Dream, Illusion, Bubble, Shadow

Dream, Illusion, Bubble, Shadow is an attempt by the web novelist Lan Jing to turn from Western fantasy to Eastern xianxia; the title comes from the famous line in the Diamond Sutra: "All conditioned phenomena are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow." The story takes place in a land called Tianbao Prefecture: the name means "the finest of all things," and the place is rich in mineral deposits, with treasures everywhere—a dazzling demon capital; yet it is also a dangerous land, where water, soil, and air are all poisonous, monstrous beasts roam, and fierce earth barbarians appear, making it a doomsday place for cultivators; it is also a land of treasure, where resources rare elsewhere are easily had, drawing countless people to try their luck; and it is a land of chaos—here human life is the cheapest thing of all. The protagonist, Xie Xiaoyu, is framed and exiled to Tianbao Prefecture for no clear reason, his heart like dead ashes. Stranded at the docks, he happens upon the family of Li Guangzong, returning to Tianbao Prefecture from the Central Plains, and is taken in by them. By chance Xie Xiaoyu obtains a secret sword-cultivation method called the Six-Like Dharma and discovers that the seemingly ordinary Li Guangzong is only a half-trained cultivator himself. To repay Li Guangzong's kindness, and to one day return to the Central Plains and uncover the truth of his unexplained downfall, Xie Xiaoyu guides Li Guangzong and his companions in cultivation while abandoning all his former learning to turn to the path of the sword. Set in a harsh yet bountiful frontier world, the work tells of a youth cast down by fate who rises again by his own ability, combining Lan Jing's refined, meticulous prose with the jianghu spirit of xianxia.