I really quite enjoyed Soul Relic, the previous book in the Manifestation series. It was a fun adventure novel, where an eclectic group travels to find the ancient city of a long forgotten civilisation to try and let one of their member use her magic through a mythical artefact. And along the way they get into trouble which has domino effects. Nice and traditional.

It did, however, leave open the question of what would happen next. Raysha got the artefact, and she’s now able to absorb aeon from outside and use the magic system in this world just like everyone else. In fact, with her large reservoir and skill at constructing runes, it looked like she was instantly more powerful than most other people of her level. So apart from joining the same university as her brother like she wanted, what would happen next?

Next, it turns out, is a big martial art tournament.

Honestly, this was a great way to go with it. It tempered expectations nicely and showed that while yes, she is powerful, she’s also inexperienced and has a long way to go before she’s able to catch up with everyone most people. Especially the noble Houses, with their practised techniques and vast resources. So the main parts of the novel focuses on Raysha getting stronger through practising various techniques and working out what works best for her and competing in the various rounds of the tournament. And, because this is a Cultivation novel, in attempting to advance.

It’s light and fun easy read. The tournament itself has a nice, diverse series of rounds so there’s always something different to see. The competitors, likewise, have a lot of different abilities and talents that they’ve adapted. There’s always something fun to see. The world building isn’t quite as big as it was last time, as the novel spends most of the time in the same city, but it does deepen what we already know, which is always appreciated.

I am a little annoyed that Raysha decides to never go to class. It does make sense for her, I guess, as the university was only a means to an end for her and her interest in it vanished after she managed to solve her power problems at the end of the last book. However, I personally quite like stories with magic universities and usually find all their lessons interesting so it was a shame that none of them appeared here. As well there were a few spelling mistakes and badly constructed sentences so the manuscript probably needed someone to go through it one last time.

In the end, it’s a good continuation to the series. And the next book looks like it’s going to be heading off in an entirely different direction again, which should be very, very interesting.