I Became an All-round Artist

Lin Yuan had noticed the discussions about his work among online readers.

This was something he had expected.

It wasn't surprising that The Legend of Zhu Xian was generating such buzz, considering it had been hailed by netizens as one of the three greatest novels of the early internet fiction era. The sales figures supported this as well.

When The Prince of Tennis was serialized, its average sales rank hovered around eleventh place in the youth fantasy genre in Qizhou. However, in its first month, The Legend of Zhu Xian had already broken into the top ten! Currently, it was sitting in tenth place.

Some might find it strange that despite Zhu Xian being portrayed as such a sensation, it was only ranked tenth.

But this ranking was already impressive.

The major handicap for Zhu Xian was its word count! The Prince of Tennis had released five volumes. Zhu Xian, on the other hand, was only on its second volume!

Each volume sold counted toward the novel’s total sales. Other long-running series had dozens of volumes pushing their sales, while Lin Yuan only had two volumes to sell. Naturally, this would impact the sales rankings.

If the story maintains its quality...

Typically, the longer the novel, the higher its sales, as more people discover the work over time.

In other words, shorter works are inherently at a disadvantage in sales comparisons.

Just imagine: If Naruto or One Piece weren’t so long, would they have had such a wide-reaching impact?

A more obvious example would be the top ten bestsellers on Dian Niang’s list.

How many of those books broke into the top ten with just a few hundred thousand words?

Without heavy promotion or substantial rewards, the novels that consistently dominate Dian Niang’s top ten are typically massive epics with millions of words. The more chapters there are, the more subscriptions accumulate daily.

The same logic applies to sales in Qizhou.

When other authors are selling numerous volumes of content, how can you compete with just one or two?

It’s an uphill battle.

That was also why Silver Blue Publishing previously urged Lin Yuan to extend The Prince of Tennis.

If Lin Yuan could keep the story going without losing its quality, there would be no problem pushing The Prince of Tennis into the top ten.

Of course, if Chu Kuang doesn’t ruin the plot, as more volumes of Zhu Xian are released, the novel’s sales ranking will naturally rise. This was only logical.

This time, Silver Blue Publishing was eagerly looking forward to it.

Yang Feng, upon the release of Zhu Xian’s second volume, excitedly asked Chu Kuang for an outline of the novel.

He hoped that with such an expansive story world, this one wouldn’t wrap up too quickly.

But the moment Yang Feng saw the outline, his smile froze.

“Eight volumes?”

Chu Kuang planned to write just eight volumes for Zhu Xian?

Yes, it was an improvement—three volumes more than The Prince of Tennis.

But still…

Eight volumes aren’t that much!

It’s still far from two million words!

Yang Feng panicked and immediately reported this to the chief editor, who in turn reported it to the editor-in-chief.

But the editor-in-chief could only shake his head, instructing Yang Feng to try his best to convince Lin Yuan.

Yang Feng: “…”

Last time, when The Prince of Tennis was deemed too short, Yang Feng had been tasked with persuading Chu Kuang to write more, but the author hadn’t budged.

Would this time be any different?

Bracing himself, Yang Feng called Lin Yuan.

As soon as Lin Yuan realized the call was about extending the story, he declined outright: “The word count has already been decided.”

“Alright then.”

Yang Feng was helpless.

Neither the chief editor nor the editor-in-chief dared force Chu Kuang to write more, so Yang Feng certainly wasn’t going to push harder.

Lin Yuan wasn’t to blame either.

This wasn’t the system messing with him—the original version of Zhu Xian was only slightly over 1.5 million words, and the system had even padded it with an extra 100,000 words.

Maybe next time.

Hopefully, next time, the system would be kind enough to give him a true epic, something he could serialize for ten million words.

…

For Lin Yuan, though, having more works had its perks.

Now, under the pen name Chu Kuang, he had two novels generating revenue simultaneously.

It wasn’t that The Prince of Tennis stopped selling after its completion.

New readers were still buying the book, though the numbers weren’t as high as when it was serialized.

Silver Blue Publishing continued to send royalties on schedule.

With this income, combined with the earnings from Xian Yu’s music royalties, Lin Yuan now had over 20 million in his bank account!

Twenty million!

With property prices on Blue Star being fairly reasonable, Lin Yuan could easily afford a very nice villa for nearly 20 million.

He was even considering buying a villa in Sucheng.

While he wasn’t someone who made big decisions easily, he would seriously consider it if it was for his family.

After all, his sisters would be in Sucheng in the future.

There was a good chance they’d stay there long-term.

Plus, Lin Yuan had been thinking about bringing his mother to Sucheng. He didn’t want to leave her alone in their hometown.

When his mother grew older, without her children nearby, she would likely feel lonely.

Besides, it would be convenient for friends to visit if he had a villa—more rooms meant there wouldn’t be any crowding.

Growing up, his family had suffered enough from cramped living conditions.

Right now, he was staying in Sister Zhao’s house, and while she wasn’t charging him rent, Lin Yuan felt bad about frequently bringing his family over to stay.

Now that he had the money, it seemed like a good time to buy his own place and return the space to Sister Zhao.

He casually shared the idea with his sister.

“Buy a villa?”

Lin Xuan couldn’t help but laugh. “Of course living in a villa would be great—who wouldn’t want that? But we can’t afford it.”

“Are villas in Sucheng really that expensive?”

“A villa in Sucheng starts at least at ten million—do you think that’s cheap?”

Lin Xuan had heard her colleagues discuss Sucheng’s housing prices. She knew a high-ranking executive at Silver Blue Publishing lived in a villa worth tens of millions.

Lin Yuan replied, “Then let’s just buy one.”

He wanted to get this done before leaving Qizhou.

Lin Xuan opened her mouth in shock.

Did he think villas were like cabbages, just something you buy on a whim?

She stared at Lin Yuan for a while before asking, “Is composing really that profitable?”

Lin Yuan answered, “It’s not bad.”

He didn’t even mention the royalties from Chu Kuang.

Thanks to his upgraded contracts, his earnings had increased significantly.

With the combined income from Xian Yu and Chu Kuang’s works, Lin Yuan was easily making over 10 million a month!

And his income would only continue to grow.

“You really can afford it?”

Lin Xuan was stunned. Then she remembered how casually Lin Yuan had given her 500,000 to buy a car…

Maybe he really could?

Suddenly, she felt like her brother was the biggest obstacle to her own motivation to work hard.

With a brother like him, she could barely find a reason to push herself.

“It’s settled, then,” Lin Yuan concluded.

He wasn’t going to ask for their mother’s opinion. If she had concerns, he could just let Lin Xuan handle it.

Lin Xuan was still a bit dazed. “It’s really settled?”

Lin Yuan nodded. “Take the day off tomorrow, and we’ll go house hunting together.”

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