While writing, I suddenly remembered that it was time for a volume break. I don't have much to say, just a few casual words.
Counting from the very first word I wrote for this story, it's been almost a year now. This work, which I call "Aurora Order's Outside Help" for short, has reached 1.12 million Chinese characters-more than everything I've ever written in exercise books and manuscript notebooks combined.
I'm surprised myself that I've actually managed to keep going until now, and that I'm boldly and proudly planning to see it through to the end.
Judging by the outline, I'm about 55-65% of the way through. Even the original Lord of the Mysteries was already at 52% during the "Undying" volume. I don't intend to make this too long, and the next few volumes will also diverge much more from the original plot. Almost all the setup and plot threads are in place; next comes the moment when the butterfly's wings whip up a gale.
While serializing this book, I've stuck to the principle of "letting myself loose, counting it as a success as long as the logic holds up, and writing whatever I want." I've written quite a few scenes that I'm personally rather pleased with (and even want to pat myself on the back for), such as the little match-selling Red Angel, the Tudor Descendant who reveled to death amid the Blood Emperor's illusions, Old Ai's The Ring, and so on-all original plotlines that would be almost impossible to replicate.
Of course, I also know that, because of its characters and subject matter, this story has received mixed reactions throughout its serialization. For many more readers, "not a happy ending where everyone reunites" was already enough to put them off, while "Klein died once" alone was enough