Number One Under Heaven

Number One Under Heaven is a fantasy novel set in an alternate continent, written by the web novelist Tian Lei Zhu. It was completed on Qidian on July 1, 2015, running to about 2.46 million characters and nearly 780 chapters. The story begins with the youth Hao Meng, a boy with a hazy future, suppressed by his family and his circumstances, until he is asked, "What is your dream?" After meeting the person he cares about, he finally knows what he wants—to become number one under heaven and propose to the girl he likes most. With this simple, hot-blooded resolve, he enters the Dragon God Academy and, starting from the basics of spellcraft and the old problem of blocked dantian, gradually builds up his foundations. Academy life forms the main body of the book's first half: encounters and rivalries with companions such as Gu Yuxi, the attention and suspicion brought by his all-seven-elements aptitude, rigorous special training, mercenary corps missions, and the friction, contests, and conflicts with forces such as Mink Academy and Reid Academy. In cycle after cycle of "being looked down on and striking back," Hao Meng makes friends, establishes himself, and slowly changes from a boy who only wants to prove himself into a youth willing to stand up for his companions and his academy. The title's "number one under heaven" is both the goal the protagonist keeps talking about and the driving force of the whole book: growing stronger is not just for ranking, but for keeping promises and protecting the people around him. The work is a typical fast-paced academy fantasy with dense action, suited to readers who want light, hot-blooded, generous helpings of a long serial.