If you want to read ISSTH it's still on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Patriarch-Reliance-Book-Shall-Heavens-ebook/dp/B08TB5CBCG

Not free, but not $480 or whatever it'd cost on Qidan. $5 for a 719 page book (there's 10 total, but 1 should give you an idea of what you'll be reading for the other 9). Now Amazon page counts are a bit squirrly (I'm pretty sure they're about 2/3rds the size of a normal page, word wise) but still it's not a bad price.

Again as the poster said it's very "typical" of its genre, and to my mind it's a little predictable even if you don't know it - even the twists aren't all that twisty - but it's a good action novel. No idea if the Amazon translation is better/worse.

I will say that one thing that's improved is you get a lot less of the solitary heroes nowadays. Or maybe that's just on what I read, but that "I am a loner who does things alone" schtick is very dated.