Immortal Dust

Immortal Dust is a classical xianxia novel by Tuobo Cunfu, serialized on 17K.com with digital rights held by ChineseAll. Completed at roughly 1.86 million characters, it blends demons, martial arts, chivalry, romance, military warfare and poetry into one work. Centered on the cultivation journeys of the mendicant monk and Li Shijian, it threads together the loves, hatreds, joys and sorrows of numerous cultivators; alongside the main plot runs a secondary line that moves from mortal wars and worldly strife to the contest over the immortal path and even realms beyond the heavens, the narrative rising in wave upon wave. The story opens with a stranded traveler rescued by a monk in an old temple on a snowy mountain at night, a scene that becomes a crucial backdrop for the novel; Li Shijian, born into the Li family, shows a auspicious omen at his first-birthday ceremony, is later given the name Poetry-Sword Immortal, and painstakingly cultivates the Poetry-Sword Art in pursuit of longevity and true self. The mendicant monk embarks on the immortal path by means of the Heaven-Embracing Holy Bowl; one bowl and one sword, one monk and one scholar, each encounters his own fortunes and trials on the dusty road of cultivation. The narrative is leisurely and archaic in rhythm, interspersed with verses and lyrics that adorn the chapters; the cast is large and each character finds a destination, making it suited to readers who favor traditional storyteller technique and slow-burn ensemble cultivation tales.