Long Live the Imperial Brother

Long Live the Imperial Brother is an Eastern fantasy web novel by the author Jianshui II. It began serialization on Qidian Chinese Network on May 22, 2020, and concluded on December 30 of the same year, running about 1.67 million characters over 468 chapters. The work carries the tags "invincible protagonist" and "lighthearted." At the start of the story, the imperial prince Xia Ji is accused of illicit relations with a demoness and of disgracing the royal family; he asks to be confined to the Imperial Scripture Pavilion for three years. The emperor simply has all the pavilion's divine arts and exotic techniques moved away, leaving only Buddhist scriptures for this "rebellious son." Everyone assumes this fallen prince is finished—but after transmigrating into this world, he awakens a special talent: opening any text allows him to extract a corresponding "skill bead," which immediately reaches the ninth level. Thus scriptures such as the Heart Sutra, the Diamond Sutra, the Ksitigarbha Sutra, the Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, and the Present Tathagata Sutra become peerless techniques in his hands—the Body of the Immovable Wisdom King, the Nine Yang Heart Sutra, the Eighteen Hell-Suppressing Forces, and more. While enduring in silence and building up strength, he protects his full sister, the Ninth Princess Xia Xiaosu, and fights his way out from a court and sect world that presses him step by step, coming to be seen by the world as a monster—a "demon among Buddhas." The book advances with the protagonist crushing, slapping faces, and subduing all factions after his release; the plot is brisk and the wish-fulfillment intense, making it one of Jianshui II's representative works in the invincible-protagonist vein.