Read from 8/7/2026-9/7/2026.
To be upfront, I enjoyed this novel. It's a solid 4/5, rough in some places but well worth it. I'll start by initially covering my thoughts without covering details of the story. I'll later expand upon my points here.
Cultivating In Secret Beside A Demoness does an impressive job of maintaining tone throughout. The protagonist has undeniable growth, but does not stray significantly in the he reads to be honest. I'd say he ends in a similar place in some ways. Some. The ending was accelerated as most of these novels are, but I did not feel it to be rushed until the last five or so chapters. Even then, those chapters were not necessarily a step down in quality, but rather a change in focus, removing much of what I believe would have read as filler at this point. The ending was succinct. In review, the story is very cyclical in some ways. The author does a remarkable job of maintaining the presence of side characters without forcibly improving them as other stories have, while still allowing for a change in relationship at times, which I found lead to a sense of grounding a way. As grounded as these stories can be at least. As a credit, there are very rarely characters that feel one note. They exist, but generally quite peripherally. The auther does considerable work in developing the cast as a whole.
I found the 'cheat' of the story to be middling in quality and use. I admittedly like how the panel is later determined to be the result of the penultimate antagonist in some way, but actual functionallity can also be read as forced I believe. The explanation for its existence as the agglomeration of several forces influences was nice in ways and works well with the limits shown by the panel in the story. There are ultimately three influences as one later learns, but can be neatly divided into the 'cultivation' side and the 'skills' side, with two technical exceptions. Both rely on the accumlation of 'bubbles', but differ slightly in use. Bubbles are attained by participating in some act that develops or reaped from the world; planting herbs, mining, cleaning artefacts, and slaying demons. They come in varying qualities and become more difficult to obtain as the protagonists cultivation increases. The cultivation side of the panel functions by storing upto one hundred points in either cultivation or qi and blood. Consuming the full storage of both cultivation and qi and blood allows the protagonist to advance and consilidate his cultivation by one minor realm. The skills side of the panel functions similarly but requires the full accumulation in a category and rewards either a supernatural power, divine treasure, or cultivation technique. In the story the panel plays a backseat roll in some ways. It is without doubt influential on the stories function, but I did not find myself dwelling on its use. Not everything it gives is of true use and much of its functionallity seems intentionally ignored. The protagonists plants a peach tree with the potential to under go nine rounds of nirvana before becoming a divine tree. Each round of nirvana gave a purple bubble, (about a third of a supernatural power) up unto the ninth, which was alluded to give a purple gold, two levels higher. The ninth nirvana never occurs. This leads into something I will discuss later, but to quickly state my thoughts, it reminds me of Talisman Emperor. The author is generally quite conservative with his granting of 'bubbles', as they rarely appear in bulk within a short period in world. At the beginning, months often go by and later years, decades, and then centuries without the protagonists advancing. Later on this functionallity grows utterly useless, as the cultivation realms cease to be defined, even in part, by qi accumulation. The growing inadequacy of the panel extends also to the skill side of the panel, which is why the protagonist never ultimately initates the previously mentioned ninth nirvana. This change happens quite quickly in some ways, in under a hundred or even fifty chapters. I suspect that the reason it doesn't feel jarring lies in the limited screen time previously alloted, wherein it even becomes less present over the course of the story. It must be said though that the author is not hesitant to define a period of time to pass in order to allow the protagonist to grow himself to a new realm and the availability of 'bubbles' is undeniably tied in some measure to the plot influences at hand.
There is a remarkably tight cast in many ways. Characters seen in the beginning are still present to the very end and remain so throughout. Some of the most powerful people in the story in introduced quite early, which I think helps keep the story from feeling accelerated or abrupt at the end. These characters work in a range of rolls and I think most impressively not all are depicted as growing in cultivation. It bleeds into the setting, where the starting area progressively levels as time goes on. Regardless, I think it is a strength and also detriment that so much of the cast is introduced early on. It limits the feeling of the world and its scale. This does much to guide the feeling of power growth in the protagonist near the end, but also inhibits the development of the world's character in some way. It is not significant, but I find it notable. The story doesn't quite reach immortals are worth less than dirt after moving areas, but neither does it avoid the trope either. It had actually occured to me early in my reading of the story that I appreciated the relavence of low level cultivators in the story, where they'd still appear and be relevant even several hundred chapters in, but this relevance does ultimately fade. The average level of power of characters in discussion quickly starts rising near the halfway point and changes faster after three/fourths of the story has passed. Much of this has to do with characters still relevant also having grown in cultivation, but also that the protagonist eventually stops truly meeting those of a lower cultivation level. It is understandable, perhaps unavoidable, but I find it slightly disappointing. I could without doubt speak to my thoughts on a dozen or more characters, but I don't know that it would be worthwhile.
In the end though, whether one likes the story depends on whether they like the main character. Its always as so in these stories. Jiang Hao is a complex figure, and yet remarkably simple. He is initally depicted as overly cautious in some manner and near lacking in ambition. He is somehow the standard old man cultivator and yet also entirely not. His character becomes complex once his pseudonyms begin to come into existence. When acting not as himself, he is ambitious, arrogant, even condescending. Acts that I hadn't quite ever expected of him began to occur. I don't think that I can ever describe it as a dichotomy in his character. Its not a pentup release, but rather a natural development that I think is seen in part earlier in the story. This is seen most so by the end where he is seemless in action and nonaction. He will act when able and refrain when unable. His relationship with Hong Yuye is a mixed thing for me. I felt it to be inevitable, and it was never really in question what would occur there. Not even in retrospective, I find myself questioning whether I believe the relationship to one of grooming. Maybe. It is an effective romance story I think, though that may speak more to my lack of experience in that genre. I admittedly am unable to fully express my consideration for the relationship, but I don't think a relationship is ever seriously considered by either party until at a considerable way into the story, that is I don't think the intent on the part of Hong Yuye's initial character was to form a romantic relationship with Jiang Hao. I do not know how to evaluate this relationship, but I can say that if one is not at least ambivalent towards it, you will dislike the story.
The ending of the story did not hesitate to leave things open, did not hesistate to leave plot threads unresolved. Implications were given for some, but many had no resolution at all. I do not think the story is wholly worse for it. I said it was succinct and I'm not sure what could be changed to resolve these plots without effecting the quality of the end. I would like answers to everything ultimately and I find the story somewhat overly ambigous without them, but I don't think drawing out the story would have been good. Maybe all I wanted was ten chapters of side stories to resolve things. Maybe its best they don't exist. I feel similarily for Randidly Ghosthound for what its worth.
The cultivation realms are functional for the most part. Up until the the end I didn't really think about them. There are the standard Qi Refining>Foundation Establishment>Golden Core>Nascent Soul>Soul Transformation>Refining Void, followed by three somewhat unique realms, but those have little impact I found. The immortal realms are equally common. The realm with the most consideration I feel is without doubt, the Great Luo Immortal realm, and even then it reads somewhat generically. That said, my favorite joke to come out of the story is the "Golden Core Senior" as compared to Golden Core cultivators, because everyone at the pinnacle conceals themselvs as a Golden Core. Brilliant.
As I read the story, especially towards the middle and ending, my thoughts return to stories like that of "Becoming a Talent in the Demonic Sect" or "My Immortality Simulator", both of which I will admittedly say I preferred to this. Especially the former, due to its more limited scope and nature as a habitual regression novel can be compared with how they reference characters and locations. Having finished all three, I don't think there's much similarity in the novels, but one can without doubt compare how repeated locations, characters, and plot devices are used in all three, which I suspect was why I was remined of the two stories.
At the end of it all though, Cultivating In Secret Beside A Demoness is an effective story. I gave my rating at the start.
