The Hidden Kingdom

Gao Yue's books are truly indescribable. Every single one has the same plot: the protagonist always curries favor with the emperor or powerful figures, then gets involved in scheming and power struggles through marriage with aristocratic families. Gao Yue's books never depict the lives or development of ordinary people.

Gao Yue's books since "Heroes of the World" have all been worse than the last. I hope he can put more effort into this one and write it well.

I've read quite a few of Gao Yue's books, like *The World*, *The Great Tang Dynasty*, and *The Noble Families*—they all follow the same formula: the protagonist always has to cooperate with the aristocratic families. Why can't we have a Huang Chao-like figure who overthrows the powerful clans and promotes the lower-middle-class landowners?

In the eighth year of the Tianbao era, he was fourteen or fifteen years old, surnamed Li. Going back exactly to the twenty-fifth year of the Kaiyuan era, Li Longji killed three of his sons in one day. Was the protagonist a grandson of the emperor?

After Tibet, there will never be another Gaoyue. I've been reading online novels since middle school, and I've read every single one of Gao Yue's books countless times. I can feel the passion in each book gradually disappearing as they become formulaic. "Tibetan Kingdom" is probably the book with the most chapters, but also the most filler.

A polo match can fill twenty chapters, martial arts practice ten, and chatting with one's wife over tea three or four. The truly important plot points are glossed over: a night raid, successfully annihilating ten thousand enemy soldiers; ten thousand archers firing arrows, successfully annihilating five thousand cavalry. Okay, the battle is won, the end.

This is truly disgusting; it's ruined the whole book! Women are embellishments after victory, not the reason. Doing something for a woman is incredibly stupid. What about those who risked their lives for you? Are they risking their lives just to steal a woman for you?! Are you a bandit? With power, what woman wouldn't you have? Why do you have to steal one when your life is so precarious?

"The World" is undoubtedly a good book. Even though there are some dilemmas regarding Dugu Mingyue, and even with many women, it's acceptable for him to take Yang Yuhuan as his concubine. The book itself is excellent in terms of political intrigue, the protagonist is intelligent, and his act of showing off is very smooth, making it easy for readers to immerse themselves in the story.

This even made it onto the recommendations? I'm almost ready to delete Qidian (the website's name) from my feed.

The romantic subplots are always the same: some of the female leads have known him for a long time and were very good to him before, but his legal wife is always from a prestigious family. Childhood sweethearts can only ever be the second female lead, and if the first child is with the second female lead, it's always a daughter. Only when the legal wife gives birth to a son will the other female leads give birth to sons.