Deep Roots : Chronicles of Othara

Niu Chénrán is eight years old when his father sends him downriver to the capital with a sealed letter, a wooden practice sword, and eighteen days to prepare for an imperial examination he has no business sitting. His father is an herb merchant in a frontier garrison town. Not a scholar. Not a cultivator. A man who spent twelve years building contacts, sourcing bitter teas, and hiring tutors he couldn't afford, all for a son who might have spiritual roots he's never been tested for. The examination is the first door. Behind it is a second: a screening conducted by the Jade Throne Sect that will determine whether Chénrán's body holds something the empire both needs and fears. If the screening finds nothing, he returns to a promising bureaucratic career. If it finds something, the life his father planned closes behind him, and a harder one opens ahead. This is not a story about a boy who discovers he is special and ascends to power. This is a story about a boy who learns to build, one careful day at a time, the foundation that will hold whatever he eventually chooses to become. The start is intentionally slow as the protagonist is young (he will grow older), I am the owner and author of this story, this world is my own and I welcome you to explore it :D