This chapter contains some rambling content, so I'm posting the chapter thoughts directly, not for a fee.
The grand event of China's ultra-high-speed vacuum pipeline has concluded, yet it feels as though it both happened and didn't happen.
It happened because the entire world knows and is certain that China now possesses a functional ultra-high-speed vacuum magnetic levitation pipeline.
As for why it feels like it didn't happen, it's due to the propaganda from certain parties, which has painted China's ultra-high-speed vacuum magnetic levitation pipeline as a shoddy product born out of a rush to be fast. Although it was the first to open, it was utterly annihilated by the US's ultra-high-speed vacuum magnetic levitation pipeline trains, leaving nothing but dust.
Thus, the entire world still believes that the American ultra-high-speed vacuum magnetic levitation pipeline is the best, even though they haven't seen a single hair of it, only a PowerPoint presentation.
Yet, the world still believes the American one is the best, and there's nothing that can be done about it. Fortunately, China has never cared about these things and doesn't argue. It simply continues to build its own pipelines, with the entire network extending across the map at a speed that is almost visible to the naked eye.
Meanwhile, as 2011 unfolded with great fanfare, a movie was also released globally.
This was a film that had already generated immense buzz before its release because its lead actress was Leng Zhiwen, and it boasted the tremendous selling point of being Leng Zhiwen's first film as a lead actress.
This statement might sound peculiar. After all, Leng Zhiwen is now an internationally renowned world-class actress, so how can this be her first film as a lead?
This is naturally because all of Leng Zhiwen's previous films featured her playing male leads.
As is widely known, Leng Zhiwen's fame originated from her starring role in the film series "Misty Journey." This series, which adopted the unprecedented approach of releasing three installments simultaneously, has become a legend in the global film market.
When these three films were first released globally, they set an astonishing record of over $4 billion in worldwide box office revenue.
Later, the film series had a re-release and still performed impressively, grossing another $2 billion. Therefore, the total box office for these three films combined exceeded $6.3 billion.
If distributed evenly, the box office for each film surpassed the previous world champion "Titanic's" global box office of $2.1 billion.
However, it is peculiar that in the world box office rankings published by the Global Film Federation, these three films only ranked third to fifth.
According to the official statement, they tallied the box office for the first release only, and each of the three installments was counted separately. Films that were screened in a combined, extended format were not included in the total data because it was unclear which film's data should be used.
Good heavens, couldn't they simply average the box office?
Under various circumstances, these three films were only the third, fourth, and fifth films globally. The first and second places were still occupied by American films: "Titanic" and the recently released "Avatar."
These three films also directly established Leng Zhiwen's status as an international movie star, although at the time, everyone believed she was merely a male actor.
For a considerable period afterward, Leng Zhiwen continued to appear as a male actor, naturally playing male characters in the films she shot. Even her cameo in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was as a male character.
Later, with the release of the Tianzhou Terminal, Leng Zhiwen revealed her female identity at the press conference, thereby driving tremendous traffic to the Tianzhou Terminal.
From then on, Leng Zhiwen largely resumed her female identity, and the films and television series she participated in predominantly featured female roles.
However, this was limited to television dramas. Leng Zhiwen subsequently starred in dramas such as "Palace," "Li Qiushui," and "Empress Wu," all of which were immensely popular.
But in films, Leng Zhiwen remarkably continued to portray male characters.
First, after an eight-year hiatus, "Misty Journey 4," "Misty Journey 5," and "Misty Journey 6" reappeared in cinemas.
These latter three installments of "Misty Journey" continued the pattern of the first three, releasing one film every two months over a six-month period, once again making "Misty Journey" a sensation in the entire film industry and sparking an unprecedented wave of Chinese cultivation fantasy.
Although due to various reasons, the box office for the latter three films ultimately did not surpass the first three, ranking seventh, eighth, and tenth in film history. It is an unprecedented and monumental achievement to have six films from the same series in the top ten of the box office rankings.
However, in these latter three installments, Leng Zhiwen undoubtedly still played the protagonist Li Qiang, the classic male character.
Thus, in the sixth installment, Li Qiang became so powerful that he could fight alongside Emperor Qing, who was a Heavenly Emperor, reaching the pinnacle of cultivation and essentially becoming invincible throughout the universe.
But in the end, the mysterious divine realm still had not revealed its veiled face. In fact, due to its power, it became even more mysterious, with countless moviegoers arguing incessantly about what the divine realm was like.
Related discussion posts exceeded 30 million across the entire internet.
Alas, the original author, Xiao Qian, steadfastly refused to write the divine realm chapters. Although he later wrote a book called "Qitian Road," the protagonist was changed, no longer Li Qiang, which many fans found unacceptable.
What was even more unacceptable was that "Qitian Road" did not describe the divine realm at all. Although there was a divine spirit realm within it, the peak of power in the divine spirit realm was still that of immortals, not the realm of gods.
The only thing that could be associated with the word "god" was the appearance of the former Fire God, and he could be considered a true god from the past, yet not a single word related to the divine realm was revealed.
"Qitian Road" was later adapted into three films, but the protagonist, naturally, had nothing to do with Leng Zhiwen. Instead, it was played by Hu Ge, who could be considered the top actor in Jiangnan cinema besides Leng Zhiwen. His annual dividend income alone exceeded 100 million RMB, making him a top-tier wealthy individual in the industry.
Therefore, even though the sequel "Qitian Road" was completed and the films were shot, the fans' expectations and interest in the divine realm did not diminish; instead, it grew even more fervent.
Perhaps many authors later began writing their own continuations of the divine realm, giving rise to fanfiction such as "Misty Divine Journey," which could be considered a miracle in the industry.
Moviegoers remained full of anticipation for the subsequent stories of "Misty Journey," hoping for the true divine realm chapters to appear. However, Xiao Qian still showed no intention of writing the divine realm chapters.
Boss Huang himself even sought out Xiao Qian to inquire about the reason. After all, he was also a loyal fan of "Misty Journey." Xiao Qian then told him that there was no particularly special reason, nor was he foregoing a large amount of money.
After all, any fool would know that as long as he wrote the divine realm chapters of "Misty Journey," he could earn a fortune. The various merchandise and copyright licensing alone would bring him several hundred million dollars.
This was not an empty statement. It's worth noting that on the world author income rankings, Xiao Qian's income was second only to J.K. Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter.
The reason for his delay in releasing the divine realm chapters was quite simple: he couldn't write it.
In fact, it was Xiao Qian's own fault for describing the divine realm as too mysterious, magnificent, and too elevated in his descriptions.
How to put it? It was as if he had written the divine realm into a nine-dimensional world, making it impossible for Xiao Qian himself to know how to describe that divine realm now.
Especially considering that many subsequent fanfiction authors wrote various versions of the "Misty Journey" divine realm chapters. Xiao Qian saw that the divine realms in their writings were merely another secular world, filled with melodramatic plots. The so-called divine lords would also engage in conflicts over various things.
Even that was acceptable, but the critical issue was that the divine lords would also compete for women and engage in simping. In Xiao Qian's view, this was utterly ridiculous, as even an ordinary cultivator in his settings could adjust their appearance at will.
At the immortal level, they could transform into any form in the world as they pleased. Therefore, the appearance and beauty of the opposite sex were completely meaningless to immortals. If you placed a multitude of beauties like Ruohua and Diaochan together, they would appear no different to them.
Yet, after cultivating to the divine realm, there would still be plotlines involving broken engagements, fighting over women, and simping, making the divine realm more secular than the human world.
This deeply hurt Xiao Qian and made him resolute in not writing such a divine realm. In his conception, the divine realm must be as "misty" and grand as the name "Misty Journey" suggests, transcending the mundane.
However, the problem is that human imagination is truly limited. Ancient people imagined for thousands of years, and the immortal realms in their minds were merely large houses built in the clouds. How can you expect a modern person to imagine what a nine-dimensional world looks like? It's simply impossible.
In fact, Xiao Qian did attempt this with "Qitian Road." Through "Qitian Road," he aimed to portray a divine spirit realm close to his conception of the divine realm, and he also created a former divine spirit, the Fire God, in an attempt to explore the appearance of the divine realm through his writing.
The result was that it was worse than not writing it. The Fire God, in his portrayal, felt similar to an immortal, with no discernible improvement or elevated status. This was rather demoralizing for Xiao Qian.
Therefore, Xiao Qian cannot write the divine realm chapters. If Xiao Qian were short of money, he might have casually written something to get by. But Xiao Qian is no longer short of money. The copyright income that automatically transfers to his account daily is even more than his daily expenses. This has made Xiao Qian even more protective of his reputation, insisting on writing a divine realm chapter that satisfies him.
This is why "Misty Journey" has been slow to release its divine realm chapters; it's simply because Xiao Qian cannot write them.
PS: The above section is the author's personal speculation about why the divine realm chapters of "Misty Journey" have not been released. Alas, this is one of the author's resentments.