A few pieces of news since the last update.
Deleting Chapters on Royal Road
I put this off for longer than I should have but I knew there were people actively reading and I didn't want to yank content before it had been republished on Webnovel. While the WN release hasn't quite caught up to where the RR version was, we did reach a point where I felt it was better to pull down most of the content on RR so that anyone who discovers the book here can switch over to the updated version sooner.
New content and diverging elements (minor spoilers for people who haven't read the original RR version to chapter 145)
Part of why I decided to take down the RR version is because the WN version is diverging in a butterfly effect kind of way. Chapter 247 of the WN version sees the return of Armorer Dian and in 249 we get back in touch with Bo Gau. If you haven't read the WN version, you haven't met either of those characters from the Purple Thunder War Hall but they set things up for an arc towards the end of Volume 3. (See WN chapters 54 - 56 for The Battle of Soft Grass and WN chapter 132 - Spreading Ripples Part Two for these parts)
There are more of those. Chapter 202 in the WN version takes place before Wu Ling's breakthrough to Understudy and the discussion between Wu Ningli and Elder Hyacinth there are going to be important later.
Those are the notable ones, but there are others like a conversation between elders of the Shining Blade Hall in The Importance of Virtues that wasn't in the original, or the fight that pits Wu Ling, Yingxu and Jieyan against former members of the Red Tiger's Den who are working for Meifeng's family at the beginning of Volume 2...
If you skipped over all of those and just jumped in at WN chapter 253 which immediately follows the last chapter posted on RR, some things would be fine and you'd pick right back up where you left off... and some things would feel like they came out of left field and made very little sense. So, as much as I hate pulling down the content from RR, it makes the most sense to do so for new readers discovering the book now.
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So when do we get new stuff?
The WN version will end August right around Chapter 200 for privilege readers (subscribers), chapter 168 for everyone else. There are 7 entirely new chapters between 200 and 253 that didn't appear on RR and from 253 forward, we pick up where things left off in the RR version.
How fast we get there, however, is a little bit up to y'all. I ran a contest in August though it was only announced on WN, and I'm going to continue it in September. In general, I'll continue to release 2 chapters per day every day, unless you want more than that. If you want more, please vote for the book on Webnovel. You can vote for a book every day with 'Powerstones', for every 100 Powerstones the book receives each week, I'll release two bonus chapters. Depending on how much you engage with Webnovel, you can vote up to three times per day and every day that you vote, you'll get a free chapter unlock (for any book) in return for doing so (you don't even have to vote for me, you can vote for someone else.)
If you've enjoyed this story, and I hope you have, it could really use your support.
Sneak Peak of things to come
There's a lot of story still to come. Our band of misfits have fought their first battle in The Pit, but is it possible to escape Bufa City without someone else stepping onto the arena sands?
Su Xiang has become a Soldier and she's ready to choose her second path, who's got a guess about what she'll choose?
Liang Xiong is planning an expedition of his own and he's roping Meifeng into it... I'm sure that will go just fine.
And lots, lots more.
In short, while it's been super quiet for a while, the book hasn't been abandoned and there's a lot more story to tell. Also, I miss y'all in the comments, so please don't hesitate to drop by in the comments on WN or on the Discord channel.
And thank you all, because, without the comments and feedback from everyone here, this book would never have made it more than a few chapters into Volume 2. That I'm starting to work on Volume 4 is entirely a result of your support here, so thank you all very much!
Links to things like the discord in the block below.