WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 537: The Realm of Talent

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The Earth Mother gives birth to children, and the Celestial God raises them. Children born from the earth grow up gazing toward the sky. All things in heaven and earth are born and die through the grace of the two gods, continuing the great cycle. That must be the natural order of all things.

Still, they say some fingers hurt less than others. The Celestial God might be a strict father, but he was not a fair one. Though the Earth Mother might be a loving mother, she was not a careful one. Some children grew exceptionally well, while others remained small and frail.

The children of the Enger Plain tended to grow exceptionally well. A little too well.

"Well, there goes that plan."

Standing atop a small hill, I clicked my tongue at the sight of a black river winding across the land.

Black fur fluttering in the wind looked like a river of ink. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of buffalo with such fur marched in one direction, their hooves shaking the earth.

The massive river of beasts flowing along a trail of grass rather than a waterway was more than majestic. It was destructive. If I threw a stone into their path, it would be ground into fine sand within seconds. The herd, its curved, forked horns raised high, set off in search of food with its primal strength intact.

We could have crossed if we wanted to, but I decided to wait until the river of beasts had passed. Bored, I asked the regressor.

"Mr. Shei, could you beat those things in a fight?"

"Why are you asking something so pointless? I could hunt one or two without much trouble, but there's no reason to fight the whole herd. Who would do something that stupid?"

"So you'd lose?"

"If the goal was to kill every last one, I could do it. Of course, I won't. If I used Jizan for a pointless massacre like that, it'd get mad at me again. I only barely managed to coax it into letting me carry it around."

She did not care what people thought, but she cared a great deal about what Jizan thought. Just live with Jizan already.

"Azzy. Could you beat them?"

Azzy threw back her head and shouted.

"I'd lose!"

"You're proud of that. Don't you have any pride as a king?"

"Pride doesn't feed me!"

"Wise."

"You can't beat them either!"

Hmph. She seemed to be trying to provoke me, but it would not work. I had no regrets about being weak. What was I supposed to do about how I was born? My job was to find ways to survive, not spend my time resenting the world.

"Of course not. I'm weak. If possible, I have to settle things through conversation. If that doesn't work, I just won't fight."

"Woof? Conversation? Can't?"

"That isn't the King of Cows. How am I supposed to talk to them?"

"I can!"

"What?"

Azzy suddenly charged down toward the buffalo herd.

She looked confident, but that was strange. Beast Kings could communicate with each other because they had human forms. Being the King of Dogs did not mean Azzy could understand the language of buffalo. She could roughly convey emotions through her mood and expression, but that was vastly different from communication between the same kind.

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

If she provoked them and came back, we would all be in danger. Not her. Me.

While we rested, the regressor raised Skywarbler high over her head. It looked ridiculous, but she had a sensible reason for striking that pose. Skywarbler's essence was compressed space. It needed to contain wind, its source of power, to display its formidable authority.

Skywarbler, the Sword of Heaven, contained a nearly limitless amount of wind, but the regressor had drawn on its power too heavily when we faced the Mountain Lord, leaving it almost depleted. If we did not gather wind whenever we had the chance during our journey, it would run out of strength halfway through.

"If there'd been enough wind, we could've just crossed."

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

"Hm? Come to think of it, Hughes. You took those elixirs, right?"

"Yes. I did."

"How are they?"

"They aren't very efficient. Considering I've taken three elixirs, the effect is minimal."

The regressor nodded as if she had expected that, then consoled me.

"Everyone has a different ability to absorb elixirs. You practically wasted that Ivory Pill last time, didn't you? The absorption rate depends on your talent and constitution, and above all, younger people are better at making vitality take root in their bodies. Don't be too disappointed."

She told me not to be disappointed, but she somehow looked pleased. Sorry, but I was average, not hopelessly untalented. I took out a card and infused it with qi.

"With Heaven Qi Art, I can do this much."

I stuck a card to my index finger and waggled it. The card moved as though it had become one with my finger.

Even a magician of my caliber could not attach a card to a single finger without any special device. I would have to discreetly hold it with my palm or secretly wedge it between my fingers. Otherwise, qi was the only way.

"Just one card? You're skilled, but anyone who knows the basics of Heaven Qi Art can do that. Didn't you do it in the Abyss too?"

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

Normally, this would have been the limit of my feeble qi. But I had now digested the elixirs. I tensed my finger and infused more vitality into it.

Hummm.

A gray glow rose along the edge of the card. The spreading light gradually became one with the card, then flashed with a sharp gleam.

"Huh? Sword aura?"

"It's nothing as impressive as sword aura. I only coated the card in a thin layer with Heaven Qi Art."

Heaven Qi Art was a form of qi art that extended to all things in the world. It was a technique for controlling all things through qi.

The first stage was moving objects in contact with my body through adhesion or repulsion.

The second was changing an object's properties with the vitality infused into it.

The third was using pure vitality to form a shape and extend an object.

The fourth stage was using qigong through that pure vitality itself. At that point, one could make a blade out of qigong without a sharp weapon, so it was sometimes called blade aura or sword aura.

One had to reach the fourth stage to be considered a master of Heaven Qi Art. Some people said one had to grasp wind or flowing water with qi art to claim mastery, but that was a matter of technique and the amount of qi, not a difference in realm.

"Then you're at the third stage, the stage of projection."

"I knew the technique. I just couldn't do it because I lacked vitality."

People learning qigong talked about enlightenment and finding their heart, but honestly, it was all just technique. The first time you shuffled cards or dealt from the bottom of the deck, you fumbled. Once you got used to it, you could do it while thinking about something else. Qigong was no different.

How many thoughts had I read with my mind-reading ability? There was no way I would not know the trick. I had just struggled because my vitality had not even been enough to lift a card.

"I guess your realm was higher than I thought. Oh? This might work."

Apparently remembering something, the regressor swung Skywarbler through the air five or six times. Something pale and hazy rippled through the cut space, and clouds flowing from Skywarbler were sliced into rectangular shapes.

The regressor held out the cloud steps to me.

"Here, Hughes. Get on."

"Get on what?"

"These. Until now, I've wrapped you in wind while moving, but I don't think we need to anymore. You can stand on cloud steps if you have qigong."

One of the good things about traveling with the regressor was that I did not have to exert much effort walking. Azzy was fast even on foot, and the regressor flew around on Skywarbler. That left slow old me, and since she could not leave me behind, she carried me along in the wind.

It had been nice and comfortable. I dragged my feet.

"I'm fine as I am."

"I'm not! We're slowing down. Support yourself on the cloud steps with qigong. If you can move while riding them, we'll be much faster and can travel longer."

"If you only look for the easy way, your own abilities won't develop."

"That's you! Just endure it for once!"

You could not say something just because it was true. Had she never heard of defamation by stating facts? Besides, she would not understand, but I had a glass ceiling! No matter how hard I tried, average was my limit!

Grumbling, I stepped onto the cloud stairs. The steps made from pale clouds felt soft enough for my feet to sink through, but when I focused and released vitality, they wove together firmly enough to stand on.

"Ah, this is a little difficult."

"You have to release vitality so you don't lose your balance while standing on the cloud steps. It requires balance and delicate control over your vitality. You won't learn it quickly, but you won't die even if you fall, right? Let's learn through actual practice. You can learn while falling."

"I don't want to. Falling hurts."

"Then do your best not to fall. We'll leave if you can stand properly for even one minute."

"One minute?"

"Yes, one minute. Technique is important. You'll need to release more vitality wherever you want to press down harder. Try your best. This will help you too. It's a training method that develops your body and qigong at the same time. Isn't it great that you can train while moving?"

"Not really."

"I don't know the exact principles, but if you've learned qigong, try mastering it. If needed, I'll get you elixirs or manuals. Right, if you can just last one minute..."

"Mr. Shei."

"Yeah?"

"It's already been a minute."

"Huh?"

The regressor looked me over again. I waved calmly while standing on the cloud steps. I looked as though I were standing on solid ground, and the regressor was a little surprised.

"You can do it?"

"I'm good at picking up tricks."

If an ordinary human could do something, I could do it too. The things I could not do were either physically impossible due to my limits or too personal for me to achieve. Things like principles or innate arcane.

Until now, my physical limits, insufficient qi and mana, had made it nearly impossible to use qi arts or magic. Having overcome that, I had attained at least some proficiency in both the Heaven and Earth branches.

"No, even if you're good at tricks. You're standing on clouds with qigong from the start...?"

'I took an entire month to stand properly...! When I first learned how to use Skywarbler, how carefully did I have to watch everyone's reactions? What is this? Is being the King of Humanity supposed to make you a genius?'

Well, I was average, not untalented. Compared to her, perhaps. And as the ordinary King of Humanity, I could do most things an ordinary human could do. I meant it when I said I was good at picking up tricks.

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

The regressor glared at me and kept clicking her tongue.

"Mr. Shei. You're spraying spit. Are you marking your territory or something? Getting bodily fluids all over the place."

"I wasn't clicking my tongue hard enough to spray spit! Don't get cocky just because you're a little good at something!"

"Cocky? That's what I'm worst at. Have I ever gotten full of myself or let my guard down because I was strong? If we're keeping score, Mr. Shei is the one who's let her guard down the most."

"Get ready to leave! We're traveling on cloud steps from now on!"

At that moment, strength suddenly drained out of my body, and my foot slipped straight through the cloud step. At the same time, the gray rain cloud filled with vitality returned to a pure white cloud before gathering itself again.

"Oh, I'm out of qi."

"What?! Already?"

"Even if I took elixirs, there's a limit to how much qi an old man my age can absorb. I guess this is my limit."

"That's a lie!... No, it isn't? Qi depletion? Why isn't there any qi left?"

The regressor's eyes briefly turned yellow, then returned to normal. In that instant, she used her Seven-Colored Eyes to gauge my qi, looking puzzled.

"You're good at using qigong, so why can't you make it your own?"

"Who knows? Maybe because this isn't my body?"

It was because of the Demon God. There was still a disconnect between the body I perceived as mine and the body inhabited by the Demon God. I could drink elixirs like water, but I absorbed very little.

"If it isn't your body, whose is it? No, more importantly, are you all right? When you run out of qi, you should feel so drained that moving even a finger is difficult."

"Oh, this is what feeling drained is? I feel the same as usual."

I had always lived without qigong, so I could not really tell. Still, I definitely felt less motivated. Letting both my arms and legs hang limp, I spoke.

"I'll need to rely on you. Please carry me with the wind again."

"No! I haven't gathered enough wind because I made those cloud steps earlier!"

"Then why did you waste it doing something pointless?"

"That's what I should be saying! What were you thinking, exhausting all your strength while practicing?"

"Woof!"

Azzy came bounding up the hill where I was, her face bright and cheerful, as I bickered with the regressor.

"What? Where did you go and only now come..."

Two buffalo with enormous horns followed behind Azzy, their faces sullen.

Curving horns. Fur packed so thickly that no skin showed through. Muscles that even that fur could not hide. A human who had not learned qigong could never face them, and even one who had would struggle to win without a suitable weapon and detailed knowledge of how to fight them.

A buffalo with a back taller than I was snorted at me. That little punk Azzy. I told her not to provoke them, and she ended up bringing buffalo here. They might be animals like her, but to me they were a disaster.

As I backed away warily, Azzy jerked her head behind her and said,

"Hey! Ride!"

"What?"

"It says it'll give you a ride!"

I turned around. The buffalo was snorting as it presented its back to me.

Footnotes:

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