@Legion_01
Yeah, that why I lost interest in the novel.
You forgot the regulary :
Nie Li enter a new territory and this peoples desespartly need a master of alchimist/rune/medecine/etc... , as if by chance, in the first timeline who we (reader) didn't have a clue about what Nie Li know and not. Nie Li have conveniently travel to a place where he learn what this peoples needs. Of course Nie li see himself like a aprentice because the real expert over space him but for the rest of the world, Nie Li is an expert.
Don't forget that we never saw this expert at all either, they lives in hermit somewhere outside of the plot.
Well I still like this serie but yeah, there is many Deus Ex Machina