128: Author's Note on Launch

How should I put this? I've been writing for so long, yet this book hasn't had many readers.

Forget it, I'll just keep writing. After all, writing is a lifelong endeavor.

The performance isn't great, so I'll treat finishing this book as practice.

Let's get this straight first: I'm a complete newcomer to Qidian.

This is my first time writing on Qidian. I didn't think I'd get signed, so I didn't prepare many stockpiled chapters. But I want to thank my editor, Orange, for giving "Xian Dao Is Dead" a chance.

Because I picked it back up in a hurry, the content of the first few dozen chapters is a bit messy. Of course, I'm also grateful to everyone who has read up to the VIP release.

The growth in collections is also quite demoralizing. Books from the same period have taken off, while I'm still coding away... I don't have the luck to skyrocket, nor the strength to release massive updates. I don't have much free time at school either; I just finished my exams when I wrote this testimonial.

So I can only rely on persistence. This is the path every author must take to build their pen name on Qidian... As for the plot, let's make it clear: this book won't have a female lead. It's pure mystery-solving cultivation, with the main perspective being the protagonist, Shen Moyan.

And Shen Moyan is a complete loner. It's impossible for him to have any worldly emotions. He's a dreamer who pursues his goal of eternal life and invincibility without regrets.

No one can stand in his way. Even if it's the Holy Court, Shen Moyan will use every scheme to destroy those who block him.

Some people said early on that the protagonist obtained so many Spirit Stones through smuggling, so why doesn't he improve his cultivation?

According to the setting, the Path of Xian is dead. Relying solely on Spirit Stones for cultivation can only purify or restore mana.

Furthermore, the Qi absorbed from Spirit Stones must be purified through a Cultivation Technique, so the efficiency is very low. Ordinary Xian Dao Cultivators take a very, very long time to Cultivate, though their lifespans are generally very long as well.

The protagonist has also been purifying his mana cultivation, but cultivation takes too much time. It's better to accumulate some Various Arts of Cultivation.

From a writing perspective, staying at the Mortal Transformation Realm without advancing is mainly to complete the [Seeing Xiyi], which is similar to a Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment. If he built the Purple Mansion prematurely, it would be irreversible. Just like Wild Goose Formation True Monarch and Zheng Quan, their paths reached an end, stuck at the threshold of the Calamity Law Realm, and they could only seek other ways out.

In the Realms after the Guizang Realm, such as the Soul Transformation (this book's setting) and the Calamity Law Realm, Spiritual Qi is no longer useful. No matter how many Spirit Stones you have, they are useless.

The Spiritual Qi in Spirit Stones is just a primer, a primer for stepping onto the Great Dao. Like a toddler learning to walk, the first thing they do after learning to stand and walk is leave the walker that maintained their balance.

Therefore, the status of Spirit Stones in this book is that of currency, Materials used for Various Arts of Cultivation like Artifact Refining, Talisman Making, and Formation Setting—a hard currency.

To advance your Realm, you can only rely on conceptual things like [Dao Rhyme].

[Dao Rhyme], [wondrous rhyme], and [Immortal Rhyme]—different factions in different eras have specific names for this substance, but that involves later plot points, so I won't say more.

As for the Golden Finger cheat, [As I Have Written] is similar to a simulator, but it's actually not.

If it were just a Rebirth simulator, the flaws would be too great!

For example, the Six Hells Slaying Heaven Demon Venerable could hide in the protagonist's consciousness with a single thought at his peak.

Heavenly Demons feed on Karma, and Heart Demons feed on desire. As long as there is desire, He can exist in Shen Moyan's subconscious, restarting along with him, or even directly replacing Shen Moyan through the [Heavenly Demon Seed of the Sixth Heaven of Desire].

Shen Moyan has only a few hundred years of life experience. If the memories of a Demonic Path giant of unknown age were stuffed into his Sea of Consciousness, would Shen Moyan still be Shen Moyan?

Not to mention the Four Sovereigns of the Holy Court, the Gods and Demons of the Mountain and Sea, the Saint Kings of the Yao Race, the Five Fate Controllers, and the Founding Immortal Venerables of the Twenty-One Immortal Orthodoxies... and the Xuanhuang Emperor Lord, who suppressed the Ancient Mountain and Sea single-handedly.

Which of these people is an ordinary figure?

How can the protagonist, who hasn't grown yet, avoid the gaze of these entities and develop safely?

So the cheat isn't big enough; it needs to be bigger.

Thus, we have the 'Achievement' System on the Bookmarks.

This Achievement System is quite useless in the early stages because the protagonist is too small. In the vast Sea of Worlds, what earth-shattering deeds could he possibly do?

When Shen Moyan accidentally created the [Star River Brightening Fate Controller] and obtained the golden Bookmark achievement [mastermind], things changed.

From then on, his Mountain and Sea journey has just begun.

Shen Moyan will proceed step by step, uncovering the hidden secrets of the Mountain and Sea and improving his cultivation until he truly earns a seat at the table.

Of course, this path will involve thrilling mystery-solving processes and intrigue between major factions.

Oh, right, there's also the "records of the mountain and sea official appointments." I see that reader lords don't want to read a story within a story, so I'll write less of the book's content in the future or just gloss over it. Let Shen Moyan explore those stories step by step.

On this grand stage of the Mountain and Sea, Shen Moyan isn't the only one with a Golden Finger.

Just a mention, this book has an outline. I'll try my best to resolve the small foreshadowing laid out in the early stages one by one.

Of course, I'm also reading and learning, practicing my writing skills, and trying to finish this book according to the outline.

The whole process of writing a book is very long. I can't guarantee that I won't have new ideas later on that will change the original outline beyond recognition or cause contradictions.

So for this book, I'll try to compress the Realms, unlike other cultivation novels that have dozens of nested levels.

The book will be released as VIP at 6 PM this afternoon with three chapters, totaling seven thousand words.

Thanks to the friends who have been voting and tipping me, and thanks to my editor, Orange.

If you think this book is good, please give it a first subscription.

I'm asking for continued reads and monthly tickets. I'll do my best to keep writing.