Returning from the Immortal Path

Immortal Path Homeward is a classical xianxia web novel by Su Meijing, serialized on Qidian Female Network from June to October 2011, totaling approximately 414,500 characters across four volumes and 142 chapters. The work is built around the core idea that "no golden nest or silver nest compares to one's own humble home; neither the immortal realm nor the demon realm compares to one's original world." Tang Qing, a modern teenage girl who has just finished the college entrance examination, is accidentally swept away by a monstrous beast into a cultivation otherworld known as the Great Wasteland. Determined to return to her original world, she is rescued by Qin Luo in Qin Town, begins by learning the written language and basic spells of the Great Wasteland, and then sets off to cultivate at the Xuantian Sect. The book unfolds her path of growth across four volumes—First Arrival in an Alien World, Years Within the Sect, Struggle at the Summit, and the Long-Thought Illusion Realm: the sect's rules are strict and forbidding, factional strife among its affiliated branches simmers beneath the surface, and secret realm trials and disputes over spiritual treasures arrive one after another. Tang Qing's modern way of thinking collides with the cultivation logic of the otherworld; through repeated crises she builds her foundation, makes friends, and learns to judge human nature, while gradually touching upon the truth behind the cultivation system and the conspiracies of the alien realm. As the saying goes, "The immortal path is long and demands relentless seeking"—the Dao she pursues points toward homecoming. In the ending, Tang Qing returns to her original life, and her friends from the Great Wasteland also come to her world by means of a newly developed magical artifact, thus connecting the two realms. The work features no male lead, with sect conflict, karmic reincarnation, and the bonds of friendship forming its narrative skeleton.