The Divine Book

The Divine Book is a long Eastern fantasy novel by the web novelist Xinyi (real name Xie Jiaqi). It was serialized on Qidian from January 2015 to August 2015, runs about 1.17 million Chinese characters across four hundred chapters, and is now complete. The novel builds a world in which "divine script" is the source of power: divine script is a civilization left over from ancient times, every character contains heaven and earth, and people study it, inscribe books with it, enter ancient ruins, and open the spiritual "cave heavens," forging a unique path of cultivation. Yet the people of this world understand only how to stack up characters to unleash power; they know nothing of rhythm or imagery. Lin Yi, a sales manager, transmigrates into the body of a servant in the Shen household and, drawing on the poetry and songs he accumulated in his past life, awakens the power sleeping within words, eventually forming his own "divine book." The story follows him as he enters the Academy of Letters, takes part in literary duels, explores ancient ruins, breaks through the seven gates of the Holy Hall, and maneuvers among the Shen family of the great capital and the various factions of Chu; Shen Rubing, Shen Feixue, Mu Jingxuan, Nalan Ruyan and others appear one after another, and through repeated contests of wit and strength he gradually uncovers the secrets of the ancient civilization and the mortal crisis facing his people. Built on the rise of a nobody, the book moves briskly along a single plotline and is laced with banter and sharp turns of wit, making it one of the more distinctive works in the "Confucian-path" genre.