With a Hand to Cover the Sky

With a Hand to Cover the Sky is a modern cultivation novel by Sheng Ji, a platinum author of China Literature, serialized on Qidian Chinese Network from May 2011 and completed in December of the same year. The book has more than 440 chapters and about 1.3887 million characters. The story begins in Haicheng, an international metropolis with a population of over ten million. The protagonist, Zhao Long, is an ordinary young man living in a rented room in the urban-rural fringe. To save a little girl, he has his left arm crushed by a heavy object and eventually amputated. Just when he thinks his life has hit rock bottom, the severed left arm mysteriously regenerates, and his physical functions are greatly enhanced, with strength and speed far beyond ordinary people. Even more unexpectedly, a mysterious soul resides in this left arm, speaking in his mind to guide him and stop him from harming himself. From this starting point, Zhao Long practices the Nine Turns Five Elements Body Refining Art, absorbs the qi of the five elements to temper himself, and gradually masters a technique called the Sky-Covering Hand. Starting from trivial real-life problems such as paying rent and workplace disputes, he is drawn into antique appraisal, business competition, and covert struggles among underground forces, and then steps into the world of martial arts and cultivation. The scope of the book expands layer by layer, from the struggle for survival in the city at night all the way to the confrontation between the heavenly realm and the demon race: Zhao Long comprehends the rules of heavenly dao in the treasure of the Seven Heavenly Lords, becomes the Great Heavenly Lord, and joins forces with the Supreme and his master to repel the Great Demon Emperor, protecting Earth and the relatives and friends around him, and finally enabling himself to cover the sky with a single hand. The work blends urban life, power growth, and xianxia battles, following the old-style power fantasy route of crisp action and decisive killing.