This is the story of a young man with no spiritual roots who uses pen and blood to fight for a way for mortals to survive in a world dominated by immortals.
Shen Shuyan was sixteen years old when his parents died tragically due to spiritual tax. He vowed to get the top spot in the Immortal Imperial Examination and abolish the exorbitant tax that eats people.
But he has no spiritual roots. And his opponents, Gu Xingyuan, the legitimate son of the immortal cultivating family, used a soul-searching pen to steal his answers; the examiner, Xuanqing Immortal Official, in the name of "maintaining order", could brand his soul as "defying the ordinary" at any time and make him a slave forever.
How do mortals win?
If you don't have spiritual roots, you will practice the Memory Palace - at the cost of cutting off precious memories to resist the invasion of the soul; if you are poisoned, you will use wormwood to stay alive and cough up blood to take the exam; in the exam room, use "mindless writing" to hide the true answer on the back, use blood ink to activate the thousand-year-old ancient formation "Tian Ting", and let the truth be exposed to all people in the world.
What he won was not magic, but human hearts.
But even if he is the top scholar in high school, the spiritual tax has not been abolished, and his life expectancy is less than ten years. The only thing he can do is to teach batches of mortal students in the academy, so that the fire will continue to grow.
"What makes a person human is not in his spiritual roots, but in his heart."
——This is the declaration of mortals, and it is also the beginning of the trembling of the immortal court.
Mortals counterattack in the imperial examination, and compete with immortals for their privileges. Every ounce of talent comes at the cost of life. No golden fingers, only pride.
