Lord of the Mystic Arts

Lord of the Arcane is a modern-day occult fantasy web novel built around the core premise of "the resurgence of spiritual energy." Running about 3.6 million characters, it began serialization on Qidian in June 2018 and was completed in September 2020. The story opens with a mysterious meteor shattering the century-old "Spirit Barrier," and the long-vanished spiritual energy floods back into the world: magic, witchcraft, curses, supernatural creatures, eerie legends, and otherworldly demons appear one after another as the old order collapses and a new one emerges in chaos and confusion. The protagonist, Tang Qi, transmigrates from another world and wakes in a dire situation—he has become a lowly "Demon of Pain" hung on a cross and is dragged into an evil ritual involving a soul-swapping scale. Relying on his innate "Omniscience" gift and a fragmentary insight into the rules, he exploits a loophole in the contract and uses backlash to shed his demon identity and regain human form. Thereafter he moves among elite academies, secret societies, and underground black markets, seeking the true leads to supernatural power. He completes the "Furnace Sorcerer" class change, gaining the ability to rapidly grow stronger by sacrificing monsters to great beings. As a new era dawns and the world falls into turmoil, Tang Qi packages himself as a detective, scholar, and more, taking part in one major event after another, collecting ancient parchments, badges, siren shells, and other curios while dealing with all manner of supernatural creatures, earning the name "God-Deceiver." The work centers on curio collection, supernatural confrontation, puzzle-solving detective work, and leveling up, portraying the clash between the collapse of the old order and the reconstruction of a new one under the onslaught of occult forces.