The Ant's March

Chen Jiu, a menial disciple of the Qingyun Sect, is the most insignificant person in the cultivation world.

He has a mixed Five Elements spiritual root, has been stuck at the third Qi Refining level for three years, and can't even scrape together a complete cultivation manual. His daily routine is nothing but hauling spiritual water and hoeing spiritual fields. His greatest hope is to save up three spirit stones to keep his parents alive through the drought.

He has no magic treasures, no fortuitous encounters, and no famous master to guide him. He's seen fellow disciples lose a leg over half a stalk of spiritual herb and cultivators risk their lives for dregs from discarded pills. He knows the path to immortality is never carefree; it's simply the law of the jungle.

And yet he keeps going.

He gathers spiritual energy by hauling extra water, sustains his cultivation with leftover pills from the pill-disposal room, and scrapes together a chance to live by risking his life amid a tide of demonic beasts... Like a weed in a crack in the stone, he strains to push upward.

Some laugh at him for being stupid: with a mixed spiritual root, he'll never amount to much. Others mock him for being foolish, clinging to a little herbal shop and hoping for a peaceful life.

But the path he cultivates isn't one to immortality. He only wants the people he cares about to catch their breath a little longer in this world that devours people.

This isn't a myth of a rise from obscurity, just the trace of a speck of dust struggling against the current.

Perhaps he'll spend his whole life as a Foundation Establishment cultivator, or even die in an unnamed tide of demonic beasts. But the people he protected, the spiritual seeds he planted, and the clumsy formations he worked out will, like the spiritual water he once carried, quietly nourish a little life in some forgotten corner.

The world is vast, but wherever dust settles, there is still a place for people.