I packed an enormous amount into this volume. I cut and condensed what was originally three volumes' worth of plot into one, so it ended up feeling somewhat scattered, both structurally and in the sheer amount of information it carried.
The contest with the Lord of Self was actually supposed to last an entire volume. But for the sake of length and pacing, I cut some subplot-like material to keep it from dragging, then merged what remained with the following volume. The third volume was meant to be the Luoyang Divine Treasury arc, but I had planned that mainly to tie up loose ends. The protagonist would also have appeared more from the sidelines and behind the scenes. To keep readers connected to him, I moved that plot into the background and addressed it in the final few chapters. Although there was less content, I kept the parts that echoed earlier events. There are still plenty of snake tracks in the grass and ash lines left behind; attentive readers can piece together the causes and consequences.
Between Cause and Effect is both Chen Cuo's Innate Divine Ability and an important part of this book's structure. Unfortunately, that structure changed partway through, so I didn't achieve what I originally set out to do. Those changes came from both personal and external circumstances.
On the personal side, one unexpected family matter after another kept interrupting my train of thought.
Webnovel writers do seem to suffer every calamity under the sun whenever they need time off, but I haven't made any of this up. My mother became seriously ill at the start of the year, then my father fell seriously ill last month. My wife is pregnant, and my heart hasn't been doing too well either. I was supposed to go back into