CHAPTER 59: CHAPTER 55: THE NOVEL IS HEATING UP, PLEASE DON’T UPDATE YET

Since the chief editor had spoken, Qiu Ye naturally felt reassured.

Now that the novel was registered under her name, and with such strong support from the chief editor, success was practically guaranteed. If she inadvertently cultivated an Alliance Hierarch this year, her efforts would be perfectly rewarded.

Leaving the chief editor’s office and setting down her laptop, Qiu Ye jogged to the signing department, urging them to approve the contract on the spot. Once it was approved, she dashed back to her workstation, opened her computer, logged into the backend, found "Candle in the Tomb," and without a second thought, added all the promotions currently available.

Still anxious, she refreshed the webpage every few minutes. Only when she saw the book’s title and cover appear in all the promotional spots did she finally breathe a sigh of relief.

She also saw the novel featured in the two promotional spots promised by the chief editor. She couldn’t suppress the smile on her face, feeling as delighted as if she had eaten cake.

Chu Tian was completely unaware of the events unfolding at Cloud Summit Culture. At that moment, he was figuring out how to use the writing platform.

Having just reviewed the data, he now curiously clicked into the comment section.

"This book is amazing! Damn, it really opened my eyes!"

"I never thought a book could be written like this! No martial arts, no sects—just a single historical story, yet it’s so captivating!"

"Damn, the Blank Paper Man scared me! I was reading this book at night, and after just over 10,000 words, I was too scared to sleep. What should I do?"

"Why do I feel like the author wrote it as if it were real? Could this actually be true?"

"This is my first time seeing a novel about Tomb Robbing; I just found out that Tomb Robbing is an actual profession!"

"I have a ’Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui Secret Manual.’ Would any fellow adventurers care to take a look?"

"Not enough to read, not enough! The author’s updates are like constipation—way too infrequent!"

It had only been three or four days since the novel’s release, and he had only updated about ten thousand words. Of course, that wasn’t enough for eager readers.

The Chapters of this novel were different from others; each was just over a thousand words. He updated two Chapters daily, totaling over three thousand to four thousand words. Compared to others, this wasn’t much, but it certainly wasn’t insignificant either.

But if one really got into it, they would definitely find it insufficient.

The novel’s comment section was already flooded with messages urging for more updates.

Other novels, even with tens of thousands of words, might only have a few hundred readers, and two or three comments in the review section would be considered decent.

But from the moment this book appeared, the initial few hundred readers were instantly captivated. They called their friends and dragged in over three thousand more viewers.

The comment section rapidly filled with over six hundred comments. Besides urging for updates, many also shared their feelings—a clear sign of its burgeoning popularity.

For now, this was the limit. Even so, the numbers were extremely impressive; no wonder the editor was so anxious.

Who wouldn’t be anxious after seeing this book, once the suspicion of data manipulation was ruled out? To put it bluntly, this was all money!

Of course, not all comments were praises; there were plenty of sarcastic and scornful remarks from naysayers.

"Did this book manipulate its data?"

"So many comments without even being contracted? Isn’t that too fake?"

"Damn cheater, get out!"

"Is this another young master trying to ’experience life’? What kind of nonsense is he writing to dare manipulate data like this?"

Such comments were plentiful, some agreeing, some disputing.

But these were past comments. Now that the promotions were active, the novel’s exposure had sharply increased, and its popularity was visibly skyrocketing.

Having grown accustomed to all sorts of comments in his past life, Chu Tian remained unfazed by this degree of criticism.

He looked at the comment section merely for entertainment. Writing the novel was just to complete a task and, of course, now also for money.

Seeing many people urging for updates, he thought for a moment. Just this morning, he had exchanged points for a Text Converter and copied ten thousand words.

Including what was leftover from before, he had just used over a thousand words for the current update and still had plenty remaining.

Since so many people are urging for updates, why not release some more?

Since he no longer had to type himself, he hesitated only briefly before deciding to post the rest.

Not long after he had posted the updates, Editor Qiu Ye’s call came immediately.

"Nanmeng, I saw that you just updated over eight thousand words, is that right?"

"Yeah, what’s up? Is there a problem with updating so much?"

"Not really. Your novel was just promoted, so updating more at this time is actually beneficial. However, the word count might be a bit high by the time it goes up for sale."

"That’s not a big issue; we can add paid Chapters later. I was actually just wondering if you have a large backlog of Chapters?"

Manuscripts? Chu Tian glanced at the ready-made novel in his inventory. That counts as a backlog, right?

"Yes, I do have a backlog."

"That’s good. However, during the new book period, we don’t advise updating too much. If you have a backlog, you can save it for a burst release after the novel goes premium. By the way, how many words do you plan for this book in total?"

"950,000."

"How... how many? 950,000? That’s all? Why such a specific number, down to the tens of thousands?"

On the other end of the phone, Editor Qiu Ye sounded surprised. But right after speaking, she seemed to realize something and couldn’t help but ask loudly, "You haven’t finished writing it all, have you?"

"..."

Chu Tian didn’t know how to respond for a moment.

The book was indeed finished, just not by him. Feeling a little awkward, he could only vaguely admit it.

"Well, sort of."

What does ’sort of’ mean?

Qiu Ye was completely baffled. Having been a web novel editor for so many years, this was the first time she had encountered an author who had finished writing their novel just after publishing it.

Could it really be as the chief editor said? Is this person a former traditional writer who switched to web novels?

If that’s the case, it would make sense. He’s unfamiliar with the web novel industry, updating over ten thousand words in one day! If I hadn’t called, who knows if he would have released everything by tomorrow?

"So, you updated over ten thousand words at once today to finish it quickly, or for some other reason?"

"No, I just saw many readers in the comments urging for more updates. I thought they had a point, so I released a bit more."

What does he mean, ’they had a point’? And ’released a bit more’?

Doesn’t he realize that while readers’ pleas for updates are sincere, most are just saying it casually, not actually expecting the author to act on it immediately?

The entire novel is only about nine hundred fifty thousand words, and he suddenly updated over ten thousand today! The new book period lasts about a month. If readers keep asking for updates daily, and he releases over ten thousand words each day, that’s three to four hundred thousand words gone in a month! When it’s time to go premium, will there be enough content left to last even another month? If this incredibly popular novel finishes in just one month, what’s the point of anything then?!

Qiu Ye was at a loss for words. She knew, no matter what, she couldn’t let Nanmeng continue like this, or she’d really cry her eyes out.

"Look, Teacher Nanmeng, please stop updating for now! Please! Keep your backlog. We’ll discuss this internally and get back to you with more details, okay?"

The nearly crying Qiu Ye even called him ’Teacher,’ probably really mistaking him for some traditional writer.

"Sure, no problem."

He had no issue with the editor’s suggestion. Professional matters should be left to professionals. He indeed didn’t understand much about the industry. Since they were the experts and had advised this, he would just follow their instructions.