The Fallen Dragon

More than two thousand years ago, a powerful cultivator foresaw that a calamity was about to descend from the heavens. Sure enough, not long afterward, the Age of Declining Spiritual Energy began.

Ji Yan was a little white snake who had only just gained sentience. He was both lucky and unlucky: lucky enough to escape the disaster and flee to the true cultivation world, but unlucky enough to be taken there as someone else's food.

The heavens must have taken pity on this weak, pitiful, and unlucky little snake. When he arrived in the cultivation world, he got a classic underdog's story from the start. He began as a good-for-nothing, then enjoyed smooth sailing all the way to becoming a renowned powerhouse in the cultivation world.

Just as he thought he was about to succeed in his cultivation, leap through the Dragon Gate, and ascend to the immortal realm, the heavens played another trick on him. The dragon scales he'd worked so hard to cultivate fell off, his dragon claws vanished, and his horns broke. Overnight, he was back to square one, a little white snake again.

Ji Yan could barely keep from crying, and could only console himself that at least he had survived. To his surprise, he returned to his old home, still trapped in the Age of Declining Spiritual Energy. Ji Yan spat blood. "The heavens want me dead!" Even so, Ji Yan didn't give up. After getting himself ready, he headed down the mountain, brimming with ambition~

But he never expected another irreversible change to come later. Ji Yan stared wide-eyed at the color of his dragon claws. How could they have changed so drastically? It was bad enough they weren't gold, but they weren't even white!

Premise: Dare to face adversity.