Break notice! One week break as usual! Will start posting on 25th November 2019!
Hi all~! Linodo here again!!!
So we've finally come to the end of Book 11 and the end of ARC 3!!! I had never thought that I would have come this far! I have to thank you all for supporting this novel, even though my release pace has been quite slow thus far! But don't worry, you don't have to endure the drag for much longer! Let me let you in on a secret… Spirit Immortal has four arcs, which means… We're already ¾ of the way to the finish!!!
Halfway through Book 9, I have confirmed the storyboard for the final three books which means that if all things stay on schedule, Spirit Immortal should come to its conclusion on the first quarter of next year! As a treat for all you loyal readers, let me reveal to you the names of the final three books!
Book 12: The Villain
Book 13: The Hero
Book 14: The Dream
Take the names of each book as you may, and craft whatever wild theories that you have! I quite like reading comments about the possible endings of Spirit Immortal, even though many of them are wrong! Hehe, before I get out of track, let me get into the Author's Thoughts, yeah?
As per usual, there is a theme for each arc. Arc 1 is Family, while Arc 2 is Growth. So what's the theme for Arc 3? Well, it's Life and Death. Or rather, it's the destiny for all life, to face death. Let me explain…
Book 1 to 4 explores the first part of all humans' lives, Family. Every single human, no matter if they were an orphan or not, had two parents. A father's sperm and a mother's egg was required to make life after all. However, I wanted to touch on the true meaning of 'family.' Does a family truly require both sets of parents? Or does a family consists of people who you grew up with? I wanted to explore that notion. That's why Shin's original setting was that of an orphan, instead of his blood right as the Awter Clan's heir or the Lantis Republic's Prince.
Book 5 to 8 explores the second part of all human's lives, Growth. As long as humans remain living, they would seek to endlessly grow. Whether we know it or not. It had also 'coincidentally' happened when Shin was in his teenage years, the years where the most growth happens, both physically and mentally. All of the incidents, all of the story arcs that happened within those four books, were points for Shin to morph into something greater than himself. He would learn from his mistakes and hopefully arise out of those occasions a better man.
Book 9 to 11, on the other hand, was an exploration into the themes of Life and Death. Also, it was a dive into Destiny. What was destiny? Google tells me that Destiny is 'the events that will necessarily happen to a particular person or thing in the future.' In real life, perhaps that's the case. However, to the characters of a novel, Destiny is what the author desires.
In my case, I subscribe to the idea that all story points should lead to an ending. For instance, what made Avengers: Endgame so satisfying to watch? It wasn't because of the stunning visuals or the plot, but because… Everything that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been building on, had led to that one movie. Yes, there would be other movies that would follow Endgame, but if you look at it in its entirety, from Iron Man to Avengers: Endgame… It was a satisfying end.
So, back to the theme of Life and Death or… 'The Destiny of all living beings is death.' All living beings, no matter how long-living they were, would eventually face death. Death was the end game, some reach it earlier, some reach it later. Unfortunately for Shizen and Junius… Their deaths were sooner. Shin had to learn that the hard way. No matter how powerful you were, no matter how many resources you had… No one could stop death, be it his own, or the ones that he loved.
I'm sure that some of you have noticed that I've done a playful switch in the plot for Book 11. Traditionally in any cultivation novel, the protagonist would kill a friend/son of a powerful figure and the figure would send legions of his men for revenge. Pushed into a helpless situation, the protagonist would rise to the occasion and become powerful enough to escape from the situation, leading to an explosive growth in the character and the story.
However, it was Junius who faced this problem. It was a reversal that I'd thought would be suitable for this point of the story. Many times, it was the antagonist that held the overwhelming odds. So, this time I'd thought to be a little playful to let Shin be the one with all the cards. Of course, like how Shizen was meant to die for Shin to grow, Junius in Book 11 played a similar role.
From the start, I wanted Junius to die after realising his sins. However, I didn't want it to be too abrupt, so it had dragged on for quite some time. Like it or not, Junius was the main antagonist for the first ¾ of the story. Thus, I tried to explore multiple themes with him, just like I did with Shin. If you look at the two, both their story arcs follow the same patterns.
Arc one for Junius was about family and what he would do for people he wasn't blood-related to. Arc two was his personal growth from a loving elder brother, into the cold-blooded killer that would stop at nothing to achieve his dreams. And finally, Arc three was for him to fulfil his destiny… To die so that Shin could live on.
Junius was by far, the most complex character that I had dived into, other than Shin. Sometimes, I might even have lost control over my writing due to my ineptness to fully describe what I wanted to convey. So, I apologise for those parts in the story.
Now that Junius had perished, it is finally time to move onto the climax of the story. The final act of Spirit Immortal. So… In the spirit of not giving out too many spoilers, I shall stop my author's thoughts here.
Once again, thank you so much for supporting Spirit Immortal. I know that many of you have come and gone throughout the time I've been writing this story, but I truly appreciate those that continue to read my story. I promise to all of you, I will finish Spirit Immortal, unlike the many stories that never end or were never completed. I'm a reader before I'm an author, so I understand how it's like to read a story that takes years to complete or gets dropped.
Be patient with me and I will deliver the best ending of Spirit Immortal that I could ever hope to conceive!!!
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