Some of you may not be familiar with wuxia terms and concepts so here’s a brief overview of some parts of the genre. I’m not an expert on the subject, but here’s the relevant information.

Wuxia : Wuxia is a genre of fantasy with origins in China that focuses on martial arts and adventure. You may have seen some wuxia based fantasies on this site, such as The Dao Of Magic. Royal Road Legends is filled with wuxia stories, although many of them have two star grammar.

If you want to read wuxia, I would suggest going on Wuxiaworld, a site that provides high quality english translations for wuxia novels. A good gateway wuxia would be Desolate Era, by I Eat Tomatoes.

Names : Chinese names are structured with the last name coming first and the first name coming last. The last name is normally one word and the first name is usually one or two words.

(Last Name)(First Name)

(Li)(Hui Ming)

(Fei)(Huo Tian)

(Xing)(Chen Wei)

So Chen Wei’s last name is “Xing”, which is why she is sometimes addressed as Sect Head Xing.

Sibling Titles : In english slang, men often call close friends “bro”. Used in this context, the word “bro” does not indicate sibling status. The same thing happens in wuxia, such as when people are called “junior apprentice brother”. The word “brother” as it used there is not used to indicate sibling status, it’s simply used to indicate gender and some amount of closeness.

Cultivator : People who practice martial arts in wuxia are normally called cultivators, or “daoists”.

Stages : Wuxia novels love to separate powerful levels into a bunch of stages. Instead of a steady progression of power, wuxia characters suddenly get a huge power up when they enter the next stage. However, it’s still possible for particularly talented people to be able to fight somebody a stage above them.

However, stages are often also applied to other things such as technique stages or medicine stages. I use “cycle” for medicine, such as the “sixth cycle Golden Transformation pill”, but the concept is the same. The medicine increases greatly in quality when it reaches a higher stage.

Naming Items/Techniques/Ingredients/Monsters : Wuxia names sound like a bunch of cool words smashed together. The technique names are similar to the phrases anime characters yell out when they make a move. Some real examples : Windhowl, Annihilating Tempest, Void Extermination.

Non-technique examples : Violet-Gold Rat King, Blueheart Grass, Bloodviolet, Violet Blood Ginseng King, Void Imperfection Water, Grandmist Energy, Grand Completion Hell Suppressing Physique.

“Call me father/grandfather” : A common trope in wuxia is for arrogant people to demand others to call them father or grandfather. It’s a huge sign of disrespect, the equivalent of calling somebody a dog.

Dao : The direct translation of this word is “path”. Daoism is a legitimate philosophy practiced today, but in wuxia, it’s another power-related concept. This story explains it as the way people use Qi, but the word may be used differently in other wuxia stories.

Side note : “Tao” and “Dao” are different ways of spelling the same word. I only use the spelling with a D.

Qi : The wuxia energy. The equivalent to mana, it’s an energy added to wuxia worlds to make superhuman feats possible. Pronounced “chi”.

I’ll add more information as needed. I think this is all that’s essential so far.

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Side Note : The mere existence of female characters ≠ Romance