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Fatphobia
Wu Ruo suddenly felt that the him from his previous lifetime was really silly. He had possessed a secret technique to improve his own cultivation level by absorbing the spiritual energy of others, but he actually never figured it out the entire time. He painstakingly spent seven to eight years, only then did he manage to slowly crawl to the fifth cultivation level. Later on, he had even eaten a top grade shenling1神灵 (shen ling): can be literally translated as ‘deity’s spirit’. I will be working to align whether titles/names are translated or not within this translation. I know it’s been very inconsistent throughout the work. I vaguely recall mentioning that I would leave most names/titles in pinyin somewhere, but then my brain kind of reneged on that and ended up translating them again. Please give me some time to retroactively fix it, and also to be more consistent in future chapters. pill gifted by Ji Xi, only then was he able to advance to the sixth level.
In this lifetime, if he were to absorb spiritual energy from others more, would his cultivation level advance faster? No wonder his mum had told him to watch how others used their magic, so that he could improve faster.
However, if he always hung around inside the manor, he wouldn’t be able to absorb the spiritual energy of others. He couldn’t absorb the spiritual energy of his loved ones to increase his own cultivation level, could he?
In that moment, a bright golden light shone in the sky.
Ji Xi raised his head and said: “Your man is really powerful. In such a short period of time, he was able to set up such a massive array.”
Wu Ruo side-eyed him, feeling proud of Hei Xuanyi: “Are you afraid of that man from the Mo clan?”
Ji Xi snorted: “Me? Afraid of him? I’m only…”
“Only what?”
“I misplaced an important item.” Ji Xi said, annoyed: “It’s inconvenient to account for it to him.”
Wu Ruo: “…”
“Ah—!” Dandan, who was currently playing not far away, suddenly cried out.
Wu Ruo quickly went over to take a look, but he only saw the five skeletons falling into pieces onto the ground.
Dandan ran over unhappily: “Daddy, there’s no one to play with me.”
Wu Ruo picked him up: “I’ll take you out to play.”
“Alright!”
When Ji Xi heard that they wanted to leave the manor, he went back to his room to meditate of his own initiative.
Wu Ruo brought the child with him to the front courtyard and was just in time to run into Wu Qianqing, who had returned from General Ren’s residence, so he asked: “Dad, how are the investigations going with General Ren?”
Wu Qianqing sighed: “Naturally, there’s no progress. Those people appeared suddenly and died just as suddenly. Right now, General Ren is handling his wife’s funeral matters, so it isn’t appropriate for me to linger for long either. Before I came back, General Ren told me that I wouldn’t need to be involved in their investigations of this matter anymore. They’re probably aware that this matter will be very difficult to resolve.”
If it was people that Wu Chenzi had sent, how could it be so easily resolved?
Wu Ruo said: “Not asking you to go to the general’s residence any further, they’ve either cleared you of suspicion or they’ve started to suspect the Wu estate.”
Wu Qianqing also thought this way; when he saw that they seemed prepared to go out, he asked: “Are you going out?”
Wu Ruo nodded in agreement: “I’m taking Dandan out to shop around.”
“Get more people2Wu Qianqing is referring to bodyguards, servants, etc. here but he literally uses the word ‘people’. to go with you.”
“I will.”
Wu Ruo instructed the bodyguard on duty at the entrance to inform Hei Xuanyi, then he brought six bodyguards with him and left Hei Manor.
When they reached the main street, he bought a few small toys for Dandan first, then he brought the child with him to the medicine shop to sell off the medicine pills that he’d refined in the past few days. Afterward, he bought some ingredients to bring home with him.
“Xiao-Ruo.”
Wu Ruo, who was currently waiting for the shopkeeper to gather the ingredients for him, heard someone calling him out to him. When he turned around to take a look, he saw Wu Yu walking towards them with a smile: “Xiao-Ruo, it really is you!”
Cold ruthlessness quickly flashed across Wu Ruo’s gaze but he maintained a smile on his face: “Wuge, what a coincidence. Are you here to buy medicine too?”
He had yet to go looking for trouble with Wu Yu, and Wu Yu was already knocking on his door.
Wu Yu smiled gently: “That’s right, the Four Clans Festival is coming up so I have to prepare more ingredients.”
“The Four Clans Festival?” In his previous lifetime, when Wu Ruo had just arrived at Huangdu City, he had heard of this festival. However, every Four Clans Festival had been held whenever he left Huangdu City, so he had never participated in the Four Clans Festival before.
Wu Yu looked at him in surprise: “Have you never heard of this festival before? Everyone who comes to Huangdu City knows that the city hosts the Four Clans Festival every three months.”
“I’ve heard of this festival, but I don’t really know what kind of festival it is.”
Wu Yu explained to him: “The date of the Four Clans Festival is personally determined by Lord State Tutor. We’ll only know when the exact date is after Lord State Tutor has determined it, however, every three months, Lord State Tutor must open the three Yao, Mo and Gui paths with the Emperor’s practitioners3These paths lead to the different realms occupied by the different clans. As for the Emperor’s practitioners, it refers to people who are magic practitioners like majority of the characters within the novel but they specifically work for the Emperor. Kind of like civil servants.. This way, we can go to the Yao, Mo and Gui clans to buy necessities, and the people of the other three clans can also come to the human realm to tour around. On that day, it can be treated as a festival for magic practitioners, all the regular commoners in Huangdu City avoid it and hide inside their houses without coming out.”
Wu Ruo replied, curious: “If the Four Clans Festival is for buying necessities from the other three clans, then why does wuge still need to buy ingredients?”
“I’m just preparing for any unexpected accidents, because I’ve heard from many practitioners that a lot of people run into trouble at the other realms, so I’m preparing some medicine pills ahead of time.”
When Wu Yu mentioned accidents, Wu Ruo suddenly thought of something.
“Xiao-Ruo, what are you thinking of?” Wu Yu saw that he didn’t react, so he took the initiative to speak up and ask.
Wu Ruo blithely gave him a perfunctory response: “I’m thinking about whether I should prepare some medicine pills as well, because I want to go take a look around the other clans too.”
“I’m also preparing so many medicine pills because I want to go take a look around the other clans. It’s a pity that I’ve already made an appointment with someone else, otherwise, I would go with you guys.”
Wu Ruo smiled self-deprecatingly: “I’m just an ordinary commoner4Reminder: Hei Xuanyi gifted Wu Ruo bangles that prevent others from detecting that he has spiritual energy and is able to cultivate. To the average person, Wu Ruo is just like a regular person who doesn’t cultivate.. If wuge is together with me, you’ll only be burdened.”
Wu Yu’s expression changed, then, he looked a little embarrassed: “Xiao-Ruo, I’m sorry, my past actions towards you were truly overboard. I hope you can forgive me for my past mistakes.”
“Let’s not linger on the past. We have to look towards the future.”
Wu Ruo smiled very tenderly, so tenderly that Wu Yu was a little dazed by it, so he never noticed that Wu Ruo’s words seemed to carry a deeper meaning: “Xiao-Ruo, you’ve really changed a lot. That day when I saw you at Lord State Tutor’s birthday celebration, if it weren’t because Great-grandfather said you were Wu Ruo, I wouldn’t have dared to say hi5认 (ren): this doesn’t actually translate to ‘saying hi’. Ren is kind of hard to articulate, but in this context, it refers to recognizing and acknowledging Wu Ruo’s identity to Wu Ruo himself. The closest translation I could think of to convey it was Wu Yu going up to them and saying hi, as in acknowledging that Wu Ruo is someone that he knows and will interact with..”
“Is that so?” Wu Ruo saw that the shopkeeper had finished packing his ingredients, so he said: “Wuge, I still have some other errands, so I won’t stay to chat. Oh, right, my dage also came to Huangdu City for his experience training, have you met him?”
Wu Yu’s gaze seemed to falter, then he said in surprise: “Sige also came to Huangdu City? I didn’t even know about this. If I run into him, I’ll definitely persuade him to train together with me.”
“Then if you see him, let him know that we’ve also come to Huangdu City.” Wu Ruo picked up the ingredients that the shopkeeper had packaged, and picked Dandan up: “Wuge, we’re heading off.”
Once Wu Ruo left, the smile fell off of Wu Yu’s face and he walked over to the shopkeeper with a cold expression. He took out two silver ingots and put them in front of the shopkeeper: ” What was that young master doing here just now?”
The shopkeeper beamed at him and accepted the silver taels, responding: “That young master was here to sell Spirit Replenishing Pills, then he used the money from selling the pills to buy ingredients for refining Spirit Replenishing Pills.”
Wu Yu frowned: “That’s all?”
“Yes, sir.”
After Wu Ruo descended the stairs, the smile also fell off of his face. Through his probing just now, he was extremely certain that dage had come into contact with Wu Yu previously. On top of that, his dage‘s disappearance had something to do with Wu Yu. If it wasn’t because his cultivation level wasn’t higher than Wu Yu’s cultivation level, he definitely would’ve used his Spirit Control6Refresher: This secret technique allows Wu Ruo to control what someone says, so he can make them tell the truth or force them to say whatever he wants them to say to anyone. secret technique and forced Wu Yu to tell him dage‘s whereabouts.
After he exited the medicine shop, the bodyguards immediately approached Wu Ruo to take the packages of ingredients from him.
Wu Ruo asked Dandan: “Do you want to go home or continue playing some more?”
Dandan shouted happily: “I want to play!”
Wu Ruo smiled.
Closely after, the sounds of jovial laughter came from behind him: “Little brat, you’re still so playful.”
When Wu Ruo heard the familiar voice, he turned around sharply and saw the middle-aged man standing by the medicine shop’s entrance smiling at him. His gaze lit up and his mouth spread into a wide smile: “Shifu?!”
He quickly walked over: “Shifu, is it really you?”
Nu Mu smiled carefreely: “It’s me. I didn’t think I’d meet you here either. When I saw you in the medicine shop just now, I had thought that I’d gotten the wrong person. If you weren’t carrying the little brat in your arms, I wouldn’t have dared to say hi7Same as the situation with Wu Yu a few paragraphs ago..”
He grabbed Wu Ruo by the arm and took a close look at Wu Ruo once over: “This is why I said my disciple is an unparalleled beauty who can topple countries and destroy cities. Look how beautiful you are after losing weight, everyone around us has been mesmerized by you.”
The last sentence was indeed the truth. Just now, when Wu Ruo had descended from the upper floors, everyone on the first floor of the medicine shop had looked towards Wu Ruo.
Wu Ruo was extremely happy but also extremely surprised: “Shifu, what are you doing here?”
Nu Mu’s smile faded: “It’s a long story. I’ll slowly tell you about it when we’ve found a place to settle down.”
Wu Ruo asked: “Shifu, have you just arrived in Huangdu City? Have you found lodgings yet? If you haven’t, why don’t you come and stay at our manor?”
Nu Mu didn’t stand on formality with Wu Ruo either: “We’ve just arrived in Huangdu City and haven’t found lodgings yet, but I’ve brought quite a few more people this time. I’m not sure if you have enough extra guestrooms.”
If it wasn’t because staying at an inn would attract the attention of others, Nu Mu wouldn’t want to bring a hoard of people to trouble his disciple either.
“Shifu, how many people do you have?”
“There are a hundred and twelve people.”
“We still have two empty courtyards at our manor, it should be enough for all of you. If it isn’t, they can still go to the other courtyards and squeeze with the others.”
“It’s enough, it’s enough.” Nu Mu smiled: “I forgot that Little Hei is a rich person; the place that he stays at is definitely spacious. My people are just not too far ahead. I’ll go over and call them, then we can go to your manor together.”
He scooped Dandan over from Wu Ruo’s arms: “I’ll8师公 (shi gong): your father’s shifu. Your grand-shifu, like a grandfather. The gong character specifically refers to a male shifu. take you to ride a horse.”
Dandan clapped happily and cheered.
Not long after, Nu Mu brought over a whole group of people riding horses, then, he returned to Hei Manor with Wu Ruo.
After they returned to Hei Manor, Wu Ruo first instructed Hei Xin to arrange their lodgings, then he introduced Nu Mu to Wu Qianqing and the others9Reminder: Nu Mu was staying at Hei Manor and left before the splitting of the family, so technically, Wu Qianqing and the others who were staying in Shuqing Garden have never met him before..
When Wu Qianqing and Guan Tong found out that Nu Mu was the shifu who had once taught Wu Ruo medicine, they hurriedly invited him in to take a seat. While they were eating, they were also especially enthusiastic about taking dishes for Nu Mu to show their appreciation for Nu Mu mentoring Wu Ruo in medicine.
It was only after dinner that Nu Mu, Wu Ruo and Hei Xuanyi had the opportunity to sit down and chat about recent events.
“When I heard about Gaoling City being annihilated by the Infinite Gui, you had no idea how worried I was about you. Later on, I only relaxed a little when I thought about how Little Hei was by your side.” Nu Mu laughed heartily: “Little Hei is so powerful, he can definitely protect all of you well. Afterwards, I sent people to Gaoling City to look for all of you but everyone who came back said that the entire city was dead.”
Wu Ruo nodded: “They all died.”
“It’s a relief that all of you are safe and sound. Do you intend to stay permanently in Huangdu City in the future?”
Wu Ruo looked at Hei Xuanyi: “I’ll see what arrangements Xuanyi has. If he wants to return home, I’ll go home together with him.”
Nu Mu looked at Wu Ruo, then looked at Hei Xuanyi, then he said happily: “Seeing that the relationship between the two of you is going so well, I can finally be at ease.”
Wu Ruo held onto Hei Xuanyi’s hand and asked, smiling: “Shifu, what did you come to Huangdu City for?”
Nu Mu’s smile faded and his expression turned uncharacteristically stern: “I’ll have to start from our Southern Miaojiang Wu10苗疆巫 (miao jiang wu): it’s been mentioned before that Nu Mu comes from the Wu clan, but the Wu character is different from the Wu character of the Wu family. The wu in Nu Mu’s clan name is often translated as shaman/shamanism, and the sacrificial rites ceremony that he performed back in Gaoling City also seems to point at his clan being the modern Chinese stereotype of what is known in English as ‘shamanism’. As for the miao jiang part of the name, it actually refers to two real-world minority groups in China. The jiang refers to the Uyghur people, which I think more people are familiar with and the Miao are another lesser known minority group. It is quite unpleasant that JYB, who is probably Han Chinese, named a minority clan in a fictional story by smashing two real-world minority groups’ names together. However, I would like to emphasize that the Uyghur and Miao minorities are two separate, distinct groups with their own cultures, languages, etc. and that this story is in no way representative of what actual Uyghur or Miao culture is like. clan and the Eastern Kambuja jiangtou clan, our clans have always kept our affairs separate11井水不犯河水 (jing shui bu fan he shui): literally ‘well water doesn’t mix with river water’. It means ‘to stay out of each other’s business’.. We would never encroach upon each other’s territory. However, just last year, our clans started a dispute over a piece of precious land that grows rare medicinal herbs. Unfortunately, it just so happens that that precious piece of land is right in the middle of our borders. Each clan claims that that piece of land is theirs and neither will give in to the other. Later on, everyone had come to a standstill and no one was touching that piece of land. But a few months ago, our clan had a traitor who helped the Kambuja people to slaughter many of our clanspeople. More than half of our Miaojiang Wu12In Chinese, since it’s possible to distinguish between the Miaojiang Wu and the Wu family that Wu Ruo is from, it simply states ‘Wu’ clan. For clarity in English, I’ll (try to) specify when it’s the Miaojiang Wu clan. clan’s land was occupied and taken over. Right now, everyone in our clan hates this traitor to death. Afterward, I heard that this traitor had left the stockaded village with the Kambuja people, so I brought people with me and followed them here to Huangdu City.”
When Wu Ruo heard him mention the Kambuja jiangtou clan, he thought of the jiangtou practitioner that had poisoned Wu Yuxue and his dad with gu parasites. He couldn’t help exchanging a look with Hei Xuanyi: “Shifu, what’s the name of the traitor from your clan?”
“Fu Jin.”
“Then do you know the Kambuja person that Fu Jin came to Huangdu City with?”
“I only know that the leader is someone called Sang Lun, I don’t know the rest of their names. According to the information I gathered, they left Kambuja to seek revenge for the clan leader’s son.” Nu Mu snorted: “I heard that their clan leader’s son had his crown jewels13命根子 (ming gen zi): more literally something like ‘rod that is the source of life’, it’s a euphemistic way of referring to a man’s genitals. I opted to use an equivalent English term, rather than leaving the term more directly translated. damaged by someone, but I don’t know if that’s true or false.”
Wu Ruo raised an eyebrow. They actually ended up with the same enemy as Nu Mu: “Is the son of the Kambuja clan leader Ba Se?”
“Yes, that’s him. Do you know him? Oh, right, on my way here, I received a letter from my clan that Ba Se has also left Kambuja and is probably also coming to Huangdu City.”
“Oh do we know him.” Wu Ruo looked at Hei Xuanyi: “Ba Se’s crown jewels were damaged by Xuanyi.”
Nu Mu was stunned, then he burst out in laughter: “Ba Se’s crown jewels have really been damaged? How did this reckless thing provoke Little Hei?”
He very quickly thought of the reason: “Is it because Ba Se fancied Xiao-Ruo, so Little Hei got jealous?”
Everyone in both clans knew that Ba Se was lecherous. As long as the other party was good-looking, he didn’t discriminate between men or women. If someone was unwiling, then he would use spells and gu parasites until the other party complied. He was simply barbaric to the highest degree. Right now, just losing his crown jewels was really letting him off too easily.
Hei Xuanyi said indifferently: “I also destroyed his spiritual field but he doesn’t know that I was the one who did it.”
Wu Ruo looked at him in surprise: “You did that as well? Why didn’t I ever hear you talking about it before?”
“Well done!” Nu Mu slapped the table and cheered: “If it were me, I would have killed him a long time ago. Oh, right, does that mean Sang Lun and Fu Jin are coming here to get revenge on you?”
Wu Ruo said: “Probably. Sang Lun has already acted against us twice before; we’ve already decided to find all of their accomplices and kill them all.”
“You must leave Fu Jin to me. I want to bring him back to the clan so that my clanspeople can vent on him.”
“Alright, but there’s one thing I don’t understand. They have no idea that Xuanyi was the one who destroyed their clan leader’s son, so why do they want to get revenge on us?”
Nu Mu laughed coldly: “According to my understanding of their jiangtou clan, if they can’t find their real enemy, then they’ll find someone else to settle their scores with. They don’t care whether the other party is innocent either. Xiao-Ruo, they’re proficient in controlling people, in the future, all of you must be more careful.”
Wu Ruo nodded in understanding.
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