The article "How an Elite Author Is Made" could be called a breath of fresh air in Feilong's literary scene.
The example it presented of The Number One White Under Heaven attaining enlightenment as the top figure in the righteous path completely woke up many authors.
"Exactly, why haven't I become an elite author? It's because I lack The Number One White Under Heaven's obsession with writing. I lack his passion for writing. I lack his faith in writing."
"What the OP said is truly enlightening. Now I finally understand why The Number One White Under Heaven's writing is so plain, yet still able to slaughter Buddhas and destroy saints. I'm convinced. From now on, I'll take The Number One White Under Heaven as my goal."
"Yeah, compared to The Number One White Under Heaven, we really lack boldness, lack faith, lack dreams… and most importantly, lack persistence in writing."
"The Black Iron Era originally had no path to enlightenment, but The Number One White Under Heaven forcibly carved one out. You have to admit it."
"If you want to attain enlightenment, then learn from The Number One White Under Heaven."
"From now on, I don't think anyone would dare question The Number One White Under Heaven's status as a true god."
"What frustrates me most is this: there are people more talented than you in this world, but they also work harder than you. What am I supposed to do?"
"Maybe… all we can do is look up and follow in his footsteps."
...
Saturday, the weekend.
Life in the first year of high school was relatively comfortable. There wasn't the intense pressure of senior year, and students were still at that carefree age. On top of that, there weren't too many academic tasks, so most Saturdays and Sundays were given as full days off.
Unlike most classmates who went to internet cafés, Huang Yifan went to the school library on Saturday.
There was too much knowledge in this world that he had yet to master. The teachings of the pre-Qin philosophers were something he also needed to thoroughly comprehend.
So, for Huang Yifan, he was truly busy.
He spent the entire day immersed in studying the works of the Hundred Schools of Thought.
It wasn't until evening that Huang Yifan returned home.
After turning on his computer, he originally planned to browse the internet. But when he saw the note about Shen Junru in his document, he suddenly remembered that Hongdou had mentioned that this author had helped him before. He had been too busy these past few days to look into it. Now that he had some free time, he decided to see what had happened.
He picked up the latest issue of 'Youth Daily' that he had subscribed to.
On page 25, Huang Yifan found an article written by Shen Junru titled "On Zhiguai Fiction."
In just over ten minutes, Huang Yifan finished reading it.
"I didn't expect this Shen Junru to have such deep research into writing. I really want to meet him."
But unfortunately, he didn't know him, nor did he have any way to get in touch.
This left Huang Yifan feeling a bit troubled.
To be fair, Huang Yifan did have a bit of a scholar's pride. It wasn't just because Shen Junru had recommended his 'A Chinese Ghost Story', but more because encountering such a rare academic master stirred his desire to befriend him.
Just as he was struggling with this, he suddenly slapped his forehead. "How stupid of me, I can make friends through writing."
"Since he recommended my work so highly, I should at least write an article in response."
With that thought, Huang Yifan decided to read a few more recent issues of 'Youth Daily' and then pick a topic to write about.
However, when he reached the latest issue, he hadn't even finished reading it, only halfway through, when Huang Yifan suddenly flew into a rage.
"The pre-Qin philosophers once said: 'The Master does not speak of strange forces and spirits.' Those who write about ghosts and supernatural things are clearly promoting feudal superstition. Books like the recently popular 'A Chinese Ghost Story' should be strictly reviewed by the relevant authorities."
This was from an interview with a well-known writer. The interviewee was a youth literature author named Nianhua.
Who was Nianhua? Huang Yifan didn't know.
Was this guy insane? Why was he attacking his novel for no reason?
After thinking for a moment, he roughly understood.
His novel must have threatened the other party's interests, which was why he was being attacked.
Just like writing online novels, even if you just quietly wrote your own story, there would always be people who came to challenge you.
Some did it out of jealousy, but more often, it was because their interests were affected.
Like Badao, who had fought fiercely while competing for the Four Seas Ranking.
Unexpectedly, the same thing happened in traditional literature.
In his previous life, Huang Yifan hadn't been deeply involved in traditional literature. Although he had worked on 'Midnight Talk' and experienced some competition, that had been between publishing houses, not individual authors, so he hadn't really noticed it. But now, things seemed different. Once published, aside from competition between publishers, there was also intense competition between authors.
After thinking it over, Huang Yifan searched for information about Nianhua online.
After some digging, he gained a general understanding.
This Nianhua was a young prodigy who became famous early. He had been excellent at writing essays in school. During the college entrance exams, he gained fame by writing an essay titled "Walking Through Time," was admitted to Jiang University, and later received heavy media promotion, becoming a top-tier youth literature writer. His fame was second only to Guo Cheng and Han Jin, making him one of the leading figures in youth literature.
Still, to better understand him, Huang Yifan downloaded one of Nianhua's works.
Although he wasn't interested in so-called youth literature, knowing your enemy was key to victory. Since the other party had attacked him, if he didn't smash him to death in one blow, wouldn't that make him look incompetent? Besides, if he failed to finish him off and the guy came back to fight him again, it would only become annoying.
Before making a move, it was better to understand the opponent thoroughly and ensure a decisive strike.
After spending more than two hours reading, Huang Yifan let out a sigh of relief.
Heh, this is what they call youth literature?
After reading for over two hours, Huang Yifan felt rather helpless about Nianhua's writing.
What youth literature? Aside from the author himself being young, there wasn't a trace of youthful spirit in his work.
Take his novel 'Campus Days' for example. The entire book was a meaningless rambling of empty words. Every now and then, the protagonist would tilt his head at a 45-degree angle to gaze at the blue sky, then suddenly gain some vague insight about campus life. Honestly, Huang Yifan felt that this kind of "youth literature" wasn't even worth using as toilet paper. That said, this pretentious style of aimless posing did seem to attract some emotionally immature students.
After thinking it through, Huang Yifan opened a document. He needed to write a rebuttal to counterattack Nianhua.
But what should he write?
A normal rebuttal wouldn't be enough to crush him completely. If he was going to act, he had to leave the opponent with no chance to fight back.
After a moment of thought, Huang Yifan typed into the document:
"All under heaven bustle for profit, and all under heaven stir for gain…"
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