The Abyss arc is finally over! You could call it a storyline that expanded the worldbuilding.
Old Zhang got to show off from afar, and I wrote some exchanges between civilizations too. I think it turned out all right.
People kept saying I was padding things out during the later worldbuilding sections, but there was nothing I could do about that. The Demon God storyline had to be developed, and I also had to show that danger lurked everywhere in the Demon God's Sea. The current peace was just an illusion. Otherwise, what would I write later? Having a disaster suddenly break out without warning wouldn't be great either, would it?
Some readers just wanted Zhang Ming to hurry back to Earth and show off, but there really wouldn't be much to write about that. He couldn't keep showing off on Earth forever. I still had to lay the groundwork for the larger world and the bigger storylines to come. The storylines!
So he had to stay in the Abyss for a while. By the time Old Zhang emerged from the Abyss, the world would have changed beyond recognition.
That was what I had planned from the very beginning.
For one thing, this was a civilization-building novel to begin with, and I had to steer clear of censorship issues. Without a fictional setting, it could get axed at any moment.
Now the world was fictional, but it still retained the original culture, so readers wouldn't find it unfamiliar. That really was an excellent outcome.
For another, Earth needed time to develop.
A very, very long time.
Anything could happen in a century or two.
Old Zhang couldn't come home and babysit everyone over every little thing. He wanted to kick back and do nothing. You all get that, right?
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