Chronicles of the Three Paths

Chronicles of the Three Paths is a long xianxia novel by the web author Cui Zouzhao, serialized on Qidian from December 31, 2013 to November 25, 2014. It runs about 1.8799 million Chinese characters across seven volumes and more than three hundred chapters. The story begins a thousand years earlier: an ominous star suddenly appears above the northern royal city, and the court astronomer Qiao Zimu recognizes the calamity star Rushi come into the world. The beast leaves behind a prophecy: "The north shall perish, the south shall rise; doom cannot be escaped." The decline of the dynasty and an age of monsters and evil unfold from there. The boy Shisheng is born on that night of strange omens; his mother, Wulan, dies protecting him, and he is raised by a wandering monk, learning arts such as the Earthfire Poem. Grown up, he descends the mountain with a black fish jade pendant, working as a monster hunter for bounty while searching for his origins and his father's whereabouts. On the road he befriends the hard-drinking, chivalrous Liu Bolun and enters the Doumi Temple on Xianmen Mountain, becoming sworn brothers with Li Hanshan. The book names its volumes after the twenty-four solar terms, from "The Boy of Jingzhe" to "The End of Destiny at Lichun," linking together episodes such as the Beast-Making Inn, the Yunlong Dharma Assembly, the Conch Romance, the Doumi Upheaval, the Yellow River Dragon Quest, and the Journey Through the Underworld. The human world, the immortal isle of Yingzhou, and the underworld of the dead intertwine, while demon stars, magical treasures, and human greed, anger, and folly entangle with one another. The author tells his tales of gods and monsters in a colloquial style close to traditional storytelling, writing of the struggles and sacrifices of ordinary people amid laughter, curses, and the bustle of daily life; the ending carries a strong sense of fate and lingering resonance. This book is both the finale and the origin of Cui Zouzhao's Destiny Trilogy, sharing a spiritual lineage with My Years as a Feng Shui Master and My Years as a Bird-Man.