The Cast-Off Heir of the Immortal Sect

The Cast-Off Heir of the Immortal Sect is the first xianxia cultivation novel by the web author Hongmeng Shu, serialized on Qidian and running to roughly two million characters and 973 chapters. The protagonist, Shang Hao, is born into the Shang family of hidden cultivators and is its legitimate son, but through scheming within the family and the machinations of enemies he is cast out, his dantian damaged and his cultivation destroyed, falling from "family young master" to "cast-off heir." With nowhere to turn, he saves two people in succession, which triggers a great change in him and reveals a "heaven-reaching path" to immortality. Thereafter he makes his way in the mundane world—contracting barren hills, brewing liquor, building businesses—while accumulating "merit energy" through good deeds to repair his dantian, cleanse his marrow, temper his body, and re-enter the threshold of cultivation. As his cultivation grows, he moves from lone cultivator to sect member, is drawn into sect resource struggles, black-market deals, and family grudges, and presses on toward higher realms and a larger world. Featuring a dantian cultivation system and a "merit energy" mechanic, the book interweaves worldly business, sect intrigue, and cultivation rivalry—a typical modern cultivation power-fantasy.