All-rounder Artist-Chapter 999 - 927 The Old Rascal Shall Not Deceive Me
Chapter 999: Chapter 927 The Old Rascal Shall Not Deceive Me Again
Chapter 999 -927 The Old Rascal Shall Not Deceive Me Again
This is the first chapter of “Heaven-Reliant Dragon Slayer.”
The revised chapter title: “At World’s End, My Thoughts on You Are Unforgettable.”
On the road of Shaoshi Mountain, Guo Xiang, wearing a yellow shirt with a little East Heretic temperament, traveled the Martial World with a donkey and a sword.
Ever since Guo Xiang had bid farewell to Yang Guo and Little Dragon Maiden as a couple at the summit of Mount Hua three years ago, she hadn’t received the slightest bit of news from them.
Her heart continued to yearn, so she informed her parents, claiming she wanted to sightsee and enjoy the landscapes, but actually, she was seeking news about Yang Guo.
However, since that separation, the couple had ceased to appear in the Martial World, and no one knew where they had secluded themselves.
Guo Xiang had traveled from north to south and from east to west, nearly traversing half of the Central Plains, yet still had not heard anyone mention recent news of the Condor Hero, Yang Guo.
One could say:
At the start of the new book’s first chapter, Chu Kuang immediately engaged all the readers in a collective memory of Guo Xiang’s unrequited love for Yang Guo.
The original text described it thus: [Although Guo Xiang didn’t necessarily need to meet with the couple, she would have been perfectly content to hear some news about how Yang Guo behaved righteously in the Martial World.]
Then the plot unfolded.
Jueyuan from the end of “The Return of the Condor Heroes” made an appearance;
The little monk, Zhang Jun Bao, showed up once again;
The Kunlun Three Sage, He Zudao from the Western Regions, entered the scene;
And the story thus began to revolve around Shaolin Temple.
Naturally, the protagonist’s perspective was centered on Guo Xiang.
This was a massive chapter of nearly twenty thousand words, and whenever it came to the mental activity of the little East Heretic, Guo Xiang, it seemed impossible to not include hints of the Condor Hero’s whereabouts, causing the readers to feel both heartache and sighs as they read.
Quickly.
The comment section became densely packed with messages!
The influence accrued from the two previous works, “The Legend of the Condor Heroes” and “The Return of the Condor Heroes,” exploded completely under the guidance of a mere twenty thousand words by Chu Kuang!
“Perfect start from Guo Xiang’s point of view!”
“Chu Kuang, the old rascal, knows exactly what he’s doing, starting off with the bomb that is Guo Xiang, and also closely tied to the theme ‘one glimpse of Yang Guo and you’re led astray for life,’ instantly drawing one’s attention.”
“Many characters are from the time of ‘The Return of the Condor Heroes’!”
“Jueyuan and Zhang Jun Bao are back, as well as Yang Guo’s friend, Master Wuse. However, although this book frequently mentions the Condor Hero, Yang Guo and Little Dragon Maiden do not actually appear in it.”
“What a great start!”
“Shaolin Temple finally gets a part to play!”
“Everyone says it’s good, so let me raise a concern, isn’t this book a bit reliant on established settings? The previous two books, neither ‘Duel Atop Mount Hua’ nor the introduction of top Martial World experts mentioned Shaolin. So how come at the beginning of this book, Shaolin Temple suddenly has such a strong presence?”
“That does seem a bit unreasonable.”
“The old rascal’s pit is deep, bear with it for a moment.”
With the opening chapter of the new book, Shaolin Temple suddenly had its credentials raised significantly.
Clearly, during the periods of “The Legend of the Condor Heroes” and “The Return of the Condor Heroes,” the major events in the Martial World had no involvement of Shaolin, so some people found it unreasonable.
Of course.
A flaw cannot obscure the splendor of jade.
These minor issues with the setting weren’t something that anyone would seriously fuss over.
After Chu Kuang released the first chapter of “Heaven-Reliant Dragon Slayer,” it quickly took over the top trending spots, with discussibility of related topics even easily sweeping through many of the latest major entertainment industry buzz!
Atop the new trending searches.
Trending first: #GuoXiang#
Trending second: #Heaven-Reliant Dragon Slayer#
Trending fifth: #OneGlimpseOfYangGuo#
Of the top five trending topics, “Heaven-Reliant Dragon Slayer” occupied three.
It’s important to note that this was when only the first chapter of the novel had been released!
One could only imagine how many readers specifically logged onto blogs to read the first chapter of Chu Kuang’s new book.
What’s more interesting is:
Other forums of similar genres also saw a surge of topics related to “Heaven-Reliant Dragon Slayer.”
Even including the Tribe!
This sort of thing wasn’t happening for the first time.
Even though Xian Yu, Chu Kuang, and Shadow had left the Tribe, the Tribe’s trending search list would still occasionally be dominated by these three, which one netizen described as:
Not too harmful!
But extremely insulting!
And yet, the Tribe dared not block topics related to these three, otherwise their users might revolt, something they could not control.
And as more readers finished the first chapter of “Heaven-Reliant Dragon Slayer.”
A new related topic suddenly also stormed the hot search rankings on various platforms!
The topic was: #WhoIsTheProtagonistOfHeaven-Reliant Dragon Slayer#
And the reason for this topic’s emergence was simple, as many netizens had started to argue over who the protagonist of Chu Kuang’s new book was!
Netizens generally divided into three camps.
The first camp believed that Guo Xiang was the protagonist:
“The entire story of the first chapter unfolds from Guo Xiang’s point of view, so as we go through the story, we’re seeing it through Guo Xiang, who else could be the protagonist if not her?”
To this, someone replied:
“I have no issue with a woman being the protagonist, in fact, I really like Guo Xiang, and I would very much welcome it if she truly were the protagonist, but Chu Kuang, the old rascal, has never written a novel where the main character is a girl!”
“You’re wrong there.”
“Chu Kuang likes to pursue changes in his writing. Who knows, maybe he plans to use Guo Xiang as the main character this time. There’s a movie out recently called ‘Resident Evil.’ Have any of you seen it? Xian Yu never wrote a script with a woman as the main character before this movie, but that doesn’t mean he won’t.”
Then there were those who believed it was Zhang Jun Bao:
“The ending of ‘The Return of the Condor Heroes’ specifically mentioned the young monk Zhang Jun Bao. The old rascal even took the trouble to introduce such a martially talented new character to everyone at the end of the story. Was it just to pad the word count? Not to mention he even had the ‘Condor Hero’ Yang Guo teach Zhang Jun Bao some martial skills. And now, Zhang Jun Bao makes an appearance in the first chapter of the new book. Think about what that implies, you guys need to mull this over.”
“Indeed.”
“In the first two books, whether it was Guo Jing or Yang Guo, both had great martial talent. Don’t even start with saying Guo Jing is too dumb or anything. Brother Jing’s martial skills are no less than any of the ‘Five Greats.’ Those who question his martial arts talent should re-read ‘The Legend of the Condor Heroes.’ And the ending of ‘The Return of the Condor Heroes’ not only gave Zhang Jun Bao the spotlight, it emphasized that his foundation and talent in martial arts were very strong. Being so young and already able to spar with Yin Kexi, I don’t believe he’s not the protagonist.”
“Martial talent?”
“Isn’t Guo Xiang’s martial talent scary enough? Think of how many top martial skills she’s learned, including those from the East Heretic Huang Yaoshi, her father Guo Jing, and her mother Huang Rong, among other top martial experts in the Martial World. She even modified moves to create her own set of techniques. Isn’t that invincible?!”
Someone from the third camp could not hold back:
“The protagonist is definitely this newly emerged He Zudao. Not only is he modest, courteous, and elegant, but he is also called the ‘Kunlun Three Sage,’ which includes the Sage of the Zither, Chess, and Sword. His martial skills were so strong that even the Shaolin Temple took him seriously. Plus, he considers Guo Xiang his Soulmate. So, I think he’s the new book’s male protagonist, and Guo Xiang will be the ultimate female protagonist.”
This group had the fewest supporters.
However, there was still quite a loyal following.
And just when everyone was heatedly debating whether Guo Xiang, Zhang Jun Bao, or He Zudao was the protagonist, suddenly there emerged a fourth viewpoint: “Since you’re all using the patterns from ‘The Legend of the Condor Heroes’ and ‘The Return of the Condor Heroes’ to speculate, let me ask you, in which of these two books does the protagonist appear in the first chapter?”
An intriguing perspective!
But this theory, too, quickly gained quite a bit of traction!
A netizen commented with a laugh: “It really wakes up the dreamer. The protagonists of ‘The Legend of the Condor Heroes’ and ‘The Return of the Condor Heroes’ didn’t appear in the first chapter. It’s only because those two books were published entirely that we didn’t speculate, take ‘The Legend of the Condor Heroes’ for example. If only the first chapter had been released back then, would we have thought the protagonist was Yang Tie Xin or Guo Xiaotian, or even Qiu Chuji from the Quanzhen sect?”
“Exactly!”
“This old rascal loves to tease readers with misleading content. After all, this isn’t the first time he’s done this. He’s probably peeking right now, snickering at us for guessing the wrong protagonist.”
This old rascal is too crafty!
Continuously misleading the readers with his words!
The possibility of him laying a trap in the first chapter of ‘Heaven-Reliant Dragon Slayer’ is very high!
Of course.
None of the speculations could end the suspense.
Regarding who the protagonist was, the netizens were still arguing fervently, ears red with debate, unable to convince one another.
At last.
Everyone couldn’t help but rush to the comments section to demand an update:
“Old rascal, release the second update quickly. I want to know who the protagonist is!”
“Guo Xiang Guo Xiang Guo Xiang!”
“Kunlun Three Sage, He Zudao!”
“I bet fifty cents, it’s definitely Zhang Jun Bao, after looking at everything, this character has the most protagonist vibes!”
“Get real, the protagonist hasn’t even appeared yet.”
“We have to use reverse thinking to deduce, don’t forget that Chu Kuang is a pioneer of narrative tricks. The protagonist of this book definitely has appeared. The protagonists of the first two books appeared later, so what’s wrong with coming out earlier in this chapter, right? He enjoys doing the opposite of what we expect and then swelling all of our faces with his twists. But this time, I won’t let him have his way!”
“This old rascal indeed pits us into guessing until our heads break, even with the protagonist!”
…
In the Martial World.
Someone noticed the online debate and said with a wry smile:
“Only Chu Kuang could make readers argue like this from just the first chapter of a book.”
“When can I create such a buzz with my book?”
“Sweeping the hot search, the whole internet discussing it, if you didn’t know better you’d think his entire book was already out.”
“It’s mainly the buildup from the first two books that’s starting to erupt now.”
“Yeah.”
“No matter how much we argue, in the end, it’s because of the high expectations for Chu Kuang’s new book.”
“Eh? Quick, look!”
“Chu Kuang actually released the second chapter!”
“The second chapter is out? I’m going to read it now. I want to know who the protagonist is this time!”
…
Yes.
While the netizens were in various arguments about who the protagonist could be.
Chu Kuang unexpectedly released the second chapter of ‘Heaven-Reliant Dragon Slayer’!
Chapter title: The Pine and Cypress of Mount Wudang Thrive!
This was unplanned, as Lin Yuan had intended to release one chapter per day, but seeing the netizens argue about who the protagonist was, a mischievous streak suddenly arose within him.
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He decided to take misleading the readers to the end!
The proof was in the pudding.
This round of misleading was very successful.
As the readers eagerly began to read the second chapter of ‘Heaven-Reliant Dragon Slayer,’ the debate over the protagonist quickly cooled down quite a bit:
“I told you, the protagonist is Zhang! Jun! Bao!”
Those who supported Zhang Jun Bao as the protagonist immediately displayed triumphant smiles:
“This time, the old rascal won’t be able to fool me again!”
