Reflections on the Mountain Sea Realm Arc, a Look Ahead, and New Year's Wishes

It was December 31. The year was coming to an end.

As the new year began and New Year's Day drew near, I, Lin Yuan, wanted to offer my sincerest wishes to all my brothers and sisters and dear readers:

Thank you all for your support. I wish you peace, health, happiness, and joy in the new year. May your families be whole, your careers flourish, and may you have harmonious homes, fulfilling love, sincere friendships, and a bright new future.

Daoist Lord began updating on December 12, 2023. By December 31, 2024, it had run for a full 385 days, with 2.37 million Chinese characters across 725 chapters. (That worked out to an average of 3,200 characters a chapter? I'm pretty impressive.)

A lot happened this year. Thanks to you and your support, I've been able to do what I can for my family. Because of you, I might even be able to hold my head a little higher this New Year? (Maybe.)

Let me talk about my plans for the book.

I started writing it because there weren't many good, actively updated cultivation novels around. I was young and cocky, too. If those guys could do it, why couldn't I?

So I launched this book with boundless arrogance, and then...

After battering my head bloody for a while, I realized that their ability to do it didn't mean I could. I was actually a total amateur.

What I felt most keenly this year was my helplessness when it came to managing the bigger picture and telling the story.

I'd lay out what seemed like a perfect plot and set everything up for what came next. The story would open on a grand scale and surge ahead in the middle, only for the later stages to run out of