Author's Note
Quick heads-up before you start.
So… this chapter is just the prologue, but I swear it'll only take about a minute to read. I promise.
This is my first novel, and I'm learning as I go. The early chapters are part of that process—but the story builds fast.
Things start kicking off around Chapter 3, and by Chapter 12–13, the story really finds its rhythm and starts hitting hard.
If you enjoy dark progression, power growth, and watching a character get pushed past his limits, I think it'll be worth sticking with.
Thanks for giving Curse of Shadows a shot. I appreciate you taking a chance on a new author, and I hope you enjoy the ride.
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The Philosopher's Stone stayed dark.
Six-year-old Leo pressed his small, trembling hand against its cold surface, pushing with all his might as if his will alone could force a response. Beside him, other children touched the stone, and for each, it answered with a faint, hopeful glow—a shimmer of pale light and gentle warmth that confirmed the presence of chi, the promise of a future.
But for him, there was nothing.No warmth.No light.Just cold, dead stone.
The village healer, a man with kind eyes and tired hands, sighed softly. He placed a hand on Leo's shoulder, his touch gentle but final. "I'm sorry, Matron," he said, his voice low, directed at the anxious woman standing behind them. "There's no resonance. No core formation. Nothing."
He looked down at Leo, and his expression wasn't cruel. It was worse. It was pity.
"The boy is… empty. I'm afraid he'll never become a cultivator."
Matron Elara didn't cry. That would have been a mercy. Instead, a light in her eyes went out, a flicker of hope she'd been nurturing for six years finally extinguished. Her hand, which had been resting on Leo's other shoulder, fell away.
Leo didn't understand the words. Not then. But he understood the silence that followed. He understood the other children taking a half-step back. He understood the feeling of his Matron's hand leaving his shoulder.
He was six years old, and he had just been declared a failure by the world itself.
That was ten years ago.
In a world where cultivation is life, Leo Yeager was born dead. He just hadn't had the sense to lie down.
And one day, the world would learn how dangerous a corpse could be.