Chapter 54

As mentioned earlier, the form of novel that He Shuo excels at the most is the novella.

This is not because his writing is poor; in fact, He Shuo's writing is highly praised throughout the entire martial arts world.

What limits him is his sense of the big picture.

A full-length novel generally has over a million words, and the twists in the plot and the character development are both massive undertakings.

Even though "The Seven Spells of Fengye" does not have such a high word count requirement, the simple plot of a novella absolutely cannot satisfy this book.

By early December, "The Linked Cities" had already serialized to Chapter 6, "The Blood Saber Patriarch"!

Ding Dian can also be considered one of the top combatants in the book, but his moves are like the shadow of a dragon in the clouds, showing only a glimpse. Moreover, his opponents are weak, so he can defeat them with just a punch or a claw.

With weak opponents, it's naturally difficult to show how formidable Ding Dian is.

In the chapter "The Blood Saber Patriarch," the first great evil master, the Blood Saber Patriarch, appears, along with the eight great heroes of Central Plains, "Feng Hu Yun Long, Luo Hua Liu Shui" (Wind Tiger Cloud Dragon, Falling Flowers Flowing Water), including Lu Tianshu, Hua Tiegan, Liu Chengfeng, and Shui Dai.

The Blood Saber Technique, the Tai Chi Sword Technique, the Central Level Spear Technique, and other powerful martial arts.

Readers were thrilled, and even the great evil master Blood Saber Patriarch attracted many fans.

Blue Six Wings: "Holy crap! The Blood Saber Patriarch is so fierce, he slices people in half or quarters without a second thought, treating the people of Central Plains like nothing. Is he that arrogant!"

Dream Hard to Rest: "The Tai Chi Sword Technique is also amazing. The old man downstairs practices it every day, but I've never seen anything special. After seeing Liu Chengfeng block the Blood Saber Patriarch, the phrase 'a Tai Chi master has arrived' made me, a Tai Chi enthusiast, lose control!"

Wing Spread Thousand Tricks: "I think something's not right. The 'Feng Hu Yun Long, Luo Hua Liu Shui' are already the highest-level experts in Central Plains, and the Blood Saber Patriarch is clearly a very fierce character. But Di Yun is just a novice who has just learned the 'Shenzhao Jing.' How can he mix with these experts? What's going to happen next?"

...

In the capital city.

Dongfang Tongtong was looking at the magazine, her brows furrowed tightly, and her left hand had already drawn the Tang knife, occasionally practicing with it.

"Cut paper, shave decay! Cut paper, shave decay!"

In the previous issue, she and Lin Mu had messaged, saying that the Blood Saber Technique should be more deeply portrayed.

But she didn't take it too seriously later because, through experimentation, she found that yoga is ultimately just a form of exercise for health, suitable for stillness rather than movement. It's impossible to practice yoga in intense combat and incorporate it into knife techniques.

Or, this is not a problem that she alone can solve.

But when the chapter "The Blood Saber Patriarch" described the Blood Saber Patriarch riding a horse and, in intense motion, cutting a single hair from Shui Sheng's face without harming her in the slightest,

This was one thing, but then the Blood Saber Patriarch even explained the method of practicing this technique.

"When you practice, first use a hundred sheets of thin paper, stacked on a table. With one horizontal cut, slice off the top sheet without touching the second. Then the second cut slices the second sheet, the third cut the third sheet, until all hundred sheets are sliced."

"As for 'shaving decay,' place a piece of tofu on a wooden board. Slice it thinly, turning a two-inch-thick piece of tofu into twenty pieces, each slice intact and unbroken. This skill is considered initially accomplished."

Many readers were amazed when they read this. Even if some martial artists saw it, they would at most laugh at the novelist's imagination and put it aside.

But for Dongfang Tongtong, these two paragraphs were like a thunderclap.

Such precision, such speed, so ordinary, and incomparable to the fanciful ideas in "The Seven Spells of Fengye."

But its plain and unremarkable depth made it more structurally sound and logically set.

"Noisy, I'll stir-fry tofu for you at noon. Go buy three pieces of tofu for your sister, and get some manuscript paper too!"

Dongfang Tongtong called out, and a little girl peeked in, took the money, and calculated with her fingers how much she could keep for candy. Before Dongfang Tongtong could tap her head, she ran out with a smile.

"I'll practice the knife like this! One Book, I owe you a favor!"

...

Many fans were excited and thrilled by "The Blood Saber Patriarch," and the "Martial Arts Stories" magazine also celebrated!

"Eighty thousand! Eighty thousand subscribers! 'Martial Arts' had a peak of seventy thousand last issue, but now the plot has collapsed, and it's dropped to fifty thousand, a difference of thirty thousand subscribers from us!"

"Chief, treat us! You must treat us!"

"Now we are the number one short martial arts magazine in the country! Haha, 'Martial Arts' has been suppressing us for so long, now let's see how they can still be arrogant!"

"The 'Seven Spells of Fengye' started off with a fierce aura, and I thought it was really powerful. But after reading the latest chapter, what is this? The new expert is just there to create trouble for the protagonist. They didn't appear when the family was exterminated, and now they suddenly show up, with no characteristics at all. That bug made me cry."

...

Listening to the cheers of his subordinates, Zhu Zhengting couldn't hide his joy, but he still maintained his composure: "Don't be too happy too soon. There's still this last issue of the year, in mid-December, when most people are on vacation and have free time. The sales of this issue are usually two to three times that of a regular issue. Don't be careless, after all, our current sales are only on par with theirs..."

At the beginning, "The Seven Spells of Fengye" generally outperformed "The Linked Cities." However, due to the extremely high topic relevance of "The Linked Cities" and the fact that each issue was exciting and engaging, its performance increased very quickly.

By the third or fourth issue, the sales of the two books were almost the same. If it weren't for the solid foundation of "Martial Arts," which could still outperform "The Linked Cities" by a thousand or two subscribers per issue, the unbeaten myth of "Martial Arts" would have been broken long ago.

It's not that "The Seven Spells of Fengye" wasn't powerful. In fact, it had already shown its fierce side, almost doubling the subscription numbers of "Martial Arts."

But "The Linked Cities" was even more fierce. Although in the martial arts novels of the previous life, the top-tier ones did not include it, what were those top-tier novels?

The Three Parts of the Divine Carving, Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, The Flying Saber of Li Xiaoyao, Chu Liuxiang, Xi Men Chui Xue, Xiong Ba...

Those extraordinary figures are what put "The Linked Cities" at a disadvantage.

What about "The Seven Spells of Fengye"? It's a novella by the first person in the field of short and medium-length martial arts novels, modified on the fly due to inspiration from internal energy!

If such a book could surpass "The Linked Cities," it would be too ridiculous!

In fact, if it weren't for He Shuo's long-term popularity and Lin Mu's status as a newcomer, Lin Mu would have already been defeated.

Actually, there's a bigger reason: the sales of the two books are largely determined by the subscription numbers of the magazine's loyal fans, which reduces the impact of the quality of the two books on sales to an extremely exaggerated extent.

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