Dear Fellow Daoists,

Before getting into the long explanation, let me summarize the point of this announcement: there will be a few days here and there over the next few months in which I take a break from releasing chapters. There are a few reasons which I’ll explain as succinctly as possible below.

First: surgery. I’m having my second round of surgery on Tuesday, Jan 14. That’s in two days. Last time I took a short break afterward for recovery, but honestly, it wasn’t long enough. This time my plan is to take two full days off, and possibly an additional half-day depending on how I feel. 

Second: moving and traveling. Our lease is up and we need to move within the city, so we’re going to combine it with a trip to China, since we have some important personal/family matters to handle there. Our final move-out date is January 31st, so at some point in the days leading up to that, I’m probably going to take a day or two off to focus on the packing and moving, especially my office/workstation. We will stay with my parents for a couple weeks before the China trip, so I’ll set up my office in a spare room at their place. 

The current dates for the China trip are Feb. 16 to March 17. However, there is a chance that could change, as the process of getting official paperwork for BDB is very complicated because of him having been born in China. We weren’t able to get an appointment at the consulate until the first week of February in that regard. If we’re missing any paperwork, or anything else goes wrong, it could delay his travel papers, and thus, our trip in general. In fact, we don’t even know how soon after a successful application that we’ll get the travel papers back. Honestly, it’s a very frustrating and stressful situation, and there is no way to speed the process up. In some disastrous scenario in which we can’t get his papers in time, MDB might end up going back alone to handle those personal/family issues, some of which have a March deadline. Fingers crossed very hard that it doesn’t work out that way, because even with help from family, for me to take care of BDB for a month and simultaneously maintain my translation schedule would be very difficult. 

During the China trip, chapters will come out as usual, as I’ve built up a big stockpile. The specific time of day will probably change, but there will still be two per day. However, I have to be perfectly honest… I’m getting old, Fellow Daoists. In the past, I would kill myself to make sure the chapters came out even if I was at the airport or on a train or wherever. But considering all the stress and anxiety, I’m not going to do that this time. On actual travel days, I do not plan to launch chapters, although there should only be a couple days like that.

After returning from China, we’ll be moving into a new place, which will involve another day or two in which I focus on moving and setting up my office.

All-in-all my guess is that over the course of the next three or four months, there are going to be a total of about eight to ten days in which there are no releases. As I mentioned, there is a lot of mental anxiety over the whole paperwork and travel stuff, so I hope you all can bear with me. Once we’re settled in our new apartment, things should go back to normal in terms of regular, consistent releases. 

P.S. There is one more situation coming later in the year that will probably cause a hiccup in chapters, but I’ll wait until we get closer to that time before I go into any details.

P.P.S. Thank you very much to all readers, and special thanks to the sponsors. The income from advertising has been dropping and dropping recently, and VIP money all goes directly to Wuxiaworld. And considering WW gave out loads of free Karma, that system hasn’t really been much help, and in fact, it really hurt because it essentially removed all income temporarily for completed novels. Anyway, for most translators, the only way to survive is to rely on sponsors. So again, my profound thanks. 🙏🙏🙏 For anyone who wants to show support without sponsoring, you can always do so via my merch shop, my original novel, or via direct donation. And thank you to everyone who has already supported my work in those ways, it’s very much appreciated.