Soul Land 3- Time Travelers (Unofficial continuation)

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Welcome all Ash_aj/ soul land/ wulinxyuena fans to my unofficial continuation of Ash_aj (go read their (don't know the pronouns) works, they are all pretty good) fanfiction. Most of those who will be reading this will be from his work anyway, and for those that aren't. Go read his first, I will not be putting the first 34 chapters in this book. call it free advertising. GO READ THE FIRST 34 CHAPTERS AT THE ORIGINAL SOURCE. had to repeat in bold for the inevitable majority to skip the entire PSA. Anyhow, I don't believe I'm missing any formalities at the moment, so it's time for me to go on a tangent into Soul Land 3 and 4. once again, it's not mine. The original source is from Soul Land, and the fanfic is from Ash_aj. 

Now for my tangent. I got into a cultivation book from manhwa or mahua. i forgot, which is which. I've been a dragon addict since I could think so the first cultivation manwhatever was Yuan Zhun (Dragon Prince Yuan) when I first read it, only about 20ish chapter were made so I went straight to the novel, which was also not complete. Now, Yuan Zhun's novel is complete, and the manwhatever is at over 600 chapters. crazy how a few years can do. I wanted to see just how strong the cultivators in Yuan Zhun were, so I went to wiki and did some research on it, stumbling upon a certain silver dragon lady. I was enamored (not romantically), she was the first and the only current dragon girl that I would say fits my mental image of the most (I would've like to see her in dragon form... like at all but eh nitpicking). Overpowering, unflappable, and unstoppable. but also feeble in front of the person she cares for. Her tsundere esk nature, coupled with the duality of Gu Yue and Na'er, was about as much perfect as the author could give their condition. Despite the importance of dragon in the story, their biology isn't very well thought out, causing all sorts of scenarios that wouldn't really make much sense without that underlying nature. Something that I will personally be addressed in this part of the fanfic, for the sake of my own sanity, at least. getting back on track, Gu Yuena was not the only character to catch my eyes in the story, baring the Tang family, Xie Xie, Wu ZhangKong, and Yun Ming had also had my interest due to their back stories or lack there of.  their presence was always there, silently guiding the audience to the desired plot, especially true with Xie Xie. Being the near perfect foil for Wulin, Xie Xie was an amalgamation of ideas from the author given form in a guy that could only to be stated has a main character turned side character. something that he shares with Ye xinglan and Yuanen Yehui.  The other monsters also have this trait to a certain extent but not as much as those 3. But Soul Land 3 was far from perfect. Wulin basically never lost, only ever truhfully losing to Gu Yuena/Yue (which was a nice touch). But this isn't partial to only him as many other cultivation MC have the same problem.  Another problem was the constant feeling that Wulin was being pampered by everyone around him, despite coming from a "sad" background. I still believe this to some extent, but now that I've read Soul Land 4 and some other cultivation novels, Tang Wulin's unflappable win streak is no longer something I gush over all too much  Truth be told, my main problem with Soul Land 3 is that its pacing while good at the beginning became wildly erratic after Shrek Academy's removal by Nuke. But it was and still is in 2nd place for my favorite cultivation novel, right behind, you guessed it, Yuan Zhun. It was such a close match up that Soul Land 3 could have been my favorite if one specific thing happened, which I'll get onto later. I've read Soul Land 3 a total of 6 times from top to bottom, I know a rather small amount. I've read time traveler about 17 times from top to bottom trying not to miss any details Ash_aj would sneak in. I'm sure to mess up on many details and forget many plot points in both the fanfic and the original source, but I'll try my best to keep things in check. Feel free to critique everything you can about what I right, you are even free to hate on the writing if you so choose, but make sure you're able to give evidence for your hate. All in all, Soul Land 3 is one of my top favorite stories I've ever read and would have been #1 if it wasn't for Soul Land 4.

Let me say this straight up, soul land 4 is not a bad novel. it entertaining for what it is. But when put into the context of Soul Land 3, it is a solar system sized slap in the face for people that felt connected to Soul Land 3's characters and world building.  Wulin and Yuena's plight for the entire story was whisked away by them having a child, completely destroying the tension and emotional distress at the end of sl3. Not to mention that Tang Xuanyu is one of the most Gary Sue characters I have ever read in my entire life, there is nothing interesting about him as a character outside of him being the child of Wulin and Yuena and that he cross dresses from time to time. literally everything is given to him on a silver/gold platter, and never, and I mean never, goes through any sort of obstacles that he can't just waltz over with his plot armor. He has by far the biggest plot armor out of anyone SL history, he didn't have any trouble running through shrek academy, he never had any sort of tension with his now wife, he never had to prove himself to his friends, he has won every 1v1 confrontation in the entire story bar none, even the ones were he loses, he still wins. He is such a ill made character that Wulin and Yuena, who both have amnesia, didn't know each other at all, and were actively protect Xuanyu at literally every single corner of story, had more character development than the literal main character. Forgetting about Xuanyu for now, lets move on to the fact that after Yuena and Wulin get their memories back, never once to they inquire about their friends, ever. not even once are they mentioned at all. Xie Xie, Wulins best fried and punching bag? Nope, just put a descendant there, that will hold off the mob. Ya Li, Wulin's own GODMOTHER, nope, no where to be seen or heard, she simply didn't exist. Teacher Wu, whom he saw die, nada, don't know who you're talking about.  The unrelenting void that Wuin and Yuena have in sl4 isn't only because of their amnesia or their lower "screentime" its the fact that they aren't characters anymore. Just plot points so that Xuanyu would actually have his biological family around, unlike every other sl MC. Do I blame the author for this? No. I don't. They were already going through a lot during the writing of sl3 and sl4 coming shortly after mirrored the author emotions at the time. But, sl4 bends over backward all the way around to Mars to make Xuanyu the most static character ever made.  Since we see the world through his eyes, all we see is static as well. the world building is also out of whack as well, for one, how in the living hell did Yuena give birth to Xuanyu is a ice block made from a pseudo divine object, stay stuck with the block of ice with wulin while both being stabbed through by the golden dragon kings spear, which is known to absorb energy from what it touches. Miraculously doesn't absorb the energy from the child within Yuena's womb, a child mind you that she didn't know she had while  being a god, with a divine sense strong enough to not only suppress every single human and soul beast on the Doulou continent but also can also read peoples minds, see into the future, and gives her 100% control over every part of her body. Despite all that, she somehow not only isn't with her child when he gets excavated, not only is she not with Wulin who she was directly connected to by the golden dragon kings spear but also on a COMPLTELY DIFFERENT PLANET THAN THE BOTH OF THEM. That's not all, Xuanyu was hatched from an egg, which has been stated to be the size of a grown mans torso. your telling me that a critically wounded woman gave birth to an egg inside of an ice block while having a spear stabbed through the heart that is known to absorb life energy, that was double the size of a 9 month of fetus in the womb, all while in human form and she escapes the sealing stronger than before she was sealed there. I call absolute bullshit. I do not care how you try to explain something like this, I'm not willing to hear it. (Feel free to send any theories on how this happens, I may not want to hear it, but I'm willing to read it.) This is all in the first 25 chapters of the novel. Every single piece of history, world building, world balance, character development, villain development. all thrown out into the hollow abyss for what is effectively a fashion statement towards the gods that Xuanyu has the best bloodline. Like I said before, sl4 as a stand-alone title is fine, a little disappointing but entertaining nonetheless. But is one of the worst kick in balls I have ever had to deal with ever, which is why Time Traveler caught my attention, not only because I needed something to fill the void in my heart for not getting my epic quest that two former gods, who had lost their cultivation and their child embark on their separate journey to find both each other but to find new happiness in a world that has evolved for 10 thousand years. but instead, we have an equivalent of a trust fund baby, protected by both the mafia and the world government because he is literally built better. You are free to disagree, in fact I implore you to giving me a reasoning as to why you disagree as I want to see the point of views of others that will most likely differ vastly from my own. But honestly, how the hell did Gu Yuena not know about her being pregnant, I feel like she would have noticed the life growing within her for what was months at that point with her divine sense but I digress. The plot does what the plot needs.

That isn't the end of my tangent of sl4 but that will have to do for now, if anyone is interested (which I don't expect even a single person of) in my tirade on how sl4 was potential wasted by the authors destroyed mental state (once again no blames to the author) and how I would have gone about doing it, feel free to ask.

I have only recently started on chapter 35, only about little under 1000 words as per the writing of the PSA, but I wanted to make this in advance to see how many people are actually willing to read it. I'm still gonna be making chapters nonetheless, but it's nice to know these things for future reference. Also, if Ash_aj starts to post more chapters of Time Travelers, I will be unpublishing this book. It doesn't make sense for this to be here if the original is being updated. Unless, by some miracle, some people like it and are willing to see 2 different perspectives of the same base. (ft chance but eh, doesn't hurt to dream) Anyhow, I'm excited to work on this project, and with permission for Ash_aj, may the time traveling commence. Oh, and also, how would like the chapter format, smaller but faster chapters or long but slower chapters. I normally go about 2k to 3k words per chapter, but Ash_aj does far more. It's up to you guys, and I'll follow whichever method you prefer.