i watched the donghua and then read the manhua and finally the novel. it made sense to me but i did look up spoilers. the story starts right at xie lian's 3rd ascension so if you're a lil confused that's normal and will be cleared up after reading more :3
No, read the novel 100%. In fact, most of the time, I don't even rec the manhua. It's definitely good, but it's missing lots and lots of parts from the novel.
Bruh he has so much swag idk how to explain it, his actions and everything it's so effortlessly cool