Chapter 98

It's time to go live.

I never thought I would write a pre-publication statement again, and I'm a bit lost.

Imagine this—ten years ago, you were young and full of vigor, a skilled basketball player. You once sweated profusely on countless sunny mornings or dusks with falling leaves, dominating the court. You also made countless like-minded, passionate friends and received loud cheers and praise from girls.

Suddenly, one day, you got injured, broke a bone, and even had a leg fracture. Then you left the court, took off your jersey, studied hard, and took exams. You entered society, wore a suit and tie, worked diligently, got married, and had children. Not only did you stop playing basketball, but you even didn't have time to watch the NBA. The unique rubber smell of basketball and the "squeak" sound of sneakers on the court seemed like something from a past life.

Then, one day, for no reason, and without knowing what happened, you suddenly appeared on the court with a "whoosh." You were not wearing a suit but a tank top, and in your hand was not a computer but a basketball. You were about to enter—real competition!

At that moment, you must have been as lost as I am now.

Because, although the court is still the same court, the backboard is still the same backboard, and the basketball is still the same basketball,

the players have changed, the cheerers have changed, the tactics have changed, and even the rules have changed. Now, basketball can actually be kicked with your feet!

This is what I, the "newcomer," discovered when I came to the current starting point.

It's like a trilobite from the Cambrian period surfacing from the deep sea, only to find itself a completely new species that doesn't fit the environment.

Not just the writing style, narrative style, and story rhythm—everything has new ways of playing. There are also high-end, sophisticated things like "the golden three chapters," "short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals."

How to slap faces, how to control the rhythm, new techniques for showing off... everything has to be learned from scratch.

Even the names of novels are completely different from those of several years ago.

Especially when I clicked on my beloved sci-fi section and found that readers love "ship girls, American comics, Marvel, and Type Moon," I felt a deep sense of disconnection: "What the heck is this? What the heck is this again?"

So when I first thought of the idea for "Cultivation for Forty Thousand Years," I actually refused.

Future cultivation, or sci-fi cultivation, is not a new idea.

From Huang Yi's "Wanderer of the Stars" to Mo Yan's "Star War Heroes" series to Dianxuan's "Tales of the Gods," many predecessors have tried to explore this field, even earlier than "A Vast Journey" and other "classical cultivation" works.

But to this day, from "A Vast Journey" to "Mortal" and many other excellent works that have flourished, classical cultivation has been greatly promoted, while future cultivation remains... a failure!

This indicates that future cultivation definitely has significant flaws, or extremely high writing difficulty, or is not very popular with the market.

Or more likely—both of these issues exist simultaneously.

No one writes it not because other writers are too stupid to discover such a "creative" topic and only I discovered it.

No one writes it because all writers have discovered this "creative" topic, but after careful consideration, they found it too difficult and not worth the effort, so they all gave up.

Other writers are smart, and I'm not stupid.

After careful consideration, I also decided to give up and switch to a different topic, like writing about a fiery soldier returning to the city, or watching a few more episodes of "Iron Man" and "Spider-Man" and then writing some American comic infinite flow. Wouldn't that be much easier and more pleasant?

However—

One day, I found myself sitting in front of the computer, opening a document, and typing "Cultivation for Forty Thousand Years, Rust Lake, Starlight Federation..." I knew I was in trouble.

My Qilin Arm has flared up again.

When the Qilin Arm flares up, it's a very painful thing. You enter a state where you write even if you know it won't make money, even if you know it won't be popular with readers, even if you know it's extremely difficult to blend cultivation and technology, even if you have to invest time, energy, and health, even if you suffer from back pain, finger blisters, and hemorrhoids, you just keep writing, writing, writing, writing, writing.

The Qilin Arm is a terminal illness for writers, and once it flares up, there is no cure.

So there's no choice but to keep writing.

For me, writing itself is not difficult, though it's tiring, but it's a satisfying kind of tired.

What's difficult is the readers' reaction after putting it online.

To be honest, I wasn't very confident at the time.

Because the topic is a bit niche, my writing style is a bit old-fashioned, and the rhythm is still from several years ago, when a villain could take 200,000 words to be defeated.

Unlike the new generation who can kill eight villains in three chapters and seduce two beauties at the same time.

Moreover, my theme is the very cliché "passion, battle, friendship, protection"—it sounds weak.

So I was really worried—would anyone read such a thing, such a style, such a theme?

Although when the Qilin Arm flares up, I would keep writing even if no one reads it, but...

This is completely me being arrogant! Which writer would really want their hard work to go unread? This is just talk!

Fortunately, with the support of all my friends, the data for "Cultivation for Forty Thousand Years" before going live has greatly exceeded my expectations.

What made me happiest was not the data itself, but the realization that some things will become outdated, but some things will never.

Themes will become outdated, ideas will become outdated, writing styles will become outdated, tropes will become outdated, ways to slap faces will become outdated, and golden fingers will become outdated.

But passion will never become outdated, friendship will never become outdated, persistence will never become outdated, and dreams will never become outdated.

As long as you write about passion, friendship, battle, persistence, protection, and dreams... there will always be someone who loves to read it, and there will always be someone who is moved.

Very good.

Because I can only write, and only want to write, these things.

Dreams, friendship, passion, effort, and winning after a desperate battle... I can only write these old but timeless things.

After "Cultivation for Forty Thousand Years" goes live, it will continue to tell stories of persistence and giving up, dreams and reality, protection and destruction, friendship and strong enemies...

Finally, I want to thank my editor Vinnie and my chief editor Hushuo for giving me this opportunity.

I also want to thank all the friends who have supported this book. In the past one and a half months, every click, every recommendation, every reward, and every comment has made me feel like I'm back in my youthful days, the golden years when I first typed on the keyboard. I'm very ashamed that due to limited energy, I can't spend more time interacting with everyone, and I'm really sorry.

Of course, I must also thank the friends who are willing to support, subscribe, reward, and vote for "Cultivation for Forty Thousand Years" after it goes live.

Although asking for subscriptions and votes is a bit vulgar, as for myself, I don't want to write purely for commercial purposes.

But it's not the time when one person being full means the whole family is not hungry.

I have a whole family to protect, and responsibilities to my wife and children.

Because writing takes up too much time and energy, I feel very guilty for not taking good care of my family.

If I can get more support from everyone, I can provide more material security for my family, and I can write more calmly and steadily.

In short, your support determines the future of "Cultivation for Forty Thousand Years." From this moment on, let's chase our dreams and gallop through the star sea together!

That's all for now. The whistle has blown, the game has started, and I'm going to play with all my might.

Win or lose, no matter what, I will keep writing.

i1153

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