Elder Cultivator

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Anton is a great-grandfather. He is living quite a happy life, despite his advanced age and declining health… until a group of cultivator bandits moves into the area. The nearby guardians of the area, the Order of Ninety-Nine Stars, are unable to track them down as they continue to ravage nearby towns.During one desperate winter Anton is out on a hunt when his family- his entire village- is killed or taken as slaves by the bandits. He lacks the strength to fight them, and he wasn’t even present for their arrival to die with his loved ones. At the pit of his despair, he wonders if he ever had any chance to change things. What could he even do? He cannot even pull his best bow, and his eyesight is failing. If he had been a cultivator… perhaps there might have been a chance, but he was decades- perhaps even most of his life- too late.

Participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge (2022)

Notes on cultivation levels:

There are five general stages of cultivation, though the fifth is extremely rare. Each cultivation style might have their own name for the stages.

1. Body Tempering

2. Spirit Building/ occasionally System Creation (Ninety-Nine Stars)

3. Constellation Formation (Ninety-Nine Stars)

4. Life Transformation/Galaxy Construction (Ninety-Nine Stars)

5. Ascension

Cover picture courtesy of gej302.

Information

Status
Hiatus
Year
2021
Author
Halosty

Tags

ACTIONFANTASYADVENTUREMARTIAL ARTSSTRONG LEADMALE LEADCULTIVATION

Royal Road Stats

Rating
4.4/ 5.0
Followers
3,620
Views
9,771,453

Chapters(1408 total)

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

  • ZrenRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    A worthwhile endeavor is rarely short. This is double true with Elder Cultivator. From the promise of death for an old man just starting his journey to planets full of the local fauna gaining sentience this is a worthwhile endeavor indeed at over 1400 chapters. Thank you for the story.
  • SchusfusterRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    So, no huge changes to the Cultivator mythos here, what makes it really gripping is the MC's drive, he's an elderly grandparent whose whole village is wiped out by Bandits while he's out hunting.
    There's so much perspective here on the purpose, meaning, and responsibility of power, the ethics of international revenge, the drive to succeed and grow in context of our connections in society and in spite of how we perceive ourselves.
    It's a good mix of action, introspection, mentoring, etc, rather than "young turk with system solos everything and needs nobody".
    Definitely worth a read.
  • Galaxy876Royal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    First off, not sure how accurate this to the character in the story, is but Anton is dark skinned on the cover. I appreciate that immensely, makes it almost a breeze to connect with him as an old, stubborn, loving great grandad.
    This old dog is learning new tricks though, and that's the focus of the story. He has certain talents that are slowly being uncovered and that's a pleasant joy in and of itself, plus seeing his take on cultivation as an aged person pleasant but also strange because he's really a nice person so he doesn't even feel stubborn like how you think he should be since he's old.
    The take on his vultivation sect is also new. They're nice, first of all. No young masters anywhere (you know the type). It's just people, wanting to be better, getting an opportunity to do that, no strings regardless of age or background.
    Read it. It's not the most dramatic story, but it's worth the read.
  • Moon_WinchesterRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Everheart is a Asshole. Everheart is a Great. Everheart makes you question what reality is when 10% of supposed futures have been taken by him. Everheart is annoying. Everheart is endearing. Everheart is many. Everheart is one. Nobody knows where Everheart even if he tells them. Everheart is alive. Everheart is dead. Everheart has risen from the grave to make you pay for your debt.
  • pyroxcatRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Just love the refreshing new take on cultivation story where the MC starts as an already old person. Love how this story's MC reads like a wise old man compared to someone who is written as an old person but in the end has the mentality of a teenager.
    So far it has been a great read, lets see how it keeps up in the future.
    My only negative with the story would be how fast the chapters seem to just breeze by.
  • gej302Royal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    TL;DR:  Read this one, it's worth the time.  Strongly recommend!  You can spend your time reading my review if you like, but that's time you could spend reading this story.  Feel free to come back when you're caught up.
    From horror and righteous anger, an old man will rise to become an avenger.  This is the Punisher story with an unlikely hero.  They killed his family, but they missed him, and that was the big mistake.  I can't go into much more detail outside of adding spoilers, but that's pretty much covered in the blurb.
    Style:  Clean and clear.  3rd person limited following the MC, with some inside information about the thoughts of the character as well as the external events.
    Story: Not 100% original, but told in a new way.  A simple man who lived a simple life.  Did right by his family, but tragedy struck in the form of human evil and now he's out to strike back.  We get a glimpse of the peace before it is stolen from him.  Elements of Punisher and John Wick, only with an old man as the unlikely but very motivated "hero".
    Grammar:  Tight.  No glaring errors.  Nothing that stands out and makes my pretty sensitive eyeballs even twitch.  Not "RR good" just plain out excellent, even trad pub quality.
    Character:  Believable, relatable, and oh so heartbreakingly real.  It hurts to watch the events unfold, even knowing how the story starts from the blurb only takes the edge off the pain.
  • Jurak LucaisRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Great book, there was only one other elder cultivation book before this and that wasn't as realistic as this one is. The cultivation aspect as well as culture are all a unique variation although some of this variation does make it vaguer than it otherwise should be. I would recommend adding a bit more cliche to cultivation as sometimes the connotations a cliche has are beneficial to quick understanding amongst the readers. Further it has amazing upload consistency, so well that I infact think we're looking at a royalroad future classic, not to mention we will see this story completed. It helps that the plot is written in very realistic and reachable strokes.
    Good job and I'll continue to avidly read!
  • MacheteRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    This story is a great find! While the title indicates an old man as the MC-and he is- the author enjoys creating a whole universe full of interesting and diverse characters that all have their own life and story. These stories are often connected, of course, which helps to keep the world alive and changing as you read.
    A personal peeve of mine is how often authors on this site write their dialog using slang and modern vocabulary that I often feel created a dissonance between the world they are creating and the character living in it. This author writes his characters and dialog in a way that feels much more authentic to the world they are creating.
    This is a cultivation story at the core, but the author takes us through a tour of this universe where people are more than just superhuman killers. The author uses this story to explore how cultivation could affect more than a person's strength. This story has a little bit of everything in it: slice of life, action, intrigue, character growth. The list goes on and on, and so does the story! The author has created a world that is fun to explore, and they are still going strong guiding us through this world in a grand story!
  • noksRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    Very clean and shows the author's experience.
    It's a pretty good xianxia with emphasis on decent characters. The world building is decent but the characters are given more focus. It's not that the world building is particularly bad, it just doesn't get into the nitty-gritty until far into the story. It's fine tho, it focuses on what currently matters and allows you to settle in. It's a great xianxia read for fans who are tired of the repetitive nonsense (tho of course sometimes that's exactly what we want).
  • MxCrossbrandRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    I've sat here for a bit trying to figure out how exactly I'm going to approach reviewing this story. I wish RR had a 3/4 of a star mark, because there's plenty about this story that is perfectly executed. Of particular note are the elements of the story that draw upon real world science in regards to the elderly; something that many people don't seem to realize is the sort of life that the elderly tend to live in retirement homes (especially the inactivity) exacerbates the degradation of old age while the opposite is also true. Our protagonist being an outdoorsman despite pushing one hundred years old isn't as implausible as it might seem.
    However, some of the story beats in regards to cultivation feel a both a bit by the numbers and vague and not entirely convincing. It honestly isn't the biggest issue, its just weighed on my mind enough to drop the rating from 5 to 4.5. Time will tell if this improves.
    Oh, I forgot to mention that I greatly enjoy Anton as a character. He's very well written, and I've been able to emphathise with and appreciate him quite easily.