Slaying Immortals

Slaying Immortals is a full-length classical xianxia novel written by Xiao Ding after Zhu Xian. It began serialization on Zongheng Chinese Network on May 15, 2014, runs to about 2.65 million characters, and consists of 447 chapters in the main text, divided into three volumes—Drunken Flower Carving, Bamboo Leaf Green, and Mulberry Fall Song—with the main plot ending at the chapter "Epilogue." The story takes place in the 10,766th year of the Human Calendar: ten thousand years earlier, the Celestial Demon Court ruled the myriad realms of Hongmeng, and was later defeated by the newly risen human race; to block the pursuing army, the demon race performed a secret blood sacrifice, turning the only road to the demon realm into the Yin Sha Dead Sea, and thereafter sealed themselves off in another world. The human race took their place and created an unprecedented golden age of cultivation, while the dormant alien races still watched in secret. The protagonist, Shen Shi, comes from an ordinary background and has left his hometown; he studies talisman drawing, masters the ten talismans of yin-yang and the five elements, and has a talent for appraising treasures. He unexpectedly obtains a fragment of the ancient sword Slaying Immortals, becomes entangled in sect strife and human-demon conflicts while cultivating at the Lingxiao Sect, is once teleported to the demon realm, which has been isolated from Hongmeng for ten thousand years, lives there with the Green Snake clan for three years, and receives the inheritance of the Demon Emperor's curse arts. From then on he struggles between physical backlash and advancement in cultivation, gradually uncovering the secrets of the ancient sword and the old war. The book continues Xiao Ding's strengths in ensemble characters and suspenseful buildup, with its main line being the vast Hongmeng world, the age-old grudge between humans and demons, and a growth-and-counterattack story spanning three realms. This entry is the first print volume published by Sichuan Literature and Art Publishing House in 2017, containing the first volume Drunken Flower Carving and the prologue.