> what I read
I read a lot of long-running web serials — the kind with deep, rule-driven worlds you can disappear into for months. Lately that's mostly Chinese cultivation (xianxia). A few I'd actually recommend, and why.
Gu Zhen Ren
A genuinely amoral villain protagonist — not the usual fake edginess — but I mostly recommend it for the power system. Cultivation runs on Gu: parasitic insects that each grant a single ability, refined and combined like a kit. And unlike most xianxia, the world advances forward — new methods get discovered every era, so ancient cultivators aren't automatically the strongest. Banned in China in 2019, left unfinished.
Er Liang Bai Kai
A survival-deduction story set in a hell where lying triggers instant death — so the whole game is getting other people to lie instead. The idea I find clever: the world's rules are just past lies that were never disproven and hardened into law. The lead never lies outright; he sets up situations where others expose themselves.
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