Shen Huang

Shen Huang is an Eastern fantasy novel by Kaifang, first serialized on Qidian and completed at about 3.47 million Chinese characters. The story begins with a transmigration: an ordinary man who worked as a librarian in the capital of a small kingdom in the Cloud World and whiled away his time in a holographic virtual game called The Divine Emperor wakes up to find himself Zong Shou, heir of the Demon King of Qiantian Mountain, in the era ten thousand years earlier when the Divine Emperor was about to appear. This handsome thirteen-year-old boy, because the human and demon bloodlines in his body suppress each other, can neither practice martial arts nor cultivate spirit, is regarded by everyone as a useless good-for-nothing, and his position as heir draws countless rivals. Fortunately, Zong Shou carries a near-master-level understanding of martial arts theory from his previous life and residual memories such as the Wuding Spirit Emperor Art. He starts from the most basic swordsmanship and body forging, painstakingly practices the Six Spirits Blade Control Art, and takes a different path to dual cultivation of spirit and martial arts through “dual-meridian parallel practice”: on the martial path he climbs step by step through Martial Master, Innate Martial Master, Martial Ancestor, and even Martial Venerable, while on the spirit path he passes through stages such as stabilizing the spirit, observing the soul, nurturing the spirit, out-of-body projection, night roaming, and returning to yang. He endures trials including the struggle for the Qiantian Demon King title, the Xuanshan City turmoil, the Lingyun Sect's Luotian Sword Formation, the Jingyun Divine Annihilation Sword Intent, and the twelve spirit talisman seeds, subdues guardian spirit beasts, defeats powerful enemies and unravels conspiracies one by one, and rises from a hunted, frail youth to a powerful figure who looks down on all living beings. The book has a broad scope, with the two systems of martial cultivation and spirit mastery standing side by side; techniques, sword intent, spirit talismans, and guardians unfold layer by layer. It is fast-paced, focusing on leveling up and inventing techniques in the early stage and turning to conquest and dynastic rivalry later. It is one of Kaifang's better-received and more complete long serials, and has been adapted into a browser game and a comic.