Back to 1997, I became the originator of online literature

Chapter 405, "The Romance of Chinese Martial Arts," is released.

Did Cao Sheng see these posts in the book review section?

Of course I saw it.

After updating "The Legend of the Primordial Era" every day, he would habitually check the posts in the book review section. Although he had already finished writing "The Legend of the Primordial Era", what he was updating online now were all the drafts he had on hand.

However, understanding readers' opinions on every plot point of his work is a habit of his. Only by constantly paying attention to readers' opinions can he keep track of changes in readers' tastes.

For example: What kind of storylines do readers like to read?
For example: What kind of plots do readers dislike?
and many more.

Readers' tastes are not static.

Before his rebirth, he had witnessed firsthand the changing tastes of readers. For example, in the early 2000s, readers loved reading about male protagonists having harems, and novels with multiple female leads were all the rage. But as time went on, more and more readers preferred novels with a single female lead, and some readers would even report novels with multiple female leads through various means. Then, as time went on, more and more readers preferred novels without a female lead, and these readers strongly demanded that authors not write about female protagonists, threatening to drop the book if one did. Later, they began to hate any romantic scenes in books, and whenever the male protagonist pursued a woman, these readers would label him a "simp," and posts criticizing the work and the author appeared in large numbers.

The above is just one aspect of the changes in readers' tastes.

In fact, readers' tastes are constantly changing in many ways.

Such as the cultivation details in the book.

In the early years of online novels, authors devoted a great deal of time to describing the details of cultivation, which most readers found fascinating. However, as time went on, readers grew tired of such plots and became quite averse to authors' extensive descriptions of the cultivation process.

Another example is the way the male protagonist reaches the pinnacle of his life.

Most online novels are "feel-good" stories, so it's inevitable that the male protagonist in these books will gradually reach the pinnacle of his life.

For many years after the birth of online novels, readers enjoyed watching male protagonists gradually rise to the pinnacle of life through continuous efforts.

The protagonist's struggles resonate deeply with readers, making them feel a sense of satisfaction.

This reality has gradually influenced readers' tastes in novels.

They started to like the "mutant" male protagonist.

As someone summarized the characteristics of Hollywood Marvel movies: the rich become stronger through technology, while the poor become stronger through mutation.

More and more readers are choosing online novels with "mutant" male protagonists rather than those who are driven by ambition.

The ways in which mutations can occur are quite diverse.

Examples include: genetic mutation, mental mutation, the sudden appearance of a system, or directly transmigrating into the body of a rich second-generation or official second-generation, etc.

This is precisely because readers' tastes are constantly changing.

Therefore, readers generally prefer to read works published in the last year or two, or even in the past, and say they can't stand reading so-called "classic works" that were popular in the past.

Before his rebirth, Cao Sheng not only noticed these comments from readers, but also the changes in royalties from his old books.

Back when readers preferred to read older books, his completed works could earn him several thousand yuan in royalties every month.

At that time, he even felt that he could retire and live a comfortable life with the money he made from selling his old books every month.

But as time went on, the royalties for his old books kept dropping. Some of his books that used to sell for one or two thousand yuan a month gradually dropped to only a few yuan a month.

From then on, he realized that he needed to pay attention to changes in readers' tastes, read more book reviews, and constantly change his writing style according to changes in readers' tastes.

He naturally carried this habit with him after his rebirth.

However, recently, the comments section of "The Legend of the Primordial Era" he has seen are mostly posts urging him to release his new book as soon as possible, and there are very few posts discussing the plot of "The Legend of the Primordial Era".

This evening.

After finishing two chapters of his new book, Cao Sheng realized it was already 11:30 PM. He didn't have time to write the third chapter, and it was too early to go to bed. After thinking for a moment, he came to the book review section of "The Legend of the Primordial Era".

Looking at the book review section, filled with posts urging him to publish his new book as soon as possible, he frowned and pondered for a while before deciding to heed the readers' voices.

I felt I couldn't keep letting everyone down.

Although he hasn't earned money from his online readers who have been reading his books for free since his rebirth, he understands very well that online readers are the foundation and future of every online writer.

Moreover, he will be trying out paid subscriptions for his new book on Qidian in a while.

At this crucial time, we certainly cannot let our book fans down.

However, he was still tens of thousands of words short of the word count he agreed upon with Rongshu Xiao. Although he believed that even if he published his work on Qidian now, Rongshu Xiao would not sue him based on the original agreement, he still wanted to fulfill the original agreement.

I don't want to break the contract.

He silently found the manuscript of "The Legend of the Primordial Era" on his computer, logged into Rongshu's author backend, and updated the manuscript chapter by chapter through the author backend.

Chapter one, chapter two, chapter three, chapter five, chapter ten, chapter twenty...

As he sent out chapter after chapter of his drafts, he roughly estimated in his mind how many chapters he was still short of the word count he had agreed upon with Rongshu. He didn't calculate it precisely, but instead sent out a few more chapters than he had roughly estimated.

In the end, he released thirty chapters in one go.

Each chapter averages over three thousand words, and thirty chapters would total approximately one hundred thousand words.

After posting, he refreshed the pages of "The Legend of the Primordial Era". After refreshing several times, he smiled slightly as he looked at the latest total word count of the work.

Because he was certain that he had already met the word count he had agreed upon with Rongshu, and that he had at least 20,000 to 30,000 words left over.

After the release of thirty chapters, twenty or thirty new reviews have already appeared in the book review section.

For example: "Is he crazy? Ah Hui updated so many chapters tonight? The number of chapters updated tonight is almost equal to the total number of chapters updated in the first half of the month, right?"

"Ah Hui, what's wrong? Did you break up with your boyfriend?"

"Damn! Twenty-five chapters have already been updated. Are they just waiting for the day to end?"

"Which brave soul stole the author's drafts? How could they update so many chapters in one go? Twenty-three chapters have already been updated."

"Eighteen chapters already! Damn! So many! I can't finish reading them tonight! It's almost midnight, I need to get back to my dorm. If this many updates at this hour, by the time I finish reading, I won't even be able to get back into my dorm!"

"Awesome! I wish the author could update this much every day!"

"Authors with a backlog of chapters are so capricious! They can actually update so many chapters in one go..."

"Has Ah Hui taken the wrong medicine? He updated fifteen chapters tonight."

……

To prove he hadn't taken the wrong medicine, Cao Sheng decided to publish a separate chapter in response.

I'd also like to announce the online release date of my new book. "Announcement!"

"As you can see, the online serialization of this book has not yet ended. I originally planned to publish the new book at the end of the month, but I have seen the posts in the book review section these days urging me to publish the new book as soon as possible. Therefore, I have decided to respect everyone's opinions and publish the new book ahead of schedule."

As for why I just updated thirty chapters in a row?
Just consider this my way of attracting your attention and building hype for my new book, "The Romance of Chinese Martial Arts"! If you've noticed this chapter because of my sudden update, then it means I've achieved my goal.

As for when the new book "The Romance of Chinese Martial Arts" will be published?
Tonight! Tonight!
only……

Because of the website's approval process, you might have to wait until tomorrow to see it. So, those of you who have finished reading my super-updated chapter, go wash up and go to bed early! Read the new book tomorrow, thank you!

I casually wrote this short piece and sent it out.

Cao Sheng wanted to see the readers' reactions after reading this chapter, but he held back for the time being. He then found the manuscript of his new book, "The Romance of Chinese Martial Arts," on his computer's hard drive, retrieved two chapters, and uploaded them through the author's backend. When Zhu William called him before, he had promised that the free chapters of the new book could be published simultaneously on Rongshu.

It will continue to be serialized until it becomes available for payment.

Newly uploaded books are awaiting approval before they can be found by readers.

Cao Sheng wasn't in a hurry.

He came to Qidian and registered an account under the pen name "Zhongyuan Yidianhui". He also uploaded the first two chapters of his new book to the Qidian author backend, where he also has to wait for the results of the approval process.

After doing all that, he returned to the book review section of "The Legend of the Primordial Era" to see the reactions of the book fans.

"Holy crap! Is the new book going out tonight? Is the editor in charge of reviewing submissions online? If they're asleep, get up and get to work! Even the donkeys in the production team wouldn't be as lazy as you!"

"Holy crap! This is such a surprise! Not only am I getting thirty chapters tonight, but I'm also getting a new book published? I feel like I'm dreaming! This happiness came so suddenly!"

"How about that? I told you everyone was posting and urging him to release his new book, and it worked! Look, Ah Hui released his new book ahead of schedule, and even updated it with thirty chapters of 'The Legend of the Primordial Era,' it's awesome!"

"Help! Ah Hui updated so many chapters at once! I don't have enough money for internet access today, and my time to log off is almost here! Oh no!"

"No wonder I couldn't finish reading the latest chapter! After reading one chapter, there was another, and after that, there was the chapter after that. When I first started reading today's update, I clearly saw that there were only two chapters updated in the table of contents, but I just couldn't finish reading them. I read seven chapters in one go, and there were still more! It turns out the author released a lot of chapters at once. Is this what you call a lot of chapters? I love it! Will there be a lot of chapters tomorrow?"

"Does anyone have the phone number of the editor who reviews and approves submissions? Call him right now and wake him up so he can get Ah Hui's new book approved for submission! Why sleep so much while you're alive? You'll have plenty of time to sleep after you're dead!"

……

In front of the computer.

Cao Sheng glanced around and saw that all the posts were freshly posted.

He could feel the excitement of his fans and their eagerness for his new book.

He was able to contact the editor in charge of data entry review at Rongshuqian.

But he didn't want to take such a back door and disturb other people's rest.

Besides, he himself wanted to sleep.

He smiled silently, shut down the computer, and got up to wash up and rest.

……

Cao Sheng is asleep.

However, readers across the country, and even in some parts of Hong Kong and Taiwan, stayed up late to read the book because of the thirty chapters he released close to midnight tonight.

Some of them have to go to school tomorrow; some have to go to work tomorrow; some have important things to do tomorrow. Reason reminds them that it's late and they should rest.

But the allure of the latest plot of "The Legend of the Primordial Era" was like glue, keeping them firmly seated and unwilling to go to sleep.

Only a very few people with extremely strong self-control can barely force themselves to turn off their computers and go to rest, but even after getting into bed, it's hard to fall asleep, and they can't help but think about the plot of the newly updated chapters of "The Legend of the Primordial Era".

The chapters I haven't read yet are like a tickle to my heart, itchy and agonizing.

……

The next day, the sun rose as usual.

Old Zhang arrived at the banyan tree as usual to clock in for work.

He was still the editor in charge of reviewing incoming materials. When he arrived at the company today, he habitually wiped the dust off his desk and then went to the water dispenser to make himself a cup of tea.

Before making tea, he pressed the power button on his computer.

These days, computer boot-up time is generally around one minute, and it's not uncommon for it to take more than one minute.

He had plenty of time, so he went to make himself a cup of tea.

When I returned with the tea, his computer had indeed booted up.

After he sat down, he chatted with his colleague next to him while logging into the website's management backend to check on the hundreds of works waiting to be approved for inclusion in the database.

His job is relatively easy.

He opened each of the works waiting to be reviewed for inclusion in the database. Each book had only a few thousand words, which he quickly scanned. After a few glances, he didn't see anything that didn't meet the inclusion standards, so he casually clicked to approve it.

One, two, three...

About half an hour passed like this.

He suddenly saw a familiar book title, which made him pause for a moment. Logically speaking, the works waiting to be reviewed for inclusion in the database are all new books, and he should be unfamiliar with the titles of such new books, except for those works that have already become popular on other websites.

"The Romance of Chinese Martial Arts?"

He subconsciously murmured the book's title, and after finishing, he glanced at the author's name—Zhongyuan Yidianhui—before he realized that this was Zhongyuan Yidianhui's new book.

Although this book has not been published online yet, there have been many reports that it has already been published in traditional Chinese characters in Taiwan.

Not only have his colleagues been discussing it recently, but he has also seen related news online.

"Heh, I'm not qualified to review Mr. Cao's book..."

Muttering to himself, he used the mouse to approve the book for inclusion in the database. But his curiosity still compelled him to open the book after it was approved. He wanted to see what Cao Zong's new book was about.
The title alone does not reveal the subject matter of this book.

The key point is that ever since he first heard about this book, "The Romance of Chinese Martial Arts," he has wanted to read it. So even though he can only read two chapters now, he can't wait.

Just then, his colleague at the next table asked him curiously, "Old Zhang, what are you muttering about? I think I heard you mention President Cao?"

(End of this chapter)