Chapter One Hundred Fourteen: The Second Book
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The next morning, Wang Huansheng’s call came at a rather inopportune moment.
Liu Qingshan was playing the obsequious servant, carrying breakfast to the bedside. With someone new beside him, he had missed his morning exercises for the first time.
He had barely caught the satisfied smile that flickered at the corner of Jin Xishan’s lips when his phone began to ring.
“The Hatu First Publishing House has agreed to your terms, but its chief editor wants to meet with you before discussing the final publication arrangements!”
Liu Qingshan was speechless. “The quality of the book speaks for itself. Since they’ve accepted my terms, that means they’re optimistic about its prospects as well. Is a meeting really necessary?”
“Yes. And they seem to be in quite a hurry. There must be some disagreement within the publishing house.”
“All right. Text me the time and place. I’ll find a car and be there on time.”
“Shanzi, my advice is that you prepare a little beforehand. For instance, be ready to discuss the second book. Isn’t that one supposed to be released online?”
After replying to Attorney Wang, Jin Xishan had already climbed out of bed before he could say goodbye. She had completely shed her former languid, coquettish air and dressed with brisk efficiency.
“Business comes first! I’ll notify Sister Xuanji to prepare a car. Go eat something quickly, change your clothes, and I’ll go with you.”
Liu Qingshan smiled. “You eat first. I need to make some preparations—namely, the contract for my second book.”
Jin Xishan stared at him in surprise. “You’ve written a second novel?”
“I can’t call it a second novel yet. I’ve only written a small portion and put it online to test the waters.”
“What kind is it? Another historical novel?”
“Forget it. You should read it for yourself. It’ll probably be a little harder to get through than The Ming Dynasty’s Affairs, because I’ve written an Eastern fantasy novel.”
He had already opened a page on the Qicheng Chinese Literature Network. Displayed prominently on the screen was the web novel Battle Through the Heavens, currently being serialized.
It was something Liu Qingshan had written a few days earlier while in Hengdian. He had uploaded only one hundred chapters, which were set to update automatically at a rate of ten chapters per day.
In fact, on the third day, he had received a message from Qicheng’s editor requesting a contract. However, the terms offered by the country’s largest fiction website had left him hesitating over his reply.
By now, though, the comment section of Battle Through the Heavens had already descended into chaos. Jin Xishan did not open the chapter pages. Instead, she excitedly scrolled through the comments, rapidly skimming them.
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She was saying, “Most of these are people urging you to update. Your work seems to be extremely popular. But many are also asking why the book’s status hasn’t been changed yet. What does ‘changing the status’ mean?”
“I’ve only written this much so far. Changing the status means signing a contract with the website and gaining certain official privileges, such as featured placement and reader rewards.”
“Why haven’t you signed?”
“I want the treatment given to a Platinum Author. Unfortunately, I don’t yet have the qualifications. At the very least, I don’t have a completed novel with more than ten thousand paid subscribers to serve as proof of my ability. So I’ve decided to give up some things. My earlier insistence on retaining the adaptation rights for games and comics, along with the publishing rights for a physical edition, was rather naïve.”
“Of course. You haven’t achieved anything yet, so the website can only treat you like an ordinary author.”
“But I can choose to sign only an initial contract and make a wager with the website. If the average number of subscriptions exceeds ten thousand after the novel goes on sale, we’ll sign a new contract.”
“A wager? Can you guarantee the book’s readership?”
“No guarantee, but I have confidence. I’ll contact the editor in charge right away.”
As he spoke, Liu Qingshan’s fingers moved without pause. Before long, he had connected with the other party’s account on Mobile QQ.
While he was busy, Jin Xishan continued reading through the comments.
Amid the overwhelming praise, there was naturally no shortage of disparaging remarks.
“From the prose, structure, plot, characterization, psychological descriptions, writing technique, and every other perspective, this is extremely poor!”
“Terribly padded. The plot drags, the wording is repetitive, the ending is utterly predictable, and the fight scenes are awful—almost impossible to look at.”
“The characters lack distinctive personalities. The entire novel exists only to help the male lead level up. There are no true supporting characters, only extras. Every female character and every friend of the protagonist exists solely for his sake, vanishing the moment they are no longer strong enough to matter...”
“The novel is riddled with plot holes. It’s a wish-fulfillment story, but it has far too many flaws...”
“In reply to the comment above: Being able to respect differences while seeking common ground is already commendable. There’s no need to convince one another. People read online novels for the thrill of it.”
Liu Qingshan had been psychologically prepared for these negative reviews. The reason he had exchanged for only the first one hundred chapters was that he had activated the quality-enhancement function of the Superpowered Star-Making Device.
He had read the entire work and could sense its many shortcomings.
For example, the structure and formula were too obvious, which caused the power system to collapse later on. The dungeon-crawling progression itself was sound, but it had one major taboo: it must never backtrack.
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Then there was the appearance of the Eight Ancient Clans. Liu Qingshan simply could not make sense of it. The Ancient Clan possessed divine-grade bloodlines, and Dou Venerates were everywhere. Any random young member of the clan, whether Ancient Demon or Ancient Qingyang, could be a seven- or eight-star Dou Venerate. Yet the clan leader sent an old Dou Emperor to serve as a bodyguard for his own daughter...
That was not even the worst of it. Worse still were the prodigiously talented youths who appeared out of nowhere.
He could feel how badly the power system had collapsed. The system therefore needed to refine the novel into its optimal version, repairing and fleshing out several of those jarring flaws.
Overall, Battle Through the Heavens was the most straightforward kind of wish-fulfillment novel. Any work worthy of being archived by the Superpowered Star-Making Device was bound to be a classic with a broad consumer base and tremendous influence.
The book’s currency system and national world-building, however, were another matter. Although ordinary readers would never give them much thought, the original author had designed them with considerable complexity.
Liu Qingshan had initially intended to explain everything himself in the text, but he soon realized that doing so would be troublesome and would only make the book harder for readers to understand. That was why he had handed the entire task over to the system for refinement, even though it would cost twice as much Reputation.
While Jin Xishan was worrying about the novel’s prospects, Liu Qingshan had already finalized the terms of his intended contract.
“In principle, the website has agreed to my wager. Once the results come in, they’ll send someone to formally discuss the subsequent arrangements.”
Only then did Jin Xishan voice the thought that had been on her mind.
Liu Qingshan smiled. “We’ll let the results speak for themselves. That’s what I told the website as well. The book’s current readership and number of bookmarks are already astonishing. Once it’s under contract and receives recommendations from the website, it may well see an explosive surge in popularity.”
The chief editor of Hatu First Publishing House, commonly known as Hatu One, was a middle-aged man named Tong Ziliang.
Through Wang Huansheng, he already knew that The Ming Dynasty’s Affairs was Liu Qingshan’s work. This came as a mild surprise, but Liu was merely a newcomer who had emerged only recently.
However, when Tong saw Jin Xishan following behind him, the chief editor became visibly unsettled.
Wang Huansheng was seated beside him at the time.
This was Jin Xishan’s first time meeting the famous Attorney Wang. Under the circumstances, however, their formal introduction would have to wait until they had some private time later.
Jin Xishan therefore merely nodded at him before shaking hands with Tong Ziliang, who had risen from his seat in astonishment and near disbelief.
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