Ancestor of Vegetation

Planting Ancestor is a fantasy novel by Qidian author "I Am the Dragon," categorized under "Otherworldly Continent." Completed in late 2013, it spans approximately 2.486 million Chinese characters across 824 chapters. The protagonist, Wang Yuefeng, is a direct disciple of Chen-style Tai Chi and former captain of China's "Black Eagle" special forces, later joining the state security system. After being betrayed by a traitor close to him and shot, he transmigrates to the Four Symbols Continent, a world structured around the four divine beasts: Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise. In this world, cultivation centers on "spirit": practitioners are divided into professions such as spirit healers, spirit herbalists, spirit planters, and spirit array masters, with ranks progressing from apprentice to member to scholar, then to master, grandmaster, and supreme master, and further to king, emperor, and sovereign, up to the "ancestor" level. Attributes encompass metal, wood, water, fire, earth, ice, light, darkness, wind, lightning, and space, while soul tiers are graded in gray, white, red, yellow, orange, blue, cyan, gold, and purple. The protagonist hails from Dan'er Town in the southern part of the Yu Soul Empire, adjacent to the Misty Forest. His family has fallen into decline, and he suffers from hidden injuries that leave him at death's door. Yet with his rare spiritual aptitude, he integrates with Tai Chi's principle of yin-yang harmony and forges a unique path of cultivation—planting the Dao, controlling spirit herbs, nurturing spirit plants, and refining spirit medicines—rising against all odds. The novel follows the "geniuses don't need to keep a low profile" power-fantasy formula: vying for a master's sect, battling rival families, venturing into the forest, and fighting powerful enemies. The protagonist is bold and decisive, and the pacing is brisk, balancing detailed cultivation-system worldbuilding with face-slapping reversals—a quintessential male-oriented otherworldly hot-blooded growth story.