He starts from nothing, and every gain is graded in blood.
Greg is born the night his clan dies. A maid carries him past the cull line and pays with her life. A deserter cultivator hides the baby under a false name in a border village. Nobody asks what the name hides, and neither does the boy, not for years.
He grows up poor, learns to survive, and feels a pull he cannot name. Then the beasts come, the villages go quiet, and his teacher vanishes. Left with one aim: become a cultivator.
A gritty, slowburn survival that leans on realism and holds dark fantasy, mystery vibe, romance, psychological, kingdom building, adventure, and betrayal.
