Sword Spirit

Sword Spirit is an Eastern fantasy novel by the web author Huai Bao, serialized on Qidian from December 2, 2013 to its completion in August 2017, totaling about 3.46 million characters and 1,252 chapters. The story is set on the Heaven Sword Continent, a world dominated by the human race; above it lies the Heavenly Domain, where a hundred races contend, with top races such as the Spirit Race, Demon Race, and Soul Race holding sway, while the human race has gradually declined since the fall of the Heavenly Emperor ten thousand years ago. The protagonist, Lu Xuan, comes from a declining minor family in Qingshan Town. His meridians have been artificially blocked, leaving him with little hope of cultivation. To protect his sister from being coerced by the local powerful Long family, he resolves to apply as an outer-sect disciple of the third-rank Wind Sword Sect; but after signing up, he is beaten by a collateral member of the Long family and left in the wilderness. By chance, a mysterious sword-shaped crystal merges into his body, awakening his sealed aptitude and revealing extraordinary talent. The novel follows the progression "Sword Intent—Sword Dao—Sword Soul—Sword Spirit" and lays out a cultivation system in which the three paths of body refining, spirit refining, and soul refining run in parallel, telling the story of Lu Xuan's growth as he rises from a small town near the city into the sect, the empire, and even the conflicts of the hundred races of the Heavenly Domain, investigates his own origins and those of the sword crystal, and tries to restore the prestige of the human race. The work is known for its dense power-ups and face-slapping, sect tournaments, and romantic threads, and is a typical male-oriented "trash-to-triumph" wish-fulfillment novel.