I've been reading Nine Star Hegemon Bone Arts and found it a cut above most translated Chinese novels. This is a Xianxia genre story following an embittered old chinese alchemist who finds himself reincarnated into an embittered young noble in the Phoenix Cry Empire, young man unable to Cultivate. For those unfamiliar, Cultivation is a concept that through meditation, medication and study one can extend one's life (towards immortality), seek enlightenment (to the point of divinity) and kick copious amounts of ass (becoming a DBZ character).
As a result of this inability, the protagonist has been a butt monkey among his peers - particularly as his father is one of his home nation's three greatest Cultivators - and a legendary general, etc. With his new knowledge he can work around this and finds himself in an escalating series of encounters as he finds out that he (and new friends he makes) have enemies far more serious than glorified schoolyard bullying. The author makes good use of this escalation to gradually expand the world we see as he runs into new enemies and situations.
For those made wary by stock Xianxia protagonists, the lead here doesn't their less appealing traits. While he takes no shit, he doesn't go looking for fights as a rule and is not abusive to those around him - in fact he has friends who stick by him even in dire adversity and goes out of his way to help them and to build them up. Nor does he tend to escalate situations - he meets trash talk with trash talk (he's very good at that) and violence with violence, but is also open to positive approaches and willing to excuse mistakes, winning over people who he was at first at odds with. Even his romantic encounters are started because he genuinely likes the young women in question.
As a result of this inability, the protagonist has been a butt monkey among his peers - particularly as his father is one of his home nation's three greatest Cultivators - and a legendary general, etc. With his new knowledge he can work around this and finds himself in an escalating series of encounters as he finds out that he (and new friends he makes) have enemies far more serious than glorified schoolyard bullying. The author makes good use of this escalation to gradually expand the world we see as he runs into new enemies and situations.
For those made wary by stock Xianxia protagonists, the lead here doesn't their less appealing traits. While he takes no shit, he doesn't go looking for fights as a rule and is not abusive to those around him - in fact he has friends who stick by him even in dire adversity and goes out of his way to help them and to build them up. Nor does he tend to escalate situations - he meets trash talk with trash talk (he's very good at that) and violence with violence, but is also open to positive approaches and willing to excuse mistakes, winning over people who he was at first at odds with. Even his romantic encounters are started because he genuinely likes the young women in question.