Talisman Emperor

Talisman Emperor is an Eastern fantasy novel by Xiao Jinyu, originally titled Divine Talisman. Because the character for "talisman" in the original title was obscure and easily misread and mistyped in searches, it was later renamed Talisman Emperor. Serialization began in late 2013 on Zongheng Chinese Network; the completed work runs to roughly 6.93 million characters across more than two thousand chapters, with several extra chapters. The story begins with Chen Xi, a young man from Songyan City whose family has been destroyed, whose relatives have vanished, and whose betrothal was publicly annulled, leaving the city's residents to mock him as a jinx. To pay for his younger brother's education, he sets aside his own cultivation and makes a living crafting talismans. By chance, Chen Xi inherits the legacy of a divine-demon cave estate from the Desolate Era a million years past, and from there sets out to craft divine talismans, temper his body, cultivate supreme sword dao, and comprehend the profound principles of laws. The novel builds its cultivation system around talismans: the talisman dao is divided into nine grades, talisman patterns layer upon layer, nine kinds of talisman formations combine to form spirit talismans, spirit talismans are further divided into upper, middle, and lower tiers, and supreme treasures already contain the power of dao intent. As both a talisman master and a spirit chef, the protagonist moves through a vast world where gods and demons stride and spirits lurk, traveling across the human realm, the netherworld, the ancient divine domain, and other layered planes; with courage and fortuitous encounters he breaks through realm after realm, ultimately ascending to the peak of the endless great dao. The work was named a Baidu Literature 2015 "Potential Outstanding Work of the Year" and has been adapted into a mobile game and other IP projects.