The Martial Arts Library’s Master

The first chapter of this manhwa makes it seem much better than it is. The MC is a 30 year old mercenary who can’t martial arts. He has a cool ‘finish the mission’ mindset and gains access to a powerful artifact, the martial arts library, in a completely believable accident. So far it seems like a fresh perspective on the murim formula with solid worldbuilding.

But then the MC reincarnates into his younger self, and the story falls. He’s embroiled in the typical arrogant young master drama. The library is revealed to be basically a gamer system, and his interesting mindset devolves into standard murim protagonist. There are still hints of good worldbuilding, for example in the way the Ha Clan head defers to a third-party visitor which establishes their importance. However, the Ha Clan itself is barely fleshed out at all. For example, the geography of the compound, how many people are in the clan, how the Ha Clan makes money, etc. We don’t even know the identities of two of the three princes competing for succession. And a little sister heiress just appears magically when the plot needs her.

I think the greatest mistake is underselling the MC’s destroyed dantian. The manhwa tells us that having a dantian is important, but it doesn’t show us why. What difficulties does the MC have? What can dantian-havers do that he can’t? The martial arts he gets
from the library are as good (if not better) than the Ha Clan’s martial arts, no dantian required. There’s no sense that the library is helping him work around a difficult problem or that his martial arts are compromised because they need to work without a dantian.

I thought this one was going to be really cool, but I’m disappointed.

Rating: “do-anything library” / 10