Qi Like Tar [XianXia, Progression Fantasy]

Talent is measured by speed—and Kong Paike’s qi flows like tar. After awakening years behind his peers, Paike finally enters the Grand Sect with one expectation: keep his head down, avoid embarrassing his family, and survive long enough to become useful. In a world ruled by Immortals, where students fight over housing, resources, rankings, and the right to advance, being slow is more than shameful. It's dangerous. But Paike’s so-called flaw has strange properties. The same qi that refuses to flow also refuses to be moved. Poisonous mist seeps into him too slowly. Spiritual pressure struggles to shake him. And when a young master’s fire technique comes for his face, Paike discovers that tar may not be graceful—but it can be stubborn enough to stand against flame. Now ranked among the sect’s most promising new disciples by accident, Paike finds himself surrounded by prodigies, nobles, scholarship monsters, and young masters eager to test the Kong family’s so-called disgrace. His sister is brilliant. His new roommate may be a natural cultivator. His enemies are already stronger, richer, and better connected. And Paike may have stumbled onto a path no true genius could walk. In the Grand Sect, the weak are crushed, the talented are rewarded, and the slow are left behind. Unless they refuse to move. Qi Like Tar is a Xianxia Progression Fantasy featuring sect politics, cultivation ranks, martial trials, arrogant young masters, found allies, and a weak-to-strong protagonist whose greatest flaw may become his most dangerous advantage.