The Rootless Thunder Emperor

Chen Zhao, a cowherd from a mountain village, witnessed cultivators battling when he was twelve and learned just how wide the gulf between immortals and mortals was.

Cultivation in this world depended on spiritual roots, but he was born with a rootless body. Branded an outcast, he had no one who believed in him.

With no teacher or sect, he was mocked by the village children, forbidden to study by the village head, and exploited by the shaman. Every step was an uphill struggle.

When his mother fell ill and medicine was beyond their means, he sold the family cow to save her, only to be disowned by his father. He took his mother into the mountains and sought the path to cultivation alone.

He found a fragmentary manual, touched a stone stele, entered an ancient cave, and refined a jade slip. After countless brushes with death, he forged his own path to cultivation.

Without spiritual roots, he made his body a furnace and drew qi into it. With blood staining his clothes, he finally glimpsed the gates to immortality.

From a lowly mortal to one adorned with lightning patterns, he believes in no fate, only hard work!

Even the rootless can ascend to the heavens!