Thoughts on Going Premium [Mass-Release Countdown 0/50]

It's become a tradition for me to say what's on my mind whenever a book goes premium, and this time is no exception. Since these are still free chapters anyway, we might as well chat a little more and deepen the fine brotherly bond between us. That's a wonderful thing too.

When my original novel flopped, I reflected on it and switched back to fanfiction to start this book. I was under quite a bit of pressure (×). My pressure was off the charts (×). It nearly crushed me to death (√).

That pressure came from many directions.

For one thing, that book had flopped so badly that it even shattered my confidence in writing. For a while, I felt deeply resistant and averse to the very act of "typing words." Those of you brothers who kept diaries as kids will understand: once that feeling appeared, giving up wasn't far away.

But fortunately, I ultimately pulled myself through it.

Around that time, I happened to be replaying Black Monkey and watched an interview with the producer. Old Feng's words—"You can't be confident only when you succeed"—suddenly woke me up.

That was right. One or two flops didn't mean anything. It wasn't like I'd never flopped before, so why had my ability to handle it gotten worse the more industry experience I gained?

If you fell, then you fell. Just get back up and keep going. If you couldn't get back up, lie there for a while and let yourself rest, then get back on the road.

It was precisely that mindset that led to this book.

I also have to give special thanks here to Huo Zhengtinghao. Not only because this lavish guy threw down four Silver Alliances in one go to support me, but because the concept for this book and the initial plot design for the first volume were actually created by the two of us together. He's also a longtime Warcraft player. When I told him I wanted to start with an Eredar protagonist, he said it would definitely work. He even said that it might not work if someone else wrote it, but I absolutely could.

That got my blood pumping right away.

As I said before, several plot points in the first volume could have developed in far more open directions, but Old Huo talked me out of it.

Fanfiction was still fanfiction. It needed to follow and respect the logic of the original work. Appropriate changes could certainly be made to the main plot, but that didn't suit an Eredar origin story. It took place long before the official history, and drastic changes here would directly affect the entire chronology that followed. That meant that after the first volume, I'd have to completely let myself go and write a "half-original" novel.

The difficulty was one aspect. What readers wanted to see was another.

Just imagine it: if a fanfiction barely featured any of the familiar classic characters readers knew, could it still be called fanfiction?

Besides, my original novel had flopped miserably. That proved that I truly wasn't good at constructing the kinds of stories I wanted to tell. I was better suited to creating deeply within an established framework. If I still refused to learn my lesson and messed around like that, then I'd deserve to flop to death.

Back to the pressure.

The second source of pressure was the story's pacing.

Maybe because I hadn't written fanfiction in so long, the first volume's pacing alternated between too fast and too slow, to the point that even I got depressed over it. Reading the chapter comments every day made me increasingly irritable, and before I knew it, I had fallen into a rather terrifying state of Mental Attrition. I'd committed that mistake every author made at least once:

Always wanting to satisfy every reader. Always wanting to please every reader.

But that was impossible!

Everyone had different tastes. There simply wasn't a story in this world that everyone liked. Even Wukong and Nezha had people who disliked them, right? What right did a lousy novelist like me have to expect otherwise?

Once I understood that, the pacing naturally found its way back.

I had to write in the way I was accustomed to and comfortable with. Only then could I ensure that I had enough passion for writing, and only then could I ensure that a story reached the end according to my own vision.

That meant there would always be readers who felt uncomfortable somewhere along the way. No single writing pace could satisfy every reader, but that wasn't your problem or mine. It was merely the real-life version of "all feasts must eventually end."

After a beautiful and harmonious meeting and getting to know one another, perhaps it was time to say goodbye.

There was no need to be sad at all, because we would always meet again in the next book. That feeling of "a gentleman's friendship is as light as water" and "forgetting each other in the rivers and lakes" was even more captivating.

Oh, speaking of Mental Attrition, I have another amusing story to share with everyone.

A few days ago, I went to watch Ne Zha 2 for the second time. I'd thought I could watch the plot rationally this time, but I never expected to cry even harder and more often in the theater than I had the first time. Yet after I finished crying and walked out, my mood suddenly improved. It was hard not to think of Sheldon's famous saying: the healthy release of emotions helps bring peace and fulfillment to the mind.

But when I thought about it again after getting home, I suddenly realized that I seemed to have turned into some kind of dark creature, like a mind flayer, relying on absorbing more intense and wonderful emotions from the outside world to achieve fleeting happiness and satisfaction.

So when you all used to call me a "tentacle monster," was that not a joke, but a statement of fact?

Hahahaha, that's enough of the extra chatter. Let's talk about this book.

Since this is Light's Dawn, it will naturally be a bright, positive story. It begins with Argus, and it will naturally end with Argus. I've even come up with the title for the final volume: "Argus's Dawn."

The seeds of change were already planted in the first volume. They would take root and sprout in the second, gather into a vortex in the third, and form a storm in the fourth. Then, volume by volume, they would continue onward until the accumulated momentum of fate transformed them into an irresistible countercurrent, ultimately pushing the entire starsea of Azeroth in a more mysterious direction.

Some of you brothers have also noticed that I've reconstructed many characters from the original work based on my own understanding.

For example, Kil'jaeden in the first volume...

I think Egg should be like this. At the very least, in my mind, he shouldn't be such a formulaic villain. Under what circumstances would a person of conviction allow himself to embrace a dark fate?

More reconstructed characters will appear later. Without changing their destinies, I'll try to give them more emotion and logic, allowing those Old Friends who accompanied us through more than a decade of wonderful gaming memories to live different lives beneath my pen.

Maybe they'll be more exciting. Maybe they'll be more helpless. Maybe I won't even write them as well as the original did.

But change is always a good thing.

Having decided that I would never venture into original fiction again, I needed to make some changes as well, so that I could ensure more interesting possibilities when I wrote the classes and stories I hadn't yet had time to write.

For example, DH...

If I were to write a Demon Hunter, did I have to write about following Illidan around on killing sprees, or being content to become yet another Illidan fanboy or fangirl, trapped beneath Illidan's shadow from beginning to end and unable to carve out their own path?

No!

Obviously not.

There were far too many things to explore in Azeroth's story. This story was easy to write fanfiction for precisely because the story itself was good enough.

I was merely fortunate enough to pick up a few beautiful shells along this lovely shore and share them with all of you who walked the same path. Any success I've achieved in writing isn't because I'm especially capable. It's only because I was lucky enough to meet a group of friends willing to listen to my stories.

Therefore, I must thank you all sincerely. Thank you, my brothers and sisters. Without your tolerance, there would be no such book, nor the stories I've finished writing and those I have yet to begin.

I've returned to Azeroth's stories. I've gone out and ventured through the world. I traveled the whole rivers and lakes, yet failed to find the path to heaven that belonged to me. I no longer have the time, energy, or courage to try again. I chose to return here, to return to my Qidian, to return among the brothers and sisters who had been waiting for me all along.

I came home.

It began here, and it will end here.

It is two in the morning on the 18th. By the time you brothers see these thoughts, it should be eight o'clock. Please wait patiently for four hours. A few minutes after noon, fifty chapters will be delivered.

I'm old now, not as energetic as I used to be. The grand feat of one hundred chapters is truly difficult to replicate, but I can still do my utmost to offer fifty chapters as tribute.

All I ask is to bring a smile to your faces.

Love you all!

Love you to death!

—Yi Lu Ji Lu & Shuai Quan Frank