First, I want to thank everyone for sticking with my story through to the end of volume 2. It has been a crazy few months for me, and things have been happening much faster than I expected. So everyone is aware, I signed a contract with Mountaindale Press, and the series will get published eventually. At that point, the story will have to get stubbed. We are several months out from that happening, but I just wanted to go ahead and make it known. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ novel★fire.net
Regarding the story of volume 2, I do want to say, I know this wasn't what many of you expected out of a xianxia/time loop story, but it was what I felt I needed to tell.
My original outline for this final life where he gets the seed was for him to plan a big operation where he puts together everything he learned to achieve his goals. To have him use the knowledge and skills he has gained to do something that should be impossible for a normal person. After I wrote chapters 100-102, though, I realized I couldn't do that. It would be rewarding all of Su Fang's bad decisions. I needed him to see that he was walking down the wrong path.
Acquiring the seed through this kind of big operation would be telling Su Fang, "Yeah, that life might have made you feel bad, but you did the right thing because it's what got you what you needed." I didn't like where that mindset would lead. Instead, it's not his planning, or his skills, or his System that gets him the seed, it's connecting with two people, the prince and the emperor, on a human level. That was the message Su Fang needed to leave this arc with.
That said, volume 3 will be starting Monday, and I think it will be more of what people are expecting: more power, more time loop shenanigans, and more action. Lessons have begun to be learned, and it will take time for them to fully sink in, but Fang now has a chance to get on the right track forward.
I hope you stick around to see what's next.
Now, for the shameless plug:
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
For $5, you get 10 extra chapters right away.
For $10, you get 21 extra chapters now + releases every Saturday and Sunday until this tier is 25 ahead of Royal Road.
Note: My uses the Subscription Billing model, so you don't have to worry about when you sign up. You won't get charged again on the first of the month like their older billing models.
Also, if you are interested, you can head over to Discord to discuss the story. There's a small community there, but it's slowly growing.
Onto the volume 3 Spoiler:
For volumes 1 and 2, I paid for a professional artist to create something for me. For volume 3, I got into photoshop and made something myself.
This is only a working cover and working title. Both will definitely be changing, but it gives you a good sense of what to expect coming up.
Lastly, as you may have been able to tell by now, I'm not too big of a fan of doing a lot of shout outs. I've done a few, but generally avoid them. Well, yesterday, someone contacted me asking for a shout out, and I don't know, feels right place right time. This is what they said:
I'd love to become a full-time writer and Royal Road seems like the best place to start but I don't have the money to advertise on RR and I am not asking you to give me any. Instead, I am simply asking for a shoutout to my book to make my dreams come true.
I will say, I've been super busy recently and haven't had a chance to check it out, so I have no clue about the story or it's quality, but if you got a few minutes to spare, why not help this story rush up to Rising Stars.