On Mount Zhongnan, beneath Green Ox Cliff, a herb gatherer's path to enlightenment. Li Xuanzhen was an ordinary herb gatherer at the foot of Mount Zhongnan, but his innate spiritual perception let him see things from both the yin and yang realms. While gathering herbs one day, he accidentally stumbled into an ancient grotto-heaven at Green Ox Cliff and discovered a fragment of the Scripture of Yin Talisman. From then on, he embarked on the path of Daoist cultivation. A fragmentary Daoist scripture unveils a thousand-year-old conspiracy; a mysterious jade talisman upends the balance of the Three Realms.
As his cultivation deepens, Li Xuanzhen discovers that the seventy-two grotto-heavens of Mount Zhongnan conceal a mystery: each one suppresses a “living corpse.” More terrifying still, these living corpses are beginning to awaken, and his own origins are closely tied to this thousand-year scheme.
No System, no transmigration, no heroine, only the most orthodox Daoist cultivation.
From feasting on rosy clouds and drinking dew to perfecting the Golden Core, from severing the Three Corpses to emerging as a Yang Spirit, Li Xuanzhen will face one tribulation after another:
- First grasping the “Five Thieves and Three Essentials” at Green Ox Cliff
- Debating the Dao with a hall full of cultivators at Zhengyi Temple
- Facing the Three Corpse Worms in an ancient cave abode
- Witnessing his father turn into a corpse at the Dragon Burial Pit
- Restoring the balance of earth, water, fire, and wind on Mount Zhongnan
Daoist secret arts, all within:
- Talismans: The Taiyi Azure Spirit Talisman suppresses corpse transformations
- Thunder arts: The Orthodox Five Thunder Method destroys evil cultivators
- Dunjia: Using Dunjia at midnight to enter the imperial mausoleum
- The alchemical path: The Nine-Turn Golden Elixir withstands the heavenly tribulation
“Heaven and earth are not benevolent; they treat all things as straw dogs. The Daoist heart never wavers; with his own body, he guards the Ghost Gate.”
As the sixty-year cycle nears its end and the Ghost Gate is about to open, Li Xuanzhen faces his final choice:
Should he follow the Dao of Heaven and let the common people suffer calamity?
Or defy Heaven and, with himself as
