Ruling the Immortal Kingdom

Ruling the Immortal Kingdom is a long cultivation novel by the web author Huma. It began serialization on Qidian Chinese Network in September 2014 and was completed in September 2015, totaling about 1.07 million Chinese characters and 464 chapters (the proofread edition on Zhixuan Cangshu runs about 2.09 million characters). The protagonist, Chen Yuan, is a low-level rogue cultivator at the mid-stage of practical cultivation in Baixiao Manor, making a living by hunting low-tier demon beasts and exchanging them for contribution points. Framed and cheated out of his points by stewards loyal to the manor lord, he is forced to take a mutated soul-summoning herb and becomes infected with a soul-devouring fragrance, turning him into bait when a demon tide strikes. On the brink of death, Chen Yuan obtains a low-tier jade stele and the help of the remnant soul of the Nine Mysteries Divine Serpent within it, and learns the Yin-Yang Demon Refining Divine Art: as long as he collects enough demon souls, he can exchange them at the jade stele for techniques, magic treasures, pills, and formations. With no sect backing, he starts out with formations, using the Ash Formation to withstand the demon tide, and step by step rises from manor and fortress to building giant cities, opening prefectural territories, expanding land, recruiting cultivators, and running markets, ultimately unifying the Nine Provinces and founding an immortal kingdom. The book combines personal cultivation with the management storyline of building cities and founding a state, interwoven with ancient secrets, demon tides, outer-realm demons, and underground barbarian ghosts. It is a relatively obscure but well-regarded entry in the dynasty-building school of cultivation fiction.