Seeking the Demonic

Name: Seeking the Demonic
ISBN: 9787535395047

Er GenHubei Children's Press2013

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Word count: 4.6M words
Chapters: 14
ISBN: 9787535395047

Summary

"Pursuing the Demonic" is a xianxia novel by the internet author Er Gen, serialized on Qidian from February 17, 2012, to December 23, 2013, totaling approximately 4.59 million Chinese characters. The story unfolds in a vast, boundless world fraught with peril—a realm shaped like a giant butterfly named Sangxiang, whose four wings each constitute a separate world. The protagonist, Su Ming, is an orphan adopted by Mo Sang, the elder of the Wushan Tribe. Born without a barbarian body capable of cultivating the barbarian arts, he awakens his barbarian body on the Day of Barbarian Awakening through a mysterious black stone fragment and obtains a secret manual left by a powerful fire barbarian, thus embarking on the path of barbarian cultivation. He advances through the stages of Blood Condensation, Dust Opening, and Bone Sacrifice, wandering across the Western Alliance, Southern Dawn, Eastern Wasteland, and other lands. Yet as his cultivation and knowledge grow, he gradually perceives layer upon layer of falsity in his memories—the Wushan Tribe is destroyed in a tribal war, and after being drawn into the Void and awakening, he realizes that his entire life has been a chess game orchestrated by the Immortal Tribe's Di Tian and others. His true identity is one of the last surviving bloodlines of the nearly extinct Suming Tribe. To break free from his manipulated fate, Su Ming embarks on the path of "cultivating destiny," styling himself a demon and maneuvering against those who laid the board. The book opens in oppression and closes in oppression, its prose somber and tragic, centering on fate, obsession, and sacrifice. It is regarded as the coldest in style and the most philosophically speculative of Er Gen's works.

Editor's review

在耳根的创作序列里，《求魔》是风格最为冷峻的一部。它不像《仙逆》那样以逆天改命的热血贯穿始终，也不像《我欲封天》那样以明快的冒险节奏取胜，而是从一个蛮族少年最朴素的求存开始，一层层剥开世界的真相：你所珍视的家园、亲人、记忆，可能只是别人精心布下的幻局。这种“被安排的人生”带来的压迫感，使整部作品自始至终笼罩着悲怆而克制的底色。值得称道的是，耳根并未把它写成单纯的复仇爽文。苏铭的反抗不是一路狂飙，而是在认清真相后仍选择守住心中所念，那句“魔前一叩三千年，回首凡尘不做仙”之所以被反复引用，正因为它指向一种近似悲剧英雄的坚持。全书四百余万字体量庞大，前期铺垫耐心，越到后期越见格局与力道；人物关系清晰、伏笔绵密，读来回味悠长，适合愿意沉下心阅读长线布局的读者。

Who it's for

A good fit for

喜欢仙侠修真题材、能接受长篇慢热叙事的读者
偏爱宿命、身份与自我认知等思辨主题的读者
读过《仙逆》《我欲封天》，想系统了解耳根作品的读者
欣赏沉郁悲壮文风、不追求轻松爽感的成年读者

Not a good fit for

偏好快节奏、开篇即高燃爽点的读者
希望阅读轻松幽默、无压抑感作品的读者
对四百万字以上超长篇缺乏耐心的读者

Reading tips

建议按章节顺序推进，前期乌山部的日常与蛮启伏笔皆是后文反转的根基，不宜跳读。
可留意“记忆”“真假”“棋子”等反复出现的意象，它们是理解苏铭选择与全书主旨的关键线索。
若中途感到节奏偏缓，可将其视作群像与世界观铺垫，后半程的多线收束会给出回应。
读完后不妨对照耳根的《仙逆》《我欲封天》，比较其笔下“逆命”主题的不同处理方式。

About the publisher

Hubei Children's Press China · Founded in 1982

Hubei Children's Press mainly publishes children's literature and art, popular science, early-learning and animation books, as well as supplementary learning materials and electronic and audio-visual publications, with children's literature and art forming an important part of its publishing direction. Only a limited number of its books are held in the collection, and publicly available information is also limited; the only title currently listed is the fine novel Floating Continent by Lanse Shi, which suggests the press's orientation toward original children's fiction—full-length works aimed at young readers and notable for their storytelling. Overall, the press's publishing features center on categories such as children's literature and art and popular science, covering both print books and electronic and audio-visual formats, and seeking to offer young readers diverse reading choices that balance literary quality and knowledge.

Volume One: If Life Were Only as at First Meeting
Demon Prologue
Chapter One: Su Ming
Chapter Two: Barbarian Awakening
Chapter Three: Piercing the Dark
Chapter Four: Mutation
Chapter Five: Dream Whisper
Chapter Six: Grace
Chapter Seven: Wilderness!
Chapter Eight: Red Clay
Chapter Nine: Quenching and Scattering
Chapter Ten: Blood Ignites
Chapter Eleven: Su Ming's Wrath
Chapter Twelve: Killing Intent

FAQ

《求魔》实体书由哪家出版社出版？

据公开资料，实体书最初由湖北少年儿童出版社于2013年9月出版，后续分册由长江少年儿童出版社于2014年2月推出，另有繁体中文版由台湾说频文化出版。

《求魔》和《仙逆》是同一世界观吗？

并非简单的续作关系，但耳根多部作品存在互文：苏铭在《我欲封天》中曾以“魔”的身份出现，说明其作品之间有一定程度的关联与呼应，可视为作者自建的“耳根宇宙”。

没读过耳根其他作品能直接读《求魔》吗？

可以。《求魔》故事自成体系，主角、世界观与主线冲突均独立完整，不依赖前作阅读基础；但读过《仙逆》后，对其中互文细节会更有会心之处。

《求魔》全书大约多少字？

据公开资料，网络连载全本约459万字，2012年2月开始连载，2013年12月完结，属于典型的长篇仙侠作品。

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Er Gen Author

Er Gen is a representative author of xuanhuan in the field of Chinese web literature. The library holds 23 of his works, with representative titles including Xian Ni, I Shall Seal the Heavens, Three Inches of Heaven, and Beyond Time. His writing focuses mainly on Eastern fantasy and supernatural powers, and is often categorized as premium fiction, high-quality web fiction, and male-oriented fiction, appealing chiefly to male readers who prefer long-form fantasy narratives. Judging from the available works, Er Gen excels at unfolding character growth and fateful choices within a cultivation framework, with plots driven by realm advancement and factional conflict, while also incorporating social-fiction-style depictions of worldly affairs. Public information about his nationality, birth and death years, and other personal details is limited and not included in the library, so no inferences are made.