CHAPTER 121: CHAPTER 120: TRUE TO ITS NAME

"Old Ruan, you’re here? I’ve saved Volume Six of ’The Fire God Chronicles’ for you."

Early in the morning, in Qiuqi Bookstore, the owner saw a young man in a long gown walk in and greeted him warmly, pulling out a book titled ’The Fire God Chronicles VI: The Epic Chapter’.

Luon Jiba flipped through a few pages of the book and nodded with satisfaction: "It’s indeed Volume Six... I must be the first person in Xuanzhu County to get it, right?"

"Of course!" The owner patted his chest: "As you know, since ’The Fire God Chronicles’ became popular, it loves to do limited editions. The first edition of Volume Six, the Epic Edition, was released two months ago, with only 500 copies; the second edition, the Collector’s Edition, was released a month ago, with only 3,000 copies; the third edition, which is the classic edition you have now, was released with 10,000 copies. I also had to ask someone to get a copy, otherwise, it would all be consumed internally in Yanjing."

"The large-scale release of Volume Six will probably be in two months, but for now, Yanjing might already have pirated copies," the owner reminded him, "and other people probably asked someone to buy it too, so you’d better hurry."

The literary industry in Radiance is growing strangely healthy. Because of Mongolian Studies and Combat Technique, the illiteracy rate among Radiance people is very low, with most people being literate, yet few buy books—after all, across eras, reading has always been a niche, and most people are busy with making a living, leaving no time for reading.

Luon Jiba is a storyteller. The storytelling industry emerged because people don’t love reading—but that doesn’t mean they don’t love listening. After all, reading requires imagination, but when listening, storytellers use intonation and even perform vocal mimicry, making it more lively and easier to understand.

The key point is that listening to a story back then was a group activity, where people commented, ’Well said,’ ’So amazing,’ bringing a group sensation much more enjoyable than reading alone—like finding a reader posting an indescribable image in the comments, making you smile knowingly.

Most people don’t buy books, and those who do mostly aren’t lacking money, gradually forming a trend of comparison—yes, even buying books is a competition.

Collector’s Edition, Limited Edition, Epic Edition, Annual Edition... whenever a classic bestseller appears, publishers would quickly package and release limited and expensive versions, yet book buyers love this trick.

Therefore, it’s not that there aren’t pirated copies, but if you are turning to piracy, why not just listen? Listening for free even saves you the cost of buying pirated copies, and you might even make a bunch of friends to boast with, whereas when buying pirated copies, you wouldn’t even know where the reader groups are.

Strange, because book buyers are vain; healthy because authors can make great money writing novels.

Luon Jiba asked the owner to snatch a copy of ’The Fire God Chronicles’ Volume Six, naturally intending to seize the storytelling market. These days, the storytelling industry is fiercely competitive. Telling old classics doesn’t earn much, but telling hot serials could bring in countless rewards from continuation supporters.

Luon Jiba painfully handed over a gold coin to the owner—buying through special channels is this expensive.

This was almost his entire fortune, relying on ’The Fire God Chronicles’ to make a comeback. But if not risking it, Luon Jiba wouldn’t last long on Damenshi Street.

The storytelling industry is also divided into various schools, mainly three major schools:

There’s the ’Xinyi Sect,’ where storytellers passionately integrate their spiritual power into their voice, affecting the audience’s emotions so that they feel joy or sadness alongside the characters;

There’s the ’Rouge House,’ where storytellers remind of details and connect Chapters, making listeners realize the book contains many Easter eggs, with character psychology being not that simple—essentially the spoiler faction;

There’s the ’Yuyin School,’ where storytellers perform vocal mimicry: heroes sound heroic, maidens sound charming, old man wise and rustic, and children innocent and childlike—essentially the voice actor school, using mimicry to enhance storytelling.

Storytellers generally fall into these three schools, and they usually operate independently because each has its features—after listening to Xinyi Sect, one might want to hear Rouge House, then experience the live ASMR feel of Yuyin School.

Luon Jiba is from the Yuyin School. Taught falsetto skills by his master since childhood, at twenty-odd years, he is already a famed voice master in Xuanzhu County, particularly when telling romantic novels; his enchanting female voice can thrill young boys and fascinate young girls, reputed as a peerless performance in Xuanzhu.

However, since the beginning of the year, someone has been competing with him.

The Yuyin School strains the throat, Luon Jiba started performing at eighteen and has gradually shortened his storytelling time from twenty-three onwards, or else his throat couldn’t handle it. But the newcomer is in the bloom of youth at eighteen, with a voice no lesser than Luon Jiba’s and longer storytelling time, creating a scenario—

Luon Jiba would finish, and those feeling unsatisfied would go over to listen to the newcomer; the following day, to catch up with last night’s progress, naturally they’d go to the newcomer’s.

Over time, the audience naturally gravitated towards the newcomer.

The storytelling industry is extremely competitive, only the most devoted win most listeners—everyone hears whoever they’re going to hear anyway.

To reverse this trend, Luon Jiba spent a fortune purchasing ’The Fire God Chronicles’ Volume Six, aiming to tell it before others, surely attracting a large audience of fans of the series!

Just as Luon Jiba was about to leave, a cargo cart pulled up in front of Qiuqi Bookstore, and a worker shouted, "Boss! The new newspapers are here!"

"Coming, coming," the owner hurried out, and Luon Jiba followed: "Is it the Xuanzhu Daily? I’ll take one."

Storytellers love reading books and newspapers, Luon Jiba being no exception, but the owner shook his head: "It’s not the Xuanzhu Daily; it’s a new newspaper."

"A new newspaper? Then forget it," Luon Jiba immediately lost interest. Xuanzhu County has many newspapers, but most aren’t worth reading.

"Then I’ll just... go!?"

Luon Jiba noticed the owner standing frozen by the cart. He walked over to greet him and glimpsed the cover of the new newspaper on the cart, suddenly feeling a burst of desire surge up from three inches below the abdomen!

The cover showed an astonishingly beautiful female martial artist holding a firearm.

She wore a light, sheer white dress, with her booted right foot resting on the front railing, in off-the-shoulder form-fitting attire, outlining her wonderful figure, with long hair fluttering in the air, creating a stark contrast between her black clothing and her white skin.

Her two-meter-long firearm was propped on her right thigh, her gloved right hand lowered her hat, avoiding covering those beautiful and sharp large eyes. Her gaze seemed to lock on Luon Jiba outside of the newspaper, as if saying, "I’ve locked onto you!"

In the blank space was the title for this cover: "Yanjing Female Cop"!

Beautiful, wild, dangerous, sexy... when these keywords appear together, who could resist!?

Even if the articles inside are crap, the cover alone is worth the price!

"Boss, I’ll take one of these..."

Only then did Luon Jiba look at the newspaper’s name—

"Youth Daily."

Seeing this name, Luon Jiba couldn’t help but give it a thumbs up.

Youth Daily, truly living up to its name!