Chapter 2: Fo Ben Shi Dao

Wang Peng entered the internet cafe, turned on a computer at the counter, and found a seat in a corner.

After turning on the computer, the familiar yet distant Windows 2000 appeared before his eyes, and Wang Peng felt a wave of emotion—truly a familiar operating system, though he was clearly more accustomed to Windows XP, and he personally did not like Vista later on; after all, he had used XP since he began typing, while Windows 2000 was the operating system he first used when he first touched a computer.

But since he was going to type, he faced a choice: with so many great books in the future, which one should he pick? This one? Or that one? This is a problem!

There were many books to choose from, including《Star Transformation》, 《Douluo Mainland China》, 《Buddhist Sutra of the Ten Realms》, 《Ticket Miao Zhi Lü》, 《Zhu Xian》…… and so on. It was obvious that Wang Peng had fallen into a difficult choice.

If anyone is to blame, it can only be that there are too many divine books (sweat).

After careful consideration, Wang Peng ultimately chose the xuanhuan-type《Buddhist Sutra of the Ten Realms》for many reasons: 《Buddhist Sutra of the Ten Realms》is one of the representative works of Meng Shen Ji, and《Buddhist Sutra of the Ten Realms》founded the xuanhuan genre.

Many people like Meng Shen Ji's books because the background is grand, the secrets of the ancient Fengshen War are revealed by an urban youth, and a miraculous Dharma wheel narrates the secrets between Buddha and Dao from that time……

The heaven-defying genius Zhou Qing appeared out of nowhere, by chance and coincidence, able to freely travel through the Tian Di Ren Mo Zhi Jie and Dao Fo Xian Yao Zhi Men, moving with ease and soaring upward.

The mysterious and brutal ancient alien species, the Six-Winged Golden Silkworm; the vicious Tian Xuan Xue Mo Sha Zhu; the profound cultivation of Xuanyuan Fa Wang, who has practiced for two thousand years; the terrifying killing intent of the Earth Fiend Grand Formation; the gloomy and fierce souls of the Changping Ancient Battlefield; the divine and marvelous double-headed wolf Tian Luo Hua Xue Shen Dao……

A legendary tale full of twists and turns!

A winding and extraordinary life!

A truly excellent book.

Before time travel, Wang Peng had already greatly liked《Fo Ben Shi Dao》. Meng Shen Ji's novels make people feel very exciting.

However, Wang Peng would still write《Zhu Xian》in the future, though it would take much longer—just thinking about how Xiao Ding wrote《Zhu Xian》for several years shows that his speed could be described as turtle-like; if Wang Peng were to write it, the time would likely be even longer, which does not match his current desire to quickly achieve success.

And choosing《Buddhist Sutra of the Ten Realms》instead of something similar in quality like《Ticket Miao》is because, although the founding ancestor-level masterpiece is impressive, many of its settings are not very complete; if《Ticket Miao》is the pioneering work of interstellar cultivation, then《Buddhist Sutra of the Ten Realms》is the pinnacle representative of xuanhuan works. Therefore, Wang Peng ultimately chose《Buddhist Sutra of the Ten Realms》.

But then another major problem arose: where should he publish the book? This issue nearly ruined Wang Peng's plan, as online literature was just beginning to sprout; the future giant Qidian was still unknown in location, while the old novel site Jianjian seemed to require several more months before establishment. Wang Peng felt embarrassed, as he later basically published all his novels on Qidian, but Qidian did not exist yet—what should he do? Could a living person really hold their urine until death? Could future gods still be stumped by this? Of course not. He thought of a website—Long Kong.

The largest domestic discussion site for online literature, Long Kong Lun Tan, originally belonged to Beijing Shiji Huanxiang Wenhua Fazhan Finite Gongsi. Long Kong once dominated the online literature world, and although now only the forum remains, its military history section and original critique section still hold some influence in the community.

When mentioning online literature or online literature authors, Long Kong is absolutely a historically penetrating, far-reaching, heavyweight presence. During the silver age of online literature, no website had Long Kong's resources, development height, or monopoly level—up to now, no novel site has matched it, and even today's Long Kong still casts an immense, unavoidable shadow in the online literature circle. The development history of Long Kong is precisely a typical representative of online literature website development.

In other words, if Wang Peng published his novel here at this time, it would not seem out of place at all.

Regarding the situation in 2001, online literature was far less developed and rich than later, and could be described as very monotonous. This period happened to be a blank era: before, Gu Long passed away, Jin Yong sealed his works, and afterward, online literature had not yet risen—this period was completely blank. Although there were some decent works during this time, they were far from enough to lead a new trend or fulfill the role of connecting past and future.

Wang Peng browsed the Long Kong community at that time, finally fixed his gaze on the "Long Men Chuang Zuo Qu" section, opened a post titled《Fo Ben Shi Dao》, and began typing. Since it was plagiarism and the writing requirements were not high, he finished typing the first chapter《Kill People and Steal Goods》in just over an hour. Although this speed was far behind the peak speed of typing eight thousand characters in an hour by the "Three Young Masters," it was already his limit. After uploading, he checked the time—it was nearly eight o'clock. Regardless of the noise, he buried himself again in the computer and continued typing, uploading each chapter as he finished it. Unconsciously, he had already uploaded the second chapter《Hu Xiang Ji Suan》, the third chapter《Fu Lu Zhi Shu》, the fourth chapter《Shu Shan Xian Xian》, and the fifth chapter《Gui Lei Zhi Shu》.

After checking the time, it was already midnight, very late, but there were still many people in the internet cafe playing, apparently preparing for an all-nighter. Wang Peng browsed his own post, and upon seeing it, was shocked: in just a few hours, the click count had already exceeded five thousand, and the comments had reached over a thousand. Even the section moderator had specially opened a new post just to update《Fo Ben Shi Dao》, disallowing replies, pinning it to the top—the click count had also exceeded five thousand. Perhaps this number seems insignificant in later times, when a single chapter by a major author gets over ten thousand clicks, but in the early 21st century, the number of internet users was vastly smaller compared to 2010. In April 2002, netizen Murong Xuecun serialized the online novel《Cheng Du, Jin Ye Qing Jiang Wang Yi Wang Wo》on Tianya, and the readership quickly surpassed 200,000, creating a miracle in online literature history.

200,000 reads is already considered a miracle—what about just a few hours yielding over five thousand clicks? That is absolutely terrifying data.

Wang Peng clicked into his original post, and not long after his revised first chapter, the first reply appeared.

"Not bad, although it's not exciting yet!"

"Boss, what book is this? Is it martial arts?"

"How is the writing so plain///"

By the time Wang Peng decided to upload the second chapter, the number of replies kept increasing.

"Following along, not bad!"

"Still can't tell what it's about, but it should be martial arts!"

By the time the fifth chapter《Gui Lei Zhi Shu》was uploaded, the number of replies had already become terrifying.

"Written with great originality!"

"Hurry up, hurry up, I've been waiting until now!"

"Boss, will there be more today?"

The number of replies exceeded Wang Peng's imagination—mixed praise and criticism, but fortunately, the netizens at that time were relatively civilized, with basically no vulgar language, and even if they didn't like it, there were no personal attacks. In short, from this situation, only one sentence can describe it: 《Fo Ben Shi Dao》has become popular, and extremely popular.

Wang Peng never expected that just a few chapters would cause such a commotion. Of course, he never doubted that《Fo Ben Shi Dao》would become popular, but becoming this popular in just a few chapters was completely beyond his expectation. His thoughts were more rooted in his past life's perspective: in 2010, if one wasn't a major author, especially a newcomer, after launching a book, one had to prepare for being neglected, and many readers had the habit of collecting first, fattening up, and then reading. So Wang Peng had prepared himself for being neglected, and even thought that these few days he would desperately type, gain the moderator's appreciation, and then start promotion—only he didn't expect the result to come so quickly. Just a few chapters, in the context of online novels with several million characters, it's hard to tell what is even being written.

For Wang Peng, who often stays up late typing, twelve o'clock is naturally nothing special.