The Supreme Immortal Journey

"The Supreme Immortal Journey" is a classical xianxia novel by the author Xia Xie, serialized on Qidian from 2013 and completed in June 2015, with 441 chapters and about 1.39 million characters. The story takes place in the cultivation world of the "Twelve Continents Under Heaven," created by the author, where Daoist, Buddhist, demonic, and heretical sects coexist, and cultivators progress from foundation building all the way to ascension. The protagonist, Lin Fan, is a young Daoist of the Yunqing Sect (Zhengyi Sect) on the Eastern Continent. Highly gifted and intelligent, he is by nature lazy and free-spirited, believing that "if you can't win, run"; he does not practice grain avoidance, loves good food, is fond of gambling, and uses most of his spells to solve immediate practical problems. The opening has him using Xuanhe tiles (Tianjiu tiles) as bait and drawing talismans with his foot to set a formation as protection, dealing with a stubborn old ghost in a house where a funeral is being held and sending it on its way, giving an early display of his style of "overcoming force with cleverness and carrying the Way in the commonplace." Later he becomes close friends with Zhang Tongyuan, a disciple of the Purple Cloud Hall; Ximen Shuai, a direct disciple of the former Demon Sect leader; and Juese, a monk of the Shengyin Temple. They often travel together, are called the "Four Friends" by the orthodox path and feared as the "Four Fiends" by the heretical path, and together experience ghost exorcisms, treasure seizures, sword debates, and orthodox–demonic confrontations. The novel's theme is that "cultivation is defying heaven, and the seven emotions and six desires are human nature"; through the schemes and contests of the cultivation world, it explores whether casting aside emotion and desire in pursuit of the Great Way is itself a kind of desire. The writing is humorous and concise, with dense small stories and memorable supporting characters, and many readers describe it as a xianxia tale with a flavor of "cultivation-world espionage."