If you can stand all those Chinese names and won't forget who is who after chapters (bec all the cases and person are all connected), then, read novel. It is a 'lot' better and more 'specific' than this. If the manhua has to draw all, this manhua will take 10 years to finish..
IMO the manhua assumes the reader knows many things so If you haven't read the novel you'll be very confused. And this is sort of a personal take but the artist made some slight changes here and there that don't alter the plot but moreso how you perceive the characters. It's not bad in itself but I think the donghua does a better job at adapting the source material (the novel) and I think makes it easier to go from donghua to the novel and have some idea about the characters and not going blind haha.
How is the manhwa compared to novel? New to tgcf and is starting the manhwa a good way to get into the series