Afterword
The journey of this book began on March 21, 2022, and it concludes today, on August 7, 2025.
Three years and five months. 4.84 million characters. My very first novel.
It’s been an incredibly long road.
How many three-year spans does one get in a lifetime?
So much has happened in these three years. Setting aside life’s many personal trials, the book itself has faced its share of turbulence.
It started with modest success, found its stride in the middle, but then ran into difficulties in the final act.
Ever since Li Fan leaped beyond the Primal Possibility, the story became increasingly difficult to write. I can honestly say that every day at my desk felt like sitting on pins and needles.
The core reason was that all the groundwork I had painstakingly laid in the early parts of the novel—all the foreshadowing and detailed descriptions—was suddenly rendered irrelevant.
Furthermore, the realms of Transcendence and Sainthood are so abstract and profound that they don't lend themselves to the same kind of detailed, grounded descriptions I could use for the lower cultivation stages.
Combined with some health issues I was facing, producing even a few thousand characters each day became an ordeal.
While there were still moments of inspiration, they weren't enough to change the overall trajectory.
As a result, some readers began to criticize me, accusing me of dragging the story out just to milk it for money.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
From the very beginning, the ending I had envisioned was always this: Li Fan, with a single thought, would recreate the Mountain and Sea, causing all that he had experienced to manifest once more.
I even left clues and foreshadowing early on that were meant to resonate with the final chapter's conclusion.
In essence, Li Fan was always striving toward this ultimate goal.
The realms of True Immortal, Transcendence, and Sainthood were simply not enough to accomplish this.
Li Fan had no choice but to keep pushing higher.
This was a necessity driven by the story's own internal logic.
Of course, I could have forced an ending much sooner.
After he emerged from behind the High Wall, I could have wrapped everything up in just ten chapters.
But what would that have been, other than a rushed and unsatisfying conclusion?
I had to respect the integrity of the story.
A story with a proper beginning and end is always better than one that cuts off abruptly.
As for the ending we have now, I am quite satisfied with it.
Though I'm only speaking of the ending.
It's undeniable that the latter half of the novel had its share of problems.
Perhaps these are the unavoidable mistakes that come with writing a long-running, serialized web novel, especially for a first-time author.
For my next novel, I plan to focus on a single world. The highest attainable realm won't be as outrageously powerful or conceptual as [Truth].
And with that, I'll bring this to a close.
Thank you to all the readers who have been with me throughout this entire journey.
A special thanks to my community managers, Ye Huo, Yun Niang, and the others, for their unwavering support. RAN0BES
I look forward to seeing you all in the next book!
P.S. If you've enjoyed the novel, please consider giving it your full support on the platform where you read it. It means the world to me. Thank you so much!
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