Zhu Xian

Zhu Xian is a long classical xianxia novel by the internet writer Xiao Ding. It began serialization on Huanjian Shumeng in 2003 and has been published in mainland China since 2005, totaling eight volumes and roughly 1.2 million Chinese characters. With the idea that "Heaven and Earth are ruthless, treating all things as straw dogs" as its intellectual backdrop, the story builds an Eastern fantasy world in which the three orthodox sects—Qingyun Sect, Tianyin Temple, and Fenxiang Valley—coexist with the Demonic Sect, the Southern Border shaman tribe, and the fox clan. Zhang Xiaofan, an ordinary boy from Caomiao Village, loses both parents in a bloody massacre and is taken in, along with his fellow villager Lin Jingyu, by the Qingyun Sect, becoming a disciple of Tian Buyi on Dazhu Peak. Mediocre in talent and dull by nature, he progresses slowly in cultivation, yet by chance obtains a supremely vicious and evil magical weapon, the "Firestick" (Shihun), and by luck reaches the top four in the Seven Meridian Martial Contest, where he crosses paths and becomes acquainted with Lu Xueqi, a cold and peerlessly beautiful disciple of Xiaozhu Peak. Later, during a training journey down the mountain, he shares life-and-death trials with Lu Xueqi at the Abyss of the Dead, and in the Dripping Blood Cave meets Biyao, daughter of the Ghost King Sect master of the Demonic Sect, and learns the Demonic Sect's Heavenly Book. In the first great battle between the orthodox and demonic paths, the truth of the Caomiao Village massacre surfaces. Zhang Xiaofan is trapped by the Zhu Xian Sword Formation, and Biyao blocks a fatal blow for him with the Infatuation Curse, her soul scattering. Zhang Xiaofan thereupon betrays the Qingyun Sect and joins the Demonic Sect, given the name "Gui Li," and spends ten years of slaughter and wandering desperately seeking a way to revive Biyao. As catastrophes such as the Beast God Rebellion and the Four Spirits Blood Formation descend in succession, he must face the ultimate choice between good and evil, love and the Dao, obsession and letting go.