The Record of Quelling Demons

The Demon Conquest Chronicle is a long-form web novel by author Dong Hui, serialized on Qidian Chinese from May 9, 2012, later moving across multiple platforms before concluding on May 8, 2016. Spanning roughly 690 chapters and 2.89 million characters, it is the author's debut work, completed over four years. The story is set against a fictionalized version of the chaotic Northern and Southern Dynasties, where mortal warlords wage endless campaigns for power and territory while demons and ghosts, long hidden from human sight, rise amid the turmoil: factions such as the demons of the Mang Mountain and Qu River and the vengeful spirits of the Blood Spring seek to overthrow the mortal realm and take its place, viewing humans as food and tools. "Humans and demons devouring one another" forms the novel's core conflict. The narrative begins with the Jiangdong swordsman Chi Tang stumbling into an ambush during an assassination attempt on a tyrant: on the night of the assassination, demons slaughter the conspirators, and the surviving Chi Tang finally realizes that demons truly exist, setting him on a path to befriend fellow demon-slayers and uncover the conspiracy between demons and ghosts. Companions such as Xue Yang and Ji Rui of the Qian family of Jingchu are introduced one after another, and demon-fighting sects—the Celestial Master Sect, the Five Elders Temple, the Crane Feather Gate, the Violet Lotus Court—unfold gradually. The story advances through multiple protagonists, perspectives, and plotlines, building a vast worldview through shifting regional settings. In his preface, the author admits that one of his motivations was to let "mortal knights-errant," not only immortals, stand as opponents to demons, and the book thus blends the chivalric spirit of wuxia with the eerie atmosphere of the supernatural. Its tone is somber and restrained, and it excels at planting subtle foreshadowing in ordinary dialogue and fine detail, rewarding readers when these threads are later gathered. The ending culminates in a grand sequence in which mortal warriors don their armor and join forces for a decisive battle against demons and malevolent spirits, with its theme ultimately resting on questions of individual fate and the good and evil of human nature amid a chaotic age.