Cycle of Soil

A young cultivator's experiments with spiritual gardens summon an unexpected inner power in the first installment of this slice-of-life cultivation fantasy.

Yan Venix is one of hundreds of the emperor's offspring who will never be heir. Despite this, he and his siblings are expected to be ambitious, leveraging their status to gain prestigious careers with the prospect of glory. But Venix prefers a quieter life as a student of spiritual agriculture. The quiet work of farming, not the political machinations of the palace, is what sets his heart ablaze.

But rather than the traditional rules for planting taught by the Herb Masters, Venix follows his intuition, trying to match the right elements to create harmony and balance. It is slow and arduous work, and repeatedly, his gardens fail. With no sect, master, or bloodline to back him up, Venix is a failure.

That is, until the day he finally succeeds in creating a field of pure, self-sustaining Harmony Qi—something even elite Spiritual Farmers cannot achieve—and awakens a dormant system that offers him a choice between three potential gifts: power over nature, immense physical strength, or a Spirit Garden within his soul.

For Venix, the choice is obvious. But once his inner Spirit Garden has taken root, it begins to evolve in unpredictable ways. Soon, a cultivation overload nearly destroys him, and a Demon Soul arises. Now, to reclaim both his body and his path, Venix must confront the truth: Harmony cannot exist without chaos . . .

The first volume of the hit LitRPG cultivation series—with nearly 600,000 views on Royal Road—now available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook!

Tropes include: underdog hero, coming of age, and reincarnation.