Three Poems on "Exiled Immortal," Written Upon Completion and Presented to Heavenly Dao Xiao Hua

I

How could the affairs of the world be controlled and kneaded at will? True Person Guo Zhuang was moved by lingering joy.①

Mount Yao bore the proof of divine shaping,② while Creation's name spread, chilling the Four Continents.③

Do not say the Heavenly Prison could conjure worlds; the Star Moon divine spark itself opened heaven and earth.④⑤

Tribulation Thirteen ascended to immortality, and a wondrous book of a hundred volumes never grew tiresome to revisit.

II

A wondrous book of a hundred volumes never grew tiresome to revisit; hidden threads stretched for a thousand miles, linking one another.

At times, its arrangements left one startled into sudden realization; whenever suspense arose, one longed for more chapters.

The one from beyond the heavens had already returned,⑦ while Xiao Hua's name had only begun to rise in the Immortal Realm.

Once one entered Exiled Immortal, it was as deep as the sea; from then on, no other immortal-heroic tale was worth reading.

III,

From then on, no other immortal-heroic tale was worth reading; thirty million words shook the vault of heaven.⑧

Through layered trials and repeated barriers, human feelings became familiar; pursuing dreams, True Person returned to the Heavenly Dao.

If the original heart was never pawned away, how could one's waist bend? Only through cultivation did one learn how difficult every inch of the path was.

Closing the book and raising one's head, one could only let out a long sigh: how could the affairs of the world be controlled and kneaded at will!

Note:

"Exiled Immortal" comprised four parts, with an estimated total of thirty million words upon completion, making it the longest xianxia novel on Qidian. Its author, Little Duan Tan Hua, excelled at dialogue-driven writing; with only a few lines woven into the background, he could construct a heaven-spanning grand design. Thus, Exiled Immortal became famous for its many pits, vast pits, deep pits, and pits deep enough to bury people alive. As Exiled Immortal fans put it: "Once one enters Exiled Immortal, it is as deep as the sea."

1. "True Person Guo Zhuang was moved by lingering joy." True Person refers to True Person Xiao. Guo Zhuang was Zhang Xiao Hua's hometown. After Xiao Hua's grandmother died, he began cultivating so that his family could live well.

2. "Mount Yao bore the proof of divine shaping." Mount Yao referred to Mount Yao Immortal Mansion, which was the Lingxiao Treasure Hall. Xiao Hua and Mount Yao Immortal Mansion obtained Primordial Violet Qi, and the Demon Phoenix of the Divine Realm reshaped his body, making him a Demigod Body. His fleshly body became formidable, and his lifespan limitless.

3. "Creation's name spread, chilling its foes." Creation referred to the Gate of Creation. Xiao Hua's Gate of Creation battled the Demon Realm at the Moon God Ruins, swept across the Thousand Demon Sacred Realm and the Hidden Immortal Continent in the Four Great Continents, and became the foremost iron army of the Four Great Continents.

4. "Do not say the Heavenly Prison could conjure worlds." The Heavenly Prison was a spatial fragment of the Primordial Divine Realm that had fallen into the Three Great Continents; even immortals had no way to escape it. The Heavenly Prison was Little Duan Tan Hua's setup for the Primordial Divine Realm. The fluctuations of its various profound principles were the essence of cultivation in the Primordial Divine Realm. The Heavenly Prison was filled with countless fragments of time, and Xiao Hua thus returned to billions of years ago, gaining a great opportunity. Addendum: Xiao Hua's several escapes from death were all due to the Primordial Violet Qi of Mount Yao Immortal Mansion and the Demon Phoenix's flesh-and-blood body shaping.

5. "The Star Moon divine spark itself opened heaven and earth." Star Moon referred to the Star Moon Palace, where mighty experts of the Divine Realm debated the Dao aboard the Xuanhong Treasure Ship, condensing divine sparks to obtain divine positions and thereby become gods. The divine spark was the golden crystal behind Xiao Hua's head. "Opening heaven and earth" referred to the merit of opening heaven and earth. In the upper realm's Primordial Continent, Xiao Hua saved Happy Heaven Demon from the world-destroying tribulation, earning both the merit of opening heaven and earth and the merit of enlightenment.

6. "Tribulation Thirteen ascended to immortality." Tribulation Thirteen referred to Chapter Thirteen of Tribulation, Xiao Hua's tribulation-crossing depiction, which could be called the finest in xianxia fiction. Little Duan Tan Hua used thirteen chapters to write of Xiao Hua and several of his avatars crossing tribulation; it was the climax among climaxes of True Person Xiao's Cultivation World story.

7. "The one from beyond the heavens had already returned." This referred to the ending of the first volume, when Xiao Hua returned after becoming a god. This was a pit in Exiled Immortal that likely could not be filled until seven years later, since the Immortal Realm Arc of Exiled Immortal had only just begun, while the Primordial Divine Realm had not even been written yet.

8. Exiled Immortal, the Immortal Realm Arc, and the Divine Realm Arc were expected to total around fifteen million words; the four parts of Exiled Immortal were estimated to reach thirty million words.

Addendum:

Little Duan Tan Hua's novels could in fact be summed up in five words: new, upright, difficult, vast, and pits.

First, new: Little Duan Tan Hua's perspective, plot, writing, and imagination differed from other cultivation novels. Reading them gave one the feeling of having one's eyes and ears freshly opened.

Second, upright: Little Duan Tan Hua's novels possessed deep humanistic concern. All kinds of Little Duan Tan Hua-style chicken soup were plain to see between the lines.

Third, difficult: Cultivation was difficult, becoming a god was difficult, and maintaining an ordinary heart was difficult. In the novels, Xiao Hua—from an unnamed homeland continent, which was actually the Ruins of Shenzhou—cultivated to Qi Refining Level Eighteen; then, due to spatial fluctuations in a teleportation array, he arrived at Xiaoyu Continent. Because his Demigod Body was sealed by others, all his cultivation vanished. On Xiaoyu Continent, he was pursued by two Nascent Soul Cultivators, then drifted into other realms. Such things all spoke of the difficulty of cultivation. It was precisely this difficulty of cultivation, untouched upon by other cultivation novels, that made it so refreshing.

Fourth, vast: Among all the novels I had seen, Exiled Immortal's cultivation system was the most immense. Everyone who had read this book knew it clearly, so I would not mention it again.

Fifth, pits: Little Duan Tan Hua's novels were like a snake in the grass and an ash line, with hidden threads stretching a thousand miles. Thus, reading his novels demanded tremendous brainpower, yet also left one wanting more. Looking across other cultivation novels, these pits were also what made Little Duan Tan Hua's novels so refreshing.