![Beyond the Desolation [Cultivation, Isekai]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.royalroadcdn.com%2Fpublic%2Fcovers-large%2Fbeyond-the-desolation-aada8ji-6hc.jpg%3Ftime%3D1762497142&w=640&q=75)
by JakHaxor
Seth was a former electrician in his 40s who lost it all. Dying of cancer, homeless, and abandoned, he was sure all that awaited him was a quiet end under a bridge. Then he stumbled through a portal into a wasteland. That was bad enough. The first people who found him? Cultivators who were short one body for their sect initiation, and wouldn't take no for an answer. Less than one percent of all initiates survive the process. To succeed, he'll have to outlast hundreds of younger, healthier initiates. Some of whom have already been set up to come out on top. On top of that, his cancer seems to be waking up. And it's hungry. The price of failure? To be refined into pills. How far will he go to survive? Violence and cheating are the norm in this world. He has everything to gain and nothing to lose, so he'll pull out all the stops. At least, he thinks he has nothing to lose. But cultivation is a path to eternity, and there are worse fates than being refined into pills. What to expect: - Weak to godlike cultivation progression. - Cultivation with body horror elements. Content warnings: Profanity, graphic violence, mental health, torture, self-harm. New chapters on: Sun/Tue/Thu
No streak history
Rank updated 13 Aug 2026, 04:15 UTC
Entry forecast updated 13 Aug 2026, 04:15 UTC
Overall Rising Stars shadow rank
deep field · ~#4099 of 7,531 · 4049 below #50
By genre
beats 78% of similar stories
not enough data yet
beats 47% of similar stories
Mid-pack, room on both levers
Traffic and conversion both sit mid-field for a story this size. Growth here compounds from consistency: steady cadence feeds traffic, and a sharper hook lifts what each view is worth.
At this conversion, the Action Rising Stars bar (≈8 new followers/day) costs about 2.5k views/day — the story currently gets ~119.
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 50–149 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views over the recent window.