# 274
**Chapter 274: End-of-Volume Summary**
Well, the first volume has finally come to an end.
This chapter is mainly Sanjiu sharing some thoughts on Volume One and answering a few questions from readers. If you don’t want to hear me ramble, feel free to skip it.
Honestly, this volume turned out longer than I expected—550,000 words in total… but thinking back, it doesn’t feel that long.
So much happened: the Ghost-Face Man incident, the Nanda Serpent Demon case, life in the training camp, meeting Baili Pangpang and Cao Yuan, that tsundere Shen Qingzhu, ringing in the new year, graduation, cracking the Bell Cranel case, watching Cangnan City fall, the war of the gods…
All those events, all those characters, packed into just 550,000 words.
Here, Sanjiu can thump his chest and proudly declare: “I never pad my word-count!”
Not a single arc in this volume was filler; every piece locks into the next, and I’ve planted more foreshadowing than I can count—most of it already paid off.
But for this book, it’s only the beginning.
Only now, at the end of Volume One, has the world’s full scope opened up. Little Qiye is still a rookie who just left the starter village; as Yuanshi Tianzun said, his road is long.
In the afterword of my last book I said: no matter how the times change, passion and emotion are eternal themes.
Passion alone makes a power-trip; add emotion, and a story becomes more than a story—a novel gains a soul.
That’s the idea behind this book. You’ve probably felt it in Volume One: brotherhood, camaraderie, family—those are its heart. As for romance… ahem, maybe there’ll be some… maybe not.
So this is destined to be an ensemble piece. Lin Qiye is the protagonist, but he isn’t the only star; many characters deserve to be remembered.
*cough* Anyway, overall I’m pretty satisfied with how this volume ended.
Zhao Kongcheng fulfilled his lifelong wish, slashing out that dazzling blade that shattered Lin Qiye’s chains and released a monster of a genius.
Chen Muye left together with the city he had guarded for ten years; Wu Xiangnan risked danger once more for the teammates of his past; Si Xiaonan chose to play chess with a god to escape the fetters of fate; Leng Xuan followed the gentleness in his heart and departed with Xiaonan; little Hongying inherited everyone’s will, staying behind alone in Cangnan…
Oh, almost forgot the undercover agent deep in enemy territory—Shen Qingzhu.
As for Qiye, he’s stepped away from tiny Cangnan and is about to face the real, vast world.
Next volume will revolve around the Fifth— *cough* nah, I won’t tell you~
Volume summary done; now for the questions everyone keeps asking.
First: Jinian. Rest assured, her portrayal in this book is completely fresh. Even if you haven’t read the after-story of my previous novel, it won’t affect your reading experience at all.
Just treat her as a mysterious figure inside “Defying the Gods”; don’t overthink it.
Second: divine power levels. Many readers are puzzled, mainly because your reference points differ—lots of you draw from “Investiture of the Gods” or other mythology.
Some say, “Yang Jian’s just a well-known celestial general; how can he one-shot Indra, a creator god in Indian myth?”
“Michael’s only a seraph; how can he be that strong?”
No need to worry. From Chapter One I’ve said: not every god appears in this world. China alone has hundreds of deities—if every directional guardian and tutelary god showed up, it’d be a mess.
Power scaling is the same. If Yang Jian had to kill some Indian rice god to fit “real” rankings, the story would bore you. So treat the power levels as reshuffled—not completely random, but not sacred canon either.
I’ll keep giving Volume Two my all. If you’re enjoying the ride, please spread the word and toss a five-star rating—Sanjiu still wants to crawl back to 9.8 *dog-head*.
Try not to “stockpile” chapters too long.
Sanjiu sends every reader a heart right here.
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