This volume kept me giggling and reading into the wee hours of the night. It's just so delightful with its shippy tropes and mocking of its own tropes. And at the same time some of the same themes on reputation and rumor that I think got more developed in The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation.

I really enjoyed this one. ( )

An absolutely wonderful conclusion to the main story of SVSSS. I love rereading this again. The art is absolutely gorgeous, and so many of my favorite scenes now have official art for them. The cast is still phenomenal and the relationships are wonderful. It's funny and tragic and heart-warming and just a great read. I'm so happy to be able to own this. I was tearing up through a lot of it and grinning so hard my face hurt through the rest.

I am so happy that we got art of one of my favorite scenes: Shen Qingqiu crying in the mausoleum, and we even got more Zhuzhi-lang art and it's wonderful! And I am over the moon that there's art for one of my other favorite scenes: Shang Qinghua flying to catch Mobei-jun. Xiao Tong Kong did an absolutely phenomenal job bringing the scenes to life.

I really look forward to all the extras in volume 4, which includes a lot of great stories for Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu, as well as stories for some of my favorite side characters. If you like the main story here, please give volume 4 a try when it releases. The Extras are just as good as the main story. ( )

Volume 2 had lots of twists as Shen Qingqiu “died” and was resurrected into the new body he had prepared before facing the demon lord version of Luo Binghe. He thought to disappear and live outside the novel, but fate (and the System) finds him right back in the thick of things. He finally has to face that he is now the object of Binghe’s desire, and that Binghe has followed a dark path as a result of Qingqiu’s clueless refusal to see him for who he is, and not as the OP hero of the original novel. He begins to reflect on his own actions in light of this and finds that he hasn’t acted much better than his original scum villain self. He succeeded: the hero no longer wants to kill him. But Binghe is broken in a way that Qingqiu doesn’t know how to fix. And since he is no longer the scum villain, that means the story needs a new villain!

Volume 3 introduces new characters and the System has Qinqqiu working to uncover hidden storylines (Including his own body’s spiral into villainy) and filling in plot holes on the way to the novel’s climax. Not only new characters, but existing ones are revealed to be so much more than anyone thought. Qingqiu has matured enough to see all the “characters” as real people and that will forever change how the story ends.

Volume 3 is technically the conclusion of the Scum Villain storyline: the overall story arc is resolved. Binghe and Qingqiu end up together (though their first time is not romantic, or pleasurable – that is left to volume 4). The story remains self-aware, as the System acknowledges this isn’t a stallion novel any longer but a danmei one! Overall, I felt that the story was resolved well, but the romance wasn’t. Happily, there is still volume 4. ( )

Shen Qingqiu (SQQ) has submitted to Luo Binghe (LBH), which makes him more than a little uncomfortable now that he's finally realized the book he's in has long since become a danmei novel and he's LBH's love interest.

Luckily for SQQ, there are still plenty of hidden storylines and details to save him from having LBH's undivided attention. Unfortunately, one of those hidden storylines involves LBH's father, who's so powerful that even the webnovel's original author never thought up a satisfactory way for LBH to beat him. That's going to be a problem.

I don't know that it's necessarily fair to say I loved this book more the second time around than the first, considering that my first time involved a fan translation, but it's true. The mixture of comedy, fantasy action, and surprisingly touching emotional moments was perfect. SQQ may have considered himself an anti-fan of the original novel, but it was obvious from the start that he genuinely cared about LBH, and it only became more obvious as the story progressed and he still tried to help and protect LBH even knowing that LBH's plot armor should be able to handle anything thrown at it.

As much as I enjoyed SQQ and LBH as a pair, their relationship definitely had problematic aspects. There's a "surrogate father and son" vibe to them that can be a bit squicky, and it's ridiculous how easily LBH fell in love with a guy who technically abused him pretty badly, up to the point when Shen Yuan was able to act out-of-character enough to mostly put a stop to it. That's not even getting into the main story's one and only sex scene, which reads like a violent rape SQQ only agreed to because it was necessary to save LBH and the world in general. (On the one hand, yay that, from what I could tell, readers weren't supposed to find that scene hot. On the other hand, boo that all of this series' gay sex and kissing is awful and improvement isn't even presented as an option, despite the fact that the characters genuinely care about each other and should want to improve. But that's perhaps a premature complaint best saved for the next volume.)

Even so, MXTX had me sighing over SQQ and LBH a surprisingly short amount of time after that scene. Imagine being personally able to make things turn out well for your most upsettingly tragic favorite character. Good job, SQQ.

Extras:

Character and name guide, glossary, black and white illustrations throughout (the one with SQQ, LBH, and Zhuzhi-Lang was hilarious and unexpected), and two full-color illustrations.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

Shen Qingqiu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Mxtx, your Xie Lian is showing.

That was certainly an interesting ride. The way of writing as well as the translation seems to have a wonderful flow to my eyes, just like the other works of mxtx I've read. The almost poetical writing along with the comedic circumstances that have put Shen in the position he finds himself into, elevate this novel to a unique work of art.

Spoiler hints ahead




I was not expecting the plot twist of the main villain of the battle, as well as the revelation of who Yue actually was. I was also not expecting the...scene that played out between the protagonists at the critical point of the story. I'm certainly feeling emotionally disturbed at what Qingqiu went through. I'm not going to elaborate further.

I had heard before finishing this volume that this is where the story ends and the next volume is just extras, and now indeed I see that it is that way. The story ends as this book ends, or so it feels like. I've already pre-ordered the last volume (the special edition of course ( )