Chapter 75: The Nine Knives and Pizi Cai, Led Astray

In three days, Ke Jingteng finished reading all ten volumes of I Want to Become an Immortal that were available for purchase.

In fact, these ten volumes totaled only about six hundred thousand characters; at his usual reading speed, he could have finished them in far less than three days.

But he spent three full days reading them, staying up late every night.

He read very slowly.

Because the content of this book was utterly novel to him, and he studied many of its settings in great detail.

A reader accustomed to xianxia cultivation stories might skim through it at ten lines per glance, just catching the general plot.

But for Ke Jingteng, what interested him most were the settings themselves—the cultivation tiers, the spells, the heavenly treasures and rare herbs…

Even the cultivation realm's universal currency—spirit stones—made him stare blankly for a long while, imagining a cultivation world where spirit stones served as money.

I Want to Become an Immortal gave him immense room for imagination.

The cultivation world depicted in the book often caused him to drift off while reading.

On the evening of the third day.

When he finished the last page and closed the book, he sat motionless at his desk, unable to tear his mind away from its world.

Thinking of flying swords crisscrossing the sky, of yuanshen able to leave the body, of cultivation experts living for thousands of years, he suddenly found the real world dull and lifeless.

He longed to live in the book's cultivation world, not in this boring reality.

What good was the real world compared to the cultivation world?

After decades of hard study, decades of hard work, finally earning enough money to quit—only to be old, and for the short-lived, never even reaching retirement day.

Is there a next life after death?

Many religions say humans have a next life, yet none can prove it truly exists.

So if humans truly have only this one life, what meaning is there in decades of study and decades of labor?

"All beings suffer; mortals cannot transcend."

The phrase from I Want to Become an Immortal flashed through his mind.

Then he recalled another line from the book: "One Jin Dan swallowed within the belly, and I know my fate is mine alone, not heaven's."

Long life and eternal vision…

This has been humanity's ancient dream.

I Want to Become an Immortal awakened in him a longing for immortality.

But it could only remain a longing.

The real world offered him no path to cultivation or immortality.

So he felt lost.

It was as if he had glimpsed a cultivation world ahead, yet could not enter it.

How could he not be disheartened?

He put down I Want to Become an Immortal, turned on his computer, opened a document, and stared at the work within—suddenly realizing he no longer wanted to write.

The work in his computer document was titled Dream Anomaly, a novel he had been writing recently.

Preparing to retake the graduate entrance exam while writing this novel to relieve his inner gloom—these were the two things he had been doing lately.

Before reading I Want to Become an Immortal, he had been full of passion for his Dream Anomaly.

But now?

After finishing the first ten volumes of I Want to Become an Immortal, he suddenly lost interest in continuing Dream Anomaly, and instead wanted to write a xianxia cultivation novel himself.

Thinking of this, he suddenly remembered something, picked up I Want to Become an Immortal again, and deliberately searched for the publisher's name.

He found it quickly—Xinchang Publishing House.

His eyes lit up.

He thought: If I Want to Become an Immortal is this popular, this publisher must want to publish similar works—this is a great opportunity! If I write a similar book, even if slightly inferior in quality, wouldn't this publisher still be interested?

Even if this publisher turns it down, what about others? Wouldn't other publishers, seeing I Want to Become an Immortal's success, want to jump on the bandwagon and publish a few similar titles?

Thinking of this, he immediately created a new document on his computer, ready to write a xianxia cultivation novel.

Moments later, he typed the title he had just thought of: Flying Sword Immortal.

Then he wrote the genre: Xianxia Cultivation.

Author: Nine Knives

……

He had been led astray by Cao Sheng's I Want to Become an Immortal, beginning to write xianxia cultivation.

……

When Ke Jingteng began attempting to write Flying Sword Immortal, Pizi Cai in Tainan had already started ahead of him.

As for his novel The First Intimate Contact, which he began serializing in March this year?

Every time he thought of it lately, he felt a pang in his chest.

Ever since his female lead, Qing Wu Fei Yang, followed closely after Ran Jing from Zhongyuan Yidianhui's novel and both died in succession, he had stirred up a hornet's nest—his former fans in the comment section, who once praised and defended him, suddenly turned against him overnight.

Some accused him of recycling others' ideas; others called him insane for craving fame; a barrage of abuse drained all his creative passion.

He had assumed these people would rant for a few days, then move on, just as readers had calmed down after Jin Yong wrote that Xiao Long Nu was violated by Yin Zhiping.

So he never revived Qing Wu Qingwu Feiyang.

He resolved to stick to his original plot.

But…

He underestimated his readers' anger and overestimated his own resilience.

Readers kept flooding his comment section with abuse.

And his mindset slowly crumbled.

Finally, a few days ago, he simply couldn't take it anymore; gritting his teeth, he hastily concluded "The First Intimate Contact."

Writing this book up to now, he has been powered by love; it was the readers' praise and adoration that kept his motivation to write alive.

When the readers no longer praise, no longer adore, what motivation does he have to continue writing?

So, he left this book with a botched ending.

Only after not having to check the book's comment section every day did his mood slowly improve a little.

Afterwards, he heard that "Yuan Zhong Yi Dian Hui" still had another book selling very well on this island; in the comment section of "Living with the Air Stewardess," he also saw some readers from the island posting in Traditional Chinese, saying "I Wish to Become an Immortal" was far better than "Living with the Air Stewardess."

His curiosity was piqued.

So he specifically went to the bookstore to find "I Wish to Become an Immortal," bought one copy first to try reading.

Then it became uncontrollable.

The next day he went to buy the second volume, the third day he went to buy two more volumes, and on the fifth day, he simply went and bought back all the remaining volumes.

After finishing ten volumes of "I Wish to Become an Immortal," he felt he had opened the door to a new world.

Can novels be written this way?

So a beauty like Qing Wu Qingwu Feiyang, in the Xianxia world, might just be a maid beside a formal disciple of the Sword-Controlling Sect? If one wanted her to serve in bed, a disciple of the Sword-Controlling Sect devoted to the Dao might casually reward her with a sword strike? Then curse: "You dare disturb my sword heart? You shall be executed!"

When Ke Jing Teng in Taipei began writing "Flying Sword Immortal," Pizi Cai in Tainan had already finished Chapter Three of "The Long Road to Immortality."

Yes!

He started writing earlier than Ke Jing Teng.

Just like many young people who loved writing in the original timeline, after reading web novels full of wild imagination, infinite creativity, and brilliance, they had lost all interest in creating traditional romantic works.

Why could web novels in the original timeline develop so quickly?

It was precisely because they could rapidly absorb and assimilate young people with some writing talent, turning them all into the shape of web novel writers.