Era of Mist, Arc 13, Abyssal Excavation of All Nature, ended here.
When they saw this arc's title, some readers mentioned "Under One Person." Actually, I hadn't read Under One Person; "all nature" was a Daoist cultivation term.
Cultivate nature but not life, and by old age your whole body would be riddled with illness. Cultivate life but not nature, and dust would veil the true spirit— I made that up myself, but Dual Cultivation of Nature and Life was more or less what it meant. All Nature meant one's complete true nature, an extremely high realm in Spirit Refining. Abyssal referred to the protagonist's name, but also to his dark experiences and profound truth. The protagonist fell into an abyss of utter darkness, yet excavated All Nature from beneath that abyss. That was the meaning of the arc's title.
The outline for this arc had been written a very, very long time ago. Do you remember when Shi Tiexin took part in the Liang Group bicycle race at Tumubao? I wrote that arc in the spring of 2020, and this arc's outline had already been completed back then.
Originally, I just wanted to write an ordinary The Matrix-type story. But I happened to be the sort of person who didn't like following the rules when writing. Even if it was only a little, I had to mix in some personal insights, or else I wouldn't have had the motivation to write.
Mining was booming at the time, with a global mining craze. Some netizens joked, "Mining bosses could strip away a person's body and make their remaining husk mine." Something stirred in my heart, and that idea was born. In the end, it evolved into what everyone saw now.
A brief digression: I just saw the news that after