Pulling Together A Villain Reformation Strategy Chapter 30

Wow I think this broke a record for VRS footnotes lol.

Please let me know where my translations can be improved, especially the astrological stuff!

Chapter 30 – Imbecilic Little Fresh Meat1

His transformation from the little lamb to the big gray wolf was so sudden that even Jiang Xunyi was dazed. He actually didn't fight back, only looking up in astonishment.

Their eyes met in midair. Jiang Xunyi immediately lowered his eyelashes, but Yun Xie did not dodge or hide: "What? Want to say you're Du Heng and that I have recognized the wrong person again? Jiang Xunyi, I don't dare to say this about anyone else, but I would still be able to recognize you even if you turned into ash or smoke. I know you hold resentment towards me in your heart, so just say it out loud! You don't even dare to admit your own f.u.c.king ident.i.ty, all you know is to b.u.t.t heads with me over some stupid trivial things. Are you some spoiled missy? You've always been like this since you were young, always this eccentric and lousy behavior. If there's trouble you just keep it suppressed in your heart, and you won't speak out when you're uncomfortable. If you don't say… if you don't say it, how the f.u.c.k am I ever going to know about it!"

The front half of his speech was still very aggressive and quite intimidating, leaving the listening Jiang Xunyi stunned. But as he continued speaking, he seemed to think of something, and his voice carried a hint of a sob. Jiang Xunyi looked at his reddened eyes with surprise. He found that after his own rebirth, this person had actually become a crybaby, someone he dared not provoke, to the point where tears would fall after a single unsuited sentence.

Jiang Xunyi slowly let out a sigh. He pulled off Yun Xie's claws to discover that his grip was not tight at all. “Sect Master Yun,” he said indifferently: “Even though this place is in the middle of nowhere and there is no great need to rely on your looks for food, you should still pay some attention to your image.”

Jiang Xunyi did not say that he was Du Heng again, and did not say he wasn't either. But in the end, his mouth did not spit out a single word truly from his heart. He deliberately ignored how Yun Xie's gaze instantly dimmed. Instead, he brushed shoulders with the two teenagers poking their heads out in consternation from inside the door as he strolled into the room.

Great cultivation sects such as Hidden Spirit Sect had always held the young disciples they trained to strict standards, requiring self-control, self-discipline, patience, an even temper, as well as a slow voice and unhurried pace. These two fledgling youths had never had the chance to see such a scene before, so after the initial surprise was over with, they eagerly continued to spectate. It was only when Jiang Xunyi exited the scene to walk over did they realize the inappropriateness of their behavior, and their faces immediately flushed red. Fortunately, Jiang Xunyi directly entered the room without saying anything.

Wei Xiuqi saw Yun Xie standing there all alone, and somehow had the inexplicable feeling this young master Yun was a little pitiful. Just as he wanted to go up and give a couple sentences of comfort, he saw Yun Xie raise his hand to heavily wipe his face.

With this wipe, it was like he had put on an invincible mask capable of conquering any obstacle. When he raised his head again, he had again a.s.sumed that elegant and cultured appearance. Like a refres.h.i.+ng spring breeze caressing one's face, he greeted the two youths: “What are you doing just standing there? Hurry and go in.”

Although Yun Xie was proud down to his very bones, in reality he was always reliable and dependable when it came to handling affairs. There were very few things in this world that could make him lose control, but at this time he was already regretting his loose tongue just now.

It always seemed that whenever he faced Jiang Xunyi, because he cherished him so much, he repeatedly tried to measure his behavior, and always found himself regretting, regretting, regretting….

He had originally planned everything out already, knowing that this time he must treat Jiang Xunyi with sufficient patience. He understood this man's personality too well: reserved, stubborn, and always hiding an unknown heap of things in his heart. Over all these years, he had still never been able to truly see through Jiang Xunyi. Dealing with this person required more than ten times the energy of dealing with the most dangerous of enemies. However, every time his mind had planned everything out nicely, once he did face off with that man, he would involuntarily lose control, making all his best laid plans go to waste.

While his mind reflected, Yun Xie sanctimoniously patted the shoulders of these two little fresh meat1 as they opened their mouths to speak but hesitated. The three of them went in together.

Yun Xie and Jiang Xunyi had recently displayed their talent from catching the turtle at the riverside, so they received the admiration of all the villagers. As a result, just as Jiang Xunyi entered to show his face, the person originally guarding the spirit directly and efficiently left, handing the scene over to them.

When Yun Xie and the two young disciples later entered, Jiang Xunyi was already standing in front of the corpse, arms crossed in deep thought. Wei Xiuqi looked over at him and felt that this extraordinarily handsome young master Du did not appear to have any great plans for the time being, so he thus moved close to Nie Yan. The two of them began gesticulating and pointing together. They even took out paper and brushes, looking like they planned to conduct observation and emulation field work on the spot.

This action could no longer be said to originate from Jiang Molou's teachings, but instead looked like an exact copy of his style. Even the lost in thought Jiang Xunyi and the very  frustrated and disappointed Yun Xie both unconsciously raised their heads, sizing up the two youths at the same time.

After their eyes met, each turned their head away.

Nie Yan carefully went through one round of observation and comparison, and whispered: “s.h.i.+xiong, I think this person should not be an ordinary corpse. This is the empty sh.e.l.l left when a living corpse dies for the second time. Look, there should be twelve breaths within the human body, evenly divided into base breath, middle breath, and residual breath2. After death, a person's air apertures3 will open, and all these breaths will leave. But this person's body has thirteen air apertures, and only that extra air aperture's breath dispersed recently. This is truly very strange… I'm afraid that a person with thirteen air apertures is even harder to find in this world than a person with three eyes, and we actually ran into one. "

Wei Xiuqi's hand pinched a small book and he nodded in agreement: “Is what you said from the  《Corpse Scripture》that s.h.i.+fu required us to memorize before? I missed that cla.s.s due to illness, but I heard An-s.h.i.+di say this book was written4 by s.h.i.+bo5. The 'Air Aperture Theory' inside was even first proposed by that old man himself. s.h.i.+fu said we're required to know it by heart, so make a copy for me in a bit.”

"That old man" Jiang Xunyi silently covered his eyes with his palm. He felt the kind of sorrow and grief6 similar to a modern student skipping school only to accidentally encounter the top of the cla.s.s.

However, his ears still continued to pick up on the noisy whispers of those two little fellows: “Nie-s.h.i.+di, you should also be more careful. I heard that one should be extremely careful of breaking taboos in front of these kinds of corpses, so as to avoid any corpse transformations7. See here, it's written that one must first be careful not to make improper comments judging this person's life before death, and especially not to make any random promises. Second, one must not use one's skin and flesh to directly touch…..”

Jiang Xunyi couldn't bear it any more. He suddenly stepped forward, staring at the corpse and talking to himself: “This person did not even close his eyes upon death. He was born with an unlucky appearance8, and looks to have led quite an immoral life——no wonder he met an early death." As he spoke, he reached out and directly closed the eyes of the dead: “But don't worry, I will definitely find out your cause of death, and allow you to die with understanding.”

Wei Xiuqi and Nie Yan were utterly dumbstruck, watching with wide eyes as this Second Idiot9 committed the entire set of taboos. Their young minds had encountered too great of a shock, and were stupefied into two tree stumps.

Wei Xiuqi: "…….the deceased's skin and flesh……"

It wasn't clear whether they should be called unlucky or lucky. If they were swapped for someone else, Jiang Xunyi naturally would not be willing to teach them. But seeing these two kids were pure of heart and also disciples of Jiang Molou, even direct disciples10…. When the young Jiang Molou was able to use this learning method to achieve success, that was because of his tenacious personality and extraordinary talent, making him a rarity seen maybe once every hundred years. But not everyone could learn this way, so Jiang Xunyi finally decided to temporarily detach his mind from “the out-of-control system” and “the brain-dead Yun Xie” and educate these two juniors properly.

Seeing Jiang Xunyi breaking the taboos with such extreme audaciousness, the corner of Yun Xie's lips turned up slightly. He did not show any hint of worry at all, but instead put his hands in his sleeves and took a few steps back to avoid hindering his actions.

The Hidden Spirit Sect's textbooks were indeed authoritative publications, not on the same level as those inferior scripts sold for one yuan a stack. After Jiang Xunyi finished his series of actions, the four people in the room clearly noticed a dark and cold wind suddenly blowing through the room with a long hooting cry.

The portent of a corpse's sudden movement11.

It wasn't clear if Wei Xiuqi swore and cursed in his heart, but in any case he still expressed his determination to protect Jiang Xunyi. With one hand, he pushed this obvious Jianghu swindler who didn't know a single thing behind himself. He and Nie Yan both pulled out their swords, nervously watching the corpse on the deathbed with round wide eyes.

The corpse's originally blue and purple face gradually turned white. Its mouth slowly opened wide as well, revealing the blackened teeth inside. Accompanying the angry bellow of the dark wind, it stiffly stood up straight.

At the same time, the keen and astute Jiang Xunyi turned his head back, exactly facing off with an enormous ghost face making a threatening expression as it hovered in midair. His brows did not even wrinkle as he carelessly waved a random hand. This resentful spirit which had run here from who-knows-where to try and do some borrowed intimidation… instantly dissipated into ash and smoke. The two youths in front with their backs turned didn't even notice a thing.

With his momentary effort looking back, the harsh sound of a chittering laugh suddenly came from the deathbed. Jiang Xunyi immediately turned back around, only to see the fluttering white cloth curtains had all been pulled down by a large hand with entirely sharp nails as well as dark purple skin. That corpse let out a shrill scream, and threw aside the rotten cloth to pounce at Wei Xiuqi.

Under this great fright, Wei Xiuqi pointed his sword and hurriedly stabbed, but the corpse's knees curved and it flexibly bent its waist to dodge. This time even Jiang Xunyi and Yun Xie were somewhat surprised——Even if a normal person's corpse transformed after death and was made into a living corpse, the stiffness of their body could not be altered and their joints were often unable to bend. It was unclear why this corpse was so mysterious, not only able to move freely and flexibly, but also using what appeared to be proper techniques just like a martial arts master.

Upon escaping Wei Xiuqi's stab, it turned around and actually rushed towards Jiang Xunyi. Jiang Xunyi dodged behind Nie Yan's back with complete and utter shamelessness, and encouragingly said: "You can do it."

Nie Yan seethed with rage12, and had to use his entire life's acc.u.mulation of self-restraint to hold himself back from saying certain words. He raised his sword and attacked the corpse, his strike both fierce and accurate——it was unknown whether he was treating this enemy as Jiang Xunyi as he tried to cut it down. Wei Xiuqi hurriedly ran over to help out.

Taking advantage of this tussle between two people and one corpse, Jiang Xunyi chose a spot not too close and not too far away, and began to spectate. This position was perfectly placed so as to ensure that if the two youths encountered danger, he could take the shot at any time, while also enabling him to observe any inadequacies in the teenagers' moves. He stood with his hands behind his back as he watched, and from time to time would provide commentary: “Right shoulder, left chest, lower abdomen….. attack his lower body13…”

Of those on the scene, only Yun Xie could understand the impeccability of Jiang Xunyi's gaze. All his directions were aimed at the opponent's greatest flaw in each move. Mastery to this point was extremely difficult, and unfortunately these two teenagers were not able to comprehend that mentality.

At this time, Nie Yan had just performed a horizontal slice to cut towards the corpse's chest, but he himself almost received a direct blow by that swipe. If it weren't for Wei Xiuqi's timely rescue, half of his skull would likely have been destroyed. Jiang Xunyi clicked his tongue and let out a sigh: "Aw, you should have hit his back.”

Footnotes: (still haven't beat WAFIL's record yet)

1. 小鲜肉 lit. "little fresh meat" is modern Internet slang for young fresh energetic good-looking men, usually referring to teenage male idols. The closest thing might be "young hunk" since that also carries connotations of meat, but in this case I decided to keep it as is since the two youths don't really come off as "hunky" lollll

2. The original terms are 本气、中气、余气. I think this also has to do with Chinese divination/astrology. I tried looking it up but this kind of stuff is honestly gibberish to me… It's something like “本气 is related to the five elements and is the strongest, while 中气 has to do with the heavenly branch, and finally 余气 is related to the earthly branch and is the weakest.”

3.  气窍: 气 = "air, breath", 窍 = "aperture, opening, hole, orifice"

4.  He specifically uses the verb 编, which is a little ambiguous. It could be "write", but it could also be "compile" or "edit." I chose "write" just to make Jiang Xunyi more of a genius lol.

5. Wei Xiuqi says 师伯, which is another term within the disciple-master family tree. 伯 means an uncle who is older than the father figure. In this case, Jiang Xunyi is the s.h.i.+xiong to Jiang Molou, so Jiang Molou's disciples will call Jiang Xunyi s.h.i.+bo.

6. Fun fact: the term used here is 忧桑, which I think is distorted Internet slang for the similar phrase 忧伤 ("distress" "grief"). Or maybe it's just a typo, who knows.

7. 尸变 lit. "corpse + change/transform" refers to how some dead corpses can come back to life in a twisted and inhuman way, basically like the process of zombification lol.

8. What Jiang Xunyi does here is Physiognomy, or fortune-telling by reading one's face/appearance. (Holds similarities to Palmistry, which is reading one's palm.)

9. This term is a call back all the way to the beginning of the story, when Du Heng was labelled as an 二愣子 lit. "Second Idiot" for being the second son and an idiot.

10. 嫡系 refers to the disciples who are in the direct line of descent within the sect, who directly receive teachings from their master. These are the most prestigious disciples of a sect, compared to some other disciples who do not get direct teachings from their master or some who have not even been picked up by any master.

11. 诈尸 lit. "swindle/cheat/pretend + corpse" refers to the belief in Chinese folklore that a corpse holds a single residual breath of air. If this air is disturbed by an animal, the animal's soul will enter the corpse, and it will come back to "life" as a monster that only knows how to bite like a wild beast. In this context, I think 诈尸 is used as the superst.i.tious sudden movement of a corpse as it comes to "life".

12. 七窍生烟 lit. "spouting smoke through the seven orifices"

13. Jiang Xunyi specifically says "下盘", which is a term used in martial arts to refer to everything below the waist, especially the legs because they are the source of a martial artist's stability and generation of force.