Martial Overlord of the Nine Heavens

Martial Overlord of the Nine Heavens is an Eastern fantasy novel by the web author Meme, serialized on Zongheng Chinese from November 14, 2013, and completed on February 27, 2014. It runs about 4.249 million characters in 1,331 chapters. The story is set on the Xuanwu Continent, where martial strength is supreme. The protagonist, Du Fei, born into the Du family, is at first regarded as a "trash" youth unable to cultivate and is looked down upon amid family infighting and surrounding enemies. A stroke of luck grants him a mysterious "system," and he embarks on a path of cultivation through martial arts and body-nourishing alchemy. While cultivating martial techniques and the way of the pill, he navigates family, sect, and the wider martial world, gradually uncovering the secrets of himself and that world, making allies and facing powerful foes, until he climbs step by step from a mocked youth to the pinnacle of martial arts. "At the extremity of martial arts, above the Nine Heavens, below the Yellow Springs, a flick of the hand reverses yin and yang" is the realm imagery repeatedly emphasized throughout. The work employs the typical male-oriented hot-blooded leveling formula: a clear realm system (martial artists are divided into nine grades and three tiers—grades seven to nine are Martial Masters, four to six are Martial Lords, one to three are Martial Saints, and each grade further splits into upper, middle, and lower stages), densely packed with face-slapping, breakthroughs, alchemy, and system quests. Fast-paced, it is one of the representative system-style fantasy works on Zongheng Chinese in the mid-2010s.