Samken
★
★
★
☆
☆
Completed
Status: Completed
February 22, 2023
Typical wuxia story, Reaper of the Drifting Moon follows the story of Pyo Wol, at the start of the series, fourteen, abducted by a second-rate assassin guild for an assassination mission that goes awry. Unlike others of the genre where you follow the rise of a martial warrior, here you're following the rise of an Assassin. Like most Woo-gak stories they're situated in the same universe, what differs between them is the timeline, this is more precisely told in a story arc where Pyo Wol reads about the history of Jianghu, ... more>> which is a huge nod to all previous stories authored by Woo-gak. This story will likewise heavily spoil another story written by Woo-gak, called "Martial Artist: Lee Gwak", in Reaper, just as like the rise of the protagonist, you'll also find out what happened with Lee Gwak after his titular series, some of his allies, enemies, the destinies of his son, his grandson and the organization he created. If you have even a remote interest in that, and how Jianghu was before Reaper, you should probably read that first, otherwise this serves more as a heads-up. Spoiler You'll follow Pyo Wol's shoes through 95% of the story, so it's wise to talk a little bit about him before I talk about the story itself. Woo Gak made a character who he would consider to have the bare essentials to become the pinnacle of an assassin, this is further developed during the entire 1st story arc, and other arcs just further develop his skills and notoriety, Pyo Wol could be described as a handsome adrogynoyus man more beautiful than any woman, cold, calculating, persistent and a ruthless killing artisan, it's not like he's emotionless, but he becomes incredibly adept in masking what he's feeling, very versatile and resourceful, he'll use any means possible to secure the target, by using poison, traps, disguising himself, collecting intel either by himself or using proxies, if all else fails he can defend himself pretty well in a direct confrontation even against top martial artists, he develops martial skills tailor made by him using the base of his training by the Blood Shadow Group and his own enlightenment either at the Snake Pit or other martial arts he encounters throughout his journey in the Murim, people who discover this fact call him a freak of nature, since at the setting of the story most people who learned martial arts follow a school, a dojo or a temple, so they learn an already well developed and established martial arts by prior generations, and they have the preconceived notion that assassins have a celling of development due to the lack of direct confrontation, Pyo Wol of course will break that line of thinking numerous times throughout the story. Revenge Mission: The 1st and probably the most important arc of the story, as Woo-gak will continuously make the reader remind of the foundations laid by this arc, here you'll learn about the life Pyo Wol had before his abduction, his harsh training for the Blood Shadow Group, the mission itself, the consequences of that mission, his life in the snake pit and the initial development of his own martial style tailor-made for assassinations, which he'll further refine through the story and the titular revenge itself, he'll also meet what can be considered his most important ally here, and responsible to be his source of quality equipment throughout the story, it's arguably the hook and the peak of the story, if there's one aspect that I would recommend this story alone it's for this arc, it's very well executed. Sichuan Domination: In this arc, Pyo Wol will further expand his sphere of influence to the entire Sichuan province, and declare its capital, Chengdu, as his home base of operations. In this arc as well, he'll also learn the basic power hierarchy of Jianghu, which is composed of Two Factions, Three Clans, Three Packs, and Three Villages, and those not officially affiliated with any of them, the strongest ones are called Eight Constellations and Three Saints. He'll also have a conflict with some martial warriors from another province, Seven Stars, one of the Three Saints, and another organization called the Xiaoleiyin Temple. Buddhist Scriptures: What head starts this arc is the attempted mu*der of an ally of his in Chengdu and the successful eradication of the group of a prominent friend he made in the previous arc, forcing him to leave Sichuan to find out more, as he uses this opportunity to explore more of Jianghu, one of his acquaintances recommends him to one of his friends to participate in an escorting mission to deliver some Buddhist Scriptures to the Shaolin Temple and since they'll travel quite a bit of distance, he can serve him as his guide as well, hence the name of the arc. The former he already knows the culprit, an assassin of the Hundred Wraith Union, arguably the strongest active assassin group in Jianghu, the other is a Mysterious Group, he'll have a conflict with throughout the rest of the story. In this arc, he also meets an important love interest as well, directly linked to the Union and one of the strongest players of it, and while Pyo Wol will have cases with numerous different women throughout the story, some as part of his main occupation (gathering intel) and others just because, this one could be considered his main love interest . Territorial War: In this arc, Pyo Wol will side with the family of the friend he made in the 2nd arc of the Story while going against the family sided with the Mysterious Group, where during this arc he finally learns its name, Kowloon. As usual, he'll also have numerous conflicts during this war, a few notorious ones are against the Black Cloud Corps, which were present and mobilized by the Emei Sect in the revenge arc but this time, commissioned by the family supported by Kowloon, another is against a few members of the Ten Bloodsuckers, the strongest assassins of the Hundred Wraith Union Prelude of the Jianghu Great War: In this arc, Pyo-wol will continue his journey through Murim and will be involved in numerous conflicts, one of note happens in a seashore region, where he'll meet a couple of foreign martial artists who also have an involvement with the Sea Branch of the mysterious group, called Ghost Fleet, he'll also acquire a pet snake as well, which will gain spirituality through the rest of the story, at the end of this arc he'll receive a request to save an ally of his, and in turn get full conditional support by his organization, this is an offer he can't pass up. Jianghu Great War (Early Part) : In this part of the War, Pyo Wol is not directly involved, his main goal at the arc is to rescue that ally of his, but finding clues to where he is, forces him to stay close to the conflict, which is more of a Proxy War between two powerhouses, so, of course, he suffers some backslash due to this, one especially involved the important love interest mentioned, forcing him out of the place of the conflict after completing the request. Kowloon Group Main Base Destruction: The early parts of the arc are focused on a quest regarding the cure of his love interest and eventual payment of it, after it, he returns to Sichuan with a companion, and there he's involved with a group who assassinates a close ally of his, this forces him and his companions to mobilize all forces they have in Sichuan to track them down, in this case, he learns that again, the Kowloon Group is involved, the tracking gets him closer and closer to their main base, which he considers a blessing and curse as the retaliation for his action against the group brings stronger and stronger backlash, as finally, he manages to deal a nearly fatal blow to their operations, but in turn receives one himself. In this arc he also bumps into a few characters from his now very distant past (the 1st arc), some are involved with the Kowloon Group, and others are not. Jianghu Great War (Late Part) : In this arc, Pyo Wol receives a request to intervene in the War to minimize the carnage directly, but he actively knows that he himself doesn't have the power to do that, alone that is, so he declares that he'll unify every single assassin clan in Jianghu under his feet, beginning with the Hundred Wraith Union, which is now in control of his main love interest and rolling from there, this is arguably the best arc after the Revenge arc. The two powerhouses involved behind the scenes finally intervene, one in a more direct manner, and the other trying to keep the former in check, he also requests that if all else fails it's up to Pyo Wol to finish the job, making formally a request to kill him. Last Battles: In this arc, there are essentially three last battles, one against the Ghost Fleet, another against the remnants of the Kowloon Group and finally the Last Battle in the Great War, where Pyo Wol finishes the request mentioned in the previous arc. Ending: A few years later after the Great War, Pyo Wol is commissioned for one final assassination, he completes it without major problems and declares his official retirement from Jianghu affairs. [collapse] Problems with the Novel: One major grip is the writing style which likes to treat its readers like children. Every time the protagonist fights or does something out of the box the author tries to explain how he does it by bringing up the 1st arc of the story, it really feels like Woo-gak wants to hammer it down to his readership to always remember his past, from where he came from to who he is today. The novel takes a dive after the 1st arc, and it takes a very long while to rise up again, problem is that it happens way closer to the end (around chapter 450 or so). <<less
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