Writing Novels Will Make You Invincible

Chapter 8 : I See This Book Has Chart-Topping Potential

I See This Book Has Chart-Topping Potential

Taking the Lesser Marrow Cleansing Pill for the second time wasn't nearly as intense as the first, but damn if it wasn't still pretty effective.

Chu Tianxing felt that his current constitution had likely bid a final farewell to its former state of congenital deficiency and had begun to enter the ranks of a minor athletic prodigy now.

Just like when he'd learned the Muscle-Transforming & Bone-Tempering Chapter yesterday, clicking to learn the booklet containing the Snake-Crawl Raccoon-Tumble movement technique gave him instant results. Not only did he understand all the theory behind it, but his body had already formed the muscle memory. He could pull off the moves right now if he wanted to.

Of course, even with that instant muscle memory, he'd still need tons of actual practice to get his proficiency up and truly master this movement technique. Only then could he actually use it in real combat.

After dealing with his First Contract Gift Pack, Chu Tianxing finally registered a new DangDang account to contact the Huankong Net editor.

He punched in the editor's DangDang number, and when the search results came up, something about that editor's username looked familiar.

"Flower of the Eastern Depot? I feel like I've seen that screen name somewhere before..."

He thought for a moment, then opened the comment section of his novel and immediately found the source of the familiarity.

FlowerOfTheEasternDepot: Can't wait to see what happens next!

FlowerOfTheEasternDepot: Author, please update faster!

FlowerOfTheEasternDepot: Author, keep it up! I'm waiting for updates every day!

Looking at those three comments from "FlowerOfTheEasternDepot," Chu Tianxing's eye twitched slightly as he muttered to himself.

"Well I'll be damned... Huankong Net's editor working as a member of the water army... Seriously, couldn't you at least try to hide it a little? Maybe use a different username?"

Well, looking at it from another angle, for an editor to be willing to personally jump in and liven up the comment section as a member of the 'water army,' doesn't that just prove that they think very highly of this novel?

And if the editor valued his book, wouldn't that mean resources and so on would come pouring in?

Chu Tianxing consoled himself with this thought as he added "Flower of the Eastern Depot" to his DangDang contacts.

Flower of the Eastern Depot's profile picture was a seal with the characters "Confidant of the Imperial Court" written on it.

The moment his friend request was approved, that seal avatar started blinking as a message came through.

"Hello, Skywalker. I'm your assigned editor, Flower of the Eastern Depot, and I'll be handling your novel from now on. It's a pleasure to work with you."

Chu Tianxing mulled it over for a moment before typing his reply: "Hello. The pleasure is all mine. I'll be in your care from now on."

After exchanging pleasantries, the editor sent over a document. When Chu Tianxing opened it, sure enough, it was the contract.

Huankong Net had only been around for two years, so the editors' responsibilities weren't that clearly defined yet.

Word was that the site's founder and editor-in-chief was still personally reviewing manuscripts and communicating with authors.

And since there weren't any dedicated contract editors yet, all matters concerning author contracts, networking, and recommendations were handled solely by the assigned editors.

Chu Tianxing opened the contract and browsed through it. The terms were very lenient. It only signed over the electronic rights, with all other copyrights remaining with the author. The revenue split was 70-30, with the author getting the bigger cut.

"Nice... I hope Huankong Net keeps this attitude and doesn't turn into what happened in my old world..."

After sighing over that, Chu Tianxing said he was totally satisfied with the contract and would go print and mail it right away.

Flower of the Eastern Depot sent back an enthusiastic smiley emoji.

"Keep up the great work! The whole editorial team thinks highly of your novel. We think it has serious potential to be a huge hit. It might even become a phenomenal work that dominates the rankings for a long time."

You guys really do have good taste, Chu Tianxing thought to himself.

Right now, Huankong Net's ranking lists are dominated by literary depression and protagonist-torture stories. In contrast, his Legend of the Condor Heroes was a standard pure wish-fulfilment fantasy. Sure, the main character showed up late and had a pretty tragic background, but every part of his growth experience was straight out of the wish-fulfilment playbook.

Even though he seemed like martial arts trash at the start, he still got tons of lucky encounters and even achieved many enviable accomplishments.

He had seven masters who spared no effort, traveling thousands of miles and searching painstakingly just to teach him with care.

The head of the Quanzhen Sect personally taught him authentic orthodox internal art.

Due to his luck, he was able to kill the famous disciple of Huang Yaoshi, Chen Xuanfeng, with a single strike as a little kid.

He had the Divine Archer Jebe as his master, becoming buddies with Temüjin's family, swearing brotherhood with Tolui, and winning Princess Huazheng's heart.

On the battlefield, he saved Temujin from mortal danger. Speaking of the Mongol Yuan. The Great Ming attitude to the Mongol Yuan isn’t as hostile as in his previous world as the Great Ming carried itself as the winner of the war and showed that in the form of magnanimity.

So praising Temüjin wouldn't get anyone in trouble.

Temüjin was pretty incredible.

But his Golden Family descendants got their asses kicked by Emperor Taizu of Ming, got chased back to the grasslands, then got repeatedly crushed by Emperor Chengzu of Ming. Now the entire Mongolian grasslands had long since been incorporated into the great Ming territory. So the more incredible and heroic Temüjin was, the more it highlighted just how badass the Ming Dynasty was, right?

So the protagonist’s friendship with Temüjin's family, and the book's descriptions of some of Temüjin's heroic qualities, wouldn't piss off readers. It'd actually give them a secret thrill.

How incredible and heroic was Temüjin?

He was someone who was only slightly less impressive than Emperor Taizu of Ming—

At least Temüjin started out as a tribal chief's son. Even when he hit rock bottom, he still had bloodline recognition from his tribe.

But Emperor Taizu of Ming started with absolutely nothing. He started with just a begging bowl and not even a proper name. In terms of humble origins and a difficult start, he surpassed all other founding emperors in history.

Starting from such a low point and building the glorious Ming Dynasty that lasted to this day, ruling the eastern part of the world and controlling the eastern order, the Emperor Taizu of Ming was naturally a tiny bit more heroic than Temüjin.

And the protagonist, a martial arts cripple, could save Temüjin's life on the battlefield, become friends with Temüjin's family, swear brotherhood with future Khan Tolui, and become Princess Huazheng's Golden Knife Prince Consort...

How awesome is that?!

And the plot after young Guo leaves the steppes is even more satisfying.

Wherever he went, important people helped him out. He can barge into a prince's mansion and eat a heavenly treasure that someone else spent years carefully cultivating. Then for no apparent reason, he'd win the heart of that Eastern Heretic's precious daughter—one of the Five Greats—and with her help, learn world-class martial arts from the Northern Beggar...

The "martial arts trash" mask gradually came off, revealing someone with a "focus" talent and an invisible cheat code that as long as he trained hard, he'd definitely get results and his martial arts would improve.

You had to understand, in real life, if you didn't have talent, you aren’t destined for it.

No matter how hard you trained, once you hit your talent’s limit and unless you got some heaven-defying lucky break that completely transformed you, you'd never improve even a tiny bit.

And most ordinary people had limited talent and low ceilings.

Even if they practiced martial arts from childhood, even if they were obsessed with it, they'd never achieve much.

Sure, the novel's protagonist hit some rough patches in the romance department later on, but in the end, lovers got together, his martial arts rivaled the old Five Greats, and he could even stand toe-to-toe with big shots like Temüjin.

With this wish-fulfillment fantasy in an era full of masochistic works, it was bound to soar once it got proper support.

Topping off the chart is basically guaranteed at this point.

Chu Tianxing had lost all his initial worry and anxiety. He was confident this book would definitely blow up.

After thanking Flower of the Eastern Depot for having faith in him and chatting a bit more, Chu Tianxing headed out to mail the contract.