Ending Remarks

I’ll put the important words first: Today’s 7,000-word update has been completed. I’ll take three days off to rest and survive!

The third volume, which is also the last volume of this book, will be updated on the 18th!

This is still a travelogue-style story, and Sherlock and Edward will both return in the third volume. Aiwass will visit the irises and the southern continent, spending a short time with the dwarves and frost giants, and then the rest of the story—due to the inconsistent style of the story, we're not considering going to the beginning. Horus's inclusion depends on the situation; at least it's not in the outline, so he might only appear if there's a word requirement.

Please give me a monthly ticket!

——Okay, business is done.

Then we started chatting casually, reflecting on the problems in the second volume, and sharing creative ideas.

The second volume has 1.72 million words and 542 chapters, but the outline of the second volume expected the content to be 1.2 million words. However, when entering the second volume, the mental and physical conditions were not very good, which caused the plot in the middle of the Church Kingdom chapter to go in circles, which was obviously much longer than expected... According to the outline, the length of the Church Kingdom chapter should be only one-third, and the Star Antimony chapter should be reduced by nearly half, which is exactly 1.2 million words.

I wrote half a million too many! I've lost a third of the second volume, so the pace should be just right.

The narrative core of this volume is "My separation and merger."

During the outline stage, the original title of Amu's book was not "The Secret of the Shepherd" but "The Ring of the Tail". However, because Wuzui had published a book called "The Ring of the Succubus" while working on the outline, in order to avoid being accused of riding on the popularity of the book, the title was urgently changed to "The Secret of the Shepherd" before the book was published.

Because of the fundamental premise of the path's purification, this book contains numerous instances of self-cutting. There's the Huan Tian Si and the Shepherd, the Huan Tian Si and Aiwass, the Huan Tian Si and Ai Shiping... There's also Heng Wo, who abandoned himself ten times; the Sand Clock, who splits himself into yin and yang; the paradox of the Red Dragon and the White Dragon; the Gray Tian Si, who splits himself into several parts; the two sides of the Banquet Master and the Fool; the symbiotic relationship between Taboo and Amber; the Great Master and the Supreme Heaven; Lucifer and the Fallen Angel...

This is also true for Lily and Selene, and Bayard the Shadow Demon and Bayard the Moon Child. The core narrative of this book is the cutting and combining of different people - if someone only needs to change one detail, they will become a completely different person.

It's like the multiple forms of a servant in FGO, or the "Luxology" in GBF, which is the core inspiration for this book - the relationship between Lucifer, Lucifer, Sandalphon, Lucio, and Helair.

But these things are ultimately "external things", so the feeling people always give is "two completely different characters".

Even if you say "this is the same person", it still feels like "drawing a girl and insisting it's a boy".

Therefore, I want to dissociate the "protagonist".

What are the core elements that make a protagonist? Justice? Power? Uniqueness? Aura? Gender? Personality? Presence? Drama? Possibility?

——I think the answer is “all”.

If the protagonist's mind is influenced by someone else, is he still the same protagonist? If the protagonist's kindness turns to evil, and tolerance turns to radicalism, is he still the same person? Is it a single shining point that constitutes the core of this character's memory, or is it "all" including strengths and weaknesses?

Because of this, Aiwass repeatedly experiences the separation and reconstruction of himself in this volume. Just as Wei Zhe and Zhi Gao Tian are not actually the Winged Celestials, and Vortigern and Arthur are not the Crowned Celestials, the separated "Pope" and Aleister are also not the real Aiwass.

They all possessed Aiwass's memories, his personality, and believed themselves to be Aiwass. But only later did they realize that they were both Aiwass and not Aiwass. Yet, this was another paradox and a cycle... The more they identified themselves with Aiwass, the less likely they were to be Aiwass, and vice versa.

The paradox was broken when Aleister sacrificed himself—performing an impossible act of devotion by transcending the individual. What triggered all this was the power of the primal river, the "Path of Love."

Love once again gives birth to a new devotion.

Aiwass was then whole again, and clearly aware of his own composition. At this point, when he created Aleister with his own will, it was no longer a simple matter of "severing the snake's tail." Aleister was no longer a part he had cut off, but a new life that had been "created."

She is Aiwass's reflection in the mirror, a fragment of herself, and at the same time a new life that has gained enlightenment.

Aiwass's separation from Aleister was essentially the same as Ai Shiping's separation from Huan Tiansi, and Huan Tiansi's separation from Aiwass. Like a ring that holds its tail together... When Aiwass rebelled against Huan Tiansi, he unknowingly became the new Huan Tiansi.

But there's a crucial difference. Aiwass didn't act out of "his own desires and interests," but rather created Aleister for her own desires and interests. Aiwass's second creation of Aleister wasn't necessary or unique to Aiwass, just as Aleister didn't need to sacrifice her life to save Pope Aiwass in the first place.

They all did things that were completely unnecessary, and thus the repetitive cycle of fate, the endless loop, was broken.

It’s a bit of a pity that this book is not called “The Ring of Tail”, otherwise it would be both the “beginning” and the “end”, which would be a summary of the theme.

I think the scene in GBF where Lucifer and Sandalphon fight over the Lost Paradise perfectly fits my understanding of the core of this creation - from this perspective, this volume can be said to be making dumplings for this dish of vinegar.

Looking at the feedback now, although the dumplings were a little exposed, at least the vinegar was fine.

In the later stages of the creation of the second volume, because the cat fell in love, his mental state was healed, and the quality improved a lot in the later stages.

I even had my writing cut off halfway when I was following the Church Nation arc, but luckily I started to slowly improve after following the Star Antimony arc, and saved my grades... But in fact, the Star Antimony arc was still one-third watered down. It was almost from the copy where Aleister sacrificed himself that I resumed my creative state in the middle of the first volume, and it was only from then on that my grades recovered!

Another issue is the issue of my personal XP - there's nothing I can do about it, I've been writing this way since my first novel ten years ago. After all, before I wrote Mercury's Blood, I was writing about becoming a hundred, and that's how our 2D light novels are, so I've been trying very hard to control myself.

For readers who really don't like it, I can only say sorry, it's just me being happy, sorry! If you really don't like it, you can find me in the group, and I'll give you a refund.

Compared to when I first started writing Mercury, I actually feel from the bottom of my heart that the perverted flavor has become less and less with each book (touching my chin). I feel that after one or two more books, I will be able to be refined into an ordinary person who is not perverted.

But according to the original plan, Mao was going to write for about another seven years, and then retire when he turned 35. Probably by the time he regains his normal XP, there will only be one or two books left.

I might still write some novels by then, after all, I can’t abandon the habit I’ve formed. But I probably won’t update daily.

Another mistake made in the second volume was pointed out by a friend in the book review section: the Amber Flow conflicts with the suspense and mystery-solving mode.

This was my assumption, as the Amber Flow and the Fourth Scourge felt quite similar, so I wrote it according to the player's main storyline. However, halfway through the second volume—shortly after defeating Loki—I suddenly felt something was off.

This kind of plotting, followed by deciphering the truth, breaking free, and transcending the situation, is a perfectly reasonable plotline for regular fantasy novels. It's even safe to say that nine out of ten books follow this pattern. However, the Amber genre, which relies on information asymmetry to its advantage, doesn't favor plots that involve constant manipulation. These two main themes actually conflict!

Without the added complexity of the plot, the experience might actually have been better. This was indeed an unexpected problem—I'm good at writing Amber-style themes, I've also mastered the Fourth Calamity, and setting-style decryption is also my specialty, but I didn't expect that the fusion of the two would create a strange feeling.

To address this issue, I decided to reduce the amount of decryption and breakthrough elements in the third volume. With the Amber Flow as the core, I adjusted the story to a more adventurous, collecting, and strengthening mode. I only retained the main decryption elements in the main storyline-related plots, and reduced the difficulty of the game by lengthening the development time of Aiwass. After all, if the information advantage of the Amber Flow cannot be brought into play, it actually feels a bit like taking off pants and farting.

——It’s better to have a crushing victory! I write simply and readers will enjoy reading it!

Currently, the outline length of the first volume of this book is 1.2 million words, and the final writing length is 1.43 million words; the outline length of the second volume is 1.2 million words, and the writing length is 1.72 million words. The third volume is the final volume, and it is hard to say how much it will be in the end.

All I can say is that the outline of the third volume is 1 million words long.

I have noted down all the problems or shortcomings mentioned above, and will include them in the processing list in order of importance. Thank you readers for your opinions and suggestions!

The cat is still growing!

Okay, finally, I'm taking three days off to rest. I've been sleeping at noon and waking up at 7pm for a week straight. With this schedule, I'm a little worried I won't make it to 35... Hopefully, I can at least make it to 40, so I can have a few years of fun after retirement!

I'd like to thank Fu Loli Tian Zelu for feeding the cute golden cat! Thank you so much, bang bang bang kowtow!

Finally, here's the list of books I read while writing the second volume. I've had less time to read since falling in love, but I've stuck with the habit! Again, these aren't recommendations; they're just the non-online novels I've read recently. This doesn't mean I haven't read them before, but it does mean I've been reading them. This doesn't necessarily mean I endorse the authors, the books, or their perspectives.

Dip armor, pass!

Leviathan

The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State

Three Strangers

From Ritual to Record: The Nature of Modern Sport

The Eternal Sleep, The High Window

The Temple of the Golden Pavilion

Demian

Klein Pot

The Mystery of the Strange Painting and the Mystery of the Strange House

Ranpo Ijinkan

Paradox 13

The Seventh Solution, All Suspects

Rainbow Toothbrush

Lychees in Chang'an

Slaughterhouse-Five

…

Finally, let me end with that sentence. Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you again in three days.

May happiness always be with you.

(End of this chapter)