Undying and Imperishable

Immortal and Indestructible is Chen Dong's first novel, serialized on Qidian Chinese Network from December 13, 2004, to June 1, 2006. At roughly 800,000 Chinese characters, it is regarded as a prequel to Tomb of the Gods and the opening installment of the Heaven's Way Trilogy. The official synopsis reads: "Through a thousand tribulations and ten thousand perils, though my soul scatter and my spirit disperse, my consciousness endures. I battle through a hundred lifetimes of reincarnation; though the Six Paths are ever uncertain, I remain immortal! Heaven's Way! Heaven's Way! Heaven has lost the Way—why revere it? If the Way is dead, the Demon shall rise!" The story follows a man known as the Demon, who struggles desperately to survive and ultimately embarks on the path of defiance against Heaven. In the year 7878 of the Tianyu Continent, Dugu Baitian is born in Changsheng Valley of the Han-Tang Empire clutching a clot of blood, his birth accompanied by a blood-red radiance that dims the stars and moon. To evade the various factions drawn by these omens, his parents move the family to Changfeng Town. There, Baitian grows up alongside Situ Mingyue, daughter of the town's martial arts clan, the Situ family, as childhood sweethearts—until their relationship takes a fateful turn. After a period of despondency, he returns to the martial path. Amid the feuds of the jianghu, he sacrifices his humanity for an essence stone and becomes a demon, inheriting the true martial essence left by his ancestor Dugu Zhantian and gradually developing his own Nine Revolutions Divine Art. He then endures the storms of the martial world and the trials of inner demons as the consciousness of his past life gradually awakens. In the Great Battle of the Hundred Sages, he perishes together with the Great Demon Heavenly King—yet his battle soul remains unextinguished, and he is reborn, achieving the union of god and demon and truly setting foot on the road to defy Heaven's Way. The novel's world connects the Tianyu Continent with the Other Shore and the Divine Realm, and establishes cultivation tiers such as the Saint level and Emperor realm, laying the groundwork for Dugu Baitian's leadership of the ancient gods against Heaven in Tomb of the Gods.