江湖路弯弯:Jianghu Road is Curved! Chapter 5

_{(translated by anniaxx)}

^{(edited by xia0xiao1mei)}

Art by 伊吹五月

CHAPTER FIVE

For Rong Gu-Gu’s Sake

Nan Yi’s big wedding day was very quickly set: the third day after Pang Wan’s departure from the sect for her real world training.

This date was chosen by Sect Leader and Pang Wan is deeply thankful for his decision, because this way, she will not need to face people’s weird looks directed towards her during the wedding.

Before she leaves, there is still an extremely important thing: Pang Wan needs to determine her real world training objective —To kill a person? To snatch a beauty? Or to steal a Wu Lin treasure?

When Sect Leader throws out three beautiful silk pouches in front of her, Pang Wan felt bitter to the point it looked like she swallowed a mouthful of coptis root juice^[1].

“Wan Wan, you take a pick.” Sect Leader looks at her with eyes filled with hope and aspiration, “These three pouches contains tasks that have been carefully selected by the elders after multiple votes. Each of the three is worthy of your position as Bai Yue Sect’s Sheng Gu. Come, choose, choose without worries!”

——His words are basically indirectly telling her, no matter which one she chooses, it will be nearly impossible for her to accomplish.

Pang Wan is feeling melancholic; she bites her lips and chooses the pink pouch.

After she unfolds the note in the pouch and reads what it says——Bang!! —— she feels as though the back of her head has been heavily struck by a huge hammer; she sees stars flying in front of her eyes.

The note clearly says: Take the head of the Supreme Chief of Wu Lin^[2] —Gu Xi Ju.

What?

What? What?

What? What? What?

Pang Wan lifts her head to look at Sect Leader in great shock, her mouth opened wide enough to swallow an ostrich egg: this…this…this……

This grand task really is far above her expectation, she had originally thought that even if she needs to kill someone, at most it would be killing an E Mei nun or a Quan Zhen daoist^[3], she really did not expect Zuo Huai An’s set objective for her, would be to directly exterminate the Supreme Chief of the entire Wu Lin!

Seeing the sudden change of expression on her face, Nan Yi leans over to read the note.

After he sees its content, he lightly clicks his tongue and frowns.

As fast as lightning and thunder, Pang Wan quickly throws the note into her mouth and presses it under her tongue.

“This doesn’t count, I want to change it.” As she rambles this, she immediately reaches out to grab the other two pouches.

Right now, the plan in her mind is: Sect Leader said any of these tasks are befitting of her position anyway, so she shall just play mischievous this once and choose the easiest out of the three. (Let us forgive this Mary Sue girl who is used to having the entire plot following her will.)

The rest of the pouches are opened. One says: “Bring back the Jade Dragon Token.”

The other: “Kill Rong Gu^[4]”.

Pang Wan stares at the last one for a long time.

“Rong Gu is one of the top twelve most skilled masters of our Bai Yue Sect. She has been with you ever since you were a child. If you can take her life in one strike, then you will definitely be famous all over the continent and across the seas, with a renowned reputation for ‘killing families and having no weaknesses’!” explains Lord You.

Sect Leader remains silent, scrutinizing her with seriousness and acuteness.

“I choose Jade Dragon Token!” Pang Wan suddenly grabs the middle pouch tightly in her hand.

“Wan Wan, you need to consider this carefully.” Sect Leader reminds her with squinted eyes.

Pang Wan nods, exhibiting solid determination that cannot be bent by irons or steels.

According to the long traditions of the land of Mary Sue, all sorts of precious treasure will eventually come flying to the female lead’s side. She is seventy to eighty percent sure of this. Compared to killing people, this task should be much easier.

“Then work hard.” Sect Leader says nothing more. He just pats her shoulder like a headman would.

After she returns to Sacred Heart Chamber, Rong Gu-Gu immediately welcomes her with a big smile like that of a blooming spring flower.

“Sheng Gu, have you received your task?” She brings out the tea and leans her waist gently on Pang Wan’s back.

“Yes,” Pang Wan nods, “Sect Leader wants me to bring the Jade Dragon Token back within two years.” She thinks two years are more than enough time.

Rong Gu-Gu suddenly freezes.

“Sheng Gu, do you know whose hands the Jade Dragon Token is in right now?” Rong Gu-Gu turns and carefully looks at her.

“Isn’t it Gu Xi Ju?” Pang Wan has never seen this kind of expression on Rong Gu-Gu’s face; she becomes really surprised and shocked.

She had already asked Lord You about this. Even though this task still has something to do with Gu Xi Ju, stealing something from the Supreme Chief of Wu Lin is far easier than cutting off his head, is it not?

But Rong Gu-Gu sighs.

“Seizing the Jade Dragon Token signifies that you wish to dethrone the current Supreme Chief and replace him yourself.” With a sense of sorrow surrounding Pang Wan, Rong Gu-Gu seems chapfallen for the first time, “I have belittled Sheng Gu before, I have never thought that you would pick such an extraordinary path for yourself!”

What?

What? What?

What? What? What?

Pang Wan is dumbfounded.

But then she cheers up again, because she inwardly says to herself: so this story is going down the strong female lead plot? That’s also good! So I can be invincible in the whole world and flirt with beautiful men everywhere. Maybe I can even become a matriarch^[5] and greatly expand my harem!

That night, whilst everyone struggles to fall asleep, Pang Wan enjoys a really really sweet dream.

The grandiose ceremony of her departure is magnificent. 1.75 out of every 3 members of the whole sect all came out to pay their respects to Sheng Gu.

“Wan Wan, this journey holds great significance; you must raise the prestige of our Bai Yue Sect!” Sect leader puts a crimson velvet cloak on her, “This Crimson Phoenix robe is your foregone mother’s; it is also the symbol of Bai Yue Sheng Gu. Today, I officially pass this on to you, hoping that you will inherit the previous Sheng Gu’s outstanding achievements, make great efforts and contributions to spread our strong reputation of Bai Yue!”

“Long-live Sheng Gu for generations! Sect Leader’s contributions are immeasurable!”

“Sheng Gu’s skills defeat all the rest! Sect leader will dominate the entire Jiang Hu!”

The sect members begin to loudly cheer.

Such tremendous mood leaves Pang Wan at loss; she could only smile sweetly, “Wan Wan will definitely not let the hope of the entire sect go to waste.”

Sect Leader is overfilled with joy; he pulls Pang Wan over and quietly whispers into her ear, “Don’t forget to lose your killing-virginity soon.”

Pang Wan’s smile freezes on her face.

Affected by the strong atmosphere of the sect, with her stallion howling beside her, she seizes the perfect time to turn and pushes herself off the ground with a single tap, leaping onto the horse in a handsome move. One pull on the rein, one press of both legs, “Go!”, she shouts tenderly, and both the stallion and beauty are gone with the dust, leaving behind a beautiful haze.

That crimson figure, like someone from outside this world, gradually fades into the horizon.

“Oh my! I am so cool!”

Pang Wan’s laugh slips in amongst the clip-clops of the horse. She is having her narcissistic moment again.

Da-da-da, the stallion runs down the hill top; da-da-da, the stallion rushes through the middle hill.

Da-da-da, the stallion suddenly stops at the end of the hill. There is a person on horse coming towards her from the front doors full of hanging heads.

“You?” Pang Wan reins in her stallion and goes back a few steps, she did not expect to meet him here.

That person does not speak; he just looks at her and her crimson cloak.

Just as the colour of his clothes, his horse is also all black, as well as his hair and his pupils–all permeated by that shade of deep, bottomless black. As he stands there, all the chaos of this world has been consumed by this blackness.

“Brother Nan Yi, are you also here to see me off?”

Pang Wan squeezes out a smile at him– no matter the time and place, seeing Nan Yi is never a good thing. Last time, after meeting him in front of the Southern Tower, she gave Lu Wei the fruit basket and Lu Wei had diarrhea for three whole hours! In the end, Lu Wei weakly pushes her out his room, so she had received no advice about real world training at all.

This dude has a human’s face but a monster’s heart, truly wicked, she must be careful of him!

“I came here to send you off.”

Nan Yi is unexpectedly serious.

“…many thanks.” Facing this man who she thought would be her male lead; Pang Wan does not know what to say. She lowers her head and slowly rides forward.

Her back is still very tense and even slightly shaky; she is afraid he will perform a sneak attack on her in some way.

“Outside of Bai Yue Sect, I will not kill you.”

Nan Yi suddenly says nonchalantly, as if it is nothing important.

Pang Wan is stunned, because she did not think he would see through her guard against him, and also because of his sudden promise.

She ponders the deeper meaning within his words. Sounds like he is hinting that once she comes back to the sect, she will continue to suffer his torture. She couldn’t help but to feel somewhat mad.

Both of them say no more along the way.

Finally, they come out of the mountains and come close to the main road. Nan Yi reins his horse and turns around, courteously cupping his hands toward her, “Take care!”

The luminous afternoon sunshine glows on his handsome figure, making his blood-red earrings brightly shine.  With her vision going dizzy and her blood boiling in her head, Pang Wan is successfully allured by his glamour. Unable to think straight anymore, she asks him, “Brother Nan Yi, why do you like Lady Mei Wu?”

This is the question she had buried in her heart for a long time.

Even though Mei Wu is as pretty as a fairy, there are cases in which female leads with middle-rank beauty defeat extraordinarily beautiful supporting characters in the land of Mary Sue! Pang Wan is used to being a powerful magnet for all males in her previous life, so she finds losing her male lead at the beginning of this life extremely painful to accept.

Nan Yi pauses for a second; he probably did not expect to hear her mention this.

Next, he turns his head to gaze into the far mountains and speaks with a serious, loving, desiring, and treasuring voice, “Because Ah Wu made me realize: in this world, there really exists a real, pure, and fine white lotus flower.”

Puff! A sour and pedantic smell flows out from her chest, raises above her throat and rushes out of her nose.

“Like I care!?”, exasperated, she pulls out her horse whip like a typical imperious demoness from a unorthodox sect, and whips toward Nan Yi, “I wish you and your white lotus flower^[6] never ever end up together!”

Nan Yi did not even bat his eyes when he catches the other end of the whip and holds it firmly in his hand.

Pang Wan’s cheeks are burning red; she stares at him stubbornly, prepared to counter attack his next move ——Secluded Underworld Palm? Showering Flower Sword? Nine Yin Skull Claw? ^[7]

However, in the end, Nan Yi only releases the whip silently.

Pang Wan does not know why he is willing to let her off. Pretending to be strong, she glances at him ruthlessly, takes back her whip and signals her stallion to run.

Thereupon, she rides onto the main road to the villages, parting ways with Nan Yi.

“What’s so good about a ‘white lotus flower’?” Pang Wan furiously thinks.

She believes if she had not been born in an unorthodox sect, she would definitely be an unrivalled, delicate, white lotus flower as well.

After being annoyed for about fifteen minutes, she makes a great decision: she decides to completely forget about Nan Yi and Mei Wu, that shameless couple(?), never to remember them again.

How wonderful is the world? Countless beautiful men and handsome guys are waiting for her hugs. As long as she is the female lead, the invincible female lead.

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{Translator’s note: Hello, this is Annie. Yeh!! My first chapter is done! Thank you for reading! Don’t forget to check the footnote below (sorry, it’s long). Just want to say: this novel is super interesting and funny! I laughed so many times while reading it. You will definitely enjoy it! I also want to thank Xiaoxiao1mei ♥ again for making my dream comes true and editing this chapter for me! I have so much to learn from her; I will work my hardest! This is my very first chapter, so please leave a comment below to encourage me…hahaha..I mean, leave a comment about anything, I just want to hear from you~ ^_^* }

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[1] Coptis root 黄连/Huáng lián: Copits root is a Chinese herb that is known for its bitterness. Having swallowed coptis root juice is a common Chinese saying expressing one’s bitterness in emotion.

[2] Supreme Chief of Wu Lin 武林盟主/Wǔ lín méng zhǔ: The highest position in Jiang Hu. 盟主is the title of the chief of an alliance. Being the highest chief of the entire Wu Lin alliance, Gu Xi Ju can be considered almost as a monarch figure (also with perhaps the highest skill of martial arts). Supreme Chief is passed on to the next most skilled person, often the one that can successfully defeat the current Supreme Chief.

[3] E Mei/峨眉; Quan Zhen/全真: These two sects are real orthodox sects in Chinese History. E Mei members are all nuns and Quan Zhen members are all daoists.

[4] Rong Gu/容姑:Just in case if you are wondering about the disappearance of the other “Gu”. Like what the footnote of chapter one says, Gu-Gu is a title for elder women in the sect (Gu-Gu does not have to be really old; Pang Wan calls her Gu-Gu because Rong is much older than her, also showing her respect and closeness with Rong). But Lord You only uses Gu, because he is in a higher position and also probably older than Rong. So this way, Rong-Gu can be understood as a formal title, Ms. Rong.

[5] Matriarch: the original Chinese text used here is 女尊(Nǚ zūn/women-highest), which is a genre of novels that involves the exchange of the traditional roles of females and males.  女尊 novels are mostly set in fictional history or the far future, in which women are regarded as the highest and men are considered as significantly inferior. Pang Wan is questioning if her story is actually a 女尊 novel right here. I have to confess that I love this genre of C-novels so much; I mean, girls, don’t you want to be the female lead of a 女尊 novel?

[6] White Lotus Flower 白莲花/bái lián huā: This term is a popular modern Chinese slang, referring to girls that look so pure and innocent, wearing white every day. You can find a lot of cliché white lotus girls in Mary Sue novels, often as the female leads as well. However, this term is not really a good term, because they are usually not pure and not innocent in the inside.

[7] Secluded Underworld Palm 幽冥掌/Yōumíng zhǎng; Showering Flower Sword 浣花剑法/Huàn huā jiàn fǎ; Nine Yin Skull Claw 九阴白骨爪/Jiǔ yīn báigǔ zhǎo：All three moves are real martial art moves.