"How could Chen Li do this kind of thing? Am I that kind of person?" Huang He sighed as he watched Hu Jing leave.
Although Huang He really appreciated Hu Jing and had even harbored desires for her, he was currently under intense scrutiny. Huang He would absolutely not get involved with a woman he didn't absolutely trust. Thus, Chen Li's good intentions were wasted.
In fact, Huang He even intended to use Chen Li as a pawn to bring his company to a perfect conclusion.
"I didn't expect that later generations' 'Piaomiao Zhi Lu' would be released a year earlier, and not on Yuanyuan Novel Net, but on Tianya Forum!" Huang He's lips curled into a strange smile as he looked at the post that had dominated Tianya Forum.
Huang He stumbled upon this post. He was bored one evening after returning to his hotel and decided to go online. However, playing a game would be too tiring, so Huang He chose to read novels.
Although Qidian Chinese Network had already been established, Qidian was still very nascent at this time. The library had fewer than 300 novels, and they were almost all immature works, with no novels exceeding 300,000 words.
After all, it was a website that had only been established in May.
What made Huang He even more uncomfortable was that the popular online novels of 2002, in his opinion, were truly difficult to stomach.
This was because online novels at this time were far inferior to those that had undergone constant survival of the fittest over 20 years. Both the tone and the plot were extremely melodramatic, making Huang He feel so awkward he wanted to spit blood.
Of course, there were still readable online novels at this time. For example, the "Three Great Divine Books" of the era, "Zhu Xian," "Piaomiao Zhi Lu," and "Xiao Bing Chuan Qi," as well as later works like "Yong Bing Tian Xia," "Zi Chuan," and "Xie Du," were all classics that stood out even by today's standards.
But the problem was, it was 2002, and these classic online novels had not yet been born. The most famous online novels at the time were still in the stages of "Wu Kong Zhuan" and "The First Intimate Contact."
As for Yuanyuan Novel Net, although there were many novels worth studying under the covers at night, those novels were, well, everyone understood, so there was no need to say more. In short, Huang He suddenly discovered that he couldn't find a single online novel on the entire network that he could tolerate reading.
It wasn't until he decided to go to Tianya Forum to see if there were any interesting posts that he unexpectedly discovered that "Piaomiao Zhi Lu" was being serialized on Tianya Forum.
This greatly surprised Huang He because, according to his memory, "Piaomiao Zhi Lu" should have been first serialized in 2003 on Xianxian Net in Taiwan, so why was it being serialized on Tianya Forum a year earlier?
Huang He immediately started reading. Although "Piaomiao Zhi Lu" in his memory had some slight differences, the main storyline and character settings were basically the same.
The protagonist was still named Li Qiang, who was betrayed by his girlfriend, but then met his guide, was teleported to Mars, and began his legendary cultivation journey.
"Piaomiao Zhi Lu," known as one of the "Three Great Divine Books" of online literature in later generations, had an extremely profound impact on the online novel industry.
From the perspective of 20 years later, "Piaomiao Zhi Lu" might just be a cultivation novel. However, in 2003, its impact on the entire online novel industry was groundbreaking.
Because all the upgrade-style Xianxia novels of later generations were written following "Piaomiao Zhi Lu," "Piaomiao Zhi Lu" opened up the genre of Xianxia novels. Later, countless online novel authors propagated it, and it eventually became the largest category in online novels.
Some might feel this statement is incorrect because there were already fantasy novels like "Journey to the West" and "Investiture of the Gods" in ancient times. If we consider those too ancient, then in the Republic of China era, there were Huanzhu Louzhu's "Shu Shan" series, which were also Xianxia novels. So how can it be said that "Piaomiao Zhi Lu" opened up the entire Xianxia genre?
To give a simple example, if any author today writes a novel about "Journey to the West," wouldn't they have to classify the gods and monsters in the novel with cultivation levels?
Humans would start from Foundation Establishment, and gradually cultivate to Loose Immortals, Earth Immortals, Heavenly Immortals, Profound Immortals, and so on.
Monsters would have to go through bone refinement, shapeshifting, and then what? Demon soldiers, demon commanders, demon generals, demon saints, and so on.
In the past, neither "Journey to the West" nor "Investiture of the Gods" clearly defined any realms. It was all summarized with a phrase like "depth of cultivation."
It was similar to Jin Yong's Wuxia novels, which never had specific strength divisions like "Xiantian Realm," "Houtian Realm," or "third-rate expert," "second-rate expert."
All of these things did not exist before the appearance of "Piaomiao Zhi Lu."
It was "Piaomiao Zhi Lu" that historically introduced the cultivation realms: Xuánzhào, Kāiguāng, Rónghé, Xīndòng, Língjì, Yuányīng, Chūqiào, Fēnshén, Hétǐ, Dùjié, and Dàchéng.
This set of cultivation system templates was then borrowed by all subsequent Xianxia online novels. Although they might change the names of these realms, such as "Golden Core" or "Tianxiang," they were generally all the same. This allowed the protagonist to improve step by step, and each realm advancement brought immense satisfaction, thus establishing the basic satisfaction of Xianxia novels. xxs1
In addition to this realm division, "Piaomiao Zhi Lu" had many other settings that influenced later Xianxia novels.
For example, tribulation transcendence. Although there was the concept of tribulation transcendence in ancient novels, the setting that one must undergo tribulation transcendence before becoming an immortal or advancing a realm was first created by "Piaomiao Zhi Lu."
The setting of failing tribulation transcendence, using the Nascent Soul to cultivate Loose Immortals, and then Loose Immortals having to pass through nine heavenly tribulations to become immortals, astonished countless people.
Even more astonishing was that "Piaomiao Zhi Lu" expanded cultivation beyond Earth, to various planets.
The protagonist Li Qiang never cultivated on Earth from beginning to end. Instead, he first arrived on Mars via a teleportation array and then traveled from Mars to other planets full of spiritual energy, thereby cultivating step by step. This effectively opened up a much vaster world for Xianxia novels.
In addition, there was the "world-hopping" trope, which many readers detested, also initiated by "Piaomiao Zhi Lu." It was "Piaomiao Zhi Lu" that pioneered the setting of changing worlds after cultivation, progressing from the mortal world to the immortal realm.
However, unlike the later world-hopping that was merely to continue increasing combat power and repeat map grinding, the world-hopping in "Piaomiao Zhi Lu" was a true world-hopping. The difference between the cultivation world and the immortal world could be felt through the textual descriptions.
After changing worlds, every word seemed more imposing than the words from the previous world, creating a feeling like a country bumpkin entering the city to see the world. Therefore, the world-hopping in "Piaomiao Zhi Lu" was very successful.
In addition to the cultivation realm and immortal realm, "Piaomiao Zhi Lu" also set up the divine realm above the immortal realm. At that time, countless readers yearned to see the legendary divine realm, but the author finished the immortal realm and directly concluded the story, leaving behind a mysterious divine realm that made all readers anxious.
As a result, someone later wrote a sequel, "Piaomiao Shen Zhi Lu," which told the story of the divine realm. Although it was very poorly written, it became the click-through ceiling at the time, showing how magnificent the world constructed by "Piaomiao Zhi Lu" was, crushing later world-hopping leveling novels by how many times.
In conclusion, in 2002, "Piaomiao Zhi Lu" was undoubtedly a divine existence, which explained why it could generate a post with hundreds of thousands of replies on Tianya Forum in one go.
As a result, Huang He directly grabbed his computer and started reading. Even after Hu Jing finished her work and left, Huang He continued reading until past five in the morning before falling asleep. When he woke up, Hu Jing had already assembled the printed 200-plus pages of "Piaomiao Zhi Lu" and handed them to Huang He.
"Well done, now I can read it in the car!" Huang He exclaimed. Hearing this, Hu Jing rolled her eyes. She thought Huang He wanted to adapt the novel into a TV series and was therefore organizing the script.
To find out Huang He just wanted a text version of the novel, Hu Jing was so depressed she felt like crying.
"After the TV series is filmed, come find me in Shanghai!" Huang He said with a smile, seeing Hu Jing's expression.
"Mr. Huang, what do you mean?" Hu Jing's eyes widened. She thought Huang He wasn't interested in her. Otherwise, why would he arrange work late at night and then tell her to go back directly?
Now he was telling her to go to Shanghai to find him. What was going on?
"I think you did a good job!" Huang He glanced at the neatly bound printed documents and nodded. "I still need a qualified secretary. I think you're suitable. If you're willing to take on the position of my secretary, come find me in Shanghai. The compensation won't disappoint you."
"Then I can leave now..." Hu Jing said with a wry smile. "Didn't you see yesterday that I was blown to death on the city gate tower? My scenes are finished, and I can leave the crew today."
"So, Miss Hu Jing, are you willing to be my secretary?" Huang He asked with a smile.
"Can I know the specific compensation?" Hu Jing couldn't help but ask.
"Fifty thousand a month!" Huang He said.
"So high!" Hu Jing's mouth widened. That was an annual salary of 600,000, much more than she earned from acting in TV series now.
"As my secretary, you are the company's chief secretary, equivalent to a senior executive. A senior executive in Jiangnan earns 600,000 a year, which is not much!"
"However, I will give you a one-month trial period. If you are qualified, you can stay and continue this job. If you are not qualified, I will still pay you a salary of 50,000 yuan."
"However, there is one thing I must remind you. Once you become my secretary, I will not allow you to resign because you will have access to countless secrets of Jiangnan. If you dare to resign without my permission, the consequences will be dire!" Huang He said calmly.
"It doesn't matter, as long as there's an annual salary of 600,000, I don't mind doing it for a lifetime!" Hu Jing said with a giggle.
"Don't worry, the benefits of being Jiangnan's Chief Secretary are not just this annual salary. Your social status alone is immeasurably higher than that of a so-called celebrity!" Huang He smiled slightly, then pointed to the crew in the distance. "Don't look at how popular some people in these future crews will become, how they will become big stars. They will all have to rely on you, the Chief Secretary of Jiangnan Group. Your status will be completely detached from all actors!"