CH 46

Chapter 46 Sashimi (k)

Translated by Ultra

Edited by Gumihou

Shiyu trailed after Wen Xian as they made their way towards Yellow Grade, Class No. 10 of the Imperial College.

Contrary to her imagination of seeing a classroom of neatly dressed students seated behind low tables practising their calligraphy [1], the door opened to reveal over a hundred rowdy students in a theatre-style classroom. Most were chattering with each other, a few others were meditating in quieter corners. It reminded her of her university years… When Shiyu entered, the ones not meditating turned to stare at this new face.

It was rather unnerving.

They were all trying to size her up. Was she a prey or a predator? [1]

Eyes of curious students followed her as she trailed behind Wen Xian to the back of the class and sat down. One of the more outgoing students came over to ask Wen Xian, “So, who’s that?”

“This is Shiyu.”

“Shiyu?” the student frowned, clearly trying to pin down the name. Realisation dawn on his face and he cried, “Ah! Isn’t that the newbie who had been missing for nearly half a month?”

At this, the eyes of Shiyu’s audience intensified three folds. Students who had been meditating popped open their eyes to stare at her. [2]

She stared back, not sure what she should say under this circumstance.

Who knows how long they would have kept on staring if the instructor had not pushed his way into the classroom.

The instructor for Yellow Grade, Class No. 10 of the Imperial College [3] was tall and thin, an ancient old man with a professor like atmosphere about him. A pair of round crystal glasses at the end of his nose emphasised his scholarly air.

He was now peering through these glasses at the students, “Which one of you is Shiyu?”

Every face turned towards the same direction.

For someone who hated being under scrutiny, their gazes felt very heavy as Shiyu stood up and admitted, “I am Shiyu.”

“Come up here.” The instructor pointed at the space right in front of him. [4]

Unwilling, but unable to resist, Shiyu grudgingly trudged forward until she was standing right before [4] the instructor who looked her up and down and remarked, “So, you’re the one who has been skipping my classes all this time, ah. Do you know? If you had not appeared today, you would have ceased to be our Imperial College’s student by tomorrow? I heard that you and that talent, Lin Fan, are together. However, don’t think that you can just act as you please with that child’s support. Otherwise, not only would you end up living the shunned life of a genius, but you would also suffer a genius’ sickness. In the future, you had better just come to class properly and don’t end up becoming a useless incompetent.

As for the rest of you, what are you laughing about? I haven’t even started on any of you yet. You lot just examine yourself properly, how many were diligently meditating just now? No wonder the lot of you are the dead last of this great Imperial College…”

At first, Shiyu did try to listen to the instructor’s lecture, but it did not take long for her to realise this guy was just rambling on and on like the long-winded old man he was. While Shiyu was struggling not to nod off while standing under the relentless lecturing, the old man suddenly raised his voice.

“Liu Eleven!”

Shiyu jumped. Wei, what the heck?

“The sun has already exposed his buttocks, why are you still sleeping? Slacker, ignoramus! Humph, I had a student like you once. A dratted slacker who refuses to learn, slept all day and played all night, lazier than a dead dog, disorganized, undisciplined what happened to him? Huh?” his voice lowered as he muttered to himself, “That brat is now the Dean of this great Imperial College, what is the world coming to, ah…”

Shiyu’s hearing was quite sharp, when she heard the last bit, she huffed out a little laughter. Luckily, the Instructor did not notice, and she was soon dismissed and was allowed to return to her seat.

Once she was back beside Wen Xian, she whispered, “Our Instructor is quite an interesting character.”

Wen Xian nodded, “Aside from being a bit of a bore, he’s pretty a good guy.”

The Instructor was shouting again. [5] This time, with the aid of a thrown book, the target finally woke up. The young man blinked. He looked a little confused as he rubbed his head. However, despite his seemingly stupid expression, Shiyu noticed the elegant brows and finely shaped face. There was true confidence in the sprawl of those limbs, it did not look like fake bravado. Shiyu narrowed her eyes and asked, “What’s that sleepy guy’s level [6]?”

“That guy’s at the 2nd Level, Transformation Core Stage.”

“Shouldn’t Transformation Core people be at Arcane Level Class?”

For the reader’s benefit, please know that Lin Fan is now an 8th Level, Transformation Core Stage Cultivator. Moreover, the male-protagonist is currently an Arcane Grade, Class No. 1 student.

Of the four grades, Heaven, Earth, Arcane and Yellow, students generally enter the College at Yellow Grade. Once they reached the Transformation Core stage, they would be allowed to advance to Arcane Grade. To enter Earth Grade classes, they must break past the Transformation Stage into the Binding Core stage. The Heaven Grade classes were reserved for students who have reached the Great Perfection Level, Binding Core Stage, and are attempting to push through to the next stage. You know, that very stage which is nearly impossible for people still hanging around the 9th realm, because of the lack of spiritual power and being suppressed by the Great Way or something…

Anyway, all the other grades were waaay too far off for Shiyu to realistically contemplate now. Let’s just focus on levelling up first and try breaking into Transformation Core.

Yes.

She was turning into a great bore like their Instructor. Goodness, is boring-ness catching?

Shiyu refused to believe she’s boring. Let’s do something interesting. Let’s see, that weird guy is interesting. Let’s find out more about him from Wen Xian.

“So, what’s his deal?” Shiyu leaned forward in a gossipy manner.

“His surname is Liu,” Wen Xian mirrored her action and leaned forward as well. “Nobody knows his real name. However, he’s called Eleven because he’s the eleventh child in his family or something. He calls himself the Eleventh Liege, so we all end up calling him Liu Eleven, even the teachers. Anyway, that guy’s a great flirt, you had better be careful about him. He’ll come over soon and flirt with you. Every single girl in this class had already been subjected to his horrible pick-up lines. He never changes it.”

“Oh? What’s this pick-up line?” Shiyu was immediately intrigued, she really had not expected a huge flirt to actually exist in ancient China, pseudo fantasy or not.

Wen Xian made himself comfortable and smirked, “Alright, it goes like this. Every time the Eleventh Liege meets a new girl, he would invite her to play a word game. The girl must make form a sentence using the words ‘I’, ‘grass’, ‘the’ and ‘fork’. It doesn’t matter what kind of sentence the girl makes, he would say ‘No, no, you’re wrong’. When the girl asks why, he would say the answer is ‘Fork the Grass’. Of course, the girl would protest and ask, ‘But, what about the ‘I’?’ The Liege would feign ignorance and said ‘Which ‘I’?’ If the girl answers the ‘I’ for ‘me’, he’d say, ‘Ah, but you’re already in my heart!’ I swear it’s the same thing every single time!” [7]

Shiyu was stunned, what an amazingly advanced skill, for an ancient world guy. Lol.

She couldn’t wait to be targeted.

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Once the class was over, Shiyu got Wen Xian to tell her more about the school.

The guy was pretty great and answered all of her questions. She got the feeling that he must have been a little lonely being the oft bullied dead last in school. [8] Both had already spotted Liu Eleven coming their way, but neither of them moved from their seats or said anything.

Finally, the man of the hour stopped at their table.

Liu Eleven leaned his handsome face forward a little. His eyes sparkling as he eyed Shiyu lovingly. It was kind of… creepy actually. Liu Eleven said, “Good day, Shiyu. I am Liu Eleven. I have a question for you, would you mind answering it?”

Shiyu leaned back in her chair, putting as much distance between them as possible. She noticed that all eyes were at them, these people were clearly bored out of their wits and were chafing for some entertainment.

“By all means.” She wanted some entertainment too.

“Can you make a sentence with the words: the, I, grass and fork?”

… is he not bored of this already?

Shiyu considered her options, and decided to go with the one that was most entertaining for her.

“I saw you fucking a cow in the grass.” she said solemnly.

There was a stunned silence.

“Sorry, I misspoke. I saw you forking a cow in the grass.”

[Puu!!!]

“Hahahaaha! Hahahaha!!” the onlookers appeared greatly entertained.

“Forking! Ahahahaha!”

“It’s my favourite word now, hahahaha! Forking!!”

The entire class began to howl with laughter. Some of them thumping their table or rolling around the floor. Handsome Liu Eleven blushed.

Shiyu smirked. Young man, how can you even hope to bully a single woman who had worked in a male-dominated industry for years [9]? If you’re not still wet behind the ears, I would have turned your whole world yellow with something so much worse.

When their break was over, Liu Eleven requested a leave of absence [10] from their Instructor. Something must have been really wrong with his face because the Instructor actually allowed it. Should Shiyu feel sorry?

Nah.

The kid brought it on himself.

Dismissing the incident from her mind, she continued to chat with Wen Xian at the back of the class like a couple of delinquents. Whatever, she’d just fall asleep if she tried to listen to the Instructor anyway. Finding out pertinent information from Wen Xian to further her own Cultivation was more important [10].

“Hey, Wen Xian, are there any really high mountains around here? Really tall ones with snow on top?”

“Oh, yes! Divine Tea Mountain’s tallest peak. It’s called Enlightenment Peak. It’s crawling with people out looking for Divine Tea now. Why are you looking for mountains anyway?”

“Crawling with people looking for tea? What’s this Divine Tea?”

“Don’t you know? It is said that there’s a tree called Divine Tea of Enlightenment at the top of the Enlightenment Peak. They say that the Divine Tea of Enlightenment has the power to help Cultivators break through bottlenecks. The current value for a single leaf of the Divine Tea is priced at a few hundred thousand taels.

The entire Divine Tea Mountain is completely sealed off most of the year. Nobody is allowed up there accept in May. That’s when the seal is lifted for one month. There are countless people up there every May, looking to find the Divine Tea. You had better not get involved.”

In other words, she would be gambling with her life.

Shiyu nodded.

Nevertheless, she was still interested in exploring Divine Tea Mountain. She might as well try her luck there.

Especially since it just happened that they were given a two-day break from tomorrow onwards. Shiyu wanted to ask Lin Fan if he was interested in exploring the mountain, however, the elusive guy did not even return to the villa all night.

Early the next morning, she packed some necessary items and set out with her remaining companions. A radish and a cat.

Divine Tea Mountain was about 20 miles outside of the Imperial Capital. The moment they set foot out of the city, one could see the peaks of the mountain pushing up past mists and clouds. As she travelled along, taking in the scenery and moving at her own pace, she noticed that there were more and more people the closer she got to the mountain.

The foot of the mountain was so busy might as well be a bustling market place. [11] In fact, there was actually a marketplace of some sort. Mortals weren’t able to approach the mountain even in May due to an invisible barrier, but they were able to set up stalls to sell food, weapons and medicines. There were also a few people milling around, making deals, possibly middlemen hoping to make arrangements with cultivators to buy their catch and selling them to restaurants or rich families.

Cultivators were probably similarly blocked out except in May.

Shiyu studied the crowd, wondering how she could squeeze through without being squashed to death when she spotted Feng Luo. Followed by Liu Yi and that herd of dumb hive-minded people…

[Gumihou: Ah, our favourite trouble. I wonder what Mo Yin or Fei Yue, the clique’s foghorns are going to accuse Shiyu of this time.]

[1] Added More Description: Okay, so it’s really my imagination, not Shiyu’s. The difference between imagination and reality is meant to be jarring

[2] Structural Change: Break paragraphs for dramatic purpose. Split the staring and the instructor’s entrance to give readers more suspension time.

[3] Structural Change: Move the description for the instructor up right after he entered. The description was originally placed after his long-winded lecture.

[4] Added Details for Logistic Purposes: There was a description of Shiyu ‘returning to her seat’ after the instructor’s disgruntled muttering. However, there was no description of Shiyu going anywhere before that, so I fixed it.

[5] Added Details for Logistic Purposes: The paragraph started out as though Wen Xian’s and Shiyu’s dialogue did not occur. So I added details of the Instructor waking the guy up, pulling Shiyu’s attention to him.

[6] Inconsistent info: The guy is what I recognise as the ‘Second Stage’. Shiyu is at the ‘First Stage’, fancily named as 7th Stage, Condensation Stage. Also, author-san either changed the naming of the stage for ‘Third Stage. Either that or she has forgotten what she named it… =.=

Anyway, it’s the ‘Third Stage’, whatever. Gumihou is keeping track so you don’t have to.

<table>For Noobs &amp; Gumihou New Level – Changed by Author at (38) College First Condensation Stage Yellow Second Transformation Core Arcane Third Binding Core  vs Condensation Core (46) Earth &amp; *Heaven Fourth Complete Nascent Fifth God Shaping Sixth Unification Stage Seventh Return to Ruins Eight Return to Nature Ninth Becoming Immortal</tbody></table>

*Students who reached Condensation Core – Great Perfection Stage (aka 10th level for noobs like Gumihou) would be granted entry to the Heaven Class

[7] Structural Change: Because punny jokes don’t translate well. It’s a Chinese word game, of course, it doesn’t translate. Lol.

Explanation from original translator placed right before the joke:

This is a famous Chinese internet joke, here’s a dialogue to make it clearer:

Guy: Can you use the four characters, ‘I’ (我), ‘eat’ (吃), ‘cow’ (牛), and ‘grass’ (草), to make a sentence?

Girl: *uses them in a sentence*

Guy: No no no, that’s wrong. The right answer is ‘Cows eat grass (牛吃草).’

Girl: But what about ‘me’ (我)?

Guy: You’re in my heart, babe! (then probably everyone cries because he has no game))

==

Translated joke from original translator:

“Can you use the four characters, ‘I’ (我), ‘eat’ (吃), ‘cow’ (牛), and ‘grass’ (草), to make a sentence?”

Sure enough, as expected.

Shi Yu thought for a while, deciding to take the reins: “I was surprised to see you… fucking (草) a cow?” (tl note: the character for grass (草) is often used as a humorous replacement for the character for fuck (肏), as both sound like ‘cao’, but pronounced with different tones)

==

Eh, Gumihou decided that it was all too cumbersome, and so reworded the joke. Now everyone at the College will be forking around with a new word for a while.

[8] Added More Details: I don’t like it when characters do things without a reason. If Wen Xian is going to be the source of information for Shiyu, ‘loneliness’ is as good a reason to talk.

[9] Change One Detail: In the original text, Shiyu uses her single status to explain her worldliness, but I do believe that being in a male-dominated workplace as a young, single, female chef, would be a better reason for developing a thick skin against flirting.

[10] Added More Details for Transitional Purposes: The text stopped at ‘leave for absence’ and cut towards Shiyu poking Wen Xian for tall mountain info. I decided to put in some transitional texts. Oh, and I changed the opening sentences to dialogue.

[11] Add More Details: I added the market place. Come on, don’t tell me an enterprising non-Cultivator or people with low Cultivation wouldn’t hang about the fringes to sell or scam some poor idiots?