Daojun

Daojun is a fantasy cultivation novel by Yue Qianchou, a platinum author of China Literature Group. It was serialized on Qidian and Chuangshi from February 14, 2017, and completed in April 2019, totaling 1,598 chapters and about 5.0179 million characters. At the opening, the legendary Earth tomb raider "Dao Ye" triggers a trap during a tomb exploration and dies together with his trusted subordinate "Monkey." He wakes in a cultivation world of numerous sects and seven contending kingdoms, becoming Niu Youdao, a country youth from the state of Yan. A dying elder of the Shangqing Sect, Dongguo Haoran, forcibly takes him as a disciple and entrusts him with returning an ancient bronze mirror to the Shangqing Sect. Upon arrival, the sect leader Tang Mu has already been assassinated, and Niu Youdao, who was supposed to become the sect leader's "husband," is instead placed under house arrest. During five years of confinement, he comprehends the "Qiankun Formula" in the bronze mirror and comes to see that this world's order is upheld jointly by nine Nascent Soul cultivators and the royal powers of the various states. After his release, he reunites with "Monkey," enters the service of the Yan princess Shang Shuqing, and rises by borrowing troops to establish a foothold and allying with Jinzhou to overcome a crisis. Through insight into situations, reading people's hearts, and skill in laying plans, he turns lofty cultivators and kings one by one into pieces on his chessboard, helps the Shang clan unify the realm amid chaotic contention, and ultimately becomes the "Daojun" whose single word can settle the world. Cultivation and leveling are not the backbone of the book; what truly entertains is the alliance-making and maneuvering between court and jianghu. The protagonist neither suffers losses nor indulges in momentary triumphs; he speaks of interests and rules while holding to his own moral bottom line.