Chapter 83: Forced Transformation Under the Banyan Tree

Mid-November, volumes two and three of "I Wish to Become an Immortal" were sold simultaneously in the mainland market, triggering a rush purchase by tens of thousands of book fans; the book's fame expanded further, driving the sales of the first volume to break 400,000 copies.

The single-volume sales of the second and third volumes continued to skyrocket, attracting the attention of multiple publishing houses in the mainland.

Huacheng Publishing House, Tianjin Publishing House, Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, Elephant Publishing House, and many other publishing houses contacted Cao Sheng through various means, wanting to commission new work from him.

All were politely rejected by Cao Sheng, citing that the subsequent portions of "I Wish to Become an Immortal" were still very long and he had no time to start a new book for the moment.

Mid-December, volumes four and five of "I Wish to Become an Immortal" were released simultaneously in the mainland.

Sales hit a new high again.

The sales of the first volume broke 700,000 copies.

The sales of the second and third volumes also broke 500,000 copies each.

The momentum of volumes four and five was even fiercer than in November.

In just two months.

"I Wish to Become an Immortal" was unrivaled in the mainland publishing market.

The heat on the internet also continued to climb.

Its fame had already surpassed Cao Sheng's previous work, "Living with the Stewardess."

However, the recent sales of "Living with the Stewardess" were also rising, seemingly driven by the hot-selling "I Wish to Become an Immortal."

The serialization speed of "I Wish to Become an Immortal" on Rongshuxia accelerated starting in November, becoming one chapter per day.

Just updating one chapter a day was enough to delight the book fans, and the comment section became much more harmonious.

Criticisms picking at flaws obviously decreased, while posts of encouragement and support increased significantly.

Then, other authors suffered bad luck.

For any work that failed to update daily, readers in the comment section would always use the update speed of "I Wish to Become an Immortal" as an example to provoke the author.

Such as: "The quality is not as good as 'I Wish to Become an Immortal', and the update speed isn't either; no wonder you're a flop!"

"One chapter a week? Author, are you writing with your feet? Do you want to go see what speed 'I Wish to Become an Immortal' is?"

"One chapter every three days? Author! You need to work hard! Even the donkey in the production team wouldn't dare to be this lazy like you!"

"Author! Learn from 'I Wish to Become an Immortal'! You update so slowly; no wonder your popularity can't rise, and no publishing house values you."

And so on.

Some other authors were so angry they simply chose to abandon their works.

Some personally entered the fray to argue with readers.

Others gritted their teeth and vowed to persist in updating daily.

But works that persisted in updating daily did not necessarily have positive effects; some works saw their quality plummet due to the insistence on daily updates, and their popularity actually continued to decline.

Only a few authors could maintain the quality of their works while persisting in daily updates, allowing their works' popularity to continue rising.

And as the sales and popularity of "I Wish to Become an Immortal" continued to skyrocket, the number of Xianxia and cultivation works on Rongshuxia also increased.

Previously, many authors who wrote short articles switched to writing long-form novels.

When Rongshuxia announced a new batch of published works in mid-December, the new Xianxia and cultivation books on Rongshuxia saw a surge.

This was because Rongshuxia announced the publication information for seven Xianxia and cultivation works in one go this time.

Such as: Jin Hezai's "Dark Cultivation," Annie Baobei's "Legendary Dao Companions in the Cultivation Realm," Li Xunhuan's "Under the Immortal Void," Xing Yusen's "Descendant of the Loose Cultivator," Cai Jun's "Top Ten Unsolved Cases in the Cultivation Realm," and others.

The mainland publishing market, upon seeing the sales of Cao Sheng's "I Wish to Become an Immortal," and having failed to commission work from Cao Sheng, turned its gaze toward other similar works on Rongshuxia.

Then, the most popular books among these works entered the vision of these publishing houses and received the opportunity for publication.

These authors were following Cao Sheng's lead.

These publishing houses were following Changjiang Literature and Art's lead.

Both sides hit it off immediately.

This made other authors so envious their eyes turned red.

Anyone with a bit of confidence in their writing wanted to try whether they could also write a Xianxia cultivation novel and taste the flavor of publication.

In these days, channels for cultural monetization were too few.

Previously, the threshold for domestic publication was also a bit too high for most literature enthusiasts.

If one was not a famous author, it was very difficult to find an opportunity for publication for the written work.

But without publication, one could never become a famous author.

And in these days, the status of a literati with a published work was very high.

The dream of many literature enthusiasts was for their own work to be printed in lead type and published.

But previously, it was too difficult for domestic works to get published.

For most literature enthusiasts, being able to publish one or two tofu-block-sized articles in newspapers or magazines was already rare.

Writing a novel and publishing it as a book?

This was something most people did not dare to imagine.

So, when everyone saw Jin Hezai, Annie Baobei, and others successfully publish novels after following Zhongyuan Yidianhui's "I Wish to Become an Immortal," the atmosphere on Rongshuxia changed.

People writing poetry, prose, and short stories decreased rapidly.

Authors writing Xianxia cultivation appeared like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, with dozens or hundreds emerging every day.

Under these circumstances, the Rongshuxia editorial department held several meetings.

The topics of the several meetings were: Should Rongshuxia transform? Should the website's main genre be changed to Xianxia cultivation? Or long-form novels?

That night.

Zhu Weilian, the site administrator of Rongshuxia, locked himself alone in the office, browsing the Rongshuxia webpage unconsciously, his eyebrows slightly furrowed, not relaxing for a long time.

Under the banyan tree lay both his startup project and the vessel of his literary dreams.

As a Chinese-American, he had seen the prospects of the internet in the United States and believed that launching a literature website on the mainland held promise.

So he returned to establish Banyan Tree.

At first, just as he had predicted, Banyan Tree indeed attracted many literature enthusiasts, and some magazines and publishing houses showed interest in cooperating with it.

This showed him the path to profitability for Banyan Tree.

As long as it could turn a profit, Banyan Tree could continue to develop, walking the path of sustainable growth.

But now...

Zhongyuan Yidianhui's "I Wish to Become an Immortal" had led his life's work—Banyan Tree—astray.

Banyan Tree was a literature website.

Yet literature was not merely long-form novels.

And long-form novels were not limited to just the Xianxia and cultivation genre.

But what about now?

Poetry, essays, diaries, and short stories saw hardly any new submissions daily; most authors were writing long-form novels, and of those, the majority were writing Xianxia and cultivation.

Could such a Banyan Tree still be considered a literature website?

He had attended the editorial meetings these past few days.

He had learned everyone's thoughts.

There were essentially two options: either maintain the website's style unchanged, or transform the site to focus primarily on serialized long-form novels.

But he knew in his heart that most of Banyan Tree's authors possessed only the ability to write short stories; the long-form novels they produced rarely met publishing standards.

If the site truly transformed to focus primarily on serialized long-form novels, very few works would actually be published, and Banyan Tree's profitability could drop significantly.

Unless...

They could secure funding.

Burn other people's money, use other people's money to nourish Banyan Tree; given enough time, the number of authors on Banyan Tree capable of writing good long-form novels would naturally increase.

By then, Banyan Tree would not only restore its profitability but could even achieve even stronger profitability.

Financing...

Could they secure funding?

What could they use to secure it?

The five characters "Zhongyuan Yidianhui" flashed through his mind.

Zhongyuan Yidianhui was currently the most famous and best-selling author in the country, and this author was now on their Banyan Tree.

If Banyan Tree could tie itself to Zhongyuan Yidianhui, they should be able to secure funding, right?

The problem arose—how could they tie themselves to Zhongyuan Yidianhui? Zhongyuan Yidianhui was currently merely a resident author on Banyan Tree; although there was cooperation, the two shared no binding relationship, and Zhongyuan Yidianhui could leave Banyan Tree at any time.