Looting the Heavens

Looting the Heavens is a long xianxia novel by web author Heishan Laogui, serialized on Qidian from March 18, 2015, to July 12, 2017, running over 5.6 million characters. The protagonist, Fang Xing, comes from the bandit den Guiyan Valley and is the youngest of its ten great bandits, the Tenth Bandit, carrying an undisguised bandit temper from childhood. To take revenge, he enters the prestigious Qingyun Sect alone, meets Bai Qianzhang—who builds his path on the way of the war cultivator—and is tempered by him in an almost brutal fashion for three years, and by chance obtains the Yin-Yang Divine-Demon Mirror, which can appraise techniques, spirit treasures, and the cultivation levels of others. The novel builds a cultivation world of strict hierarchy, where resources are firmly controlled by great sects and royal clans. Fang Xing refuses to play by the rules; he swindles, cheats, and seizes by force, using the most disreputable means to grab the opportunities that should have been his, earning him the labels "a rat dropping in the cultivation world" and "the greatest scoundrel in Nanzhan Province." To such accusations his answer is: That's right, I'm that rat dropping—any problem? The work centers on the contest over the "Nine Coffins Descending from Heaven," as the forces of the four provinces of Tianyuan—Dongsheng, Nanzhan, Beiju, and Xihe—fight over the fortune of the Nine Coffins, unfolding a vast panorama of immortals, demons, and spirits. After killing Xiao Jianming within the Qingyun Sect, Fang Xing betrays the sect, is afflicted by the Nine Malevolences curse, cultivates the Yin-Yang Great Millstone in the Bingyin Palace, and journeys through the Xuan Domain and the Thousand-Flowing Sea, accompanied by Ao Zhen, Ying Qiaoqiao, Chu Ci, and sworn brothers such as Han Ying and Li Ying, rising continuously through battles, highway robberies, and schemes. The book tells a hot-blooded rise with a light, humorous tone and constant flashes of wild imagination; the protagonist's actions are unpredictable, making it one of the most distinctive works in Qidian's xianxia category.