Mid-Month Summary (Answering Readers' Questions and a Slacker's Little Rants)

Unknowingly, fifteen days have already passed since the book was officially launched on shelves.
During these fifteen days of updates, my head has been spinning like a giant ox...
It's hard... truly hard...
Of course, when all is said and done, it just means my skills as a lazy fish are still lacking, and some things I wanted to express simply didn't come across properly.

First off, let's answer a few questions from book friends, one by one.

[Question: Why is Bai Jiuyin so heartless? Why does she want to kill the male protagonist?]
[Answer: The book friend who asked this has probably already dropped the book.
That's fine, though; this lazy fish still needs to answer.
Cultivating immortality is a form of stubbornness. Some people abandon their sects for the sake of cultivation, severing all seven emotions and six desires, and some even take extreme shortcuts. But the Fox Clan attains the Dao through "emotion." Bai Jiuyin is the most talented white fox in a thousand, or even ten thousand years. For her, ascension is certain and mandatory. Yet now, within what she considers an absolute necessity, an uncertain variable has appeared—and that is Jiang Yidao...
Possessing Mind-Reading, she has never understood emotion before. Although she has lived for a millennium, when it comes to the concept of "love," she is nothing more than an ignorant little girl. When such a girl genuinely encounters romance, she feels both bewildered and terrified.
Caught between confusion and fear, a girl who doesn't understand love naturally looks for a way to resolve it, and Jiuyin's temperament is precisely: "I like you, but I think cultivating the Dao is more important! Cultivation is the foundation of my Fox Clan! I don't want to chat idly with you." Thus, she chose a simple, brutal method to settle the emotional knot.
Yet, did anyone notice the details in the original text?
When her tail pierced Jiang Yidao's abdomen, she shed tears. She didn't even know why she was crying, and this was also the first time in her life she had ever wept for a man.
I wonder if anyone highlighted this: when Jiuyin wanted to kill Yidao, her hands were trembling because she discovered she simply couldn't bring herself to do it, to the point where she wanted someone else to do it instead.
But even if someone else were to deliver the final blow to Yidao, could she really just stand by and watch?
If that were truly the case, she could have killed Jiang Lin on several occasions back then. On the day Jiang Lin snatched her candied hawthorn, why did she, who had already reached the Immortal Realm, let Jiang Lin and Yu Ni go?
The reasoning behind this is something I will leave for everyone to appreciate.
Taking advantage of Jiuyin's stunned state, Jiang Lin grabbed her wrist and drove it through his own heart. Some might say Jiuyin reacted too slowly...
Actually, this is yet another detail.
It was the very first time Jiuyin had her wrist grasped by a man. The moment he held it, she discovered she didn't even have the heart to resist. By the time she snapped out of her senses, her own hand had already pierced his heart.
At that moment, Jiuyin was utterly dumbfounded. With her mind blank, she wanted to save Jiang Lin, but it was already too late. Even after Jiang Lin's death, her world turned completely pitch black. Who says Jiuyin felt at ease after Yidao died? It's just that I haven't written about it yet.

This might involve spoilers, so I won't say anymore. You all will just have to experience it for yourselves.
In short, this is the process of a young girl who knows nothing about love gradually comprehending and understanding it. In the future, Jiuyin and Jiang Lin will meet again. As for how they will meet, what their states of mind will be, and how it will all end in the end, I won't spoil it here.]

[Question: How could Bai Jiuyin's master treat our cute Cannon Fodder like a mere tool! I hate her!]
[Answer: I wonder if the friend who asked this question is still around...
First of all, cultivators and mortals were never on the same plane to begin with. You expect cultivators to treat mortals as equals? How could that possibly be? This isn't a sense of superiority, but rather a transcendent mindset. For instance, do you ever worry about whether an ant is living a good life or if it has meat to eat tonight?
It's just that the "mortal" in question happens to be the protagonist, which is why everyone reacted so strongly.
Besides, Bai Qianluo is already treating him very well, truly very well. Many cultivators would simply kill people to resolve karmic ties, whereas she only sealed his memories... Of course, this is also foreshadowing for Bai Qianluo, no spoilers.]

[Question: Kong Baba is so overwhelmingly badass, why didn't she come to Donglin City sooner~~~~ Trash author!!!!!]
[Answer: Uh... this is on this lazy fish for not expressing it clearly. Kong Baba is in the Immortal Realm, but the Immortal Realm isn't omnipotent either. The Blood Name Array is an ancient, taboo blood formation, and it naturally has its formidable reasons. If just anyone could track it down easily, that would be terrible writing.
When the Blood Name Array is activated, it acts equivalent to a small, independent natural realm, completely isolated from the outside world. At that moment, let alone Kong Baba, even the saints of the Confucian Academy had no idea.
Therefore, Kong Baba had no prior knowledge of it. The only reason Kong Baba sensed it was because that night, right as the Blood Name Array was about to be fully activated, it locked onto Kong Baba, pointing the arrow straight at her. Only then did she perceive it.
After sensing it, it was already too late for Kong Baba to rush over personally. That's why she nudged True Monarch Tai'er, asking him to help out. In the end, Tai'er was loyal enough: he took on the risk of karmic backlash, used his own heart-blood combined with the blood of chickens and ducks to create a miniature Blood Name Array, and thus teleported Kong Baba over.]

[Question: How come the Lotus isn't Jiang Lin's! Then why write so many interactions between the Lotus and Jiang Lin in the first place! You lazy fish thief, padding word count! I'm going to hack you to death!]
[Answer: First of all, the Lotus is indeed not Jiang Lin's—that is certain. After all, Wu Ke has already suffered so much; to make him suffer even more... this lazy fish simply doesn't have the heart to do it...
As for the interactions between the Lotus and Jiang Lin being mere padding, that is truly an injustice.
The Lotus in Donglin City is a natural progression of the plot. To highlight the Lotus's personality and character design using the absolute minimum word count and leave a deep impression on everyone, the best method is through interaction with the protagonist.
Similarly, the Lotus mistook her reliance on Yidao for affection, which it actually wasn't. This serves as a contrast to the Lotus's genuine love for Wu Ke. By contrasting the two, the Lotus comes to understand what true liking is, which also creates a point of internal conflict.
At least for now, this lazy fish feels that the character of the Lotus has been successfully shaped. If it weren't successful, how could everyone have such a strong reaction? On this point, this lazy fish is relatively satisfied.
Of course, it is still this lazy fish's fault for failing to properly control the rhythm during the plotlines with the protagonist, leading to some misunderstandings among readers. That is my problem, and I will pay closer attention to it.
Actually, Wu Ke's story is genuinely quite good, but I won't spoil that...]

[Question: Lazy fish thief, where is your chat group?]
[Answer: I genuinely cannot set one up (what do you old drivers even want to do by joining a group? Does this lazy fish not know?!)]

[Question: Aren't you leaning a bit too hard on internet memes?]
[Answer: All the meme references were just casual, spontaneous drops. This lazy fish never planned to force them.]

[Question: Lazy fish, where is your younger sister?!]
[Answer: Who dares to harbor thoughts about my sister! (Pulls a knife from trousers)]

[Question: Lazy fish, where are your three daily updates?!]
[Answer: Two chapters merged into one counts as two updates, don't deny it everyone (crying).]

Basically, the above covers the Q&A for these past fifteen days. Everyone is welcome to leave questions in the comment section (preferably in the Qidian comment section; book friends on the Penguin Reading side might occasionally be missed due to system reasons). From now on, this lazy fish will open a dedicated author's note every half month to answer questions once.
Of course, emotionally overheated comments that might incite flame wars or ruin other readers' experiences may be deleted by this lazy fish. If any are deleted, I will definitely leave a reply, so please keep an eye out for my responses.
Even if a comment gets deleted, rest assured that this lazy fish will still answer your question—that is a guarantee.

Finally, writing books is so hard...
Constantly getting cursed at...
Pleasing nobody...
I'm already going bald...
And people still curse at me...
From now on, this lazy fish will work harder, constantly strive and improve, and endeavor to bring everyone the best plotlines. I also hope everyone can grant this lazy fish a little bit of patience.
That's pretty much it! See you at the next summary~~~~ (Should be at the end of the month, anyway, a summary every half month~~~).