Chapter 257.1: Losing on Both Ends Part 1
Chapter 257.1: Losing on Both Ends Part 1
At that, Zhou Zhong merely sneered and handed the longsword over. He wasn’t worried about Ji Jue’s sneaky behaviour this time. If anything, he was almost hoping the brat would try to pocket the sword right in front of him.
Go ahead. I won’t stop you. Then you can find out for yourself what Heaven’s Ear is capable of.
Unfortunately, Ji Jue didn’t try anything[1] this time. He handled the sword with extreme care, as though walking on thin ice.
With a soft metallic ring, light flashed through the dim room. A brilliant gleam leapt through the air, as light and swift as a bird in flight.
The longsword had no sharpened edge. It was rough and heavy, with fine strands of black flowing along its spine and winding around the blade like a hazy, illusory mist. Within them, countless scenes appeared and vanished like phantoms, too indistinct to make out clearly. Yet in one fleeting glimpse, Ji Jue caught sight of heaven and earth being torn apart.
Its hilt measured five cun, its blade three chi, and it weighed nine lüe. In total it weighed three jin and twelve liang[2]. Its length and weight had both reached the upper limit, enough to qualify it as a superior-grade sword.
The moment Ji Jue took it in hand, the passages from the Treatise on Sword Appraisal that Professor Ye had tossed him years ago surfaced in his mind. As his fingers brushed along the spine of the blade, he could feel the austere, imposing presence contained within it.
Within the three layers above and six layers below the Celestial Circuit structure encompassing both heaven and hell, the divine essence of all Twelve Supreme Benevolences was present. There was not a single weakness to be found. Within that framework, numerous concise and clearly defined spirit matter sequences had been fused seamlessly together without the slightest flaw.
At its core, the Origin Path governed Aether, Mirror, and Ruins. Every blessing used in its manufacturing was extraordinarily rare, such as Origin’s Sacred Investiture, Aether’s Chronal Insight, Mirror’s Fleeting Illusion, and Ruins’ Mortal Flux. More importantly, once they were linked through the Celestial Circuit, Zhou Zhong’s adjustments had somehow formed a blessing chain Ji Jue had never even heard of before.
Ji Jue’s eyelid twitched. He looked up at Zhou Zhong and said, “Master Zhou, congratulations. Looks like you’ll be adding another Gold Badge to your name.”
Zhou Zhong merely stroked his beard and gave a smug sneer without answering. Obviously. Why else would I have shown it to you?
For years, countless craftsmen had devoted their lives and fortunes to their research without managing to make a single new breakthrough beyond what had already been recorded. These days, the discovery of any new blessing chain was enough to make headlines throughout the Craftsmen Association.
The fame alone could turn any craftsman into an overnight sensation and bring them wealth and prestige beyond measure. Never mind how much it would help Zhou Zhong climb the ranks within the Association, or how much influence it would earn him within his faction, the patent royalties for the next forty years alone would be enough for him to retire immediately and count money until his hands cramped.
After all, who worked quietly for so many years if not for the chance to one day pull off something so spectacular that it left everyone else speechless? Just imagining Ye Xian’s expression when she heard the news from her own student made Zhou Zhong want to throw his head back and laugh.
The resentment he had carried ever since Ye Xian publicly put him in his place at a conference seven years ago instantly vanished. How the tables have turned! Never underestimate an old man down on his luck!
Before he could say anything, however, he heard Ji Jue clicking his tongue in wonder beside him. “So that’s how it works. I see, I see.”
Zhou Zhong turned toward him and froze in shock.
In Ji Jue’s hands, the proud and razor-sharp blessed longsword that refused to submit to anyone else was moving as naturally as an extension of his arm. Spirit matter surged through it as the sword swished through the air. With a casual swing of the blade, a streak of black appeared in midair. It lingered without fading, radiating a razor-sharp edge.
That wasn’t all. Even the dormant blessings within the sword had responded to Ji Jue, circulating and shifting at his command. A wisp of dreamlike mist spread from the space cut open by the blade.
In an instant, the entire room seemed to plunge back into the blazing inferno of the furnace. Terrifying heat swept outward, scorching even the soul. Then, just as suddenly, everything vanished without a trace, as though it had never existed at all.
“I see.” Ji Jue let out a soft sigh of realization.
Limited by his own strength, he couldn’t bring out the sword’s true power. Yet in that brief moment when the spirit matter shifted and transformed, he had grasped the structure and principles behind its blessing chain.
“Incredible. This really is incredible! Sacred Investiture strengthens Origin’s control, while Chronal Insight heightens perception and lets the user discern even the smallest details. Fleeting Illusion substitutes illusion for reality, and Mortal Flux drives physical matter to adapt to those changes. And more importantly, all the records inscribed into the sword during its forging serve as ready-made templates!
“With Tong Shan powering it, telekinesis can serve as the foundation to recreate a calamity out of thin air, reproducing the destruction of the original event with virtually no limit to how closely it can be replicated. At the same time, Sacred Investiture and Fleeting Illusion can keep the user from being harmed by it. All four blessings feed into one another perfectly. They’re practically made for each other!”
You bastard... Zhou Zhong’s hand tightened. He accidentally snapped off a strand of his beard, his eyelid twitching violently. Those were my lines! Those were the lines I was supposed to use when I showed it off! Where the hell did you find the instruction manual?! I haven’t even written one yet!
He could only watch as the creation that had just emerged from his furnace fell into Ji Jue’s hands and immediately responded without the slightest resistance, as obedient as it could be. Worse still, the blessing chain Zhou Zhong had painstakingly devised had been laid bare in an instant, its structure and principles understood almost at a glance.
Sweat beaded his forehead. Oh, shit. This brat won’t go home and start writing a paper just to screw me over the way Ye Xian would, right?
Before Zhou Zhong even made the headlines, Ji Jue could publish everything worth saying about the discovery first. He hadn’t even gotten a bite of the meat yet, and this bastard was already drinking all the soup!
The more enthusiastically Ji Jue analyzed and praised the sword, the more nervous Zhou Zhong became.
By the time Ji Jue finally finished, practically glowing with excitement, he still seemed reluctant to stop. Cradling the sword in his hands, he said, “This blessing chain spans four types and captures the essence of both Origin and Aether. All it needs now is a good name. How about Equal Fate[3]?!”
Losing his chance to show off with the explanation was bad enough. But when Zhou Zhong saw Ji Jue open his mouth, ready to snatch the naming rights too, he finally abandoned all pretense of composure. He reached out, yanked the longsword, and cut Ji Jue off decisively. “The blessing chain is called ‘Equal Fate’!”
It was, admittedly, a good name. Heaven and Earth were impartial; they treated all things as straw dogs[4]. Put simply, all beings were equal before disaster.
Ji Jue nodded. “Then I think the sword itself—”
“The sword is called ‘Brushstroke’!” Zhou Zhong glared at him, answering with unprecedented speed. There was no way he could keep pretending to be calm and aloof now. If Zhou Zhong had been any slower, Ji Jue’s grubby little hands could have ended up all over his patent application.
By now, he was watching Ji Jue like a star keeping a wary eye on some has-been milking every second of their red-carpet appearance. How are you this good at stealing the spotlight?! Why not just take the whole damn red carpet home with you?!
After snatching the sword away from Ji Jue, he carefully wiped the dust and fingerprints from it. The message could not have been clearer. You’ve seen enough. Stop leeching off me!
Seeing how wary the old geezer had become, Ji Jue sighed helplessly. Some prejudices really did run deep. He was complimenting the man, and somehow even that made him upset.
After a moment’s thought, Ji Jue imitated Professor Ye’s mannerisms, coolly adjusting a pair of nonexistent glasses and looking as though he were about to say something. Zhou Zhong froze, his vigilance shooting through the roof.
Just how badly had Professor Ye traumatized this man in the past? Ji Jue asked himself.
1. 手脚干净 literally means “kept his hands clean.” In this context, 手脚干净 is not describing literal cleanliness. I translated it as “didn’t try anything” as it makes the intended meaning immediately clear in English. A literal rendering such as “kept his hands clean” would sound vague and confusing to the readers. ☜
2. A chi (尺) was a Chinese “foot,” divided into 10 cun (寸), so five cun is half a chi. Historically, a chi was often somewhere around 23–32 cm depending on the dynasty. Today, in mainland China, the chi has been defined as exactly 1/3 of a meter, i.e., 33+1?3 cm (13.1 in).
For weight, a jin (斤) was traditionally divided into 16 liang (兩). A liang was therefore roughly analogous to an “ounce” within the traditional Chinese system, although neither unit corresponds exactly to modern pounds and ounces. Their actual weight changed considerably across dynasties; for example, historical jin values ranged from roughly 220 g in some early periods to around 590–660 g in later periods. Modern standards for the liang include 1/10 jin (50 grams) in mainland China, 37.5 grams in Taiwan, Korea and Thailand, 37.799 grams in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, and 37.8 grams in Vietnam
Here the author writes 锵, but I believe it’s a typo and that it’s meant to be 锊. 锊 (lüè) was an ancient Chinese unit of weight, approximately equal to six liang. The unit frequently appears in texts and bronze inscriptions from the Shang and Zhou periods. For example, the Kaogong Ji (考工記, “Record of the Examination of Crafts”) in the Rites of Zhou (周禮) uses lüe to express the weight of ancient weapons such as ge (dagger-axes) and ji (halberds). ☜
3. The raw here writes ‘天地不仁’. Usually, 不仁 means “inhumane,” “heartless,” “unbenevolent,” or “lacking compassion.” But in “天地不仁”, it doesn’t mean that, it has a more philosophical Daoist sense. It is closer to “impartial”, “without favoritism,” or “unmoved by human notions of benevolence.” It does not primarily mean that Heaven and Earth are cruel. 天地不仁 “Heaven and Earth are impartial” comes from Chapter Five of Laozi’s Tao Te Ching, written during the Spring and Autumn period. The full line reads, “Heaven and Earth are impartial; they treat all things as straw dogs.”
It means that Heaven and Earth show neither selfishness nor favoritism. They treat all things equally, allowing them to flourish and perish according to the natural order, without imposing the emotional preferences or biases of human beings. ☜
4. Explained in footnote 1. ☜