Sword Xia of the Shu Mountains《蜀山劍俠傳》by Huanzhu Louzhu 還珠樓主 (lit. Master of Returning Pearl Loft) was published between 1932 and 1948 and is one of the most influential wuxia novels of all time. Many of the elements in this novel became standard tropes of the wuxia genre. It is also the forefather of the modern xianxia cultivation novel. Huanzhu’s cultivation system became the standard, fusing the Daoist quest for transcendence with the Buddhist reincarnation cycle and tribulation system, as well as the Confucian virtue of humaneness 仁 and the chivalrous xia 俠 archetype. At over 4.1 million Chinese characters, it is also one of the longest wuxia novels, though it remains unfinished due to the civil war in China. So the first cultivation novel was also eunuched—rather fitting.
The story follows multiple protagonists as they gradually gather together, fighting heretical sects and spirit elementals on their way to founding the Mount Emei Sect. Most outstanding among these protagonists is Li Yingqiong, who begins the novel as a girl with no martial arts abilities, and through the course of the novel cultivates to become a transcendent (aka immortal).
In this novel, plants, animals, and monsters can all become human and cultivate to transcendence, or lose their primordial spirit (aka nascent soul) and have to start all over, or be obliterated completely after failing their tribulation. Grotto-heavens and magic treasures abound, and we see the beginning of sects as major organizations in wuxia novels with important roles in the plot, such as Emei, Qingcheng, Mount Hua, Wudang, Mount Huang, Snowy Mountain, Kongtong, Kunlun, and Wutai, as well as the emergence of what would later become the archetypal eccentric beggar character. There are miraculous drugs, sword kinesis, and battles between mythical beasts, and heretic cultivators trying to cheat their way to a faster transcendence. In short, pretty much all of the elements one normally sees in the typical xianxia cultivation webnovel.
They say this circle is very complicated, and Chu Hui wanted to challenge his own weaknesses. As a result, he accidentally fell into it...
Jiang Ci and Li Chenglin had only met a few times, yet on the day Jiang Ci was sentenced to death, the always composed and dignified Princess Royal lost her cool for the first time. She risked the crime of treason by leading troops to storm the imperial prison, and in front of countless witnesses, she called Jiang Ci by her childhood name and pulled her into her embrace.
Only then did Jiang Ci realize: she had a face that Li Chenglin could never forget.
After being reborn, Jiang Ci proceeded with caution, deliberately drawing close to Li Chenglin.
She intended to use this face to confuse her, deceive her, seduce her. As long as she could achieve her goal, she didn’t care about being just a substitute.
She incited her to rebel and seize the throne—but when Li Chenglin insisted on making her Empress, Jiang Ci faked her death in an attempt to escape.
What she didn’t expect was that Li Chenglin would descend into madness, refusing to bury her, hugging her “corpse” to sleep every night, and whispering in her ear with near insanity:
> “A’Ci, since you’ve provoked me, don’t even think of escaping. Even in death, you will forever belong to me.”
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Reader Notes:
★ Alternate universe with mixed genres and personal worldbuilding. Please don’t take it as historically accurate.
★ The female lead is not actually a substitute—the misunderstanding is hers at the beginning.
★ The cover is a purchased design template, not exclusive artwork.
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Tags:
Power vs. power
Court and nobility
Chosen one
Woman disguised as a man
Serious drama
Main Character POV: Jiang Ci
Main Interaction: Li Chenglin
One-line Summary: This subject welcomes Her Royal Highness to ascend the throne.
Theme: Be a self that cannot be defined by others.
The art of winning, feng shui, witchcraft... are not groundless!
Hundreds of strange techniques and folk taboos become reality in one day!
All things in the world are based on the Daozang!
Monsters and ghosts, use Nuo masks to invite gods!
The moment I put on the Nuo mask, I will no longer be a human being!
But God!
One after another, horrific and strange cases.
One after another, tortuous and bizarre tales.
Is it witchcraft, the supernatural, or pseudoscience?
Life and death, good or evil, they sometimes hinge on a single thought.
While the case may eventually be cracked,
how thoroughly can we understand the human heart?
The original novel from the hit TV series "Yu Zui"! A secret rule from the Police Academy: Kindness doesn't make the military, and kindness doesn't make the police. Good people can't be police officers because, in the eyes of criminals, kindness is laughable cowardice!
Unfortunately, I am neither a kind nor a coward. All sorts of bizarre crimes and criminals have become a part of my life. I have to...
When elves appear in the real world, everyone should be happy. But with them comes "weirdness." When the elves in this world fail to evolve, they become "weirdness." A peaceful world can easily become a hellish place. Fresh off the college entrance exam, Liu Ye and his friends encounter this "weirdness." Starting with Hell difficulty, see how the group navigates this "weirdness"!
Multiple heroines. Changeable. Transgender. Yandere. Beloved
Bai Muyu was originally a modern college student, but due to some accident.
In the time-travel novel "Reverse Punishment", he becomes the young villain Bai Muyu, who has the same name and surname as himself.
In the original novel, Bai Muyu was defeated by the heroine Shen Yue and the hero Chen Ye in the final battle.
Bai Muyu planned to take the heroine down when she was young.
But he fell in love with the heroine Shen Yue'er after meeting her again and again.
…………Is this a dream?
[Fantasy] [Infinite Stream] [Evil Forces] [Suspense]
(No Romance | Pure Heart and Soul | Grim and Surreal)
I knelt at the peak of a mountain of corpses,
a blood-red thread burrowing into my finger bones like a parasite.
The monks—those cursed souls they called “disaster stars”—
met death with open, festering eyes, reflecting the droplets in my palm.
Even in ruin, they watched.
This is an era sustained by soul power,
where both “righteous” and “disaster stars” are born marked by fate.
But fate is a crooked thing.
My master and I hunted the Lifeng Sect,
a cult of madness and slaughter,
whose disciples would butcher their own families under twisted convictions.
Are they insane? No—
They have shattered their minds to touch something beyond sanity.
In my hand, I carry the healing drops—a pure counter to their venomous gu.
Even the corrupted skies seem to bend in my favor now.
“If the gods allow evil to flourish,
then let me become the one who poisons evil itself.”
Let the monks rot.
Let the threads tighten.
Let the drops fall.
I walk not the righteous path,
but the necessary one.
Song Chen is reborn into a perilous and eerie fantasy world. Drafted by force into the army as cannon fodder, his only hope lies in a mysterious and equally sinister artifact—the Book of “Three Lives.”
This ancient tome, obtained on a stormy night, once spanned ten thousand pages. Yet now, only three remain; the other 9,997 have inexplicably decayed into dust.
There’s no doubt—the book is suspicious, and the world even more so. But trapped at the very bottom of this society, Song Chen has no choice but to claw his way forward—step by agonizing step—until he pierces the shroud of this world’s secrets and ascends to the very peak of heaven and earth.