The Ethereal Journey

“Have you ever wondered if, when spiritual qi revival came, you, who had gradually faded into an ordinary life, might live differently from the way you do now?”

That day really came. The ancient path to ascension became a route among the stars, and the mythological Queen Mother of the West became a planet at the edge of the universe. And you, an ordinary office worker whose edges had been worn down by life, became the only “key” capable of setting foot on that path.

Wang Qian seems dull and unassuming, an ordinary man who wants no part of the world. After swallowing a “ginseng fruit” that fell from the sky at a barbecue stall, he was bound to a System that used “lifespan” as currency. From the start, it gave him one kalpa: 129,600 years.

He thought it was just a cheat that would let him live a long time. Then, one night, the whole world watched a “meteor” reverse course and soar into the sky as the ancient “path to ascension” appeared in the firmament. Only then did he realize that what he had eaten was a “ticket” left behind by the Mythic Era. Countless pairs of eyes on Earth had been waiting for it for millennia.

With a calculating mind that outstrips ordinary people hidden beneath his seemingly simple exterior, and the mysterious abilities granted by the System, such as “Life Vision,” “Stellar Trajectory Deduction,” and “Primordial Yang Lifespan Qi,” Wang Qian journeys from urban street battles to ancient steles on Mount Tai, from the misty rain of Jinling to the Dragon-Locking Pool on the Yangtze. He embarks on a perilous search for scattered mythological relics and the truth behind ascension.

Only at the very end does Wang Qian understand that his long lifespan was not meant for mere survival. It gave him enough time to make the most astonishing move by a “mortal” in this grand game spanning the human world, the netherworld, and the sea of stars.

“Ordinary life is wonderful, but I don't belong to it. Thank you.”