Nine Realms

Nine Realms is a long fantasy novel serialized online by author Qianzhao Yizui since 2007 and the background novel for the online game of the same name. It runs to roughly two million characters. Its worldview derives from Daoist thought and classical Chinese myth and fantasy culture: when Heaven and Earth first split into yin and yang, the body of the Dao became the Spirit Mountain, which laid down nine tiers of heavens to ward against heavenly tribulation. Corresponding to the number nine, these formed the Nine Realms of Shuo Metal, Zhen Thunder, Thick Earth, Mirage Sand, Li Fire, Yuan Wood, Soft Water, Void Wind, and Empty Brightness, each with its own separate peoples. In later ages the Spirit Mountain collapsed and the nine tiers shattered; the Nine Realms caved in and merged into a new Thick Earth Realm, where the vastly different races clashed without end, with over a hundred peoples—immortals, humans, demons, ghosts, spirits, devils, and more—and dozens of sects entangled with one another. The story follows the great general Gao Yonghan after the upheaval at Dongling Prefecture: hunted by the Twelve-Tier Drum Tower, he hides in the deadly Fentian Pit and makes friends of the Seven Insect Clans, whom he had once fought. He then battles masters of the Tianji Peak sects, crosses the Xiling Gobi, climbs Mount Yigang, pacifies the ancient ruins of Lingzhu, and spies on the Hanging Island by night, meeting strange fortunes and repeated hardships. Together with Zixiu, Shen Xiangyan, and others, he uncovers the mystery of the Nine Realms' collapse and of his own origins, and pursues the "invisible black hand" hidden behind the chaos. The novel lays out factional strife and human choices in the orthodox fantasy manner, upholding the traditional spirit of chivalry and righteous honor.