Xu Asan was captivated.
Although he had chatted with Yang Siming, they hadn't specifically discussed their respective works.
This wasn't to say Yang Siming's writing was exceptionally good, but rather that the story was novel for him, and for the Underworld.
The authors in this Shumo Zhai had been writing in the Underworld for at least several decades.
They had written tens of millions of words.
They were quite well-known in the Underworld.
They had also written about gods and demons, but the plots Yang Siming wrote...
While some were cliché, they offered a refreshing perspective.
A war between the three realms, a goddess sacrificing herself to heaven, the protagonist traveling through various worlds with a cheat.
Searching for the goddess while resolving events.
Perhaps it was not only the grand and passionate scenes, but also the inclusion of much humor and funny gags.
Or perhaps it was because some of the settings were novel and fun.
For example.
In the cultivation world, it was advocated to use magic for building roads, farming, and cooking.
The setting was that doing so could both improve cultivation and raise the living standards of this world.
Another example, in a world of magic and knights, magic signal towers were built, and magic stones were modified to transmit and receive messages.
This allowed people in this world to chat anytime, anywhere.
It was more convenient, faster, and more widespread than the previous magic carrier pigeons and magic envelopes.
The people of this world asked the protagonist what name would be suitable.
The protagonist thought for a moment, a name was just a code, so he called it a magic telephone.
Besides these, the protagonist had also visited many worlds in search of the goddess's traces.
A primitive era with many giant beasts.
The humans here could pray to the gods for blessings through various sacrifices, and thus fight against the giant beasts.
Another world.
There, people could choose their own race from birth.
Whether to be a god, a human, an elf with elemental powers, or an orc with a strong physique.
In these stories, there were many terms he had never encountered before.
Such as yyds, xswl, social butterfly syndrome.
Although he couldn't see the story before the war of the three realms, what he had seen so far was enough to shock Xu Asan.
Individually, they were all familiar worlds.
Magic, primitive, cultivation.
But after adding these settings, they made him unable to stop reading.
Time was up.
Not long after Xu Asan started reading, the burly men came to remind him that it was time to write.
Xu Asan raised his hand, making a gesture to stop them.
Then he said, "Let me read a bit more, then I will leave here."
He said it firmly, as if he had made up his mind.
The burly men were stunned, "What about the novel?"
"I plan to finish it in the next two days."
The burly men fell silent.
The existence of the update reminder team was to help readers urge for updates, and to help authors maintain stable updates.
If the author decided to finish, they could only respect their wishes.
Of course.
Even if they decided to finish, they would still oversee it to prevent a rushed ending.
"Have you decided what to write next?"
"No."
Xu Asan shook his head, looked up from the pile of manuscripts, and gazed at the sky.
"I've decided to go to the human world to see."
The sky in the Underworld was always gloomy.
Sometimes, he missed the feeling of the human world's sunlight, warm and pleasant on his skin.
But bathing in sunlight was no longer possible for him.
Yang Siming's work reminded Xu Asan of a ghost who had come to the Underworld only a few years ago.
That author had only been writing in the Underworld for less than a year, and his works had already become bestsellers.
Xu Asan had also read that story, which was about a metropolitan story of showing off and slapping faces.
Although he could see the formula at a glance, he had to admit that it indeed made people want to read it in one go.
At that time, he hadn't paid much attention, thinking it was just an isolated case.
After all, stories were greatly related to everyone's thought process.
It was normal for someone to have a sudden inspiration or to write a new trend.
But now...
Xu Asan looked at the thick stack of manuscripts in his hand.
"The changes in the human world are much faster than I imagined."
These brilliant stories appearing in one person's writing could be considered an anomaly.
But now it seemed that the stories of the human world had entered a new trend.
They might have fallen behind.
If he wanted to write brilliant stories, he had to engage with more new things.
Xu Asan had his own pursuit when it came to writing stories.
If he didn't truly love it, he wouldn't have been writing stories in the Underworld for a hundred years.
Leaving here was a decision he had just made.
Although the Ghost Gate opened every year during the Ghost Festival, allowing passage to the human world, it was only for one day. A day or two was clearly not enough to deeply understand the current changes in the human world.
Upon hearing this, the burly men said nothing more and turned back into the Shumo Zhai.
Currently, there were two ways to go to the human world.
One was reincarnation, and the other was to find a position in the Underworld that allowed passage to the human world.
Reincarnation would mean forgetting everything.
Besides that, the only option was to find a job in the Underworld.
However, jobs that involved passage to the human world were not easy to find.
All jobs related to the human world required various tests and reviews.
It was uncertain when Xu Asan would return after leaving.
Whether he could return was another question.
Outside the Shumo Zhai.
Xu Asan continued to read the manuscripts in his hand, completely engrossed.
Every soul was different, and their preferences varied.
Some souls would spend their entire lives enjoying themselves.
Some souls would spend their entire lives pursuing their passions.
Two days later.
Xu Asan handed the completed story to the burly men, packed his belongings, and left the Shumo Zhai.
As he left, his peers were surprised and envious upon learning of his plan.
They envied that he no longer had to face update requests.
They were surprised that he had made such a decision, as they lacked the courage.
What Xu Asan had envied about Yang Siming back then was that he could easily choose to stay or to reincarnate.
For them, no matter what choice they made, it would be much more difficult.
It was possible that even after spending a lot of time and effort, the outcome might not be what they wished for.
"Take care!"
"Good luck!"
"We hope you'll return with even more brilliant stories."
The burly men and the authors of Shumo Zhai watched Xu Asan leave, sincerely wishing him well.
This parting might be for many years.
Not long after Xu Asan left the Shumo Zhai, a ghost heard the news and found him.
He said there was a way for him to go to the human world and left an address.
Over the years in the Underworld, many ghosts had wanted to go to the human world.
Naturally, many ghosts had been secretly researching it.
Xu Asan had heard similar news before, but he didn't know if those ghosts had succeeded.
Out of curiosity, he followed the address to a corner of a residential area.
The house had no couplets pasted on it, nor lanterns hung.
Its overall appearance was no different from the surrounding houses.
As the ghost had instructed, he knocked twice on the door, paused, then knocked twice again, paused.
After repeating this three times, he stopped and waited for someone to open the door.
A moment later, an old man in a gray robe opened the door, seemingly the butler.
"Please come in."
The old man asked no questions. After Xu Asan entered, he closed the door and led the way inside.
Xu Asan subtly observed his surroundings.
From the main gate, there was a path of cobblestones.
The open spaces around were kept very clean. Against the wall, there was a tree that looked withered, its leaves all fallen.
At first glance, there was nothing special.
A moment later.
The old man led Xu Asan to a house and stopped walking.
Xu Asan glanced at the old man beside him, then at the closed door in front of him.
Just as he was about to knock, a voice came from inside.
"Come in."