The Black Mage

The Black Mage is a fantasy web novel by Jianzong Shouxi Dizi, an author on Qidian Chinese Network. Serialization began in 2010 and concluded on November 10, 2011; the full text runs about 1.4288 million characters in 212 chapters. The protagonist, Jiang Zhe (known in the other world as South), is a modern student who is transported to another world after touching a church mural and begins to grow up again from the age of ten. He is sent to the Helireox Magic Academy and becomes an apprentice black mage. He is introverted, calm, and self-focused, aligned with humanity's neutral faction and leaning slightly toward darkness; he has dark golden hair that turns black when he is angry, usually wears a dark blue apprentice robe, and wears a white glove on his left hand, beneath which is a magic array engraved to suppress negative energy—which also lets him recover relatively quickly when his emotions run out of control and his energy goes berserk. The main text is divided into four volumes: the first covers the transmigration, enrollment, and the year-end assessment; the second covers the attack by beasts and werewolves on the village where the professor lives, the battle in the underground mine, and the undercurrents involving factions such as the Holy Adjudicators; later volumes involve inter-academy competitions and the intervention of dark forces; and the final chapter, "The Collapsing World," presents the empire's dark age and the final battle. The work has a clear academy-genre flavor and anti-formula humor, using Jiang Zhe's dialogues with the pedantic professor to poke fun at the situation of "even in another world, you can't escape school and exams." It was recommended by Qidian's Sanjiang channel and featured on the homepage, and by September 2014 had accumulated about ten thousand favorites.