The second volume is finished. It just so happens that this volume was put on the shelves. I've updated 170,000 words in the past 15 days. I released 15 updates on the day it was put on the shelves, and I've also made several consecutive bursts of updates afterwards. I feel like I've surpassed my limits again.

I feel quite emotional writing along the way, and I have some small thoughts.

But before I talk about my thoughts, I would like to clarify the update time. I hope all friends who are following the updates will leave a message below. As for book friends who don't follow the updates, it doesn't matter what time I update since you all read it when it's finished.

Recently, some book friends have been telling me that updating at 0:00 every day is too torturous and they can't sleep well. I was shocked because I wanted to update every day at 0:00, so that all readers could see the latest chapters within 24 hours, no matter what time it was—but they said they were staying up late to wait for the next day's update, which I can't help, it's not my fault.

In order to let readers get a good night's sleep, I thought of a few update times for everyone to decide.

1: Update at 0:00 in the morning, same as before.

2: Update at 6:00 in the morning.

3: Update at 12:00 noon.

4: Other. Leave specific requests in the chapter comments.

That's about it. Since today is the end of the volume, I have to write a detailed outline for the new volume, so tomorrow's update may be a little late. The update time will be stable from the day after tomorrow, which also gives everyone time to vote.

That's about it.

The main topic of the second volume is the 'Divine Wood World' about the 'Panrong Undying Tree', and the story of the protagonist's achievement of transcendence, participating in the Holy Examination, and gradually rising in the Earth world.

Because when I designed this dungeon, *Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice* was just released. I played the Dragon Homecoming ending (in fact, the outline of this book was written very early, and the dungeons were written one after another later), and I chatted with several author friends about whether there was a large pile of divine dragons and divine trees in China, so I wrote the initial outline. It also fits Yala's identity, and can also involve the originally designed concept of the great existence, the Divine Tree.

Of course, this book is not a *Sekiro* fanfic.

By the way, if someone says I'm padding the story, but doesn't explain exactly where I'm padding, I will delete all such comments. This is a matter of personal writing rhythm. If I really wanted to pad the story, I could write 200,000 words in the five months after the physical test, kill a few demons, settle a few transcendent families, and incidentally abuse the southern head of the Descending Spirit Society, and even go to another world for a trip... My God, not just 200,000 words, at least 400,000 words of content would be complete.

Of course, I won't write it that way, although the plot is still reasonable, but the pace is too slow.

The reason I say so much is just a question. I've obviously streamlined the plot so much, why do people still say it's padding the story?

I didn't even give names to characters that are not related to the plot, and those who were given names are characters who will definitely appear in the future, that is, supporting characters.

Supporting characters are guys whose fate has been affected by the protagonist. Their stories are the derivatives of the protagonist's change of the world. I think it's a very important part of shaping a world. Otherwise, from the protagonist's perspective, there will definitely be many blank spaces.

Whether it's Ma Jing, Tang Yuan, or the Imperial Advisor, I never wanted to 'pad' when I wrote their stories. In fact, you can regard them as my personal pursuit.

I won't talk about this, this is a matter of personal writing habits, I won't change it, and I don't think it's a shortcoming.

The real serious shortcoming that I think is that the Divine Wood World is a bit long. When I gave the detailed outline to my friends and editors, they all said it was a bit long, and the first other world should be short and fast, so I thought about whether to separate it into two parts, that is, break it from the chapter 'Thoughts in the Dark', and write about beheading the Imperial Advisor and the Demon Emperor later.

But I thought about it and decided that it's better to finish it in one go, so I can write it happily, and it also fits the protagonist's logic—but in this case, it's inevitable that the number of people following the updates will drop, and the plot seems to be a bit confused in its priorities.

The results of this book being put on the shelves are okay. The first order is nearly 4,000, and it became a high-quality product on the first day. The subsequent results and monthly tickets are also very gratifying. Compared with the previous book, it is more than doubled the progress.

But anyway, writing this book here, I also vaguely discovered that the problem that limits my book, and the various toxic points that others always complain about, come from myself. Because I am a simple-minded person, and I always quickly pass the tutorials when playing games (not skipping), and directly kill all the way, so some thinking logic may be really rough and chuuni.

My thinking logic is that when I encounter a dungeon, I 'enter, kill monsters, complete the task', and when I encounter a boss, I 'find the routine, kill him'—rather than strategizing to analyze things, I prefer to write a little about the world setting, and write some stories from other perspectives, which will give me writing pleasure.

So the characters and plots in my writing may reveal this point sometimes.

This is the sequelae of playing too many *Monster Hunter* and *God Eater* games. Without the plot, killing monsters is still very enjoyable, and the battle process in my mind is very detailed, and many details and scenes are as real as they are, so I can't help but want to write them down.

But novels can't be written this way. Novels need to have appropriate emphasis, and clear priorities. I don't do this very well, and the expectation of the plot is not very well mobilized. These are all problems that need to be solved, and they are all difficult problems to solve. I hope that in the following writing process, I will write better and better.

In the 15 days since it was put on the shelves, the new book monthly ticket list has been able to stay in the top ten. I am really grateful to my new and old book friends. By the way, I am also grateful to myself. The plot on the shelves has not collapsed. Unlike the previous book, the number of followers dropped to 700 in 2 weeks after it was put on the shelves, which can be described as terrible.

In other words, this shows that although the pace of this book may still be slow, it is definitely an improvement compared to the previous me.

All in all, thank you for reading. The story of the third volume is more exciting—if it's not exciting, it will be a flop.

Also, thank you to all the book friends who gave rewards, you are great, 5555!

Finally, I'm asking for a monthly ticket... Although I feel a little annoying to say it every day, I have to ask for what I should ask for.