Notes: “GuoShi” is probably closer in meaning to “National Master Cultivator” – probably someone of a top militaristic rank

This was a really painfully long chapter to translate. The next one is long too but since I’m on winter break, the translating will be much faster.

I know there are probably other translations for TGCF floating out there, and if you see any differences, it’s likely because I’m using the updated version of the novel MXTX edited and posted on jjwxc (I bought the chapters), while the other ones might be using the older raws that you can find for free. Not sure how big the differences are b/w the two, but based on the differences between the raws and the official edited versions of MDZS and Scum Villain, and a quick scan of the old TGCF raws, it seems like the edited version has a few additional scenes here and there, as well as different phrases used.

Again, a heck tonne of thanks to Poppy for me poking her with questions about Chinese! OTL

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Xie Lian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He was about to command Ruoye to bind something else, when he suddenly felt the white silk loosen. His heart plummeted.

It wasn’t the loosening of Ruoye that sent Xie Lian into a small panic; it was the fear that something terrible had happened to San Lang.

Suddenly, the red-clad youth seemed a lot closer to him, and within a few short moments, the young man was close enough for San Lang to reach out and touch.

San Lang had also been lifted into the air by the tornado!

Xie Lian yelled, “Don’t panic!” and swallowed a mouthful of sand – though it didn’t faze him, since he’d gotten used to eating sand by now. While he’d called for San Lang not to panic, he knew that San Lang would probably not panic anyway. As expected, after Ruoye tugged the two closer together, Xie Lian could clearly make out the unperturbed expression on San Lang’s face. He looked so unruffled that Xie Lian could imagine giving him a book and he’d calmly start reading it in the middle of this sandstorm. Xie Lian wondered if San Lang thought he’d deliberately pulled him up with him.

Ruoye wrapped itself a few times around their waists, binding the two together. Xie Lian hugged San Lang close and commanded again, “Go again! This time, don’t grab a person!”

And so Ruoye flew out once more, to grab… Nan Feng and Fu Yao!

Xie Lian felt quite done at this point, and said to Ruoye, “When I asked you to grab a ‘person’, I don’t mean a ‘human’ in such a strict definition… all right. Fine.” Towards the ground, he yelled at the top of his lungs, “Nan Feng! Fu Yao! Hold on! Hold on with all your might!”

Naturally, Nan Feng and Fu Yao tried to hold on and stay put where they were. However, the wind and sand were too strong and not long afterwards, to no one’s surprise, the tornado caught them and blew them upwards as well.

The four of them tumbled chaotically in the sky, in this yellow ocean of sand. The tornado was an enormous column of quaking sand in which four figures were held together by a single band of white silk and tumbled about ceaselessly. They spun faster and faster, higher and higher. Xie Lian kept swallowing mouthfuls of sand as he tried to yell, “How are you two up here as well?!”

Aside from sand, they saw nothing but sand. Aside from wind, they heard nothing but wind. They all needed to use the full extent of their lungs and throats to shout to be heard by one another. Fu Yao also kept swallowing sand as he spat, “Don’t ask me, ask that stupid white band of yours! What’s wrong with it!”

Xie Lian used both of his hands to grab “that stupid white band”, and said rather helplessly, “Ruoye oh Ruoye, the four of us are completely relying on you now. This time, please be careful not to grab wrongly! Now go!”

With grave concentration, he waved his hand once again. Nan Feng yelled from behind him, “Quit putting your hopes on that toy! Think of something else!”

Then Xie Lian felt the the silk band tighten, and he became alert. “Wait. Give it another chance! I think it’s got something!”

Fu Yao yelled from behind him as well, “You probably caught someone who was just passing by! Let them go!”

Truth be told, Xie Lian was also quite worried about this. He pulled on Ruoye and felt that the other end wasn’t moving. He felt relieved by this. “It’s not! I think it’s something heavy and sturdy!” Then he called, “Recede!”

Against the chaotic power of the sand tornado, Ruoye quickly shortened. The four figures were pulled rapidly away from the column of wind, and gradually, amidst the world of yellow sand, Xie Lian started to make out a semicircle of a black outline.

The outline looked massive, about the size of a small temple. The other end of Ruoye was tied to this. When they got closer, he could finally see that it was an enormous piece of sandstone.

In this kind of sandstorm, this rock seemed like a solid and silent fortress, and would no doubt make a good shelter.

During the entirety of their trip so far, they hadn’t encountered a single rock of this kind, and so it was anyone’s guess exactly how far the sand tornado had taken them. The four of them barely hit the ground before they were rolled to the leeward side of the rock. Xie Lian thought in his heart, “This is truly a blessing from a heavenly official.”

There was a hole in the leeward side of the rock. It had a width of two doors and a height that was slightly shorter than the average door, but if one were to bend at the waist and duck one’s head, then entering wasn’t a problem. While the hole looked irregular and crooked, it also didn’t seem like a natural formation. It looked hastely and artificially dug out.

Xie Lian went inside and saw that the hole was quite large and hollow. It was quite dark inside. He didn’t properly examine the place and sat down where light could still reach. He dusted sand off Ruoye, flicked his hand, and Ruoye slid back onto his wrist.

Nan Feng and Fu Yao were busy spitting out sand, which had gotten into their noses, eyes, and mouths, not to mention the folds and creases of their clothes, which they took off and shook furiously. A cascade of sand and pebbles fell out. Out of the four, the one most unperturbed by all the events seemed to be San Lang, who swaggered in, dusted some sand off his shoulders like it was nothing, chill as fuck. Aside from his slightly disheveled hair, his casual attitude didn’t seem a tad affected. Actually, even his hair had been disheveled from Xie Lian’s brushing before the storm; being slightly more disheveled because of the storm made little difference.

Nan Feng rubbed his cheeks, spitting out a string of curses as soon as he opened his mouth. Xie Lian shook the sand out of his bamboo hat and said, “I really never expected that you two would also get blown up into the sky. Why didn’t you try the Thousand Jin¹ Fall?”

As he kept spitting out sand, Nan Feng said, “We tried! Didn’t work.”

Fu Yao furiously and violently shook out his jacket, and his voice reflected his attitude. “What do you think this place is – it’s a barren area in the farthest northwest. It’s not my Palace General’s division. The northern area is Second General Pei’s territory. The West is Quan YiZhen’s. You’re not going to find a Xuen Zhen temple for at least a hundred li around.”

There’s a saying in the mortal realm – a strong dragon can’t beat a local tyrant². Thus, for these heavenly officials from the southeast and southwest, in places that aren’t part of their governance, they must restrict the usage of their spiritual powers. Seeing how completely pissed and sullen the two junior officials were, Xie Lian thought it must have been their first time to be blown about by such a great storm without being able to do anything.

“Ah, you two have really been put through a spot,” said Xie Lian.

San Lang sat down beside Xie Lian, resting his cheek on his hand. “Let’s just wait here for the sandstorm to pass, yeah?”

Xie Lian turned towards him. “It seems like that’s the only thing we can do right now. No matter how bad the tornado gets, it probably won’t blow this big piece of rock into the sky.”

San Lang said, “It’s just as you said before. This sandstorm is very strange.”

Xie Lian suddenly thought of something. “San Lang, I have a question for you.”

“Ask away.”

“Is the Ban Yue GuoShi a man or a woman?”

“I didn’t say? A woman.”

Xie Lian thought if this really was the case, and said, “In front of the abandoned building where we stopped for a bit, didn’t we see two people walk by? Their steps were graceful and a little odd; they definitely weren’t regular mortals. One of them, the one in white, wore a female Taoist gown.”

Fu Yao was doubtful. “I couldn’t tell if they were a man or a woman just by their clothing, and their figure was taller than the average woman’s. Are you sure you saw clearly?”

Xie Lian said, “I did see clearly, there’s no doubt. That’s why I was wondering if that was Ban Yue GuoShi.”

Nan Feng said, “Could be. But by her side was another person dressed in black. Who would that be?”

“It’s hard to say. But that person was walking faster than her, so his powers and skill level must not be lower than hers,” said Xie Lian.”

Fu Yao asked, “Could it be the other demonic path master cultivator, Fang Xin GuoShi?”

Xie Lian replied, “This, I think, is why ‘Demonic Path Cultivator Pair³’ is termed the way it is, though it could just also be that it’s easier to remember the two together. Just like the Four Great Calamities – though you need to collect four individuals to put ‘four’ in that term.”

Hearing this, San Lang laughed again. When Xie Lian looked at him, he said, “Oh, it’s nothing. I just thought you were very on point. The Four Calamities was arbitrarily counted together just so, to be more easily remembered. Please continue.”

So Xie Lian continued, “In all probabilities, they are likely unrelated. From what I’ve heard, Fang Xin GuoShi was YongAn’s GuoShi, who was born at least a hundred years before this Ban Yue GuoShi.”

Fu Yao thought this was an absurd situation. “You don’t about the Four Great Calamities, and yet you know about the YongAn GuoShi of the mortal realm?”

Xie Lian said, “If we’re talking about where I beg for rubbish, then of course I know a little bit about the mortal realm. I don’t beg for rubbish in the demon realm, so it stands to reason I won’t know much about demons.”

At this moment, the sound of the winds outside grew a little calmer. Nan Feng stood slightly closer to the outside, knocking on the rock to test its quality and concentrated seriously for a while. Then he inclined his head and said, “How did this stone come to have such a hole dug out of it?”

He was probably very suspicious of this rock shelter. Xie Lian, however, didn’t find it at all suspicious, and replied, “These sort of rock holes aren’t uncommon. Before, when the people of Ban Yue didn’t have enough time to return home from gathering livestock, they would dig these holes to shelter from sandstorms or just to pass the nights. Sometimes the holes weren’t manually dug, but blasted out.”

Nan Feng still doubted. “How do you deal with livestock in a barren place like this.”

Xie Lian replied, “A couple hundred years ago, it wasn’t all just a field of barren desert. It was a lush landscape.”

Then San Lang entered the conversation. “Gege.”

Xie Lian turned his head. “What is it?”

San Lang pointed at something. “The rock you’re sitting on has words written on it.”

“What?” Xie Lian looked down, stood up, then discovered that he’d been sitting on a flat flagstone.

Brushing off the dust, he could see that there were indeed words upon the stone, though the handwriting was carved in lightly enough that the words weren’t obvious. Half of it was still buried in sand, and the words spread upwards, gradually disappearing into the dark.

Since the words were here, then it must be read. Xie Lian said, “Since I don’t have a lot of powers, could one of you please light a palm fire and illuminate the words for me? Many thanks.”

Nan Feng hit his ring finger, and within a moment, a round ball of palm fire lit up. Xie Lian unintentionally slid a glance towards San Lang, who seemed, again, completely unruffled. After all, he’d already seen the Shrinkage of A Thousand Miles. Xie Lian felt that no matter what both sides showed each other in the future, there probably wouldn’t be any real surprises.

Nan Feng moved his illuminating palm towards the words. They inscriptions were very strange; they looked like the scribbles of a toddler, crawling over the stone in messy and squiggly lines. Nan Feng said, “What is this?”

San Lang said, “Obviously, it’s the writing of Ban Yue.”

Xie Lian said, “I think Nan Feng is asking what’s written in terms of content. Let me see.”

He cleaned off more sand, up to the very top, where there were a few words written that were particularly large. It was probably the title. These words were also repeated throughout the piece.

Fu Yao also lit up a palm on the side and said, “You can read Ban Yue writing?”

Xie Lian said, “To tell you the truth, before Ban Yue had any ties to demonic cultivation, I’d been in Ban Yue before, begging for rubbish.”

“…”

“What?”

“Nothing. Just thought it was weird just how many places you’ve been in begging for rubbish.”

Xie Lian laughed and inclined his head to continue reading. In a moment, he suddenly said two words.

“Jiang Jun⁴.”

Nan Feng and Fu Yao both said, “What?”

Xie Lian raised his head. “I said, the words written on the very top of this slate of rock says ‘jiang jun’.” He waited for a moment, before continuing, “But there’s another word right after ‘jiang jun’. But I’m not very certain about the meaning of that word.”

Nan Feng seemed to release a breath. “Then you should probably keep reading.”

Xie Lian nodded, and Nan Feng moved his palm fire slightly forward. With this movement, however, Xie Lian suddenly felt that something didn’t seem quite right. Something appeared in the edge of his vision.

Bracing himself on the slate of engraved words with both hands, Xie Lian slowly looked up.

Only to see, above the rock slate in the dim light of fire, a human face with rigid muscles. The two eyes of the face looked downwards, straight at him.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”

The one who screamed wasn’t them, but the human face with the rigid muscles.

Nan Feng lit up another palm fire in his other hand, shooting up both hands and palm fires. Finally, the entire cave was illuminated.

What the light illuminated was a man who had been hiding in the dark all along, and now he rolled and crawled frantically to the side, withdrawing to the innermost edge of the hole. There, seven or either other people seemed to be huddling and shivering together.

Nan Feng yelled, “Who are you people?”

With that shout, the entire cave rung with noise. Xie Lian’s ears already hurt from that screech earlier, and couldn’t help rubbing them. With the sandstorm and its noise wreaking havoc on their ears already, they could barely make out each other’s words when speaking quietly. After they entered the cave, the first thing they did was discuss Ban Yue GuoShi and then they concentrated on examining the rock slate. They completely hadn’t noticed that there were other silently hiding in this hole.

The seven or eight people quivered. After a while, an elderly man of about fifty years of age said, “We’re a travelling caravan, regular merchant folks. The sandstorm was too much and we couldn’t keep going, so we came here to wait it out.”

Out of everyone in the group, this man appeared to be the calmest and was probably the leader. Nan Feng said, “Since you’re just regular merchant folks, what need is there to sneak and hide around like this?”

Before the old man could reply, a young teenage boy of around seventeen or eighteen said in a loud voice, “We weren’t sneaking and hiding around before you lot rushed in. How do we know if you’re good or bad people? Then we heard you talk about some Ban Yue GuoShi and demon realms and what not, and we even saw you light up fires with your palms. We thought you were Ban Yue soldiers, out on patrol to catch people to eat! How could we make a sound?”

The old man was afraid the young teen might have ruffled some feathers with his strong words and attitude. He said, “Tian Sheng, don’t speak nonsense.”

The boy had thick eyebrows and large eyes, and had the look and attitude of a tiger⁵, but immediately shut up upon his elder’s words. Xie Lian’s ears had finally stopped hurting and he put down his hands. With an amiable voice, he said, “It was all a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding. No need to panic, everyone, let’s all relax.”

After a moment, he continued, “We are certainly not Ban Yue soldiers. This humble one is a master of a temple, and these few here with me are my… temple keepers. What they’ve learned are simply ancient Chinese cultivation techniques. You’re regular merchant folk; we’re just regular cultivators. We have no malicious intentions. We are simply fellow shelter seekers, running into you in this hole by pure chance.”

With his soothing and warm voice, Xie Lian was able to calm emotions. After repeated explanations and guarantees, the merchantfolk finally seemed to calm down.

Who knew that San Lang would unexpectedly laugh and say, “Where? I don’t see that you’re regular folks at all. You’re being modest.”

The merchantfolk looked at him, puzzled. San Lang continued, “ ‘Everytime you cross Ban Yue Guan, half the your lives disappear’, right? You all know about this rumour, and yet you still have the courage to pass by this place? How can you still call yourselves commonfolk?”

Hearing this, the old man said, “Young man, that’s not completely true. Rumours fly wild outside this place, and many caravans pass by this place quite safely and peacefully.”

San Lang said, “Huh?”

The old man replied, “You just need to find the right person to lead you through, and don’t mistake land that was previously Ban Yue’s. That’s why, for this trip, we specifically found a native to guide us past Ban Yue Guan.”

The young teen Tian Sheng said, “Yes! You have to find the right guide. This whole trip is thanks to brother Ah-Zhao. He guided us away from so much quicksand, and when he saw the sandstorm, he quickly found this place for us to hide in. Otherwise, we might be buried alive out there right now.”

Xie Lian looked at the one they called Ah-Zhao and saw he was a young man of about twenty years of age, with an elegant but wooden face that barely expressed any emotions even after many thanked him for the trip. He only replied, stiffly, “It’s nothing, it’s just my duty. Hopefully, when the sandstorm passes, your camels and wares are unaffected.”

“Don’t worry, there’ll definitely be no problems!”

This group of merchantfolk seemed fully optimistic. Xie Lian felt that things weren’t as easy as they thought they were.

If people didn’t mistake Ban Yue land, then there was no problem; then for the past caravans that lost half their lives, were they all becaue they weren’t superstitious and rode straight to their deaths?

He thought for a minute, and then lowered his voice for Nan Feng and Fu Yao. “This is an unexpected turn of events. Let’s wait till this sandstorm is over, see these folks safely off, before we go on to Ban Yue for our investigation.”

Xie Lian inclined his head and continued examining the words on the rock slate. The words he’d recognized earlier, “jiang jun”, were words he recognized because they had been used quite frequently. It had been two hundred years since he was last in Ban Yue. No matter how familiar he had been with the language before, he’d completely forgotten it after two hundred years. To be exposed to it so suddenly, he needed some time and patience for the knowledge to be dug out again.

At this moment, San Lang said from the side, “Jiang Jun burial mound.”

With those words, Xie Lian suddenly remembered. The characters afterwards, did they not mean “burial mound”, “tomb”, and “cave”?

He turned around, puzzled. “San Lang, could it be that you also understand the Ban Yue language?”

San Lang laughed. “Not a lot. There was an interest, so I can recognize a few words.”

Xie Lian was already used to San Lang speaking like this. The language of Ban Yue was already pecular and rare, and coming across anyone who understood it was even rarer. The word “burial mound” in this language was not often used, so was it really just “a few words” that he recognized? His “not a lot” probably meant “go ahead and ask whatever”, and so at once Xie Lian asked with a smile, “That’s great. The words you recognize may just be the ones I don’t. Come over here, let’s look at this together.”

Gently he waved his hand, and San Lang came over. Fu Yao and Nan Feng brought their palm fires over, illuminating the slate for them. Xie Lian brushed his finger slowly over the carved words and discussed them with San Lang in low voices, reading quietly. As they kept reading, their expressions grew more and more peculiar, until at last they settled.

The teenage boy Tian Sheng among the merchant folk, being the youth that he was, felt that as they had exchanged a few words before, they were now familiar with each other. He asked, “Geges, what’s written on this rock?”

Xie Lian turned around to answer. “This rock is a flagstone, and on the flagstone is the life story of one particular jiang jun.”

Tian Sheng said, “Is the the jiang jun of Ban Yue?”

San Lang said, “No, it’s a jiang jun of Zhong Yuan⁶.”

“Zhong Yuan’s jiang jun? Why would the people of Ban Yue memorialize him? Wasn’t it said that the two territories were always at odds?” Nan Feng asked suspiciously.

San Lang said, “This particular jiang jun is particularly odd. While it’s said he’s a jiang jun throughout the slate, he was really just a low-ranking military officer.”

“Then he became a jiang jun later?”

“Not at all. Furthermore, at the start, he led a hundred soldiers. Afterwards, he led seventy. Then even later, he led fifty.”

“…”

“In other words, he was continuously demoted.”

This sort of repeated degradations, this experience, was one that Xie Lian was particularly familiar with, and he felt two pairs of eyes concentrate on him. He pretended not to notice and continued reading the inscriptions.

Tiang Sheng continued to ask, puzzled, “How could a military leader fall lower and lower like that? As long as no crimes were committed, maybe he won’t ascend to the heavens, he at least shouldn’t fall that low. How much of a failure do you have to be?”

Xie Lian’s right hand fisted and he brought it to his mouth. With a quiet, solemn voice, he said, “My young friend, a leader falling is not uncommon.”

“Huh?”

San Lang gave a laugh, and said, “Indeed, it happens often.”

After a moment, he continued, “This leader kept falling not because he wasn’t strong or unfit for his duties, but because the two countries had such poor relations, and he never accomplished anything on battlefields. Sometimes, he was even a hindrance.”

Nan Feng asked, “What do you mean, a hindrance?”

San Lang replied, “Not only did he stop the other side from killing the innocents of his own side, he stopped his own side from killing the innocents of the other side. To obstruct even once is to fall in rank.”

As he spoke leisurely, the seven or eight merchants gradually gathered and sat around him as though they were listening to him tell stories, occasionally participating with comments or questions. Tian Sheng said, “I feel like this officer did nothing wrong? Soldiers are only there to fight wars, not kill innocents. That shouldn’t be a problem?”

“While that is a little naïve and inappropriate way to think for a soldier^?, in general that is not a problem.”

“That’s right. Soldiers are supposed to save, not kill.”

Xie Lian laughed a little at this.

These merchants neither resided on the border between the two countries, nor were they the people of two hundred years ago. These days, Ban Yue was little more than dust in the wind, and so of course people could easily and lightly discuss and sympathize with both sides, even soliloquize a little. Even if they didn’t support the actions of one side or the other, they would at least understand. If they were actually enveloped in the flames of war, trapped in the ceaseless hatred of hundreds of years ago, they would definitely not be commenting so lightly and use words like “naïve”.

Out of all the merchants, Ah-Zhao probably understood this subject the best, being a native of the area. He said, “Today and two hundred years ago are not the same. To just be demoted back then, that’s pretty good luck already.”

Fu Yao scoffed. “That’s extremely laughable.”

Xie Lian could more or less predict what he was going to say, and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Indeed, as the firelight illuminated his deepened eyebrows, Fu Yao said, “He’d already become a soldier. Someone of his position should wholeheartedly be on the front lines defending his country from enemies. Crossing soldiers from two sides will inevitably cause bloodshed. If he’s so soft-hearted, then not only will his comrades hate him, he would also be laughed at by his enemies. No one’s going to thank him for his kindness.”

He wasn’t wrong, and the entire cave went silent at his words. He continued, casually, “These sort of people have only one ending – death. And more likely than not, at the hands of their own people.”

After a moment, Xie Lian broke the silence and said, “It’s true. It’s just as you said. Death.”

Tian Sheng was startled. “What! How – he died? He really died at the hands of his own people?”

Mulling it over for a moment, Xie Lian decided to say, “Not exactly… it says above, during one of the battles, as they fought, this person didn’t tie his shoelaces tightly enough and he stepped on them, and he fell, and then…”

The people in the cave had thought that this jiang jun had died a tragic death, and stared blankly after this bit of information. They thought – what kind of death was that? And burst out laughing, “Hahahahahahahhahah…”

Xie Lian continued, “…And then the soldiers on both sides, who were mad with bloodlust already, stepped on and slashed him to death.”

They continued laughing.

San Lang raised an eyebrow. “Is that really funny?”

Xie Lian coughed. “Yeah. It’s pretty tragic. Please give this man a little sympathy, and refrain from laughing anymore. Since we’re in his burial mound, we should give him a little face.”

Tian Sheng said in a rush, “I don’t mean to be rude! But, this is a little… too… ahaha…”

There was nothing XIe Lian could do, because when he’d read to this part, he’d also wanted to laugh a little. He continued to read and translate, “In short, while he didn’t have a good public reputation while he was alive, there were still many people then who had received his care and kindness, and so those people recognized him as a jiang jun. They made a simple memorial burial mound for him, and carved on a rock slate to remember him.”

San Lang said, “Afterwards, the people of Ban Yue discovered that this flagstone had magical properties. If you knelt and kowtowed before it three times, then you will be blessed with safety in the Gobi Desert.”

His voice was enigmatic and compelled people into belief; his expressions were earnest and serious. As soon as the merchants heard this, several of them knelt and paid their respects immediately, preferring to believe over questioning the credibility.

Xie Lian was baffled. “Eh? Is this written somewhere? This magical property?”

San Lang chuckled and said in a low voice, “Nope. I made it up. They were laughing at home, and now they’re paying respects. That’s not asking for too much”

Xie Lian looked and, indeed, there was no more written on the slate. He’d been a little disappointed about that but now he wanted laugh, and replied in a similarly low voice, “Why are you so naughty⁷?”

San Lang stuck out his tongue.

They two of them began to laugh when, all of a sudden, someone cried out, “What is this!!!”

With that cry, everyone in the cave tensed up, their hairs standing on end. Xie Lian turned towards the sound of the cry and said, “What’s the matter!”

The people who had originally been kowtowing before the rock slate were now struggling and rolling to get away from the area, convulsing in fear. “Snake!”

Nan Feng and Fu Yao turned their palm fires towards them, and the lights distantly illuminated the ground. On the sand, astonishingly, there was an enormously long and large, colourful and lustrous snake!

The merchants were all panicking. “How is there a snake?!”

“How did this snake make absolutely no sound? We have no idea when it crawled in!”

As the light from the flames was cast upon the snake, it tensed up, suddenly alert and looked as though it were ready to attack. Nan Feng was just about to attack with a palm of flame when he saw someone casually stroll over and snatch up the heart of the snake⁸ like it was no big deal. Raising his left hand, he said while he examined the snake, “Isn’t it common to have snakes in the desert?”

This absolutely unrestrained brand of nonchalance belonged to none other than San Lang. Being so casually grasped by its vital organ, no matter how ferociously venomous the snake was, it could do squat. The tail of the snake was wrapped weakly around San Lang’s left arm. The snake was closer to see than before, and Xie Lian noticed that its skin was semi-transparent, showing the reddish-purple colour of its insides, striated with black. It made people think of innards, and thus was an extremely unsettling sight. Its tail was flesh-coloured and looked like it was segmented into hard shells, resembling more a scorpion’s tail than a snake’s.

When Xie Lian saw the segments, his expression suddenly changed. “Watch its tail!”

Before he finished speaking, the tail of the snake that had been wrapped around San Lang suddenly loosened and, as though it had become another snake head, shot to attack!

While the speed of the attack was fast, San Lang suddenly moved his right hand and casually grabbed it, stopping the attack. Having snatched its tail, San Lang held the snake as though it were a plaything and showed it to Xie Lian. He laughed and said, “What an interesting tail.”

As it turned out, a flesh-coloured stinger indeed protruded from the tip of the sharp tail. Xie Lian breathed a sigh of relief and said, “As long as you didn’t get stung. It seems like it’s a scorpion-tailed snake after all.”

Nan Feng and Fu Yao came over to look at the snake as well. “Scorpion-tailed snake?”

Xie Lian said, “Correct. It’s one of Ban Yue country’s most poisonous animals. Their numbers are few and while I’ve never come across one myself, I’ve heard about them before. They have the bodies of snakes but the tails of scorpions, and their poison is stronger than that of the two species’ combined. It doesn’t matter if you get bitten or stung, you’d eventually…”

He trailed off as he saw San Lang flipping and twirling the snake around his hands, pulling it and squishing it, twisting it like he was wringing out a towel, and basically doing everything short of tying it into a bowtie.

Xie Lian stared for a bit before he tried to advise in a calm voice, “San Lang, stop playing with it. It’s dangerous.”

San Lang chuckled. “It’s fine, Gege doesn’t need to worry. This scorpion-tailed snake is, after all, the totem of the Ban Yue GuoShi. It’s a rare opportunity to examine one so up close.”

Xie Lian was taken aback. “Ban Yue GuoShi’s totem?”

San Lang replied, “Yes. It’s said that the Ban Yue GuoShi could mass manipulate these scorpion-tailed snakes. The Ban Yue people were pretty impressed by that and thought her infinitely powerful for it, and so worshipped her as a GuoShi.”

As soon as he heard the two words “mass manipulate”, Xie Lian felt abruptly uneasy. When one “mass manipulated” something, it usually meant a mass of the said somethings. He immediately said, “Everyone should quickly leave this cave right now, I’m afraid this scorpion-tailed snake might not be alone…”

He hadn’t finished a single sentence when he heard a bloody screech.

“Ahh!!”

The people began screaming, their scattered shouts everywhere. “Snake!” “So many snakes!” “They’re here too!”

In the darkness, without a sound, there crawled out seven or eight of these reddish-purple scorpion snakes. They’d come so suddenly that nobody had any idea from which crevice they had crawled out. The snakes didn’t attack, simply surrounding the people as though they just wanted to examine them. Their movements were completely silent, and they didn’t even make the usual hissing sound of a poisonous snake, making them all that much more dangerous. Nan Feng and Fu Yao both blasted out a wave of palm fire, lighting up the whole cave, and Xie Lian said, “Everyone get out!”

Nobody wanted to stay in this hole any longer, and so everyone fled the cave in a hurry. Fortunately, the sky outside had become twilight, and the sandstorm and the tornado had long since disappeared. The crowd of people ran out, sprinting for their lives, and one of them yelled, “This cave is simply too frightening! How did this even happen even after we paid our respects to the flagstone!?”

Xie Lian thought it was a good thing they didn’t know San Lang had fabricated the whole story about paying respects to the flagstone. He then heard someone else yell back, “Yeah, what the hell! This is no better than paying respects to some rubbish-collecting deity! The more respects you pay the unluckier you get!”

“…”

To be burned even in a place like this, in the middle of nowhere – Xie Lian was quite speechless.

Suddenly, he heard Tian Sheng yell, “Uncle Zheng!” The old man he’d been supporting had suddenly collapsed.

Xie Lian rushed ahead to where they were and asked, “What’s the matter?”

The old man had a pained expression, and weakly lifted a trembling hand. Xie Lian took his hand and, his heart dropping, saw that the skin between his thumb and index finger was swollen and reddish-purple, with a tiny puncture hole in the middle. With such a small sting, he probably couldn’t even feel it.

Immediately, Xie Lian said, “Everyone, please check if there are injuries on your bodies! If there are any, bind it tight at once, so the poison won’t spread!”

Flipping the old man’s hand over, he saw a clear line of the purplish red colour creeping up the man’s meridian lines. The poison was quite powerful, thought Xie Lian. He was about to release Ruoye when he saw A-Zhao tearing a piece of cloth and wrapping it excessively tightly around the old man’s forearm, stopping the flow of poison to the heart. A-Zhao worked unbelievably quickly, and Xie Lian praised him in his heart.

Xie Lian looked up, and without needing him to say any more words, Nan Feng had already shaken out a pill from a medicine bottle. Xie Lian helped support the old man, and Tian Sheng asked, in a panicked, loud voice, “Uncle, are you all right?! A-Zhao Ge, he won’t die, will he?!”

A-Zhao shook his head. “Once you get bitten by a scorpion-tailed snake, you’ll die within a day.”

Tian Shen was shocked. “Then… then what do we do?”

As Old Man Zheng was the chief of their traveling caravan, the merchants were also extremely worried. “Didn’t this young man here give him some kind of medicine?”

Nan Feng said, “I didn’t give him an antidote. It was simply to replenish his life, and delay the inevitable. At most, it’ll give him another week.”

The merchants were all thrown into panic and confusion. “Only a week? You’re saying he’s just… waiting to die?” “This poison really has no cure?”

At this point, San Lang walked up slowly, and said, “There is.”

One by one, the merchants turned to him. Tian Sheng looked overjoyed with relief, and turned around to say, “Zhao Ge, why didn’t you say there was a cure? You scared the hell out of me!”

A-Zhao didn’t say anything, and shook his head once. San Lang said, “Of course he couldn’t say it. If the poisoned person can be saved at the expense of others, how could he suggest it?”

Xie Lian then asked, “San Lang, what do you mean?”

San Lang said, “Gege, do you know the legend of this scorpion-tailed snake?”

According to legend, about a hundred years ago, Ban Yue had a master who went deep into the mountains to hunt one day. He accidentally caught two poisonous demon spirits: one poisonous snake spirit, and one scorpion spirit.

These two spirits had gone into the mountains to study and practice austerities, and had no intentions of sticking their heads into anybody’s business. They never bothered anbody, but the master of Ban Yue reasoned that since they were poisonous creatures, they would cause harm sooner or later, and wanted to kill them right away. The two spirits begged for their lives, but the master was a brutal, cruel man. He forced them to perform and worship him and his chancellor during a banquet as they amused themselves and drank wine. And after the banquet, he had them killed anyway.

The queen couldn’t bear such a cold-blooded act, but she dared not go against her husband, and so all she could do was cover their bodies with the leaves of the vanilla herb as she walked by them.

The two spirits became extremely resentful creatures, cursing the descendents of the master to forever remain in Ban Yue, killing their fellow countrymen. Henceforth, scorpion-tailed snakes are only found in Ban Yue, and once a victim is bitten or stabbed, the poison spreads rapidly and the death is cruel and miserable. However, because of the queen’s act of kindness, the vanilla leaf that she had used to cover their bodies could cure this poison.

After telling this story, San Lang continued, “This particular kind of vanilla is called the Shan Yue Grass⁹, and it only grows within the territory of Ban Yue.”

The merchants spoke one after the other, “Can… can we believe this legend?”

“Young man, our lives aren’t a joke. Are you mocking us here!?”

San Lang laughed but didn’t speak, seeming uninclined to say another word after he had explained what he’d needed to to Xie Lian.

Tian Sheng turned to A-Zhao for validation. “Zhao Ge, is what this red-clad brother here is saying true?”

A-Zhao muttered to himself for a moment before saying, “Whether or not the legend is true, who knows. But the Shan Yue Grass does grow in Ban Yue, and it does cure the poison of the scorpion-tailed snake.”

Xie Lian said, “So in other words, those who are bitten or stung by the scorpion-tailed snake has only one line of survival, and it can only be acquired from inside Ban Yue?”

No wonder so many caravans and travelers still entered Ban Yue country despite knowing that only half of them would survive the ordeal. It wasn’t because they wanted to die; it was because they would die anyway if they didn’t go in!

With these scorpion-tailed snakes being totems of the Ban Yue female demonic cultivator and could also be mass manipulated by her, then the appearance of these creatures could not be just an unlucky coincidence. Xie Lian and his two junior heavenly officials were simply not enough to protect this band of merchants in their journey through the Ban Yue country, much less from more misfortunes or even more scorpion-tailed snakes.

Xie Lian took two fingers and pressed them to his temples, and tried to enter the spiritual communication array. He wanted to see if he had a thick enough skin to ask for maybe a few more junior officials to see this mission through. But no matter how he tried, he could not enter, nor could he detect it. He lowered his hands and thought it was very strange. He couldn’t have possibly used up all his powers! He’d taken stock only this morning, and had found enough to last him a while.

He turned to speak to Nan Feng and Fu Yao. “Have you two tried to enter the spiritual communication array? I can’t enter.”

After a moment, the two junior officials looked quite grave together. Nan Feng said, “I can’t enter either.”

In a place so heavily concentrated with evil energy, heavenly officials’ powers were usually adversely affected, either by being temporarily weakened or cut off entirely. It seemed like this was one of those siutations.

Xie Lian paced around for a bit, before lifting his head and saying, “It’s probably because we’re so close to the ancient country of Ban Yue that we’re cut off from the spiritual communication array…” At that moment, something dazzlingly red caught the corner of his eye.

Nan Feng and Fu Yao were busy trying to find the spiritual communications array, while the merchants were hurriedly looking over their bodies to find any wounds. Only the young boy Tian Sheng was concentrating solely on holding up the old man, unaware of anything else. A purplish-red scorpion-tailed snake was slowly and silently creeping up his back.

And yet, as it coiled on the young boy’s shoulder, its fangs weren’t aimed at the boy’s throat, but rather at the arm of San Lang, who was standing next to him.

The snake shot forward!

Just as the snake was about to make contact with San Lang, Xie Lian shot out a hand and, with matchless precision, grasped the snake’s heart.

With his hands, Xie Lian could have expelled enough strength to burst and splatter the snake’s guts and brains. However, he didn’t know whether or not its wounded flesh might be poisonous as well, and didn’t want to do anything impulsive. So he simply grabbed its tail. However, he hadn’t known how slippery it was and how difficult it was to keep it stationary. As Xie Lian grasped it, he felt something cold and soft slip through his fingers, and in the next moment, there was a sharp pain on the back of his hand.

 

 

1 – a jin 斤 is a Chinese unit of measurement which equals about 0.5 kg in metric. Looks like Xie Lian is talking about a technique where you make urself really heavy/a martial art technique that makes you unmoveable. From Poppy’s research: “It’s part of the 梅花拳 (meihuaquan) branch of martial arts”

2 – no matter how beefed up and thicc u r, u can’t beat someone who has experience and power in a place u’re a stranger to

3 –  San Lang used this term before T_T and only now do I feel this translation fits better

4 – 将军 (jiang jun) means General

5 – I feel like this is some sort of saying, but I’ve never heard of it and couldn’t find a proper figurative translation either

6 – central plains of china

7 – lenny face

8 – 蛇的七寸 – the seven inches of the snake; seems like it means the vital organ/heart of the snake, or at least its weakest spot

9 – “Good moon grass”

 

Protective San Lang ahead… ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

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