Reflections on Going Premium

The last time I typed these four words on a keyboard was May 26, 2022.

In the blink of an eye, four years had passed. Now, with another new book going premium, my heart was filled with countless emotions.

Every book began with the ideas deepest in my heart.

Path to Immortality sprang from things I witnessed during that unusual period.

Master of Square Inch, meanwhile, grew from the character "Holy Emperor" in my previous book.

What if a world had an emperor whose might cowed all under heaven, whose every word became the law of the land?

What would that world become?

As I developed the concept, I also felt that the backdrop of the Hundred Schools of Thought during the Warring States period suited it perfectly.

And so I came up with the idea of writing this book.

Though I had been writing for more than four years now, I had always felt that my "craft" was still immature.

Not enough satisfying highs, not enough familiar formulas.

But being able to write the story I wanted to write was enough.

That was true of Path to Immortality, and it was true of this book as well.

Master of Square Inch would go premium tomorrow, at 12 noon on April 20, 2026.

There would be five updates on the day it went premium.

After that, I would do my best to maintain 6,000 characters of updates per day.

First of all, I wanted to thank my editor, Whisk.

He had worked incredibly hard during the new-book period and gave me many valuable suggestions.

Next, I wanted to thank Devouring Heaven God Venerable, Anadiplosis, Snow Leopard, Cat Shadow Without Trace, Warmhearted Cold, Zheng QW, Where Did I Go Wrong, Dues Cheese, Phoenix Mocks Phoenix, Pei Dog Butcher, and xmukmb for