Yuanxian

Yuanxian is a modern cultivation novel by the web author "Wo Zai Ni Shen Hou" ("Behind You"), written after Terror Relics, completed in January 2015, serialized on Qidian, and roughly two million characters long. The story begins in extreme hardship: the protagonist Xu Mo's parents both vanish mysteriously in the year he graduates, their fate unknown, and his own luck is terrible; he meets setback after setback, can only rent a cramped apartment, and scrapes by on odd jobs. On a cold winter night, hungry and freezing, he tries to keep warm through exercise but cannot sleep because of it, and from this comes an idea: use a special breathing method to influence blood circulation and the rate at which the body consumes energy, achieving the effect of exercise while remaining still and quiet. He calls his own theory "still breathing." After several failed attempts, he lands a temporary job and thereby sets out on a path of cultivation utterly different from what most people imagine. Unlike traditional xianxia novels, which begin with a mysterious inheritance, a master's guidance, or a heaven-defying treasure, Xu Mo's cultivation comes almost entirely from his own pondering and repeated trial and error concerning the body and the laws of nature; scientific, rational thinking and mysterious cultivation experience intertwine throughout the book. The early sections are slow and rich in everyday texture, while the middle and later sections steadily improve, giving the novel a distinctive quality of "an ordinary person carving out his own path."