Spirit Boat

Spirit Boat is a classical xianxia novel by the web author Jiu Dangjia, serialized on 17K.com starting in February 2013 and completed in July 2014. The main text runs to about 1,150 chapters and more than four million characters, and during its serialization it drew tens of millions of reads on the site. The book has ten volumes, titled in order: Lingzhou City, Mirror Ring Mountain, Treasure Seeker, Hundred Towers Contest, Dragons Devour the Sky, Taiwei Guards the Heart, The Sixth Central Dynasty, Ghost Market Enchantment, Myriad Races at Their Peak, and Heaven Destroyed and Earth Annihilated. The work opens by presenting the premise that "Daoists cultivate this life, Buddhists cultivate the next. Dao is on this shore, Buddha on the other, and man in between. The Spirit Boat—not on this shore, not on the other, not in between," thereby sketching a vast world that includes cultivators who strive against heaven, ancient powerhouses who traverse the cosmos, fierce ancient beasts, black stone and white bone, the Yellow Springs, and palaces in the sky. The protagonist was originally Feng Feiyun, the youngest chief of the Phoenix demon clan, who was murdered by his lover Shui Yueting; on the road to the Yellow Springs his soul collides with an ancient bronze boat, and he is reborn in the body of Feng Feiyun, a profligate young master of Lingzhou City. From this frail body he starts over, relearning techniques such as the Undying Phoenix Body, and undergoes trials including treasure hunting, contests for supremacy, entering court, and the battlefield of myriad races, gradually uncovering the mystery of his origins—his father is the Great Wizard God, his mother the true dragon Long Qingxuan, and he himself the first half-demon to ascend after the ancient era, eventually drawn into a fated struggle involving the seven great ancient demons and the seven great spirit boats. The book's tone is not light. Over long ages the protagonist repeatedly bids farewell to old friends, watching his beloved drink the soup of forgetfulness at the Naihe Bridge, and the ending, "This Shore, the Other Shore," closes on waiting and parting—the part readers mention again and again.