Still thinking about those weird Spring Autumn Cicada time loops

Honestly was just looking for a standard cultivation story to kill time, but those Three Temples scenes really stuck in my head because of how the protagonist just doesn't care about anything but his own goals. It's actually kind of refreshing to see a main character who is a total jerk, usually they try to make them 'misunderstood' or whatever but Fang Yuan is just straight up villainous and I'm here for it. I did get a bit lost during the part where he's explaining the Gu refinement process with the moonlight petals, it felt like it went on for twenty pages and I still don't get the math behind the spiritual essence. The world building is super dense, almost too dense at times, I found myself skimming the historical legends about the Ren Zu guy just to get back to the actual fighting. It's definitely not for everyone since the guy is basically a sociopath but if you're tired of the 'power of friendship' tropes this hits different. Wish the pacing didn't drag so much during the clan politics stuff though.