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Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.
10/13/2018 : Special thanks to Editor Attica
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“How long has it been, there’s still no news of Sect Master?”
“No, we don’t even know where he went… sigh…”
Xiaoqing [Little Green] Mountain in Qingshui [Clear Water] County lived up to its name. Jade green wilderness stretched as far as the eye could see. The mountain springs meandered down, ringing with trickling echos. Although it lacked the repute of any famous mountains and rivers, it could still be called “elegantly beautiful”. However, there were not many people in the nearby village who dared to come onto this mountain.
There was reason for it – the JiangHu’s illustrious Demonic Sect resided here.
[Jianghu = ‘Rivers and lakes’, ancient Chinese world of martial arts]
This demonic sect had moved here for five or six years already. At first it was complete chaos. Jianghu people wielding swords and staffs charged up murderously, then scampered back down after they had the shit scared out of them. From this noisy fuss, all the surrounding common people knew: a powerful faction lived at Xiaoqing Mountain.
After inquiring all around, it became known this was a foreign martial arts sect. It was said that they looked different from the martial arts people of the Central Plains(1): Ferocious and terrifying to behold, and even liking to eat human flesh. Everyone was on edge and scared stiff, struggling to live their days. It was only when the faction did not appear to have the intention of causing trouble, that people had a bit more peace of mind.
They still did not dare to approach, but there were playful children who ran up the mountain. Upon returning, the children said they ran into a beaming noble young man(2), who was not only good-looking but also gave them a bunch of delicious food. Other children said they instead met a young lady, beautiful like a variegated butterfly.
The adults were shocked, fearing that their children had fallen under some demonic bewitchment or monstrous technique. They sought divine help from the deities. In the end, they punished their children and scolded them not to go again.
Year after year, there are fewer and fewer Jianghu people who dared to come fight on Xiaoqing Mountain. The bandits also consciously bypassed that area. The common people gradually began to feel that having a demonic sect nearby was not such a bad thing after all. Of course, they clearly knew it was because the Demonic Sect was too terrible that others would not dare provoke them. As a result, they gained more respectful fear toward this diversely demonic Xiaoqing Mountain.
At this moment, the Demonic Sect members who were demonized by the outside world did not kill or eat people. Instead, they lived leisurely.
Some went out to handle business and didn’t return, leaving behind a few backbones (**important people/senior sect members). Among these people were those who grew plants, read books, and changed between three sets of clothes per day. There were those who studied locusts(3), as well as those who occasionally went out looking for gifted and usual children with extraordinary spiritual bones (4).
But as the days went by, they all realized one thing.
“Sect Master still hasn’t returned yet?”
“No.”
“He didn’t say where he went? And hasn’t sent any news back either?”
“No to all of those.”
“Oh……”
Initially, there were only a few short conversations. After a few days, the number of inquiries had increased, with the addition of slight anxiety. Like dark clouds before heavy rain, suspicion and uneasiness constantly grew thicker, pressing down upon the heart, waiting for the moment of a complete eruption.
Finally, one day someone asked: “I say… the sect master shouldn’t have had an accident, right not?”
“No way,” said another person. “Sect Master is so intelligent, there’s no way he could have suffered any loss.”
“That is true…”
“He left together with Elder Bai. Is there no news from Elder Bai either?”
“We asked, Elder Bai wrote back that he long since parted ways with the sect master. He also did not know where the sect master was. But Sect Master always liked to have fun, so maybe he came upon some amusing matter. If he is far away, I’m afraid just coming back alone would take one to two months.”
“Well, the important thing is that if we rushed to disturb his good fun, we’ll be the unlucky ones. So don’t worry, he must surely be out having fun, let’s just wait.”
“That makes sense!”
The crowd of people comforted each other for a bit. They decided that whatever happens, they will wait for the sect master’s return.
They waited and waited.
Waited and waited.
Waited and waited… Waited until the rain washed Xiaoqing Mountain back and forth more than ten times, and they still did not see the figure of the sect master.
One elder flipped the table: “My pot of flowers is about to wither! How has he still not come back yet?”
The other people also whispered guiltily.
Elder Mei’s gorgeous skirt trailed as she walked around the study and said with worry: “Sect Master is of course very intelligent, but his martial arts skills are only above average in the Jianghu. If he encountered a first-class master… No, encountering such a master would not be that grave. What we should fear is if he encountered a pervert—his face really stirs up too much calamity.”
Another elder said: “No matter how good he looks, he’s still a man. I’m only afraid that he was sighted by the orthodox path(5)—if he was captured…”
“No, he usually wears a mask. How could those of the orthodox path know that’s him? What’s more, he disguises himself when going out.”
“What if he wasn’t careful and accidentally exposed himself?”
Elder Mei: “I still feel it’s very possible he ran into a pervert and got imprisoned.”
“Oh…” Elder Miao used the same slow tone as when studying locusts, “Speaking of perverts, there was such a person in my hometown. He liked to catch beauties, cut off their tongues and noses, and break both legs. He would then collar their necks and pull them around on a leash while they crawled on the ground, in a show for people to see.”
Everyone else: “…”
Elder Miao: “Right, I heard that eunuchs who enter the palace are required to be good-looking. Suppose our sect master was sold by evildoers into the Imperial Palace…”
The rest: “……………”
The minds of these several people were all filled with various pictures of their family’s sect master being maltreated. Their faces gradually became more and more serious. Just as they were about to carry out a course of action, Elder Bai, who had went out to handle business, finally came back. They immediately seized this life-saving grass(6) and rushed to surround him.
Elder Bai was born looking like he was never quite awake, and he was always lukewarm towards his work. Aside from fighting, he was slow at doing everything.
Several people hurried to ask: “Where is the sect master? He didn’t say where he went?”
Elder Bai shook his head and asked, “He still hasn’t returned yet?”
“No, and there hasn’t been any news.” Several people secretly thought maybe something really had happened to the sect master. They quickly ran out, intending to go out and find him.
Having been ruthlessly abandoned in the blink of an eye, Elder Bai silently connected the dots, and said: “When he left, Sect Master said one thing.”
The few people who had already rushed to the yard immediately skidded to a halt, almost crashing into a heap. They didn’t have time to fix their appearances before uniformly returning: “What did he say?”
Elder Bai said: “Sect Master said that he was going to do something earth-shatteringly important. He wanted us to stay quiet.”
The several people immediately sucked in a breath of cold air: “Something as important as this, why didn’t you say so earlier!”
Elder Bai slowly said: “I thought he was just joking.”
This was not impossible. These several people were silent for a moment.
Elder Bai looked from one person to another, and said: “What should we do now?”
These several people looked at each other, and one person speculated: “Sect Master is from the Central Plains. Could it be he has enemies here?”
Although several of them were also Han Chinese, they had grown up with outside clans and lacked any involvement with the Central Plains Wulin(7). Sect master was different—he grew up in the Central Plains and only left later.
One person said: “I have never heard him talk about it.”
“Can you guess the mind of the sect master?”
“This… I still feel like this isn’t right. We moved here a few years ago. If he really had enemies, we would have long since helped him get revenge.”
“Are there any grievances that we aren’t aware of?”
“Perhaps he really was playing around, but then ran into a problem?”
Elder Mei suddenly got up: “In any case, we must go find him!”
These several people discussed it over. They drew lots to decide who would leave, and those leaving quickly packed their valuables and wildly dashed out.
Elder Bai, who was left behind to watch the base, slowly turned back to go to his room. While unpacking, he remembered something, and ran to the door to shout: “Sect Master left behind a brocade sack.”
He used a little internal force to amplify his voice, and the several people running down the mountain could naturally hear him. There was yet another round of skidding to a halt. Upon making it back, without saying anything further, they pressed him down and beat him up.
They opened the slip of paper and read ten lines at a glance**(rapidly read it). Upon finishing, they only felt completely confused. They raked through all of Elder Bai’s clothes and baggage. Only after confirming he had not forgotten anything else did they once again “thunderously” run down the mountain.
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8/24/2018, Edited footnote style per violentfluffball’s suggestions, long footnotes are put at the bottom now but if it’s a few words I leave it bracketed with the story text. Also thanks for the help with the tough paragraph.
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People of the Central Plains = Chinese people, what’s regarded as ‘normal/standard/civilized’, as opposed to ‘other/outsider/barbarian,’ if you read enough cnovels or watch cdramas this is a common thing.
gongzi is an honorific for son of a noble, polite, used for men even if they are not necessarily nobility
locusts = Gu – poisonous insect commonly known to be used by/associated with evil sects/shady characters in wuxia because the use of poison is thought to be lowly and dishonorable
common to xianxia but is also possible in wuxia or mixed stories, spiritual bones refers to a person’s being and whether they have a strong ability/powers/potential for learning cultivation or martial arts
In wuxia stories, those of the orthodox path, are people or orthodox sects usually seen as the ‘righteous’ and ‘legitimate’ kinds of martial arts practitioners or schools in opposition to the ‘unorthodox’ aka demonic sects. In these kinds of fantasy martial arts series, cultivating an orthodox path is stuff like skilled non-poisoned swordplay, sutras, taoism based martial arts (formations, paper talismans). Unorthodox is using martial arts powers based on stuff like poison, blood, stealing other people’s souls, necromancy. Those following the orthodox way usually frown on and are enemies of those walking the unorthodox path.
metaphor, Elder Bai can possibly solve their problem of the missing sect master
Wulin = martial arts community/circles, in Wuxia, think of it as Wulin is the people, while Jianghu is the place
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Bear with me but I’ve decided to translate this wuxia novel using online machine translating and a browser dictionary. Sometimes I have a spark of inspiration and manifest a good line or a half but mostly I try to make the MTL more understandable. This is my first time ever attempting such a project so wish me luck and hope I get better.
Updates will be every Saturday. This novel consists of 120 chapters but I am splitting each chapter into two chapter parts, or three if a chapter is really long, and each update will be a chapter part instead of a whole chapter. Chunking it this way maintains my motivation better.
Chapter 1 Part 2
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