Back to 1997, I became the originator of online literature

Chapter 367 The Empress of the Cultivation World

She had barely run up to Cao Sheng and hadn't even stood still when she handed him a stack of letters.

When Cao Sheng saw this kind of letter paper, he couldn't help but feel a little emotional.

Because at the very top of this stack of letters were printed the four large characters "Huizhou Teachers College".

In the original timeline, when he was a freshman, he would occasionally correspond with his former high school classmates. Every time he bought stationery from a small shop outside the school, it was printed with "Huizhou Teachers College".

Later, as email became popular, he gradually lost the habit of writing letters on paper. Then, with the advent of mobile phones, he gradually stopped using email altogether.

After his rebirth, he never wrote a letter to anyone.

Therefore, this kind of letter paper can evoke some memories for him and make him feel somewhat sentimental.

"Senior! Could you please take a look at this for me?"

Wang Mei, panting heavily, said with a smile on her face.

Cao Sheng nodded, took the letter, and the title of the book caught his eye.

—The Empress of the Cultivation World

Author: Rose
Synopsis: A bolt of lightning brought her to the legendary world of cultivation, where there are four top-tier cultivation sects and hundreds of other cultivation sects of varying strengths.

Unfortunately, when she arrived here, she was only reborn into an ordinary family. Apart from being quite pretty from a young age, she was nothing special.

But since she had come to the world of cultivation, she certainly did not want to live a mediocre life for decades and eventually turn into a handful of dust. So she tried every means and went through hardships to become a disciple of the Han Hai Immortal Island, one of the four top cultivation sects. However, her aptitude was very ordinary. No matter what she tried, she could only become an outer disciple of the Han Hai Immortal Island. As an outer disciple, she had to become a maid of an inner disciple as soon as she entered the sect.

She accepted it gladly.

But she secretly vowed to become the empress of the cultivation world.

By the way, in this life, her name is Huang Ling.

Her story has just begun.

……

Seeing this, Cao Sheng looked up at Wang Mei sitting opposite him. There was a round stone table between them. At this moment, Wang Mei looked at him expectantly, her expression slightly nervous.

Seeing Cao Sheng looking at her, she quickly asked, "Senior, what do you think of this book title? Is it feasible?"

As Cao Sheng looked at her, he thought of the beginning of the story Tan Yu had shown him before, a story called "Our Love".

Compared to that love letter disguised as a novel, Cao Sheng felt that Wang Mei's opening, from the title to the synopsis, was much more serious.

Moreover, from the book title to the synopsis, Cao Sheng felt that Wang Mei truly understood online novels, knew what kind of stories were popular in online novels at the moment, and how to write them.

This is rare.

Especially the title of this book—"The Empress of the Cultivation World".

The book title revealed to Cao Sheng the spirit beneath Wang Mei's gentle exterior.

This is something that many female authors lack.

If Wang Mei has already written many books, he wouldn't think much of the title she chose for this book. He would probably think that she deliberately chose this title to cater to the market and guess the readers' interests.

But she has said before that she has never actually written a novel.

Therefore, this should be her first novel.

Having written novels for many years, he was already familiar with a common phenomenon in the industry.

—Most authors' first book is a projection of their inner world.

The ancients said: "One's handwriting reflects one's character."

And their first novel is often the one that best reflects the author's inner world.

Many authors use themselves as the model for the protagonist when writing their first novel.

The ambitions of the protagonist in a book often reflect how high the author's own aspirations are.

Only when an author has written many works, learned many writing techniques, and expressed most of what they truly wanted to say in their previous works, can they gradually create a protagonist whose personality is completely different from their own.

Therefore, when Cao Sheng saw that Wang Mei's book was titled "Empress of the Cultivation World," he began to look at Wang Mei with new respect.

"The title is good! The topic and concept are also quite good."

Cao Sheng answered her question.

Wang Mei was pleasantly surprised, "Really?"

Cao Sheng nodded.

Wang Mei: "What happens next? Have you read the rest of the text?"

Cao Sheng smiled and said, "Wait a moment! Let me take a look."

Wang Mei: "Oh, okay, then you see! I'll wait for you."

Cao Sheng didn't say anything more and lowered his head to read the first chapter of the letter.

Wang Mei's handwriting is quite different from her temperament. She looks delicate and slender, giving people a sense of fragility, weakness, and vulnerability.

But her handwriting has a strong, vigorous quality.

But it's beautifully written.

The plot of the first chapter gets to the point very quickly. The opening scene shows the reborn female protagonist wearing the white Taoist robe of an outer disciple of the Vast Sea Immortal Island, bowing her head and bowing respectfully to the inner male disciple in front of her.

While briefly describing the scene, the appearance, physique, and temperament of the inner male disciple, the author uses a retrospective style to explain in two or three hundred words how she was reborn into this cultivation world, her ordinary identity upon rebirth, and the hardships she endured to join the Vast Sea Immortal Island.

Surprisingly, the opening plot didn't drag at all?
Cao Sheng was a little surprised.

It wasn't until later in the story that Cao Sheng saw the naivety of Wang Mei's first attempt at writing a novel.

After this opening, the plot remained bland until the end of the first chapter, focusing entirely on the female protagonist serving the male disciples of the inner sect. Only at the end of this chapter was it mentioned that she was busy until late at night every day, and only had a little time to cultivate the introductory mental cultivation method of the Vast Sea Immortal Island—the Qi Guiding Method—before going to sleep.

Cao Sheng patiently went to read the second chapter.

The plot of the second chapter remains bland.

It feels like a diary entry, almost entirely about the female protagonist's hardship and humility in serving the male disciples of the inner sect, as well as the little bit of ambition in her heart when she is busy.

Only at the end of the second chapter, when the female protagonist was making the bed for the inner sect male disciple, did she suddenly hear the inner sect male disciple say indifferently, "I've been a bit irritable lately, you'll stay and serve me tonight!"

The plot at the end of Chapter Two piqued Cao Sheng's curiosity, giving him the anticipation of reading a smutty novel, prompting him to continue reading Chapter Three.

But the content of Chapter Three disappointed Cao Sheng.

The third chapter begins at dawn. The female protagonist quietly gets up and dresses herself while giving a few simple instructions—she did not refuse the request to serve the emperor last night. Although it was her first time since her rebirth, she still cooperated and gave away her virginity.

Furthermore, at the moment she gave away her virginity, she tried her best to look at the inner disciple on her body with affectionate eyes.

She tried her best to convince him that she had fallen in love with him.

Unfortunately, her alluring glances were cast at the blind man. This inner disciple had only the Great Dao in his heart, aiming to stand out in the inner disciple competition three years later and hoping to be promoted to a true disciple.

Therefore, her devotion and tender gaze failed to elicit a change in his expression. He didn't even want to look into her eyes, and while he was ravaging her, he ordered her to close her eyes and not look at him. The latter half of the third chapter is about the female protagonist giving herself an identity.

This inner disciple also had nine outer disciples serving him.

The female protagonist, relying on the fact that he had slept with her, acted like the mistress of the house after leaving the house, ordering the other nine people around. However, the male disciple of the inner sect, whose mind was focused on cultivation, turned a blind eye to this and didn't care at all.

This gave the female protagonist the opportunity to act like a bully and declare herself the mistress of the house.

……

It took Cao Sheng more than ten minutes to read all three chapters.

Cao Sheng didn't continue reading Chapter Four. He closed the letter in his hand and looked up at Wang Mei across from him once again.

Wang Mei bit her red lips and looked at him nervously.

"Senior! How much have you watched? What do you think?"

she asked cautiously.

Cao Sheng smiled and said, "Not bad! For your first book, it's quite remarkable that you've written something like this."

Wang Mei's eyes lit up. "Really? You really think it's okay?"

Cao Sheng hummed in agreement.

Wang Mei's face lit up with joy, and she pressed on, "Then... senior, could you help me point out some of my shortcomings? I know my opening has a lot of flaws, please point them out for me, okay? Please!"

As she spoke, she clasped her fair and slender hands together, adopting a gesture of supplication.

but……

Cao Sheng had just read in the beginning of her story that the female protagonist in her writing gave up her virginity without hesitation for the sake of her ambition, and even while giving herself to the man on top of her, she tried her best to look at him with affectionate eyes.

And, having failed to win the man's heart, she stepped out of his room and elevated herself to the status of the mistress of the house, issuing orders to the other nine outer disciples.

To be honest, Cao Sheng had already suspected that Wang Mei herself was like that after seeing the style of the female protagonists she wrote.

From a reader's perspective, he quite admires the female protagonist's personality in this book.

From a man's perspective, Cao Sheng had already developed a sense of wariness towards Wang Mei, who wrote this kind of female protagonist.

He believed that if Wang Mei really had the same personality as the female protagonist in the book, then Wang Mei might do well in the future, and there was a good chance that she would become a successful person.

But he didn't like that kind of woman.

Perhaps this is why many men like naive and innocent girls.

Women who are too scheming are really not lovable.

Even though Wang Mei herself is very beautiful and has a lovely smile.

But Cao Sheng no longer dared to underestimate her.

Of course, Cao Sheng would be willing to do so even if it were just as a regular friend.

He thought for a moment and said, "There are... a few shortcomings!"

Wang Mei: "Please tell me! Could you please explain in detail?"

Cao Sheng chuckled. “I’ve only read the first three chapters, so I’ll only comment on the problems with those three. First, I think a lot of the plot is bland and lacks appeal. Second, some scenes are written using flashbacks, which makes them less effective. For example, the scene where the female lead sacrifices herself—one sentence says the man asks her to serve him, the next sentence is dawn, she gets up and silently dresses, and then the flashback briefly explains what happened last night. This part of the plot doesn’t feel drawn out at all, but you have to consider the reader’s psychology. While readers generally dislike drawn-out plots, most readers actually hope for a bit more dragging on in this kind of scene. Third… the writing is a bit awkward, which is quite normal. It’s mainly because you haven’t written enough. Write more, and the writing will naturally become smoother. So it’s not a big problem, and it’s not something you can solve in a short time. Take it slow!”

"Are there a fourth or fifth one?" Wang Mei pressed.

Cao Sheng smiled and shook his head, then casually handed the letter back to her.

He then stood up to say goodbye, saying, "The rest are minor issues, not worth mentioning. It's getting late, I have to go now, see you next time!"

With that, Cao Sheng waved to her and turned to leave.

Wang Mei quickly stood up to see him off, "Oh, okay! Take care, senior, thank you! Thank you so much!"

Cao Sheng didn't turn around, but waved to her again with his back to her.

In fact, the problems he saw in the beginning of her article were far more than just three.

But he was too lazy to say much.

She didn't think she really wanted him to find a lot of faults.

Everyone understands the principle that good medicine tastes bitter but is beneficial to the disease.

But who really likes drinking bitter medicinal soup?
Even if Huang Qingya brought her work to him for advice, he wouldn't point out every flaw in it and would be more tactful in his comments.

Although Wang Mei's attitude was very sincere just now, asking him to point out all the flaws in her work.

But he didn't believe she really wanted him to find a lot of faults.

This is human nature.

This is a common feeling among new authors: they both hope for guidance from experienced writers and don't want to be told what to do.

Many newcomers receive encouragement and praise from their seniors, which gives them a lot more confidence.

……

Back in his dormitory, Cao Sheng thought about how "The Legend of the Primordial Era" had ended last night and he needed about a week to adjust. Starting tonight, he would have a lot of free time for the next week, so he wanted to take advantage of these few days to relax.

For example: Go on more dates with your girlfriend.

It can help you relax and also deepen your relationship.

Thinking this, he took out his phone and dialed Huang Qingya's number.

"Hey? What brings you to call me at this hour? Not in the mood? Don't want to write?"

The call connected, and Huang Qingya's teasing voice came through the phone.

Cao Sheng smiled, "The Legend of the Primordial Era is finished, and I won't start writing the new book for a few days, so I'll be quite free for the next few days starting today. By the way, do you have time tonight? Could we go out for dinner together?"

Huang Qingya: "Huh? Tonight?"

She seemed a little hesitant, but after a slight pause, she said, "Sure! Where should we eat? Have you decided yet?"

Cao Sheng frowned slightly. "Judging from your tone, you have plans for tonight?"

Huang Qingya: "Uh, no! It's just that I've recently gotten into the habit of writing every night, and I've been in pretty good shape lately. I'm a little afraid of losing my rhythm. Do you understand what I mean?"

Cao Sheng chuckled; he certainly understood this situation.

When he's in a good writing mood, he's very reluctant to break his daily writing habits, such as what time he writes each day. Once that habit is broken, it's difficult to cultivate it again.

"Oh, okay? How about we go out for lunch tomorrow?"

Huang Qingya: "Huh? Really? You don't mind?"

(End of this chapter)