At the Foot of Helai Mountain

Ever since Ye Qingji can remember, he has been unable to see, hear, smell, taste, or feel anything, drifting through life in a haze.

One day, he suddenly gains his hearing and finally learns his name. The person who has cared for him every day tells him someone is coming to take him away, then disappears.

Ye Qingji waits in confusion. His other senses return, and so does a tall, graceful man with his hair tied in a high ponytail. The moment he sees Ye Qingji, he drops to his knees, clings to his leg, and sobs uncontrollably.

The crowd following the man promptly drops to their knees too, shouting something about... Immortal Venerable.

Ye Qingji: What is going on here.jpg

After he's done crying, the man introduces himself as Jiang Wangyan.

On the way to their new home, Ye Qingji listens as Jiang Wangyan tells him a story:

A thousand years ago, Helai Mountain, the greatest sect in the cultivation world, was founded upon the three disciples of the Immortal of Helai. They aided all under heaven and dominated the martial world, their disciples and descendants spreading far and wide.

The most powerful cultivator of the age, the Immortal Venerable Buzhihan, lived for years atop Helai Mountain, meditating above the snowline. He would not emerge unless the world fell into chaos. His presence was Helai Mountain's final line of defense, its pillar of stability.

Then, a sudden upheaval struck. In the midst of a devastating calamity plotted over many years, he tried to turn the tide but could not prevent his senior and junior brothers from dying and the sect from being destroyed. With a half-immortal body, he leapt from the Executioner's Terrace.

When he appeared again, a thousand years had passed.

Ye Qingji: What are you rambling about...? Wait, me? .jpg

From the shou's point of view:

Jiang Wangyan, the current sect leader of Helai Mountain, has lived for a thousand years, struggling to hold together the ruined sect and restore it to top-tier star status.

All he wants is to find his master. He knows his master's soul hasn't been destroyed, but despite searching from the highest heavens to the deepest underworld, across all three realms, he has found no trace of him.

Under Jiang Wangyan's leadership, the sect disciples know him as a powerful, strict, austere, and generous sect leader. They don't know that he's in a constant state of dread, teetering on the verge of madness as his Dao heart crumbles.

Until one day, he brings home a dazed beauty with ankle-length hair who looks like a bewitching ghost, and tells them to address him as... Grand Grandmaster.

[At first somewhat dazed, gradually recovering into a cold, imposing, supremely powerful Immortal Venerable gong x a sect leader and disciple whose eyes hold only his master, shou]

* The gong is genuinely powerful.

* You could say the gong died and the shou went mad.

The disciple was once taken in by his master. This is an older-man-and-younger-man story where the master raised his disciple, and now the disciple raises his master all over again ( ).

The web-novel version's title: I Rose from a Cripple to Become the Strongest Under Heaven Again

The disciple's version of the title: I Took In My Crippled Master and Raised Him All Over Again, Sob Sob, My Master, My Master...

All jokes aside, this is actually a serious cultivation novel, a proper cultivation story on a grand scale, with a whole host of elaborate settings. Overall, it's one big flashback. Strictly speaking, it's my first danmei novel. I have a huge stockpile of chapters, but they all need revising. I've poured my heart into it, so maybe I'll write it once I can finally quit my job (not really).

Message: Serve with all your heart until death.