Throughout history, many theoretical breakthroughs have originated from a master’s sudden inspiration.

For example, during the Jiuzhou Era, the master Zhou Rui, who first invented the "Immortal Maiden Incarnation Technique," had his eureka moment on his 100th birthday. Upon waking up early, still groggy, he accidentally put on his 16-year-old lover’s novelty outfit by the bed. The subtle tightness around his lower body sparked a torrent of inspiration, leading to a groundbreaking idea.

After seven days and nights of seclusion and contemplation, he completed the prototype of an incarnation technique that shocked the world, influencing generations of people in Jiuzhou. Unfortunately, that incarnation technique has been completely lost with time. Even Wang Jiu, a living fossil, only remembers the event’s existence but is clueless about the principles of the technique.

A similar situation played out at the Shen City Publishing Alliance. When various major publishing houses were at their wits’ end over the halted updates of "Three Lives Stone," passerby master Wang Jiu offered them a solution.

Why not use ghostwriters?

After a long silence, the publishing houses felt an epiphany!

Indeed, they could use ghostwriters as substitutes!

The pen name "Three Lives Stone" had never been officially registered. It was merely marked as the author on the manuscript, with a royalty account number on the back. Everyone had been following an unspoken rule not to misuse the pen name "Three Lives Stone."

Now, with Three Lives Stone ceasing updates for so long and completely out of touch, potentially causing countless people to suffer severe mental hunger and leading to social unrest...—there’s no blame for resorting to any means necessary. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Although in terms of creative quality, the nameless heroes often hiding behind celebrities couldn’t possibly compare to the authentic Three Lives Stone. However, in this era where everyone has developed a reading habit nurtured by Three Lives Stone, the drop in quality is not the main issue. The reputation of Three Lives Stone is so grand that even a pile of excrement would be seen as a modern art masterpiece...

What’s more, the decline in quality can be compensated for with brilliant marketing strategies. For years, Three Lives Stone had focused solely on creating content, never engaging in promotional plans, which made countless publishing houses gnash their teeth in envy—leaving so much money on the table, only earning a bit of royalty; do you have so much money that you can’t spend it all!?

And now that it’s about employing ghostwriters, there are a variety of marketing strategies to implement.

The simplest is product placement—henceforth, the Li Family members beheaded in the books will be decapitated by the Cold Iron Kitchen Knife from Liu’s Blacksmith Shop in Southeast Shen City. The bodies will be dismembered with Zhang’s Hand Axe, cooked in Cai’s Cast Iron Pot, transported in Jiezhi Family’s travel trunk, and finally, the burial will take place in the picturesque and desolate East Mountain Nature Reserve.

Just this murder and dismemberment scenario can earn a considerable amount in advertising dollars!

Additionally, there’s adaptation synergies. Before the novel is published, various concepts like film, painting albums, music, sketches, and stage plays can be thrown out, along with some popular stars as spokespeople. Quoting an astronomical figure would allow waiting for capital giants to come forward and purchase the entire plan.

In short, once the pen name is liberated, boundless opportunities to make money can unleash freely!

Leading many to wonder, after their enlightenment: What the hell were we doing before!?

When these clever merchants open their minds, their capacity for action becomes astonishingly impressive. By that afternoon, they’d each caught top-notch ghostwriters, forming teams and commencing collective creation. By the third day, Shen City’s largest publisher had already completed a 200,000-word short story draft. By the fifth day, a small publisher even miraculously produced an 800,000-word novel. These ghostwriter studios operate at astonishing speed, though the quality, as you might imagine, inevitably suffers.

Nevertheless, things were getting done. Several publishers collaborated, and in a few days, the total output from the ghostwriting studios equaled over two years of relentless writing from Three Lives Stone. The publishing alliance had also thought of the next step: integrating all the works into a mishmash literary bundle, promoting it as something Three Lives Stone had been secretly preparing over three years while writing his serial stories, now passionately offered, hoping readers would enjoy.

This commercial promotion plan received unanimous praise from the top publishers, as if it illuminated the publishing alliance headquarters’ rooftops with immense radiance, addressing the spiritual sustenance crisis for Shen City and even the entire Xiangzhou populace.

As for whether this plan would result in a flurry of negative reviews for Three Lives Stone’s pen name... if he ceased creating forevermore, the pen name would essentially be dead, with everyone just tapping into its residual value. If he were to continue creating in the future, the pen name would eventually have its chance for redemption.

In short, expecting merchants to adhere to conscience might be asking for too much.

The plan set, all that’s left is execution. On the night of April 12th, the publishing alliance transported the Original Jade Plate containing all the manuscripts to the largest military printing factory in Shen City. The next morning, the publishing giants were to attend the opening ceremony at the printing factory, and within a day, they’d print over 20,000 copies of the literary bundle from the production line, distributed through various channels across the entire Xiangzhou in three days.

However, on the morning of April 13th, when the giants gathered at the printing factory, ready for the ceremony, they were met by a pale-faced factory manager, who staggered toward them with news like a bolt from the blue.

"The disk, the disk is gone..."

It took the giants a moment to comprehend what it meant to say the disk was gone.

"The original jade disc is missing!?"

"What, it was stolen!?" Several leaders immediately jumped up in shock. The original jade disc contained nearly a million words of the Three Lives Stone manuscript. If it were stolen and printed for sale at this moment...

Thud.

An elderly publishing giant fainted on the spot without a word.

Seeing the situation, the director quickly shook his head vigorously: "It wasn’t stolen, it was... destroyed."

"Destroyed?"

The director, with a mournful expression, spread open his hands, revealing a piece of pitch-black charcoal in his palm, faintly emitting a dim glow.

"Is this... the jade disc?"

The director said, "Yes, somehow, the warehouse where the jade disc was stored suddenly caught fire. People say a blaze of fire descended from the sky, striking the warehouse like thunder, burning everything to the ground. Our workers struggled hard to put out the fire, but the jade disc was already..."

Looking at the remnants of the jade disc in the director’s palm, everyone was speechless for a moment.

After a long while, an elderly scholar finally spoke up, trembling as he asked, "Could it be the Fire Dragon Burner?"

As soon as these words were spoken, there was a collective gasp of astonishment.

The Fire Dragon Burner is quite a famous anecdote in the literary world. Hundreds of years ago, in Xiangzhou, there was a great literary master named Kong Zhang. He authored a popular serial novel "Taiping Chronicles" halfway, sweeping through Xiangzhou in popularity. However, his character was lazy and poor. Just as the story reached a captivating point, it abruptly stopped and never continued.

Readers were naturally filled with resentment, resorting to insults, mailing razor blades, and burning physical books and portraits of Kong Zhang... Kong Zhang, feeling extremely guilty, promised every time he faced readers’ complaints to finish the book as soon as possible. Yet, over time, the second half of "Taiping Chronicles" never materialized. People never saw Kong Zhang furiously writing, only noticed he drowned himself in famous wine Dream Blue, living in a drunken stupor, having his health depleted by indulgence.

As a result, Kong Zhang’s reputation collapsed, and people no longer believed that this degenerate middle-aged man could write any monumental work. The once-great literary master’s name became a laughingstock in the Xiangzhou literary world, and the wealth accumulated from the half of a great work quickly vanished among countless empty wine bottles.

Later on, when Kong Zhang died in poverty and hunger, he left behind a confession.

It turned out, the second half of "Taiping Chronicles" had long been written, but its content offended the heavens. Each time the book was finished, a fire dragon would descend from the sky, destroying the jade disc, preventing the manuscript from spreading. No matter how he changed the methods, as long as the core content remained the same, the fire dragon would descend at the moment of completion. After several futile attempts, Kong Zhang finally gave up competing with fate, along with his literary dreams, indulging himself in the escape of alcohol.

Since then, the Fire Dragon Burner became an anecdote passed around the Xiangzhou Continent—those texts that offend the heavens would be destroyed by the fire dragon, never to be seen by the world.

Now, just when the Three Lives Stone literature package was about to be printed and distributed, it was suddenly burned by a fire dragon, naturally reminding people of that anecdote.

Thinking carefully, recruiting ghostwriters and using someone else’s pen name to create this compilation indeed seemed to violate the natural order, and if punished by heavenly fire, it would also make sense.

So the mention of the Fire Dragon Burner by the old man immediately set off waves of gasps.

But at that moment, someone scoffed: "I think someone’s putting on a show! There’s no such thing as a fire dragon burner. If there really were a celestial fire dragon, why didn’t it come to burn me? The entire business plan was approved by me, it should burn me instead! Investigate, investigate thoroughly, find out who is obstructing our publication of the great work, who is damaging the spiritual haven of all Xiangzhou people, and be sure to get to the bottom of it!"

That day, the publishing alliance reported the matter to the government office and invited several master investigators to the scene to search for clues... However, after working hard all night, the masters regretfully stated that no suspicious traces were left at the site; everything seemed perfectly natural, as if it was indeed the way of the heavens.

The next day, the second original jade disc hurriedly produced by the publishing alliance was also burned by a heavenly fire in the warehouse.

In an instant, the Fire Dragon Burner seemingly transformed from myth to reality, causing widespread panic.