After a year and a half and 3.5 million words, Lu Yao's adventure had come to an end for now.
The hardest part was after catching COVID. My energy and focus dropped badly. During that period, I also had to take care of a patient, which flipped my days and nights completely. I'd write straight until six in the morning, then sleep until the afternoon and get up for dinner. Just thinking back on it still feels scary. Thankfully, after stumbling along, I still managed to grit my teeth and make it all the way through.
Let me briefly talk about this story.
Lu Yao's personality determined the way he did things. He was not the type to fight for supremacy or push himself to the limit. He was more of a passerby-style male lead, whose hobby was watching the spectacle and having fun, and he usually did not stir up trouble much. Only after encountering Orion did he respond to the enemy aggressively at all costs, because by then there was no longer any room to stand aside and watch.
It was just like an ordinary person's reaction. If someone needed help and there were other people around, an onlooker might keep watching, but if they were the only one there, they would feel a sense of mission.
Another point was the exploration of the worldbuilding. Because of Lu Yao's cautious personality—his fear of death—he would not personally take risks. His subordinates always went ahead to scout. So I used this method of linking things through the perspectives of different minor characters, to observe and touch different worlds.
Lastly, regarding the way this story was written: within the farming-development framework, I tried to design some tech trees that were not too similar, so that they could produce Chemical Reactions