The Chronicle of Divine Cultivation

The Chronicle of Divine Cultivation is a xianxia novel serialized by Xiao Duan Tanhua on Qidian from January 6, 2010, and completed on October 8, 2016. It is the first book in the Chronicle of Divine Cultivation series, also known as Forgetting Each Other in the Rivers and Lakes, and is sometimes regarded as the "wuxia volume." The story begins with a ring of unknown origin that passes through nameless space and time and buries itself deep underground. Years later, Zhang Xiaohua, a village boy, is clearing land on a hillside near his village when he happens upon the mysterious bracelet; from then on, his ordinary life gradually veers off course. He enters a martial world where strength commands respect, grows step by step amid sect rivalries, human affairs, and expeditions to secret places, and under the guise of learning martial arts comes into contact with the secrets behind martial arts and the way of immortals. The book takes as its central thread the line "the divine chart joins, thunder claps, the forbidden ground stirs, the immortal abode appears," blending wuxia and xianxia elements. It features cultivation systems such as the Carefree Scripture and the Heavenly Thunder Body, and treasures such as the Five Elements Wish-Fulfilling Heaven-Piercing Staff; the plot extends from martial-world conflicts to adventures across the three continents and four seas. The pacing is slow and the detail dense, and it is regarded as a quietly styled work among mortal-path cultivation novels; the protagonist Zhang Xiaohua (later renamed Xiao Hua) relies on caution, forbearance, and steady, step-by-step cultivation to carve his own path through a perilous world of cultivation.