Huangting

Huangting is a long classical xianxia novel by the web novelist Kissing Fingertips, first serialized on Qidian and completed at roughly 1.25 million characters. The protagonist, Chen Jing, has since childhood traveled the world with an old swordsman and learned swordsmanship; after the old man departs, he joins the Qianluo Sect, where he practices only the Qianluo Spirit-Guiding Art and cultivates his sword through reading, a quiet and composed temperament. When an ancient treasure obtained by the sect leader draws the covetous attention of the City God's city, the Qianluo Sect is annihilated; Chen Jing narrowly escapes and, by chance, inherits the position of River God. The post seems minor, yet above him the Dragon King holds authority, below him spirits and demons run riot, and he must receive human incense and abide by the prohibitions of imperial edicts—and thus a path of divine cultivation wholly different from the common modes of practice opens before him. With the "divine way" as its core premise, the work begins with a river god rather than a local earth god, following the protagonist as he cultivates the divine path, slays enemies and demons, contends with immortal sects, and is gradually drawn into the larger order in which the primordial Heavenly Court has long since fallen and the seats of the gods are in disarray, unfolding between the quest for immortality and inner steadfastness. The prose is classical, spare, and elegant, prizing atmosphere over level-grinding, and readers regard it as a representative work of the divine-path xianxia genre.