Renegade Immortal

This is postscript from the author Er Gen, not the translator.

Renegade Immortal has been over for nearly half a month. I kept saying there would be a postscript but never felt like it. It’s now almost new years, so I decided to sort out my thoughts and write something.

I wrote Renegade Immortal for 31 months, nearly 1,000 days. Looking back, it was quite emotional.

I still remember the first month of Renegade Immortal, where I had just a bit more than 10,000 people who put it on their bookshelves and barely any monthly vote, but Er Gen didn’t give up. Instead, I drank beer with red eyes, telling myself that even if my story was trash, I was going to write the whole damn story.

I went all out - write!

At that time, Er Gen was a newbie. I was confused about the future and confused about life. I always looked at the sky with many thoughts and ideals, but in the end, I could only watch my beard grow more and more. Only helplessness remained.

I didn’t want to give up, I wanted to persist. This is what I told myself in June two and a half years ago.

The theme of Renegade Immortal was “defying.” The struggle was also a kind of defying that I pursued step by step. There was a lot of hardship and confusion.

I remember the swearing, I remember the rebuke, I remember the vicious voice, I remember a lot… but I also remember the comforting words from you all and all those heartwarming things…

There were several times when I looked at the familiar names in the book reviews, I looked at the more than 300 pledge owners(top donors), and I looked at the surge in monthly votes as tears of joy fell. This was all real.

Thank you, thank you all, thank you Renegade Immortal readers, and thank you donors and the moderators for Renegade Immortal for the last two and a half years.

It can be said that as I wrote Renegade Immortal, I grew as well. A mental growth, following Wang Lin’s dao was as if I was writing my own dao.

Life and death, karma, reincarnation, true self.

There domains were out outlined, but as the novel progressed, I pursued it slowly with Wang Lin. People’s lives are less than 100 years, only their ideas can continue forever. Ideas are the symbols of humans, I have always understood this as such.

I was very reluctant to let it end after two and a half years. A few days after, I felt uncomfortable, like a bow that has been drawn for two and a half years had suddenly loosened.

I’m still coughing and my chest is stuffy.

In one’s life, there will be many two and a half year periods, but I know that I was very satisfied with these two and a half years because I had you all accompanying me.

I grew a lot during Renegade Immortal, from being new at the start and becoming proficient at the end. However, I understand that I still have flaws, like I’m not good with numbers and also making errors...

Many fellow cultivators know this…

I would often write three layers and later it turns into four layers. I’m very depressed about it, it was my memory that deceived me…

There are also many shortcomings, like this and that, but I have written them all down, so I’ll try to avoid them in the new novel.

There are also the broken sentences that make it awkward for people to read, but I’m afraid this can’t be changed…

And I remember my own lack of vocabulary, such as “a sneer,” “eyes lit up,” “a cold snort,” “a step forward,” and so on were used too often, and I feel a little ashamed.

A novel with more than 6 million characters makes it very difficult to achieve perfection, so I hope you all won’t mind.

However, I also have strong points, a lot of strong points, haha.

At least I felt like the characters were pretty good. Not every supporting character, but I felt like a vast majority of them were still successful. Like Situ, Qing Shui, Red Butterfly, Zhou Ru, Big Head, and so on.

This is the part that I’m very happy about.

There are too many strong points, but I won’t say them all to praise myself. You all understand.

In general, the shortcomings and strong points coexist. Renegade Immortal is far from perfect, but it is my current limit. In the new book, I’ll use new methods to make myself rise up. (It seems I have used “rise up” a lot too.)

There are a lot of holes in Renegade Immortal, and in the end, many are still unfilled. I even dug a few more at the end, and after considering it all, I ultimately decided to leave it as is.

I always felt that a novel needs to have some regrets. If not in characters, then in the plot. In truth, some of the answers can be found in the text if you think about it.

For example, the missing one in the Heaven Defying Bead. In the end, the answer was given. It was the All-Seer.

For example, if there is a so-called white bead, there must be a black bead. This matter with the black and white beads was given an answer in the chest board in the last chapter.

For example, how Joss Flames were mentioned as poisonous. I gave an explanation with the Dao Wang Clan, only I didn’t say it directly.

There were many, many, such as the Dong Lin Sect - the answer was in the text.

However, there are indeed holes I have no conclusions for. I would like to leave these stories for the Wang Lin that accompanied Li Qianmei to solve.

Or the hidden mysteries in the cave world - I decided to leave them for the Wang Lin that stayed with Mu Bingmei to find.

Similarly, I also left two questions for you fellow cultivators. The first is Wang Lin.

Wang Lin exists around Li Muwan, Li Qianmei, and Mu Bingmei, but which one is the real him? I think a vast majority of you fellow cultivators would all agree that he is with Li Muwan.

But thinking about it carefully, this perhaps might not be the right answer.

Perhaps he really is with Li Muwan, or perhaps he is not...

Of course, if he wasn’t with Li Muwan, then his life and death struggle would seem a bit pointless.

At least I can’t tell them apart. My logic tells me that the Wang Lin that left with Li Muwan would be the real one, but when I think about Li Qianmei’s story and Mu Bingmei’s story, I become confused. Which one is the real him?

I want to bring this confusion to you fellow cultivators.

If you were Wang Lin, which of the three women would you choose to stay with?

This answer is different for everyone.

What I want is for the fellow cultivators that like Li Qianmei to think that the Wang Lin that stayed with Li Qianmei is the real Wang Lin. By the same token, I want the fellow cultivators who liked Mu Bingmei to think that the Wang Lin that stayed in the cave that gave birth to him and raised him is the real Wang Lin.

I also hope that the fellow cultivators that like Li Muwan believe without hesitation that the one that stayed with her is the real Wang Lin.

There is no answer, I don’t have one...

Perhaps only Wang Lin, only he knows the answer to this question without an answer.

This was the first complete work that Er Gen finished and the first Xianxia. I feel that Xianxia novels have no end. I don’t want to write such a joke, like Wang Lin became the strongest person in the universe.

I want to write about a person that is of flesh and blood. A man that is willing to defy the heavens because of the defying will in this heart.

Cultivation has no end, that’s why I wrote that there is a fourth step, a fifth step, a sixth step. Perhaps there are more, it is a long road.

This represents the pursuit and persistence of people. It represents the idea of climbing up and hoping. Such progress is eternal and will continue forever.

Renegade Immortal is only a part of Wang Lin’s life, the earliest part of his life. He will have more life, but that part of his life will not be in the book, but in our imaginations.

I hope that you all will suddenly think about it when bored, inspired, or zoned out. This would be a joyous thing.

The sky is very large. Looking up at the night sky, I know that Wang Lin is only a story, but his defying will is something I’m lacking. That’s why I wrote something like this - to tell myself, to remind myself, and to make myself look forward.

I’m in the net, everyone is here.

Like the chess game at the end… The question and answer.

“Do you understand?”

“I understand.”

However, Wang Lin understands, the guardian understands, but I still don’t understand.

Life is like a dream.

This is ramble one, there will be two. Perhaps there will be an postscript for other characters, but I don’t guarantee anything. However, as long as I get the inspiration, I’ll write it down.

For example, Situ, Qing Shui, Red Butterfly, Zhou Yi, Thirteen, Zhou Ru, etc...

Despite the fact that my time on the internet has lessened, I’m still with everyone.