Ten Years Lantern on a Stormy Martial Arts World Night Chapter 2

T/N: If you're here from Legend of Minglan or Love Like the Galaxy, you know this author is a slow burn type. And her characterizations is unmatched. Each of her characters feel like they are true people with strengths and weaknesses. It’s really, really slow. Like, I feel it picks up at like chapter 20. But then- oh my gosh does it pick up.  

Chapter Two: Wind Cloud Peak   

Luoying Valley was located in Southern China, and its spring lasted all year round. Jiuli Mountain, on the other hand, was located in the vast north. A long trip thus began. Luckily, Valley Master Cai had the foresight to leave them enough time. They traveled either by boat. This way his wife and children could travel quickly yet enjoy the scenery.   

The Cai family got off their boat one day to see Gang Leader Wang of the Qingzhu Gang. The man had brought a group of gang members to see Cai Zhao off--to thank Cai Zhao for not becoming his disciple. He brought them a dozen fragrant and oily roasted geese as a gift. Her family was happy, and Cai Zhao was so angry that she refused to eat. (T/N: LOL)  

Otherwise, the family spent the trip laughing and snacking and arrived safely at Qingque Manor.  

Qingque Manor hailed from the Qingque Sect. And Qingque Sect was located in the place where Ancestor Beichen cultivated. It had been two hundred years since Beichen lived here, and the small cluster of cottages on the barren snowy peak, which was previously inaccessible, was now a place that everyone in the martial arts world yearned to visit. The Holy land of cultivation, if you will.  The Cai family and his party lingered in the small town at the foot of the mountain for a while, and the next day they hired a dozen wheelbarrows suitable for mountain roads and headed up the mountain. 

As soon as she left the town, Cai Zhao saw a magnificent and solemn mountain. 

The mountain was so tall it hung over her head. Huge stones dangerously surrounded the climbers like a ferocious beast. The rock around them felt like a beast waiting to pounce, making it difficult to breathe.  

Legends say that in the Old Era, these mountains were crawling with ferocious beasts, violent monsters, and poisonous creatures. The monsters grew large from the abundant qi and terrorized the common people. The immortal cultivators of that time exterminated these monsters. And then they sent one of their simple disciples, someone named Beichen, to guard here.  

After thousands of years, rivers dry and mountains fold, the qi in the world became sparse, and immortal cultivators became rare. Even that young disciple Beichen became a well known name that shocks the martial arts world.  

A younger Cai Zhao once asked her aunt, “Was Ancestor Beichen really a disciple of an immortal?”  

“Who knows, those are events of hundreds of years ago.” Cai Pingshu laughed. “But descendents of Beichen like us, of course we want to puff up our Ancestor…. Zhaozhao ah, do you wish it were true or false?”  

“I wish it was false.” Her soft, pink face was very serious as she said.  

Cai Pingshu was very curious. “Why?” 

Cai Zhao sighed. “The other immortal cultivators all left, ascending to heaven, leaving poor Ancestor Beichen all alone. He must have been so sad if that happened.”  

Cai Zhao could not remember the rest of the conversation. She could remember how soft and warm the sunlight was, as it shone on her, and how comfortable her Aunt's lap was. Her Aunt's expression was warm, and her hand was warm, as her hand petted her hair, her aunt unconsciously said, “Zhaozhao's heart is so soft, don't travel the martial arts world in the future.”  

Cai Zhao had no plans to travel the martial arts world.  

She liked Luoying Valley and Luoying town. She liked hearing tofu pudding uncle heckling his wares at dawn. She liked the light of the small stove of the wonton seller’s stall boiling at night. She liked having her friends and family by her side. She liked lazing in the sun. If she could spend a life like this, how great would that be! 

Cai Zhao reached the top of the mountain. Cai Zhao realized that the mountain “top” was really a huge flat plain. This was Wind Cloud Peak. It was like the mountain had been cut flat, forming a flat, circular shape. In the distance, the actual mountain top of the sharp main peak was surrounded by clouds and still very far away.  

The flat field had no buildings or lookouts built, so when the ten or so disciples stationed here saw them immediately.  

A thirty-year-old man at the front stepped forward and greeted [4] the Valley Master and his wife. Cai Zhao and Cai Heng returned the greeting.  

Ning Xiaofeng called out teasingly to the man at the front. “Dalou, why are you guarding here? Have you done something naughty and been punished with guard service?”  

Zeng Dalou grinned. “Today I read the stars, and I knew the Luoying Valley Manor would arrive. So I came here to wait for you.”  

Cai Pingchun shook his head. “When you were a kid you were so gullible. Now look at you, so smooth.” 

Zeng Dalou’s lips twitched. 

“You must be thinking, this Cai Pingchun isn’t much older than me. You’ve both played with mud together as kids. But now this man’s putting on the airs of a Valley Master.”  

Zeng Dalou smiled, shaking his head. “No, no, I don’t dare.”  

Listening to their parent’s conversation, the young brother and sister whispered to each other.  

“A-Jie, where exactly is Qingque Sect? It can’t be here, right? Why don’t we keep walking?” 

“Dumby, how can we keep walking? Can’t you see that this flat bit ends in a sheer cliff?” 

The Cai Family had come up the southern side of the flat plain of Wind Cloud Peak. And the northern side of the flat plain looked like it had been chopped off by a huge machete, cutting off a rounded edge on the northern side, forming a sharp, clean cliff.  

The two siblings went to this cliff edge, looking left and right. Below their feet was a deep drop, black and unfathomable. The opposite side was misty, you could almost see the faint outline of a mountain, but you couldn’t see anything clearly.  

At this moment, Zeng Dalou motioned to his subordinates. A young disciple removed the horn on his belt, blowing forcefully. A deep, booming horn rang across the mountains. The siblings were just about to ask what this meant, but they were pulled back by Cai Pingchun.  

Moments later, the other side of the cliff rang out with the frightening sound of something zooming so fast it was breaking the air, as well as the clanking of iron tools, and four black iron chains shot out from the thick clouds like pythons.  

The chains that were flying towards them were each as thick as a strong man's arm. They came with such ferocious force and made a terrifying roar. If they hit an ordinary person, their muscles and bones would be broken. The four young disciples beside Zeng Dalou flexed their huge muscles. They assumed ready postures as they waited for the chains to reach in front of them. Each person firmly caught one chain and quickly secured them to the iron rings nailed on the ground.  

“So impressive!” Cai Zhao said, her mouth gaping open.  

“Yeah, yeah!” Cai Han nodded.  

Zeng Dalou made a respectful gesture with his hands. “Thanks for the compliment.” 

Cai Zhao wanted to continue to gush praise, but she heard the clanking of chains again. She looked back, and saw a few disciples with their hair tied up neatly and their swords hanging on their waists walk on the iron chains and quickly come towards them.  

The one at the front was an eighteen or nineteen year old young man, he wore a white robe with faint gold embroidery, and was an extremely handsome man. But his expression was solemn and his eyebrows were cold and arrogant. 

Cai Pingshu once said to her niece, “Zhaozhao-ah [5], your future husband must never be that cold and arrogant type, because that type of man will need you to flatter them. A lifetime for a human is so short. It’s better for you to be flattered and cherished by your loved one. Why make things difficult for yourself?” 

Young Cai Zhao took those words to heart. Her future husband must treat her as dearly and lovely as a shopkeeper treats their richest, most generous customer. 

Cai Zhao now noticed the handsome man only needed the tips of his feet to lightly touch the chains, and he could leap through the air with ease. His posture was impeccable, and he looked like an immortal flying down. He was ahead of the other disciples by a large margin. 

The handsome man landed on the flat ground. Immediately all the disciples on the flat plain clasped their fists and saluted the young man. The young man only saluted with one hand to Zeng Dalou then bowed to Cai Pingchun. “Disciple Song Yuzhi greets Valley Master Cai, Madam Cai.”  

While he spoke, the other disciples all reached the flat plain. 

Cai Pingchun nodded to the young man.  

Ning Xiaofeng frowned as she studied the young man’s appearance. “Your surname is Song? Your father is…”  

Before he could finish his words, there was a commotion behind everyone. They could hear many men shouting in chorus. “Ho! Hey! Ho!” and so on in unison. Cai Zhao turned around and saw a total of thirty-two strong warriors with bare shoulders, carrying a huge palanquin. The palanquin was decorated with gold and jade, and there were exquisite curtains flying on all sides. Even the four corners were decorated with red gold bells, and the tongue of each bell was actually a clear tourmaline. Behind the palanquin was a long snaking entourage with no visible end. What a heavy baggage procession. It was the first time that the Cai Zhao siblings came out of the valley so far and were dumbfounded on the spot. Cai Han opened his mouth wide: "Wow, what an entrance..." 

Cai Pingchun muttered, “So it’s him.” 

“Why am I not surprised.” Ning Xiaofeng muttered.  

Cai Zhao turned to her brother and asked, “Do you still think I’m extravagant?” 

Cai Han shook his head. 

Cai Zhao felt pity for herself as she said, “I think I am extremely modest and restrained!” 

Cai Han nodded furiously. 

The handsome young man in white who stood beside them frowned. 

The palanquin stopped and an extravagantly dressed, middle aged man stepped down. The sword hanging on his waist had a red jewel that was so shiny Cai Zhao could not open her eyes. To be honest, this rich uncle must have been very handsome when he was younger. Even middle aged his brows still had the air of handsomeness. 

But Cai Zhao felt that he looked a bit familiar. Her head snapped around to look at the young man in white. Why did this rich uncle look so much like the cold and handsome Song Yuzhi?  

Zen Dalou felt helpless as saw the Guang Tian Sect arrive. He summoned a smiling face and gave his greetings. Then he gave more instructions to his subordinates who then became busy. 

Song Yuzhi ignored Cai Zhao’s gaze and stepped forward to greet the rich man.  

“Father, you’ve arrived.” 

Father Song was very happy to see his son. His eyes glowed with pride as he looked upon him. “Yuzhi, your qing gong [2] has improved.” 

An arrogant and lazy voice rang out from behind. “Father, you aren’t going to criticize how long it’s been since Yuzhi’s written to us?”  

Everyone turned to look at the owner of the voice. They saw a richly dressed young man who rode on top of a handsome horse. Just the pure gold hairpiece he wore was expensive. After this man was another young man a top a horse. This young man looked average and the horse he rode also looked average.  

Cai Zhao frowned. Such a strong and handsome warhorse, yet he used it to climb a mountain. What a waste! 

Ning Xiaofeng rolled her eyes and asked Zeng Dalou. “When you looked at the stars, did you also predict that he would arrive today?” 

Zen Dalou smiled awkwardly.  

Song Yuzhi stepped forward to give greetings. “Da ge, Er ge, Yuzhi greets his older brothers.” 

He then introduced the arrivals to the Cai family. The average looking young man was the eldest Song brother, Song Xiuzhi. The one that dressed extravagantly like a copy of his extravagant father was the second brother, Song Maozhi. 

When being introduced, Song Xiuzhi immediately got off his horse and gave a proper greeting in return. 

Song Maozhi just turned his nostrils to them and yawned. He did not get off his horse. 

Cai Pingchun’s face did not change at all. But Ning Xiaofeng’s hand reached for her waist pouch. Cai Zhao knew that her mother’s hands itched to beat someone up and quickly grabbed her mother’s hand.  

“Pingchun, long time no see. You haven’t changed at all.” The Sect Leader Song spoke familiarly with Master Cai. 

“You’re being kind. Greetings to Song Dage [3].” He made the saluting gesture with his hands and left the talking to his wife. 

Ning Xiaofeng smiled, the smile not reaching her eyes. “Pingchun is still young, of course he hasn’t changed much. But Sect Leader Song has changed a lot … your belt now needs more fabric ah.” 

Song Shijun’s face darkened. “Ning Nuxia’s tongue is as sharp as always.” He couldn’t stop his hand from touching his waist. Sect Leader Song was indeed handsome, and his bearing was powerful, yet he… really had gained some weight. 

Song Shijun realized that with his current standing, winning a verbal spat with a woman would only make people laugh at him. So he had to rein in his emotions and change the topic. His gaze landed on the young Cai siblings. “So this is the Zhaozhao who will soon study under Qingque Sect. I’ve heard so much from brother Yunke.” He sighed. “Too bad your aunt has passed, otherwise we could drink together.” 

Cai Zhao genuinely expressed her suspicion. “Sect Leader Song is close to my aunt?” 

“Of course.” Sect Leader Song smiled. 

“But my aunt never mentioned Sect Leader Song.”  

The Sect Leader Song…… 

This was absolutely true. Cai Zhao was a righteous girl like her aunt and she prided herself on her upright character. She never lied.  

Ning Xiaofeng held in her laughter. She wanted to hug her daughter and give her a big kiss.  

In the end, Cai Pingchun came out to fix the awkward silence. “Song Dage, Luoying Valley recently created this top quality healing balm. Would Dage like to take a look? Xiaofeng, you come too.” 

Song Shijun nodded robotically and followed the Cai couple to the side. Cai Zhao heard them speak faintly, “Pingchun, did your sister really never mention me?”  

And her mother responded, “Don’t you know what Pingshu would say if she did mention you? Don’t ask such humiliating questions.”  

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T/N: Chapter two done. I am quite enjoying mommy Feng's sharp tongue. Usually when people meet they play nice. It's so interesting to see how they interact here.

About the Glossary:

I spent quite a while thinking about if I want to have definitions in the text, or an asterix and then a foot note at the end of each chapter with word definitions, or a glossary. In the end I decided on the method that is the least obtrusive to reading, which is a glossary. I will put all the words in the glossary. That way if you want you can just read the chapter without interruptions. But if you're curious, you can look up the word.

I will be using the Chinese version of words quite often, because I do feel like something is lost in translation. A shixiong vs. gege vs. da ge vs xiongdi is not the same type of "senior brother", even though they would all be translated to this in English. And going around calling "senior brother" is a mouthful! I also consulted other fandoms, like for example MXTX's Untamed, or Word of Honor, and everyone English uses the terms shijie, shidi, etc. I would think some readers may be familiar with the genre and would be annoyed at constant notes interrupting the reading. But I also wanted to make this accessible to new readers. So I made sure to include these terms in my glossary, no matter how common it is in the genre. If you find any word you do not know, please leave me a comment and I will add it. I also think a glossary is better than foot notes because if you forget a word, you can look it up in the glossary. But if I put a foot note the first time the word appears and then you'd have to go back and find the exact chapter it first appeared in. And it would not be possible to have every single word's definition at the end of each chapter--it's already a lot of work to translate, edit, and update all side-documents. I hope you will all find this a useful way to make the read more enjoyable. Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Lol.

There will be a general glossary for words, a character list, and a sect/location glossary.

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Footnotes: 

[1] Qi: fans familiar with martial arts will likely know what this is. It's essentially "life force". When martial artists practice martial arts, they need to practice their inner strength (qi) and outer strength (muscle). Having more qi is very useful. This allows them to fly (qigong), infuse items like swords with qi to make them stronger, lash out stronger attacks (with qi) etc. It's said that a top martial artist can make their attacks with qi so strong they can cut mountains.  

[2] Qigong: ability to "fly" with qi. He could fly across the chains with just the odd tip of his toe touching the chains. If you watch a wuxia TV show (I recommend Joy of Life cause that one is about a modern transmigrator and it's a total hoot) you'll see it! It's hard to describe but it'll make more sense if you see it. 

[3] Dage: older brother. In Chinese, there are many ways to say brother (and all other relationship terms) that are specific. The root "ge" means older brother. Then you can add prefixes and suffixes. Dage means first older brother or eldest brother or a formal way of saying brother. Alternatively, for example, gege is a familiar term to say older brother and can also be flirtatious.  

[4] Greetings: in China you greet people by cupping your hands in front of you and slightly bowing. I call it "greeting" or "cupping the hands in greeting" or "saluting with the hands" in this chapter just because I don't know if people will know what I mean if I say they gave greeting. But typing out "cupped hands in greeting" seems a bit long. I wish a word for this action existed in English.  

[5] Zhaozhao: This is an endearing way to call Cai Zhao. In Chinese, a way of endearment is to double up the name. For example, the character Wei Wuxian, his shijie calls him Xianxian. This is taking the Xian part of his name and doubling it up. It's a very close and cute form of endearment very close family/friends would call.  

Nvxia or Nuxia: Title for female hero. Common title given to martial artists in the martial arts world. 

I have made a glossary with these phrases. I will stop adding these footnotes and just allow people to look up the words they do not know on the glossary.  

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