POSTING SCHEDULE - Closed Door Cultivation and Individual Thanks to Each Sect Member! (Sect Transmission, September 26, 2025)

Sect Brothers and Sect Sisters,

After last week's qi-deviation (wherein it was discovered that a chapter mysteriously uploaded itself in the wrong order eheheh), this Junior has been enlightened. The Scripture requires periodic closed-door cultivation to maintain both quality and sanity. It is also to keep this Junior's mortal coil from falling apart. Last week I found out I'm anaemic due to some endocrine whatever, which I legit thought was a joke condition from the Victorian era, like scurvy, but apparently not.

New cultivation schedule: Every 7th week, I enter closed-door seclusion.

During that one week, there will be no chapter releases (but there will be bonus content) while I focus on Scripture Refinement, maintaining the Workflow Formation with Senior Brother Editor, and stabilizing the Chapter Release Array.

First seclusion week: September 29, 2025 - October 5, 2025
Chapters resume: October 6, 2025

Again, although there will be no chapter uploads during seclusion week, I will time the release of bonus content going forward to ensure that the week still contains some fun and food from the Thousand Flavor Realm!

Real Talk

I care a lot about giving you something that deserves and respects your time.

Dim Sum Dao attempts something ambitious: honoring xianxia, literature, and the culinary arts simultaneously. Every trope must be uniquely fulfilled without resorting to easy subversion. Every recipe must work in real life. Every plot thread must weave across hundreds of chapters into a coherent tapestry.

I do my best to make each chapter pull quadruple duty—advancing story, character, plot, and theme—while keeping you so entertained you don’t notice the craft and machinery, just the fun. I have to find the right balance of comedy and pathos, literary and accessible, so that when an unconventional style is needed for a key moment, I've earned enough of your trust that you follow me there.

It’s difficult. Really difficult. It's a lot of heartfelt work where I sometimes ask myself why I'm playing on hard mode. Oh, also, every culinary cultivation concept must track with the Dao De Jing (or Tao Te Ching). You should see my annotated bilingual copy of it.

Each chapter goes through multiple drafts and editorial passes. Senior Brother Editor and I joke about the heart-demons this Scripture creates. Except it’s not a joke. Our queries and style sheet is now twenty-two pages long. It's terrifying. I can only afford to work with Senior Brother Editor because of mate's rates and his belief in Dim Sum Dao. Thank you, Senior. I am working hard to repay your kindness.

All of which is to say, this level of labor is not sustainable at 3x weekly releases without carving out room to breathe now and then.

Some writers suggest splitting chapters to increase post frequency. There are a lot of fictions with similar page counts to mine, yet have 20% to 80% more chapters. Conversely, it was also suggested that I drop to 2x weekly. That doesn’t really work for Dim Sum Dao. I write episodes deliberately and don’t want to artificially chop them just to inflate chapter count. And I would like for you all to be able to look forward to Dim Sum Dao three times a week. Life is rough. Part of the reason I write Dim Sum Dao is to tell a story that makes people remember the good in themselves and each other.

These scheduled closed-door cultivation sessions are the solution. We keep the 3x weekly pace, but regular maintenance is necessary to prevent total formation collapse!

Also consider re-reading old chapters during seclusion week—I promise you'll catch foreshadowing and Easter eggs you missed the first time round.

As ever, thank you all for reading and enjoying the Scripture. In fact, I want to take a moment to thank each Ranked Sect Member, sticking to just initials/letters so as not to put anyone on the spot!

Respects!

IMMORTAL RECIPE ELDERS

M - The First Elder, thank you for your sincere, generous and unwavering support since the beta reading days! There aren't really enough words to thank you.

HB - The mysterious Second Elder! When you signed up I messaged everyone I knew IRL to make sure it wasn't someone just being quietly supportive. I was shook. Thank you!

Crazyone47 - The venerable and bombastic Third Elder! Your excited comments always make my day. I feel like you won't mind having your name up here hahaha. Even Senior Brother Editor knows how much I look forward to them. Thank you!

MT - The breakthrough Fourth Elder! You joined as an Inner Kitchen Spirit Chef and in 15 minutes you broke through to Immortal Recipe Elder! I am so happy to know that our Scripture was worthy of enhancing your cultivation. Thank you!

Dumplingsafe - This is Senior Brother Editor. Lawlz. Thank you for everything, bruv.

INNER KITCHEN SPIRIT CHEF

T - Our latest Sect member! I hope you are eating well, Senior! Thank you!

KITCHEN DISCIPLES

LC, A, V, RF - Thank you all for lending your support to keep the Sect's Kitchen fires going! V, thank you for hitting the like button as a sort of signal flag haha. A, thank you for poking me that one time to nudge me!

Thank you all, Sect Brothers and Sisters. I have a lot planned for our adventures in the Thousand Flavor Realm. I just need to increase my cultivation to achieve it. Your support helps keep me going!

If you want to do one more thing to support the Scripture, I would very much appreciate if you could help spread the word about Dim Sum Dao! Drop the Royalroad link in a Discord or forum or subreddit and let others know the Scripture exists! Seniors, please lend me your strength. I am a Scripture Daoist, not a Marketing Daoist. By helping me with these Marketing Tribulations, you are allowing me to focus on Scripture cultivation. Thank you!

Alright, that's it for this sect announcement.

See you next Monday, Seniors! It's time to seal the Kitchen Cellar and intensely cultivate the Scripture!

—Xiao Tao 笑涛
Junior Disciple, Dim Sum Dao Sect
Fragrant Bowl City, Thousand Flavor Realm