Afterword
Third Heaven’s story has come to an end. I don’t know if I want to continue writing, and I’ve explained why in a previous chapter (Translator: I will explain at the end of the afterword). It’s a miracle I even got this far. At the very least, I’ve finished the story I owed and answered questions that ought to have an answer. As for the story beyond Third Heaven, I have no intention to write about it at this point. As Feng Haochen pointed out, it isn’t hard for Mu Yu to defeat Divine Executioner with his domain.
Honestly, I don’t know if anyone liked my series. Nevertheless, I like the world that I created. Mount Dustfallen, the utopia where everyone is at peace and satisfied is my ideal place to learn and cultivate. It’s like a harmonious family. Although siblings may have different beliefs, nobody hurts the other in pursuit of their beliefs and ideals. Mount Dustfallen ties them together and is the prerequisite for them to journey the cultivation world.
I like Cheng Yan’s firm stance to fulfil his shifu’s wishes despite not comprehending why the humans of Third Heaven deserve their help.
I like Xiang Nan and Lie Shang’s rebellious characters for they never forget that they’re part of the Mount Dustfallen Family even when they impugn Feng Haochen’s decisions and try to pursue a path they believe in. Most importantly, they will never use their family for their own ends.
I like Mu Yu’s attachment to his family. Mu Yu constantly battles his demons and conflicting ideas of those around him. In the end, nonetheless, he still chooses to walk his own path. There’s a process to change; people don’t just take one step and then suddenly change.
Many readers complained that Dustfallen Sect can’t possibly exist, citing the big-hit series, where the main protagonist’s fellow disciples constantly deride and frame him, only for him to slap the snot out of them, to be how the real cultivation world works. My question is, why can’t a sect like Dustfallen Sect exist? What rule states that sects in the cultivation world have to be homes to back-stabbing people, where every fellow disciple looks down on the main protagonist and does everything in their power to kill him? The cultivation world is a mythical world we conjure. Is the world not real if everyone in the same sect isn’t trying to kill each other? Have you been to the cultivation world? If not, on what basis are you arguing my world can’t exist? I have no regrets now that I’ve had the chance to tell a story in my ideal world. Like it or not, it’s all in the past now. I’m grateful to those who’ve been with me to the end.
The ending was rushed because my original plan was to write until we reached Ninth Heaven until, well, I already told you (Translator: Will be talking about this after author’s afterword), so I had to start wrapping earlier than anticipated. It was a tough task. I had to start filling in holes that I deliberately dug to save for later and modified the plot a lot. What you see is the modified end product.
Maybe I will write about the battle against Divine Executioner in the future. Who knows? I’d rather not make promises I can’t guarantee I can keep; I’m pragmatic.
I like Mu Yu as a character. He’s childish but sensible. If there’s no family, what’s the point of cultivating to godhood? Emotions are part of being human. Without desires and emotions, how are they anything more than dead men walking? That’s why I never talked about long lives, severing emotional ties, the main protagonist crying on his knees, telling his parents, “I have to go on a long journey now, and it may be ages before I get back. Here’s my three kowtows, garble, garble, garble.”
Mu Yu is a simple man. He has family, his brotherhood, love, principles in all of them, likes to joke around and remains childish to a degree. Children have a rebellious phase at certain ages, which was why he was always quarrelling with Ku Mu when they met.
I received complaints about Mu Yu not being respectful to Ku Mu. You never argue with your parents in your teens? Did you speak respectfully when you were fired up and arguing? Did you say, “Dad, I believe it is wrong to spank children. Children are the flowers of the nation. You must use reason. He will not be able to focus in class if he has a sore bottom. If he cannot concentrate in class, he cannot score full marks as you wish. If you beat him up again after he fails to get full marks, you have created a vicious cycle...”
When you’re infuriated and arguing, you don’t hold back: “Am I your son or what? Did you find me in a toilet? I’m leaving home. I can take care of myself. See you at See You Tomorrow Sect!”
It’s perfectly normal to hurt other’s feelings when you’re angry and unleashing verbal lashings. Additionally, don’t forget Ku Mu and Mu Yu aren’t biologically related. Ku Mu also forced Mu Yu to do things the latter didn’t want to. Mu Yu can’t beat Ku Mu, and you won’t let him curse to vent, either? Later on, it became a habit for them to fire shots at each other. Are you telling me there’s no such thing as different parent and child relationships? Does everyone communicate with each other the exact same way? Mu Yu never forgot about the things Ku Mu did for him. Ku Mu used his life to cast Ultimate Concealment Bloody Guardian, so Mu Yu wanted to return the former’s life to him. Mu Yu’s principles are simple.
When Mu Yu left Moyun Mountains, he went in and evaluated the world as a clean slate, playing around and having fun with Xiaoshuai, doing as they pleased. Whenever they had the upper hand, they’d start getting a little cocky for laughs. When they couldn’t win, they ran. He wasn’t a block of wood or stubborn. Eventually, he had to grow up, which began with the massacre at Eastern Desert City. He did his best to save the people, but they crossed his bottom line when they killed the Xuan Family and He Jinglong. His drowned his will to uphold his principles in his rage.
There’s one character I never finished with in the story. Does anyone remember Illusionary Clear Rain? His illusion spirit is in the same league as Xiaoshuai. Of course, there’s also Xie Bulao. They were supposed to have more prominent roles later on in my original story. Since this is where I’ve ended the story, though, we can only treat them as cameo characters. Maybe they’ll come up in a spin-off.
Thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout these 1164 chapters.
***
Below is the translator’s input.
Before I start, let me start with the author’s message earlier on:
“I didn’t sign a contract until I reached a million Chinese characters, and I’ve now written three million Chinese characters. How the story develops is what is most important to me. Sadly, the number of subscribed readers is failing to meet the goal demanded, which means my editor won’t promote it. You have no idea how pitiful my numbers’ performance is. As a consequence, the series will be axed, turning my effort into a fruitless endeavour. That being said, I don’t want this story to end with loose ends, and I don’t want an ending I can’t be happy with. It’s irresponsible as an author, and even Mu Yu would chew me out. I’ll finish this series to thank the readers supporting me (not pirates) and fans of Mu Yu.”
I’m only going to give part of the story because I don’t want the author to be in trouble with the Chinese publisher.
Some people are under the illusion that the author always has 100% control over their series. When a series doesn’t meet the financial performance goals, though, the editors start pushing the author to write things that are proven to sell. This was the case with this series. Because this series didn’t sell well after a few hundred chapters, the author was given an ultimatum: either you switch to writing what you’re told, or you will have to wrap up your story (i.e. eunuch it). For the record, he isn’t the only author given this treatment. The author didn’t want to go with his editor’s directions, so he decided to axe it as best as he could. Some authors do sell their work to their editor to prevent getting the axe. Before you judge authors, actually find out who the real creative director is.
To keep it brief and not divulge more than I morally should, the author was told to turn this series into a face slapper, harem series with a merciless main protagonist. He refused.
Fortunately, this experience didn’t extinguish his fire to write, and he’s doing much better off at Qidian, like countless others who switch, where he’s given due assistance and seeing more fruitful harvests.
This is the last xuanhuan genre series I will be translating. Henceforth, I’ll be focusing on wuxia, historical military and old-school xianxia (if I continue). For those who still haven’t learnt, old-school xianxia is similar to this series, in that it focuses on dealing with some issue, challenging morals and philosophies as it did in this series with what the right thing to do about the human race was, whether or not it was the right decision to kill and so forth, all without the cultivation/level-up system. For those of you who still don’t know, I’ve always disliked system novels. The aforementioned are my favourites because of the themes explored, style and, most importantly to me, possess gufeng prose.
Thank you everyone who supported me and this series. For the foreseeable future, I’ll only translate Martial King’s Retired Life for multiple reasons.
Firstly, I’m now running a gym, rehabbing clients, coaching and so forth. It’s a full-on gig. Secondly, as you may have seen, I spent an enormous amount of money licensing Almighty and this series, yet I had one patreon supporter throughout for just one series. Frankly, I’m just not generous enough to invest my own money and time into such a big project for absolutely nothing again when I’m no millionaire and have other things to do.
I will post the full version of the tracks in the trailer on the series’ contents’ page this weekend. If you haven’t seen the trailer, you can find it on the contents’ page.
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