Chapter 504: A Battle Chapter That Doesn

A Battle Chapter That Doesn't Ask for Votes

PS: This standalone chapter isn't the main text, but since it's over 1,500 words, I'll post a free main-text chapter later as compensation. —》 Now for the real topic. Ever since I started writing, standalone chapters have always been about asking for votes, but today I'm not asking for votes. With a heart full of reverence, I'd like to consult a certain author on a question. Don't look away — yes, you, the one writing that book called Forging Immortals.

Suddenly consulting a complete stranger is a bit abrupt, so let me first explain the background. As for the book Late Ming, its results in the history category have been quite ordinary. I'm fairly self-aware and know my own talent is average — I can't compare to the great gods. When I see something I can't win, I don't fight for it. But at the end of this year, seeing a bit of hope for Best Character, I got hot-headed and jumped in.

Starting from the 15th with standalone chapters, with the support of all you readers — many of you doing activity tasks every day according to Qidian's event rules to earn votes — the character votes rose steadily from 27, and finally on Christmas Eve evening reached the number 227. Director Chen was at Chapter 515, with the content as follows: "The update will be late, reporting in advance…"

"Gone off for Christmas Eve, huh." I thought to myself. If they've taken leave, there's no way anyone would vote — this is a chance to catch up. For a loser like me, on Christmas Eve there's only writing. What a great opportunity.

So I excitedly called out in the reader group, and readers all said, tonight we can steal the spot. At this moment it was 21:02 on Christmas Eve, and Forging Immortals was still at just over 2,040 votes.

Happy times are always short. And then guess what happened? Forging Immortals' Best Character votes suddenly started exploding, reaching over 2,400 in just a few minutes. I thought, oh no — a few days ago there was also a big alliance reward, and it jumped by over two hundred in one go. I'd just have to accept that, right? But when I went to check, there was no reward. Maybe it was saved up from a few days ago, I consoled myself. Fine, I'll just keep chasing.

But the explosion continued. At 22:16, Forging Immortals' character votes were 2,645. At 22:38:11, character votes were 2,891. At 22:56, Forging Immortals' character votes historically broke three thousand, reaching 3,091. By the early morning hours they broke four thousand, finally settling at 4,005 votes.

Forging Immortals, which had earned a total of 2,044 votes over the first ten-plus days of the event, in just a few short hours after posting the "reporting in" standalone chapter, triumphantly reached over 4,500 votes — an increase exceeding the total earned in the previous ten-plus days. Meanwhile, Late Ming's character votes were still trudging forward at just over 2,100. Only then did I grasp the deeper meaning of that standalone chapter's content: The update will be late, because I'm going to…

As an honest loser, I've always not dared to look at others with malicious eyes, especially during such a solemn occasion as Qidian's "2013 Year-End Literary Awards."

Some might say, you can't compete in votes, so you want to slander others for vote-fixing? Wrong. Whoever says Forging Immortals is fixing votes, I'll be the first to argue with them.

With my level, it's perfectly normal not to win. But I firmly believe Qidian wouldn't give such an award to a cheater — what a huge joke that would be. So I believe everyone understands: who would be so brainless as to still fix votes?

So when someone says Forging Immortals is fixing votes, I categorically and absolutely do not believe it. Then someone else says, there are many posts on the forums all saying that certain immortal fixes votes — on the reward charts, monthly tickets, Sanjiang recommendations, with over a thousand accounts in hand, and so on — nothing new, and they say it like it's true.

But I still firmly believe it's definitely not vote-fixing. Vote-fixing is such an advanced, sophisticated skill — we're all Qidian writers, who could possibly know such a difficult thing? Besides, how could a writer do such a wicked thing? That would be dishonest, self-deceiving — absolutely impossible for a Qidian author. Whoever says anyone dares fix votes at the Qidian Literary Awards, I'll argue with them.

But I've thought about it every which way — why can Forging Immortals rise so high-end, grand, and classy? We're both people writing books on the same site, so why is the gap so huge?

The root cause lies in myself. Self-criticism — I must engage in self-criticism. Internal factors are the main thing. I first criticized myself: on the cold winter night of Christmas Eve, I bent over my desk and wrote a full three-thousand-word self-criticism, very profound. This delayed that night's Chapter 515. Under the circumstances of saying the update would be late, and without any big alliance reward, the votes could still grow so explosively — on Christmas Eve, a night when no one reads books, in just over two hours surpassing the total of the previous ten-plus days. Could it be that the words in the standalone chapter were a magic spell to summon year-end votes? Or did Santa Claus really come bearing gifts?

At this point, looking back, to make someone reveal the secret skill they make their living from — that's asking too much of them. Besides, with my ordinary talent, I probably couldn't learn it anyway.

Here, let me say a word to my readers: thank you for doing activity tasks every day, earning votes for Late Ming, and to those who gave rewards. Late Ming's 2,000-plus Best Character votes may be few, but not a single one is fixed — every one was cast by you, vote by vote. Though my talent is ordinary, Late Ming from the start until now has never engaged in hype or vote-fixing. Every step of its results was given by you. Here, I thank everyone for your support all along. Thank you to Lonely Swordsman, Old Bai Niu, and the forum friends who once supported this book.

Because I spent last night summarizing the first half of my life, I forgot to wish everyone a happy Christmas Eve when I updated. Fortunately, today is Christmas. I wish all readers a Merry Christmas, wish Qidian's Literary Awards a proper conclusion, and by the way, wish the great deity who writes Forging Immortals sweeping dominance over all of Qidian's major charts. The web novel world depends on you. That is all.

Finally, I'll learn and immediately use a magic spell: "Reporting in, the update will be late, reporting in advance…" A meteor shower suddenly streaks across the sky — year-end votes, come on. To be continued. If you enjoy this work, welcome to subscribe and reward at (this site). Your support is my greatest motivation.