Cultivation: Not bad! The MC's powerup method is quite unique and interesting to read about. Always fun to see what drops for him next.
Characterization: Not many characters are given enough characterization to be anything more than one-dimensional. Pretty much just the MC's personality gets focus. He's unfortunately the type to seek death and not use his brain, having become quite arrogant due to the influence of his system. Doesn't try to control his emotions and gladly offends enemies multiple levels higher than himself just because he wants to. His family has been taken hostage against him at least twice by Chapter 1024, and both times could have been avoided with just a little bit of prior preparation or rational thought. Of course, both times he arrived to save them at the very very very last second, just for extra low-level drama. Lack of IQ and hotheadedness aside, his shamelessness does make for some fun scenes sometimes.
Romance: Almost none to speak of. Many women have appeared and shown interest in the protagonist, but he's still a virgin as of c1338. He's 'officially' engaged to a girl, but she appears so rarely that she might as well not exist. The MC hasn't even gone on a single date with her, and the relationship is mostly forced by their parents' meddling. Even more unfortunately, neither her ability nor background stand out in any way. Not especially smart, no notable cultivation talent, poor/in debt, not a world-shaking beauty, normal civilian family, unable to bring any benefit at all to the MC. Most critically, weak characterization to the point she seems like a cardboard cutout. This is mainly because she's so incapable of affecting the plot that she doesn't get screentime, except as a damsel in distress. It's a one-sided relationship of the MC helping her and her being thankful. The number of female characters simultaneously superior to her in all aspects of status, cultivation, competance, beauty and wealth have long passed the double digits, and a few of them even have better characterization, being able to show up more since they have relevance to plot. Is there any point in her existence at all...?
Racism?: Okay, the claims of racism are MASSIVELY exaggerated. Inside this novel, a number of 'piece of tr*sh' characters shall appear. Insidious types aiming for the protagonist, arrogant types that need to see Mt. Tai, moron types that lack brains, etc. Of them, 99% are Chinese characters with Chinese names. In fact, if you asked, I couldn't even list one non-Chinese antagonist character off the top of my head.
Is the author being racist when almost all the antagonist characters are Chinese...? If he is, then is he racist against China or other countries? Foreign characters barely even show up, and it's difficult to pinpoint what countries they represent, if any. Only time many foreigners showed up was in a private Olympics-type competition, and even then they were treated the same way most xianxia novels treat different sects during an inter-sect competition. A bit of flexing and conflict is par the course, and no effort was made to deliberately vilify the other countries. The protagonist did beat up talents from other countries, but it felt no different from the MC of sect A smashing geniuses B, C and D from sects B, C and D while winning face for sect A. B, C and D weren't even treated as antagonists, just slightly prickly competitors.
To repeat once more, when almost all the characters meant to be hated are either Chinese or Aliens, it's absurd to mention racism.