LWSL Chapter 13

After falling asleep, Wu Ruo had a very long dream.

He dreamt of the time that the Wu family people from his previous lifetime had delivered Wu Zhu’s corpse back to Shuqing Garden. At the time, the whole family grieved inconsolably. Nobody could accept the fact that Wu Zhu had passed away. In the following year, grief lingered over Shuqing Garden. Only when Wu Xi got married did a sliver of joyousness return to Shuqing Garden. Slowly, everybody moved on from their grief. But no one would’ve thought that two years later, they would receive the tragic news¹噩耗 (e hao): the sad news of the death of a beloved person, but for the sake of sentence flow, I’ve shortened it within the text itself. of their beloved Wu Xi’s death. The parents who had lost both son and daughter, one after another, suddenly aged a lot. By the time they rushed to Wu Xi’s in-laws, Wu Xi’s body had already been cremated. The only thing left was a grave mound.

Since then, there was no more happiness to be found in Shuqing Garden again. His parents only regained a reason to smile when he had accidentally broken his longevity plaque and gained his spiritual energy. As someone from the Wu family, he was extremely hardworking. Not only did he study the secret techniques in his head every day, but he also took the time to study the Wu family’s Yinyang style. He called upon specters, signed spiritual contracts, gained many fellows, and managed to carve a reputation for himself among practitioners²玄术界 (xuan shu jie): kind of translates to “the world of fantasy arts” A.K.A the world that this webnovel is happening in. For reference, this novel is a xuanhuan, which basically mixes Chinese and Western fantasy concepts. I translated it as “among practitioners” just so it doesn’t feel like we’re breaking the fourth wall here.. Yet none of them could’ve imagined that he would die in the hands of his good friend.

Wu Ruo was dreaming about the last oath he’d sworn before his death when he was startled awake. He came face to face with a pair of eyes with no whites in them and jumped up in fear, but because his body was too fat, with no way to move with just his strength alone, he fell back onto the bed.

“Fatty, for what reason have you summoned this dignified one³本座 (ben zuo): a pretty arrogant (?) way of saying “I” that establishes oneself as some kind of government official/person of status. Kind of like how Chinese princes refer to themselves as 本王 (ben wang), which sort of translates to “my princely self”.?” The owner of the eyes with no whites was a child about 5 or 6 years old. They carried an incredibly huge white egg in their arms, dressed in resplendent red robes, and countless little braids covered their head. Although their features were delicate and cute, their expression was extremely haughty. They floated in midair and squinted at Wu Ruo with the aura of someone judging the world.

“I summoned you?” Wu Ruo’s forehead was full of sweat. Wasn’t he just sleeping? When would he have had the time to summon this child? Could he have mistakenly summoned for them in his sleep?

He took a close look at the child, from the fact that they didn’t have whites in their eyes, it was likely that the child was someone from either the Gui or Mo tribes⁴Although it’s never explicitly stated, it’s implied that the people in Tianxing are most similar to humans (in terms of outward appearances). Characters from other countries are described as from different tribes/clans.

As explained before, these other races/species are like the Chinese equivalents of elves/orcs/dwarves/etc. from Western fantasy. However, they’re often translated into English as demons/monsters/devils/ghosts, etc.

There are certain connotations and nuances to these words in English that makes the translation inaccurate, in my opinion. Because the author will describe these other races and sufficiently worldbuild enough in text, I have opted to leave 妖, 魔, 鬼, 怪 (yao, mo, gui, guai), etc. as is.. And something about the child was very familiar; the way the child dressed was exactly the same as the Mo tribe person he’d contracted with.

The more Wu Ruo looked at him, the more he felt that this was the person he’d contracted with. In the end, he was absolutely certain that this child was the person from the Mo tribe that he’d contracted with in his previous lifetime: Ji Xi.

He was delighted, and wanted to call the other by name, but thought better of it. This fellow’s personality had always been haughty. Even if you called him by name, it wouldn’t guarantee his trust and might even cause him to be suspicious. Just like in Wu Ruo’s past life, they had gone through many things together before Ji Xi reluctantly agreed to sign a contract with him as equals.

Wu Ruo suppressed his joy and feigned skepticism: “I’m really sorry, I might have accidentally summoned you in my sleep.”

“Summoned me in your sleep?” Ji Xi stared at Wu Ruo with narrowed eyes, a little surprised, making it obvious that he didn’t believe Wu Ruo’s words.

However, it was true that this person was sleeping when Ji Xi had been summoned, and there were no summoning arrays⁵You ever watch a wuxia/xianxia drama, the character gestures in the air and then seems to push it forward, then the CGI effects show a glowing sigil of sorts that looks like this? Yeah, that’s what they’re referring to when it says an “array”. Sometimes, it’s a physical thing, but most of the time it’s a non-material barrier or spell area that the characters are able to sense with their spiritual energy. in the vicinity. Could it be that this person had really accidentally summoned him in their sleep?

Wu Ruo’s attitude was sincere: “Yes.”

Ji Xi bantered: “Fatty, have you heard the saying: ‘it’s easy to attract a Mo, but difficult to send them away’?”

Since he’d summoned Ji Xi, then it would be difficult to get rid of him.

Wu Ruo’s gaze seemed to waver⁶乌若眸光微动 literally translates to: ‘the light in Wu Ruo’s pupils moved fractionally’. I take it just to mean that the look in his eyes changed a little, and so translated it to “his gaze seemed to waver”. However, I thought the literal translation makes for a pretty hilarious mental image in English, and just wanted to leave this note.. What he wanted was for Ji Xi to stay. This Mo’s powers were very strong, with his help, Wu Ruo would simply be like a tiger that had grown wings⁷如虎添翼 (ru hu tian yi): “a tiger that has grown wings” just means his strength would be doubled. I left the original Chinese idiom for cultural sharing reasons, and also because I thought it’d be nice to have the imagery of a tiger with wings to go in line with the fantasy theme of the webnovel. Like, check this out, my friends. Extremely cool..

“What do you want to do?”

Ji Xi’s gaze turned cold: “Aren’t you afraid that I’ll kill you?”

Wu Ruo didn’t say a word.

He understood this Mo. Although coldhearted, Ji Xi was also arrogant enough not to kill those humans he considered beneath him.

Ji Xi saw that Wu Ruo was calm and felt that it was especially boring, so he tossed the big white egg into Wu Ruo’s arms: “Your egg. Returning it to you.”

• 1
  噩耗 (e hao): the sad news of the death of a beloved person, but for the sake of sentence flow, I’ve shortened it within the text itself.
• 2
  玄术界 (xuan shu jie): kind of translates to “the world of fantasy arts” A.K.A the world that this webnovel is happening in. For reference, this novel is a xuanhuan, which basically mixes Chinese and Western fantasy concepts. I translated it as “among practitioners” just so it doesn’t feel like we’re breaking the fourth wall here.
• 3
  本座 (ben zuo): a pretty arrogant (?) way of saying “I” that establishes oneself as some kind of government official/person of status. Kind of like how Chinese princes refer to themselves as 本王 (ben wang), which sort of translates to “my princely self”.
• 4
  Although it’s never explicitly stated, it’s implied that the people in Tianxing are most similar to humans (in terms of outward appearances). Characters from other countries are described as from different tribes/clans.
  
  As explained before, these other races/species are like the Chinese equivalents of elves/orcs/dwarves/etc. from Western fantasy. However, they’re often translated into English as demons/monsters/devils/ghosts, etc.
  
  There are certain connotations and nuances to these words in English that makes the translation inaccurate, in my opinion. Because the author will describe these other races and sufficiently worldbuild enough in text, I have opted to leave 妖, 魔, 鬼, 怪 (yao, mo, gui, guai), etc. as is.
• 5
  You ever watch a wuxia/xianxia drama, the character gestures in the air and then seems to push it forward, then the CGI effects show a glowing sigil of sorts that looks like this? Yeah, that’s what they’re referring to when it says an “array”. Sometimes, it’s a physical thing, but most of the time it’s a non-material barrier or spell area that the characters are able to sense with their spiritual energy.
• 6
  乌若眸光微动 literally translates to: ‘the light in Wu Ruo’s pupils moved fractionally’. I take it just to mean that the look in his eyes changed a little, and so translated it to “his gaze seemed to waver”. However, I thought the literal translation makes for a pretty hilarious mental image in English, and just wanted to leave this note.
• 7
  如虎添翼 (ru hu tian yi): “a tiger that has grown wings” just means his strength would be doubled. I left the original Chinese idiom for cultural sharing reasons, and also because I thought it’d be nice to have the imagery of a tiger with wings to go in line with the fantasy theme of the webnovel. Like, check this out, my friends. Extremely cool.