Volume Five is finished. It should be the shortest volume.
The volume is titled Dragon and Snake Rise from the Land, and it tells of the various factions making their entrances and contending with the Great Blue Dynasty.
The reason this volume is short is that its overall tone is oppressive.
The whole world was his enemy, and he was constantly facing adversity and formidable foes he could not overcome... It was hard for the volume not to feel oppressive.
So this volume inevitably faced a lot of criticism:
The writing was too unreasonable; the enemies were always strengthened while the protagonist's side was weakened.
I was deliberately suppressing the power levels.
All the enemies were united as one, while the Great Blue Dynasty was always embroiled in internal strife... and so on.
Actually, all of that was understandable. Who could blame you for complaining when the story wasn't satisfying to read?
If a story was not satisfying, then no matter how logical it was or how ingenious its ideas were, it would still seem unreasonable.
Not being satisfying was the greatest unreason of all!
Conversely, even if I wrote all the enemies as brain-dead fools—knowing full well that the Great Blue Dynasty was the biggest piece of 'fat meat' and happened to be at its weakest, and knowing that the protagonist would surely become Number One Under Heaven in the future—
Even if the enemies refused to deal with the Great Blue Dynasty, insisted on fighting among themselves at this very moment, and kept sending people of the same realm to give their heads to the protagonist...
As long as the story was satisfying, no matter how illogical it was, great scholars would naturally find a way to defend it for me.
I am not saying this to complain.