"And Maggie, I've come to take you home."
End-of-volume reflections and a day off
After five months and five days, the third arc of the story has come to a close.
In total, I've posted 900,000 Chinese characters, averaging 6,000 a day. Not much, but still a passing grade, I suppose.
In my original conception, the Jade Volume would raise the curtain, entering the Age of Mysteries game through A Lun's perspective and embarking on an adventure of mystery and transcendence.
As the first act, the Amber Volume would have A Lun personally participate in the events leading up to the main quest, gradually expanding the world and showing everyone a corner of the Empire.
The Obsidian Volume was meant to be the climax following that first act.
This volume should have been very important, because it contained deeper mysteries of the world and a glimpse of the truth hidden beneath the surface of the Mortal World. There was also A Lun's fate, his companions' growth, the high-ranking beings behind various factions, and the story of the Black Knight Bayers.
And so on, and so on...
There was so much, so much I wanted to write.
But along the way, many unexpected problems and bottlenecks arose. As a newcomer, this was the first time I, Luobowan, had faced such difficulties.
First, this was also a mismatch caused by the sheer scale of the setting and my own inadequate writing ability.
For example, the frequent appearances of high-ranking beings, Howard's overwhelming presence, A Lun's passivity due to his own strength, a plot that was too dry and too tightly packed with too little time to rest, and all sorts of other problems.
It left me physically and mentally exhausted. For most of September, I could only post one update a day,