Persons in the xianxia genre manifest talents or abilities such as flight, teleportation, telekinesis, materializing objects and force fields, creating and manipulating energy, etc.
The xianxia genre also tends to feature the existence of magical creatures who do not belong to either the yao (妖) or mo (魔) category, as well as supernatural artefacts capable of upending the status quo.
The stories usually revolve around the adventure/growth of a magical practitioner or a mortal person who gets entangled in supernatural affairs, and include elements such as gods and immortals, spirits, demons, ghosts and mythical creatures.
The xianxia genre also includes the popular subgenre known as "cultivation" or "training" (Chinese: 修炼/修煉; pinyin: xiūliàn; 修真; xiūzhēn; 'training to reach the "True" state'; 修行; xiūxíng; 'training as an ascetic monk'; 修仙; xiūxiān; 'training to become a xian (immortal)'.
In the 21st century, this subgenre became popular with the advent of online publishing, with sites such as Qidian.com,[3] Zongheng.com, and 17k.com giving a platform for authors to reach wide audiences with high-volume, serialized content.
Xianxia is often compared to the wuxia (武侠; 'martial hero') genre, and the two share many similarities – both being set in a quasi-historical ancient China, featuring larger-than-life human protagonists, and struggles between good and evil.
The genre has a heavier focus on spiritual growth and mastery of superpowers, pursuit for eternal existence, fates and reincarnations, multiple realms of reality, and interaction with legendary creatures and spirits.
Wuxia, by contrast, is grounded in the human world with few supernatural elements and mainly emphasizes martial arts, personal vendetta, treasure hunting, social justice,[3] radical politics,[3] and power struggles.