Hello all,
First, the story is going to be on an extended hiatus on Royal Road. During volume 7, the Patreon side of things collapsed. Currently, they are at the same chapter as Royal Road. Royal Road updates will not resume until Patreon is 25 chapters ahead again. If this go well, this will take a month or so. It will probably take longer, but hopefully not too much longer than that. I will try to keep a counter here and update it once a week so you chance check the progress.
Right now, Patreon is 0/25 ahead.
That said...
We're finally done with Volume 7.
Honestly, I am happy with where things ended. This was the end point I envisioned from the start, and while I know that not everyone is happy with some of my choices, I believe they are what's right for the series.
That said, while I like the end point, I am not nearly so happy with how we have gotten here. Volume 7 gave me a lot of trouble, and after reading comments on ch494, I think I finally understand why. I think I tried to do too much in a single volume.
Volume 7 had two competing storylines, that of Kan, JiuLi, and the sect's development, and that of the war against Mei. I attempted to keep the throughline focused on Kan and JiuLi, since in my mind, that was the main plot, but that made the foundation of the Mei arc extremely unstable. A lot of information was conveyed in the background and in short, disjointed paragraphs, but anyone who skimmed over those wouldn't have any idea what was happening, and even those who read closely likely forgot they existed.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
After much consideration, I am currently of the opinion that Volume 7 needs a huge overhaul, and right now, I am thinking of splitting it into two books.
Book 7 will be focused on the Amorphous Blade Sect and end shortly after they defeat Blackblade Hall. At this point, instead of charging into the Nine Rivers Domain, I am thinking they will return to the start of the loop (using the temporary reset point Fang created there) and quickly rebuild, ignoring all of the rules concerning First-Class Sects.
Book 8, then, will be entirely focused on the war against Mei, and more importantly, on how Fang comes to grips with integrating her into the loop. The years of travel across the Western Island will be fleshed out, though I am currently unsure of the details.
This will cause significant changes to ages, credits, and affinity increases, but everything major will still end up as it is now. Fang is sent back to the start of the loop with Mei as an inevitable companion for the next book in the series.
While doing this rewrite, I plan to continue the story from here. As I said before, I am really looking forward to book 8, and focusing too much more attention on volume 7 right now would only continue to drain me.
So, I hope you will join me for the next installment: Volume 8, The Boundless Horizon Auction House