Planting Immortal Roots

Planting Immortal Roots is a classical xianxia web novel by Danbai, serialized online from May 2015 and completed in January 2016. At about 1.17 million characters, it belongs to the "waste-wood" strain of xianxia cultivation fiction. The story is set in a cultivation world where the strong prey on the weak and the great immortal sects monopolize the world's bounty. The protagonist, Lu Fan, comes from the streets, originally a youth in a low-tier gang called the Dirty Clothes Gang. He is tested as having a "chaotic immortal root," a mixed and worthless aptitude, and suffers discrimination and contempt. Amid the gang's conflicts, he unexpectedly obtains fortuitous encounters such as The Secret Record of Cultivation and thus sets foot on the path of cultivation. Thereafter, in places like Huangtan City, he accumulates resources through artifact refining and treasure hunting, and befriends a companion, Huangpu Yu. In the middle of the story, to find his sister and worldly spirit objects, he travels through the South Sea, the Flame Continent, and other places, braving perilous sites such as the Ancestral Dragon Palace and the Refining Spirit Secret Realm, and his cultivation rises all the way to the Dharma Form stage; later he is trapped on Devil Island, becomes alliance leader, advances to the Spirit Communication stage, and discovers the "Nine-Orifice Divine Stone from Beyond Heaven." After escaping, he settles old grudges, reunites with family and friends, then ascends to the immortal realm, encounters events such as the mines and the Tianzuo Sect, awakens the heavenly demon bloodline, rises to Great Luo Golden Immortal and Immortal King, and finally comprehends the source, resolves crises among the races, and becomes a sage. The book blends cultivation, artifact refining, and treasure hunting, with "replanting immortal roots and defying fate" as its main thread, telling the growth story of the loose cultivator Lu Fan fighting his way from the bottom to the peak of the human realm.