Reign

"Reign" is a long fantasy cultivation novel written by the web novelist Kaifang; it was serialized on Qidian from April 2010 and completed in December 2011, running about 4.28 million Chinese characters. The protagonist, Yue Yu, was an internationally renowned mercenary of the twenty-third century; after death he crosses into a dangerous world where everything is measured by force and cultivation, reborn as a youth from an ordinary family. In this world, grounded in the practicality and decisiveness honed by his mercenary career, he uses special abilities and analytical methods to dissect the secrets of techniques, medicinal properties and demon beasts, while seeking a foothold in the cracks between sects, clans and various factions, rising step by step from a low-level martial artist. The first half of the novel follows cultivation and growth as its main line, describing the protagonist in medicine shops, sects, clans and Black Cloud Ridge, fighting people and demon beasts, accumulating resources and cultivation; the second half shifts to a primordial-world perspective as the protagonist enters a grander cosmic order, contending with ancient powers and pursuing the supreme realm of "this blade should shatter the void, this sword should open the power of creation." The book is distinctive for its "scientific-thinking analysis of a mystical system" and is the foundational work in which Kaifang built his own fantasy worldview; traces of it can be seen in his later "Divine Radiance" and "Sword Shakes the Mountains and Rivers."