The Road to Heaven

The Road to Heaven is a long xianxia (immortal-hero) novel by the web author Wu Zui. Serialized on Zongheng Chinese Network, it built a large readership over the years and was adapted into the animated series The King of Loose Cultivators and an audio drama of the same name. The story begins in Lingyue City on the Tianxuan Continent, where the protagonist Wei Suo is a low-ranking rogue cultivator of humble birth whose entire fortune amounts to a few low-grade spirit stones. Cheated in a trade, he ends up with nothing but a damaged low-level magical artifact. Unexpectedly, the worthless junk everyone else dismisses harbors a dormant artifact spirit that has lived for tens of thousands of years—and from then on becomes his noisy yet vastly knowledgeable "old senior." Wei Suo soon discovers that, compared with tens of thousands of years ago, many once-rare materials for talisman crafting and pill refining are now everywhere, and with his knowledge of a bygone age he sees his chance to rise: starting by trading materials and crafting fire talismans, he gradually refines talismans and pills, forges artifacts and sets formations, accumulating resources and advancing his cultivation in the cracks of the rogue cultivator world. He is no hero—cowardly, greedy, and shameless without being lewd, he habitually relies on petty tricks and "sleazy" tactics to escape trouble, yet in crucial moments he honors loyalty and stands by his friends. As he advances through the realms of Shenhai, Zhoutian, Fennian, Jindan, Shenxuan, and Zhenxian, Wei Suo rises from a street-level rogue cultivator to a far wider world, sharing adventures, treasure hunts, and spell battles with his confidantes and sworn brothers, until at last he sets foot on the "road to heaven" that leads to the summit. Briskly paced and packed with gags, the book has a spoofing, streetwise flavor and stands as one of the representative male-oriented cultivation novels known for their humor.