Dear Readers,
It has been four years.
Four years since I first typed the title "Myth Beyond Heaven" and began this incredible journey with all of you. When I started writing, it was born from a pure, burning passion for storytelling. I had a idea I desperately wanted to share, a world I needed to build.
I never, in my wildest dreams, expected to find so many of you walking this path alongside me. The result has truly surprised me. Seeing the number of readers grow, chapter after chapter, has been one of the most humbling and motivating experiences of my life.
This journey hasn't been without its challenges. English is not my first language. I faced many, many problems in the beginning—struggling with grammar, searching for the right vocabulary, and trying to make the prose flow naturally. There were times I read my own sentences and felt discouraged. But I was determined.
I used various tools to help me, I read endlessly, and I learned from every comment and piece of feedback. I can see the gradual improvement from the first chapter to the last, and for that, I have you, the readers, to thank. Your patience and support gave me the confidence to keep refining my craft.
The seed for "Myth Beyond Heaven" itself came from a dream. Perhaps it was because I had been reading so many cultivation novels back then that my subconscious decided to cook up its own epic tale. I woke up with vivid images of a lonely sovereign and a cosmic battle etched in my mind. I immediately grabbed a notebook and started scribbling down the ideas. That initial spark slowly grew into an outline, with character arcs, world-building notes, and crucial plot twists all carefully planned.
Then, a major setback struck about two years ago. My computer broke down catastrophically, and I lost it all. The initial outline, the character bios, the notes on future plot points—everything was gone. I was devastated. I felt like I had lost the map to my own story. I seriously considered stopping. How could I continue without my guide?
But after the initial shock and despair, I thought of all of you who were following Yun Lintian's story. I couldn't just abandon it. So, I took a deep breath and tried to reconstruct the outline from memory. I sat down and wrote everything I could remember.
This, however, resulted in me forgetting many smaller details and some of the crucial, subtle plot connections I had initially planned. If you ever felt a plotline was not as tight as it could have been, or a detail seemed forgotten, this is likely the reason. I apologize for any inconsistencies. Finishing the story felt like a victory in itself, a testament to not giving up.
I want you to know that I wrote this novel in the cracks of my daily life. I have a regular job as a programmer, which demands a lot of mental energy. "Myth Beyond Heaven" was written during my spare time—in lunch breaks, late at night after work, and on weekends. There were countless times I was exhausted, staring at a blank screen, wanting to give up. The pressure of a day job and the demands of writing a serialized novel is immense.
What kept me going? The thought of you, the reader. I am a reader myself, and I know how much I would hate it if an author whose story I was invested in suddenly dropped it. That feeling of being left hanging is terrible. I didn't want to do that to you.
Your support in the comments, your theories, and your simple "thank you for the chapter" became the fuel that drove me forward. It was the combination of your support and my own stubborn passion that pushed me to grind it out to the very end.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you. Thank you to every single person who read a chapter, left a comment, gave a vote, or just silently followed along. You made this journey worthwhile. You gave Yun Lintian and all the others a reason to exist beyond my own imagination.
This is not the end of my writing journey. My next novel will still be in the cultivation genre, a world I love to explore.
The protagonist is a modern-day programmer who, in a tragically relatable twist, dies from overworking and overtime. He transmigrates into a cultivation world, but he arrives with a "golden finger"—a unique advantage.
He will be a cultivator who relies primarily on alchemy to advance his cultivation, using his logical, systematic programmer's mind to master the art of pill refinement in a world of magic and martial arts. I am very excited about this new concept and can't wait to share it with you.
I plan to release the second novel around late October. I hope you will find the premise interesting and will join me on another adventure. Your support would mean the world to me once again.
Thank you, from the deepest part of my heart, for everything.
Yours in storytelling,
Cloud Beneath Moon