The Lonely Master 2

The Lonely Master 2 is the sequel to Landi Meichen's The Lonely Master, picking up where the previous installment's "Jianghu Section" left off and opening an entirely new "Myth Section." The author states explicitly that this book's plot, NPC roles, and even ending are completely different from the old Myth Section, and it can be seen as a self-rewrite: the Three Realms are the jianghu, and the jianghu is the Three Realms. The book is set against the virtual world of the "Chaos Era": around Earth year 2345, resource and environmental crises force human society to build a global virtual network into which people's spirits can enter and persist long-term, with the game world set as a cold-weapons jianghu that incorporates the immortal, underworld, and demon realms of myth. The previous protagonist Yiyun and the characters of the new Myth Section face the conflicts that arise once the Three Realms are connected: the rise and fall of human sects and their feuds, the survival rules on both sides of the real and virtual, and the loneliness and cost behind the word "master." The author continues his cold, sharp style, writing the jianghu's violence, loyalties, and choices with a keen edge, and pushes further the proposition that "the making of a master is piled up out of loneliness." Serialized on Qidian from late 2012 and completed in December 2013, the work runs about 3.85 million characters and nearly 1,200 chapters, the largest of the sequels.