Way of Choices
Mao Ni
To pick is to choose. In a world where a mystical meteor's runes taught humanity the Dao, fourteen-year-old orphan Chen Changsheng leaves his master to cure his terminal illness and change his fate. Carrying a marriage vow to the capital, he enters the run-down Orthodox Academy as its only student and begins the journey of a rising Daoist hero - cultivating through Purification, surviving Ivy Festival conspiracies, and climbing the ranks of the Grand Examination against the geniuses of the Mount Li Sword Sect and southern sects.
Progression: Xianxia cultivation advancement is central: humanity comprehends the Dao from meteor-carved runes and cultivates through staged breakthroughs (Purification to become a true cultivator). Chen Changsheng climbs the Orthodox Academy path and competes in the ranked Grand Examination (banners and ranks, e.g. aiming for first rank of the first banner), with sect/academy hierarchies (Orthodox Academy, Ivy Academies, Mount Li Sword Sect) structuring advancement. Per-volume blurbs explicitly track cultivation milestones and examination rank progression.
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