The First Step: Deluxe Collector's Edition (A Thousand Li #1)

A Gorgeous 5-Year Anniversary Deluxe Edition to Celebrate the Beloved A Thousand Li Series

The base book features acid-free paper, smyth-sewn binding and gold gilded page edges. Additionally, it has an embossed and foiled satin silk-bound case with art from Ambi Sun and a reversible, double-sided dust jacket featuring custom art from Daxiong and typography by Sarah Anderson Designs.

The interior gets even better! Every book will be hand-signed, with gold-colored endpapers and embellished chapter headings designed by Petr Donat. Keep on turning the pages and you’ll find five exclusive illustrated scenes by Daxiong and a character glossary with brushwork portraits of four of the main characters.

Features:

About the Story:

"This book is fused with magic and wonder and some of the most kick ass, heart-pounding action sequences I've ever read." —Matt Dinniman, New York Times bestselling author of Dungeon Crawler Carl

A farmer's son should never have had a chance at immortality.

Wu Ying's future was simple: tend the fields, care for his family, and live out his days in a quiet village. But when he's conscripted into the army and marched off to war, that future is ripped away.

On the battlefield, a single moment changes everything.

After spotting an ambush that saves countless lives, Wu Ying catches the attention of the Verdant Green Waters sect, one of the empire's powerful cultivation schools. Offered a chance few commoners ever receive, he leaves behind the mortal world he knows and enters a realm of martial arts, spirit beasts, ancient mysteries, and immortals.

But talent alone won't keep him alive.

Surrounded by gifted nobles, rival disciples, and deadly enemies, Wu Ying must fight for every scrap of progress. The path to immortality is paved with hardship, sacrifice, and danger—and one wrong step could cost him everything.

The First Step is the first book in the complete A Thousand Li series, a cultivation epic featuring deep progression, immersive worldbuilding, martial arts mastery, spirit beasts, and a classic underdog rise to power.