Whoa! Somehow we did it! We made it to the end of volume one! That's right, the volume is now over!!! I wonder if people are still reading after what I did to Davi?
To be honest, when I first started writing Phoenix Flight, I had no idea where this story would go. My writing career first began on Webnovel with a story that no longer exists. After that, I moved to Royal Road and started my novel, Spectacular World. A story that is still ongoing, and I do have plans to finish it eventually.
A lot of my focus shifted, though, when I began to work on Phoenix Flight. Spectacular World was my first child, and I didn't really know how to write. I still don't, but I think a lot of mistakes were present in its execution. Phoenix Flight might also be full of issues, but I think I'm a lot happier with it.
Phoenix Flight did shockingly well. Not only did it hit several Rising Stars on Royal Road, but it also hit the main Rising Stars and stayed in for several days, as well as hitting the front page on Scribble Hub once. Phoenix Flight still isn't the most popular or groundbreaking novel, but it did a lot better than I thought it would, and most importantly, I had a ton of fun writing it.
As some might know, there were connections to my first work. As I said, I do plan to finish Spectacular World, but right now a lot of my focus has shifted to Phoenix Flight. Its story is much bigger and longer, and we've barely even scratched the surface. I still have a lot of plans for this story going forward, and without a doubt, I can safely say there will easily be over one thousand chapters of this novel.
While I am here, I also wanted to go over some character facts and details about the story! Let's start with the first character created!
Davi Hawker—Since the start, Davi was always going to be Davi Hawker. Unlike the others, who had different names or looks, Davi was always the same for the most part. The only difference was his magic. In early drafts, he actually didn't have magic and would have been strictly just a swordsman. This ended up getting scrapped, though, when I decided to make the magic system more important, as I couldn't see him keeping up without it. Magic, cores, and everything else became more and more important, and without pulling out some BS excuse like anti-magic, I was afraid that Davi being strong would be impossible. So I eventually settled on shadow magic for him. It was cool, simple, and clean.
Davi's personality changed a bit as well the longer the series went on, but for the most part, he was always sort of quiet or mysterious. A person who needed to be built up and explored the longer the story went on for him. He is easily the most important character of the story and, in a lot of ways, the proper MC.
Ken Yuan—Ken literally didn't exist until the last moment. I had plans for there being four people since the beginning, but Ken wasn't one of them. Instead, there was another girl with fire magic named Athena Dawn, who would have fought with a giant hammer. She had a similar personality to Ken but was pretty different in the long run.
I made the change because I wanted someone who fights with their fist. Davi has his sword, Olivia has her scythe, and Sieg has his bow/spear, so a person who just used a hammer felt kind of bland. On top of that, though, I got into cultivation novels right as I was writing Phoenix Flight and fell in love with them. Because of this, I created a character I could use to explore those themes. I'm still new to Xianxia-style stories, and Phoenix Flight hardly counts, but I am looking forward to exploring it.
At times, I sometimes feel mild regret. Rossum is very heavily inspired by cultivation and Xianxia-style, while Mordehim is sort of inspired by swordsmen and ninjas. I feel like the two could have gone together, and I could have made a fourth unique continent, but it's a little too late for that. I got some big plans, though. Maybe some of them will be good.
Sieg Hawker—Sieg was another character that, like Davi, didn't change. Even his magic was the same. He was always going to use lightning, he was always going to have a connection to dragons, and he was always going to be a spearman. What did change, though, were his knightly qualities. Something we'll see more of in volume two. There really isn't a lot about Sieg I can say. After all, he's the character used the least. I hope people eventually like him, though.
Olivia Lot—Ah, sweet Olivia. She changed the most. First of all, there was no Olivia. Back at the start, we had Oliver Lot! That's right! A guy! Oliver was going to be a character born with time magic, considered to be one of the rarest forms of magic, but he was unskilled and lacked talent, leading him to view himself as useless. By chance, though, he'd meet a man named Davi, and the two would set out on an adventure. I ended up deciding Oliver felt off, though. I could never get him to flow the way I wanted.
Eventually, I changed them to Olivia. I'm really glad I did because Olivia is now my favorite character to write. I love her a lot. At the start, there were plans for her to still have time magic, but I could never get it to work right. It always felt either too OP or too weak to be believable. I always wanted something that could grow, and eventually I settled on blood magic. It seemed like an easy weakness to write for and something that could grow and become stronger the longer the series went on.
The witch girl Olivia was also a new idea that came out at the last second. I just really wanted a sexy witch character...
All in all, there are a lot of fun facts, I think, with Phoenix Flight. A lot of my characters have changed a lot, and sometimes I don't even know what will happen next. I have plans, but I get new ideas every day. This story wasn't even going to be about LitRPG systems or cultivation, and now both of those are massive elements lmao.
There were parts I think I could have done better, and there are also parts I think I nailed. Some of the tests and side cast could have maybe been fleshed out more, and there certainly are some messy moments when you look back at the volume as a whole, but I hope to keep writing and to keep having fun with this series.
Special thanks to all my readers, especially those who supported my Patreon. You guys are all the reason this story did as well as it did, and I love every comment I get. I look forward to writing more and seeing where this ride goes.
There will be some extra chapters releasing, such as some bonus content and side stories. I hope you all enjoy and keep reading my novel.
I will see those who keep going in volume two, which will be starting soon.