I'm back.😂
Wudang Mountain（武当山） wrecked me. Way harder than I expected. Way more worth it than I expected. Last post I said I was going to "empty my mind." The mountain didn’t care about my plan at all.
Day 1: Five Dragon Palace and a Landslide
7 AM start. A local villager guided us to a place regular tourists can't reach — Five Dragon Palace（五龙宫）.
Five Dragon Palace is the true origin of Wudang Taoism. 1,400 years old, about 500 years older than the areas currently open to the public. No crowds. Just us. We sat in the palace courtyard, quietly, just... feeling it. No signal. No notifications. No deadlines. Just sitting. Haven't done that in a long time.
Then we pushed deeper into Five Dragon Gorge（五龙大侠谷） — still an unopened area. Green hills, clear water, birdsong echoing through the valley. Barely saw another soul.
Then something happened.
We were resting by a small pool, eating lunch, when suddenly behind us — the exact spot we'd walked through maybe 30 meters back — a massive crack. I thought it was a flash flood. Then huge rocks came pouring down. Landslide.
We got lucky. We'd passed through that section maybe 10 minutes before. Just barely missed it.
We packed up and moved fast. Made it to the open scenic area — South Cliff — without further incident.
Day 2: Around South Cliff（南岩）
Took it easy. Wandered around South Cliff for the day. Prince's Cave（太子洞）, Purple Cloud Palace（紫霄宫）, Dragon Incense（龙来香）. A relatively chill day. Saving energy for day three.
Honestly, after day one's hike, my legs were already destroyed.
Day 3: Golden Summit（金顶）
Last day. Time to hike to the highest point of Wudang — the Golden Summit.
My legs were screaming from day one. But I figured, I came all this way — taking a cable car up isn't my style. Let's walk.
Here's what travel brochures don't tell you about Wudang: the stairs never end. You climb a flight, think you've reached the top, turn the corner — another flight staring you down. It's like a while(true) loop with no break condition. Except your knees are the ones doing the debugging.
Step by step. About halfway up, it hit me — isn't this exactly what the last few months have been? You think it's over, turn the corner, another flight of stairs. Lose your job, turn the corner, update your resume. Finish that, edit the manuscript. Finish that, cover design, formatting, tax forms, payment setup, KDP upload, 72-hour review wait...
No break. Just one more step.
The higher we went, the thicker the fog. At one point, visibility was maybe 5 meters. Like something out of a fairy tale — you could hear voices but couldn't see anyone.
Finally reached the Golden Summit. Standing above the clouds. They were literally beneath my feet. I stood there, gasping, legs shaking, and for about thirty seconds my mind was completely blank.
Not the Zen kind of blank. The my-quads-are-on-fire-and-my-brain-can't-function kind of blank.
But blank is blank. I'll take it.
@francistrdev I said a prayer for the dev community up there, like I promised. Whether any gods are up there listening — absolutely. If you friends who commented on the last post get a sudden stroke of good luck, you know who to thank, lol 😂
About the Book
Now, business.
Right before writing this post, I submitted AI, Ego & Regret to Amazon KDP. It's currently under review.
The full 15-story collection — the one I mentioned last time, the one I was polishing between handover tasks at the old company — both the eBook and paperback have been uploaded. Waiting on Amazon's review, should be live within 72 hours. Once it's up, search "AI Ego and Regret" on Amazon to find it.
This is the predecessor to the 36 Stratagems series — my original series. Stories about AI systems failing in ways nobody expected, the egos that built them, and the regret that followed. But the book version is more than just a compilation:
- Revised and polished — every story re-edited, tightened, some substantially rewritten
- Proper formatting — code blocks that actually render correctly on an e-reader (you have no idea how long that took)
- Paperback available — yes, a real, physical, hold-it-in-your-hands book. Amazon prints on demand and ships. I don't touch inventory. This era is weird and wonderful.
What I Learned Publishing a Book
The technical details of self-publishing — EPUB formatting, PDF generation, KDP upload process, cross-border payment setup (Payoneer, LianLian Pay, W-8BEN tax forms...) — that's a saga in itself.
Long story short: Writing was the easy bit. It’s all the stuff around it that nearly killed me.
Formatting code blocks for an e-reader is its own circle of hell. Amazon KDP's cover template math will make you question your sanity. Setting up cross-border royalty payments as a Chinese author 😂 means navigating a maze of tax treaties and banking regulations that no tutorial fully covers.
I figured it all out. One step at a time. Same as the mountain.👏
What's Next
I'm rested. The mountain did its job. My head is clearer than it's been in months.
Here's the plan:
- The 36 Stratagems series continues. Still owe you 12 chapters. They're coming. The Wudang trip confirmed my approach — Taoism and military strategy belong together. The book version of the old series includes an extra Taoist stratagem summary.
- More dev.to content. Not just stories — I want to write about the actual technical work I do. AI testing, QA automation, the stuff that happens between the stories.
- Job hunting. Yeah, still a thing. Sent resumes out before the trip, barely any responses. But you know what? I'm not anxious anymore. What comes will come. Wudang taught me — just keep climbing.
One Last Thing
Thank you to everyone who commented on the last post — @leob @unitbuilds @technogamerz @ndcodes @nyaomaru @rondo @hemapriya_kanagala @merbayerp @shubhradev and everyone else. Genuinely. That comment section was the warmest send-off I could've asked for.
Forget each other in the rivers and lakes — but I think we can do both. Walk our own paths, and still meet at the summit.
The mountain is climbed. The book is under review. The mind is empty.
Time to fill it up again. ⛰️
If you'd like to support the book, you can find it on Amazon once it's live. If you enjoy it, a review on Amazon or a comment here means more than you know.
P.S. English isn't my first language. I use AI to polish the writing, but every story, every emotion, every word of intent is mine. Thanks for reading.
