A Will Eternal
 Cover of the Chinese web novel A Will Eternal | |
| Author | Er Gen |
|---|---|
| Language | Chinese |
| Genre | Xianxia[1] |
| Publisher | Qidian |
| Publication date | 2016 |
| Publication place | China |
| Media type | Web novel |
| A Will Eternal | |
|---|---|
| 一念永恒 | |
| Based on | A Will Eternal by Er Gen[2] |
| Country of origin | China |
| Original language | Mandarin Chinese |
| Production | |
| Animator | B.CMAY Pictures (视美影业)[2] |
| Production company | B.CMAY Pictures (视美影业)[2] |
| Original release | |
| Network | Tencent Video[2] |
| Release | 2020 – present |
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.[1]
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. A 2017 literary review published by the Peking University Web Literature Research Forum's annual-works feature described the novel as a "breakthrough" from the colder and more severe conventions of earlier cultivation fiction, particularly through its lighter tone and its protagonist's unusually childlike characterization.[1]
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 2017 Peking University Web Literature Research Forum annual works list, and was included in the national online-literature key-works support program in 2017.[3][4]
The novel was later adapted into a donghua series produced by B.CMAY Pictures (视美影业) and distributed through Tencent Video.[5]
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
[edit]Er Gen
[edit]Er Gen is the pen name of Liu Yong (刘勇), a Chinese web novelist associated particularly with xianxia fiction. A 2015 profile published through China Writers Network described his move from teaching English to professional online writing and discussed his early development through xianxia fiction.[6]
A 2016 profile by China Writers Network described Er Gen as a prominent writer of xianxia web fiction and reported that, before or around the beginning of its online publication, the audiovisual rights to A Will Eternal had been sold for 10 million yuan.[7]
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.[8]
Serialization
[edit]A Will Eternal began serialization on Qidian in April 2016. The Peking University Web Literature Research Forum's 2017 annual-list essay dates its serialization from April 2016 and classifies the novel as both xianxia and "life-flow" (生活流) fiction.[1]
Qidian's official honor record documents the novel's performance during serialization. It received a first-place monthly-ticket ranking in August 2016, entered the site's premium channel in July 2016, accumulated more than 10,000 paid recommendations, and repeatedly appeared near the top of subsequent monthly-ticket and reader-recommendation rankings.[9]
Qidian's current honor record also lists the novel among 100 online-literature works selected for the Shanghai Library in 2023, preserving a post-serialization institutional recognition of the work.[9]
The novel was completed in 2018. Archived chapter listings identify chapter 1314, "Your Choice" (你的选择（终）), as the final chapter.[10]
Commercialization and intellectual property
[edit]The audiovisual value of A Will Eternal became apparent during the early stage of its publication. China Writers Network reported in January 2017 that the work ranked third in the 2016 Forbes China Original Literature Fengyun List and that its audiovisual adaptation rights had been sold for 10 million yuan, a transaction described in the report as a new industry record in Wuhan's online-literature IP market.[3]
The same report placed the transaction within the broader expansion of Chinese web-fiction intellectual property, in which the rights to novels were increasingly extended into television, film, games and animation.[3]
Plot
[edit]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
[edit]Bai Xiaochun
[edit]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.[1]
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.[11]
Supporting characters
[edit]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
[edit]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" (重写与新编).[12]
Themes
[edit]Immortality and courage
[edit]Immortality is the novel's immediate narrative objective, but the literary discussion around the work places greater emphasis on what happens when a character defined by fear learns to act despite it. Chen Dingjia identifies "courage" as a central concept through which Bai Xiaochun's development can be understood.[11]
Comedy and characterization
[edit]The 2017 Peking University Web Literature Research Forum essay presents A Will Eternal as a deliberate departure from the "凡人流" tradition of cultivation stories. It describes the novel as introducing a less cold and less ruthless protagonist and a fictional world containing more warmth, humor and interpersonal sympathy than the dominant pattern of earlier cultivation fiction.[1]
The essay also notes that Er Gen's experimentation with humor had appeared in earlier works but became much more prominent and integrated in A Will Eternal.[1]
Xianxia and web-fiction transformation
[edit]The novel retains the central mechanisms of xianxia—cultivation, spiritual progression, immortality and sect conflict—while changing their emotional and comic presentation. Chen Dingjia's analysis treats this as part of a larger process through which Er Gen reuses existing genre elements and transforms them across successive works.[12]
The 2017 annual-list essay places this tonal change within a broader shift from the older "凡人流" pattern toward "生活流" forms of web fiction, arguing that younger online-literature readers were becoming less tolerant of formulaic progression alone.[1]
Critical analysis
[edit]The most substantial academic discussion in the sources reviewed is Chen Dingjia's analysis of A Will Eternal as an intertextual work. The article treats Er Gen's novels as a connected creative system in which earlier motifs, structures and cultivation conventions are rewritten rather than simply repeated.[12]
The Peking University Web Literature Research Forum's analysis provides a complementary critical perspective. It praises the novel's attempt to move beyond the established "凡人流" model but also records criticism from older Er Gen readers who preferred the seriousness, emotional depth and "悟道" themes associated with Renegade Immortal and Pursuit of the Truth. It further criticizes the long-term repetition of comic motifs and argues that some jokes become detached from the larger narrative.[1]
This makes the critical reception more mixed than a simple "popular and successful" formulation would suggest. The same source that identifies the novel as a significant formal experiment also concludes that the experiment should be viewed as a breakthrough or turning point rather than as an unqualified classic.[1]
Relationship to Er Gen's other works
[edit]A Will Eternal belongs to Er Gen's interconnected body of xianxia novels. The author told The Paper in 2016 that his first three major novels occupied a similar world and that the new work continued to be conceived within a related creative system.[8]
China Writers Network's 2022 literary analysis similarly situates the novel within Er Gen's broader oeuvre. Rather than treating the connections as simple continuity, the article interprets later works as transformations of ideas and structures developed earlier.[11]
The major tonal difference is therefore significant: A Will Eternal retains the cultivation framework of the earlier novels but shifts its protagonist and narrative atmosphere toward comedy, social relationships and emotional openness.[1]
Reception
[edit]Literary and commercial recognition
[edit]The novel's reception can be documented through several distinct forms of recognition rather than through a single popularity claim.
The 2016 Forbes China Original Literature Fengyun List ranked A Will Eternal third overall among male-authored works. The contemporary report explained that the list used monthly-ticket support from paying readers as its principal measure, making it both a readership indicator and a market signal.[3]
The Peking University Web Literature Research Forum selected the novel for its 2017 annual works list. The accompanying essay did not simply praise the work: it identified its genre innovation, described its new protagonist, recorded divided reader reactions and discussed shortcomings in the long-form use of humor.[1]
The novel was also one of 30 works selected in 2017 for the national online-literature key-works support program organized through the relevant national industry association and China Writers Association system.[4]
Qidian's own historical record documents a strong platform presence, including a first-place monthly-ticket result in August 2016, a premium-channel placement, and numerous subsequent top rankings in monthly-ticket and reader-recommendation lists.[9]
| Year | Award or program | Category | Recipient | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Forbes China Original Literature Fengyun List | Male-authored works | A Will Eternal | 3rd[3] |
| 2017 | Peking University Web Literature Research Forum Annual Works List | Male-oriented works | A Will Eternal | Selected[1] |
| 2017 | National Online Literature Key Works Support Program | Key works | A Will Eternal | Selected[4] |
Later institutional recognition
[edit]Qidian's current honor archive records that A Will Eternal was selected in 2023 among 100 online-literature works included in the Shanghai Library's collection of outstanding online literary works. The same archive records multiple earlier platform honors, including the site's monthly-ticket first place and a "more than 10,000 readers" badge based on average VIP subscriptions.[9]
Translation and international circulation
[edit]An English translation of A Will Eternal was released through Wuxiaworld, with Deathblade credited as translator.[13]
Wuxiaworld's launch announcement presented the project as a new English translation of Er Gen's novel, while the Chinese literary coverage of Er Gen notes that his earlier works had already begun reaching overseas readers through translated web-fiction platforms.[14]
The article is particularly useful because it provides an independent scholarly discussion of the international circulation of this specific novel rather than making general claims about xianxia translation.[15]
Adaptations
[edit]Donghua
[edit]An animated adaptation of A Will Eternal premiered on Tencent Video on 12 August 2020. It was produced by B.CMAY Pictures (视美影业), with Tencent Penguin Pictures and Wuhan Weidao among the companies involved in production.[16][5]
Xinhua's report described the project as Tencent Video's first 2D annual animation and explained that the production team at B.CMAY had expanded from a few dozen people to a team of roughly one hundred during the project. Director Su Xiaoguang described the novel as especially suitable for adaptation because it combined comedy, emotion and broader themes with an exceptionally large narrative scale.[5]
The same report placed the donghua within the development of Chinese 2D animation. It contrasted the larger talent pool available for 3D animation with the relative shortage of 2D personnel and described the annual-animation model as demanding greater production time and team stability while offering long-term platform engagement.[5]
Release history
[edit]The first season premiered on 12 August 2020 as a 52-episode 2D annual-animation project and was released weekly on Tencent Video.[16]
The second season premiered in July 2022. Contemporary coverage described it again as a 2D annual animation and reported its launch through Tencent Video.[17]
The third season premiered in July 2024. Tencent News coverage reported that the season had been reduced from the 52-episode annual format of the first two seasons to 29 episodes. The change prompted criticism from some viewers and was discussed as evidence of the production difficulties facing long-form 2D Chinese animation.[18]
A second Tencent News commentary published on the eve of the third-season launch similarly described the reduction from 52 to 29 episodes and framed it as a production-capacity problem for 2D domestic animation. Because the article is explicitly an individual creator's commentary carried by the Tencent News client, it should be treated as commentary rather than as an official Tencent position.[19]
The fourth season was promoted as the final season and premiered on Tencent Video on 22 July 2026. Official promotional posts republished by Sina reported more than one million reservations before launch and a three-episode opening release followed by weekly episodes.[20]
Relationship to the source material
[edit]The donghua retains Bai Xiaochun as its protagonist and adapts the cultivation world and central conflicts of the novel. Production coverage emphasized the exceptional scale of the source text—described by Xinhua as more than three million Chinese characters—and the need to translate its nested worlds, cultivation progression and large cast into a sustained visual format.[5]
The adaptation therefore does not function as a scene-by-scene reproduction of the novel. Its long-form structure allows selected story arcs and character relationships to be presented over several seasons, while the visual medium makes cultivation techniques, battles and fantasy environments central parts of the presentation.[16]
Reception and critical analysis of the donghua
[edit]Xinhua reported that the donghua had received positive attention from the original author and readers and used the production as a case study for discussing the maturation of Chinese domestic animation.[5]
Tencent News commentary on the later seasons focused particularly on production format and adaptation choices. The third season's reduction from 52 to 29 episodes became a recurring point of criticism, while other commentary continued to discuss how the series balanced its long-form cultivation narrative with the requirements of contemporary 2D animation production.[18][19]
The adaptation also received formal industry recognition. In 2021, A Will Eternal received the Tencent Online Video Golden Goose Honor for "Most Favorite Animation", while director Su Xiaoguang received the "Newcomer Director of the Year" honor.[21]
In 2022, Su Xiaoguang received Tencent Video's "Director of the Year" honor in the Golden Goose Honors.[22]
In the 2024 Tencent Video Golden Goose Honors, Su Xiaoguang received "Best Animation Director of the Year" for season 3 of A Will Eternal.[23]
| Year | Award or program | Category | Recipient | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Tencent Online Video Golden Goose Honors | Most Favorite Animation (最受喜爱动画) | A Will Eternal | Won[21] |
| 2021 | Tencent Online Video Golden Goose Honors | Newcomer Director of the Year (年度新锐导演) | Su Xiaoguang (苏晓光), A Will Eternal | Won[21] |
| 2022 | Tencent Online Video Golden Goose Honors | Director of the Year (年度最佳导演) | Su Xiaoguang (苏晓光), A Will Eternal | Won[24] |
| 2024 | Tencent Video Golden Goose Honors | Best Animation Director of the Year (年度最佳动漫导演) | Su Xiaoguang (苏晓光), A Will Eternal Season 3 | Won[23] |
Other adaptations
[edit]A live-action television adaptation entered production in Hengdian in July 2021, with Zheng Yecheng cast as Bai Xiaochun. Coverage described it as an adaptation of Er Gen's novel and reported the start of production.[25]
Because the sources reviewed here document the live-action project as a production event rather than providing a complete broadcast history, the adaptation is mentioned only as an announced/production project.
Legacy
[edit]A Will Eternal is documented through several different forms of recognition within Chinese online literature: commercial rankings, Qidian platform records, institutional literary lists and government-supported online-literature programs.[3][9][1][4]
The novel also illustrates the expansion of Chinese web literature into a broader intellectual-property economy. Its audiovisual rights were sold during its serialization, and its later adaptation into a long-form 2D donghua demonstrates how a serialized online novel could be developed into a sustained audiovisual property.<ref name="CWAIP2017">"江城三作家跻身福布斯文学榜前十" [Three Jiangcheng writers place in the Forbes literature top ten] (in Chinese). 中国作家网. 12 January 2017. Retrieved 15 August 2026.[5]
The work's significance is therefore not limited to readership: it became a subject of literary analysis, translation research, institutional recognition and long-running animation production.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 "北京大学网络文学研究论坛2017网络文学年度作品榜" [2017 Peking University Web Literature Research Forum Annual Works List] (in Chinese). 中国作家网. 8 January 2018. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 "走向成熟的国漫，需要更多《一念永恒》" (in Chinese). 新华社. 2021-07-21. Retrieved 2026-08-14.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "江城三作家跻身福布斯文学榜前十" [Three Jiangcheng writers place in the Forbes literature top ten] (in Chinese). 中国作家网. 12 January 2017. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 "全国网络文学重点园地工作联席会议重点作品扶持选题名单（共30部）" [List of 30 works selected for national online-literature key-work support] (in Chinese). 中国作家网. 21 June 2017. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "走向成熟的国漫，需要更多《一念永恒》" [Chinese animation needs more works like A Will Eternal to mature] (in Chinese). 新华网. 21 July 2021. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- ↑ ""白金作家"耳根：网络文学大神是怎样炼成的？" [How did the platinum writer Er Gen become a leading web novelist?] (in Chinese). 中国作家网. 5 November 2015. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- ↑ "耳根：首批当选作协委员，冷灶烧出网文大火" [Er Gen: among the first online writers elected to the Writers Association] (in Chinese). 中国作家网. 4 December 2016. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- 1 2 "仙侠第一IP作家耳根：我不会在创作时老想着IP" [Xianxia writer Er Gen: I do not constantly think about IP while writing] (in Chinese). 澎湃新闻. 21 April 2016. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 "一念永恒所获荣誉" [Honors received by A Will Eternal] (in Chinese). 起点中文网. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- ↑ "一念永恒最新章节" [A Will Eternal latest chapter] (in Chinese). 飘天文学. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 "耳根《一念永恒》的互文性解读" [An intertextual reading of Er Gen's A Will Eternal] (in Chinese). 中国作家网. 27 October 2022. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 Chen, Dingjia (2022). "仙侠小说的"重写"与"新编"——耳根《一念永恒》的互文性解读" [The "rewriting" and "new creation" of xianxia novels: An intertextual reading of Er Gen's A Will Eternal]. 中州学刊 (in Chinese). Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- ↑ "A Will Eternal". Wuxiaworld. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- ↑ "Deathblade Launching Er Gen's A Will Eternal on WW!". Wuxiaworld. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
Translation studies
Li Mengting and Li Lijun have studied the English translation of A Will Eternal directly. Their 2021 article examines the translation of idioms and uses the novel as a case study in "creative treason", particularly the translator's use of domestication and foreignization to balance readability with the preservation of Chinese cultural characteristics.<ref name="LiLi">Li, Mengting; Li, Lijun (2021). "The Embodiment of the Translator's Creative Treason in the Translation of Idioms in Xianxia Novel A Will Eternal". Studies in Literature and Language. 23 (3): 41–45. doi:10.3968/12363. Retrieved 15 August 2026. - ↑ Cite error: The named reference
LiLiwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - 1 2 3 "励志修仙×少年逆袭，"新国漫后浪"的多元打开方式，让动漫也讲"中国故事"" [Motivational cultivation and youthful success: the new generation of Chinese animation tells Chinese stories] (in Chinese). TOM Entertainment. 12 August 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- ↑ "《一念永恒》动画第二季今日开播，高质量2D年番来袭" [A Will Eternal season 2 launches today as a high-quality 2D annual animation] (in Chinese). TOM Entertainment. 21 July 2022. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- 1 2 "一念永恒第三季开播，直接降级，年番变半年番，2D国漫现在太难了" [A Will Eternal season 3 launches as an annual series is reduced to a half-year format] (in Chinese). 腾讯新闻. 4 July 2024. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- 1 2 "一念永恒第三季刚开播就被骂了，只因一点，2D国漫真不行了吗？" [A Will Eternal season 3 criticized after launch: is 2D Chinese animation really in decline?] (in Chinese). 腾讯新闻. 3 July 2024. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- ↑ "一念永恒完结季上线" (in Chinese). 新浪新闻. 22 July 2026. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 "中国青年动画导演扶持计划论坛举办 腾讯视频助力年轻动画人勇敢逐梦" [China Youth Animation Directors Support Program forum held] (in Chinese). 中国新闻网. 9 June 2021. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- ↑ ""2022腾讯在线视频金鹅荣誉发布"举行 7大品类共52项荣誉重磅揭晓" [2022 Tencent Online Video Golden Goose Honors announced] (in Chinese). 中国日报. 13 September 2022. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- 1 2 "2024腾讯视频金鹅荣誉发布 62项行业荣誉点亮内容荣耀时刻" [2024 Tencent Video Golden Goose Honors: 62 industry honors announced] (in Chinese). 羊城晚报. 4 January 2025. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- ↑ ""2022腾讯在线视频金鹅荣誉发布"举行 7大品类共52项荣誉重磅揭晓" [2022 Tencent Online Video Golden Goose Honors held with 52 honors announced across seven categories]. Sohu (in Chinese). 2022-08-10. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- ↑ "郑业成新剧《一念永恒》横店开机 饰白小纯首曝训练花絮引热议" [Zheng Yecheng's new drama A Will Eternal begins production in Hengdian] (in Chinese). 红网. 19 July 2021. Retrieved 15 August 2026.