LoCH BOOK 3

[kyss of the sword]

HYS martial arts probably improved over time too. Given the last chapter of LOCH, it seemed that HYS developed and refined his technique during HR's childhood.
GJ at this point is virtually unbeatable except by the greats/ZBT/QQR (very close) and he is only like 20s. Since HYS did not have 9Yin back in his 30s, his skill was probably comparable to GJ right now, and GJ right now is like top ten pugilists in the world (not counting random secret superpowers like sweeper monk's 10th generation disciple). So it makes sense to me that HYS can be one of the greats as early as his 30s. The question is what's up with the guys in their 40s and 50s back then? They must be quite bad in their martial arts...
Just my 2cents.

in roch, after HYS helped to heal YG, YG's vital energy flow was activated and he gave a loud yell that was heard for several li. HYS thought to himself that he achieved this level 10yrs later then YG (should be same for the other greats). since the greats were about 35 when they compeated at haushan, their level would have been YG from that point plus 5yrs of practise. roughly at ma yu inner level power with HR level skills. the greats trained hard after that and made a breakthrough, which i assume is not a gradually improvement of +5%increase of inner power and skills every year but a sudden increase to 1.5X of their previous level every year in the following 20yrs to the secound huashan tournament. (since a great is equal to seven QZ elders in a formation). the 'ordinary' first class fighters like lu yoajia are in the gradually improve with +5% each year type. way slower.
HR told GJ at the martial arts meet that at YG's age, GJ was not as good in martial arts. YG was between 18 to 19 then, and GJ was a level to a half level below qui qiren at age 19 to 20. GJ improved to being better then the greats about 14yrs later when YG was 12yrs old. but both of them should be about the same level at age 19yrs till YG got the snake gallbladders.

[morbiuz666]

there is a rating system wow, i must've been asleep all this while..

iirc, one of the reasons some of the greats became great are due to external sources, i.e. ingesting rare elixirs etc that gave them profoundly abundant energy for their age. one of them is a martial arts genius and coupled with instructions from a good master he managed to learn some truly profound arts. as for those who didn't fit either category, it's due to their martial arts being of highest level of external school, hence although their internal arts were less well developed they could still compete on a fairly level field, for awhile at least. during the first huashan swordmeet, in terms of internal arts WCY won but in terms of ingenuity, variations and lightskills, he was at par or even lower slightly compared to the other 4 greats. the main reason he ended up being custodian of the 9 yin manual was because of some backhall politicking north and south agreed to be in his camp and block west and east so no surprise he won.

both GJ and YG got the jump on the greats due to 1) rare substance abuse and 2) 9 yin manual. basically with just one factor they were already approaching the greats' level of achievement, but with both factors? definitely a shortcut to greatness. if you compare them both to ZBT after he also learned 9 Yin, all three would be nearly equal with ZBT having the advantage of higher internal arts due to length of cultivation time. fast forward two decades to LOCH and GJ was already at the same level. they both trained in QZ sects' internal arts and both knew 9 Yin, GJ was approaching his 30's then and ZBT was probably no more than 20 years his senior. of course, from this point on, the increase in cultivation level of both follows roughly the same curve so neither could really be said to have a true advantage over the other in a duel.

[foxs]

Good points everyone! However, I still think that our heroes advanced way too fast. Take Guo Jing for example; it was said that he was slow (compared to Yang Guo and Huang Rong who were so smart). Just because snake blood and 9 Yin Manual he suddenly reached level above Qiu Chuji et al? Please also remember that Yang Guo reached his level (mentioned by kyss of the sword) before the snake gallbladder episode. Take Zhang Wuji now, he reached his level as the formidable fighter only after 9 Yang Manual. I mean, those manuals are magical. I don't know how to say this, but I think our heroes just too fast (to reach their levels) and too powerful; it was like they were just lucky and not because of years of hard work.

PS: Huang Yushi and Morbiuz, thank you so much for your compliment. Now I am scared ... scared of failing you, so thank you very much!

PPS: I did not notice the rating until recently. Could it be that those disgruntled readers were the only ones giving their opinions? For instance, when I buy a book from Amazon.com, they want me to write a review. Sometimes I notice that only one or two people wrote reviews, and say, one person give 5 stars, the other only 2 stars, then the average will be 3.5 stars. Perhaps all of us need to bring the average rating back to 5 stars.

[Ren Wo Xing]

Wow, what idiots lowered the score on this translation? It's one of the best!

And Foxs, lol, it wouldn't be as interesting a story if we read about all the years of training

[Single Whip]

Good points everyone! However, I still think that our heroes advanced way too fast. Take Guo Jing for example; it was said that he was slow (compared to Yang Guo and Huang Rong who were so smart). Just because snake blood and 9 Yin Manual he suddenly reached level above Qiu Chuji et al? Please also remember that Yang Guo reached his level (mentioned by kyss of the sword) before the snake gallbladder episode. Take Zhang Wuji now, he reached his level as the formidable fighter only after 9 Yang Manual. I mean, those manuals are magical. I don't know how to say this, but I think our heroes just too fast (to reach their levels) and too powerful; it was like they were just lucky and not because of years of hard work.

I think talents plays into factor here too. If other people met the same circumstances as GJ or YG (snake bladder, obtained 9 Yin, etc) they may not be able to advance as much as them. After all, they are the heroes and have extraordinary talents. Its a case of the right person at the right circumstances.

[Huang Rong]

The stupid guy(s) who voted this thread down must be (an) anti_LOCH(s).
Let's just ignore that nonsense. Please keep up your excellent work, dear translators. I always appreciate your efforts.

[pannonian]

PPS: I did not notice the rating until recently. Could it be that those disgruntled readers were the only ones giving their opinions? For instance, when I buy a book from Amazon.com, they want me to write a review. Sometimes I notice that only one or two people wrote reviews, and say, one person give 5 stars, the other only 2 stars, then the average will be 3.5 stars. Perhaps all of us need to bring the average rating back to 5 stars.

I hadn't noticed there was a rating system until Demonic Swordsman mentioned it. I've just given it a 5 - is it possible to repeat vote?

[morbiuz666]

Good points everyone! However, I still think that our heroes advanced way too fast. Take Guo Jing for example; it was said that he was slow (compared to Yang Guo and Huang Rong who were so smart). Just because snake blood and 9 Yin Manual he suddenly reached level above Qiu Chuji et al? Please also remember that Yang Guo reached his level (mentioned by kyss of the sword) before the snake gallbladder episode. Take Zhang Wuji now, he reached his level as the formidable fighter only after 9 Yang Manual. I mean, those manuals are magical. I don't know how to say this, but I think our heroes just too fast (to reach their levels) and too powerful; it was like they were just lucky and not because of years of hard work.

yeah, the element of luck is very evident for these 3 guys. i guess jin yong probably felt only such circumstances + divine martial arts instruction would make a country bumpkin turn into a near great overnight?

PS: Huang Yushi and Morbiuz, thank you so much for your compliment. Now I am scared ... scared of failing you, so thank you very much!

hey, don't get your nice bushy fox tail up in a knot! we all enjoyed the translations, and personally, bad translation is still better than none! and since we now know of such high standards in this great undertaking, i for one will zip up and wait patiently.

[foxs]

And Foxs, lol, it wouldn't be as interesting a story if we read about all the years of training

Well, you know what I mean .. You are just giving me a hard time, aren't you?

WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILER - read at your own risk.
Anyway, ZWJ was the only hero without too much hard work to reach where he was; as Huang Rong mentioned (a little correction here: GJ was already considered one of the greats by the end of LoCH, although not officially; and he was only about 20 years old).
END OF SPOILER

Single Whip mentioned talent. Yang Guo was the only one described as 'smart'. GJ was slow, ZWJ was not explained explicitly.

My point is: because they were the heroes, then they were a lot better than everybody else by lucky incidents, almost magical.

and personally, bad translation is still better than none! and since we now know of such high standards in this great undertaking, i for one will zip up and wait patiently.

Oh, so it is OK to have a crummy translation, then ... Don't worry, I did not make a single mistake .... I made hundreds of them.

Seriously, we should thank our team of editors. One of the reasons I kept going was also knowing that they will catch and correct the mistakes, checking it against the original Chinese text, and even against the newest edition.

In that regard, I'd like to again call for help. We have the pdf of RoCH completed, chapter 1 to 40, complete with chapter pictures, captions, and fully edited. I've called for help in the past, but looks like it will be another "dead" project. I am not a web designer. Is there any of you would like to help? I don't need a fancy web, just simple html. I used to create the page using MS-FrontPage, but recently my ISP took that feature off. Please pm me, I will give you the details.

[Ren Wo Xing]

Hehe, yeah.

[wolfe]

Sigh... reading all about these heroes who after training becomes great makes me want to weep... especially when I'm also reading JinYong's most un-wuxia wuxia novel... dang Trinket..

[IcyFox]

Glad you guys are all having fun over here. I hope that means I can take my time.

Anyway, I'm now initiating the production stage, and I've got some other stuff on hand right now, like the Wuxia RPG in the Wuxia Fiction forum here, and other personal stuff, so the only thing I can promise right now is that the output here is going to be pretty slow.

Another thing is, I've already decided that this would be my last translation work, so I can either rush through it to give you (the readers) what you want, or I can do it at my own pace and do it well, or I can do both.

I shall choose the 2nd option to deliver a more refined piece at the expense of your waiting time, so I issue my apologies together with my last bow.

[JamesG]

It's hard to believe how innocent I was when said I was going to tackle editing ROCH for myself and got dragged into the whole project. I loved doing it and got well acquainted with the Foxes, Athena, rayon, Beedreamer and a very dedicated Bangs.
I knew tackling LOCH would be much harder [the first few chapters I mean] and anguished over whether or not I could force myself to do it. dgfds01 offered to join Bangs on the proof-reading team and that clinched it. [dgfds01 is like having one of Athena's senior acolytes on the team. ]
And so we 'soldier' on.

[IcyFox]

I've now started on LoCH Chapter 28, and the translation progress is proceeding as I forecasted. When ready I will release Chapter 28 here in 5 parts, and this time, if the translation rate can be kept more or less constant, I will start releasing the parts before the whole chapter is completed.

In short, if all goes as planned, I can start releasing the text as early as next week.

[IcyFox]

Chapter 28 - 1st Trailer


The staff flew like snow and Elder Jian...

(Huang Rong) laughed, "You use the staff, I use the stick. Let's have some fun..."


Coming Soon.

[foxs]

What happened to this thread? I thought I remember reading some posts about discussion on peach and fish and frogs ... Was I dreaming?

[Han Solo]

What happened to this thread? I thought I remember reading some posts about discussion on peach and fish and frogs ... Was I dreaming?

The discussions about ZWJ's internal energy development has been separated and moved to the wuxia fiction forum for further discusssions.

Han Solo

[foxs]

Oh, OK. Thanks for the reply. I suggest you post an announcement or something, with the link to such thread; since some of us do not read every single thread in this forum.

[odbayarb2000]

Chapter 28 - 1st Trailer


The staff flew like snow and Elder Jian...

(Huang Rong) laughed, "You use the staff, I use the stick. Let's have some fun..."


Coming Soon.

I am impatiently waiting for it .
Thanks for who translated it.
Is there any news about release date, at least some hints ?

[odbayarb2000]

Hi dear Wuxia Friends

I am new round here.

I do love wuxia fictions though I have watched few, read few and heard none.
I hail from different culture.

Condor trilogy is the most anticipated wuxia novel I have ever involved.
I am really appreciated for your high efforts on translating this wonderful awesome novel. I want to read more and more.

I have watched some TV adaptations of wuxia novels. They all awesome and watchable but can not be compared to reading the original novels.
Thanks Fox_ and others to giving me this chance.

I have read ROCH first. In ROCH , GJ is like chivalrous hero and so on. But When I found out that GJ was a dumb kid in LOCH. It was really funny , at the same time my respects toward him started to decline. Currently I am really don't like him. RH loves him wholeheartedly and willing to sacrifice everything. But he is way to slow and wooden. He is not hero anymore from my perspective.

My apologize for my bad English.