The Cold Smoke Art

Fengjiang 01Zongheng Chinese Network2021

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Word count: 268.9K words

Summary

Young A-Jiu lost his parents as a child and lives alone in a ruined temple, hunting for a living and reciting the Heart Sutra every night. One day the Buddha statue transforms into a Prajna demon, tempts him with a deal, and reveals that he has in fact been repeating his life in a dream for forty-seven years—and that a woman named A-Yao has been deliberately erased from his memory. To recover the truth and his beloved, A-Jiu sets out to enter the Buddhist path, slay demons, and endure tribulations, passing through the Three-Three Trials and the Nine-Nine Calamities to ascend as an immortal. Yet on the day of ascension he learns that so-called perfect merit is merely a plot of the heavenly realm: Fuyao's immortal soul was long ago cast into reincarnation. Carrying the divine artifact the Eight Trigrams Array, he battles the Nine Palaces of Heaven in blood, shatters the reincarnation purgatory, and pursues his beloved.

Editor's review

A typical Eastern fantasy of defying heaven for love. The opening—a ruined temple, a speaking Buddha statue, and a deal with an inner demon—builds a lonely, eerie atmosphere. The immortal-mortal tragic romance plus heaven-defying revenge setup carries high emotional intensity, with a direct pace, suited to readers who favor power-fantasies and tragic-romance mainlines. The weaknesses are a relatively short length and somewhat rushed development of the heavenly plot and reincarnation setup; the depth of intrigue and worldbuilding is limited, and readers seeking rigorous settings may find it unsatisfying.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy immortal-mortal tragic romance and defying-heaven-for-love themes
Readers who prefer fast-paced, highly satisfying Eastern fantasy
Readers who like inner-demon deals and reincarnation-plot setups
Readers looking for a short, complete fantasy to pass the time

Not a good fit for

Hardcore fantasy readers seeking rigorous worldbuilding and long-form plotting
Veteran readers who dislike past-life and tragic-romance tropes

Reading tips

Read the prequel Nine Mysteries Ascension: Wrath Against Heaven first to understand the karma before ascension, then move on to the main story, Turmoil in Jinling
Pay attention to the foreshadowing around the Prajna demon and A-Yao—the reincarnation truth later echoes earlier text
Treat the heavenly plot as a driver of the emotional line; don't demand airtight intrigue details

About the publisher

Zongheng Chinese Network

Zongheng Chinese Network is a publishing platform focused on online literature, with a catalog of approximately 10,899 titles. Its output covers common categories such as women's fiction, ancient romance, men's fiction, urban fiction, and alternate history, and it also maintains a premium fiction section to serve readers with different preferences. Representative titles include Marrying the Powerful Eunuch, Stealing Fragrance, The Whole Army Forms Up, The Ugly Poison Consort Turns the Tables from the Start, Super Dad, The Substitute Bride Is a Contrarian, Sword Out of Beiming, and Record of Cultivating the Mind, spanning ancient romance, urban life, and alternate history. The platform brings together authors such as Shi Yi Qing Qing, Zou Guo Qing Chun Sui Yue, Zhi Bai, Meng Huan Yang Guang, Dan Wang Zhang, Jiu Yue Jiu, Xing Luo Ping Chuan, and Zhu Ben Wu Xin, forming a roster characterized by serialized genre fiction. Public information on the publisher's founding background is limited; this profile is based solely on the catalog's publication directions and content features.

FAQ

Does this book have a single heroine?

The romantic mainline revolves around the fairy Fuyao (A-Yao), following an immortal-mortal tragic romance.

How should I read the prequel and the main story?

Follow the author's arrangement: read the prequel first, then the main story.

Is the whole book complete?

It is complete, not long, and can be read in one sitting.

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About the author

Fengjiang 01 Author

Fengjiang 01 is a web-fiction author about whom limited public information is available. To date, only one work by this author can be confirmed: Han Yan Jue (The Cold Smoke Formula). Classified under premium fiction and fantasy fiction, the work suggests that the author works within these genre frameworks, with attention to atmosphere and plot development in a fantasy world. Because the author has not disclosed basic details such as nationality or dates of birth and death, little can be said about their life or creative background, and this introduction can only focus on the work itself. Judging from its title and categories, Han Yan Jue carries classical imagery and a sense of the fantastical, and may involve cultivation, martial-arts circles, or an imagined world; its specific stylistic features remain for readers to discover in the text. For readers interested in fantasy fiction, Fengjiang 01 is still an author with a small body of work, and their future direction and thematic range are worth watching.