Xiao Haotian, a 103-year-old herb gatherer, lives alone in a thatched hut behind Qingniu Village. His wife is dead and his son has passed away. He has spent his whole life gathering herbs to make a living. Seventy years ago, Qingyun Sect came down from the mountain to test spiritual aptitude, accepting only youths under sixteen. Too old to qualify, he was turned away, and his dream of immortality was put on hold.
As his lifespan nears its end and he lies on the brink of death, the unremarkable gray stone bead left behind by his late wife finally reveals its strange power. Known as the Chaos Pearl, it cannot speak and only circulates power by instinct, extending his lifespan by an entire year.
Determined to seize this last chance, Xiao Haotian shoulders the herb hoe that has been with him for half his life and heads for Qingyun Sect's aptitude-testing platform. At a hundred years old, he is found to possess a Chaos Spiritual Root, a rarity unseen for countless ages. But with his body aged and his remaining lifespan short, he can only enter Qingyun Sect as a menial disciple at Hundred Herbs Peak.
Medicinal herbs cover the mountain, and the Chaos Pearl can purify all things: ordinary plants can become spirit herbs, and discarded pills can be refined and reused. But the threat of his dwindling lifespan, rejection within the sect, secret covetous eyes drawn by his treasure, and mysteries buried in his late wife's past all come one after another.
So what if he is in his twilight years? This white-haired old man will still fight for a chance at immortality of his own.
