AZI Volume 7 Epilogue – “At My Own Discretion” + Afterword
Late at night, Long Hua sits in the living areas of the yacht with a phone to his right ear, while he rests one leg onto the table in front of him.
To Long Hua's left is Tian Cheng, who is pouring a drink for him.
[Well, what do you think?]
The person on the other side of the phone is Nian Yao Yao, and towards her theory of adding practitioner blood into Carps to create a new drug—
(Ai, Ah Yao has grown up. The tribulation lightning of this world was designed to target weapon spirits specifically, so it's a lot weaker against practitioners.)
According to what he had learned from Wu Xiao, Spirit Extracts are basically spirit Qi in liquid form—that is mixed with purified tribulation lightning energy. And since the Carps were modeled after them, their makeup should be very similar to one another.
(Living in a world focused on cultivation, all lifeforms have evolved to the point that their blood will naturally absorb spirit Qi. Since Spirit Extracts are condensed spirit Qi to begin with, mixing in the blood of a practitioner won't ruin it—and will instead dampen the violent tribulation lightning energy to make the new drug much more stable when taken.)
As Long Hua ponders about this in silence, Nian Yao Yao can't help but shout—
[C'mon, don't leave me hanging, say something, Long Hua!]
Picking up his filled glass, Long Hua replies—
"Ah Yao, congratulations. Your theory behind the creation of a new drug is quite doable."
[Really?]
Taking a sip of the wine, Long Hua goes on to say—
"Indeed. However, I would advise you to purchase a few cauldrons from Lao Zhen."
[Lao Zhen? Oh, the boss of New Moon Village?]
"Correct."
Thinking of where to begin, Long Hua starts by explaining—
"Cauldrons—even the lowest tier, are support-type magic treasures; they were designed to keep the energy of medicinal ingredients within themselves—using the natural properties of the materials that they are crafted from. This new drug you're trying to make, it basically stems off the idea of alchemy in the practitioners' circle. You'll have better results using a practitioner's tools to perform the mixing process."
Nodding her head on the other side of the phone, Nian Yao Yao replies—
[That does make sense. But…]
Doing business with Zhen Qing Huai has always been a rather stiff process. The person basically throws out a list—filled with random items, in exchange for practitioner blood.
Although the exchange process is smooth, Nian Yao Yao can't help but feel like—
[Whenever I talk to that person…- Well, I guess you can say we're distant? The amount of space that they maintain between us, it's so much that I feel awkward approaching them.]
Hearing this, Long Hua can't help but chuckle aloud, and asks—
"Ah Yao, don't you have a very thick face? Why not simply go up to them, and ask for a closer relationship?"
[My face isn't thick enough. Even I have my limits.]
Taking another sip of the wine, Long Hua says—
"Fine, I don't mind making a visit to New Moon Village with you. As for negotiations, do it yourself. I'll only be there to act as a mediator if needed."
[Deal. When is a good time for you?]
"Hmm. Tomorrow? Might as well get it out of the way fast."
[Alright. I'll cancel all my plans for tomorrow.]
The convenient thing about New Moon Village is the fact that its entrances are everywhere. Two individuals from a different Grounded City can easily meet one another if they just go to it.
Prior to hanging up on the call, Nian Yao Yao asks—
[You understand your role in the upcoming excavations, right?]
"Plunder the leaves of the Moon Guards. And maybe cause some public unrest against the Immortals—causing concern and worry towards the Immortals to appear in the onlookers' hearts?"
[Un, pretty much. Well, the second part is admittedly more of a whim than anything else, so I won't expect too much. …So long as this new drug is successful, there's no longer a need to continue creating Moon Guards.]
The plan that Nian Yao Yao has in mind is quite simple; have all her combat employees take these drugs, and demonstrate their superiority over the Moon Guards.
So long as these new drugs are able to produce powerful weapon spirits in a stable manner, she will be able to successfully take over the Long Yue family.
"Indeed. Oh, have you celebrated that birthday of yours yet?"
[Hm? Why are you asking this now?]
Narrowing his eyes, Long Hua replies—
"Merely curious. Didn't your mother say, she's willing to call a ceasefire to celebrate?"
[Hmm. I really haven't been back on the Long Yue family's estate in a while. Maybe I should? How about after this excavation?]
"Sure. I do want to see that woman's vexed expression in person."
[I do as well.]
Laughing lightly, Long Hua says—
"In any case, I'll see you tomorrow."
Hanging up on the call, Long Hua downs the rest of his glass, and sets it aside.
(Asking about a birthday celebration? It's quite unlike you to ask about something like that, *-laoban.)
"…"
A snake-like smile appears on Long Hua's face in response to the Tai Xuan Emperor's remark, as the former says—
"Prior to leaving the Leng Bing Realm, I need to get my contract with Ah Yao resolved. This new drug of hers—once I leave, it would be able to incite further chaos in this world. It's to my benefits that she manages to manufacture it. …However, that mother of hers, she'll still be an obstacle—in Ah Yao taking over the Long Yue family. I can already think of what excuses she'd use."
Shaking his head, Long Hua looks up at the white moon, which is slightly obscured by the gears.
"…"
Tilting his head, while continuing to stare at the moon, images of faint memories appear on Long Hua's mind, causing him to think—
(I think I had a life, where I was born a blind man—during a moonlit night. During that life…)
Pressing his fingers lightly to his mouth, Long Hua felt the shape of his lips—allowing him to imagine the flavor of his current smile.
(Although I wasn't able to see during the early periods of that life, who's to say that the moon—during my birth night, wasn't shining for me?)
Maintaining a venomous smile, Long Hua draws in a subtle breath of air, and remarks—
"So long as Ah Yao doesn't become the official head of her family, this contract will go unresolved. I don't have the time to wait for them to settle their differences. Hence, I need that old mother of hers to get off the stage."
(…You really are a venomous snake like that surnamed Xu said.)
(That woman tried to kill me. I won't let her get away with it so easily.)
Thinking of this, instead of voicing it aloud, Long Hua looks to Tian Cheng, to which, the Tai Xuan Emperor has her vessel respond with a nod, while remarking—
"All preparations have been made. I shall act at my own discretion."
Hearing these words, Long Hua's venomous smile sharpens, as he remarks—
"…Hmm, would be nice to get a few more assistants."
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Afterword
9/23/23
I feel like at some point in the third volume, Long Hua's characterization gained the idea of a contracted devil, where anyone who makes a deal with him will be forced to pay a heavy price to acquire what it is that they wish for.
Think it was also around that time I started to wonder what name this series would be called if it was to go off the Japanese literature trend of having over-the-top long titles. At the time, the only thing that I could come up with was "Selfish God Judges the World and Its Mortals for All It's Worth."
I also wasn't expecting for the first part of the Leng Bing Realm's arc to approach its end so quickly. Feels really odd. But then again, the first draft of this volume was written in less than a month.
Out of curiosity, I do want to ask if a character like Long Hua—who is more villain-material than hero-material, is a character that can be interesting to read about. I'm not asking if he's a likable person, I just want to know if it's interesting to read about a character like him, who is basically trying to screw over a lot of people for his selfish benefits. Maybe post a review of the eBook to let me know?
The entire idea of why I started to write this series was because I wanted to try something different.
My professors always told me to make my character (who is kind of an immortal) relatable when I was writing my honors thesis. To that I want to say—making a character relatable to the readers, it kind of feels like it limits a lot of creativity space. Why bother to make your character an immortal, if you're ultimately still forced to make them relatable to the readers? Characters that come from different cultural backgrounds and aren't human, they shouldn't be very relatable to us—in my opinion.
The number of practitioners Long Hua sacrificed to gain more strength—it's definitely wrong from a moral standpoint in our culture, but in the practitioners' circle, it's just another common sight.
That being said, I don't think it's possible to make a character completely unrelatable to the reader; but I just don't want to overdo it—since it ruins the fun of writing a fantasy-genre story, where you're supposed to go wild.
Other than that, I'm quite satisfied with how Yao Ying turned out in this volume. The image that I have of her in her thuggish outfit (red jacket with sunglasses) is funny whenever I think about it. It just feels like such a vast gap from where she had started—from when I originally designed her character.
Qing Ming Yang and Lin Yu Heng, initial designs—they were basically cannon fodders, but sometimes when you create a character, they could suddenly start writing themselves without you realizing it. That's basically what happened with those two. These two represent… Maybe a change in the current Ling Yuan family? The newer generation became too reliant on the Leng Bing Realm to acquire magic treasures, and the elders want to keep it that way, and this results in the young taking it for granted. I feel like there needs to be some people among the Ling Yuan family who feels off about the way everything is arranged in this environment. And these two, well, they just happened to be there. Might as well use them. Midway through this volume, I was thinking of taking them off screen for a while, but then… It felt like a waste.
The intermission chapter, "the Monster Shrouded in White Fog," I was asking myself if I wanted to write it in this volume, or in the next. In the end, I chose to write it in this volume. Also, was thinking maybe I'd go further into depth with the details, but then I figured—nah, that might derail the storyline a bit too much. The original scenario I had in mind was—let's just say, it didn't make much sense to write that scenario for "the God" and his circumstances at the time.
Cuo Qing Yi's intermission stories have finally ended with this volume. I personally felt like it was rushed, but then I thought, I didn't want to spend too much time on it because it's also a story that is happening in the main plot, or at least the aftermath portions of the intermission story is—due to the relationship of the two characters that the readers can probably guess.
Sui Yan's intermission stories, whenever I think about it, I just want to shake my head because it feels like it's unnecessarily long, and people might find it boring to read through because of it. However, since I already put so much effort into the crafting of that intermission story, it'd be a waste to just not use it, and the later portions that have been written for—it will tie back to the main plot's "Part I" conclusion.
Bujian Yue's intermission stories, I want to end it next volume, but I think it's more likely to happen during volume ten.
It's been 90 days since I started my current day job, so nearly 90 days since I've adopted this schedule of heading into work at 2:30 PM, then come home at around 11:50 PM, and not sleep till 5 AM. Yeah, it's a messy sleep schedule, but writing itself is kind of my only means to relax. But then again, these days, I'm doing more editing/proofreading than actual writing. Actual writing, or pulling the plot forward is done on weekends—generally write out one chapter's worth in those two days.
Recently I've been wanting to play some games other than gacha-games, but I look at steam—see the newly released game's prices, and I just pause and ask myself, "when will I ever have the time to finish, or even play these games?"