Junny, you are absolutely right. And so are you, Sniffles and Athlon. It is a matter of getting the western readers to get used to these terms. But as I said earlier, if we don't start now, then who is going to start? I wish there is an 'Idiot's guide to wuxia' or 'Wuxia for dummies'. I am thinking of starting a thread with a compilation of wuxia terms, but I wish there is a way that everybody can edit (much like wikipedia), but I don't know if I would ever get the time to do that.
Athlon, you are not talking about 'half a day', are you?
I was not born and raised as an English speaker (not a Chinese speaker either), but to me, 'half a day' makes sense, much like 'a thousand words' or 'telling you a million times'. In my opinion, fiction writers tend to use hyperbole a lot. Perhaps just like you, my background is technical, but in reading (and translating) fictions, I threw all 'technicality' to the wind.
When I encountered difficult passage that I am not able to translate, I usually translate it literally (albeit not making any sense) with a footnote, explaining and apologizing for my limitation.