Chapter 12

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The next day.

Tolkien published a literary review in every major newspaper and magazine in the country.

Rainforest Literature attached this review to “The Coiling Dragon” as a foreword written by Tolkien the author of “The Hobbit”.

The book sales increased several fold.

The foreword read: “Empires rise and fall on the Yulan continent. Saints, immortals, beings with unimaginable power, used spells and swords to fight, leaving behind vast destruction. Magical beasts rule the mountains. Brave people, or rather foolish souls, would go there to test their strength. Even the most powerful people would fall and be eaten by the beasts. The strong lived like nobles, and the weak struggled to live. This was the world Linley was born to. Linley grew up in Wushan Town and was a descendant of the Baruch clan. This clan had once been the legendary Dragonblood Warriors. Their name had once shaken the world, but now they were in decline, so much so that they sold off their family heirlooms. Linley’s mission was to reclaim his clan’s past glory. He would experience countless trials and tribulations, make powerful friends, but also have fatal enemies. Read this book to witness a new legend that is currently still in formation. The story of Linley Baruch will be the legacy of the author, Fang Yuan.”

The comments section was filled with Fang Yuan’s question and answer session with the reporter from the Iowa Journal of Literature.

Everyone knew that Fang Yuan was a young man who had been chosen by Tolkien.

No media would dare to act rashly in front of such a major public figure.

Thus, all of the fabricated negative articles naturally vanished.

..

At the Rainforest Publishing Company.

“The statistics are out! Yesterday, the sales of ‘The Coiling Dragon’ in online bookstores and offline channels totaled 158,000 copies! It far exceeds the number of first prints. Moreover, the number of pre-orders is still rising. The warehouse already called several times last night to rush us asking when will the new batch arrive.”

“What did the printers say? Increase it to the maximum production capacity as soon as possible.”

“They’ve already stopped all the other product lines. Now, 90% of their machines are printing ‘The Coiling Dragon’.”

“What’s the other 10%?”

“It’s the school exam season, so some are still printing the school’s exam papers…”

“Double the price and ask them to stop printing exam papers for the moment and finish printing ‘The Coiling Dragon’ as soon as possible. We need to print another 300,000 copies as soon as possible!”

“Yes, editor-in-chief!”

The whole company was excited and full of energy. They knew that “The Coiling Dragon” had completely blown up.

..

Everything in the world was always so, with some happy while others were sad.

Penguin Publishing Corporation.

Editor-in-chief Jeffrey sat at his desk. There was a newspaper on the table with the front-page headlines showing that “The Coiling Dragon” was out of stock.

Bang!

He slammed the newspaper on the table. “Is this your f*cking strategy?!”

The two editors, Stoner and Walter, did not even dare to lift their heads.

They had already bribed the media and manipulated distribution channels, which cost the company a lot of money and resources.

However, instead of being pulled off the best-seller list, “The Coiling Dragon” was doing better than before!

Even Tolkien recommended it.

After informing the Human Resources Department to deduct the annual performance bonuses of the two editors, editor-in-chief Jeffrey slammed the door and left. Before he left, he said, “The annual New York Book Fair is right around the corner, and our headquarters’ leaders will be there. I don’t care what you do, I don’t wish to see that eyesore at the fair.”

The office began to discuss this issue nervously after the editor-in-chief left.

Right now, “The Coiling Dragon” was in the limelight, and its momentum was irreversible. If they continued to cause trouble, it would be like trying to stop an oncoming truck with a mosquito.

According to this sales volume, it was only a matter of time before the sales volume of a single volume exceeded 500,000 copies.

Having sold 500,000 copies was one of the thresholds for the New York Book Fair.

In other words, it was very likely that Fang Yuan would use the sales volume of “The Coiling Dragon” to participate in this year’s New York Book Fair as a special guest.

Stoner was so anxious that he scratched his head. “Walter, what do you think we should do?”

Walter was also cracking his brain. “Let me think about it carefully.”

Suddenly, there was a commotion outside the office.

It was the author of “Magic Age”, Dunbar. He came to the Editorial Department to cause trouble.

Dunbar was the nephew of their editor-in-chief, Jeffrey.

He was also a student at the University of Iowa and was considered a somewhat famous author.

Due to his relationship with the editor-in-chief, Stoner and Walter made a promise saying that they would use all possible resources to make “Magic Age” the best-selling book.

Dunbar was already prepared to be the star in all of Iowa this graduation season.

In the end, he was upstaged by “The Coiling Dragon” that appeared out of nowhere.

His mentor, Hades, was also praising Fang Yuan while the goddess, Sakazaka Rion, was extremely fond of him. Even his idol, Tolkien, had personally written the foreword to Fang Yuan’s new book.

How could Dunbar not be jealous?

“You have to think of a solution. This fall’s creative writing workshop is about to begin. All authors who have published new works in the first half of the year will be invited to participate in the competition. Fang Yuan will be there, and I’ll be there too, so you guys will have to think of a way for me to upstage him in this competition!”