Before It Was Named

Sylas grew up on a farm. When he leaves home to begin cultivating, he expects to spend the next few years learning the things every young cultivator is supposed to learn: how to cultivate, how to survive, and how to find his place in a world shaped by sects and old traditions. Things don’t quite work out that way. An unexpected inheritance gives Sylas access to a place he doesn’t understand and very little guidance on what to do with it. So he does what comes naturally. He observes. He experiments. He keeps a ledger. As Sylas travels beyond the life he knew, he encounters strange creatures, unfamiliar cultivation traditions, ancient places, and people with very different ideas about how the world works. He isn’t looking for the ultimate technique or the fastest path to power. He mostly wants to understand what he’s looking at. It turns out that’s a surprisingly complicated way to live.