Dugu Qiubai is technically from a setting with qi and stuff, but his swordsmanship techniques got learned by someone who couldn't use qi at the time and it still turned out to be a crazy power boost that kept him onpar with people who could. So the guy himself must have been really strong too...
Thanks for giving it a try!
There's not much I can tell about my mindset from back then anymore. It really has been a while!
I feel like it does get better once I have all the pieces in place and I start telling stories with them, though there's never been much for me to base this feeling on...
Yes!!! I've read just about everything by Gu Long and Jin Yong, or at least the stuff that's been translated (which should be just about all of it). I've also really enjoyed Water Margin, though that's probably not what most people have in mind when talking about wuxia...
I also read webnovels...