Eight Desolates of Divine Martial Arts

Shenwu Bahuang (The Divine Martial Eight Realms) is an Eastern fantasy novel by the web author "Yi Ke." It was first serialized on Qidian and completed in December 2013, comprising 968 chapters and roughly 2.7 million Chinese characters. It is a signed VIP work under China Literature Group. The story is set on a continent where martial arts reign supreme. The cultivation of martial techniques and combat skills is divided into seven stages: rudimentary, initial mastery, minor accomplishment, advanced mastery, great accomplishment, perfection, and intent. The higher the stage, the harder it is to reach and the greater the power it unleashes. A low-tier technique, if cultivated to a high enough level, can even suppress a high-tier one. The protagonist, Ning Chong, is born into the Ning family of Xuanyuan City. Born with inferior innate elemental aptitude, he is long regarded as worthless and is betrothed to Ning Tianxiang, the adopted sister his father raised. After an accident on a cliff, he gains a strange "sense" that enables him to master every martial technique to its fullest; even crude, contemptible skills erupt with astonishing power in his hands. From there, armed with techniques such as Sword-Drawing Art and Coiled Dragon Force, he fights across cultivation tiers, weathering clan infighting, the Chuyun Valley trial, the Dragon-Slaying Assembly, and the crisis in Xuanyuan City. He gradually uncovers the truth behind his parents' deaths and breaks completely with the faction of clan elders. Cultivation breakthroughs, family grudges, and continental power struggles intertwine to form the novel's complete martial world. Fast-paced and packed with fight scenes, the book is a typical specimen of the 2010s Qidian fantasy "trash-to-triumph" formula.