Two books in and I still don't know how I feel about "The Husky and His White Cat Shizun" as the explanation for Mo Ran's whole everything about him remains elusive. Or, perhaps, is non-existent beyond what's been previously shown (he was orphaned, he wasn't found by his surviving family until he was into his teens, he never confessed to the boy he liked and saw him die) which still doesn't seem sufficient to justify the mass murder and establishment of a brutal empire over an entire continent and everything else.
But the plot has really taken off in this volume and the revelation that there's someone else who has also been time travel reborn in addition to Mo Ran who may or may not be the same as the person trying to kill Mo Ran has my attention, even though it's surely Shi Mei, somehow.
Also there's been a cute little paper dragon and the establishment of socially acceptable cannibalism because they're not REALLY real humans guys (Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou is a lot tamer than Mo Xiang Tong Xiu in the hyper-violence, hyper-gore department, so I will accept this as a gruesome peace offering). So other things are buying Mo Ran time to sell me on his existence, which is a step in the right direction, I think, but I'm still not at a point where I'd recommend the novel. Sometimes you can't really know how you feel about something until you see how a certain part pays off, you know?
