The Ring (Coiling Dragon, #1) (2025)

Incredible, I've read the translation on wuxiaworld and I can guarantee that this is an incredible piece of fantasy literature!

So I actually read all the books before writing this so in actually this is just a short review of the whole series. Took me around 10-12 days to read it all, so the books by themselves aren't actually that long!

The story is really much like one that you'd find in any shounen manga these days. If you're not familiar with those, Naruto, One Piece and Bleach are a few of the examples of the more popular ones out there. If you really, really enjoy that kind of story in a book format then just stop right here and get to reading! This series will definitely take you for a fun an enjoyable ride.

If you're looking for something more like how fantasy books are written, then you'll end up being disappointed. For one thing, the lack of character development is disturbing. It feels like the main character does start developing to a certain extent in the first 10 or so books, but in the later half it just kind of stops. Well, his character is more or less "fully developed" by that stage, so there's no reason for it to change any more past that point. But other than that, a lot of the side characters are ignored. Sure, they do get screen time, but they have to share it amongst themselves. Linley gets the lion's share of the screen time and the others just appear for a while, normally with Linley in the scene itself. In the end, this stunts their character development.

One major gripe I have is practically all the character's saying "Not good." when something bad is about to happen. Really!? You have dozens of characters and you expect me to believe that everyone responds in the same way verbally to a situation. I simply can't believe that Chinese people are 1 dimensional to that extent.

I suppose this extends to the portrayal of characters, as many of them do feel rather 1 dimensional and aren't very deep or conflicting. It might be a product of because of how powerful everyone actually is. Even the topic of revenge is treated as an everyday occurrence. The law of the jungle is in full effect here, where the powerful are able to trample over the weak.

In the end, this story is full of explosions, battles, trying to protect one's loved ones, and a nice helping of revenge as well. Don't expect much else from it as you just sit back and watch the main character get stronger, and stronger, and stronger, and stronger, and stronger, etc......

Wow. When I read The Legendary moonlight sculptor, I thought nothing can come close to it. But, this book is even more awesome than LMS.

It's about a scion of a dying clan. Once great Baruch clan is at the end of its days. But linley the successor of the clan is highly talented and hard working. This book is an introduction and a captivating one at that. Loved it.

Read the translated series on wuxiaworld.
One of the best wuxia novels,had me awake for most of the nights till the end of the series.
A must read for any fantasy fiction reader.

This may be the book I've enjoyed reading most in my entire life.
On this plane of existence, at least…
And I'm only halfway through…
It's exactly what I like. Blokey to the Nth degree.

Good boy does good, works his magic socks off and levels up. And up. And up. And up. And up. And up. And up. And up. And up. 5 books worth of words later... New world. And up. And up. And up. And up. And up. And up. Then, strangely, it stops.

In this whole multi-layered multiverse, characters' conversations basically boil down to saying three things to their Bosses, Bros, hoes or foes.
1) What a terrifying attack!
2) Not good
3) F*ck off!

Reductive but effective. That's all anyone really says/means anyway.
While dialogue ain't deep, the plot is and shimmies faster than sovereign level god eater shadow mouse up a drainpipe.
Lovingly translated into glorious technical English, his book breaks all the rules and has blown my mind. It's all highlights all the time.
I don't even care that the main character is called Linley.
Sure, it's cheesy, but cheese is good, spread it on thick and enjoy bro.
New-age, snaggy, chick-flick authoresses despair.
It's all tell, no show.
And I'm telling you it's awesome, bro!

Ideas and plot triumphing over style and rules. Whereas Robin Hobb types write epic length series where nothing actually happens and gets lauded for it. I'll Eat Tomatoes every time. I think this Wuxia/ Xiamxia stuff will catch on. Will Wight already has the excellent pseudo Asian Cradle of Souls series along the same levelling-up lines.

Overall, what a terrifying iconoclastic attack. Robin Hobb not good. If you don't like it fourth bro, f*ck ff!

This was my introduction to xianxa and wuxia novels. I've got to say it totally converted me. I didn't even know about this whole other genre, which is frickin awesome.

To finish coiling dragon, i went on a mega binge, which lasted me about a month. At the end i finished the 8th book, which is the last one translated. I'm not sure if theres more, but not translated in English or that was the end? Either way it was a great series. I haven't found a slow burn series better than this yet.

Primeira vez lendo uma LN, realmente muito bom, um tipo de fantasia diferente do que estou acostumado. A busca pela magia e pelo poder pode ser encontrada em vários outros tipos de história, mas a ambientação, a escrita chinesa, diferem bem do ponto de vista ocidental, tornando atrativo a experiência de uma leitura baseada em outras culturas que eu particularmente não estou acostumado.

maybe it's the Desolate Era aura ,maybe i need some time away from xianxia
i just didn't like it

I am on Book #8 at the moment and think it's time to add a preliminary review for the series. As you can see, I only rated the first few books 3/5 stars. However, this is one of those series that just gets better and better as the story progresses. By Book #6 the conflict and action escalates dramatically and every page becomes a battlefield of heart-pounding adrenaline.

The books are fairly quick reads so my advice is to stick with it, even if you find the series somewhat elementary in the beginning. There is a lot of world building, not to mention farm-boy on the road to becoming a hero tropes, but trust me, it's worth it. When this series hits its stride you will be glad you did, because it takes off like a saber-toothed tiger with a rocket strapped to its ass.

The entire Coiling Dragon series is amazing, and reading it got me through many a break at work. Fantastic universe, excellent characters. Story kept me on the edge of my seat as I read it, wanting to know what came next. Definitely recommend!

The Ring in particular had an excellent set up, introducing some of the major and minor characters that we'd see later on and throughout the series. Looking back, I had no idea what I was getting into when I first started reading it, but I have no regrets. It was a rabbit hole well worth falling into.

Likeable characters

Good translation, typical wuxia story setting but if half military recruits die and most lands' commoners are impoverished rebellion is overdue. Upper crust warriors and mages is probably why overdue.

I read the 8 translated novels available in KU. These books have issues, but the overall experience was very enjoyable. The bottom line was I became very invested in Linley's journey and enjoyed all the books very much.

Strong Points
- great progression fantasy that many readers of LitRPG would enjoy
- the translation is superb
- protag is likable
- epic scope

Issues
- a lot of repetition as I think the original was posted as shorter chapters. so there is always some explanation of things that already happened.
- dues ex machina. vast amounts of it. this can leave you feeling a bit unsatisfied with some scenes.
- side characters are two-dimensional for the most part
- some motivations and decisions regarding how you treat your friends and family don't fit with western norms.

Even with these issues, it doesn't spoil the enjoyment of the books. I highly recommed this series to anyone who enjoys progrssion or cultivation fanatasy.

Epic Worldbuilding and plot, superb character growth, one of the most interesting and immersive fantasy series I have read.

The review is for all the 21 light novels, that is. This is only the second fan translated novel I have read, from Chinese to English also it is my introduction to xianxa and wuxia novels.

This didn’t feel like a light novel with its in-depth world-building and magic system also the translation itself was good, making one want to binge read the series. As for the plotting and storytelling itself, it is full of adventure, character growth, and many twists. For such a lengthy series the biggest downfalls are repetitive nature or taking the harem route, luckily the author didn’t fall into these traps and kept the flow fresh. Each and every book had an intense edge of your seat action.

It is easily among the favorite books I have read.

This is the first chinese webnovel I have ever read and it was the one that led me to read other asian novels. The Coiling Dragon series will always have a special place in my heart and a bit of my bias will always leaned towards it.

I read this way back 2017, so the details of the plot and characters are a bit blurry now. I remember myself reading this and finishing the series within a week despite the overwhelming length. I was pushing myself to the limit in order to finish the whole story and reach the ending. At that point, I was really proud of myself.

I reread the series several times after that, and I enjoy it more than the first time. I really am grateful toward this series as it was the one the pushed me toward several others more.

When I first started this book, this series in fact, I was really skeptical as this was my first time reading eastern fantasy. I'm obsessed now. This book was the adorable start to Linley's Journey to becoming the most amazing person the history of the Yulan Plane has ever seen. I would really recommend this series if you enjoy getting emotions thrown in your face. These books are a never-ending rollercoaster of emotions. My favourite character in the whole series gets introduced in this book. ;)

Reads like a poorly translated lite novel. Filled with predictable & over used troupes. MC is overpowered to the point where you don't really care what antics he gets involved in, you know he's just going to OP his way through. Romantic side plot pops out of no where - completely without introduction - impossible to get invested in it.

Overall terrible writing, if I could give this book zero stars, I would.

I enjoyed it.....and even got caught up and read the whole series. It's interesting to see the differences in cultural values....and the story is like watching a kung fu movie from the 70s....the only thing I didn't like were the plot holes and missed opportunities to build out side characters and the world. The world building is ambitious, but it does fall down in parts but overall is a really enjoyable read that's hard to put down.

Great story about a boy growing up and cultivating along side his pet and later his wife as well. One of the few stories where the wife actually travels along with mc as he cultivates and grows stronger.

When I started reading it felt like the story was gonna suck, but by God it got better with time. It has the typical flaws of a translation but it reads well and the author and translator have done a marvelous job

very addictive...

This was a phenomenal light story. I've never read anything like it. The characters in it are so rich have a good story behind them, and I love to see how the characters will develop

Definitely one of the best wuxia novels out there. Thank you for the great translation RWX!

interesting story with empathetic characters

A rather slow beginning, plus some info dump world building.

Among the first xianxia I read, I was utterly drawn into Linley's world and his adventures by this book. A tale of how a weak kid began his road to became powerful.

Great book about cultivation and assension. Story is pretty long and dynamic. A solid read and storyline only lacking on imagination about gear and combat. Ending was pretty abrupt.

My first chinese novel i just started reading it after reading the manga itz cool.
It marked the advent of the chinese novels n their themes after manga.

I love this book.

Just awesome

great novel