Walking Beside Jin Zhao

In this cultivation world, spiritual roots are determined by fate. But most naturally occurring spiritual roots have flaws. Only a woman’s womb can nurture one a second time, tempering it into a purer mid-grade root, or even a top-grade root. Men don’t have this gift. Even the rare few born with spiritual roots can only cultivate as far as the Mortal Shedding stage in an unremarkable lifetime, because their roots are flawed. This should have been an age ruled by women cultivators. But a world-shattering war six hundred years ago nearly wiped out the strongest female cultivators. Techniques were lost, lineages dwindled, and everything had to start over. The male cultivators had waited in hiding for far too long. At last, their opportunity came. An organization called the Spirit Pavilion swiftly swept across the cultivation world, waving the banners of “equality between men and women” and “male cultivators can reach the summit too.” They seemed noble and upright on the surface, but behind closed doors they engaged in shameful deeds. They were thieves, stealing spiritual roots that were never theirs to begin with. Two hundred years ago, the Qinglan Sect discovered the truth about the Spirit Pavilion. But they lacked the strength to act, so they had to keep quiet. Two hundred years later, the Qinglan Sect’s younger generation stumbled upon the Spirit Pavilion’s secret once more, and brought its persecution down upon themselves. Should they keep enduring in silence this time?