The Immortal in the Sword

The Immortal in the Sword is a classical xianxia novel by the web author Gao Muyao, serialized on Qidian and other platforms from the 2010s and completed on 18 November 2020, running to more than 7.3 million characters and nearly three thousand chapters. The story begins on Mount Jiyun in the state of Pan. The mountain is held by Sword North Mountain City, the most powerful underworld sect in the region, which with the Palace of Parting Sorrow and the Rain Tower forms the three great underworld sects of Pan; its city lord, the Old Man Who Carries a Sword, has for decades stood as the foremost man in Pan, and by a spiritual intuition bordering on foresight keeps masters of both the righteous and the unorthodox paths from provoking him. At the age of a hundred, with his lamp nearly spent, the old man passes the city lordship to his eldest disciple Leng Qianqiu, while his beloved second disciple Fang Junmei leads a white horse alone down from Sword North Mountain City. Fang Junmei was an orphan abandoned by the roadside and raised and trained by the Old Man Who Carries a Sword, and he possesses a peerless gift for the sword. Bold and sincere by nature, he vows to 'draw his sword and become an immortal', and firmly believes that men of the underworld can likewise act with chivalry and justice. Soon after descending the mountain he travels far to the Ghost Willow Cave on Mount Wanluo to root out villains; later he chances upon a vision of immortals confronting one another and thereby steps into the true world of cultivation, journeying from the mortal jianghu to the immortal gates, the distant seas and still wider realms. The whole book follows Fang Junmei's growth as its main thread, telling of his slaying of demons, his comradeship with companions, his search for a glimmer of the ideal in a world of cultivation forged in blood and fire, and finally his defiance of time and his trampling of the highest heavens for the one in his heart, becoming an immortal in a single burst of wrath. The work has a large cast and many sects and lays emphasis on group portraiture and the bonds of chivalry; the protagonist's growth does not happen overnight but advances slowly with the years and at a price.