A little sect leader at the Foundation Establishment stage spent three years scraping by in an apocalypse where spiritual energy was fading, with seventeen battered survivors by his side. Then he took in a disciple he was never supposed to find, sheltered a sword cultivator he was never supposed to shelter, and activated a mountain-protecting formation that was never supposed to be triggered. That was when he discovered the truth behind the fact that no one had ascended in three thousand years: it was buried right beneath the roots of the broken mountain under his backside.
Worth a look.