I’m redoing the chapters for better accuracy and to improve my translation standard.
For the original chapters translated by Puttty:
https://putttytranslations.wordpress.com/martial-god/
RAW:
http://www.ranwen.org/files/article/17/17150/4925696.html
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Chapter 1 – Lin Ming 第一章 林铭
Qi Xuan martial arts quarters are situated within Tian Yun country’s capital city, Tian Yun city, with its back to Great Zhou mountain. It is the only collection of martial arts quarters within Tian Yun country set up by the renowned Qi Xuan Gu sect which has a history of over six hundred years.
For a major sect’s martial arts quarter, Qi Xuan quarters has numerous heritage martial arts, as well as master of the arts on site to instruct, naturally became the holy ground [1] for all young, aspiring martial art practitioners within Tian Yun country. Accompanying that as a matter of course, their standard of recruitment is equally high, even one among ten thousand would not be an overstatement.
Scorching summer day, at the foot of Great Zhou mountain on a piece of grassland situated at a break between trees is a young man in his teens. His fists wrapped by strips of cloth, while baring his upper body he stood in front of a tree of circumference he was barely able to hug, hitting the stock with heavy punches one after another.
“Peng!” “Peng!”
A dull sound reverberates through the woods and the bark being hit clearly indents inwards, revealing the ash coloured wood, on which some bloodstains remain.
The teenager called Lin Ming, had a third grade talent for learning martial arts.
In the country of Tian Yun, over half the population does not possess any talent for learning martial arts, completely unsuited to training combat. In the other half, over eight out of ten people has only a first grade talent for learning martial arts, even if they trained, it wouldn’t yield any results. Out of the remaining people, nine out of ten has a second grade talent and can achieve some kind of result if they kept at it diligently, but there is little hope to become a Budo[2] master.
Lin Ming’s third grade talent can be said to be of the finest class, if a little forced could even be considered as one in a hundred, but with said talent, it’s still quite a bit worse than what is required for Qi Xuan martial arts quarters!
Lin Ming understands this point well. Coincidentally, the beautiful girl Lan Yun Yue who grew up together with Lin Ming, also had a third grade talent and trained martial arts arts together. The two promised to enter the inferior Tian Yun martial arts quarter together.
Tian Yun martial arts quarter belongs to the country of Tian Yun. Since its founding, only eighty years has passed. Exercise technique, heritage and collective power are all limited. However, the inheritance of martial art exercise techniques depends critically on the practitioner. To finish the body training stage and agglomerate the meridians without a good martial arts exercise technique is as hard as conquering the heavens.
However, the agglomeration of meridians period is the realm which the majority of martial artists yearn for, but also the first watershed in path of martial arts training. Once agglomerated, the practitioner’s life span greatly increases, and can also be granted nobility, a life free from the worries of food and wealth awaits, even for generations to come.
While on the aspect of agglomerated meridian practitioners, Tian Yun quarter falls behind Qi Xuan quarters by too much.
Lin Ming’s heart focuses only on martial arts, naturally he dreams of going to Qi Xuan quarters. If there is a lack of talent, he can only use his diligence and strong will to inspire the examiner. Although there is little hope, and should the entrance exam fail, he needs to wait half a year before the next one. For a martial artist, time is also very precious.
Owing to that fact, as well as Lan Yun Yue’s reason, Lin Ming therefore decided to join Tian Yun quarter.
Lin Ming has trained and played with Lan Yun Yue for so many years, even though they are still young, and talks has not reached that of marriage yet, but there are already sentiment of love between the two. Furthermore, Lin Ming’s parents also really like Lan Yun Yue [3*], frequently calling Lan Yun Yue over to their home to eat.
There has always been good feelings between Lin Ming and Lan Yun Yue, only a thin layer of paper window blind exists (paper again, this author…) . Should they grow up a little more, they would thrust through the paper blind, breaking it (their feelings out into the open).
Lin Ming highly values the promise between them, he has decided that even at Tian Yun quarter, he would assault the agglomeration of meridians realm!
However, on the day of the entrance exam to Tian Yun quarter, Lan Yun Yue did not appear.
Lin Ming originally thought Lan Yun Yue couldn’t make it due to some circumstance. Only after did he find out that Lan Yun Yue entered Qi Xuan quarters, and the person who made it so she was unconditionally accepted was Zhu Yan the eldest son of Zhu family, the prominent family within Qing Sang city.
Even though Lin Ming is only fifteen, but has travelled about with his parents since childhood. His wits and mental age is much more mature than others his age. He knows very well what Lan Yun Yue getting unconditionally accepted into Qi Xuan quarters due to the help of Zhu Yan means.
Males of large families such as the Zhu family has to not only look at appearances and temperament when picking spouses, but also their natural martial arts talent, only those with high talent has great odds to produce genius off-springs. Even though Lan Yun Yue’s family is average, but girls of third grade talent in martial arts are already considered very impressive.
Even though it’s not as if Zhu family couldn’t find any with higher natural talent, but Lan Yun Yue herself has beautiful looks and outstanding temperament, therefore it’s quite normal for Zhu Yan to like her.
As for Lan Yun Yue, Qi Xuan quarters when compared to Tian Yun quarter can only be considered an opportunity. Glory and the achievements of days to come, there is no comparison. Especially the lure of prolonging youth by stepping into the realm of meridian agglomeration, appear even more irresistible to girls.
Facing this kind of temptation, perhaps not only Lan Yun Yue, possibly most girls would also choose Zhu Yan, especially as Zhu Yan’s looks are not bad. Even more so, his family and future prospects are superior to Lin Ming.
Even though he understands in his heart, but it’s not as if this incident has not caused any harm to Lin Ming. He locked himself in his room for three days. After three days, he walked out from the room, ate, slept, trained, and trained harsher than before.
Before Lan Yun Yue left him, he was already determined to break through the meridian agglomeration period, to pursue a higher level of martial arts, now Lin Ming still feels the same way. If said that he still had some other considerations before, after Lan Yun Yue left, he conversely became more determined in his pursuit of martial arts.
He decided to change and test for Qi Xuan quarters, even if it’s a process filled with difficulty.
“Peng!” “Peng!”
The oppressive fists hitting the stalk remains echoing through the woods. This type of tree is called <Iron Wood>, not only is the bark tough, but it also has a very strong self-healing power, many martial art beginners would all choose this type of <Iron Wood> for practice.
It is unknown how many punches Lin Ming has thrown, after finally exhausting all his strength, while leaning on a tree branch he sits on top of a rock. He takes out the medicinal herbs from his bag and after grinding it, applies it onto his fist full of scars. Martial artists must frequently use medicinal herbs for treat the body, or else it could leave lingering injuries. Should they accumulate, one could become crippled and even die.
This type of herb is called <Iron Wire Grass>. It is referred to as such due to the green liquid squeezed out from the herb is effective for curing wounds, but feels as if being scraped by an iron wire when poured on open wounds, painful to the core.
Lin Ming grinds his teeth while enduring this pain, produces a new piece of white cloth from the bag, rolls it round and round the fist to cover it.
In actual fact, there are many herbs more effective than <Iron Wire Grass> but without side effects, but are highly priced without exception. There was no way for Lin Ming’s family condition to be able to handle.
Lin Ming’s parents run a sizeable restaurant in Qing Sang city, but the restaurant’s assets do not belong to Lin Ming’s parents, but to the Lin family [4] of Qing Sang.
Even though Lin Ming also has the Lin surname, but he has already separated from the main branch family for several generations. The main family gives a part of their estate for branch family and relatives to manage. Lin’s parents manage this restaurant for a fixed salary and a portion of the profit, while this income is already quite considerable for a normal family, enough to live rather comfortably, but is easily depleted when it comes to supporting Lin Ming’s study in martial arts.
Originally Lin Ming’s parents hoped Lin Ming would inherit the family business, become a restaurant manager. However upon seeing Lin Ming focused solely on martial arts, they took out all the family savings for Lin Ming to buy healing herbs.
Today, the family savings are depleting bit by bit, yet Lin Ming remains at the first sequence of body training.
Body training period’s first stage is to permeate the body with true pneuma[12]. There are six stages in total: first stage trains strength, second stage trains muscles, third stage trains organs, fourth stage trains nerves, fifth stage trains bonus, sixth stage agglomerates meridians. Thereafter the practitioner would step into the accumulated pneuma stage.
After wiping his wound using the <Iron Wire Grass> liquid, Lin Ming rested for half an hour, letting his wound completely absorb the effects of the herb. Just as he stood up and was about to continue punching training, a chubby young appears from within the woods – in his hand was an exquisite long sword. Catching sight of Lin Ming, he then says in a smirking tone: “Brother Ming, today is the sign-up day for Qi Xuan quarters’ entrance exam. You couldn’t have forgotten right, still practicing punching here?”
Slightly younger than Lin Ming, this teenager is called Lin Xiao Dong. He grew together with Lin Ming and the brothers have a good relationship .
Lin Xiao Dong is actually direct descendant of the main branch Lin family. However even though he is a direct descendant, there are also differences of status between direct descendants. Lin Xiao Dong just so happen to be a part of the end of the branch [5], his parents also does business, and lives close to Lin Ming’s family.
Lin Ming glances at Lin Xiao Dong before returning to the tree stalk, says: “Too many people applies at the beginning, even the queue takes one or two hours, purely waiting there is also a waste of time.”
“Shit[6], not giving up even this amount of time, you can’t be (to that extent).” Lin Xiao Dong exclaims exaggeratedly. He approaches the tree stalk and sees the fist marks as well as the blood stains before turning again to Lin Ming’s hands wrapped full of bandage, inhaled deeply before saying: “You’re really crazy enough, even Iron Wood has been battered to this degree by you. This kind of training method, if only relying on <Iron Wire Grass>, then your hands will accumulate injury, if dealt with poorly even become crippled!”
Lin Ming stays silent. To train in martial arts, is to battle against the heavens for life. Using his third degree talent, if he wants to step into sixth stage training’s meridian agglomeration stage would be very difficult. If he does not try hard while young, then there is absolutely no hope. Should he give his all, then obviously it could accumulate hidden injuries to being crippled, but conversely, he could reach meridian agglomeration before the hidden injuries takes effect. As soon as successfully stepping into the meridian agglomeration period, real pneuma will permeate the body and the hidden injuries will disappear.
For Lin Ming, this is a last stand, also a gamble betting his life.
Lin Xiao Dong heaves another sigh, extracts a cloth package from within his chest, unravelling it layer by layer, says: “Brother Ming, this is for you.”
Ming turns around, only to see a vividly red <Blood Ginseng> the colour of blood[7] sitting silently within the cloth. From the looks of it, this <Blood Ginseng> is at least one hundred years old, is the finest of medicine for healing injuries and blood reproduction. Just using a thin piece would be enough each time, on top of that the medicine has a smoothing temperament, strong effect. Just this ginseng must be worth at least a hundred and fifty gold, equivalent to Lin Ming family’s annual income.
Lin Ming’s body stiffened for a second, then shakes his head: “I cannot accept his <Blood Ginseng>.”
Being brothers aside, this <Blood Ginseng> was too valuable. Lin Xiao Dong’s family is only the end generation of the direct descendants, even though still a lot better off than Lin Ming’s family, but if used to support Lin Xiao Dong’s training, cannot have that much to spare.
However Lin Xiao Dong forcibly thrusts the <Blood Ginseng> to Lin Ming, saying: “This <Blood Ginseng> was bought for you. My half-assed, intermittent training left fuck all injury, using this on me is just a waste. If you won’t use it then I bought it for nothing, it’s futile for you to return it. To be honest my dad never had any difficult demands of me, just hope that I can protect the direct descendant title throughout this generation, don’t let the next generation lose it is all.”
Lin Ming was silent for a while, in the end still receives the ginseng, says: “This ginseng I’ve accepted. Just for the sake of this ginseng, I will break through the meridian agglomeration realm.”
“Haha, talking like this is more like you. Not only will you break through the meridian agglomeration realm, but also screw over that Zhu Yan, that son of a bitch, senior master (I)[8] have seen him as a pain in the eye since a long time ago!”
Zhu Yan huh… … Lin Ming sighs lightly, his own talent is not bad, but Zhu Yan’s talent is absolute. Zhu Yan was taken in by Qi Xuan quarters ages ago, and is a high level disciple of the Quarter of the Sky among Qi Xuan quarters, his strength reaching the peak of the third body training stage. Even so, Lin Ming still set up his goal to exceed Zhu Yan, not because of Lan Yun Yue, but due to it being imperative to overcome hurdle after hurdle while pursing the limits of martial arts, overcoming mountain after mountain, even if catching up to Zhu Yan might take him dozen of years of his whole life, even tens of years!
… … [9]
At the foot of Great Zhou mountain, there extends a cluster of buildings twenty kilometres long. This is where Qi Xuan quarters and Tian Yun quarter resides. Today is Qi Xuan quarters’ entrance exam sign-up day. A bustling crowd is gathered at the plaza in front of Qi Xuan quarters’ main door.
Lin Ming and Lin Xiao Dong intentially delayed the time, but upon reaching the plaza, they realised that they still underestimated the number of applicants. Applicants formed three lines, every line extended tens of metres. No matter what, queuing like this would take the best part of an hour.
“Lets wait.” Lin Xiao Dong exhales, helplessly joins to stand at the tail end of the queue.
“En.” Lin Ming nods his head.
“Eeee, there are very few people over there.” Lin Xiao Dong points at a small door not so far away, at where he pointed to – were only a few people here and there, furthermore the ground was covered by a red carpet.
“That’s the nobles’ area……” Lin Ming notices the writing on the sign-board.
Since Qi Xuan quarters is established within Tian Yun country, using the country’s land, building, resources, they would obviously give the ones with power and wealth suitable amount of recompense (face), to the point that many martial arts quarters’ errands were handed down to the powerful and wealth to deal with, for example, today’s entrance applications.
“Fuck.” Lin Xiao Dong mumbled unsatisfyingly. Nobles need to be appointed by the Royal family, and the title is passed down. The (main) Lin family might be rich, but are not nobles.
As Lin Xiao Dong was hoping to curse the nobles as bugs and the likes to find satisfaction and recover his mental equilibrium, at that moment the door was pushed open. Two young men walks out from the door, one of them wearing blue cloth with an intricate long sword hanging from his waist, his hair affixed by a golden crown[10], appearing extremely handsome.
Lin Ming sees this man crease his brows ever so slightly, this person is Zhu Yan.
Zhu family’s daughter was married into the royal family, becoming the Emperor’s concubine. There is no doubt that Zhu became the prominent family in Qing Sang city due to this, moreover being appointed as nobles, that’s why Zhu Yan has the power to admit Lan Yun Yue into Qi Xuan quarters unconditionally.
“Fuck, we didn’t check the Almanac when heading out, ran into a ghost.[11]” Lin Xiao Dong mutters unsatisfyingly.
Zhu Yan appears shoulder by shoulder with the youth, a few followers waiting outside the noble area follows behind the two. Looking at the situation, Zhu Yan was leading the youth for registration, the two heads toward Lin Ming, and would meet should they keep going.
From Lin Ming’s status and strength, should they meet he might suffer (humiliation), but he did not avoid them, and watched calmly as Zhu Yan approached.
Zhu Yan’s steps paused ever so slightly, seeing Lin Ming and Lin Xiao Dong. He was shocked a little at first, then frowning, seeing Lin Ming made him extremely uncomfortable. Even though he already attained Lan Yun Yue, but she still rejected all forms of intimate interactions before marriage. It is apparent that within her heart, she still has Lin Ming, and also felt somewhat guilty, that she would pick him was purely because Qi Xuan quarters. There aren’t any men who can tolerate their future wife to have another man in their heart, this was also true of Zhu Yan.
“Your name is Lin Ming right? Really didn’t expect you to come here. Practicing the first stage, taking the exam for Qi Xuan Quarter?”
The provocation within Zhu Yan’s tone was made very apparent, he would not tolerate Lin Ming entering Qi Xuan quarter, even if Lin Ming’s strength can’t hold a candle to his, but as long as he was at Qi Xuan quarter, then making Lan Yun Yue forget Lin Ming would be impossible.
“Whether I can get in is my own problem. I’m not here to follow after someone, I only came here to pursue after my Budo (path in martial arts).”
“Budo? You, a slightly above average talented kid dare to say pursue after Budo? Really you are boasting shamelessly!”
As Zhu Yan finishes, his finger joints produces a soft noise and the long-sword hanging from the back of his waist flies out from its sheath as if it was alive! Zhu Yan cut through the air while holding the sword, accompanied with the shrill sound of sword aura breaking through the air, a wave barely visible to the eyes rapidly drew away, directly cutting the stalk of a large tree not far from them in half.
Accompanied with a “pu~su~su~” sound, large amounts of branches and leaves fell to the floor. The surrounding people all stared wide-eyed, after all the majority of them are similar to Zhu Yan in age, at most a few years younger, but the realm of Budo Zhu Yan has reached leaves them in the dust.
Zhu Yan swinging this sword is to give Lin Ming a pre-emptive warning, to let him understand the gap between the two. “My fourth grade talent, training since twelve, using all kinds of precious medicine that I’ve lost count. Now I’m part of Qi Xuan quarter’s sword sect, training at third body training stage’s peak can only peek at the entrance of Budo, you are but trained in first stage, to speak about Budo ignorantly!”
Zhu Yan’s domineering attitude has irritated Lin Xiao Dong: “Surname with Zhu! You are but older than us by two years, what’s there to gloat, should our age be swapped, I’ll screw you with one hand!”
Zhu Yan frowns and turns towards Lin Xiao Dong. Taking a step forward as he pleased his internal pneuma exploded, “Who are you?”
“I’m…” Lin Xiao Dong’s momentum was broken, the sentence was stuck in his throat as he took as step backwards and gulped. Hitting his chest he says: “Young master Lin Xiao Dong, remember it well!”
“Lin Xiao Dong? Hnn, the number of Lin family’s disciples I can remember could be counted with one hand. You impertinent clown, what right do you have to talk to me? Not only you, including you Lin Ming, if not for Lan Yun Yue, you won’t even have the right to converse with me! Let me advise you, as a person you should have some self-awareness, Lan Yun Yue is not someone you can match up to.”
Within Qing Sang city, girls with natural ability reaching third grade but also has favourable looks and temperament are already few. The majority were also concentrated within large families, but large families have severe conflict of interests between them, how could they let them marry into other families, strengthening their bloodline. The majority would ask the male side for uxorilocal marriage, that’s why Zhu Yan would say such a thing.
“One thousand ounce of gold, never appear in front of me again!” Zhu Yan says as he extracts a stack of money from his sleeves.
The surrounding instantly turns into a commotion, one thousand ounce of gold. That is a ridiculous price, enough for a practitioner of body training stage to use the highest level of herbs as he likes for two to three years.
“One thousand ounce of gold, are you dismissing a beggar!” Lin Xiao Dong thrusts the money back. In actual fact he is also shocked but acts like nothing, one thousand ounce of gold was a huge amount even to him.
Zhu Yan’s hand trembles once, a great quaking force directly shocks Lin Xiao Dong away. He stares coldly at Lin Ming, waiting for his answer.
Lin Ming takes a deep breath, slowly but forcefully replies: “Zhu Yan, in talent, I’m inferior. In heritage, I’m even more inferior. But training martial arts does not only rely on talent and financial support; it also requires most importantly – a heart yearning for martial arts!”
“You practice martial arts for wealth, prestige and status, while I practice martial arts to pursue the extremities of Budo. Budo is not only for the talented, nor is it for the wealthy, but for those single-mindedly chasing after martial arts. There will come a day, I will surpass you!” Lin Ming’s last sentence was said word per word, loud and crisp, so that everyone in the surrounding can hear it clearly.
Third grade talent wishes to catch up with fourth grade talent, furthermore there was a huge disparity between family background, this kid has really gone insane!
Hearing Lin Ming’s sentence, Zhu Yan blanked for a second, then proceeded to laugh: “Good, very good! I’m waiting for you!” As he finished he collected the money, accompanied with a crisp wail, the long sword returns to its sheath. Zhu Yan stared hard at Lin Ming for a second, turns and leaves.
Endnote:
[1] Not to be confused with the term holy ground from introduction.
[2] The path of a martial artist, literally means something akin to martial artists’ community.
[3*] I feel the author could have written this part better, typically using欣赏 (appreciate/admire/evaluated highly with connotation of like/fond of) as opposed to just喜欢 (plain like) would be expected from a more competent writer.
[4] Here the term encapsulates the population on larger scale. Typically in China, everyone of the same surname would belong to the same family in some sense, at least at the root. For example: the Blair family of London, would refer to not just Tony Blair’s family but rather all with the same surname in a city.
[5] As far as I know, it means that from this generation onwards he cannot be considered as a direct descendant of the main family.
[6] He actually says ‘fuck’ here, but I feel like shit fits better.
[7] Yes, that’s literally what the author wrote. No, I can’t make it sound any better. “An orange coloured orange with an orangey shine” anyone?
[8] So here the author uses the word老子, which is a way to refer to oneself as being of older generation (like father). However, the equivalent self-referral term does not exist in English that could impart the same impression as intended in the text as far as I’m aware of. Therefore this detail is omitted in the passage, essentially he is further degrading Zhu Yan by using 老子 to refer to himself in that context.
[9] This is the style that the author uses when a break in text occurs (from one section/event/POV to another). I shall be faithfully reproducing it.
[10] I believe it’s something similar to this http://i.imgur.com/kkeuDju.jpg as opposed to the typical western style crown.
[11] This is a traditional Chinese idiom, which is constantly used to signify running into something unfortunate/troublesome/bothersome that is unpredictable or likely superstitious.
[12] The vital spirit (life essence), the soul.
Tentatively under construction 
