Cultivation Nerd 2

A Xianxia Progression Fantasy

By: HolyMouse

Narrated by: John Pirhalla

The world of cultivation is brutal, unforgiving, and often rigged in favor of the talented. But sometimes, sheer intelligence is the deadliest weapon of all.

Being a cultivation nerd with mediocre talent in a sect full of geniuses is tough. But when the world descends into chaos, Liu Feng, a cautious bookworm, finds that reading books might just be the best defense.

Winter has arrived, bringing inevitable disaster to the Blazing Sun Sect. Monstrous beasts hungry for human flesh storm the territories. Liu Feng, with merely average talent (53 Spiritual Root branches), finds himself thrust into a bloody war, forcing him to ally with the maniacal and ruthlessly effective genius, Song Song.

Driven by survival instinct alone, Liu Feng must navigate the politics of the inner sect and ascend rapidly just to stay alive.

Book 2 on Liu Feng's quest to surpass all limits and defy the heavens, shattering the arrogance of all young masters on his way. It's perfect for fans of Unintended Cultivator, Cradle, and The First Law of Cultivation!

With nearly 11 million views on Royal Road, this popular web-serial has been completely revised and relaunched into this definitive version now coming to Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible, narrated by John Pirhalla!

©2025 Aethon Books (P)2025 Aethon Audio

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this is the first story that I've come across by this author. I really do tend to like the aethon books. so, I gave this one a shot. the first book obviously was good enough for me to come back for the sequel. in a sequel I'm basically looking for everything that made the first one worth it and then just a tad bit more. there are definitely some choices that the author made that I don't understand. maybe it will become clearer in book 3 or a later sequel if the author chooses to go beyond a trilogy. then there were scenes in this entry into the story that I really did not like. that's more personal preference. I want to say that the narrator did a pretty good job. there's a couple of places where I noticed that something written in the ebook doesn't appear in the audio. I do play back in a faster speed and sometimes follow along in the ebook to maintain that speed. I know that I'm coming back for book 3. in fact I probably won't. book series got a March 2026 release date for those who will be coming back. my final thoughts are that if this was the third or fourth story that I had consumed from this author there would have been a level of trust built up because this is the first one and as far as I know the first story the authors ever written, barring any unknown pen names, it's just not there.

narration level decreases

Enjoyed the story but the narrator is doing a noticeable worse job than last book. It feels like he is rushing through in one breath and I've put the speed on .8 to get the same tempo as last book but even then it's a lot more flat. I'm listening back to back so it was very noticeable.

good book, but sounds really flat

This book sounds like it was read in one breath outside of dialogue. the book itself is pretty fun but the reading is driving me insane.

love the series.

the narrator was a little fast in the story telling. was better in last book.

Very good.

I'm unsure where the story is going because MC is backing an unhinged character, but I'm still excited to experience the journey!
narrator mixes up voices sometimes like in the first book. it's mostly fine but occasionally confusing. he's really good otherwise.
ALSO, there seems to be an editing issue? some of the names are wrong in scenes. they'll use a different character's name when they're obviously referring to someone else in the scene.