Final Thoughts

It was finally finished. I guess everyone could breathe a sigh of relief too. (Just guessing.)

A little self-criticism: the ending was a bit rushed. If the Land of Origin arc had been fully developed, I probably could have padded it out by another hundred thousand words. (Covers face.)

To be honest, I'd considered ending the book back during Great Unification, after winning the Super Cup championship. That would have been a pretty good stopping point.

But I wasn't quite willing to let it go. Not because I wanted to pad out the royalties—everyone knows stat-based stories get harder to write in the later stages, especially when trying to give them a reasonable ending. If I wanted to pad the royalties, I would have been better off detailing the Super Cup arc rather than brushing over it in a few strokes.

What Old Ya couldn't let go of was that the Evolutionist and Transcendent arcs I'd envisioned, along with the framework of the Star Alliance, Extraterrestrial Civilization, and even the Astral Realm, had never been expanded upon. I always wanted to give it a try. So I quickly wrapped up the Super Cup and flew off Earth!

As everyone saw, the Star Alliance arc did come out, but Extraterrestrial Civilization was basically nowhere to be seen.

The truth was that Old Ya couldn't keep going. Switching settings and changing direction was too big a step, and I pulled something. I won't analyze exactly what got pulled; Old Ya actually had some sense of self-importance.

The popularity slowly declined after the setting change, and after the word count passed four million, Old Ya's enthusiasm kept wearing away. My mother's cancer surgery also took up a great deal of my energy. Updates became fewer and fewer later on. Old Ya was responsible for that, and I bow my head in apology.

With this ending, I filled in most of the plot holes as best as I could. Old Ya had done his best—there wasn't much point in padding it out further. Unless I rewrote it from after Great Unification, there was no way to straighten out a transition that had gone crooked.

All I can say is, I'll work hard on the new book and make up for those regrets.

I already have ideas for the new book. It will be a high-martial-arts world, and I'm currently gathering material for it. It will have well-integrated game and real-world elements. This time, I'll strive to make it more rigorous and more exciting. I hope everyone will continue to support me. Thank you!

Eye of Evolution will also have some epilogue content, including Xiao Bai's glorious return home, which will be added gradually.

Asheruo, June 17, 2020