Undying Primordial Spirit

Undying Primordial Spirit is a long martial-arts fantasy novel by the online writer Baishi Jinglun. Serialization began on Taduenet in June 2012, and Beijing Times Chinese Press later issued the print edition in multiple volumes. The protagonist, Lu Buqi (often called Lu Qi in the book), is reborn in another world—one where martial strength is paramount and the powerful contend for supremacy—carrying with him the highest insights of Chinese martial arts. He begins as a young slave trapped in the Guokan forest; to save his father he challenges a wealthy household's overseer, and this seemingly hopeless duel brings him his first taste of prominence. From there he crosses the jungle, slays fierce beasts, breaks through the elementary limits of Power Formula cultivation, gains a treasure, acquires a mysterious beast-girl slave, finds love, and step by step subdues gods and demons and joins the ranks of the strong. As his power grows, the mystery of his origins is peeled back layer by layer: the true background of his slave father, the power hidden in a dust-covered divine weapon, and the plots swirling around him all suggest that this cycle of rebirth was no accident. Built around the core image "the primordial spirit undying, the heavenly way eternal," the work constructs a cultivation hierarchy running from Body Refining and Mystic Attainment through Primordial Beginning, Divine Infant, Out-of-Body, and Grotto-Heaven all the way to "God," and unfolds a vast world through factions and characters such as Dragon Gate and Despair Village. This entry corresponds to Volume 1 of the 2015 Beijing Times Chinese Press print edition (ISBN 9787569900477).