Slaying the Sword

Slaying the Sword is a xianxia cultivation web novel by the online author Da Jiu, serialized mainly on 17K.com and other web-literature platforms; the book is complete. The story opens in the Xia Kingdom at the Juetian Sect, which is divided into three peaks—Jueqing, Tianyun, and Piaomiao—of which Tianyun Peak has dwindled to only a handful of disciples. The youth Hong Yu comes from there: a herb-gathering boy in whose body a mighty being from ages beyond memory planted a seed of life by extraordinary means; the seed's origin and the intent of the one behind it become the central mystery running through the whole book. Around this seed, Hong Yu is drawn into one ever-stranger situation after another: his sect sends him to a mysterious place to retrieve a divine artifact, and on the way he encounters an ancient sword that can transform into a beautiful woman—a sword that gradually develops something like human feeling; because of it, his spiritual energy flows without end in cultivation, and a mysterious beauty is often at his side. At the same time, he searches for the lover with whom he has shared eight lifetimes as husband and wife—down the endless road of the world, singing as he goes, raising his blade, dancing across the sky, never looking back, only to meet her again. The story expands from sect trials and the battle with the demon well and demon dragon to the ancient battlefield, secrets from ages beyond memory, the tomb of the God-King, the eighteen levels of hell, and even strife at the level of the divine realm, finally closing with a final battle. The book moves at a brisk pace and emphasizes hot-blooded combat and the pursuit of destiny—a typical male-oriented cultivation power-fantasy.