Traces in Bone and Rhythm

I’m a reader who loves xianxia but is tired of power fantasies. I’m going to try writing the kind of novel I’d like to read. I won’t write about playing it safe for immortality or becoming a god with a System. I’ll write about “the Dao in everyday meals” and “living well.” I’ll write about an old servant who swept the steps for fifty years, a female cultivator who came out of seclusion and drew her sword against her husband, and the words hidden in a crystal of ice: “I regret that we never shared a bed and held each other close.” On Mount Xuancang, there are a hundred paths of love, each one a road and each one a trial. The Lingbi method is a system; the fake medicine case is corruption; the sect’s defense lasted twenty-seven months, and of eight thousand disciples, only two thousand remained. Those who survived cooked porridge, savored wine, planted flowers, gathered dew, wrote poems, and passed on the Dao. They steamed their tears into laughter and wrote their farewells into reunions. This isn’t a power fantasy. It’s a pot of porridge simmered slowly, a crock of aged wine, a bamboo broom sweeping fallen leaves. What it holds isn’t “dopamine,” but “endorphins”: the feeling that slowly wells up from the heart after hardship, endurance, and understanding, making you think, “It’s good to be alive.” I’m the first reader to have “seen” this book in my mind, and I’m trying to “translate” it into words and share it. Dear reader, if you’re tired of xianxia where the hero gets revenge in three chapters and dominates the world in ten, I hope this book will make you want to stay awhile. I dedicate this book to Li Shangyin, a poet of the late Tang dynasty. (The author pays tribute to Yishan in the Cold Night Hall on Mount Xuancang!) Classical xianxia + slow burn + ensemble cast + everyday life + healing Laughter and heartbreak, sweetness and anguish, love going both ways, an adult fairy tale… Theme: The end of cultivation is returning to the ordinary; the Dao lives in the everyday bustle of the human world.