Is The Great Ruler Worth Reading? Review & Where to Read
Quick Answer
Yes, if the genre's your thing — it's a well-drawn, steadily escalating cultivation fantasy with a more grounded central relationship than most of its peers.
Quick Verdict
“The cultivation engine is familiar, but the Mu Chen and Luo Li pairing gives it more heart than the genre usually bothers with.”
Best for: Readers who want a long-form cultivation fantasy with a steady central relationship instead of a sprawling harem.
Not for: Readers who want a tightly plotted story or one that wraps up in a reasonable number of chapters.
- Type
- Manhua
- Genres
- Fantasy, Action
- Status
- Ongoing
- This review
- Minor Spoilers
- Author
- Tian Can Tudou
- Artist
- Various (manhua adaptation)
- Publisher
- Qidian
| Quick facts | |
|---|---|
| Format | Manhua (shōnen), 509 chapters |
| Run | 2019–present · ongoing |
| Community score | MangaUpdates 7.1 |
| Content | Violence |
Overview
Mu Chen's soul is torn apart by an ancient enemy and scattered across different worlds, which means his path back to power isn't a straightforward training montage — it's a matter of finding and reclaiming fragments of himself before he can even start catching up to where he used to be. The Great Ruler follows that rebuild, from a cultivator with almost nothing left to someone capable of standing against the forces that broke him in the first place.
Written by Tian Can Tudou, the same author behind Battle Through the Heavens, this is another long-form cultivation fantasy built for readers who want a story they can settle into for the long haul — the manhua adaptation is past 500 chapters and still going.
What it does well
The central relationship between Mu Chen and Luo Li is genuinely the highlight. Rather than scattering Mu Chen's emotional investment across a wide harem, the story builds one steady, loyal partnership and lets it carry real weight through the story's ups and downs — it gives The Great Ruler an emotional anchor a lot of its genre peers skip past.
The soul-shattering premise also does real work early on. Mu Chen isn't just an underdog who needs to train harder; he's someone who has to recover pieces of his own identity before he can even resume the fight, which gives the opening arcs a shape distinct from the standard cultivation-underdog formula. The manhua's art holds up well at scale too — big set-piece battles and the shifts between different worlds are rendered with real clarity, and the story moves at a decent clip by genre standards, introducing new realms and power tiers without excessive stalling.
Where it falls short
The multi-world structure that makes the opening distinctive eventually becomes a liability — some arcs set in different realms feel like detours rather than escalations, and the connective tissue back to the main plot can feel thin. The supporting cast outside the two leads doesn't get much room either; allies and rivals mostly function as the next threshold to clear rather than as people with real stakes of their own.
And like most long-runner xianxia, the underestimate-then-triumph engine repeats enough times across 500-plus chapters that individual arcs start to blend together, especially in the middle stretches.
Verdict
The Great Ruler runs on the same cultivation-power-fantasy engine as most of its genre, but the steady Mu Chen and Luo Li relationship gives it more heart than most. If you want a long-form xianxia fantasy with a real emotional throughline instead of a sprawling harem, this is one of the better options to commit to.
Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths
- Mu Chen and Luo Li's relationship is the strongest thing here — a steady, mutually loyal partnership that gives the story an emotional center most harem-heavy cultivation series don't bother building.
- The soul-shattered premise gives the early rebuild arc real stakes: Mu Chen isn't just weak, he's incomplete, and clawing back to strength means clawing back pieces of himself.
- The art in the manhua handles large-scale power fantasy visuals well, particularly once the story starts moving between different worlds and realms.
- By xianxia standards the pacing is relatively brisk — new realms and power tiers get introduced without excessive stalling.
Weaknesses
- The multi-world structure, while a good hook early on, eventually leads to some arcs that feel disconnected from the central plot rather than building toward it.
- Side characters outside Mu Chen and Luo Li stay thin — allies and rivals mostly exist to mark the next power threshold rather than carry their own weight.
- As with most long-runner cultivation series, the underestimate-then-triumph structure repeats often enough to blur individual arcs together over hundreds of chapters.
Similar Titles
Same author's other long-running cultivation series, with a similar power-fantasy structure.
Apotheosis
Shares the humiliation-to-power arc and huge ongoing scope.
Another sprawling xianxia fantasy built for readers settling in for the long haul.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is The Great Ruler finished?
No, it's ongoing — both the novel and the manhua adaptation continue to release new chapters.
Where can I read The Great Ruler officially in English?
MangaToon carried an official English translation for years, but that license has since lapsed and there's currently no confirmed active official English source for the manhua — worth rechecking periodically, since licenses for ongoing Chinese webcomics do get renewed or picked up by new platforms.
Is this the same author as Battle Through the Heavens?
Yes — Tian Can Tudou wrote both. The Great Ruler follows a different protagonist and world.
