirded out?”
3. All of the Shaolin guardians around him are either aggressively against him and trying to break him physically (like literally break him) which seems bonkers, or are “helping him” but teaching him but then never communicating to the other monks what has happened. They just call him a “genius” and tell them to leave him alone, as if that’s enough.

And why are my points only about these monks? Because for all of these darn chapters, that’s all it’s been about. There’s been a visit from a grand father and a girl from a renowned family, but it led nowhere, and now he’s made some friends of the younger adepts, but the older monks are still talking about breaking him.

If you want a non-regression story about a genius, then I would 100% suggest “Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time” much more. It’s fast paced, the action is great, and while the story isn’t much, I’ve waited every week for the next chapter.