Dao

Dao is an Eastern fantasy novel by the web author Shitang Baozi. Serialization began on Zongheng Chinese on March 31, 2011, and concluded on February 9, 2013; the book runs to roughly 5.94 million characters in more than two thousand chapters. It opens in Xiaocheng, where Xiao Chen, a son of the Xiao family, sees his father Xiao Wenshan humiliated and lose an arm while seeking a chance at immortality for his son; from this the obsession "a father's disgrace, a son's debt" is kindled. At the entrance test of Luoyun Valley, Xiao Chen is judged to have no spirit root, yet on the Heaven-Climbing Ladder he moves Elder Yao Daizi with his almost brutish perseverance and is taken on as a nominal disciple, thus entering the world of cultivation. He returns home in triumph, is drawn into a battle among cultivators on the way and wins the Golden Seal; he destroys the Flaming Flame Sect and unifies Beihua Prefecture; he enters the sacred ground of the Mu family of Yingzhou but is framed by the Mu patriarch and forced to flee to the vast sea continent. There he forms his Nascent Soul, wipes out the Mu family, survives the bloodline trial alone, escapes the killing trap plotted by six clans into the Moluo Realm, achieves the "Undying" stage, then breaks the seal through integration, ascends to the spirit realm, builds the Xiao mansion, enters the War God Palace, and finally ascends to the great thousand worlds—a long ascent from the lowliest foot soldier to the summit. The cultivation system is clearly tiered: in the ephemeral realm, Qi Refining, Foundation Building, Core Formation, Nascent Soul, Undying, and Integration; in the lesser thousand worlds, Tribulation Crossing, Mahayana, and the Ancient Realm; in the great thousand worlds, Creation, World-Making, Heaven-Treading, and Hongmeng; and beyond them the Xuanhuang Great World and the One World. The main thread is "Xiao Chen's quest for the Dao," and with its tone of perilous immortal paths and danger at every step, it unfolds a grand panorama spanning many realms. The pacing is brisk and the plot coherent, making it a "hidden good book" in the eyes of many veteran readers.