Legend of the Great Sage

ain the locust plague from the very source and constrain the Soaring Locust King.

When Ru Xin finished telling him her plan, the Fierce King of Chu shut his eyes and pondered over his thoughts for a moment.
He opened them again and said, “Stop wasting time.
Spread the plague immediately.
I’ll send people to provide you with protection, as well as to give you their full cooperation.
Once this is over, you will be honoured guests of the king’s estate.
I will personally arrange a banquet to celebrate your deeds!”

Ru Xin and Hua Ci bade farewell, and the Fierce King of Chu paced through the courtyard a little longer alone.
Suddenly, he received a message from the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga, which left him delighted. The heavens are smiling upon me.
With this two-pronged approach, it’s finally time for me to deal with this source of great trouble!

There was another piece of news with the message, which left him extremely curious.

Not only has that One Will recovered the Affliction Severing blade and reached an agreement with the Golden Cicada Spirit King, but she’s even undergone the third heavenly tribulation and defeated the Seven Treasures Monk King! What an unbelievable genius.
Even Xuanri pales slightly in comparison to her!

He had heard about Xiao An’s achievements a long time ago, but he had never seen her in person.
He felt slightly eager for some reason, which surprised him a little.
He temporarily set this thought aside, planning to go to the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga to meet her first.
He was considering exactly who to send to protect the two disciples of the school of Medicine.

 ……

“Please hold on.
My king is sending someone over right now.”

In a small garden within the king’s estate, the caretaker became much more polite towards them.

“Yes,” said Hua Ci.

“Congratulations, master.
Felicitations, master.
You’re becoming an honoured guest of the king’s estate.” Ru Xin clasped her hands with a smile.

“Just you coming was enough.
Why did you have to drag me along?”

Hua Ci originally refused to come to the king’s estate with Ru Xin.
He had been dragged here against his will by her.
Gazing at Ru Xin before him, the little girl from the past had finally grown up such that she had thoughts of her own.
She was finally free from her hatred too, which made him sigh with a smile.

“If it weren’t for the sake of letting master have it easy in the future, why would I travel all the way here?” Ru Xin said.

“It was a very correct decision for you to return,” said Hua Ci.
Even he had never imagined a plague would be able to save everyone.

“I have to help you break through the second heavenly tribulation at the very least.
Look, even someone like Qian Rongzhi could become a Golden Core cultivator.
Master, you’ve been too negligent of your cultivation during the recent years,” said Ru Xin.

“She’s a genius like you, not someone I can compare to.”

“Genius? I think she just suffered a little more than others!”

When Ru Xin returned to the Academy of the Hundred Schools to find Hua Ci, she saw another genius make it onto Qian Rongzhi’s island.
His name was Lin Xuan, or perhaps Chu Tian.

By now, it had already become very difficult to tell whether their sickness of madness and arrogance had been cured or if they had already reached beyond salvation!

“That’s reasonable.” “Meow~”

A faint voice rang out from the darkness, coupled with the lazy meow of a cat.
The Dark Queen emerged from within the dancing tree shadows, holding a black cat with heterochromia.
“Under the King of Chu’s orders, I’ve come to protect the two of you.”

This Month is Still Not Over Yet

I’m currently participating in an event organised by Qidian.
I arrived in Shanghai yesterday before flying to Xinchang today.
During that time, I discarded the plot that I thought of previously and outlined some new details.
I basically stayed in the hotel for the entire afternoon yesterday.
When they asked me how many characters I had written, I said, “A single sentence.” Alright, I’m overestimating myself here.
I ended up deleting that sentence too.

When I write, it’s like the breathing of a patient in critical condition.
It’s always almost non-existent and survival can only be ensured in the intensive care ward isolated from the world.
Just living by itself already takes all of my energy, and even just the slightest interference from the outside world makes me feel like my time is up.

But I don’t plan on apologising for now.
It’s a hundred and twenty thousand characters.
It isn’t the end of the month yet, so I still have hope! Today, I even said in the chat group that I’ve basically achieved the specifics of what I promised, such as how many releases there would be yesterday and how many there would be today.

As for something as vague as when I said I wanted stable releases, it actually wasn’t just for say either.
Most of the time, it’s when I think the upcoming plot will be relatively smoother and I have a relatively complete outline in mind, but I’ve realised almost immediately that thinking up half a month’s worth of plot in half a day doesn’t suit me at all.
If I force myself to follow the outline, it’ll be written horribly.

According to my precise calculations, I’ve released forty eight thousand words so far.
I’m still missing seventy two thousand, which is roughly six thousand characters a day from now onwards.
Alright, it’s not like I haven’t tried a release rate like that.
I also find two thousand words a day to be dissatisfying.

One more day tomorrow and the event will be basically over.
Then, it’s about time I march on forwards.
I really don’t feel despair until it’s staring me right in the face, don’t I?