Cohabitation with Sword Spirit-Chapter 188 - 158: The Literary Acumen of a Bestselling Author
November 21, 2017, Sunny
As the morning sun seeped into the study, illuminating a pale face, Li Jinglun felt as if he were witnessing a summons from the Underworld.
Having been cultivating for decades and barely hovering on the edge of being a Great Cultivator, Li Jinglun was discovering for the first time that writing could be such a painful and torturous ordeal.
The pen held in his right hand felt like a scorching thorn, sending waves of stinging pain through his arm to every part of his body, finally converging in his head, causing intense headaches.
And yet, an entire night's torment only yielded a single line of scribbled text on the manuscript paper.
"Day One Commentary on the Cyan Cloud Tournament Preliminaries"
The matter begins from the night before.
——
As the famed theoretical scholar, bestselling author, judge of the Cyan Cloud List, and commentator for the official matches in QingCyan Cloud yun City, Li Jinglun had recently accepted a considerable number of commissioned articles, mostly involving analyses and predictions of the competition contestants.
Unlike those experts who habitually hedge their bets before the matches and remain noncommittal regarding the outcomes of the contestants, Li Jinglun was never shy about making surprising statements. In articles that required connecting theory to reality, Li Jinglun enjoyed throwing out shocking yet clear-cut conclusions, with his deep theoretical knowledge and unique insight usually making his predictions close to perfect, with only minor deviations. His definitively made judgments never had significant errors.
And this time, Li Jinglun chose to place his bet on Qian Ye. His battle with Lingshan City's champion, Ling Sheng, deeply shocked Li Jinglun, who had previously considered Li Wanqing to be the limit of Cultivators in the Cloud Surge Realm. Yet, the Qian Family revealed a new possibility, with the ancestral Golden Bloodline, combined with Qian Ye's solid basic skills and the Qiankun Throw, having explosive power sufficient to pierce through Ling Sheng's Sea of Magical Treasures.
Moreover, Qian Ye hadn't even utilized the ancestral Immortal Treasure of the Qian Family at that moment.
Li Jinglun, deeply moved, thus ranked Qian Ye as the undisputed leader on his Cyan Cloud List, with Li Wanqing in second place, mainly disadvantaged by insufficient years of cultivation, and whose advantage in Cultivation Technique and Magical Treasure was overshadowed by Qian Ye's Golden Bloodline. The subsequent advantage of the Qian Family's resource investment was now decisive.
Lu Fangchen was ranked third by him, with reasoning quite different from the general commentary: in Li Jinglun's eyes, this genius youth from the Lu Family awakened the Yin Yang Pupils, theoretically allowing him to easily see through flaws of opponents of the same level, being tactically very restraining towards those like Qian Ye who suddenly enhanced but couldn't yet wield power at will.
"I believe the Lu Family will also pin their hopes for victory on this, yet I very much doubt Lu Fangchen can achieve victory relying only on his eyes. The reasons are twofold: first, Lu Fangchen is the youngest, with the shortest cultivation time, having a qualitative gap in the True Essence Realm compared to Qian Ye. Second, Lu Fangchen has too little combat experience, particularly lacking examples of full-on competition with same-level geniuses in venues like the Cyan Cloud Tournament. This shortage of combat experience poses a fatal flaw for those needing to calculate meticulously and target weaknesses for victory. In contrast, Qian Ye and Li Wanqing, due to their personalities, have never lacked combat experience during cultivation, especially Li Wanqing. These two inadequacies may be addressable by various means by the Lu Family to compensate for the first point, but the second is extremely hard to amend. In conclusion, I believe Lu Fangchen absolutely cannot withstand Qian Ye and Li Wanqing in actual combat."
This was the previously written comprehensive analysis and prediction summary by Li Jinglun, relying on solid theoretical expertise and skillful literary ability. Once published, the article was widely acclaimed — particularly by the Qian Family. The Cyan Cloud List, drawn up with decisive language, was even considered a classic by many Cyan Cloud Tournament enthusiasts, briefly affecting the odds of the outside betting market.
Li Jinglun's articles bore significant influence in QingCyan Cloud yun City, and he himself took deep pride in this. Especially after learning of some updates on Qian Ye's situation through inside channels, he became nearly certain about his championship victory.
Until yesterday's preliminaries, during which he observed Wang Jiu's performance throughout.
Li Jinglun felt the impulse to bow in admiration.
How on earth did this guy pass the committee's age verification and mingle with a group of kids?! Well, to be fair, Li Jinglun had never really inquired about his age since they met, but by any measure, he should be over 20, right?! Are people all developing extraordinarily like Li Chaolu in this world?!
Moreover, someone of the same generation with Li Fengyun participating in the Cyan Cloud Tournament, even if winning the championship, wouldn't be particularly honorable, would it!? Well, considering the unusually remarkable rewards this time, with both the Qian Family and Lu Family openly willing to disregard their reputation, Wang Jiu's participation wasn't that outlandish either...
However, with this situation, how can the commentary on the preliminaries be written?
Anyone not visually impaired can clearly see Wang Jiu's dominance in this Cyan Cloud Tournament. Fear not, it's not much different from the individual showcase at Golden Jade City 20 years ago.
But if told truthfully, how is the previously published Cyan Cloud List explained? Shouting with certainty that there are no dark horses in this preliminaries, how is that explained?
Indeed, Wang Jiu's emergence can be seen as an abrupt mishap, utterly unexpected by anyone. However, Li Jinglun also understands that in this era, zealous fans can support someone unthinkingly, thus can also vilify someone unthinkingly, especially with so many having placed heavy bets based on Li Jinglun's judgment, including the external betting market and Qian Family's financial products. If losses occur, Li Jinglun could not escape being scrutinized!
Most frustratingly, he hadn't taken a single dime from the Qian Family — as a well-known bestselling author, Li Jinglun indeed received commissioned article requests and remuneration from the Qian Family, but he returned them all intact. While Li Jinglun loves money, he cherishes his identity as a bestselling author and renowned theoretical expert more. Accepting their money and becoming a literary puppet would be a loss.
Thus, Li Jinglun spent the entire night in agony at his desk, with the deadline approaching, yet not coming up with a single word.
Looking at the empty manuscript paper, Li Jinglun smiled bitterly: "Damn it, is this going to be an empty page? That would be a rare blemish in my writing career..."
In the midst of despair, suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Li Jinglun felt irritated, thinking who would come knocking at this time, annoyingly!?
But after a moment, he saw the visitor's face thanks to the effects of the magic, and was instantly stunned.
Wang Jiu!? What's he doing here?
——
"I'm here to borrow a book." Wang Jiu said, "Zhou Wenjun mentioned there's a practical application theory on Sensory Driving Force with you."
Hearing Wang Jiu's straightforward request, Li Jinglun was a bit muddle-headed, stunned for a while before coming back to his senses and nodding, "Ah, I do have it, wait a moment while I find it for you."
A moment later, Li Jinglun took a book from the shelf and handed it to Wang Jiu.
"Honestly, there's not much to see. The author has too much faith in the power of emotions. They believe that as long as you shout 'justice will prevail' and get your blood boiling, you'll be invincible... Where in the world is there such a good thing?" Li Jinglun casually commented, though his mind drifted to the article he was working on.
But Wang Jiu said, "For the average person, that's indeed impossible, but there are a few cultivators with special bloodlines where the stimulation from Sensory Driving Force can have a significant amplification effect on the body."
"There's such a thing?"
"Of course, the Immovable Tyrant Body and the Six Desires Demon Body are among the top in this field. Additionally, from the perspective of cultivation technique and swordsmanship, emotions, due to their great fluctuations, are also entirely worth utilizing. For example, in ancient times, there were swordsmen who entrusted their sword dao to the human heart, eventually developing the prototype of the Heart Sword Technique."
These theories left Li Jinglun a bit dumbfounded. It's not that he didn't know these things, but first, after staying up all night thinking, his head was a bit unclear, and second, he was always distracted by Wang Jiu's matters.
After a while, Li Jinglun sighed, "Why would someone like you go participate in the Cyan Cloud Contest?"
"Doing it as a favor for someone." Wang Jiu explained, "A mount... oh no, a girl asked me to teach someone a lesson..."
After Wang Jiu recounted the situation at that time, Li Jinglun felt nothing short of astonished, finding it hard to believe.
"Just, just because of something Shen Qingming said, you... wait, no, how did Qingming have the nerve to ask you to use this method to slap someone in the face right in front of others?"
Wang Jiu said, "She didn't say it, but that's what she was thinking."
"You even know what she's thinking!?"
"...Yes." Wang Jiu coughed, "Because her intelligence quotient is too low, so her thoughts are easy to guess."
Listening, Li Jinglun found it strangely awkward, but he didn't have the leisure to fuss over such trivial matters. He waved his hand and said, "Now that you've borrowed the book, just leave. I still have to rush my draft, thanks to you, it's really driving me crazy."
"Why?" Wang Jiu asked out of curiosity.
Li Jinglun sighed and briefly explained his predicament, shaking his head and saying, "Of course, I know I can't blame you. It was my own fault for speaking too definitively earlier, confidently placing Qian Ye at the top, stating that the representatives of the three major families this year have a crushing advantage in strength, and that other sects and independent cultivators have no chance at all, with no one in the qualifiers threatening the championship choice. No wonder I'm facing the backlash."
Wang Jiu thought for a moment, "Actually, you just need to write a complete version."
"Complete version?"
"Yes, since you can't retract your previous viewpoint, just add another: list me as outside the standard."
"Outside the standard?"
"Yes, meaning not qualified to participate in the normal ranking. You need to detail how I'm different from other contestants in terms of origin, strength, and ideology, and explain how these differences are decisive in listing. For example, my strength far exceeds peers, making the competition lose its suspense, and a match without suspense is not a match but a personal talent show. Therefore, the Cyan Cloud List calculated for the Cyan Cloud Contest should naturally not include me. Also, the Cyan Cloud List is to inspire young cultivators to model themselves after eminent individuals, but too lofty a goal will dampen people's enterprising spirit. So the ranking on the Cyan Cloud List needs to be in line with reality. Thus, even if I take the championship, it doesn't mean I should be at the top of the Cyan Cloud List, nor does it mean your previous prediction was wrong."
As he spoke, Wang Jiu added, "You can still take this complete version to republish, earning another batch of royalties. If anyone asks why not publish it complete in the first place, you can say it's due to policy pressure."
Li Jinglun was dumbfounded, "Why are you so adept at such shameful manipulations of the truth?!"
"Because I've seen such articles countless times before."
