NB

NB is a xianxia online-game novel set in the Mount Shu universe, written by an author whose pen name is "NB." It was first serialized on the 17K novel site and runs roughly 1.76 to 1.8 million Chinese characters. The title comes from the author's pen name. Built on the Mount Shu framework of Huanzhulouzhu, the book constructs an entry-level cultivation sect MMORPG world. Unlike the lone-hero style of Chased by a Toad's Mount Shu, in which one hero takes on the world, this book follows the "sect-master route, faction route": players are not merely solo cultivators grinding levels and killing monsters, but must run a sect, organize disciples, expand influence, and manage relations among sects, fighting their way upward through a tangled sect landscape by leveraging people's hearts and interests. The protagonist, Fang Geyin (whom readers call "Chief Fang"), is the core figure of the book: honey-tongued and black-hearted, skilled at using circumstances to crush others, he maneuvers among a cast of sharply differentiated supporting characters, driving the plot through wit and scheming and creating plenty of unconventional reading pleasure. The author's writing is seasoned and the language style utterly distinctive; amid jest and invective there is always a cool-eyed observation of the ways of the world. The sect system is conceived with more complexity than in comparable works, and many readers regard the book as one of the representative works of Mount Shu-style online games. It should be noted that the book's updates were interrupted and the story stopped before it was finished; the author has since been rarely heard from. What circulates today is a text left in a state of abandonment, a long novel "castrated" mid-run.