Chapter 14 – Tiger Steps Village Eight Trigrams Array

Translator: Kouki

Editor: Crooked

The reason why the Feng Clan could become one of the Six Great Sects was precisely because of their inheritance of celestial masters. The dao of the celestial masters was only passed down through the Feng family, but one celestial master could have tens or hundreds of disciples. Their family background accumulated over the years was so massive that ordinary people could not even begin to comprehend.

In these past years, Feng Li was known as the youngest and the strongest Celestial Master.

The original character was the disciple of a nominal disciple of the previous top Celestial Master. Logically speaking, he was one generation lower than Feng Li and therefore should have taken the initiative to greet Feng Li. However, amongst the numerous disciples of the Feng Clan,

the original character was just a small nobody that no one remembered. Jiang Luo didn’t think that Feng Li would have remembered him. Thus, while adhering to the principle of ‘less is more¹多一事不如少一事 – transliteral: one more thing isn’t better than one less thing.’, he was also too lazy to do such a thing.

He watched as Feng Li’s figure disappeared downstairs. Jiang Luo retracted his gaze without much concern. “Let’s go. Didn’t you say you wanted to eat the local Guo Qiao Rice Noodles?”

The two of them went out and found a more famous shop and ordered some Guo Qiao Rice Noodles. After placing all the miscellaneous ingredients together, the bowl of rice noodles was bigger than Jiang Luo’s face. He rolled up his sleeves and polished off the entire bowl with Lu Youyi.

After eating at the school cafeteria for a month, Jiang Luo finally understood why Ye Xun and Lu Youyi were moved to tears²泪眼朦胧 – transliteral: teary eyed, blurry vision after eating hot and sour shredded potatoes.

After they finished eating, they bought some rose flower cakes³鲜花饼 – transliteral: fresh flower cake; a local delicacy in Yunnan, it is made with actual rose petals. to bring back for their classmates.

The main floor of the hotel was filled with students coming and going. Just as Jiang Luo and Lu Youyi entered through the side door, they saw a group of students standing in the lobby in absolute silence. All were tense, as if they were caught by a teacher.

A cold voice flowed from the centremost part of the crowd, “Which student from which school in Minnan⁴闽南 – also known as Southern Fujian made this Fox Immortal shrine? Take it down.”

Lu Youyi said in a low voice, “Minnan has a custom of making offerings to the Fox Immortal.”

A student came forward, face flushed with embarrassment. “Master Feng, that is my shrine. However, I do worship alone in my own room. Why do I need to take it down?”

“You’ve broken the rules (of custom),” Feng Li said lightly. “Since you know how to worship the Fox Immortal, why didn’t you check if this place was suitable for worship?”

Feng Li’s tone was not harsh, but it made people become taut all over and afraid to meet his gaze.

Jiang Luo and Lu Youyi hid at the back of the crowd to watch the excitement. Feng Li and several other appointed examiners seemed to be checking each and every one of the students’ rooms. The students’ hearts danced up and down, terrified that their misdeeds would be discovered.

Lu Youyi poked Jiang Luo. “You didn’t bring anything that’s against the rules, right?”

Jiang Luo: “I’m poor and bare⁵一穷二白 – transliteral: one poor, two white; the first part is self-explanatory. For the second part, white/bai can also mean empty or nothing. Meaning he has nothing to his name.. I got zilch.”

Feeling at ease, Lu Youyi said, “I didn’t bring anything either. If I want talismans, I’d buy it from you. If I want a refined weapon, I’ll go find Kuang Zheng. For us ‘poor and bare’ beings, it is very safe.”

Jiang Luo: “…” That ‘poor and bare’ of yours is very different from mine.

The two men estimated that the examiners were about to reach their floor, so they returned to their room first. Jiang Luo went to deliver the rose flower cakes to Ye Xun and the others. When he came back, Lu Youyi was sitting right on the sofa, watching TV as he told him, “They’ve already finished checking.”

Jiang Luo was slightly surprised. “So fast?”

Lu You nodded his head and waved a sheet of paper in his hand, “The competition notice also came down.”

This competition had a total of three rounds. The first round of the competition would begin in three days. The objective was to break an array. The location was set in a place called Tiger Steps Village①.

On the sheet was a photo of the outskirts of Tiger Steps Village and a few words of introduction. Tiger Steps Village was an ‘Eight Trigrams’ village. All the buildings and roads within the village were decorated with Nine Palace Eight Trigrams arrays. Entering was easy; leaving was hard. For outsiders, entering the village was similar to entering a maze. Oftentimes they would end up losing their sense of direction.

The first round was about their foundation and assessed the basic knowledge and skills of the participants. The competition requirements clearly stated that the contestants were not allowed to bring along any tools except for a luopan (Feng Shui compass)⁶Just a reminder since I will use it interchangeably with the word compass.

Jiang Luo looked at the thick stack of talismans in his bag and fell into deep silence.

If he couldn’t bring talismans, he would always feel somewhat unsafe.

It wasn’t that Tiger Steps Village was unsafe, rather it was that hidden-who-knows-where evil ghost that was unsafe.

A month ago, Jiang Luo said that he would torture Chi You for an entire night. Then, he really had tortured Chi You for an entire night with his talismans.

Chi You became weaker and weaker; the mist, turning from thick to turn. The talismans that ignited on his body fell to the ground, accumulating into a thick pile of ashes. Yet the sound of his laughter became more and more hysterical and distorted.

“How interesting,” Chi You laughed just before disappearing.

In the past month, Chi You didn’t show up at all. He must have been critically injured by Jiang Luo. Jiang Luo could already imagine how crazy and unscrupulous his methods, and how cruel his retaliation would be after that lunatic recovered.

Was Jiang Luo afraid?

Naturally the answer was no.

He had been desperately studying for a month. Every night, just before going to bed, he would think of those eighteen times when Chi You had killed him.

The resentment and rage in Jiang Luo’s heart surged. Those eighteen times, he still hadn’t repaid them yet.

Chi You was so kind and gentle; how could Jiang Luo take advantage of his grace?

Three days later, Jiang Luo got onto the coach bus heading towards Tiger Steps Village.

Tiger Steps Village was 40 kilometres away from the city. The coach bus took two to three hours to reach its destination. Jiang Luo and more than 20 unknown contestants followed the staff to the entrance of the village. The staff explained, “This round of the competition will last for a total of 24 hours. The contestants must travel to the eye of the formation and find the small flag that we’ve left behind. Then they must exit Tiger Steps Village carrying the small flag. Contestants who fail to leave Tiger Steps Village within 24 hours will be directly eliminated.”

Jiang Luo glanced at the time. It was about three o’clock in the afternoon.

There were eight entrances to Tiger Steps Village. Although there were as many as 180 people participating in the competition, the internal layout of Tiger Steps Village was connected both vertically and horizontally. After entering the village, it was likely that none of the 180 contestants would meet anyone and could only rely on their own efforts to leave Tiger Steps Village.

The staff said: “A gentle reminder to everyone, this entire round of the competition will be broadcasted live through our internal network.”

Live streaming?

Jiang Luo became thoughtful.

If it was a live broadcast, it could actually guarantee his safety to a certain extent.

After announcing that competition had begun, the contestants impatiently rushed into Tiger Steps Village.

Jiang Luo quietly trailed behind the crowd.

Everyone took out their compasses. In an instant, only a few groups of twos and threes remained. Jiang Luo also went with the flow and took out his luopan, but instead of looking at the direction it pointed to, he looked up towards the sky.

This was the so-called Tai Chi birthed two polarities, two polarities birthed four symbols, four symbols birthed eight trigrams, and eight trigrams formed sixty-four hexagrams (I-Ching)②⁷ 所谓太极生两仪，两仪生四象，四象生八卦，八卦而变六十四卦，此中变化多端，周而复始②。If any one knows a better way of translating this, let me know in comments or on Discord. This centre was ever-changing in a never-ending cycle. The eye of the array was the core of the Eight Trigrams Array. According to logic, one only needed to head towards the centre of the village. However, when one was actually inside, the roads of Tiger Steps Village were complicated and constantly changing—seemingly open roads were dead ends. Not only would one not be able to reach the centre, instead one might end up further and further away.

Jiang Luo looked up, and without relying on the luopan, he saw a golden light gathering at the centre of the Eight Trigrams Array. It was almost like the most dazzling guiding beacon.

However, apart from himself, no one else seemed to have seen this golden light at the eye of the formation.

Jiang Luo made his way towards the golden light. Although he didn’t need to use the luopan, he didn’t put it away either. This feeling was like he had unlocked a cheat skill, and the answer was placed right before him, waiting to be picked up. Jiang Luo had a clear goal. After turning left and right for an unknown number of times, gradually there was no one else left beside him.

On the website that was streaming the live broadcast, someone gradually noticed his peculiarities.

[This dude is a bit strange.]

[He doesn’t seem to have used the compass much? Holy crap, from the aerial perspective, his speed seems like it’s faster than Boss Qi Ye’s!]

[? Upstairs must be exaggerating]

[Wu wu wu, beautiful big brother, kiss kiss. Brother’s face is good for licking]

[I f*cking directly licked the screen broken! I declare that I will be settling down in this live broadcast room!]

[Save me. Who is he? So good-looking. Cry, cry.]

[We are a proper website. Upstairs, restrain yourselves. The more I watch this dude the stranger he gets. He really hasn’t f*cking looked at his compass at all! As expected, There are masters among the common folk.]

[Don’t understand? Just ask. How can you get out of the Eight Trigrams Array without looking at the luopan? 】

In the judges’ conference room, several examiners also noticed Jiang Luo.

Feng Li’s gaze quickly swept through the numerous screens on the monitor⁸一目十行 – transliteral: one glance, ten sights. and finally settled on the screen of the black-haired youth.

The black-haired youth steadily walked through the alleyways. His expression was very calm. Every now and then, he would glance up at the sky. If his path was blocked, then he would return to his original spot. Unexpectedly, his sense of direction had not deviated even once. Gradually, he drew closer to the eye of the formation.

The head of the Zhuo Clan who was sitting beside Feng Li, Zhuo Zhengyu, immediately got the picture⁹看出了门道 – transliteral: saw through the doorway; synonymous with our ‘he saw the light’ saying, but i couldn’t use that cause Jiang Luo is actually following a light >.>. In a low voice, he whispered to Feng Li, “This young man is amazing.”

He looked over at his daughter again. Zhuo Zhongqiu’s speed wasn’t slow either; however, when comparing the two people’s means of finding the formation’s eye, the other person immediately left his daughter behind by several streets.

Feng Li responded with a hum and calmly said, “His talent isn’t bad.”

“Zhongqiu told me about this kid before,” Zhuo Zhengyu said, “He seems to be a disciple of your Feng Clan.”

Feng Li raised his eyebrows, slightly surprised. Then, a sliver of a smile appeared on his face. “It turned out to be a Feng Clan member.”

By the time Jiang Luo had walked through one-third of the way, it was already six o’clock in the afternoon. He decided to find a place to rest and have dinner.

There happened to be a simple and crude pavilion nearby that was used as a rest stop. Jiang Luo put down his things and took out a box of self-heating instant hot pot from his bag. Just when the self-heating hot pot was almost ready to be eaten, a male student came into the pavilion.

The man had a sharp and tough appearance with a rebellious temperament; his irritated expression was visible to the naked eye. He held a luopan in his hand. After seeing Jiang Luo, he became stunned and then frowned, as if he couldn’t believe that someone could have gotten there before him.

“Who are you?” the man asked in an unpleasant tone.

Jiang Luo turned his head a little to glance at him. Feeling too lazy to talk, he quickly and gracefully retracted his gaze.

[Aaah! Beautiful big brother, call me!]

[Bringing over a bench to eat watermelon. Fight! Fight!]

[Oh dang, the two of them actually met. With Qi Ye’s explosive temper, it’s over, it’s over! They’ll definitely start fighting]

Qi Ye was given such a cursory glance; it was like splashing a handful of oil onto his irritable heart. Just a little more and it would explode. He suppressed his temper, “Oy, I asked you a question.”

The temperature of the self-heating pot slowly cooled. Jiang Luo split his disposable chopsticks and lifted the lid, ready to start eating.

The delicious aroma travelled on the wind into Qi Ye’s nose. Qi Ye’s violent temper had yet to explode when his stomach made an embarrassing ‘grrr’ sound.

His face became stiff. Obviously he was quite embarrassed. Unable to muster up a single sound, he stood still without speaking.

Jiang Luo pretended that he didn’t exist and very comfortably finished his meal. In the end, he neatly sorted out his garbage so as not to pollute the surrounding environment.

After dinner, the sun had already set. Jiang Luo looked up at the sky and decided to spend the night in the pavilion. He would wait until early the next morning before setting off.

Otherwise, if Jiang Luo continued like this after it was already dark and couldn’t see the path towards the golden light, then an entire day’s worth of hard work would’ve been in vain.

Unexpectedly, the irascible looking young man also entered the pavilion. It seemed that he had the same plan as Jiang Luo.

The two of them minded their own businesses and did their own things. Contrarily, they got along quite peacefully, much to the disappointment of the barrage who were hoping to watch the excitement. Suddenly, a striking comment suddenly appeared in the barrage.

[My God… You guys, quick, look at the beautiful big brother’s shadow! Isn’t there something moving in it?]

Within the live broadcast, Jiang Luo’s shadow that laid slanted on the ground subtly and slowly started twisting.

It appeared to be some kind of terrifying monster hidden within it. At the edge of the shadow, a ghost’s hideous claw that seemed somewhat clenched slowly inching towards Jiang Luo’s toes on the floor.

Meanwhile, Jiang Luo, who was completely clueless, was earnestly reading a detailed luopan guidebook.

——————–

The author has something to say:

Gong: I heard that Feng Li only had to appear once, and some people already thought he was more handsome than me?

Gong: Smiles 😀

①The prototype of Hu Bu Village is Zhu Ge Eight Trigrams Village in Zhejiang Province.

② “Tai Chi birthed to two polarities, two polarities birthed four symbols” first came from Fuxi’s 《易经》; “[Book of] Changes has Tai Chi, gives birth to two polarities, two polarities births four symbols, four symbols births eight trigrams.” Taken from 《易传·系辞上传》.

T/N:

The translations of the Author’s citations should be taken lightly because I didn’t have the time nor the effort to find the actual books and their official translated titles and content.

Also just a small note, I know that I’ve been extremely slow in updating this, but I will continue translating. I’m not planning on dropping it any time soon unless prompted by the author or if another translator asks to take it up because it’s taking awhile. I will be slow in putting out chapters because I’m doing this as a hobby and I’m not machine-translating this (There’s a surprising amount of research that goes into me translating this. I don’t know if it’s a common thing or if it’s just the genre and the author’s writing style).

That said, thanks for being patient with me.  I know it sucks to wait such a long time for a single chapter. I’m striving to update once every two weeks for a while. Hopefully after a while I’ll have enough stockpile to give you regular chapters.

Also a big thanks to Sive who donated on ko-fi~ muah! ‘3’ ~<3

• 1
  多一事不如少一事 – transliteral: one more thing isn’t better than one less thing. ↩︎
• 2
  泪眼朦胧 – transliteral: teary eyed, blurry vision ↩︎
• 3
  鲜花饼 – transliteral: fresh flower cake; a local delicacy in Yunnan, it is made with actual rose petals. ↩︎
• 4
  闽南 – also known as Southern Fujian ↩︎
• 5
  一穷二白 – transliteral: one poor, two white; the first part is self-explanatory. For the second part, white/bai can also mean empty or nothing. Meaning he has nothing to his name. ↩︎
• 6
  Just a reminder since I will use it interchangeably with the word compass ↩︎
• 7
  所谓太极生两仪，两仪生四象，四象生八卦，八卦而变六十四卦，此中变化多端，周而复始②。If any one knows a better way of translating this, let me know in comments or on Discord ↩︎
• 8
  一目十行 – transliteral: one glance, ten sights. ↩︎
• 9
  看出了门道 – transliteral: saw through the doorway; synonymous with our ‘he saw the light’ saying, but i couldn’t use that cause Jiang Luo is actually following a light >.> ↩︎