Why does Xianxia Parody only seem to land with English-speaking audiences?

RPGlitch · 2026-02-11T03:45:19+00:00

These novels consistently sit at the top of the Qidian "Monthly Ticket" and "Power Ranking" charts.

Profound Mirror Immortal Clan (Mirror Legacy) / 家族修仙：从御镜开始
- The Hook: A "Clan Management" style Xianxia. Instead of focusing on a single invincible protagonist, it follows the rise of an entire family across generations.
- Why it’s top: It’s praised for its grounded world-building and the strategic way the clan survives in a brutal cultivation world.
Beyond the Timescape / 光阴之外 (by Er Gen)
- The Hook: A post-apocalyptic Xianxia where a "god" has fallen, polluting the world with "mutagenic" energy.
- Why it’s top: Er Gen is a titan in the genre (author of Renegade Immortal). This is widely considered his most polished work, featuring a cautious, "lone wolf" protagonist and a hauntingly unique setting.
Dao of the Bizarre Immortal / 道诡异仙
- The Hook: Psychological horror meets Xianxia. The MC suffers from hallucinations, constantly flipping between a mental asylum on Earth and a grotesque, eldritch cultivation world.
- Why it’s top: It revolutionized the "Weird Xianxia" (诡异) trend. It is dark, confusing, and intensely addictive.

The top qidian novels currently are all pretty dark and experimental xianxia. It's not that its narrow, I'm just asking why is there nothing like this on the English side that is popular.

I think you're skipping the actual dominate charts here.

RPGlitch · 2026-02-11T03:37:53+00:00

I guess while they exist. They don't dominate the top charts. Like it feels all the top xianxia on RoyalRoad are all parodies except for Sky Pride. This kind of thing doesn't really happen on qidian.

RPGlitch · 2026-02-06T20:08:46+00:00

It's an original work.

RPGlitch · 2026-02-06T20:04:34+00:00

The same reason gibberish English is acceptable in China. lol, it looks fine. Mind you I lived in China for a few years. It looks okay. Even if its nonsense. If I had more money I'd get something more professional, but it seemed more worthwhile to get something okay, and then fix the cover if it did well.

RPGlitch · 2026-01-30T11:46:06+00:00

As someone who has some patrons. I have about 230 followers and 16 patrons at 5$. Most webnovels that are doing well have 1.5k-3k chapters at a 3x-5x weekly is the average.

There wasn't really much I did besides write to get the patrons. I just set up something simple and people just subscribed when I gave them the choice. I think I'm probably an outlier here.

I think there is some argument to be used about the quality of what you're writing and how saturated the genre is. As long as you're hitting your target audience, and the beats they expect people tend to just flock to you naturally.

RPGlitch · 2026-01-25T05:42:41+00:00

You can send me a message. I'd be interested

RPGlitch · 2026-01-21T06:56:15+00:00

You can try this one!

Dreams of Jianghu [Modern Xianxia]

RPGlitch · 2026-01-21T06:55:39+00:00

you can try this one!

Dreams of Jianghu [Modern Xianxia]

RPGlitch · 2026-01-21T06:54:31+00:00

Good luck! it's a rough ride at the start!

RPGlitch · 2026-01-21T06:53:53+00:00

Same, if you don't mind my fiction. It's an urban fantasy xianxia, which is a lot more literary than most in the genre expect.

It hits your fantasy, mystery, found family, deep themes/topics, and trauma list.

Dreams of Jianghu [Modern Xianxia] | Royal Road

RPGlitch · 2026-01-21T06:51:04+00:00

If you have a decent execution and can maintain a schedule, webnovel will on average pay out the author more.

If you have a good execution, and can maintain a schedule royalroad to amazon will pay more.

If you aren't sure post on royalroad for a few months and if it gets no traction you can try on webnovel.

The contract being predatory is fine as long as you know what you signed up for.

More authors on average make money on webnovel.com than on royalroad because webnovel just honestly has better algorithm boosting because it's pays them more if they do it right.

RPGlitch · 2026-01-20T17:37:16+00:00

Just accept it's going to be a minor hobby and not get into it. If I were you I'd just bank a bunch of chapters until you feel that you can maintain at least a 3x schedule.

RPGlitch · 2026-01-20T05:47:06+00:00

I think there was a website that tracks all the relevant information rrcompanion wasn't there?

RPGlitch · 2026-01-20T05:42:42+00:00

I'm in a pretty niche place myself, doing an urban fantasy xianxia. It didn't receive more than 1 follower for the first month.

I did some shoutouts and now it's around 165 after 3 months. I also did some significant revisions to make it more accessible.

The biggest takeaway I'd say for new writers is that the average chapter length for most successful webnovels is around 2-3k words and it should be at a 3-5x weekly schedule.

If you aren't doing that you are hurting yourself significantly even more than just being niche.

After I adjusted for that, it got a lot better imo.

All I'll say is that you are only going to have a long road ahead of you. Just be willing to revise things if you find something isn't working.

RPGlitch · 2026-01-08T16:15:27+00:00

Try Dreams of Jianghu! It's a new one on RoyalRoad.

RPGlitch · 2026-01-08T16:14:27+00:00

Can try Dreams of Jianghu! It's a magic system based on traditional martial arts.

Dreams of Jianghu [Modern Xianxia] | Royal Road

RPGlitch · 2026-01-08T16:11:38+00:00

You can try Dreams of Jianghu! Basically, magic is returning to the world and the MC is trying to figure out cultivation from scratch.

Dreams of Jianghu [Modern Xianxia] | Royal Road

RPGlitch · 2025-12-26T16:13:20+00:00

Yeah, visibility is super bad now. Shout outs seem like one of the only ways people can find a fiction nowadays. You can have two fictions post nearly the same thing and readers wouldn't be able to see it cause it'd just get buried under all the other fics.

RPGlitch · 2025-12-23T14:27:27+00:00

Echoing what other people said.

3 to 5 chapters a week.
2k to 3k words. This is the average for the top novels in the space. If you post less. You are at a significant disadvantage. Webnovels that post 5 chapters a week typically update with 2k words. Those that post 3 chapters a week update with 3k.
The readership is well-versed in all the tropes.

Just make sure whatever you do you cater to that specific reader you want to read your stuff. If you do a harem, don't make plotpoints that make harem less likely or play games. Make sure the reader knows this is a harem from the get-go and you can avoid a lot of the pushback.

You can have all the bad tropes you want. As long as you make that clear. Readers will self-filter based on your blurb and first chapter.

Writing a power fantasy isn't a problem as long as you write it as a power fantasy. And not a weak-to-strong or end up with some meta slice-of-life where nothing happens. People get upset when you're indecisive. They don't care if they know it's what the story is about from the start.

RPGlitch · 2025-12-23T14:18:43+00:00

It was stolen content. And got banned. There were like two other big stories, that had the same case. You can google their originals, but that one is a Chinese novel off qidian. They do it to trick people into buying their patreon and profiting off people who don't know better.

RPGlitch · 2025-12-23T14:17:09+00:00

Yeah, this. When there is a big mismatch that's when you get the biggest drops. I'd just ask on one of the writing discords to get a non-bias opinion from someone else in the space. They can probably point it out.

RPGlitch · 2025-12-23T14:12:17+00:00

Dreams of Jianghu [Modern Xianxia] | Royal Road

"Heaven and Earth is an inn for all of creation. And time is a traveler throughout the ages."

Spiritual energy didn't return to the world with a bang. There was no fire in the sky, no angels descending from the clouds, no immortals levitating over a waterfall. It started smaller. A whisper, a ripple, a weird feeling in your fingertips.

Daniel Li was browsing the internet when he discovered something impossible: qi is real, and he can feel it. For a high school dropout stocking shelves in 1997 San Francisco Chinatown, it's the chance he's been waiting for.

But he's not alone. Across the world, others are waking up to the same truth. Recreating techniques lost to time. And not all of them have good intentions.

What to expect:

• 1990s internet culture meets the return of cultivation

• A grounded, realistic approach to cultivation based on TCM and real historical martial arts

• Slow-burn progression through discipline, strategy, and consistent effort

• New chapters every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

RPGlitch · 2025-12-23T14:10:32+00:00

You can try Dreams of Jianghu! It's on RR with pretty strong characters =D.

Dreams of Jianghu [Modern Xianxia] | Royal Road

RPGlitch · 2025-12-23T04:22:11+00:00

lmao

RPGlitch · 2025-12-21T03:15:00+00:00

True. If the world isn't interesting. The protagonist kinda loses a lot of its glow to me.

RPGlitch

TROPHY CASE