Pulling Together A Villain Reformation Strategy Chapter 5

Phew, I churned this out pretty fast. There were quite a few martial arts terms this time for which I did the best I could o/ As always, please let me know if any translations can be improved!

Chapter 5 – Demon Sovereign Xuan Li

Jiang Xunyi's heart shivered and he paused his footsteps. Even Yun Xie and Jiang Molou stopped talking.

As the music gradually approached, a band of people slowly walked over. The man who led the pack wore a red robe that contrasted with his white hair. His facial profile was clear and distinct, but the corner of his eyes had an air of unrestrained nefariousness. His one-sided collar stood tall, giving his overall appearance a few shades of grotesque eccentricity. This was precisely the Demon Sovereign Xuan Li who had already died in the Heart Demon1 Cave.

Xuan Li surveyed all around him, and laughed out loud: “Sect Master Yun, long time no see. How did you get into this shape? Seeing you like this truly pacifies my anger." He smiled and turned to look at Jiang Molou. He was just about to say something when he suddenly froze, having discovered he had recognized the wrong person. He looked to Yun Xie: “Where's that good brother of yours, the eldest young master Jiang, Jiang Xunyi?”

The color drained from Yun Xie's face and he didn't speak. The disciple next to him was that boy with adolescent delusions who had just been “disciplined” by Jiang Xunyi. At this time, his face was still wounded in action. His scar had not yet healed and he'd already forgotten the pain; he loudly replied: “Jiang Xunyi abandoned his previous principles and sought help from the Demons to hurt my Sect Master. Sect Master has already exterminated him! You evil villain, if you refuse to repent, you will meet this same end!”

When he said this, the crowd of Hidden Spirit Sect members behind Jiang Molou all glared angrily at him. Some even drew their swords, but were stopped by Jiang Molou. But Demon Sovereign Xuan Li's expression froze, and it was a while before he said: “What……did you say?”

The boy stared blankly. Xuan Li could not get an answer from him, and asked again: “Who died? Jiang Xunyi? Jiang Xunyi died?!”

His voice grew louder and louder, directly quaking and buzzing in people's ears. The crowd of people were forced back by Xuan Li's imposing grandeur, and no one answered him.

In the end, Xuan Li actually started to laugh hysterically: “Hahahaha! A good death, a good death!” He looked up at Yun Xie: “That kid has always been savage, arrogant, and condescending. As the lord of the Demons, I actually don't know when he sought help from over here! Interesting, very interesting!”

Jiang Xunyi had been surprised at seeing this man about to shoot his cheap mouth off2. However, his understanding of this book's plot had stopped at his own death. He did not know if Xuan Li really was supposed to come back to life, if Yun Xie was supposed to later find out the truth, etc. After briefly hesitating whether to stop him, he had already allowed Xuan Li to speak.

Yun Xie tightly gripped the sword in his hand. Fresh blood ran down the cracked tiger's mouth, crossing the silver-white blade. A sharp-eyed person might notice that this sword was actually Jiang Xunyi's personal sword, named Extinguished Flower3. It was unclear where Yun Xie's own personal sword Bright River4 had gone.

His lips moved to say something, but his voice was so hoa.r.s.e he was almost inaudible. The disciple next to him had to translate: “What do you mean?”

Demon Sovereign Xuan Li suddenly stopped laughing. His face twisted ferociously: “Hmph, now there's only one of the Dual Jades of the Spirit Stage left, how could I not take advantage of your difficulties? None of the people here had better think about leaving this mountain alive, that's what I mean!”

Jiang Molou once again clenched the Soul-Devouring Myriad Souls Sac in his hand, and coldly said: “I just happen to have this intention too.”

He hadn't finished speaking when he abruptly recoiled from shock——his right hand had not yet pulled out his sword, but his left hand was suddenly empty. Someone actually stole the Soul-Devouring Myriad Souls Sac right under everyone's eyes! Immediately afterwards, the back of his head was briskly slapped; it didn't hurt, but the area instantly turned red.

Although Jiang Molou's reputation was slightly inferior to that of his brother Jiang Xunyi, that was because of his cold and alienating personality as well as his ceaseless preoccupation with cultivation. Speaking on martial strength alone, he could even fight toe-to-toe with Yun Xie.

In his entire life, he had simply never come across anyone effortlessly stealing an object right out of his hand. There were only two possibilities. The first was that this person was very familiar with his habitual movements, but those who met this condition had all died. The second possibility was that this person was unfathomably powerful.

Jiang Molou's heart quaked inside, but his face still bore that frozen look. He looked up, wanting to see the appearance of this attacker.

……He couldn't see clearly.

Facing Jiang Xunyi's completely blood-smeared and tactfully difficult to distinguish facial features, even the most discerning eyes would have trouble seeing this person's true face.

Jiang Molou: “……” What the h.e.l.l is this creepy thing?!

At the same time, the people behind him who didn't see the whole sequence of events began to yell: “You lunatic brat, where'd you come from? Hurry and get lost!”

“That's right! Even daring to make trouble here, this kid must be crazy and tired of living!”

With one hand behind his back, Jiang Xunyi's other hand shook the Soul-Devouring Myriad Souls Sac in front of him. He slowly drawled: “If I were you, I would never say something so rude to an opponent holding a lethal weapon. Completely neglecting the reality of the current situation like this… In the end, who's the crazy one here?”

With these words, silence fell over the crowd.

Two figures rushed out from behind Yun Xie, attacking Jiang Xunyi from both sides and yelling: “Childish buffoon, you don't know the immensity of heaven and earth! Hurry and put the thing in your hand down!”

Jiang Xunyi let out a long laugh, before his face abruptly turned serious. He waved his sleeve and shouted: “Get lost!”

The two men had not yet come close when they were already shaken away by a powerful spiritual wave. They rolled away, dizzy to the point where they could not get up for a long while.

These two people were from small cultivation sects only here for backup, and were not under the Solar Envy Sect. Upon receiving this “discipline”, they had only themselves to blame, and Yun Xie did not look at them. Instead, he quickly advanced forward two steps, only staring at Jiang Xunyi. He spoke with gravity: “Who……are you?”

His expression was full of respect and awe. Only the tremor in his voice could not be hidden no matter what.

Jiang Molou saw Yun Xie's reaction, and suddenly seemed to understand something. He also turned his head sharply to peer at Jiang Xunyi's face.

Jiang Xunyi stood with his hands behind his back and looked up at the sky, completely ignoring these two people. At this time, Xue Yingzhi, the little angel who had just come home, slowly shuffled over and considerately whispered to Yun Xie: “Shixiong, this is the Du clan's eldest young master, Brother Du Li. As I understand it, these past few days he suddenly fell seriously ill and his mind became somewhat muddled. That's why… his behavior is… slightly abnormal.”

Xue Yingzhi normally never told lies, and Yun Xie was also clear about the situation. The light in his eyes died again. He laughed bitterly with a few shades of self-deprecation, and shook his head. His heart filled with bleak sorrow and his vision blurred; he simply stabbed his sword into the ground and sat straight down.

These past few days, his internal breathing and circulation had been unstable. Now this agitation of his emotions caused stagnation and nausea to build up in his chest. With these faint signs of Qi deviation5 on top of his complete dejection and despondency, he only wished to die. Unfortunately, staying alive still had a bit of use. Yun Xie could only sit cross-legged and close his eyes to start recuperating his spiritual power, upon which he immediately stopped sensing the fighting in the outside world.

Jiang Xunyi half-smiled, his expression irreverent. This was his original signature expression. If this was placed on his previous peerlessly handsome face, most of the female cultivators on this mountain who had just condemned him would likely “defect to the enemy.” Unfortunately, right now this glorious appearance was too “creative.” Ordinary people's aesthetics were incapable of appreciating this honor, and found it extremely strange (to say the least). Some of the people who had rushed out to denounce him looked at the two brothers now lying on the ground, and their footsteps subconsciously shrunk back.

Jiang Xunyi was now self-aware, so he understood what he must look like right now. He continued to endure it. In any case, he did not take off the disguise from his face——if this Du Heng's true face was even uglier than the disguise of his big brother, what could he even do at that point?

Melancholy rose in his heart and he lowered his head. He let out a sigh and casually murmured: “‘Each pa.s.sing spring reminds us of our finite lifetimes.'6 Back in the day, the summit of our mountain had admirable and outstanding figures like the Three Saints. Today, my humble self7 only wants to ask if there are still heroes in this world.”

After saying this, he shook his head and put the Soul-Devouring Myriad Souls Sac away into his clothes.

No matter how twisted and dark this thing was, it was still a treasure of the Hidden Spirit Sect pa.s.sed down from generation to generation—how could others be allowed to encroach upon it? Jiang Molou's sword power soared and he yelled out a “Put that down!” With the force of storm and thunder, he had already rushed to Jiang Xunyi's front.

Xuan Li's temper was originally poor. At the same time as Jiang Molou's attack, this Demon Sovereign also struck with his palm, sneering: "Where'd this lunatic come from? He really can exaggerate!”

Both of these men were mighty experts in the current cultivation world. Even before hitting Jiang Xunyi's side, this sword and palm had already created enough energy to make the surrounding gra.s.s and rocks fly everywhere, pelting the nearby cultivators. Almost all of Jiang Xunyi's routes for retreat were completely sealed.

Jiang Xunyi lightly tapped his toes. Amidst all his busyness, he fiercely rolled his eyes at Jiang Molou. This dolt! He can go all out to forcibly improve his cultivation despite internal injuries, fine. But this time he's going all out to cooperate with this villain against his own Shixiong! If this idiot had to go to market, he'd probably end up getting his own pants scammed away.

Jiang Xunyi refused to think about whether this round of complaints was actually reasonable. His figure leaned askance and he flew through the air, aiming his fingertips towards the s.p.a.ce between Jiang Molou's brows.

Between the eyebrows was exactly the location of Jiang Molou's Achilles' heel8. Alarm bells rang in his mind and he subconsciously dodged sideways, instantly creating an opening in their encirclement.

Jiang Xunyi quickly turned around to clash palms with the Xuan Li coming at him from behind. He borrowed this force to make his entire body fly out that opening, as smooth and graceful as a floating leaf. With a shake of his sleeves, he landed steadily on the ground.

During this exchange of blows, shocked exclamations had already risen from the observing crowd. Someone shouted: “He is not the eldest young master Du! That trick he made was clearly the Solar Envy Sect's Flowing Sun Finger!”

Another person refuted him: “Pah! Are you blind? That lunatic's body method9 is clearly the Du clan's Brushing Willows Secret Technique!"

Yet another person hurriedly said: "Don't quarrel, don't quarrel, hurry and watch! These few blows he exchanged with Sect Head Jiang… don't they look like the Sumeru10 Palm Method11 of Floral Moon Temple12?"

In an instant, Jiang Xunyi had already used numerous martial exercises. The crowd was completely dazzled and could no longer recognize them clearly. While parrying off Jiang Molou's sword, Jiang Xunyi managed to find the time to glance at the onlooking ma.s.ses out of the corner of his eye. He felt a vague sense of superiority, something like "all you mortals are far too stupid and ignorant.”

Who is he? Jiang Xunyi—that is, a reader of this book. Although he didn't finish reading it, he still had quite a bit of omniscient perspective. In particular, he had been extremely fascinated with the various moves in the book, so he had carefully examined and a.n.a.lyzed these when reading. Then after transmigrating, he had cultivated all the way from childhood and built a foundation for these moves. The martial arts of multiple sects were now at his fingertips. In just a few minutes, he could cross over between seven or eight sects—how could they recognize them all?

A bunch of fools.

Footnotes:

1. 心魔 (xīn mó) lit. "heart demon/devil". Probably better thought of as Inner Demons. Rather than literal demons or devils, these are a pract.i.tioner's negative emotions and other mental barriers which hinder their training/cultivation. Failure to adequately resist them may result in Qi Deviation. (Credits to )  In this case, Demon Sovereign Xuan Li literally named his cave after this phenomenon.
2. 嘴贱 lit. "cheap/lowly/base mouth". Basically means this guy loves to spout provoking and mean bulls.h.i.t. Please let me know if you have a better way to translate this lol.
3. 灭华 (miè huá): 灭= "extinguish, go out, destroy"; 华 = "magnificent, extravagant, flowery"
4. 明河 (míng hé): 明 = "bright, wise, open, light"; 河 = "river"
5. 走火入魔 lit. "to catch fire and be entered [possessed] by devils". A state wherein the cultivation base becomes dangerously unstable, causing internal damage to the body and symptoms of psychosis. People who succ.u.mb to their Internal Demons, who practice cultivation/martial arts incorrectly, or who rashly use forbidden arts are all at risk of falling into this state. Again, credits to
6. The original was "一年又过一年春，百岁曾无百岁人", which is from a Tang dynasty poem by Song Zhiwen. It more literally means something like "after one year goes by, it will soon be the spring of another year; humans always yearn to live a hundred years, yet you never hear of anyone actually living that long." Please let me know if you have a smoother translation ?
7. Jiang Xunyi refers to himself here as 杜某 lit. "A certain Du". This is a humble way to refer to yourself (inserting your last name in place of Du of course), basically divesting yourself of any claim to t.i.tles or honors. In the future I'll probably try to keep this as "I", and make the surrounding sentence have a humble tone.
8. 练门 (liàn mén) lit. "practice door". Basically, as martial arts pract.i.tioners get more and more powerful, their body's endurance will also get stronger… except there will always be one area that will be relatively weak in comparison. I chose to use Achilles' Heel since it's a pretty apt a.n.a.logy.
9. 身法 (shēn fǎ) lit. "body technique/method". This is a martial arts method that uses the muscles of the waist, abdomen, chest, shoulders and back; there's a focus on how to properly run/stand still/jump/crouch/dodge/twist/collide etc.
10. 须弥 (xū mí) = Mt Meru or Sumeru, sacred mountain in Buddhist and Jain tradition
11. 掌法 (zhǎng fǎ) lit. "palm technique/method". This is a martial arts method that focuses on striking and defending with the palm (in contrast to the fist)
12. 月华寺: 月 = "moon", 华 = "magnificent, extravagant, flowery", 寺 = Buddhist temple