The Salt & The Sky [Complete; Stubbed]

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

The earth is an endless stretch of barren waste, the sky a shattered, dead corpse, and the inhabitants crazed gangs of bloodthirsty marauders.

This is the world of a Salt, a world that Lu, average disciple of the Steadfast Heart Sect, has appeared within. A lowly Outer Disciple, Lu never had any aspirations to power, to attaining the unknowable highest realms of cultivation, or even to a comfortable life as an Elder. But now, thrust into a hostile world that rejects his very being, he'll need to gather all the strength he can just to survive.

An isekai/cultivation mashup, starring a man from a xianxia world thrown into one with a different system. I hope you find reading it as interesting as I do writing it.

This novel is completed. All books are available onAmazonin both kindle and paperback form.

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2022
Author: FuzzyZergling

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.5/ 5.0
Followers: 157
Views: 37,046

Reviews

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Community Reviews(8)

dexexe1234Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The way this world is constructed feels right from the getgo like the author has thought about how this place works for a long time. There is weight to the actions of the people who live in this world, little hints to deeper stories that could be told from even the simplest of side characters.
I will honestly probably return to this story again and re-read it in the future, a thing I don't often do. I want to know more of the world called Salt, and eagerly await the coming chapters.
this story is deeply recommended!
Craig CraigRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Awesome world building, great characters, and some snappy dialog: everything about this story is great. You are probably already familiar with the tropes: cultivation and isekai, but using familiar tropes is a benefit when they are executed this well.
Try the first few chapters and you too will be hooked.
Forgettable MinionRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Style:
The story has a whimsical and homorous vibe, which works for it. Maybe part of this may be just Lu's POV. Regardless it works.
Love the hilariously plain and mundane naming conventions such as "Junk Dog the Immense" and "The Joeists"
Story Score:
After the 1st chapter or two the story transitions into Lu's isekai into a different cultivation world. It's definitely a original and unique setting for cultivation story and the lore is still being explored.
Not too spoilerfic to also say his homeworld seems like it will still maintain some plot relevance. At the moment he's just trying to get back.
Character score:
Lu is set up as one of the typical xianxia MC archetypes. The talented guy who hit a bottleneck and was outpaced. He even has a local beauty who rejected him!
He is an interesting subversion in many key ways. He's not bitter and vengeful, and dare I say he's even content with his position of what seems to be relative comfort in the outer sect, no drive to be the greatest there ever was and so on. His POV gives me the impression of a soft and sensitive guy, which is somewhat subversive for a xianxia MC lmao.
Interesting to see how such a content character, happy with the slow pace of his life back home, is transformed by what he has to do to survive in this new world. I'm interested to see which djrection his character goes.
Grammar:
Some minor typoshere and there, but nothing immersion breaking, haven't seen any in newer chapters.
FrogblinRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The Salt and Sky has raised my expectation of portal fantasy. If you clicked this story expecting a cookie-cutter isekai, you have made the best mistake of your life.
Rather than a cliche medieval world with a new coat of paint over it, this one is truly alien and bizarre. Our protagonist explores the physiology, culture, and respective cultivation of this new dimension's inhabitants in hopes of returning to his home. Along the way, he must get stronger to survive. His path to gaining power is labyrinthine; Lu has to back-track, break through bottle-necks, and befriend the locals to progress.
While the worldbuilding is certainly no slouch, the characters in this story steal the show, along with the power system and how it's explored by Lu. Story can feel aimless at times, but it's easy to get through with how likable the characters are. Lu makes even the most tedious things entertaining. Give it a try!
GrumpyPotatoRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
In a pretty stale genre full of clichés this isekai story is a breath of fresh air. The author takes every aspect that makes the concept of waking up in a different world interesting and uses them to form a coherent and creative story.
The protagonist, Lu, is an actual character, with interests and flaws. His worldviews and morals repeatedly get challenged throughout the story, forcing him to adapt to his new environment and develop as a person.
His old world isn't just forgotten and except for the rare sad flashback never brought up again. Instead it serves as both a goal for Lu and a source of mystery and conflict.
The cultivation-adjacent magic system is complex enough to give both meaningful short- and long-term progression goals without getting to bogged down in chapters full of useless details. The author uses Lu's knowledge of the cultivation of his old world to both give him sufficient advantages compared to the natives (there are few things that make me get bored of a story faster than a character being completely powerless) without making it too easy for him (one of those few things being OP characters). Seeing Lu research the magic system and search for creative solutions to his unique problems with it was actually one of my favourite parts of this story. Every step of progression is planned and deserved by the protagonist, he never just stumbles over power-ups. Meanwhile he repeatedly meets characters far beyond his own level of power, making me look forward to seeing how far he can and will go.
My favourite thing about the story is the world-building however. I'm a sucker for a well thought out world and exploring this one together with Lu is fascinating. An apocalyptic wasteland full of weird creatures and constant powerstruggles with more than a hint of eldritch horror mixed in is basically a checklist of everything I love in fantasy and exactly what I like to read and privately write shitty WIPs about. The natives aren't just slightly different looki
Jamond ArothRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The Salt & The Sky is a pretty great story in my opinion. There are a lot of things it does not just well but excellently. The setting, specifically the world of Salt, is one of those points of excellence. It isn't all that often that I read a xianxia story with such an original setting. It's easily one of my favorite aspects of the story. If you enjoy xianxia but would like something with originality, this story delivers that in spades.
One of the other things I really love about this story is how it handles the isekai. We get an explanation for how it happens, so it doesn't get brushed off or ignored and remains relevant to the plot going forward. There's another major element regarding the way the story handles the isekai that I like below. I suggest discovering it for yourself by reading the story but if you don't mind being spoiled:
Unlike a lot of isekai stories, the MC doesn't just end up in a new world and then spend the rest of his life there. He actually manages to make it back to his original world in two or three arcs. Rather than just being a story about a single person from one world ending up in another, it's more a story of two different worlds interacting. I tend to love that kind of thing, it's one of the reasons I love space operas so much, so seeing it here adds a lot of value to the story for me.
I personally don't have any problem with it, I in fact like it, but for some people, the fact that this story uses multiple povs at times may be an issue. For those people, what I can say is that it's mainly if not entirely done in interludes, so it really isn't too common. At least as things currently stand, this isn't close to, say, Game of Thrones in terms of pov shifts and the cast of characters. So, I really wouldn't worry too much about it unless pov shifts are a major red flag for you.
Yet another appealing aspect of this story is the magic system/cultivation. This is one of the few areas that almost always sees some degree of modi
Bruh momentumRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
What an isekai should be like. I had made a lot assumptions reading this, thinking it would be just like any other isekai. Thankfully I was wrong. The setting is wonderfully fresh and intriguing. The protagonist is no slouch either. Hes kind of a goofball but he's not stupid. Anyways, please give this a read. Highly underrated
Lordalton56Royal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Well shit, and MC with some actual characterisation and personality. That's a pretty rare find.
The MCs general attitude is something of a breath of fresh air in the genre. It's also pretty damn funny.
We're still really early in the story but I have been impressed with the lead, the world, and am definitely intrigued by the system.