I’m really not the Saviour! (我唔係救主囖!)

Hi everyone! I... overdid things a little, and so got sick, and also have unfortunately run out of my backlog. Thanks for your patience >_< Here are some ramblings instead:

I'm not the Saviour! is, funnily enough, the first chronologically of the Tales of the Jade Road, but the last story that I started. The first was At the Water's Edge, then came Ginseng and Yew, then Eitsu's Nine Lives, and then Saviour.

When I began writing this story, I was a little hesitant. There are far more good danmei/BL works than baihe/GL works (not saying they don't exist, it's just a much smaller pool) so I was a bit reluctant to add to the giant body of BL works that exist.... but I already had At the Water's Edge and Eitsu's Nine Lives to add to the GL sphere, and I had just binge-read all of MDZS's works, plus the two fantastic works The Earth is Online by Mo Chen Huan and Global Examination by Mu Su Li.

I loved You Huo's character in Global Examination, so I shamelessly used him as inspiration for my MC.

I wanted a very different character to be his love interest; a sort of stereotypical hero – strong, handsome, confident and eager for life. Even his name, Gou Zing, is a very righteous hero name.

So I now had two very capable cultivator guys running around, and I needed a situation for them. I was feeling a little silly after reading the manhwa The World's Best Engineer by Lee Hyunmin and Moon Baekkyung, so I thought it would be fun to start off with a little identity confusion. What if there were somehow enough similarities between the two boys to throw everyone off?

So I started writing, and as with the way of all of my stories, it started off fun and (at least in my mind, as someone who has most of the plot determined) quickly became serious.

Tim Zoeng-baak is... a little inspired by Bai Rouyue from The Earth is Online, but also by a few people that I have unfortunately met in real life.

Unlike my other three stories, I wanted a larger main cast. With At the Water's Edge, Ginseng and Yew and Eitsu's Nine Lives, although there are multiple supporting characters, there is still a big focus on the lead pair. I get very influenced by the media I consume, and having read the manhwa Highest Order by Plan B, I suddenly found myself wanting to write a larger friend group, who would go on this adventure together and become closer. I truly appreciate strong platonic love as much as romantic, perhaps even more so, so it seemed right.

So Can Bik and Zeng Baak-hap, who were originally going to be fairly minor characters, suddenly got a boost. And of course, what happens when you have a group going on an adventure? They have a theme, right? Think the Sailor Senshi from Sailor Moon, the Power Rangers, the Powerpuff Girls, Avatar: The Last Airbender... So I solidified the idea of different schools of cultivation arts following the five Daoist elements.

But wait, there are only four people in this party. And both Gou Zing and Zeng Baak-hap have Earth attributes!

… Well, I also like screwing with stereotypes :D

Anyway, things are about to get dark real quick. I rekindled my love of Undertale and watched a playthrough of the True Lab level (those who know, know), so the story is about to head in an interesting direction.

I'm going to take this week to get well again, and put together a few more chapters. I will definitely have one new chapter out by 27 October, if not more :)

- Shyuurin