Closing Remarks

Since I wrote the chapter titled "Face" in this volume, I have gone without updating for a year and a half.

The reason is simple: this book has utterly failed, and as per my promise, I won’t abandon it halfway.

So I must finish it.

But at that time, I simply couldn’t continue writing.

Then my CPU burned out.

The result of that burnout was an indefinite hiatus.

As long as I don’t start a new book, it doesn’t count as abandoning this one.

As long as I don’t keep writing, I can avoid the pain of writing.

A win-win situation.

How wonderful.

So I let things slide for a year and a half.

Until finally, when I felt I had to write something, I stood up again.

From November 29th, I spent six days writing 50,000 words to finish *Immortality*.

From December 8th to today, December 13th, I used another six days to write nearly 50,000 words, bringing this second volume to a close.

Although, compared to my original plan, this volume is certainly much shorter.

But according to the initial idea, this would inevitably lead to a halt after *Face*.

Because after the first volume ended, I realized the book had completely failed. All that remained was to follow the road of failure.

But as a habit, when a work doesn’t perform well, I tend to repurpose it as an experimental novel, continuing to write it for the sake of experimentation.

For example, the second volume was meant to be an experiment in the farming novel genre.

If you’ve read to the end, you should understand that the theme of this volume is thoroughly a farming story—using inspirations and technological blueprints obtained on Earth to take root and flourish in another world.

After all, this counts as basic operation for Su Ziye, a traveler from another world.

But the problem was, I couldn’t quite master the pacing of a farming novel.

What’s more fatal is that even if I farmed, I could only do so for this one volume.

And due to my declining state at the time, the perfunctory writing only made me grow more disgusted with the words I produced.

When an author instinctively stops believing that what they write is good, it basically signals their farewell to the craft of writing.

At that time—I truly thought what I wrote was awful, complete rubbish.

Of course, to be fair, I went back and reread the book, and actually, the basic narrative of the second volume still holds up. It’s not great, but barely passes the line.

That gave me more courage to finish this book.

The failure in experimenting with the farming genre was mainly due to my poor state back then, and also because the book’s rhythm didn’t quite suit farming.

But the second volume I conceived was indeed a farming story.

The lesson I learned is to keep a book’s overall style consistent.

This is extremely important.

Just like what *Magic Punk* taught me—not to torment the protagonist in the future.

That said, I am satisfied with the ending of this second volume, because essentially, completing it meant writing what I wanted at an acceptable level and concluding it.

In that respect, I quite enjoyed writing these 50,000 words.

According to my initial estimate, finishing this book from the chapter *Face* onward would take about 600,000 words.

However, judging by how complete the second volume is, it might not need 600,000 words—perhaps 300,000 would suffice.

Because *The Great One* serves as a prequel to *Xiadian* and has a very clear ending point.

That is when Su Ziye returns to the Stet Empire and becomes emperor.

Initially, if *The Great One* went smoothly, I planned to completely rewrite *Xiadian*, meaning all timelines would follow *The Great One*’s chronology.

But now it seems *The Great One* can only remain a prequel to *Xiadian*.

This means the two books, separated by the time of creation and blurred memories and ideas, will inevitably have many plot inconsistencies.

So to clarify: if there are contradictions in time or setting between the two, *Xiadian* will take precedence.

Moving forward, I will continue creating the third and fourth volumes of *The Great One*.

If all goes well, there should be five volumes in total.

And regrettably, the fifth volume may overlap with the first volume of *Xiadian*.

Firstly, because *Xiadian* is currently offline and can only be viewed on obscure websites.

Secondly, if *Xiadian* is considered canon, then its first volume cannot be changed.

But if this work serves as a longer prologue to *Xiadian*, that is basically acceptable.

So the path ahead is clear.

I will spend one to two months writing volumes three and four, about 300,000 to 400,000 words—more likely less, not more.

Then I will start a new book.

This is a very painful process because after so long, having achieved some success, it is extremely difficult and tedious to write without compensation as I did at the start.

But writing itself is a difficult and tedious endeavor, and having the company and encouragement of readers is a luxury.

So then, that’s that.

I will keep moving forward.

Continuing all the way.