Cultivation in the Immortal Realm

Cultivation in the Immortal Realm is a xianxia web novel by Mo Mo serialized on Qidian.com from September 16, 2007. About 2.1 million characters long, it was completed in September 2008 and comprises six volumes and 468 chapters (the main text runs to chapter 314, "The Finale"). The protagonist, Li Chengzhu, is an ordinary man, a former journalist, who while traveling happens to be near the place where an ancient immortal maiden undergoes her tribulation and ascends, and is swept into the immortal realm along with the guiding immortal light, taking half of the light that should have been hers and halving the effect of her immortal golden body, for which he receives a beating. New to the immortal realm, he does not even qualify as an "immortal" and must learn from scratch under the guidance of the guiding immortal envoy, practicing the cultivation method Collected Spirit Canon. He later stumbles into a forbidden immortal zone and obtains the God-Destroying Demon-Slaying Bow; reunites with Gu Linglong and, through the recommendation of sect elders, enters the Phantom Sword Sect. Along the way he subjugates spirit creatures such as the Jade Rabbit clan and the Earth Python clan, saves the spirit clans from crisis, takes over the Joyful Union Sect, becomes embroiled in open and covert struggles among forces such as the Tianyong Gate and the Qitian Pavilion, and must deal with the schemes of the Beast-Taming Immortal Lord. As the Angel Realm invades on a large scale, the situation in the immortal realm is completely overturned; Li Chengzhu advances continually amid the flames of war and ultimately becomes a body indestructible through ten thousand kalpas, defeats powerful enemies and unifies the immortal realm. With its slightly absurd opening of a "rookie's ascension," the book unfolds a growth saga of the immortal realm's jianghu, humorous in style and direct in its satisfaction.