Chapter 203: Writing the Story of Turn Back Before It's Too Late Together!
The story of Turn Back Before It's Too Late takes place in an unknown era of ancient Huaxia.
It begins in a once-peaceful village that suddenly falls into crisis—more and more people start losing their three souls and seven spirits, becoming wandering ghosts.
These people gradually lose their memories, their sanity, and roam aimlessly, attacking those who still retain their complete souls. Without conscious thought, they all begin to drift toward a mysterious direction.
In the words of a few survivors, that direction is known as the Road to the Yellow Springs.
According to the village elders, when someone dies, their soul should be collected by the Black and White Impermanence, then taken to the underworld to face judgment by King Yanluo. There, it would be decided whether they reincarnate, enter the six realms of rebirth, or be cast into the 18 layers of hell.
But for reasons unknown, the Black and White Impermanence no longer escort the dead. Thus, whether a natural death or a violent one, souls could only drift along the Yellow Springs Road, unable to reach the underworld.
These lost ghosts, drawn instinctively by the call of the underworld but unable to find the right path, gradually grew violent and hostile.
And so, the human world began to turn into purgatory.
The player takes the role of a dying mortal whose three souls and seven spirits are already incomplete. Yet, faintly, they sense a call from the distance, summoning them forward.
In order not to degenerate into a mindless ghost, and to uncover the truth behind everything, the protagonist sets foot on the Yellow Springs Road—entering the underworld as a mere mortal.
The Game Flow is divided into several stages:
The starting human village.
A town completely overrun by wandering ghosts.
The perilous Ghost Gate Pass.
The ghost-infested Yellow Springs Road.
The Three Crossings River, lined with red spider lilies.
The Forgetting River (Wangchuan) and the Bridge of Helplessness (Naihe).
The Viewing Terrace (Wangxiangtai) and Stone of Three Lifetimes (Sanshengshi) by the bridge.
The majestic Yanluo's Main Hall.
The chaotic Six Paths of Reincarnation.
The deepest Avici Hell
Bosses
Boss fights will be drawn from traditional mythological figures, such as:
Meng Po at the Bridge of Helplessness.
The Four Great Judges of the underworld:
Lu Zhidao (Judge of Inspection, purple)
Zhong Kui (Judge of Punishment, green)
Wei Zheng (Judge of Reward, blue)
Cui Jue (Judge of Law, orange)
The Ten Kings of Hell, and more.
Gameplay Mechanics
Following President Pei's requirements, every time the player dies, all minor enemies will respawn. Thus, at intervals, the game will place Buddha statues as checkpoints.
Throughout the journey, players will encounter dilapidated temples, broken Buddha statues, shrines, and earth god idols.
In this world, there are no actual Buddhas—only broken statues, hinting at the legendary End of Dharma era.
Buddha statues serve as save points, allowing players to recover and respawn enemies.
Earth god statues allow players to collect nearby lost souls, which can then be used to strengthen attributes.
The total content isn't massive, since the budget is limited. The full game would last around 12–13 hours, assuming the player masters combat and progresses steadily.
For beginners, however, completion time might stretch into dozens of hours—or even endlessly.
The game is non-linear; players may need to backtrack to unlock certain areas.
For example, early on, players must first venture into the ghost-infested town, defeat the gathered spirits, obtain enhancements and special anti-ghost items (like prayer beads and talismans). Only then can they return to the starting village, kill a dying elder, and follow his soul onto the Yellow Springs Road.
If players skip the town and immediately kill the elder, their journey along the Yellow Springs Road will be extremely difficult.
Similarly, at Yanluo's Hall, players can make critical choices:
Conquer the Hall by destroying the judges and King Yanluo, becoming a true demon.
Step into the Six Paths of Reincarnation, to be reborn as a human and escape the cursed world.
Descend into the Avici Hell, slay the deranged Warden, and sacrifice oneself to suppress the restless souls…
The game will feature three to five endings, with outcomes shaped by the player's decisions at crucial points.
And the hints to these choices?
They will be hidden carefully within the storyline.
In the game, players can overhear fragments of dialogue from NPCs, or defeat wandering ghosts and bosses to seize the remnants of their three souls and seven spirits, thereby obtaining scattered memory fragments to read.
At certain key items or locations (such as the Stone of Three Lifetimes), players can also receive subtle, hidden hints.
The Stone of Three Lifetimes, for example, can be revisited multiple times throughout the game. Depending on the player's progress, each visit reveals different content, which in turn influences major plot developments.
Naturally, when players diverge into different story branches, the same locations will host different monsters. This reusing of maps also helps save development costs.
And these very hints—written in deliberately obscure ways—are the key to deterring foreign players.
Pei Qian didn't demand these hints be written in poetry, as poetry would be far too difficult.
Instead, he required them to be written in slightly convoluted classical Chinese—just enough that anyone who's gone through nine years of compulsory education could roughly guess the meaning.
It wasn't that he disliked poetry—rather, even if he made that demand, Lu Mingliang and the others wouldn't be capable of producing it anyway.
All of this was just the preliminary design.
At this early stage of development, it was enough to roughly outline the game's environments, bosses, and story flow—just enough to ensure early preparations (such as requests for art assets) could move forward smoothly.
The finer details and deeper content could be continuously fleshed out during the actual development process, with settings and plot points subject to change at any time.
Ma Yiqun carefully explained the game's worldview, along with the work assignments for the team.
In comparison, no one was particularly excited about manuscript screening. What they found far more interesting was contributing to the story of Turn Back Before It's Too Late.
After all, up to this point, the submissions chosen by Terminal Chinese Web were… mediocre at best.
Had there been any works with gripping openings, fast pacing, novel setups, and compelling plots, then perhaps people would have felt more motivated.
But there weren't.
Which meant that no matter how many manuscripts they screened, it was practically impossible to stumble upon a true blockbuster that could suddenly make the entire website popular.
As for mentoring authors? That was even more laughable. Most editors themselves only had a half-baked understanding of writing. If they tried to guide others, they might even make things worse.
But Turn Back Before It's Too Late was different.
This was Tengda Games' latest masterpiece!
A multimillion investment!
Personally overseen by President Pei himself!
By any measure, this game was destined to blow up. Even if it didn't rake in profits like Ocean Fortress, it would certainly establish a reputation on par with Game Producer.
To actually participate in its development—even to write a small piece of its story—meant being able to proudly boast about it to friends in the future!
Zhu Anxing's eyes lit up after listening to Ma Yiqun's explanation.
"Brother Ma, I want to write!"
"Couldn't we even publish the stories we come up with directly on our website? They could serve as the official novel adaptation of the game!"
"We could divide the tasks among ourselves—each person responsible for a different part, including the game's chronicle, as well as backstories for various bosses and NPCs, serving as supplemental lore."
"Even if not everything makes it into the game, this would be way better than us fumbling aimlessly behind closed doors."
Ma Yiqun thought for a moment. That actually made sense.
At the moment, people didn't really have much else to do. Even if they tried writing web novels, most didn't know what subjects to choose.
So why not all work together on Turn Back Before It's Too Late's storyline? Once the drafts were complete, they could select certain parts to incorporate into the actual game.
Ma Yiqun nodded.
"Alright. Then alongside our manuscript screening, let's also put effort into the story of the Turn Back Before It's Too Late."
"From now on, let's hold a meeting every week specifically to discuss storyline design. I'll relay our ideas to the project team."
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