Long Live the King

Long Live the King is a Western fantasy epic by the web novelist Luan Shi Kuang Dao (also known by the pen name Luan Shi Kuang Dao 01). First serialized on Zongheng Chinese Network, it stands alongside Football Modifier, The Divine Emperor of Swords, and The Heavenly Emperor as one of the author's signature works. In 2011 it was named one of Zongheng's best works of the year, and it was among the platform's earlier web novels to be adapted into a game. The protagonist, Sun Fei, is an ordinary man in the real world who wakes up one morning to find himself king of Xiangbo, a small border town in another realm. Before he can settle onto the throne, an army from a neighboring kingdom is already at the gates, seizing grain, burning the city, and slaughtering its people—the fate of a king who loses his kingdom seems already written. With nowhere left to turn, Sun Fei discovers an extraordinary asset: he can enter a game world resembling Diablo to grind and level up, then bring its powers and equipment back into reality. Armed with this "cheat," he begins with the defense of the city, then trains in martial arts, gathers generals, recruits heroes, and builds up his territory, expanding a tiny town into an empire amid bloodshed and political intrigue—and forging himself from a timid nobody into a powerful figure who commands fear and respect. The book follows a classic "underdog rise plus empire building" arc: it opens with a siege crisis that hooks the reader immediately, the middle section alternates between warfare, martial progression, and diplomatic maneuvering, and the pacing is brisk with a dense payoff of satisfying moments, interspersed with humor and interactions among the protagonist, his subordinates, and his rivals. Note that this is a pure web serial, distributed mainly in electronic form; its volume structure varies by platform, and there is no unified print edition.