Qi Condensation. Foundation Establishment. Core Formation. In the current world, only these three realms are known to be achievable. Nascent Soul is but a legend and the realms above it lost to the the long river of time. The modern era is known as Cultivation Civilization, a balance of power and civility, excess and moderation. While cultivation remains a secret practice, it has long since exposed itself to the mundane world, quietly intertwined with each facet of society. While the world appears to be at peace, what lies underneath is a conflict between human, cultivator, and demon, brewing for ages and waiting to implode. Yet in the wake of humanity’s rapid industrialization, qi—and consequently cultivation—is dying.

Besieged on all sides by demon and human, Xu Yangyi, our protagonist, strives to reach the apex, armed only with esoteric knowledge and his cool pragmatism, and to avenge the unjust deaths of both his parents. Embroiled in conspiracy and with adversity waiting at each turn, he is undeterred in his conquest to seek the Grand Dao and break free of this world’s shackles, claiming his title as the pioneer of an era!

When his parents' blood turned cold in the cracks of the bluestone, Li Feng understood: If you want to live, you have to be dirtier than evil people and more despicable than mud!

Kneeling and licking the Black Tiger Gang? Voluntarily practicing the life-shortening Five Poison Palm? Using his subordinates as sacrifices? Selling his affectionate Taoist partner to be used as a furnace? As long as he can climb up, he won't blink an eye!

The body is exhausted? Turned into a corpse! The soul is on the verge of collapse? Ten thousand ghosts are imprisoned in the body! The power is complicated and difficult to control? Bet your life on the unity of body and soul!

From then on, the black market had an extra walking taboo, with corpses as coffins and ghosts as servants, and wherever the blood mist of the underworld passed, the souls of all living beings became nutrients!

> When he sat in the false god realm formed by the swallowing of the blessed land, fishing for a thousand years... what he was fishing for was no longer fish.

(From a maggot in the mud to a great evil being that eclipses the heavens and the earth!)