I Prove the Great Dao with an Ordinary Root

In Qingshi Town, where spiritual energy is scarce, Lin Chen, a hunter's son, was an ordinary boy. But during the once-every-three-years test for spiritual roots, he caused a sensation: the Spirit-Testing Pearl suddenly burst into seven-colored light, only to go dark again in an instant. He was judged to have the worst kind of mixed spiritual roots, becoming an object of pity or ridicule. Yet the mysterious black jade pendant his father left behind quietly awakened. It helped him break through to the first level of Qi Refining overnight and planted within him a secret that would upend everything he knew.

To uncover the truth behind his father's disappearance and find the source of his own abnormalities, Lin Chen enters Lihuo Sect, the greatest sect within a thousand miles, as a menial disciple. Inside the sect, strict hierarchies and unequal distribution of resources mean that his mixed spiritual roots make him a target for bullying. Outside its walls, demonic beasts roam and evil cultivators lie in wait, making danger ever-present. But with the ancient inheritance hidden in his pendant and his unyielding will, Lin Chen advances one step at a time through adversity. He grasps the true meaning of a basic cultivation technique while working as a menial, risks everything to seize rare treasures in a sect secret realm, and battles powerful enemies with a special constitution that awakens by chance.

As his cultivation grows, Lin Chen discovers that the strange phenomenon surrounding his spiritual roots was no accident. The black jade pendant is tied to the rise and fall of an ancient divine clan, while his father's disappearance is closely connected to a dark force plotting to overthrow the Qingming Continent. He makes close friends among fellow cultivators of all kinds and faces powerful opponents who are neither wholly righteous nor wholly wicked. With every trial for survival, he also uncovers a century-old conspiracy hidden within Lihuo Sect. From a fallen boy in a remote town to a powerful cultivator who shakes the continent, Lin Chen breaks free of fate with his mixed spiritual roots and writes a rousing legend of inheritance, perseverance, and resistance.