After traveling through the book, I conquered the male protagonist Long Aotian!

"In order to help you, I am even willing to spend half of the system's energy. I do this because I see your value."

After hearing this, Gu Qingze felt a warm current in his heart. He said to Feng Ying seriously, "Feng Ying, thank you."

Feng Ying smiled slightly, as if simply stating a fact, but also with a hint of barely perceptible emotion: "This is the second time you've expressed your gratitude to me."

After listening to Feng Ying's words, Gu Qingze fell into deep thought. After a moment, he slowly spoke: "According to what you said, Feng Ying, the world I originally lived in evolved from a romance novel, and this world evolved from multiple novels..."

He paused for a moment, then continued, "As far as I know, one of the novels that makes up this world, The Path to Immortality, was written by an author from my original world."

"So...does the creation of these small worlds follow some specific rules?"

Feng Ying shook his head, his expression revealing a bit of helplessness: "Actually, I can't explain it in detail. But small worlds do continue to be generated and increase, just like the example you just gave."

“However, this does not mean that there is a subordinate relationship between them, but rather that they are parallel.”

He thought about it and changed his statement to be more understandable: "You can understand it as the small world will constantly 'give birth' to other small worlds."

"And these newly generated small worlds will continue to 'give birth' to more small worlds. This is a perfectly normal thing."

Gu Qingze's eyes flashed with light, as if he had thought of some key information. He hesitated for a while, but decided to speak: "Feng Ying, I seem to... know the author of the novel "The Road to Immortality"."

Feng Ying nodded slightly, with a subtle hint of meaning in his tone: "You do know him."

"Also, part of the villain in this novel is based on you. Of course, this is only part of it, so you don't look exactly like Gu Qingze in the original novel."

He did not continue to delve into the topic, but changed the subject and looked at Gu Qingze: "I left you some clues before, do you remember?"

Gu Qingze nodded and responded: "Remember, during the previous 'Sanshenghua' incident, Ling Xiao and I speculated that there should be another person involved. Now it seems that person should be you."

He paused for a moment, then continued, "Whether it was leading me to the auction house in the demon world, allowing me to discover Ye Li, who looked the same as in my original world, and thus realize that something was wrong, or the subsequent brothel incident..."

Gu Qingze did not continue talking here, but cleverly returned to the previous topic:

"I guess the reason why Ye Li looks the same as the Ye Li I knew in my original world is because the author created her completely based on her prototype."

He looked at Feng Ying: "And Feng Ying, you just said that the reason why Gu Qingze in this world is different from me is that he was only partially created based on me, and at the same time mixed with other existences, right?"

Feng Ying smiled slightly and gave an affirmative answer: "Yes, it's exactly what you think."

Feng Ying turned his gaze towards Gu Qingze, with a hint of helplessness in his tone: "However, as for why the author used you as the prototype, and other things that may have happened between you, that is your personal grudge, which I am not too sure about."

He paused for a moment, then explained, "The reason why I was able to investigate some of the things related to you is because you occupied a small part of the plot in the original world."

"As for the author you know, the one who created 'The Path to Immortality', he is completely outside the plot, so I can't find out any information about him."

A familiar figure emerged in Gu Qingze's mind, but then he shook his head, as if he didn't want to dwell too much on the past:

"It doesn't matter anymore. Although I don't know why he used me as the prototype and wrote the villain so miserably, but... it doesn't matter now."

He seemed to have suddenly thought of a key point, and asked hurriedly: "Feng Ying, since Gu Qingze and Ye Li both have prototypes, then Ling Xiao..."

Feng Ying shook his head gently and explained: "Chu Lingxiao is not."

"Except for a few characters that he substituted into real people, for the other characters, he basically used the template of a counterattack novel."

He looked at Gu Qingze with a hint of amusement in his eyes: "Didn't you find that the protagonist's experience at the beginning is very similar to a certain novel?"

Gu Qingze frowned slightly when he heard this, as if he was trying to recall something, and then said uncertainly: "You mean..."

Feng Ying nodded, confirming his guess: "Well, because the novel was so popular back then, many novels that used its template appeared later, and "The Road to Immortality" is one of them."

Gu Qingze thought about it and raised another question: "But I remember... that popular novel didn't have so many harem settings."

Feng Ying smiled and explained, "It's just applying the template, it doesn't mean it's exactly the same."

"The large number of harems may have been added by the author based on his own creative preferences."

"This novel has a prototype. Except for you, Ye Li, and a few other harem characters, the other characters are simply created by applying the template."

Feng Ying seemed to have thought of something interesting: "Speaking of which, authors of cool novels will more or less put themselves in the perspective and emotions of the protagonist."

"But the author of 'The Path to Immortality' is an exception. He has no sense of immersion at all. He just applies the template purely, like a cold machine. He doesn't even have the slightest passion for creation."

Gu Qingze's thoughts drifted back to the past, and he recalled the scene when Shen Yichen first talked to him about creation.

At that time, Shen Yichen's eyes were shining with love and persistence for creation, and he devoted himself wholeheartedly to every character and every plot.

Gu Qingze really couldn't imagine that one day Shen Yichen would become so numb to creation that he would no longer create content that he truly loved, but would simply chase hot topics and write whatever genre was popular.

He had no idea what Shen Yichen went through later, nor could he understand the mental journey of his transformation.

He also didn't understand why he had offended Shen Yichen and made him create the villain of this novel based on him...

The young man who was once full of vigor and vitality has now become like this. Thinking of this, Gu Qingze couldn't help but feel a sigh and regret.