A myriad of emotions—truly a bittersweet mix of all five flavors.

Honestly, the subscriptions stayed shockingly stable even in the later stages. I felt like I had already gone completely unrestrained and wild with the writing, yet everyone genuinely kept following along to the end.

However, starting from the middle of the story, I stopped gaining new collections.

Around the time the novel reached a little over a million words, the collection count hovered at around 35,000. Several more months passed, and it only crept up to just over 40,000. The numbers barely moved anymore.

Audience appeal is important. This seemed to be the upper limit.

There was one major turning point in the middle.

One late night, while thinking about the book—something I did almost every single day and night—I reflected on my principles. I had always tried my best to avoid any landmines, to write a pure power fantasy that felt satisfying. That was the general idea.

But the more I wrote, the more constrained I felt.

This couldn’t be written, that couldn’t be written... Different readers had different triggers, and there were things that felt off or unsatisfying even to me.

On the other hand, I cared a great deal about logic.

Many times, the characters I wrote were highly conscious of gains and losses, always calculating benefits. Everyone seemed more concerned with interests than with raw emotion, and they calmed down easily. Impulsive actions were rare.

In my mind, I thought that at higher levels, after seeing more of the world and gaining greater wisdom, people naturally wouldn’t be easily angered or reckless. They would talk things through properly. As long as no core interests were violated, everyone could sit down and discuss reasonably.

But the result was that it felt too monotonous.

It was as if every character shared the same personality trait called "calm," making conflicts difficult to spark.

Combined with my concern over so many potential landmines and toxic points, the writing started to feel increasingly restricted.

Then, on that stormy, rainy night, my mind suddenly told me something.

Or rather, I finally understood something.

It was meaningless...

Worrying so much was pointless.

Readers weren’t here for something conventional and by-the-book. No one cared how ordinary, average, or formulaic your writing was.

What truly mattered wasn’t how strictly you followed the rules.

It was how insanely you wrote.

A god-tier author is also a god.

Writing something ridiculous, utterly absurd, even if it got cursed out and called dog-blood drama, was far better than rigidly following every rule.

I suddenly understood why certain legendary wild plots happened, why some god-tier stories got axed midway. Those absurd, over-the-top, heavily criticized scenes didn’t ruin the work—they were what pushed it to a whole new level.

After figuring this out, I felt like I finally knew what I should be writing. This realization shaped the style of the latter half of the novel. I decided to loosen up and embrace a more unrestrained approach.

There is also one regret.

My update schedule.

I know my updates became fewer and fewer, and I definitely got flamed for it... In the future, when writing novels, I will absolutely act within my limits.

Because of the reduced update volume, the pacing and style also changed quite significantly.

In the early stages, with more frequent updates, the rhythm was slow and gradual, with rich layers of development and transition.

In the later stages, with fewer updates but the need to maintain a certain pace, what used to be one major plot point per 10,000–20,000 words when updating daily shrank to around 4,000 words.

It was indeed a big issue.

As for plot holes...

When a novel ends, it’s normal for some threads to remain unfilled. There aren’t many authors who manage to tie up every single loose end perfectly upon completion.

I believe the major storylines all received proper conclusions.

The true body of the polluted origin nest. Yug’s schemes. Kanzaki Rei’s background and origins.

All the important mysteries were resolved.

Moreover, toward the end, it really felt like the story should conclude there.

The talents were simply too strong. At Level 8 he could already fight Moon Gods...

At Level 9 he became completely unrivaled.

As for the character Izparut,

I think... he might have stolen too much of the spotlight.

If there’s a next time, I’ll keep such characters firmly in the highest-tier supporting roles. After writing the part where Izparut fought the origin, even I couldn’t help but laugh in exasperation.

What a god-tier author move—having a side character who never lost once, just flexing and dominating the whole way.

Meanwhile the protagonist was busy becoming the polluted origin nest and getting chased by Ekhator. Damn.

Writing it, even I had to laugh at myself.

There was actually another version at the time: Izparut hadn’t reached Level 9 yet and hadn’t broken his seal. Level 7 Kanzaki Rei would go rescue him, and the two of them would fight all the Primordial Taboo Ones together.

At the final stalemate, Matsusei would appear to break the deadlock.

That was one version I considered.

The three generations of mages forming a bond of inheritance and shattering the origin together.

But later on... how should I put it?

Even if I fully cheated to accelerate Matsusei’s growth, it still wouldn’t be enough in time... No matter how talented, he couldn’t compare to Kanzaki Rei, let alone Izparut.

It would take at least ten years of growth before he could join a battlefield of that level, right?

Dragging things out for another ten years felt too slow and drawn-out.

So that version was scrapped.

There was also a version where Kanzaki Rei and Izparut challenged the origin together, which at least gave the protagonist more involvement.

But that was cut later too.

I felt that in a pure magic battle against the origin, if it wasn’t Izparut fighting alone, it would mean he wasn’t absolute in the realm of magic.

So after the final plan was set, I once again felt like a total god-tier author.

The protagonist was left on the sidelines while a side character went all out flexing.

Then there was Yug.

I really didn’t want to write the God of Knowledge and Wisdom as someone who carelessly overlooked something and got beaten up like an idiot.

If he possessed knowledge and wisdom, then he should have the strategy to scheme everything.

A true wise man should be someone who stirs all the waters muddy, ensures no spearheads point at himself, and still achieves his goals.

That’s why no one ever truly turned against Yug.

Because killing Yug would be the most disadvantageous choice for themselves.

That was exactly what Yug would do.

Bind everyone’s interests to his own while maneuvering and scheming in the process...

As for Akasei,

It’s a shame.

I originally wanted to position him at the same height as Izparut, but in the end, his setting was simply that of an extremely strong warrior.

If he were the protagonist, there would have been plenty of room to develop him.

But he wasn’t.

In terms of raw power, he couldn’t surpass Kanzaki Rei’s position, and even by the finale, he couldn’t be elevated to too high a level.

Obades had almost no lines, and the later plot was tight, so I ran out of options.

There were many other things I really wanted to include but had to cut.

For example, the most beautiful woman in the world, who was supposed to appear at a certain point. For various reasons, she only lived on in legend.

The plot I imagined for her later... The most beautiful woman in the world, the character "Kokuhaku," was seen by one of Eltimi’s followers. Out of jealousy, the follower killed her, but was then discovered by Kokuhaku’s admirers and killed in turn.

In the end, Kokuhaku’s admirer couldn’t accept the scene and committed suicide as well.

For a period of time, Kokuhaku’s skin was kept in a secret chamber in the Moon-Viewing Land, until the monster upheaval later invaded. Amid the chaos of war, the earth cracked and mountains collapsed, destroying many things.

Ultimately, that skin sank into the abyss.

I feel like I wrote too much about time-related elements. It left even me somewhat exhausted.

Perhaps some readers enjoy that kind of thing.

But I really did feel tired writing it. In this book, the amount of time-related content wasn’t actually that extensive.

If there is a next book,

While letting myself go wild and writing another god-tier novel, I probably won’t touch anything timeline-related. Just normal time, with insane plot developments.

...

Well, I think that’s about everything.

As for judgment,

I naturally have no right to evaluate myself. I still prefer to leave right and wrong, praise and criticism, to future readers.

...

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