It's hard to believe it's been ten years since I Shall Seal the Heavens launched on Wuxiaworld. What a decade it's been! Above all else, I would like to thank all the readers who made the translation possible. Whether you sponsored, commented, or just read from the shadows, you were what made ISSTH possible.

Back then, nobody knew the difference between wuxia and xianxia (actually... has that changed? ha ha), and everybody wondered what Mount Tai was and how long an incense stick burned. Nowadays, readers have read so many of these novels in English that all the tropes have been identified, rejected, and then reminisced upon fondly. The ISSTH days were truly magical. I'll never forget the time my father-in-law and I drank so much baijiu I forgot to update chapters and everyone thought I was dead. Hmm... maybe I never told the full story at the time. Now you know the truth!!! There were so many other memorable occasions. There was that time I posted an April Fool's chapter, after which I got death threats in DMs and never posted another April Fool's chapter again lol. Over the years, I have received many private messages of thanks from readers who got through tough times thanks to reading the novel, or experienced other bursts of inspiration or encouragement.

After ISSTH, I went on to translate three other major cultivation novels here on Wuxiaworld, one of which is ongoing. I have published quite a bit of my own work, including a tabletop roleplaying game, a nonfiction book, an epic wuxia novel, a complete cyberpunk cultivation series, an ongoing epic fantasy cultivation series, and even a kids' cultivation novel which I hope to turn into an ongoing series. All of that was possible thanks to ISSH and, of course, you readers.

To celebrate this ten-year event, we have a few special offers:

1) the polished-up, re-edited version of ISSTH on Amazon is discounted for the next week! The first volume is reduced to just $0.99, so maybe gift a copy to a friend! (Unfortunately we are only able to run discounts on amazon.com and amazon.co.uk)

2) For the next one month, there are ISSTH-specific Cultivation Key missions available! Earn Keys for reading chapters of ISSTH.

3) We’re running a giveaway of twelve ISSTH-inspired t-shirts over on our forum! Our designer Yuuko has been working on the graphics for the t-shirts, with Deathblade providing some input (guess which ISSTH quote might feature in two designs?). There are three ways to enter, and winners will be able to pick a design of their choice for their t-shirt!

And now, for a little personal update.

When the translation started, Madam Deathblade and I were a happy couple living in Hebei Province in China, near a roughly 1,000-year-old Buddhist Monastery and not far from the oldest stone arch bridge in China. Now we live in San Diego, a short drive from the beach, the mountains, the desert, and Mexico to the south. We now have two amazing kids. Our oldest goes by the online name Battle Boy. He’s nine years old and was born while I was translating I Shall Seal the Heavens. His little sister Princess Deathblade is four; she was born while I was translating Sage Monarch.

Battle Boy (formerly known as Baby Deathblade) is a natural-born nerd and gamer. He loves reading novels and manga, watching anime and movies, and playing games, both digital and traditional. He’s really into coding and is also obsessed with the piano (he's currently mastering the song Steve's Lava Chicken for his next recital). Beyond that, he’s a gray-black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and loves playing four-square at school. Personality-wise, he’s an introvert who all the teachers at school love. He’s polite, kind, gets good grades, and is usually the good example teachers ask other students to imitate. His favorite animal is the hamster, his favorite food is tonkotsu ramen, and he has a cute pet hamster named Brownie.

Princess Deathblade is quite different. Though she also likes anime, movies, and games, she is extremely athletic and active. She can almost beat her brother in a foot race at this point, and has been able to accurately throw objects and hit targets from before she could even crawl. She currently practices Chinese Wushu (she’s learning the Elementary Long Fist form right now). Her favorite things in life include unicorns, the color pink, strawberries, and fart jokes. She has a very fertile imagination and can have long play sessions in which she does all the dubbing for entire casts of characters in the form of her dolls and toys. Similar to her dad, she loves snakes, and has a pet corn snake named Chris.

That's all for now! Thanks for your readership and... if you haven't yet, make sure to read A Will Eternal and Beyond the Timescape! There are ISSTH connections in them!!!!! 

P.S. To keep the comments consolidated, I'm keeping the comments off on this post. If you'd like to leave a comment, go to the main Wuxiaworld post here.