The Feilong Jianghu.
Where there are people, there is Jianghu. And where there is Jianghu, there is conflict.
Feilong had always attracted quite a few authors. Naturally, these authors also wrote books, and their works would often be reviewed by the Feilong Shennong Squad. Unfortunately, it seemed that the Squad's standards differed from those of the authors, and most works ended up being labeled as "poisonous grass."
"Poisonous grass" was basically the same as calling a book trash.
At this moment, over a novel called 'Sword Breaks the Heavens', a group of original authors had once again started clashing with the Feilong Shennong Squad.
"Feilong Shennong Squad, who do you think you are, acting like you're qualified to review books? Do you even know how to write? Just look at the stuff you've reviewed before. Every single one of them is poisonous grass; that one is poisonous grass. If you've got the guts, go write a book yourselves. Sure, if a book is actually bad, fine, call it poisonous grass. But go back and check your records. How many good books, how many titles sitting on the bestseller charts, have you trashed as poisonous grass?
Don't you feel even a little ashamed?
And then there's your so-called "immortal herbs." Hahaha, that's hilarious. The books you call immortal herbs are either lukewarm at best or complete flops. Hardly anyone even reads them. So where exactly is the "immortal" part? Feilong Shennong Squad, nice name you've got there, talking about tasting hundreds of herbs and testing poison with your own bodies, doing great deeds. What a joke. You're not testing poison, you're deliberately sabotaging good books.
I seriously don't get how a group like you even ended up on Feilong.
Now let's talk about 'Sword Breaks the Heavens'. I don't know how many of you in the Shennong Squad have ever written a book. Or maybe you've never written anything at all and just sit there running your mouths. What do you know about writing? What do you know about web novels? Do you even understand the Golden Three Chapters? Do you understand pacing, plot, and characters?
Just look at the title, 'Sword Breaks the Heavens'. You can tell at a glance it's written by a newbie. Fine, being a newbie is one thing, we won't nitpick that. But look at the actual content. The first five hundred words and we don't even know who the protagonist is. It's just a bunch of side characters talking about breaking off an engagement.
White Boss once said, if the protagonist doesn't appear within the first 500 words, the book is doomed.
Readers scan if they don't see the protagonist right away; there's no way they'll keep reading. They'll close the page immediately.
Also, White Boss said that so-called noob-style writing is essentially feel-good writing, and web novels are supposed to be feel-good. If it's not enjoyable, why read web novels at all? If you want suffering, go read traditional literature. There's plenty there to torture you. Why come to web novels for that? And yet this book actually has the protagonist getting dumped in the opening. That completely violates the Golden Three Chapters rule. If this kind of novel can become popular, I'll livestream myself eating shit.
I'm guessing you guys are just masochists. Otherwise, why would you like this kind of "engagement-breaking" plot?
And seriously, Feilong Shennong Squad, just disappear already. Stop harming people. In my eyes, you're no different from internet trolls. So many decent books get labeled as poisonous grass by you and end up getting dropped unfinished. You're not the only readers out there, but you're the ones constantly calling everything poisonous grass. If you didn't exist, maybe the internet would've produced some truly great works by now."
An author, possibly someone who had been criticized by the Shennong Squad before, posted this long rant filled with resentment.
As soon as it was posted, it immediately gained support from many Feilong authors.
"Support the OP. Feilong Shennong Squad can go to hell."
"Exactly. They're just a bunch of trolls. They once said my novel wouldn't even reach 500 subscriptions. Well, guess what, I'm at 1,500 now. How does that slap feel?"
"Haha, I've been sick of them for a long time. Been wanting to curse them out too. OP, well said."
"Yeah, 'Sword Breaks the Heavens' is probably doomed. Anything they call an immortal herb can't be good."
"I was going to check out 'Sword Breaks the Heavens', but since they say it's an immortal herb, I'll pass. Honestly, I'm more interested in the stuff they call poisonous grass. Post more of those."
"Relax, I've already been ignoring them. Honestly, their existence isn't all bad. You can just use them as a reverse indicator. Like my book, the moment I saw that they called it poisonous grass, I felt relieved. Hahaha."
"That's brilliant. I also look for books they label as poisonous grass."
Feilong was originally a forum for authors, and most of their works had likely been reviewed by the Shennong Squad. Being called poisonous grass day after day, who could tolerate that? Now that someone had started a thread attacking the Squad, many authors who had suffered the same treatment joined in, forming a wave of criticism.
…
One man's poisonous grass is another man's immortal herb.
Speaking of the Feilong Shennong Squad, there was a story behind them.
They were a self-organized group dedicated to reviewing web novels, mostly made up of veteran readers. These veteran readers were very different from casual ones. Casual readers would read anything and often find everything enjoyable. But veteran readers had read too many works. Generic, cliché, or tasteless stories quickly bored them.
So when they reviewed novels, anything lacking innovation or feeling too familiar would often be labeled as poisonous grass.
Of course, this was highly subjective. But they were just readers; they didn't care whether authors accepted it or not. In fact, sometimes after finishing a novel and giving it a "poisonous grass" rating, they felt the same satisfaction as leaving a one-star review on an online purchase.
What they hadn't expected was that this time, their reviews would spark such a massive backlash.
Before, there had been occasional complaints, but only from individuals. Now it was different. This time it was a collective attack. Nearly every author they had criticized came online at once, joining the crusade against the Shennong Squad. Soon, the entire forum was filled with calls for the Shennong Squad to get out of Feilong.
Seeing the situation escalate, some members of the Shennong Squad started to panic and hurriedly contacted the forum moderator, Yunzhong Xianke.
"Xianke, Xianke, urgent matter! Are you there? Are you there?"
In the group chat, members kept @-ing Yunzhong Xianke.
"I'm here. What's going on? You've tagged me over a dozen times. I see it already. Stop spamming. What's up?"
"Xianke, haven't you seen everyone on Feilong cursing us? And you're asking what's up?"
"Oh, that. Getting cursed is normal. Didn't you guys curse those authors before? You keep calling their work poisonous grass. If I were them, I'd curse back too."
"Damn it, Xianke, why are you siding with them? Didn't you say our Shennong Squad was a big deal for the web novel scene? We provide reviews, after all. Maybe not perfectly objective, but we're just readers judging based on our tastes. These authors are too petty. We criticize them a bit, and now they're ganging up on us."
"That's fair. So what do you want to do?"
"We're asking you, Xianke. What should we do? Look, everyone's telling us to get out of Feilong. We review their novels for free and get nothing out of it, and now we're getting cursed. It's infuriating. You're the moderator, just ban all those people attacking us."
"That won't work. Even as a moderator, I can't abuse my power. Besides, you've insulted those authors, too. Should I ban you as well?"
"Then what are we supposed to do? These authors clearly coordinated this. Even some five and six-star authors are leading the charge. They're trying to crush us. Xianke, think of something. If we leave Feilong and stop reviewing novels, Feilong will lose a lot of its fun. At the very least, phrases like 'one man's poisonous grass is another man's immortal herb' will disappear."
"Alright, calm down. Let me think."
"Got it."
"What is it? Xianke, tell us!"
"There's only one way. Fight back."
"Fight back? What do you mean?"
"Think about it. Didn't you review 'Sword Breaks the Heavens'? Didn't you call it an immortal herb? That's exactly why the authors are attacking you. If you can prove that it really is an immortal herb, or convince them, then this whole conflict will resolve itself."
"That… actually makes sense. But Xianke, will that work?"
"Why wouldn't it?"
"But… Xianke, we know ourselves. What we call poisonous grass might actually be good. And what we call the immortal herb might not become popular. It just fits our tastes as veteran readers. What if we like 'Sword Breaks the Heavens' but they don't? Or what if it never becomes popular?"
"If you don't even believe in yourselves, then who will? It's time to present the parts of the story that moved you, the elements you appreciate, and your reasoning behind your evaluations. I believe 'Sword Breaks the Heavens' won't disappoint you. And it won't disappoint the readers, or even the authors."
"Hey, Xianke, sounds like you like 'Sword Breaks the Heavens' too?"
"You guess."
"Guess my ass. Not guessing. Brothers, let's go. Time to fight back. I refuse to believe our judgment is always wrong. This time, 'Sword Breaks the Heavens' is our immortal herb, not their poisonous grass. Brothers, charge!"
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