WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 537

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The Realm of Talent

The Earth Mother bears children and the Celestial God raises them. Children born of the earth grow up gazing at the sky. All things under heaven come into being and pass away through the grace of those two gods, sustaining the great cycle. That is the principle by which all things flow.

And yet, among five fingers, some hurt less than others when struck. The Celestial God may be a strict father, but he is not a fair one, and the Earth Mother may be a gentle mother, but she is not an attentive one. Among their children, some flourish remarkably while others come out stunted.

The children of the Enger Plain tended to flourish remarkably well. A bit excessively so.

"Ah. Blocked solid, completely blocked."

Standing on a small hill, I clicked my tongue at the sight of a black river churning below.

Black fur tossed by the wind, looking exactly like black ink flowing downstream. Hundreds, thousands of buffalo with that same fur were marching in one direction, shaking the very ground beneath us.

The vast river of beasts, flowing along grass paths instead of waterways, was not just majestic but outright destructive. Throw a single pebble in its path and it would be ground to fine dust within seconds. The herd raised their curved, branching horns and pressed onward, carrying some primal force as they moved in search of prey.

We could have crossed if we pushed for it, but I decided to wait until that river of beasts ran dry. Bored, I turned to the regressor.

"Mr. Shei, could you beat all of them if you fought?"

"What a pointless question. I could hunt one or two without much trouble, but there's no reason to fight the entire herd. Who would do something that stupid?"

"So you'd lose?"

"If it's not a hunt but outright slaughter, it's possible. Not that I'd do it. If I used Jizan for that kind of pointless mass killing, it would sulk again. I barely managed to smooth things over and get to carry it around."

She doesn't care what people think of her, but she cares a great deal about what Jizan thinks. Just marry Jizan.

"Azzy. Would you win?"

Azzy threw her head back and shouted.

"Lose!"

"So bold about it. Don't you have any pride as a king?"

"Pride, no feed belly!"

"That's wise."

"You lose too!"

Hmph. Clearly trying to get a rise out of me, but not a chance. I have absolutely no grievance about being weak. What can I do about how I was born? Finding ways to survive is my job, not resenting the world.

"Obviously. I'm weak, so I have to talk my way through things if I can. If talking fails, I just won't fight at all."

"Woof? Talk? Can't do?"

"It's not the King of Cattle. How would you even hold a conversation with those things?"

"Can do!"

"What?"

Azzy bolted straight down toward the buffalo herd.

She seemed confident, which was strange. Communication between Beast Kings works because they all have human forms. Being the King of Dogs doesn't mean she can understand buffalo speech. She might convey emotions through general atmosphere and expression, but that is a far cry from proper communication between the same kind.

"Don't provoke them too much, and get back here!"

If she provoked them and came running back, we'd all be in danger. Well, mostly me, not her.

While she was gone, the regressor rested and held Skywarbler high above her head. It looked ridiculous, but there was a sensible reason for the pose. Skywarbler's essence was compressed space. It had to hold wind, the force that fed it, to bring out its powerful authority.

Skywarbler, the sky sword, held an almost inexhaustible supply of wind, but when they had faced the Mountain Lord, she had drawn on it so heavily that it was nearly depleted. Unless she gathered wind little by little during the journey, it would run dry in the middle of things.

"If I'd just had enough wind, we could have flown straight over."

The regressor grumbled, then seemed to remember something and asked me.

"Oh, right. Hughes. You ate the spirit medicine, didn't you?"

"Yes. I did."

"How is it?"

"Not very efficient. Considering I ate three of them, the effect was pretty modest."

The regressor nodded as if she had expected that and offered some consolation.

"Absorption capacity varies from person to person. You practically threw away that ivory pill last time too, remember? Absorption rate changes with talent and constitution, and more than anything, you need to be young for your body to take in energy well. Don't be too discouraged."

She's telling me not to be discouraged while clearly enjoying this a little. I hate to break it to her, but I'm on the ordinary side, not the dull side. I pulled out a card and breathed heaven energy into it.

"This is what I can do with heaven energy."

I pressed one card against my index finger and waggled it. The card moved as though it had become part of my hand.

Even a magician of my caliber can't attach a card to a single finger without some trick. You'd normally have to grip it subtly with your palm, sneak it between your fingers, or rely on energy, no other option.

"Just one card? You're skilled at it, but anyone who knows the basics of heaven energy can do that much. Didn't you do it back in the Abyss?"

"Well, yes. This much doesn't even count as real magic."

Under normal circumstances, this would have been my limit with my meager energy reserves. But I had now digested the spirit medicine. I put force into my finger and pushed energy through it.

A low hum. Along the edges of the card, a cluster of gray light rose up. The spreading light gradually merged with the card, then flickered with a sharp gleam.

"Oh? Sword energy?"

"Not quite as grand as sword energy. I just wrapped the card thinly with heaven energy."

Heaven energy is the kind of energy that reaches out to everything in the world, the technique of controlling all things through energy as a medium.

The first stage is moving objects in contact with your body, like adhesion or deflection.

The second stage is changing the properties of an object with the energy breathed into it.

The third stage is using pure energy to take form and extend an object.

And the fourth stage is using that pure energy to generate a blade of energy itself. At that point, even without a cutting edge, you can forge a blade from energy alone, called sharp energy or sword energy.

Being able to reach that fourth stage is what it means to have fully mastered heaven energy. Some practitioners say full mastery requires catching wind or flowing water with your energy, but that is a matter of technique and raw volume rather than depth of attainment.

"That's the third stage, the Release stage."

"I already knew the method. I just didn't have enough energy to do it."

People who train in energy make a grand fuss about enlightenment and inner awakening, but honestly, it is just technique. Shuffling cards or palming the bottom card feels clumsy the first time, but once you're used to it you can do it without thinking. Energy training is the same.

With mind reading, I've spent years absorbing other people's thoughts. There's no way I missed the technique. I simply had so little energy that I was gasping just to lift a card.

"Your attainment was higher than I thought. Wait, this might actually work out."

The regressor thought of something and swung Skywarbler through the air five or six times. Something pale rippled through the cut space, and the cloud that had burst from Skywarbler was sliced into a neat square.

She held the cloud step out toward me.

"Here, Hughes. Get on."

"On what?"

"This. Until now I wrapped you in wind to move you along, but I figured I don't need to keep doing that. If you have energy, you can step on a cloud step and stand on it."

One good thing about traveling with the regressor was that I didn't have to work very hard to keep moving. Azzy walks fast on her own and the regressor flies on Skywarbler. That leaves only slow me behind, and they can't just leave me, so she carries me along wrapped in wind.

It was comfortable, and I liked it. I dragged my feet.

"I'm fine with the current arrangement."

"I'm not fine with it! It slows us down. Try grabbing the cloud step with your energy and standing on it. If you can move on a cloud step, we can go much faster and farther."

"Always taking the easy path is how you stop developing your own abilities."

"I'm talking about you! Try pushing through it!"

That's true, but that doesn't mean you can just say it out loud. Ever heard of defamation by truth? And you don't know this, but I had a glass ceiling. No matter how hard I tried, ordinary was as far as it went.

Grumbling, I stepped up onto the cloud step. The pale cloud felt soft beneath my feet, like my foot might sink right through it, but when I focused and pushed out energy, it knit together firmly enough to stand on.

"Whoa, this is a bit tricky."

"You have to push energy out to keep your balance on the cloud step without losing it. It takes a sense of balance and fine energy control. It would be hard to pick up quickly, but you're not going to die if you fall. Let's just learn the hard way, fall and figure it out."

"I'd rather not. Falling hurts."

"Then do your best not to fall. Stand steady for even one minute and we'll get moving."

"One minute?"

"Right, one minute. Technique matters. For the parts you want to press down harder, push out more energy. Work at it, this will actually be good for you. It's a training method that builds body and energy at the same time. Isn't it great that you can train while on the move?"

"Not particularly."

"I don't know all the details of why it works, but if you've started on energy, take it all the way. If it comes to it, I'll pass you spirit medicine and a manual. Right, so if you can just hold out one minute..."

"Mr. Shei."

"Yeah?"

"One minute already passed."

"What?"

The regressor looked at me again. I was standing on the cloud step, waving casually as though I were standing on solid ground. She looked a little surprised.

"You can?"

"I have a knack for these things."

Anything an ordinary human can do, I can do. The things I can't do are either physically impossible within human limits, or too personal for me to achieve on my own, like a principle, or an innate arcane.

Until now, my physical limits, too little energy, too little magical energy, meant I could barely use either. But now that I've overcome that, I've reached something close to the earth-heaven technique.

"No, but even with a knack, standing on a cloud from the very first try...?"

'It took me a whole month before I could stand on it properly...! When I was first learning how to use Skywarbler, I had to watch every little reaction it gave. What is this? Is the King of Humanity just naturally a genius or something?'

Well, I'm ordinary, not dull. Compared to her it's relative. And I'm the King of ordinary Humanity, so most things an ordinary human can do, I can do. That's what having a knack means.

"...Tch. Tch. Tch. Tch."

The regressor was glaring at me and clicking her tongue again and again.

"Mr. Shei. You're spitting. Are you marking territory? Going around getting bodily fluids on everything."

"I wasn't clicking hard enough to spit! Don't get smug just because you're a bit capable!"

"Smug? That's the one thing I'm worst at. Have I ever gotten cocky about being strong, or let my guard down? If we're really keeping score, you're the one who's let her guard down the most."

"Go get ready to leave! We're riding the cloud step from here on!"

At that moment, the strength drained from my body all at once and my foot plunged straight through the cloud step. Simultaneously, the gray cloud that had been holding energy reverted to plain white before it could gather itself back together.

"Oh. My energy ran out."

"What?! Already?"

"Even with spirit medicine, an uncle my age has limits to how much energy he can absorb. This must have been my limit."

"Liar!... Actually, not a liar. Energy depletion? Why is there no energy left?"

The regressor's eyes flashed yellow for an instant, then returned to normal. In that brief moment she had measured my energy with the Seven-Colored Eyes, and she looked puzzled.

"You use energy just fine, so why can't you make it yours?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe because it doesn't feel like my body?"

It's because of the Demon God. There's still a gap between the body I perceive as mine and the body the Demon God inhabits. Even if I drink spirit medicine like water, the amount that actually absorbs is small.

"What do you mean it's not your body? It is your body. But more to the point, energy depletion, are you okay? When your energy runs dry, your whole body should feel drained, like you can barely move."

"Oh, is this what that feels like? It's the same as how I always feel."

I've always lived without energy, so I genuinely can't tell the difference. I'm not sure, but there does seem to be noticeably less will to do anything. I let both arms and legs go limp.

"I'm going to have to impose on you again. Please carry me in the wind."

"No! I couldn't gather enough wind because I was busy making the cloud step!"

"Then why did you bother with something unnecessary."

"That's my line! What were you thinking, draining all your energy on practice!"

"Woof!"

Right in the middle of our bickering, Azzy came bounding cheerfully back up the hill toward me.

"Where did you even go, showing up now of all..."

Behind Azzy, two large-horned buffalo followed along with disinterested expressions.

Curved, sweeping horns. Fur so dense you could barely see the skin beneath it. And muscles that even all that fur couldn't hide. No human untrained in energy could ever match one, and even with energy training, without the right weapon and a solid understanding of how to fight them, winning would be a distant hope.

A buffalo with a back taller than my full height snorted at me. Azzy, I told you not to provoke them, and you went and brought two of them back with you. They might be fellow beasts to you, but to me they're a natural disaster.

As I backed away warily, Azzy snapped her head around and said,

"Hey! Get on!"

"What?"

"They say they'll carry you!"

I turned to look. The buffalo was blowing a breath through its nose, showing us its back.

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