Left-Handed Ways and Byways

Left-Handed Ways and Byways is an urban cultivation (xiuzhen) web novel by Velver, serialized and completed on Qidian, running to roughly 10.13 million Chinese characters and concluding with Chapter 2015. The four-character title is given a second meaning by the author: in the protagonist Shen Lang's personal lexicon, "left" is the innate, extraordinary power of his left hand; "way" is the cultivation practice on which he builds his life; "byways" are the people around him who either help him rise or scheme against him; and "gate" is the entrance fate has arranged for him. Set against a modern metropolis, the story also folds in sect rivalries, clan feuds and battles with demonic beasts from the cultivation world. Shen Lang has been precocious and steady since childhood and possesses a rare foundation for chaste martial training; maneuvering within tight rules and layered constraints, he deals with the conventional cultivation system by means of his left-hand power and gradually establishes a foothold among the various factions. Rather than Wish-fulfillment one-sided crushing, the novel emphasizes social savvy, subtext and self-navigation under constraint, which split readers' opinions sharply at the time: some reread it again and again, while others found the prose understated and hard to grasp at first glance. It belongs to an early wave of urban-cultivation-plus-cheat novels, was never formally published in print, and circulated mainly through web serialization and fan-made proofread editions.