A Furnace-Tending Chronicle from the Chenglu Sect’s Menial Quarters

At fourteen, Gu Shi is sold into a cultivation sect as a servant for a meager ration of food. On the day of the sect’s annual assessment, he is declared an untrainable cripple and faces the prospect of being sent away. With nowhere left to turn, he has no choice but to reveal his hidden secret: his body is a natural furnace. By expending his vital energy, he can refine discarded pills into top-grade elixirs. This ability to turn trash into treasure not only lets him snatch victory from the jaws of expulsion, but also unexpectedly draws him into a fierce power struggle among the sect’s elders. Yet his dazzling talent earns him the envy of his fellow disciples, and the toll each refinement takes on his vital energy keeps him constantly on the edge of life and death. In a cultivation world that prizes spiritual roots, can a lowly servant use his calloused hands to forge a path all the way to the heavens?

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.