Is As An Immortal I Only Learn Forbidden Skills Worth Reading For Fantasy Fans?

I wish it was easier to track down. The novel 'As an Immortal, I Only Learn Forbidden Skills' seems to float around on a few of those aggregate translation sites, but it's a real patchwork situation. I found what might be chapters 1-50 on one site, then a big jump to chapters 120 onward somewhere else, with huge gaps in the middle. You really have to dig through search results and see which platforms have the most consistent uploads. The translation quality also varies wildly between sites; some chapters read smoothly, and others are almost unreadable machine translations. I ended up bouncing between three different places just to follow the main plot thread. It's a frustrating way to read, honestly. I keep hoping a more dedicated fan translation group or an official license will pick it up, because the core premise is fun.

Alright, looking at 'As an Immortal, I Only Learn Forbidden Skills', the title pretty much lays out the whole deal. The protagonist, Jiang Ming, wakes up in a grim fantasy world with a system that only lets him learn abilities labeled as forbidden, taboo, or heretical. It’s a clever twist on the usual overpowered system trope. From what I’ve read, a major one is something like 'Forbidden Art: Corpse Refining'. It lets him control and strengthen the dead, which obviously freaks out the righteous sects but is incredibly useful in a pinch. There’s also a forbidden body tempering method, I think it’s called something like 'Indestructible Demon Body', which gives him insane physical power at the cost of being seen as a demonic practitioner. The skills aren't just about raw power; they often come with heavy social costs and moral dilemmas, which is where a lot of the story’s tension comes from. He picks up forbidden sword arts that drain life essence and forbidden stealth techniques that allow him to become a shadow—practically undetectable but considered dishonorable. I remember one arc where he learns a forbidden divination skill that lets him peek into fate, but each use supposedly carries a terrifying karmic backlash. The novel really leans into the idea that these powers are shortcuts to strength but they isolate him and paint a target on his back. It’s not just a list of cool moves; the 'forbidden' tag affects how every character interacts with him. The cultivation world in this novel is super rigid about orthodoxy, so every skill he uses is a rebellion. That constant tension between gaining personal power and becoming an outcast is what makes the progression feel weighty, not just another power fantasy.

I came across 'As an Immortal I Only Learn Forbidden Skills' expecting another generic cultivation power fantasy, but the angle on immortality really snagged me. It’s not just about accumulating power to live forever; it’s about the psychological weight of watching everything you know turn to dust. The protagonist’s choice to specialize in forbidden arts isn’t framed as purely edgy or rebellious. It reads more like a desperate coping mechanism for someone stuck in an endless timeline, where standard paths have lost all meaning and novelty. The forbidden skills often come with severe costs or taboos, which introduces this constant tension between the desire to experience something new and the risk of attracting catastrophic attention from older immortals who enforce the status quo. The novel digs into the challenge of maintaining any sense of identity or purpose across millennia. Learning a forbidden skill becomes a way to rebel against the stagnation of eternal life, a sort of intellectual thrill in a world where most things have become predictable. But then it doubles back to show how even that rebellion can become routine. I remember a section where the main character reflects on having mastered several world-shaking forbidden arts and still feeling a hollow sort of boredom, which I thought was a brutally honest take. The exploration is less about physical survival and more about existential survival—finding reasons not to just dissolve into the void or become an emotionless rock after ten thousand years. The forbidden skills are just the vehicle for that deeper query.