Tag: Xianxia
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Why Pursue the Way of the Fist?
Everybody knows why cultivators in fiction cultivate: to become more powerful, so they can defeat more powerful cultivators. That’s lame. There’s only so much of such cultivation you can read before you get sick of the repetition. You already know how every conflict will end. The only question is how the characters get there—and the…
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The Hard Limit of Cultivation Fiction
Cultivation fantasy, progression fantasy, and similar stories come with a built-in hard limit. The plot is predicated on the main character becoming increasingly stronger. Many stories explicitly call it out as a selling point. Once the MC hits the hard limit imposed by the setting the story must end, or become stagnant. And because the…
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The Difference Between Gongfu and Cultivation
Your average wuxia\xianxia\cultivation\progression fantasy author makes a simple distinction between gongfu and cultivation: gongfu is for fighting, cultivation is for gaining power. To become more powerful, characters meditate and consume exotic substances. To express that power, they employ fancy-sounding martial techniques. There is a disconnect between cultivation methods and fighting methods. How a character gains…
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The True Meaning of Cultivation
Cultivation is the heart of cultivation fantasy. But what does that word even mean? For most authors, cultivation is simply the means by which a character grows more powerful. This takes the form of meditation, consuming pills and potions, special breathing methods, striking bargains with powerful spiritual entities, and so on. This is the staple…
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SAGA OF THE SWORDBREAKER: INVINCIBLE UNDER HEAVEN is live!
天下无敌。 Invincible under heaven. The title every martial artist aspires to. To one who holds this title, the world is his oyster, with which sword he will open. In pursuit of this dream, every cultivator of the rivers and lakes tirelessly pursues power—no matter the cost. Li Ming used to follow that path. He obsessed…
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Stand by for SAGA OF THE SWORDBREAKER: INVINCIBLE UNDER HEAVEN!
Li Ming was once a small-town boy with big dreams. Propelled by dreams of immortality, he entered the jianghu as a biaohang, intent on delivering justice at the point of his swordbreaker. In the space of a year, he battled beasts and bandits, became embroiled in the schemes of the Five States and Ten Corporations,…