Hey! GT and LD here! We really appreciate Truth reviewing our novel, so we thought, why not give his novel a read and share our thoughts? 

Dragon Canon is a classic xianxia novel set in the ancient Great Tang kingdom, where fate, society, and cultivation are deeply intertwined. It follows Wei Yuan, a child born under ominous circumstances after a failed dragon ritual, marking him as someone tied to forces far beyond the ordinary world. This novel focuses more on rich worldbuilding, social structures, and long-term consequences of destiny. 

Here are our ratings for Dragon Canon.

When doing reviews, we like to review character, cultivation, plot, and especially worldbuilding. If you have followed us since YNS, you would know what we care about worldbuilding and character the most. We usually also add a romance rating, but there is no romance at this point, so we excluded this. 

Character Rating: 7/10

Wei Yuan is not the kind of protagonist who grabs attention with personality right away. Within the first twenty chapters, he goes from unborn to three years old, then to six years old. So, he does not have a lot of agency yet and is a bit of a blank slate. He listens more than he speaks and often understands more than those around him realize. At this stage, he is not a fully developed character and is being shaped by larger forces, namely the adults around him. It makes him feel more distant, but it fits the novel’s focus on fate and structure. He plays an important role because of the failed dragon ritual, but he lacks a strong voice at this stage, likely due to his young age. The supporting characters, particularly the wandering Scholar Zhang Sheng, strengthen the immersion and mystery of the story. Their actions are logical and believably realistic, but we have not seen much complex emotion yet, which does make the novel a bit lacking in the relatability aspect. One thing of note is that because the main character is a literal child, his peers are also children. So there’s a distinct split between the child and adult characters and the way they are handled. It seems likely there will be a heavier focus in the future on character development for the children. It’s far too early for us to give a fair review of the characters, but so far, the impression we have is that Wei Yuan needs a more distinct, memorable voice, while the supporting characters need to create a stronger emotional pull. As a result, the character rating is 7/10.

Cultivation Rating: 8/10

The cultivation feels like classic xianxia, but the system is quite unique. For example, fortune is a tangible substance that can be measured, harvested, transferred, and altered, which is also why fengshui matters. This is definitely one of the cooler aspects of this novel, so make sure you get to chapter 20+ to see it in action. The Dao of Arrays in the novel is quite complicated, but the author does a good job explaining the underlying principle, how it works, and how qi connects to fortune. We won’t go into details about the other cultivation concepts, but it’s far more than just absorbing qi, circulating it, leveling up, and learning techniques. 

World-building Rating: 9/10

Dragon Canon earns a strong 9 out of 10 for worldbuilding because of how complete and interconnected the world feels. It is a functioning society with its own logic. There's a clear sect hierarchy, rules, and everything feels controlled. Even though there are rules set up, behind-the-scenes manipulation does exist to bypass restrictions. Like the real world, some people already have their spots reserved because they were born into the right family or they had the right connections. The factions feel active, as they have their own goals and seem to manipulate things to influence outcomes, so this part feels more alive. At a broader level, the Great Tang kingdom deals with real pressures like drought, famine, and taxation. Then, you have refugee movements and estate defenses that create human-level conflicts. Systems like arrays and fortune are integrated into the world. Details like agriculture, geography, and governance actually matter and affect what happens in the story. That's what makes the world feel lived in. The only reason it’s not a full 10 is that we haven’t fully seen how deep the cultivation system goes yet, especially how its mechanics shape the world at a larger scale. There’s clearly more to explore there.

Plot (Rating: 7/10):

The story opens with a strong hook, which makes the plot more interesting. After this strong hook, the story shifts to a slower phase with the focus being things like drought, famine, estate-level survival. In the first 10+ chapters, it’s mostly just laying the groundwork for the plot. There’s a clear sense of long-term direction, but the early chapters could use more immediate tension to keep the momentum going. There is a very strong conflict, but the main plot doesn’t fully kick in until around chapter 20, where the main character participates in placement tests, and that’s when the excitement level suddenly goes up a few notches. We are still waiting for the one moment in which the MC actually snaps and breaks the rules out of his own volition, but maybe he has too good of a heart to do that? There are large-scale institutions and hidden influences at play, so this story is definitely building towards something much bigger than the current arc. 

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As the translators of The Overlord of Puluo, it is only natural that we thought about our own novel when we read Dragon Canon. One key similarity between Dragon Canon and The Overlord of Puluo lies with the main characters of the two novels. They both have atypical moral compasses, are ruthless when they need/want to be, and give off the vibe of “He seems like a madman… Maybe?” For Puluo, we know Li Banfeng’s moral compass is already set, but Dragon Canon’s Wei Yuan is still growing, so it will be interesting to see how that develops.  

Another key similarity is that power is not purely individual. It is shaped by forces beyond one’s control. In Puluo, that means powerful families, inherited treasures, and unseen conspiracies that target the powerless from the very beginning. In Dragon Canon, it takes the form of cosmic fortune, bloodline destiny, and a corrupt imperial court whose policies can starve entire provinces. Both novels care more about how their worlds actually work than just who beats who in a fight. 

The difference is in how they bring you into that world. Puluo throws you into a strange, almost unsettling world early on, where things do not fully make sense and the mystery itself becomes the hook. Dragon Canon starts with a much more classic xianxia setting, but what makes it interesting is how early politics comes into play. From the very beginning, everything is tied to power structures. Court decisions matter. Estate struggles matter. Even something like exam results can be influenced by who’s backing you. You start to see hints of reform, tension between old and new powers, and the sense that the rules themselves are not fair. The construct of the world itself is very interesting. 

Dragon Canon isn’t a fast-paced novel you can jump into right away. It takes time to understand what makes it special. It does make you reflect on the world around you. If you enjoy deep, carefully built worlds, don’t mind a slower, more deliberate pace, and like complex cultivation systems mixed with politics, give it a try! We recommend you give it a read at least up to chapter 20, which is around when the action kicks in and the plot is truly moving.

If you guys decide to read Dragon Canon because of this review, please leave a comment over there saying, "I came from PULUO!"