Missing a piece for Xianxia story writing.

[Arch9CivilReactor]

I am unsure on how to write Xianxia because imagining the world beyond the superficial aspects is difficult for me. Especially with what goes on in the world when the MC doesn’t exist.

I see that it is a chaotic world from most Xianxia novels I’ve read, but I find it difficult to imagine that a world where everyone’s pillaging resources every minute can survive. There are thousand year old ginsengs being discovered, but how is it that no one found this treasure beforehand.

Some add secret realms and hidden resources or tombs that just opened, but it still feels inconsistent that people can take from the world so much and there still being resources left. The fact we don’t see ANYONE (even the MC) doing what these dead people do (hoarding resources in a vault) makes it hard to imagine Xianxia.

moreover, the whole ‘law of the jungle’ and people randomly killing millions to complete their weapons makes me wonder how humanity hasn’t gone extinct. Some add laws of the universe that stop reckless slaughter, but the MCs always show these laws are paper thin.

Maybe I’m overthinking this, but it is personally hard to write a Xianxia when I start to think about these questions even a little. Finding it hard to continue when I don’t grasp what I’m writing.

Maybe I should write Xuanhuan instead since a lot of these difficult questions vanish when you break away from the mould.

 

[Jaredman92]

The concept of Xianxia from what I can gather, is that the world is boundless, with many layers. The scales are unbalanced. Countless people. Countless treasures. Countless greed. But the only things that truly matter are cultivators.
Everything revolves around how they manipulate the world to get to higher heights. Right when you think that there was one treasure left, there are three others that fit your needs as an author.

Some worlds balance the large amount of slaughter and pillaging, with enormous amounts of people and vague descriptions. Questions of how so many people and land can be maintained is waved away with qi (like with qi sustaining unrealistic harvest amounts). Others are that space itself is bent by qi, making it so there are spaces that are larger than they would initially seem.

Others have the righteous sects maintaining the world in protecting the vast majority of people from the excesses of cultivators (through loss of face).

Hopefully this helps!

 

[Cipiteca396]

Some of your questions can be answered by immortal 'benefactors' that randomly go around hiding, revealing or outright planting new resources. I've seen a similar concept, the Will of Heaven, that just does stuff like this for reasons.

Maybe I’m overthinking this, but it is personally hard to write a Xianxia when I start to think about these questions even a little.

You're not overthinking it. The other authors just didn't think enough.

If there's an inconsistency, that's an opportunity for you to do something new, not an obstacle.

For example, you mentioned humanity going extinct. Maybe there's a specific sect that 'cultivates' mortals to stop the race from going extinct, and hunts down anyone who threatens that goal.

 

[corruption]

Imagine a Xianxia story where the MC can't find that stuff, but has to steal it from others, and grow more powerful as the easier to loot stuff also gets stolen.
Hmm, maybe they are only interested in learning it because of their bloodline (which they can't awaken) being targeted by Demon Cultivators who to drain them of their blood. . . . and other people trying to kill the MC to prevent the DC from having any chance to succeed.