A town put to the sword. The young forcibly recruited. An old man out for revenge.
After his town is put to the sword and the children are taken to replace the fallen, an old man is out for revenge. He’s ready to fail at the most difficult challenge in the world: cultivation.
Too corrupted to even take the first steps, the sly old elder simply agreed with those who told him that it was impossible. Then he quietly ignored them, rubbed his hands together, and started anyway. He had always failed in what he did: he lost his way from the academy, his command was devastated by a Mage, he lost his town, and now his last hopes for the future had been stolen by a group of raiders. The only thing that had never failed him was his sharp mind and philosophy. He would cultivate... no matter what it cost him.
A lifetime of failure can dull and dampen a soul. A reason to live, a goal, can change that in an instant. It is always darkest just before the dawn.
My Opinion: 448 pages, $4.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited
I liked this story, but not nearly as much as the main Divine Dungeon series. If you're expecting that kind of dungeon core story, you will be disappointed.
I'd read part of this novel as part of it was released as a short story. Like that short story the early part of this novel, the first 25%, doesn't feel like it's related to the divine dungeon universe at all. It feels more like a fantasy story. But after the 25% mark, things shift and familiar elements come into the story. Essence, cultivation, mages, dungeons, etc. Familiar groups vying to control this area and its essence.
There's a huge amount of character development in the first and last quarter part of the novel with some major cultivation in between. At the 62% mark you get back to the story and main conflict, the MC now a cultivator.
Unfortunately, this isn't a LitRPG novel. Unlike the divine dungeon series, the use of clearly understood and repeatable techniques to gain rank doesn't exist for the MC. It still exists for everyone else, but the MC uses new experimental techniques he makes up to gain his powers and there's no clear way to track his progress. Even in the story the other cultivators mention it. Instead the story is more about the theory and process of cultivation (60% of the story) which makes it more of a cultivation novel.
Overall a well written cultivation novel.
Score: 7.4 out of 10