The Jadefied Stone Forest

After his spiritual root is crippled and the Qingxuan Sword Sect casts him out, the young Wang Qinghe loses all hope and enters the legendary Ten Thousand Transformations Stone Forest, a place said to be impossible to leave. Its strange rock formations seem to conceal secrets from time immemorial. On the brink of death, he unexpectedly awakens the dormant Twin System within him: the Stone-Touching Dao-Seeking System and the Myriad Transformations Doppelganger System.

The first can analyze the essence of all things, turning ordinary rocks into Spirit Source Stones containing pure spiritual energy, and even giving lifeless objects a brief spark of sentience. The second can expend Spirit Source Stone energy to create doppelgangers capable of acting and thinking independently, for exploration, cultivation, or combat. But the Systems' gifts come at a price. Every stone he transforms and every doppelganger he creates consumes Wang Qinghe's own soul essence. The doppelgangers can also grow, perhaps developing independent wills and turning against their original.

With these power-defying abilities, Wang Qinghe quickly gathers resources in the stone forest, repairs his spiritual root, and surges in cultivation. He rescues Zhou Ling'er, a girl trapped there who possesses a Heavenly Insight Spirit Body and is being hunted because of it. The two join forces: Wang Qinghe uses stones to form arrays and doppelgangers to explore, while Zhou Ling'er uses her spirit body to foresee fortune and disaster and decipher ancient techniques. Together, they discover the ruins and legacy of the ancient Dao-Seeking Sect deep in the forest, and begin to uncover clues that this world is being “kept in captivity.”

Their rise alarms the conservative factions led by Xuanmingzi, the Qingxuan Sword Sect's Great Elder. He covets Wang Qinghe's abilities and fears the power they might represent, a force capable of overturning the existing order of the immortal sects. He joins with other factions to denounce Wang Qinghe as a “Stone Demon” and launches a purge. Meanwhile, Wang Qinghe's doppelgangers are exploring