Martial Arts Inn

Martial Arts Inn is the first full-length wuxia novel series published by Bu Feiyan. It was initially serialized in magazines such as Legend of the Past and Present: Wuxia Edition, and from 2006 was released in three volumes by World Affairs Press: The Sun Volume, The Moon Volume, and The Star Volume. The story revolves around the three most prominent young masters of the new generation of the martial world—Guo Ao the Sword God, Li Qingchou the Jade-Handed Divine Physician, and Tie Hen the Iron-Faced Divine Constable. In the height of July, the three, scattered to the farthest corners of the land, almost simultaneously receive a golden God of Wealth invitation, and each sets aside his current affairs to travel a thousand li to the God of Wealth Temple to keep a promise made years ago. Behind the invitation lies the scheme of Xiao Changye, leader of the Tianluo Sect, who once showed the three a kindness and now calls upon that old debt, asking them to join him in attacking Shaolin. The three are unwilling to ally with an evil sect, but are swayed when Xiao Changye reveals that Shaolin is holding his wife prisoner, and are ultimately drawn into the Tianluo Sect's internal struggle for succession and the larger conspiracy of the "Shadow of the Secret Demon" roiling the martial world. The book's dominant tone is the bizarre and suspenseful: the three repeatedly encounter mysteries and repeatedly unravel them, with endless exotic techniques and strange arts, the fate of Shaolin and Wudang hanging by a thread, and chivalry and loyalty, ambition and calculation entangled with one another. The series consists of several stories that can stand alone yet are interlinked, with an intricate overall structure and elegant prose, making it a representative work of the mainland "New Wuxia" wave of the 2000s.