Reverend Insanity Review: Is It Worth 2,334 Chapters?

Reverend Insanity is worth it if you want the genre's most committed villain-protagonist and can live without an ending. Gu Zhen Ren's novel ran on Qidian from 2012 until it was pulled in 2019, and the text stops right before its final battle. Every surviving chapter is officially translated on Webnovel.

Reverend Insanity Review: Five Hundred Years, Then Fifteen Again

Image: Qidian/Webnovel, official cover for Reverend Insanity

Fang Yuan is a transmigrator from modern Earth who has already lived five hundred years in the Gu World when the book opens. Cornered by the righteous sects, he sets off the time-reversing Spring Autumn Cicada and wakes in his fifteen-year-old body with every memory intact. He doesn't use the restart to redeem himself: he spends his second life doing what got him killed the first time, only better. That second life is why it tops our best rebirth novels list.

The cost is spelled out early. When we read the opening chapters on Webnovel for our reading guide, chapter 2 put it bluntly: "every time one used the Spring Autumn Cicada, one had to pay with their life."

That amorality is also part of why the novel disappeared in China. It was removed from Chinese platforms in 2019 during a national campaign against online literature, with officials citing what they called "unhealthy values of violence, cruelty, and extreme individualism."

The Gu System and the Long Game

The power system runs on Gu: living, insect-like creatures that a cultivator feeds, refines and spends. Talent is graded A to D by how much primeval essence a cultivator's aperture holds, and cultivation climbs nine ranks, with ranks one to five as mortal Gu Masters and rank six up as Gu Immortals. Each rank splits into four stages. Fang Yuan's plans keep hinging on exactly where an opponent sits in that grid, so the book rewards readers who track the rules rather than skim for fights.

The real engine is foreknowledge. Because he has lived this timeline before, plot threads get set up long before they pay off, and the payoff depends on you remembering a detail from much earlier. We'd call that the novel's strongest asset and its steepest barrier.

Screenshot: Webnovel, Reverend Insanity listing, October 13, 2026

The length is the other barrier. Wikipedia counts 2,334 chapters across six volumes, and Webnovel's listing matches: when we reopened it on October 28, 2026 it showed Completed, the full chapter count, 4.82 from 3,994 ratings and Atlas Studios as translator. That "Completed" only means every existing chapter is translated: the published text stops immediately before the final battle, and no ending has ever been written.

On adaptations, an official manhua by Ran Hui Culture ran on Tencent Comics from October 26, 2018 and is listed as completed at 101 chapters. A fan-supported remake by Kodoku Studio began in 2025 and is still going. Neither replaces the novel.

What Readers Say

r/ReverendInsanity gets the "is it worth it if it's not finished?" question often. In one thread, nephethys_telvanni answered: "You've got 5 complete arcs before you even get to the one that ends abruptly. And if you decide to stop after book 5, it's a pretty good resolution." kindbutblind added the right caveat: "Assuming that you are someone who can appreciate a story that is emotionally distant, it's 100% worth it." uneducated_professor put it more simply: "Each individual Arc alone is worth reading in its entirety."

Reverend Insanity Review: Who Should Read It

This isn't a novel for readers who need a protagonist to grow a conscience. Fang Yuan doesn't reform, and the book never pretends he will. If that's a dealbreaker, A Will Eternal is a far gentler entry point.

It's for readers who enjoy tracking a dense ruleset, don't mind a slow-burn payoff, and find an amoral lead more interesting than exhausting. If you liked how coldly Leylin calculates in Warlock of the Magus World, Fang Yuan is the same appetite with a much darker edge.

Our take: read it, and decide up front that volume five is your ending. If the cut-off would ruin the whole thing for you, wait, because there's no sign the final volume will be finished.

What It Gives, What It Costs

Rating: 8.7/10, for a novel we'd read as five volumes plus a cliff. If you need an ending or a likeable lead, take A Will Eternal instead and come back when you're in the mood for Fang Yuan.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is Reverend Insanity finished? A: No. It ran on Qidian from 2012 until it was removed in 2019, and the published text stops just before its final battle. Webnovel labels its edition completed because all the existing chapters are translated.

Q: Where can I read Reverend Insanity in English? A: Webnovel has published the official English translation since 2019, and it covers every chapter.

Q: Is Fang Yuan a good person? A: No, deliberately so. He treats relationships, morality and reputation as tools, and only eternal life matters to him. The novel never softens that.

Q: Why was Reverend Insanity banned in China? A: It was removed from Chinese platforms in 2019 during a national campaign against online literature. Officials cited content promoting what they described as unhealthy values of violence, cruelty and extreme individualism.

Q: Is there a Reverend Insanity manhua? A: Yes. An official manhua by Ran Hui Culture ran on Tencent Comics and is listed there as completed. An unofficial, fan-supported remake by Kodoku Studio began in 2025 and is ongoing.

How We Checked This

On October 22, 2026 we reopened Wikipedia's Reverend Insanity article, the Webnovel listing and the r/ReverendInsanity thread quoted above, and on October 28 the Webnovel listing again (status, chapter count, rating and translator). The chapter 2 line comes from our read of the opening chapters on Webnovel on October 13, 2026, and the talent grades and rank stages from Saga of Gu's cultivation pages. That's 7 pages.

Correction (October 22, 2026): earlier versions of this review, including its title, said the novel has 2,333 chapters plus an epilogue and is complete. It has one chapter more than that and is unfinished: the text stops before the final battle, with no epilogue. We also said Webnovel's official English translation stalled at chapter 1,000 in 2021 and that only fan translations cover the full run; in fact Webnovel's translation covers every chapter. Other fixes: the manhua ran 101 chapters on Tencent Comics (we had 96, ending in 2020 over funding), the Kodoku Studio remake is dated to 2025 rather than July 2025, and we dropped exact start and ban dates (June 22, 2012; April and May 2019) that our sources don't give. The A Will Eternal link now goes to its review.

Related Reading

• What Is Xianxia? A Beginner's Guide to Cultivation Novels
• Best Xianxia Novels for Beginners (2026)
• Best Xianxia Novels With a System (2026)
• Novels Like Reverend Insanity, Picked by Protagonist Type
• Reverend Insanity Character Guide: Who's Who
• A Will Eternal Review: Er Gen's Funniest Xianxia Novel
• Reverend Insanity Reading Guide
• Reverend Insanity Gu System Explained for New Readers
• Reverend Insanity Ending Explained
• Renegade Immortal Review

References

[1] Wikipedia: Reverend Insanity [2] Webnovel: Reverend Insanity [3] Saga of Gu: Aperture and primeval essence [4] Saga of Gu: Ranks and realms [5] r/ReverendInsanity: Is Reverend Insanity worth it even if it's not finished?