Ninefold Armor Breaker

In an empire of nine hundred provinces, power belongs to those who survive the Jade Path—a brutal trial that separates warriors from true cultivators. Jiang Xuan, a greenhorn spearman from remote Ying Province, discovers another way forward when a desert journey forces him to question everything he's been taught. Armed with Black Rhinoceros, a seven-foot spear that has never tasted blood, he rides out to challenge a world far vaster and deadlier than he imagined. Imperial clans scheme, martial halls compete, and ancient secrets wait to be uncovered. No systems. No reincarnation. Just one youth…