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A Will Eternal (Chinese: 一念永恒; pinyin: Yī Niàn Yǒnghéng) is a Chinese xianxia web novel written by Er Gen. It began serialization on Qidian in April 2016 and is the author's fourth major long-form xianxia novel, following Renegade Immortal, Pursuit of the Truth, and I Shall Seal the Heavens.

The novel follows Bai Xiaochun, a young man whose fear of death motivates his pursuit of longevity and immortality. It combines cultivation fantasy, adventure and comedy.

The novel received commercial and institutional recognition during its serialization. It ranked third in the 2016 Forbes China Original Literature Fengyun List, was selected for the Peking University Web Literature Research Forum's 2017 annual works list, and was included in a national online-literature key-works support program in 2017.

The novel was later adapted into a donghua series produced by B.CMAY Pictures and distributed through Tencent Video.

An animated television adaptation of A Will Eternal premiered on Tencent Video in August 2020. The series is produced by Tencent Penguin Pictures and animated by Motion Magic. The fourth season premiered in July 2026, serving as the final season of the series.

Publication history

Er Gen

Er Gen is the pen name of Liu Yong (刘勇), a Chinese web novelist associated particularly with xianxia fiction. His career developed from teaching English to professional online writing, with his early work including xianxia fiction. Er Gen was described as a prominent writer of xianxia web fiction

A contemporary interview with Er Gen published by The Paper in April 2016 discussed his approach to his interconnected body of xianxia fiction. He explained that his earlier novels shared a related fictional universe and that A Will Eternal was being developed within the same broad creative project, while also emphasizing that he did not want the pursuit of adaptation rights to dictate his writing process.

Serialization

A Will Eternal began serialization on Qidian in April 2016.

The novel was completed in 2018, with Chapter 1314, titled "Your Choice", as the final chapter.

Commercialization and intellectual property

In 2017, A Will Eternal ranked third on the 2016 Forbes China Original Literature Fengyun List, and its audiovisual adaptation rights were sold for 10 million yuan. The deal was described as a record transaction in Wuhan's online-literature IP market.

The deal reflected the growing expansion of Chinese web-fiction intellectual property into other forms of media, including television, film, games, and animation.

Plot

The novel follows Bai Xiaochun, a young man whose fear of death leads him to seek immortality. After entering the cultivation world, he is brought into the Spirit Stream Sect, where he begins his cultivation while interacting with disciples, elders and rival factions.

Bai Xiaochun's progress combines cultivation advancement with alchemy, sect life and increasingly large conflicts. His cautious and often self-preserving behavior repeatedly generates comic situations, but his relationships with other characters gradually expose him to obligations that extend beyond his original concern with survival.

As the narrative expands, disputes among cultivation organizations grow into larger conflicts. Bai Xiaochun's individual pursuit of longevity consequently becomes intertwined with questions of loyalty, responsibility and the fate of the communities around him.

Characters

Bai Xiaochun

Bai Xiaochun is the protagonist of A Will Eternal. He is initially characterized by a strong fear of death and a desire to preserve his life, making him markedly different from the colder and more severe protagonists associated with earlier xianxia fiction. His humor and childlike behavior are central to the novel's characterization.

His development is based on the tension between fear and courage. A 2022 literary analysis by Chen Dingjia notes that Er Gen described the novel's central concern as the emergence of courage in a character initially characterized by fear of death.

Supporting characters

The novel has a large ensemble associated with different cultivation sects and factions. Recurring figures include Li Qinghou, Du Lingfei, Song Junwan and Gongsun Wan'er, whose relationships with Bai Xiaochun connect his personal development with the wider conflicts of the cultivation world.

Setting and cultivation

A Will Eternal is set in a fictional xianxia world in which practitioners pursue longevity and transcendence through spiritual cultivation. Sects function as training institutions, social communities and political organizations, while cultivators use techniques, alchemy and magical objects to increase their abilities.

The world expands in scale as Bai Xiaochun's cultivation advances. The novel begins with sect life and gradually moves toward conflicts involving larger territories, stronger cultivators and increasingly complex cultivation structures.

Chen Dingjia's study places this setting within Er Gen's larger xianxia system and interprets the novel through the concepts of intertextuality, "rewriting" and "new creation".

Themes

Immortality and courage

The pursuit of immortality is a central goal in A Will Eternal, while courage becomes an important part of Bai Xiaochun's character development. Courage is a central theme in his development throughout the novel.

Comedy and characterization

A Will Eternal presents a deliberate departure from the "Mortal-style" tradition of cultivation stories. The novel features a less cold and ruthless protagonist and a fictional world with more warmth, humor, and interpersonal sympathy than earlier cultivation fiction.

The use of humor had appeared in Er Gen's earlier works but became more prominent and closely integrated into A Will Eternal.

Xianxia and web-fiction transformation

The novel retains the core elements of xianxia, including cultivation, spiritual progression, immortality, and conflict between sects, while presenting them with a stronger emphasis on humor and character-driven storytelling. These elements are developed differently from Er Gen's earlier works as his approach to the genre evolved.

This tonal change reflects a broader shift from the older "Mortal-style" pattern toward "life-oriented" forms of web fiction, as younger readers became less tolerant of formulaic storytelling.

Critical analysis

A Will Eternal has been examined as an intertextual work, with particular attention to its connections to Er Gen's earlier novels. The novel reworks motifs, narrative structures, and cultivation conventions found in his previous works rather than simply repeating them.

The novel's departure from the established "Mortal-style" approach was noted positively, although some long-time readers of Er Gen's work preferred the seriousness, emotional depth, and themes of enlightenment found in Renegade Immortal and Pursuit of the Truth. The repeated use of comic elements was also criticized, with some jokes seen as less closely connected to the broader narrative.

The novel's experimental approach received both praise and criticism. Its departure from established genre conventions was seen as an important development, although it was not regarded as an unqualified classic.

Relationship to Er Gen's other works

A Will Eternal is connected to Er Gen's earlier xianxia novels. In 2016, he said that his first three major novels were set within the same broader world and that his newer works continued to develop within a related creative framework.

Rather than presenting the connections between A Will Eternal and Er Gen's earlier novels as simple continuity, the analysis views the later works as reworkings of ideas and narrative structures developed in his previous novels.

The main difference is one of tone: A Will Eternal retains the cultivation framework of Er Gen's earlier novels but places greater emphasis on comedy, social relationships, and emotional expression.

Reception

Literary and commercial recognition

The 2016 Forbes China Original Literature Fengyun List ranked A Will Eternal third among works by male authors. The ranking was based primarily on monthly-ticket support from paying readers, reflecting both the novel's readership and its commercial performance.

The novel was included in the Peking University Web Literature Research Forum's 2017 annual works list. The accompanying essay discussed its approach to the xianxia genre, the characterization of Bai Xiaochun, mixed reader reactions, and the use of humor throughout the novel.

The novel was also among 30 works selected in 2017 for a national program supporting key works of online literature.

A Will Eternal reached the top of Qidian's monthly-ticket rankings in August 2016 and entered the site's premium channel in July of the same year. It also received more than 10,000 paid recommendations and placed highly in subsequent monthly-ticket and reader-recommendation rankings. In 2023, A Will Eternal was selected as one of 100 online-literature works for the Shanghai Library's collection.

Translation and international circulation

An English translation of A Will Eternal was published by Wuxiaworld, with Deathblade credited as the translator.

Wuxiaworld launched its English translation of Er Gen's A Will Eternal with Deathblade as translator. Er Gen's earlier novels had also reached readers outside China through English-language web-fiction platforms.

Translation studies

The English translation of A Will Eternal has been examined in relation to the translation of Chinese idioms. The study focuses on the use of domestication and foreignization and the balance between readability and the preservation of Chinese cultural elements.

The study focuses specifically on the English translation of A Will Eternal, examining how its Chinese idioms and cultural elements are conveyed through different translation strategies.

Adaptations

Donghua

An animated adaptation of A Will Eternal premiered on Tencent Video on 12 August 2020. It was produced by B.CMAY Pictures, with Tencent Penguin Pictures and Wuhan Weidao among the companies involved in production.

The production team grew from a few dozen people to about one hundred during the project. Director Su Xiaoguang said the novel was well suited to animation because of its combination of comedy, emotion, broader themes, and large-scale storytelling.

The production of the donghua required a larger and more stable team, with the studio expanding its staff during the project. The annual-animation format also required longer production times and greater continuity in the production team.

Release history

The first season premiered on 12 August 2020, with 52 episodes released weekly on Tencent Video.

The second season premiered on 21 July 2022 as another 2D annual-animation series and was released on Tencent Video.

The third season premiered on 4 July 2024. It consisted of 29 episodes, compared with the 52 episodes planned for each of the first two seasons. The shorter format drew criticism from some viewers.

A commentary published around the third-season premiere also noted the reduction from 52 episodes to 29 and discussed criticism from some viewers regarding the shorter format.

The fourth season, promoted as the final season, premiered on Tencent Video on 22 July 2026. The official account reported 1.5 million reservations before its launch, with three episodes released on the first day followed by weekly episodes.

Relationship to the source material

The donghua retains Bai Xiaochun as its protagonist and adapts the novel's cultivation world and central conflicts. The source novel, which exceeds three million Chinese characters, presents a large cast, multiple settings, and a long-running cultivation narrative that the adaptation translates into an ongoing animated series.

The adaptation follows the novel's main storyline and centers on Bai Xiaochun and his cultivation journey. Bringing the story to animation required the production team to recreate its characters and fictional settings while enhancing its visual impact.

Reception and critical analysis of the donghua

The donghua received positive feedback from Er Gen and readers of the original novel after its debut. Its production was also discussed in terms of the demands of long-form 2D animation, including the need for a stable production team and the challenges of adapting a large-scale web novel.

The third season attracted more mixed reactions. At its launch in July 2024, the season was announced with 29 episodes rather than the 52-episode format of the first two seasons, prompting criticism from some viewers. Later releases ultimately expanded the season to 59 episodes.

The donghua received two Tencent Online Video Golden Goose Honors in 2021. A Will Eternal was named the "Most Favorite Animation", while director Su Xiaoguang received the "Newcomer Director of the Year" honor.

In 2022, Su Xiaoguang received Tencent Video's "Director of the Year" honor in the Golden Goose Honors.

In the 2024 Tencent Video Golden Goose Honors, Su Xiaoguang received the "Best Animation Director of the Year" honor for his work on the third season of A Will Eternal.

Other adaptations

A live-action television adaptation of A Will Eternal began production in Hengdian in July 2021, with Zheng Yecheng cast as Bai Xiaochun.

Legacy

A Will Eternal became one of Er Gen's representative works and received recognition through commercial rankings, Qidian honors, literary selections, and national online-literature programs.

The novel's audiovisual adaptation rights were sold during its serialization, and it was later adapted into a long-form 2D donghua. The adaptation helped extend the work beyond its original online publication.

See also

• Er Gen
• Xianxia
• Chinese animation
• Qidian
• Renegade Immortal

External links

• A Will Eternal at Wuxiaworld