Making Connections discussion

Keon Shore

ARC requests! Read for free in exchange for a review. Thank you for your interest! Each reader, each review, is an active support for the author (me).

The Bad Apothecary is a grimdark fantasy novel with cultivation, corruption, and a heroine bound to it all. It's intimate, grotesque and full of power plays.

🔥 Injured and infected after a strange attack, Diwu is forced to trade her freedom to a ruthless organization in exchange for survival. But the infection won’t be cured… only endured

Her new masters send her, and a man whose fate is entangled with hers, to investigate her attacker and the name he used: The Bad Apothecary.

What they discover?
A legacy that isn't what it seems.
Enemies that should have destroyed each other long ago.
Corrupted techniques leaving bodies in the streets.
And something is awakening.

Diwu finds herself at the center of it all. And she may never walk away from it.

⚔️ Grimdark fantasy
🌌 Cultivation magic
🔥 Underdog female MC
⚙️ Magi-tech & modern social structures
🩸 Slow burn, character-driven arcs
🌏 Intricate worldbuilding
🕸️ Power plays, coercion & moral complexity
💀 Earned magic with consequences
🧠 Inspired by Asian cultures, Gödel, Jung & physics

❌ LitRPG / power fantasy
❌ Non-human races
❌ Overpowered MC
❌ Sandboxing MC while they power up
❌ Romantasy
❌ Easy answers
❌ Spoon-feeding readers
❌ Trope-autopilot

To give you a taste, the first chapter begins like this:

First, there was pain.

Sharp. Shifting. Alien.

It swallowed everything—her thoughts, her breath—until her world collapsed into a single, unbearable point.

Something snapped.

Awareness jolted back with a rush of adrenaline, but her mind was still thick with haze. Her body. There *was* a body.

Pressure.

Someone—on top of her.

Hands. Holding her arm.

That’s where the pain was.

*No.*

Diwu bucked without thinking. Without waiting to understand. Something invasive. Something *wrong.* And it *hurt.* She didn’t need to know more.

The man cursed, struggling to keep hold of her, but she twisted, fought—and he lost his grip.

She shoved up a knee, too slow to do damage, but enough to throw him off balance.

Then bolted.

Scrambled to her feet. Something clattered—a vial of black, eerie liquid spilling over scrawled notes. Shadows stretched and twisted under the glow of a lightsphere rolling off to the side.

She staggered.

*Where am I?*

Dark walls. Cramped. Stale air. A lair. Maybe underground. Maybe—

Her eyes locked on a door. She ran.

Wrenched it open—

*A pantry.*

*Wrong way.*

Deep dread curled in her stomach. She caught herself against the doorframe, chest heaving. The pain flared, raw and pulsing.

Then—movement.

She turned her head and froze.

The man was standing now, watching her.

Too calm.

Young. Reddish hair, freckled face—too ordinary for the menace humming in the air around him.

She swallowed.

*What happened?*

Hadn’t she just been passing through town? She remembered walking… Why was she *here*?

“What do you want from me?” Her voice came out dry, scraped raw, like sandpaper.

“I’m just testing a few things,” the man said. “No need to get excited. I can help with the pain.”

He tilted his head. “Or make it worse.”

The spot on her arm burned. Seared like molten metal.

She convulsed as a scream tore from her throat, her knees nearly buckling. The pain swallowed everything, eclipsed thought itself—

Then she steadied, against all odds. Forced herself to breathe, her eyes flicking over the room. It wouldn’t focus but she tried.

*Where’s the exit, damn it.*

She edged along the wall, keeping him in sight.

The man didn’t move. Just watched her.

“You can’t run anyway,” he said. “Even if you get away now, you’ll come back to me. Because I’m the only one who can fix you.”

Her fingers dragged over cool stone, breath short and heavy, her arm throbbing. Her vision swam, but she’d seen it—a hallway. Behind him and to the left. If she could just get past him—

“Who the hell are you?”

He tilted his head, almost amused. “You can call me the Bad Apothecary.”

Then he laughed.

The sound was too sharp, too sudden, splitting the moment in two—

And just as quickly, his face went cold.

“You’re not leaving,” he said.

Hi Keon, I would be very interested to receive an Arc please :)

Hey, sorry for the late reply, after no responses I didn't expect anyone to write to me...

If you're still interested, please follow the link:

https://keonshore.ink/arc-signup/

Thanks! I look forward to reading The Bad Apothecary!