Cultivating in the Old Lord’s Gourd: I Have a Pocket Time-Dilated Realm

Li Bai, an overworked corporate drone who died after pulling an endless string of all-nighters, transmigrated to the Tianhu Realm and became an outer-sect alchemy apprentice in the Huangyun Sect, a Golden Core sect. He thought the world of cultivation would be carefree and wonderful. Who knew that the rat race here would be even more terrifying than the modern workplace? Year-round alchemy exams, monthly quotas that, if missed, meant being driven out to become cannon fodder among rogue cultivators, and six major sects working together to manipulate the prices of pills and spirit stones. One sleepless Banquet-and-Repose Pill had the cultivators of the whole world chained to a desperate race to outwork one another. High-interest cultivation loans sprang up to meet demand. Their rates were terrifying, yet countless people still rushed to take them out. Luckily, the ancestral white jade pendant he carried underwent a strange change and unlocked a temporal secret realm. An hour of cultivation and alchemy inside was equivalent to just one hour outside, while time within the realm flowed as if a month had passed! So what if he had a useless, low-grade spiritual root? While others stayed up all night swallowing pills and grinding away, he hid in the temporal space, churning out pills and practicing his cultivation art. He breezed through his exam quotas and outperformed his fellow alchemists until they were left in tears! Under the surface, the cultivation world seethed with turmoil. The six major sects monopolized resources, while the Holy Church of Cold Plum raised the banner of equality and founded itself on opposition to the rat race, all while concealing an unparalleled Devouring Art and secretly recruiting down-and-out cultivators. To find a way out, Li Bai pretended to pledge allegiance and went undercover in the heretical sect, maneuvering between the righteous and demonic factions as opportunities kept coming and his cultivation soared. He struggled from Qi Refining all the way to the Great Ascension stage, only to uncover a shocking secret when he ascended: the vast Tianhu Realm was actually the purple-green gourd Taishang Laojun used to store his pills! By a twist of fate, he became a disciple of Laojun, entered the Celestial Court as a mere registered heavenly soldier, and, under Laojun's secret arrangements, took on the identity of Sha Wujing to infiltrate the chess game of the Journey to the West. He secretly allied with the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, stole the Buddhist sect's fortune as the master and disciples journeyed west, then revealed his true form and turned the Spirit Mountain upside down…