The description of the family's poverty is stark and effective. The rice jar being "so clean that even rats wouldn't bother visiting" and the house having "nothing but bare walls" really paints a vivid picture. It makes the stakes feel real, and you're genuinely rooting for them to catch a fish.
20. I appreciate that Xiang Jiannan isn't an overpowered hero from the start. He gets his butt kicked, he's scared, and he panics. It makes him a much more relatable main character. He's not some cultivation prodigy; he's just a guy who got stuck in a bad situation and is trying to survive.
1 I really like the moral grey area here. Shen Xing doesn’t hesitate to kill those thugs, but he’s not a psycho about it. He loots their bodies for resources because he needs to survive. It’s pragmatic ruthlessness. He’s not a hero saving the world; he’s a guy trying to become a martial artist in a dog-eat-dog cosmos. That’s refreshing compared to the typical self-righteous protagonist.