Yes, the first volume of Chang'an Chaos has only a few chapters left before it ends.
Personally, I'm not very satisfied with the first volume.
First off, I fell into the common pitfall of newbie authors by throwing out a bunch of unappealing settings right from the start.
Then there's the issue of writing. Some readers feel that there's too much pointless chatter, too verbose. I admit to this, have reflected upon it, and am actively trying to streamline my writing.
Actually, this problem arises because when I write, I always want to explain everything clearly to everyone, fearing that readers might have doubts. For example, I feel compelled to justify every decision made by the characters, but in reality, most of the time, you would understand without my explanation, and sometimes my elaboration even spoils the experience.
This has given me a significant insight: an author shouldn't write down everything. In fact, for both readers and authors, having the readers imagine and ponder some of the plot themselves is often more interesting than covering every single aspect as an author.
The last major issue is with the settings.
The settings were all prepared in advance, but what often happens is, some of those settings that I thought would be fine turn out to be inappropriate after dozens of chapters have been written.
For instance, the Heavenly Eye Technique skill—some might have noticed that I barely mention it anymore, not because I've forgotten but because this skill is just too overpowered.
When I first designed this skill, it was meant to be a trump card. As long as Lu Qingshan had this skill, it meant that any disguise by Underworld Cultivators would be futile in front of him—no more writer's block, and a bonus of a pretty long word count on the information panel.
As I continued writing, I realized that while it was easy to write, it also made the story less interesting.
I still want Lu Qingshan to use his brains to solve problems, not to rely on such a brainless skill, so I had to subtly phase out this skill in the later parts of the story. (Just pretend the designer has deleted this overly powerful skill...)
I'd also like to take this opportunity to clarify some controversial aspects of the book.
First is Lu Qingshan's Legendary Talent "Innate Swordseed." Many people feel it's too weak to be considered a Legendary Talent.
In my setting, this talent is truly powerful, but its strength lies more in its hidden aspects than in the data, and I can only explain this much for now because going further would lead to spoilers.
The power of "Innate Swordseed" will start to become apparent in the upcoming second volume.
Regarding the main plot of the second volume, attentive readers should be able to guess what it is, after all, there are quite a few hints, to the point that the Crying Soul Sword was killed off by the plot. Enjoy new stories from empire
Then there's the matter of Attributes. In a nutshell, Attributes aren't that important. They were only ever meant to differentiate between the six careers, so let's not get hung up on why Sword Cultivators have the Strength attribute.
Some readers also feel that there are too many female characters? There's no need to worry about that—these female characters aren't the main heroines, they're just characters who happen to be female. Why does it matter? Nobody complains about there being too many male characters, so why the fuss when a few extra female characters appear?
After all, this is my first book, and admittedly, there are quite a few issues, but I won't elaborate on them all for now.
Looking back at earlier chapters now, it's clearly evident that there are many areas in need of improvement, from word choice and sentence construction to plot design.
But to me, this is a good thing, as being able to see past shortcomings at least shows I'm making progress.
Now, about the book getting published. It's going live on Labor Day, which is tomorrow. Following tradition, I want to first thank my editor for agreeing to sign this book.
Then, I hope those of you who can will support the subscription. For those who are students or tight on funds, I understand if you can't commit to a full subscription; try to at least support with an initial subscription, after all, it's only ten cents for a chapter.
Last of all, about the updates, I admit I don't update often. Apart from my own laziness and procrastination, there are indeed some objective difficulties.
First, this is my initial foray into writing, with no previous experience, and I'm not yet accustomed to the rhythm of web novel writing. I tend to overthink when writing, often wasting a lot of time revising word choice, sentence orders, and tones.
Second, being a graduate, I'm dealing with things like thesis papers and job hunting, which make it hard to focus solely on writing. With the defense and other errands coming up in May and June, updates may still not speed up for a while. I apologize for that in advance, but I promise to increase my update rate once this period is over!
Last but not least, though there are still many issues, I will continue to correct and improve. Thank you all for your patience and support, bowing!