How to Start Reading RMJI: A Guide to the Opening Chapters
A focused route into A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality: where to read, what to notice, and which early questions to keep open.
Explore the reading series → A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality: Reading Guide & Analysis
Scope: a guide to starting the novel, with setup spoilers for chapters 1–2. The linked character and theme essays discuss later scenes through chapter 8.
RMJI abbreviates A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality, by Wang Yu, also known by the Chinese title Fan Ren Xiu Xian Zhuan. This guide is for someone starting the novel, rather than looking for an episode-to-chapter conversion or a summary of the complete series.
Read the opening before collecting explanations
You can begin with chapter 1 on Wuxiaworld. Follow the platform’s chapter order and current access terms. Our Spanish edition translates this guide and our commentary, not the novel itself.
The opening connects Han Li’s wish to leave his village with the prospect of helping his family. That modest scale is worth noticing before approaching the story through its distant destination of immortality.
A useful first note is simply: what would count as success for him at this point? Keep that answer provisional. If a later ambition changes it, record the change instead of silently replacing the earlier motive. This lets character development remain something the story has to establish.
Notice who makes an opportunity available
In chapter 2, the journey depends on adult arrangements, and Han Li’s uncle privately passes a pouch to Protector Wang. Entry into the new world already involves relationships and influence.
As a reading question, this shifts attention from talent alone to access. Who can introduce someone? Who can make a rule feel flexible? Which parts of an opportunity can the child assess for himself? You do not need a full list of future ranks to begin asking these questions.
Avoid treating every unfamiliar title as equally important. Note a name or institution when it changes a decision, an obligation, or the information available. A smaller set of useful notes can be easier to revise than a catalogue made before you know what matters.
Choose your next question
After reading chapters 3–4, use our Han Li character analysis to examine the difference between observing danger and always judging it correctly. It considers a counterexample to the idea that he is cautious in every situation.
After chapters 6–8, the cultivation themes essay asks how training, unequal progress, and an instructor’s judgment complicate a simple story of hard work. Read those chapters first if you want to discover the outcome yourself.
This order follows the questions, not a requirement to finish every article. Return to the RMJI reading series whenever you want to choose another route.
Keep the evidence separate from your expectation
Try a three-line entry after a chapter: what happened, what you think it suggests, and what would make you change your mind. The third line prevents a first impression from becoming an answer that later scenes are forced to confirm.
For a broader version of that method, our guide to reading different kinds of books explains how to compare questions across a long serial and a short work without ranking entire genres.
Sources and limits
The opening chapters linked above were checked on October 3, 2026. This is a reading method anchored to those scenes, not an exhaustive plot guide. It makes no claim about adaptation equivalence, later cultivation ranks, or the quality of every volume.