[High-stakes warning: This is not historical fiction! Not political intrigue! No court politics or governing the realm! At its core, this is a fantasy cultivation power trip set in an immortal dynasty!]
The cultivation world has a rule: cultivate the Great Dao and attain enlightenment.
He refuses.
He dabbles in all five paths, but is mediocre at every one.
The Daoists think he's too eclectic, the Buddhists think he's too murderous, the Ghost cultivators think he's not sinister enough, and the demonic sects think he's not ruthless enough.
Stuck in the middle, neither here nor there, he relies on an accounting tool to stitch five dead ends into one path to survival.
Someone asks him what path he cultivates.
He says, "The unorthodox path."
"What's the unorthodox path?"
"It's the path people take when the proper one is impassable."
