Chapter 1009: Response to Controversial Issues

Response to Controversial Issues

This book was written from the start out of obsession.

I wanted to write the immortal martial world in my heart, the characters I wished to write, and my own concept of "immortal":

The greatest hero is one who serves country and people.

The greatest immortal is one who brings all under heaven to unity.

Some readers can perceive this theme, but most likely feel nothing.

But this is my writing obsession.

This book is why I kept writing even when the performance was terrible, why I still kept writing at four million words.

I can only write because of this obsession.

Writing a long-form novel is excruciating—writing day and night at your desk demands unwavering willpower; for any other reason, I would have long since abandoned it or rushed to an ending and moved on to the next book.

In real life, I have a gentle temper and rarely argue with others; online, I rarely debate either.

But recently, a flood of people suddenly attacked me, drowning me in accusations of being "water," among them countless apprentices and disciples who copied and pasted the same negative review two or three times—I simply couldn't take it anymore.

They criticized me for being "water" because they thought I wrote too slowly.

I admit that.

But some people, no matter what you write, will attack you.

Dialogue, battle scenes, character development, setup, worldbuilding… if they're unhappy, they'll always find a way to criticize you, always using the same catch-all word: "water."

This is not a new book.

A four-million-word novel—what kind of pacing it has, anyone who actually read it should know by now.

This is inherently a slow-paced, detail-rich novel.

There are so many fast-paced, short-and-sweet, decisive and brutal novels on Qidian—you can go read those.

Some readers, who only want quick "thrills," dislike this kind of story, yet still come here to attack me, demanding I speed up the pacing and write the novel they want to read?

Then they casually claim the book has collapsed, ended poorly, grown worse with each chapter…

I truly don't understand.

This book hides many deep foreshadowings; many plotlines are causally linked.

On the Sword Forum, all those characters who appeared are not extras, not one-off figures—they will all have future grudges, debts, loves, and hates with the protagonist.

Now they're just sect geniuses, just competing in swordplay, but in the coming great struggle for all under heaven, they will be key figures, standing alongside the protagonist on the same stage.

If I skip writing these characters and brush them all off in a line, should I just cut my later outline?

Others say I'll water this book for my entire life.

The industry is so fiercely competitive now—if I slacked off or cut corners even slightly, this book would've been abandoned long ago; there's no room for real "watering."

If novels were truly this easy to "water," you could try writing one yourself.

On my desk sits a volume of Mao's Selected Works; whenever I have free time, I reread "On Practice" repeatedly.

From practical webnovel writing to webnovel cognition; then using cognition to guide writing; then deepening cognition through writing—this cycle repeats step by step, and I've written four million words.

The performance isn't outstanding, but it's been stable.

Writing and reading are entirely different things.

This profession isn't what some readers imagine.

Let me say this again: from a reader's perspective, it seems counterintuitive, but among the vast majority of authors, it's nearly a shared consensus:

A webnovel author swayed by reader opinions is doomed to die.

This sounds harsh, but if you've ever actually written a novel, you'll realize it's true.

This is my final response to such issues.

My abilities and energy are limited; simply continuing to write has already consumed all my strength.

Completing this book, seeing it through to the end, giving true fans a proper conclusion—that is the only thing I can do.

As for your attacks or insults, I no longer have the energy to care.

Last night, I mindlessly scrolled through the comments, suffered heart discomfort, couldn't sleep all night, now my mind is blank, I can't type a word—taking a day off today, sorry.