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Xianxia Encompassing the World! (Xianxia Rec Discussion and Idea thread)

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I'm going to derec Forge of Destiny. Didn't really work for me, and its constant fellation by its fans gets really irritating sometimes.

Honestly, I enjoyed ISSTH more. The couple of points where ISSTH ascends into being high art make it totally worth most of it being just okay. And Ze Tian Ji/Way of Choices is just better in general. And while I haven't gotten very far in Tales of Herding Gods yet, the fact that it has actual themes it engages with blows FoD out of the water.

Like, if you enjoy it, fine, but it's still a rewritten quest, with all the problems that that entails, and in exchange you only get above-average xianxia, instead of the really good shit.

In any case, as far as starter stuff, I started with ISSTH (I Shall Seal The Heavens) which, in my opinion, does a fairly good job of exploring the basics of the genre, and is generally okay (up to a certain point at least) with a couple of moments where it gets absolutely fantastic (see: Pill Demon, Ke Yunhai).
 
I'm still very fond of Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, particularly for the times Long Chen is creative in dealing with opponents outside his league.

Granted, there are times when he's simply OP and beating the hell out of people, but it's much more exciting when he's up against it and resorts to dirty tricks to counter his enemies.

Also there's his lieutenant Guo Ran, who is pretty much always doing this since he's a colossal poser who depends on crafting items in order to keep up with the others (and his shameless boasting). Certainly one of the most memorable supporting characters I've come across in the genre.

I will admit that most of the female characters aren't that well developed. Tang-er was more interesting when she was semi-antagonistic towards Long Chen, for example. As opposed to just occasionally telling him off and otherwise swooning over him. Leng Yueyan's interest in killing him, while at the same time being far more civil to him than she is to her own sect-mates, is rather more entertaining. Hopefully that continues.
 
Anyone know decent Xianxia where the MC's primary path to power is developing something, as opposed to the standard meditate-fight-loot approach you see most of the time?

I just tried reading Building The Ultimate Fantasy, which is about a guy who gets a system based around "uplifting" his world by adding Spirit Qi and turning it into a high-powered cultivation setting. I really liked the premise, though unfortunately I found the story itself pretty bad. Similarly, I felt like Arrogant Young Master Template A Variation 4 - where the MC was supposed to progress by raising powerful disciples - also had a really fun idea. A third example of the same sort of thing is Cultivating Earth, a story that starts with a cultivator locking away Earth's sparse Qi to help with his breakthrough, waiting 3000 years, and then (after his breakthrough is complete) seeing that the resulting cultivation-free culture of modern Earth has delved deeply into the mysteries of the world and deciding to set up a sect there.

Basically I'm curious if anyone knows more stories like those - ones where the focus is building a sect or raising disciples. I'd also be very interested in something with a focus on crafting of some sort (e.g. alchemy, formations, etc.) as a primary route to power, though I don't really have any good examples of Xianxia stories that try this.
 
PrimalShadow said:
Anyone know decent Xianxia where the MC's primary path to power is developing something, as opposed to the standard meditate-fight-loot approach you see most of the time?

I just tried reading Building The Ultimate Fantasy, which is about a guy who gets a system based around "uplifting" his world by adding Spirit Qi and turning it into a high-powered cultivation setting. I really liked the premise, though unfortunately I found the story itself pretty bad. Similarly, I felt like Arrogant Young Master Template A Variation 4 - where the MC was supposed to progress by raising powerful disciples - also had a really fun idea. A third example of the same sort of thing is Cultivating Earth, a story that starts with a cultivator locking away Earth's sparse Qi to help with his breakthrough, waiting 3000 years, and then (after his breakthrough is complete) seeing that the resulting cultivation-free culture of modern Earth has delved deeply into the mysteries of the world and deciding to set up a sect there.

Basically I'm curious if anyone knows more stories like those - ones where the focus is building a sect or raising disciples. I'd also be very interested in something with a focus on crafting of some sort (e.g. alchemy, formations, etc.) as a primary route to power, though I don't really have any good examples of Xianxia stories that try this.
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Well, there's "History's Number One Founder", where the protagonist is building a sect (with a "cheat system" that pushes doing so). There's the one where the Earth (and several other worlds) are introduced to the wider galaxy by being combined - the protagonist is somewhat encouraged to develop his own faction. There's "Library of Heaven's Path", which is (supposedly) about a teacher - although I couldn't get that far into it without a lot of grimaces.

There's quite a few with at least a major secondary focus on alchemy, formations or crafting of some sort; it's fairly popular to have the protagonist's setting-breaking talent in some auxiliary field give them major advantages in "mainline" cultivation.

I'd say that "Warlock Apprentice" is probably going down this path - the protagonist is developing into quite the artificer. "Sovereign of the Three Realms" has the protagonist (being a reincarnation of a million-year-old library shut-in) being expert in all kinds of auxiliary fields. Look for any xianxia with things like "poison", "medicine", "alchemy" or the like in the title and chances are it's an 'alchemist'-type protagonist. "Talisman Emperor" is big on the whole "path of talismans" thing for the protagonist and his sect.
 
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CircleTheSkies said:
Well, there's "History's Number One Founder", where the protagonist is building a sect (with a "cheat system" that pushes doing so).
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Interesting. And it looks like the story is complete, too! I'll take a look and see how I like the story.

There's the one where the Earth (and several other worlds) are introduced to the wider galaxy by being combined - the protagonist is somewhat encouraged to develop his own faction.
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I don't know what story you are referring to. The only thing that comes to mind is Defiance of the Fall, but I'm pretty sure that is not what you mean.

There's "Library of Heaven's Path", which is (supposedly) about a teacher - although I couldn't get that far into it without a lot of grimaces.
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I actually followed LoHP for a long time; it is a pretty entertaining story, as long as you can live with it's many, many foibles. I honestly didn't think of it as an example what I was looking for here, but now that you mention it I think it qualifies.

There's quite a few with at least a major secondary focus on alchemy, formations or crafting of some sort; it's fairly popular to have the protagonist's setting-breaking talent in some auxiliary field give them major advantages in "mainline" cultivation.
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Yeah, but it is rare for the crafting to actually be a primary concern as opposed to a being, well, auxiliary.

I think Shedding the Mortal Coil is maybe an example that puts a meaningful fraction of the focus on crafting, though arguably it shifts away from that some over time. Don't know any others that would fit.
 
PrimalShadow said:
Interesting. And it looks like the story is complete, too! I'll take a look and see how I like the story.
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The conceit is you have an Earth-traveler given a system that forces him to look for (sufficiently talented) students. Or die, of course. He picks up four expies of protagonists from other novels while more or less running a bluff on them (and everyone else he meets) that he's a mighty expert - when he's only slightly more powerful than his students.

Eventually his cultivation puts him firmly a level or more above his students, and the 'system' guides him to start a sect. At a certain point, there's a significant amount of viewpoint-shifting, as the original protagonist takes more of a backseat role; he's still a mover and shaker, but he's almost more acting as a guarantor for his students and sect (and finding opportunities for his destiny-heavy students to take advantage of) than a traditional xianxia protagonist.

PrimalShadow said:
I don't know what story you are referring to. The only thing that comes to mind is Defiance of the Fall, but I'm pretty sure that is not what you mean.
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Ah, that was the name. Nope, that was the one I was thinking of.

PrimalShadow said:
I actually followed LoHP for a long time; it is a pretty entertaining story, as long as you can live with it's many, many foibles. I honestly didn't think of it as an example what I was looking for here, but now that you mention it I think it qualifies.
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If you're looking for a teacher-story, Founder is probably more enjoyable than Heaven's Path.
 
PrimalShadow said:
Anyone know decent Xianxia where the MC's primary path to power is developing something, as opposed to the standard meditate-fight-loot approach you see most of the time?

I just tried reading Building The Ultimate Fantasy, which is about a guy who gets a system based around "uplifting" his world by adding Spirit Qi and turning it into a high-powered cultivation setting. I really liked the premise, though unfortunately I found the story itself pretty bad. Similarly, I felt like Arrogant Young Master Template A Variation 4 - where the MC was supposed to progress by raising powerful disciples - also had a really fun idea. A third example of the same sort of thing is Cultivating Earth, a story that starts with a cultivator locking away Earth's sparse Qi to help with his breakthrough, waiting 3000 years, and then (after his breakthrough is complete) seeing that the resulting cultivation-free culture of modern Earth has delved deeply into the mysteries of the world and deciding to set up a sect there.

Basically I'm curious if anyone knows more stories like those - ones where the focus is building a sect or raising disciples. I'd also be very interested in something with a focus on crafting of some sort (e.g. alchemy, formations, etc.) as a primary route to power, though I don't really have any good examples of Xianxia stories that try this.
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Heart of Cultivation qualifies, but it's not moving all that fast, and it hasn't gotten all that far. The protag's cultivation was effectively blocked at an early stage prior to story start, and he's trying to artifice his way out of it. We're currently on chapter 40, and I have some hope that he'll manage to get to the point where he can cultivate by Chapter 50. He has managed to develop (and market) a few new formations recipes, however. Again, it's somewhat slow going. It's more from the "web fiction in English" school, though, so at least you don't have to deal with the drek that so often accompanies the "translated from Chinese" school, and if you can get past the slow pace, it is well-written.
 
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Sirrocco said:
Heart of Cultivation qualifies, but it's not moving all that fast, and it hasn't gotten all that far. The protag's cultivation was effectively blocked at an early stage prior to story start, and he's trying to artifice his way out of it. We're currently on chapter 40, and I have some hope that he'll manage to get to the point where he can cultivate by Chapter 50. He has managed to develop (and market) a few new formations recipes, however. Again, it's somewhat slow going. It's more from the "web fiction in English" school, though, so at least you don't have to deal with the drek that so often accompanies the "translated from Chinese" school, and if you can get past the slow pace, it is well-written.
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Great call! Yeah, HoC holds promise as a crafting-heavy xianxia, depending on how the eventual mechanics bear out.

Though as you say it is somewhat slow going; I read most of it already and have set it aside for a while to accumulate a nice backlog.
 
The previously mentioned 'World of Cultivation' hits most of the concepts that you're looking for.

The main character is predominately a crafter, and has a literal army of followers that develops into a significant faction, though he also spends reasonable amounts of time away from the army, they remain relevant throughout the entire story.
 
Thinking about it... Forty Millenniums of Cultivation is another addition to the "Crafter xianxia" set. It's translated Chinese, with the kind of chapter count that you'd expect from that, but really surprisingly non-toxic for all that. Like... I can't currently think of any of the traditional toxicities that it falls prey to. It's also in a kind of interestign sci-fi xianxia universe that takes some of the backstory (but none of the grimdark) from WH40K.

Main character is a bit of a guile hero, and something reasonably close to 50/50 crafter/warrior. He's not focused on crafting to the exclusion of building up his warrior arts, but developing his craftng ability is definitely a focus that he keeps coming back to, and there are absolutely crafting-focused arcs... and it clearly gets tied into the idea that he's helping his society and making things better overall through his crafting arts.

In general, I consider it one of the better-written translated xianxia out there. If you're looking for crafter stuff, ti's absolutely worth a look.
 
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A heads up on Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, the beginning few hundreds chapters (which is like a tenth of the entire story, yea, it's looong) is completely different in tone and genre than the rest of the story. The author said that in the beginning he was just trying to write a generic power-fantasy face-slapping xianxia in a sci-fi setting (though without hitting the other common problems other web novels has) since that's what sells, but then he couldn't control himself and shift focus from normal xianxia to more sci-fi and the impact of the transhumans and related technologies on society. The xianxia elements can basically be replaced with pysker powers or other sci-fi super technologies, and the core of the story can still be unchanged.

Oh and also prepare for lots of philosophical and political discussions if you are going into this story.
 
So... I have a thing. It's not exactly a recommendation, but it is a "Some of you might be interested in this."


it's webfiction-xianxia rather than translated-xianxia, but the author seems to be pumping the chapters out pretty regularly, they're of a healthy size, and it's already up to 50 of them. It's standard power fantasy for the most part - in this case as a young master with all of the advantages who is also a cultivation fiend with enormous ambition who is also an isekai-reincarnator. The kid's mom is pretty cool. Is generally nontoxic, and they've got some interesting stuff going on with the cultivation architectures. I was reading it for a while, but I eventually lost interest... in much the same way that most translated stuff makes me lose interest relatively quickly these days. Given that some of you read and enjoy the translated stuff, I thought you might find it worth checking out.
 
The Grey Mage said:
It's good, the only problems with it are that it assumes you know a lot about Chinese Mythology (if you've read enough Xianxia you might know enough to get by), and that the translation can get a bit choppy at points.
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Yeah, it doesn't do as good of a job of explaining how it's using the Three Pures and such as other stories (Seeking the Flying Sword Path comes to mind, as does History's Strongest Senior Brother).

And it's hard to judge if it's doing the "multiple potential love interests" seriously (but with the typical "will they or won't they, who will he choose?" harem shenanigans), or if it's yet another obstacle for the protagonist to 'dodge' in their efforts to escape all karma and danger.

And some of his decisions seem a little poorly-motivated - with the justifications being a little thin - but it's hard to tell if that's a story problem, or a sign of his growing hypocrisy towards his own self-proclaimed goals. Which I do like seeing signs of - he's not some kind of perfect plan-making machine with a goal of achieving a long and peaceful life; he's "entangled" himself with others without really meaning to. He says to himself that his goal is to use his master to get an 'in' into heaven for himself (and his junior sister, entanglement #2), but it seems pretty clear he also wants to keep the old man safe as well.

Overall, it's quite enjoyable... feels a better read than other stories that try a similar "genre-savvy protagonist tries to evade the tropes" thing; it takes it more centrally than, say, History's Strongest Senior Brother (where it's kind of there for the first part... and then turns into a more generic xianxia post-ascension).
 
CircleTheSkies said:
Which I do like seeing signs of - he's not some kind of perfect plan-making machine with a goal of achieving a long and peaceful life; he's "entangled" himself with others without really meaning to.
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Yup, him actually developing as a person and not an invincible plan machine is great, and his relationship with others gets you some pretty great lines. :V
Steady Senior Brother said:
Am I someone who wavers because of material objects?
Yes.
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Sarah Lin of Street Cultivation (which is still ongoing and good btw) has started a new cultivation story, The Weirkey Chronicles.

Literally the first chapter so far, it's supposed to be a fairly fast-paced one with some focus on cultivation tiers and a fantasy world (as opposed to SC's 'real world with cultivation').
 
joj said:
Any novels like The Lord Of Mysteries? I like weird powers the most
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You meant xianxia like that? Just wait a few years for the sequel set in the "Western Continent" which supposedly would be eastern aesthetic (compared to the western steampunk/lovecraftian aesthetic in the Lord of Mysteries) :V

More seriously, if you are looking for xianxia without definitive levels of power and everyone not having the same set of powers, there are a few stories like:
烂柯棋缘
地煞七十二变
人发杀机天地反覆

They have settings closer to Chinese folklore where there are no definitive power levels and most beings with supernatural powers are mortals with one or more unique tricks but otherwise normal flesh and blood. A cultivator might have steel-skin and thus impervious to swords and arrows, but easily cursed to death by an evil cultivator as he has no spiritual defense. On the other hand, the aforementioned evil cultivator might be able to terrorize a region, controlling spirits and cursing the lands to cause famine, but can be killed by a single man armed with a sword if the circumstance is right, just like in folklores.

I am not sure these ones have an english translation though. A quick google search doesn't turn up any.
 
joj said:
Any novels like The Lord Of Mysteries? I like weird powers the most
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Well, it does get recommended a lot already, but Forge of Destiny (by our very own yrsillar, started out as a quest on this site, has a follow-on quest currently going on this site) has its cultivators going in very different directions from one another, pretty much from the beginning, shaped by their own paths and the arts they internalize.

This is actually pretty common in xianxia quests, but Forge is notable for having been converted into a story, for the quality of the writing, and for the sheer length it attained. Most xianxia quests, like most quests overall, have a habit of dying off unexpectedly.

I think that Douluo Dalu also had some stuff about everyone's powers being at least somewhat personalized, but I don't think it leaned into it nearly as much. You'd probably get better info on that from someone else who went deeper into the story than I did.
 
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Sirrocco said:
I think that Douluo Dalu also had some stuff about everyone's powers being at least somewhat personalized, but I don't think it leaned into it nearly as much. You'd probably get better info on that from someone else who went deeper into the story than I did.
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Been a while since I read that, but indeed.

Everybody has some spirit thing inherent to them from birth, can be anything, an animal, a tool, a plant, etc. Some are naturally better than others, and each will lean in different directions. e.g. a knife would be more offensive, a bird might be better for mobility or flight, food spirits actually spawn food items that give buffs. These have a tendency to run in family lines.

There are ten major ranks, each with an individual ten sub-levels, so you go from like level 1 to level 100 (or 99 for most people anyways I think). When you move to the next set of ten levels you have to get a spirit ring by killing a spirit beast and absorbing it. Older/stronger beasts obviously also giving stronger rings denoted by colour. Each time you get a new ring you gain a different ability that is a combination of your inherent spirit and the creature you got the ring from.

This system naturally limits how many abilities each person can have, you don't just make up or learn new magical abilities, only physical ones or finding fancier ways to use what you have. Rings are permanent (outside of very special circumstances, i.e. unless you are or are associated with the main character). This makes most people specialize into very specific styles/builds, e.g. tank, melee offense, ranged offense, support, etc. And forming complimentary teams is common as well.

Beating people up several sub-ranks ahead of you isn't uncommon, and beating somebody a major rank ahead of you is also conceivable with a good matchup or if they just aren't good at fighting. Teamups of multiple people of a lower rank challenging a higher rank also have very believable chances of winning, so the power scaling isn't too exponentially ridiculous between each stage until you get very close to 100.

Between specialized roles and powers, roughly 9 or 10 major ranks that grant new skills, and the ability to kill upwards without being a super genius, the power system I suppose is actually somewhat comparable to Lord of the Mysteries. The setting however is very definitely much closer to traditional xianxia and is in a Chinese feeling world with schools, sects, clans, etc. Everybody knows how the power system works, there is no mystery here (aside from some certain shenanigans at the top of course).
 
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