Book 1 is done! What do you guys think? Here are some post-Book 1 thoughts and plans for the future.

  First. I started with a goal when writing this book.

  I wanted to write something that could serve as an introduction to the xianxia genre to readers.

  And if I was to ask myself did I achieve what I wanted to with this book. I'm happy to say yes.

  Haha, how was that last part about cultivation? You may have noticed I never used the word until the very end. And that's for a good reason! It didn't exist in 1997. A little bit of history here, but the word Cultivators for flying immortals was a term completely invented by translators during the later translated CN novels around 2010.

  It's an English only word.

  Cultivator literally does not exist in Chinese, and no Chinese person would know what it is even today unless they were familiar with English Webnovels. You'd have to prompt them with flying swords, or other Xianxia elements for them to get it. The more accurate terms would be Taoist or Immortal, Xian. Which the dramas tend to use.

  This is back when most of the translated stuff was just the wuxia stuff on the old spcnet forums, where translators like Ren RWX who later founded Wuxiaworld (translated Coiling Dragon which inspired Cradle) and Deathblade (translated I Shall Seal the Heavens) came from.

  They pretty much brought the entire Xianxia genre to the West. So, it was kinda funny seeing people make fun of the term left and right, much later down the road when RoyalRoad picked it up like 5 years later.

  I myself was just a humble lurker back then on those old forums, I think the only contribution I did was a single chapter of Stellar Transformations, which was pretty much the only xianxia novel at the time, (coiling dragon wasn't even translated yet) which He-man had half-translated in 2005 and a whole bunch of us were trying to pick up where he stopped.

  Back when all I had was reading chinese, one character at a time. At that time, the popular convention was actually the older terms Xiantian and Houtian, and not cultivators. From what I remember.

  So, you could say I was there when the genre was invented! haha.

  And also, this is my first completed book! So, I do want to do a little celebratory dance.

  Now with that out of the way. I do want to talk about my plans for the future.

  And I want to be transparent about what's going on.

  1. I'm moving to a two chapter a week posting schedule. For two reasons. It's better for my health and I have a trip coming up where I'll be gone for two weeks and need to build up my backlog.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  2. As for the future of the series. I'll be doing line edits and querying agents over the next few months to see if I can get this traditionally published. If it doesn't get picked up, the next plan is to keep releasing chapters at a steady rate until Book 3, then go for a KU release.

  3. If I get enough Patreon support to make a living off of this, I'll quit my day job and go full time with a faster weekly posting schedule.

  I haven't really mentioned I had a Patreon because I am about to take a week off to outline Book 2, but some of you guys somehow keep clicking on it.

  Thank you for your support if you have (>_<) ! All the side stories and the rest of book 1 is on there and it's usually 6 chapters ahead of the current content.

  But to explain my thinking:

  Basically, while I can write at 3 chapters a week. It's not always at a comfortable pace. I was pretty much writing with a severe illness at around chapter 42-48. And it burned through all my backlog chapters, while I was in bed.

  Not to mention there are chapters that require more concentration to pull off. The last climatic chapters with Li Wentao. 49-50. Took me like 16+ hours per chapter which on top of a full time job was a little intense. It was like an 80+ work week.

  I think just the actual sentence itself "People make mistakes, but you don't have to become one for the rest of your life." Took me like four hours to figure out. Cause I kept scratching my head on how to elevate the chapter above chapter 49.

  Which already had the dragon claw progression. So back to back like that took a lot out of me. (I felt like a god tbh when it all clicked though. Damm, I'm a genius look how cool those chapters were).

  So, it's not so bad for me to write normal chapters, but when I'm doing hardcore writing craft for pacing, tension, and making sure the emotional beats hit.

  It takes a lot more time than I can humanly do without my health going down. Though I suppose in that regard I'm in good company. Looking at you Eiichiro Oda (One Piece) and Kanehito Yamada (Frieren Writer).

  Also, I believe this story is good and I think most of you who've stuck around feel the same way.

  But the challenge I haven't been able to solve is genre expectations.

  When readers search for Xianxia on these platforms, they have a specific set of expectations.

  And this book doesn't quite fit those expectations.

  We're still early in the return of spiritual energy, and organized magic theory hasn't even begun.

  If this was a traditional fantasy, we're currently in the legendary pre-mythical age before the existence of gods and magic as a system. There's going to be a lot of wild experimentation before people fall into more efficient systems.

  For example, the greatest archmage in my world hasn't even been born yet.

  The world is expanding, and the xianxia and magical elements will scale with it, but until the story reaches that scope, it's going to be difficult to meet the current online readership expectations with where things currently are.

  Which means there is a good chance this story just gets buried for years by more recognizable xianxia tropes until people find it or recommend it by word of mouth.

  That doesn't mean this is the wrong place for the story. You're all here, and that means something. But it does mean I need to position the work where it has the best chance of reaching the wider audience, which is probably a publishing route.

  If the online market shifts and there's more appetite for stories like this, my plans may change again. But I'd rather not wait on a maybe. I'd rather go find the readers now.

  There are also about four side story chapters coming up that will bring Book 1 to a full close. After that, I'll take a one-week break to draft Book 2, and then we start the next arc.

  Regardless of what happens in the future, the story continues! I'll see you in the next book!