I Ruined the Long Ao Tian Script Review
Web Novel Review: I Ruined the Long Ao Tian Script by Jiu Qian Shang
The Story
Xu Shulou has been having nightmares. In these dreams the newest member of her cultivation sect, a young woman named Bai Roushuang, starts a relationship with Xu Shulou’s longtime fiancee. Her fiancee, Lu Beichen has never liked her. Their engagement was a political arrangement made by his elders. When he falls in love with the beautiful, and perpetually in distress damsel Bai Roushuang he breaks their engagement.
After being betrayed by her junior martial sister and her fiance Xu Shulou loses her mind and starts scheming against the girl. This leads to her being treated like a villain. In the dream she’s stripped of her cultivation powers at one point, and all the other members of her sect turn against her.
Upon waking from these dreams she tries not to let them influence the way she treats the people around her, because her reality is very different from the dreams. For example, in reality she doesn’t love Lu Beichen or care about their engagement at all. She would gladly cancel it if asked.
She continues to perform her normal duties as a senior member of the sect. Teaching and helping Bai Roushuang when possible. She ignores it when she overhears the girl attempting to slander her in front of Lu Beichen. She doesn’t interfere in their budding romance.
Instead she chooses to go to a place where a disasterous flood happens in the dream. On the off chance that some of the things predicted in them might be true she goes there to try and save lives. An incident does happen, but she's able to prevent the flood and protect the people. This adds validity to those nightmares, but also shows that those events can be pervented or changed.
What follows is Xu Shulou doing her thing. She’s strong and principled. With a bit of foreknowledge will she be able to avoid the pitfalls of the Long Ao Tian Script?
Who’s it For?
This might be a good fit for fans of adventure and cultivation. For people who don’t mind a strong female protagonists and who like stories with themes of friendship. If you appreciate stories where there’s actual character growth this one might be for you.
This web novel is a parody of those typical stallion or dragon overlord stories so it follows a similar structure. The Long Ao Tian Script or the Dragon Overlord Script is the type of story in which you have a strong male protagonist running around making friends, collecting countless followers and beautiful women. They often follow a sort of villain of the week format. The hero constantly takes down powerful foes, leveling up or gaining power each time, and picking up more beauties.
This novel turns that idea on its head by having Xu Shulou be the hero. She prioritizes helping and protecting people rather than indulging in dramatic love affairs or being power hungry.
In the original story, the world she sees in her dreams, Lu Beichen is the hero. He befriends powerful men, regardless of their morals, as long as they can aid his ambitions. He also picks up women everywhere he goes. His actions bring him glory and fame, because he’s the protagonist his misdeeds are overlooked.
The Romance
This isn’t a romance. The novel doesn’t contain what I’d consider your average romantic fluff. There are several couples, and the story explores the very nature of romance itself. Going so far as to criticize the toxic self-obsessed relationships you sometimes see in other forms of fiction. You know the ones I’m talking about. The “I’ll destroy the world for you” type of relationship.
Devotion that brings harm to others isn’t worthy of praise. -Xu Shulou
The Downsides
When readers meet Xu Shulou for the first time she’s already overcome one of the major challenges of her life and she has an unbothered approach to many things. She is strong from the start and only gets stronger as the story progresses. Overpowered characters can lead to predictability since you’ll always know who's going to win, but the author does throw in some new complications to trip her up and keep things interesting.
Some readers may view the lack of romance as a downside, but I don’t. While I wasn’t a fan of the bonus chapters I’d highly recommend the main story.
I Ruined the Long Ao Tian Script is a great web novel filled with amazing female characters. The women grow and change over time becoming more than mere collectibles on the “hero’s” shelf.