Chapter 66: From Here, to Slay the Demons!

After the girl finished her account, everyone present exchanged bewildered glances. The review section crashed from too many posts? In all these years, this was a first. The fans of "Immortal Execution" were truly formidable.

The editor-in-chief's face was clouded with gloom as he issued quick orders:

"Contact the tech department and deal with the review section of 'Swordsman Adventure' immediately."

"Fantasy Division, get in touch with Demon King and have him calm his fans; tell him the review section is being repaired."

"Immortal Division, contact Xiao Yan and make sure his fans stop flooding other authors' review sections."

"Yes!" "Yes!"

Everyone hurried out of the conference room.

Immortal Division Office.

Zhou Suqing's expression flickered uncertainly. She hadn't expected the "Immortal Execution" fans to clash so fiercely with Demon King's followers. There had been incidents like this before, but both sides were smaller, so the impact was limited. This time, though, the two largest fan groups on the site were at odds, and the consequences were enormous.

Thinking of this, she quickly instructed Bitter:

"Hurry and contact Xiao Yan, have him calm his fans."

"Right, you’re not in his fan group, are you?"

Bitter replied timidly, "Xiao Yan never set up a fan group. I’ve suggested it, but he finds it troublesome and never made one."

Zhou Suqing's eyes widened.

"No fan group?"

How did they manage such organized attacks without a fan group? Telepathy?

She couldn’t make sense of it, but there was no time to ponder. She said quickly, "Call Xiao Yan now, put it on speaker, I’ll listen."

"Alright." Bitter found Xiao Yan’s number and dialed.

At that moment, Xu Ze was in his dorm, typing away feverishly—his book was going online tonight, and he was working hard to accumulate drafts. He had no idea what was happening on the site.

The phone rang. Xu Ze was about to ignore it, but saw it was his editor, Bitter.

Is there something urgent?

Xu Ze answered.

"Editor?"

"Xiao Yan, you know what just happened on the site, right? Please go and calm your fans!"

"Huh? What happened?" Xu Ze was completely confused.

"Xiao Yan, you don’t know?" Bitter and Zhou Suqing on the other end were astonished. Bitter explained the situation to Xu Ze, telling him that the other author had already been notified and would post a chapter to appease his fans.

After a moment, Xu Ze frowned, "Alright, I’ll post a chapter to calm them as well."

Xu Ze hadn’t expected so much to happen while he was writing. Bitter said, "Thank you, Xiao Yan. By the way, tonight, when you go online, 'Immortal Execution' will receive splash screen promotion, homepage recommendation, and full-site broadcast for a week. Please keep updating!"

"Alright."

Xu Ze was surprised. He knew these three promotions—they were top-tier, and he was getting all of them at once. Clearly, the site was betting big on "Immortal Execution."

After hanging up, Xu Ze immediately opened the site and the writer’s forum. Seeing the posts and comments in his review section, he got the gist of things. He didn’t know who had started it, but it was easy enough to handle: both authors just needed to rein in their fans.

Xu Ze couldn’t help but sigh. Who would have thought that writing a book would feel like being in the entertainment industry?

He pondered what to write in his appeasement chapter when he noticed fans in the review section were all posting:

"Demon King posted a chapter!"

Oh? Looks like the other author acted first.

Xu Ze decided to check it out, mainly because he wasn’t sure what to write—he lacked experience in this. So he decided to borrow some inspiration.

Opening "Swordsman Adventure," sure enough, Demon King had updated a free chapter two minutes ago:

"Words for the Young."

Xu Ze nodded at the title. No wonder Demon King was a platinum author—this title was well-chosen.

"Unknowingly, next year marks my tenth year writing novels. I still remember, when I wrote my first book, no one read it. But I persisted silently, never resorting to tricks or chasing hype, or manipulating statistics.

I've always believed that a writer must be grounded; just write every day, that’s all. I’ve always held myself to this, and in the end, I succeeded."

Reading this, Xu Ze frowned. Something was off with Demon King's chapter—was he really urging fans to calm down?

It felt more like a subtle insinuation that Xu Ze was chasing hype or manipulating stats.

Xu Ze continued reading.

"Online fiction is growing fast, with new books popping up daily. Sometimes a book explodes in popularity overnight, but sadly, many can't keep up the momentum after launching, and collapse; the author falls and never recovers.

It’s a common pitfall for newcomers.

I just learned about today’s incident. I know my fans were wronged, but it doesn’t matter. We have our own glory. By the end of this month, 'Swordsman Adventure' will have dominated the charts for a full year!

Bestseller list, vote list—a whole year, all ours!

Of course, we can’t dominate the new book list, since we’re no longer new, haha.

Brothers, let’s be magnanimous. Our only enemy has always been ourselves!

PS: The review section will be back soon. Hope everyone reads quietly and joins me at the summit."

—Demon King.

After finishing Demon King’s chapter, Xu Ze’s frown deepened.

Demon King was stirring things up, and doing it skillfully. There was no direct attack, but plenty of hints that "Immortal Execution" was just a flash in the pan. He claimed his fans were wronged, implying Xu Ze was the troublemaker, while Demon King was merely defending himself, and suffered his review section crashing.

He ended by flaunting his own glory, suggesting "Immortal Execution" could only compete on the new book list, while "Swordsman Adventure" had dominated the top charts for a year.

Between the lines, it was clear he looked down on Xu Ze.

And at the end, he seemed magnanimous, as if he didn’t care to argue.

"Brilliant, truly brilliant!"

No wonder Demon King was a platinum author—he had skill.

Xu Ze originally planned to follow the editor’s advice, mutually calm the fans, and let the matter pass. He hadn’t organized any of it, and wasn’t even aware.

But since Demon King chose this approach, Xu Ze wouldn’t hold back.

He had never been afraid of anyone.

Soon, Demon King’s chapter was posted to the author forum. Many authors, reading it, understood the undertones.

They exclaimed:

"This is Demon King's skill and depth."

"Looks like 'Immortal Execution' is in trouble. Its reputation might take a hit now."

"Ah, why bother provoking Demon King in the first place?"

"Do you think Xiao Yan will retaliate?"

"What’s the point? Demon King made it clear—'Immortal Execution' only belongs on the new book list, while the bestseller and vote lists are still Demon King's territory. How could 'Immortal Execution' fight back? Even if it launches tonight and joins those charts, it can’t compete."

"Right, the month’s nearly over. If Xiao Yan makes it onto the vote list, top twenty would be impressive. Bestseller list, maybe top ten."

"Exactly. If Xiao Yan keeps calm, he won’t escalate now."

As everyone expected Xiao Yan to swallow his pride, someone cried out:

"'Immortal Execution' just updated a chapter!"

"What? Updated? I have to see!"

And when everyone saw the chapter title, they were stunned.

"From here, slay the demons—"