Wen Ji is the youngest acting sect leader of the Qingwu Sect. On the day the sect is seized to repay its debts, seven disciples rejected by their respective peaks are added to the mining contract. The creditor gives her just thirty days: if she can't get a team trial quota, the seven will be sent to the mines, and she will never be allowed to establish a sect again. Her only ability is to see one "mismatch" after the same person fails three times. She can only tell what's wrong, never the right answer.
The stuttering fire cultivator can't finish a long incantation. The blood-fearing healer can't go to the front lines. The sword cultivator whose hands shake whenever he grips a sword only wants to switch to crafting formation tools. Wen Ji leads them to claim the unwanted, dilapidated Ke Ridge. Starting with an old spring whose water can't be drunk and a broken formation that can only light up one corner, she rebuilds a system of cultivation that allows for failure.
But as she repeatedly sees her disciples taking the wrong path, she begins to grow accustomed to choosing what she considers the right path for them. Some refuse, some leave, and some would rather return to the mines. In the end, Wen Ji must learn that seeing someone else's wrong path does not give her the right to choose the right path for them. A truly new sect must let people stay, leave, and even reject her.
