ISWG Q&A (Patreon)

Are there only humans there? Or other races too? How big is the world and empire?

When it comes to races that are sapient, then it's just humans. There are plenty of beasts and monsters in the world, but they’re not going around creating civilizations or speaking human languages.

The size of the world is classically xianxia in that it's way bigger than Earth is. Qi is the force that makes the inhospitable livable, and so the usual issues you’d see arise from that kind of size are mitigated. The Empire itself occupies an entire continent, similar to the other two superpowers, the Bagmar Republic and one as of yet unnamed.

Will Chen Haoran and Lan Fen reunite at some point? It feels somewhat lame to have so much invested in a character, and she just disappears with, "I don't think we'll ever meet again."

Chen Haoran and Lan Fen reuniting is planned, yes. We’ll be hearing about her again once she’s out of the cavern. As a Xianxia MC she’ll always be getting up to something. Once she and Chen meet again is when the shenanigans happen.

I only want to know if the ranks (mortal-heaven) are all the ranks or if they are what are the ones usually constrained by being on a planet, like if heavens are entry-level ascendant in quality or something like that.

Mortal to Heaven are all the ranks. There is in fact one more rank after Heaven, but its a bit special and requires the meaning of the ranks themselves to be explained before I can talk about it. I’ll be going in and explaining what exactly Mortal, Profound, Earth, and Heaven mean in the story. Maybe in Book 2, maybe not.

Here’s a list of the ranks and attributes of some character's cultivation methods:

White Tyrant- Heaven-rank, Metal-Attribute

Chen Qitao- Heaven-rank, Water-Attribute

Shen Jianyu- Heaven-rank, Five-Elements-Attribute

Song Yuelin- Earth-rank, Water-Attribute

Xie Jin- Profound-rank, Wood-Attribute

Manager Lin- Profound-rank, Earth-Attribute

I forgot about this sword. Where did he get it?

It’s called the Swiftwind Scimitar, a Profound-rank weapon. He bought it as a paired set in the Golden Lily Association Auction way back near the beginning of the novel. It had the special effect of increasing its slashing speed whenever he crossed the blades together. He first used them in the Spa Caverns and later lost one of the swords in his fight against Lan Yao and so lost access to its special effect. It’s still a Profound-rank weapon, he keeps it because he doesn’t have anything better. He doesn’t really like single-edged swords.

How big is Phelps going to get?

Phelps is going to stay backpack-size. Much to Chen Haoran’s relief. If he got any bigger, he would still demand to be carried, and Chen Haoran would unfortunately oblige his sedan-sized sloth.

Are you planning to do a harem, poly, monogamy, or no romance?

Definitely no harem or poly. I don’t plan to do harem under this pen name. The latter questions are a bit harder to answer. I never envisioned Immortality Starts With Generosity as having romance, hence why I never included a romance tag on Royal Road. And perhaps surprisingly, I never considered Lan Fen to be his romantic partner. But obviously, the way I ended up writing it, there were some clear elements there. I’m going to have to put a big IF on romance at this point in time. If it’s there, it’s going to be with one girl, though.

What would have happened originally?

So Immortality Starts With Generosity could be viewed as being Lan Fen’s story, and Chen Haoran got dropped into it. Except he doesn’t know that, or anything about Xianxia, for that matter. Needless to say, his presence, let alone his power changed a lot.

If our MC didn’t transmigrate and replace the original Young Master Chen Haoran, then Lan Fen would have killed him the night they got married. She would be in a far rougher position and on the run, hiding within the city and relying on her allies and associates to build her power back up. Something we saw her doing off-screen in the main story by bringing her servants into the Chen Manor. Lan Fen would claw and scrape her way into opening the White Tyrant’s ring and re-cultivating back to Ninth-Layer. This would take her much longer than she did in the main story, however, and in that time, Patriarch Lan would have cultivated back to his peak. Lan Fen’s revenge would have to wait until she entered the Liquid Meridian realm.

Song Yuelin would still be dispatched to Clearsprings City. Except this time, it would be to investigate and render punishment onto the killers of Chen Qitao’s son. While the boy was a waste, he was still of the Dragon. Some things are not allowed. The alliance of the City Lord will still continue, with the poor man being even more strong-armed given that he let Chen Qitao’s son die and thus lacks a hostage. The Lan Family will also meet their doom because of this. It was Lan Yao’s plan to send Lan Fen to Chen Haoran, they were just as culpable.

Lan Fen flees from Clearsprings City into the mountains—her revenge taken from her, drowning in shadows, and pursued by Song Yuelin. Eventually, she can run no more and calls upon the White Tyrant to possess her. She and Song Yuelin duel across a steep valley, and while she cannot overcome him without sacrificing her life, she does manage to wound him and escape by jumping into the river below.

Song Yuelin watches her flee with his single working eye. A single trace of Lan Fen’s qi clutched tight in his hand. The Dragon’s Face cannot be lightly crossed.  It is not the last time Lan Fen and the Chen family will cross blades.