Jiang Ye (Before Night) by Mao Ni (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

[billybuton]

I think what the aequitas mean is the chapter it self not the translation.. but that's my opinion..
Thanks again for the new chapter...

[Aequitas]

I think what the aequitas mean is the chapter it self not the translation.. but that's my opinion..
Thanks again for the new chapter...

Yeah, I think that's what I meant xD

[XCarus]

Hey, thanks for the chapters and seems like u changed your mind about the names, thanks ;P.

On this line in chapter 10:
春时，无边落木萧萧下。
"In the spring time, countless (a line of poetry, don’t know how to translate)"
Here's a suggestion: "In spring, alone with the falling leaves."

Well, back to leeching!

[Grundle]

Please change the word "shank" to sheathe. A shank is a jailhouse knife made out of scrap metal, or a specific cut of meat. Thanks for the hard work.

[binggodude]

Chapter 11: The Sword that was Praised in Sadness

Perhaps the grey and dull handleless sword small sword heard the cry of the giant man and understood it fell into a trap. It started to vibrate violently in midair. The vibration caused a sharp and forceful sound wave to occur. It almost sounded like a screaming bird wanting to escape its cage.

The elder’s two hands were still on his knees and he glanced gently at the handleless small sword an inch away from his eyebrows. However that gentleness contained enormous power and tightly held the escaping sword in place.

Wherever the elder’s sight landed, the temperature there dropped rapidly. In a few moments there was a layer of frost on the body of the handleless sword. It started to shake and vibrate even harder, but there was no result from its effort.

After a long time of useless struggle, the handleless sword finally fell onto the ground on top of fallen leaves, almost like it lost its precious life force.

The moment when the handleless sword dropped onto the ground, somewhere in the dense forest of North Mountain, not far from the carriage formation, a painful moan was heard.

Finally a trace of relaxation appeared in the calm pupils of the elder. Two hands supported by the knee, his entire fragile body lift off like wind and landed in front of that giant man.

The man shouted and struck the elder with his fan-like hands. The momentum was not to be ignored. The force was similar to that of a mountain landing on top of the thin body of the elder.
Just when it looked like the elder was going to be crushed to pieces by the two giant hands, the elder looked at the incoming palms expressionless. His dried lips opened slightly and a soundless tone came out. His hands, which were full of dust, crossed each other in front of his body and made a sign.

Following the soundless tone and hand sign, the dirty old robe on elder’s body suddenly became rock and persistent. Every wrinkle of the rag disappeared. From the looks of it, the elder was not wearing the robe, but rather the robe supporting his fragile body.

The giant palms stopped. It kept on trembling in the air on top of the elder’s head, but the giant man could not land the hit. The movement of other body parts of the giant man also slowed down. His neck started to shake and his body cried out blood. It was clear that the giant man was in unimaginable pain.

The elder’s face was sickly white. He was struggling as well. He raised his right arm with all his might and pushed onto the giant man’s chest slowly.

The giant man saw the elder’ hands approaching inch by inch, but he could do nothing to stop the action. It seemed like he was forced to by a magical force that restricted his movements.

The elder’s hand landed on the giant man’s chest quietly.

Strong wind suddenly shot forth from the hands of the elder and went straight through the chest of the giant man. With a cracking sound, the rock hard chest was fractured and damaged. The entire surface of the chest sank and caved inward.

Using the opposite force of the speeding wind, elder backed off quickly. The wind of forest blew onto the robe and lifted slightly. The elder retreated back into the carriage and sat down cross-legged once more.

The attack only lasted for a few moments but the elder’s intrusion and retreat was quick and traceless. His hands were on his knees and his robe turned shabby again, almost seemed like he had not moved from his original state from the beginning.

The giant man in the depth of dense forest of North Mountain finally regained control over his body. The palms that had not landed on the elder finally moved and crushed the earth, creating a large hole on the mud and fallen leaves. Yet it was all too late, he looked at his bloody chest. cried out a regretful cry and finally crashed into the ground like a mountain.

The elder who sat crosslegged in the carriage glanced at the location. He bent his body forward and started coughing repeatedly. Some red dots could be seen on his robe after the coughing had ended.

The guards used the knife formation and fought with the handleless sword bravely to create some time for the elder. The elder used this precious time to calculate and capture the hidden spot of the enemy Great Sword Master and used the handleless sword as a bridge to activate his psychic power and damaged the opponent. In doing so, the elder was also weakened due to overuse of his abilities.

When he flew to the opening in the North Mountain and killed the giant man with his hands, the action was extremely risky. Although the attack seemed simple and easy, the risk it carried was also great. His psychic power stored in his Mountain of Qi was drained and he became exhausted.

At least the ending was certain.

The fight at the entry to the way of North Mountain was already over. The barbarians from Great Plain demonstrated their loyalty, courage, and battle skill in the fight. The slightly curved knives slayed all of the opponent assassins, although they pay an extremely big cost. The fortunate survivors seemed to have bathed in blood and to have no energy left to stand.

The number who survived and were able to stand were even fewer.

The elder gave a complicated look at a tree not much far away.

Night arrived, the entrance to the way of North Mountain was silent. This tree’s barks fell off piece by piece. Like a man ageing in a short time, unfortunatly flecks appeared, and a body showed sign of collapse and decay.

A middle aged scholar wearing green long gown slowly walked out from the back of the tree. He carried an empty circular sheath on his back. He was good looking, even though his age was a bit old, but if he was on the Gaily-painted Pleasure-boat in Chang An, he could be depicted as “handsome.”

However his face now could not be called “handsome” at all. Countless tiny blood drops penetrated out from the pores on his face and hands. Painted him into a scary looking blood man. His green long gown was also permeated by blood. It could be inferred that the body covered by the long gown was also bloody, just like his face and hands.

The mid-aged scholar lifted his sleeve to wipe off the blood and sweat on his eyebrow. He looked at the elder standing by the wagon and looked at the empty sheath. He lowered his voice and sighed, “One miscalculation and the whole plan was ruined. Named guest of South Gate of Great Sky Way, Lu Qing Chen, actually….discarded swordsmanship but Xiu Xing Psychism. If this news was spreaded out, can’t imagine how many people would feel surprised.”

Remained silent for a moment, he then sighed, “The most surprising thing was that, you are already very old, yet you successfully went into the Seethrough stage*, was there any mysterious techniques in the Great Sky Way?”

The elder, called Lu Qing Chen, answered mildly, “I followed Princess to the north for a year. On the Great Plain, I saw different landscape, different culture, my insight was stimulated, therefore I went up a stage. There was actually nothing to do with the Xiu Xing method of Great Sky Way.”

Hearing this unexpected explanation, the mid-aged scholar was dumbfounded for a while and seemed to have gained a realization. After remaining silent for a really long time, he looked at the head of the guards, who was half-kneeled on the fallen leaves, and said with an extremely serious tone,

“Since I became a Great Sword Master, I had thought that secular power could no longer stop me, but today you and your subordinates gave me a good lecture.”

The mid-aged Scholar made an obeisance by cupping one hand in the other before his chest to the heavily wounded guards. “You brave and fearless soldiers are Tang’s pride.”

The head of guards slightly nodded his head but did not say a single word.

“There are not many Great Sword Masters in Chang An, yet I don’t know you.” The old man Lu Qing Chen looked at the bloody mid-aged scholar “The Academy is really a great place of talents.”

Hearing the word “Academy,” the survivors on the way of North Mountain, couldn’t help but exhibit confusions and surprises. Was this murder actually related to the respectable and holy Academy?

Ning Que involuntarily looked toward the maid, seeing that her face showed some complex expression, but obviously it was not trust.

The mid-aged scholar was surprised again, shaking his head and said sadly, “I didn’t know that you could tell my origin. However, I am not daring to bring shame to the Academy…...I am only a dumb student expelled from the Academy.”

His body was covered entirely by blood and was shaking, seemed to fall at any moment. Yet facing only one such enemy, the barbarians and guards who survived all felt very tense, treating him as the hardest obstacle ever.

Ning Que also felt very nervous, but he felt more excited and restrained.

He lived in Wei City for many years. He studied Extreme Sense for many years and imagined about these elites based on the legends he heard for many years. Yet today at the entry to the way of North Mountain was his first time in his life seeing a real fight between the elites.

He heard that the Tang’s generals each had his own powerful methods, yet the frontier was peaceful for many years. He, a small unknown soldier at the frontier, had no chance to see such fight on the battlefield.

Handleless sword flying between the fallen leaves in air, giant people pulling out mountain and throwing rocks to destroy carriage, Psychic Power moving freely as eyes closed, and damaging people through space. These extremely inconceivable and mysterious things happened one by one in a really short amount of time, causing to shake with excitement.

When academy, expel, dumb student entered his ear, he felt calm but at the same time his blood froze.

A dumb student expelled from Academy, by using only a dark handleless sword, could kill almost ten Tang’s strongest guards. Then a real student from Academy, would possess how much unimaginable power?

“He was probably Xia Hou’s subordinate.” The maid said coldly..

Hearing the words “Xia Hou,” Ning Que’s body became a little stiff. After several seconds it calmed down, but his look toward the people turned from previously applause into cold calculation and evaluation.

“You practice Hao Ran sword art, so it’s not that hard to guess that you are from the Academy.”

Lu Qing Chen said, “But unfortunately, you did not learn much from the 2nd Floor before you got expelled from the Academy. The startup of your sword had some thunder and wind force, but you forced the force to become strange and secretive.”

“Hao Ran Qi was emphasized on candid, straight and nonstop, but you went into a wrong direction. This mistake is so major that even if you encountered me twenty years ago, when I was still young, even if I did not get to the Seethrough stage, you would of still lost to me.”

The mid-aged scholar looked down and smiled. The smile appearing on his bloody face made him look very dismal.

As a Great Sword Master who already entered Seethrough, this mid-aged scholar accepted someone’s invite and came to assassinate the princess. After he knew the elder’s strength, he thought that it would be a simple thing.

However, the people who gave him intelligence did not know that the old man already got into Seethrough on the Great Plain. More surprisingly, this man from South Gate of the Great Sky Way chose to discard sword and become a Psychic Master instead.
Even so, he still had some chances to winning. Yet this Great Sword Master did not know that, these Tang’s guards would cause so much trouble for him, allowing Lu Qing Chen to see his position.

Letting the opponent, especially a Psychic Master, within the same stage, to find out about his position was a really dangerous thing. Lu Qing Chen first controlled his sword shadow, then used the handleless sword as a bridge conducting Psychic Power to hurt him. Facing the Psychic Master who was fastest at attacking, he had no way to react, letting the opponent Psychic Power assaulting both his Sea of Soul and Mountain of Qi, and fragmenting all of his inner organs.
Today he was destined to die at the entry to the way of North Mountain. He did not care about the old man’s evaluations at all. However, even if he had to die, he still had to finish something.


* Seethrough Stage- Stage or tier of xiu xing its the fourth stage above the preliminary stage
** Sea of Soul- The area where the soul force (which is different type of force from the Qi) is kept
*** Mountain of Qi- The area in the body where the qi is kept.

[binggodude]

Chapter 12: Broken Finger and Thundering Arrow

Once Lu Qing Chen finished his sentence, he began to cough drastically again.

In secular people’s imagination, Psychic Masters are the most mysterious. However, only the Psych Masters themselves know that, the seemingly miraculous Psychic Power was actually a double edged sword. While it attacked the enemies, it would deal a lot of damage to their own Sea of Soul or even flesh.

He glanced at the corpse of the giant man, thinking how Tang would lose some of its precious elites due to this battle. He couldn't help but feel unfortunate and sad. He shook his head and sighed,

“Even though Tang had many experts, but there were not that many Great Sword Masters. You have such great power, and you are from the Academy. You should have worked hard to help the nation, but why would you work for the traitors?”

“Traitor? What is a traitor? Master Qing Chen,you were from the Great Sky Way. You should have known the prophecy from the Sky Seeking Court* was being wiped out : Night covers the stars, the nation would soon become chaotic!”

Based on the guards’ facial expressions, the mid-aged scholar had already realized that the target of this assassination was not in the wagon. The woman died before was only a scapegoat. He looked at the luxurious wagon that had already became trash.

“I don’t care about what General Xia Hou was thinking at all. I only know that we have the same goal. That is, to kill the woman in your group!”

Lu Qing Chen remembered the Sky Seeking Court Event that caused huge influences from more than ten years ago. He remained silent for a while, shook his head and said, “The Academy’s spirit proposed is to disregard fate, I am from the Great Sky Way. Yet even I don’t believe in such prophecy, you have no need to believe in it at all.”

“I followed the Princess for four years already, I had never considered her as the person the prophecy talked about.”

After hearing this secret that the lower class people would never know, Ning Que faintly understood why the Princess had insisted to marry the Chief in the Great Plain, and why the Emperor would actually agree.

After thinking of this, he couldn’t help but turn his head around, seeing that pretty maid getting an angry and cold face.

The mid-aged scholar slowly held back all his facial expressions and stopped replying to Lu Qing Chen. Instead, he closed his eyes and took a deep breathe. As he inhaled, the fallen leaves surrounded him started to flow around him.

“What else do you want to do?”

The old man Lu Qing Chen frowned as he stared at him. “I waited for you for seventy seven seconds. During that time you still could not regulate your pranayama** successfully, showing that your inner organs were already broken, and your Sea of Qi was destroyed, plus your natal sword is useless now. Now, you can’t even beat a regular soldier. Don’t you want to have a calm moment before death?”

In common people’s heart, no matter Sword Master or Psychic Master, these Xiu Xingist all are very mysterious. Some non-educated people even believe that those powerful Xiu Xingists can no longer die. Therefore even though they saw the mid-aged scholar was about to die, the heavily wounded Great Plain barbarians and guards were still not daring to loosen their guard.

Until they heard what Lu Qing Chen said, they eventually realized that the terrifying Great Sword Master really could not fight anymore. Suddenly, they began to relax due to fatigue and wounds.

Only Ning Que still remained cautious. Since the beginning of the battle, he hid like a quail inside the fallen trees, staring at the bloody mid-aged scholar. He held the bow and arrow and moved slowly, seeking the best position to shoot.

Tang Empire valued pride over life. No matter educated or illiterate, everyone favored reputation. In their point of view, when the enemy fought hard and was about to die, he should earn the respect corresponding to his strength and status.

At this moment, the person about to die was a respectable Great Sword Master, so the head of guards would nod back as a courtesy. Even though the opponent killed many of his loyal subordinates, Lu Qing Chen would talk with him and explain the puzzles, allowing him to complete his last word or give his last request.

Ning Que was never a typical Tang civilian.

He values reputation, but he insists that reputation is not his life. He never believes that there is anything more important than life in the world. Even if there is, it will not be reputation.

He is just a little soldier on the frontier. He did not understand the way the strong Xiu Xingists fought, and today was his first time seeing such fight.

However, today this Great Sword Master became his enemy, then he would keep remaining cautious, getting ready to kill the opponent at any time using any method.

He had a harsh vagrant life since he was very young. In the frontier, he was living on the borderline of dead because he had to fight with the barbarians. From these experiences, he formed a ingrained understanding: ‘Only the dead enemies are safe enemies, and good enemies.’ And only at that time would he probably take off his hat, and stare at the enemies’ corpses to show some respect.

At this point, a strange event suddenly happened, or, happened as he expected.

The fallen leaves by the tree flow quickly, the mid-aged scholar’s long gown suddenly became swollen, and bloods came out of his five sense organs. It seems like there was a horrifying invisible power flowing from the fallen trees into his body, pushing out his own power with the flow of blood.

“Absorb the universe inside!”

Seeing this, Lu Qing Chen’s mood suddenly changed. He looked at the mid-aged scholar and criticized at him angrily, “The student from the Academy uses Satanic technique? You...you dare to betray your mentor and ancestor!”

Although the battle in the opening of North Mountain was dangerous and intense, the elder did not change his expressions even a tiny bit. In Tang’s culture, if there was a battle, then death from defeat or glory from victory were common. Killing was not frowned upon when the reasons were legitimate. However when he discovered that the middled age scholar used self-destructing techniques from Satanism, he finally shown his hidden rage.

“If I walk on a righteous path, why would I be afraid to use Satanism techniques,” The scholar raised his hand slowly, and pointed at the elder sitting on the side of the carriage, and said indifferently, “If this is damnation, then let me be damned into the Underworld and can never reincarnate for eternity.”

The moment he finished speaking, a cut appeared at the bottom of his index finger from
his right hand. The cut was so deep the bones inside were showing slightly. Hearing his painful moan, the finger bursted from the hand and accelerated rapidly into a bloody shadow, aiming straight towards Lu Qing Chen’s forehead.

Containing the qi of nature inside his body and molding his body into a natal sword, then compress all of his qi and life force into one strike was a most classic Satanism technique!

The elder named Lu Qing Chen was the strongest person in the party escorting the princess. He was a very important part of the group especially in this situation where all of the barbarian soldiers and Tang guards were badly wounded or dead. If he was going to be killed by this broken finger, then who was able to defend against a deadly strike from a dying Great Sword Master?

Two barbarian guards rushed towards the middle aged scholar shouting, but they quickly fell onto the fallen leaves after two steps. The curvy knives in their hands also slipped out of their hand when they crushed into the ground.

The leader of the guard was crawling on the ground, which was flowing with blood. There was a crossbow next to a dead guard not far away from him. Although he struggled with his life to obtain the crossbow, he was still too slow. Even if he successfully got the weapon, Lu Qing Chen was too weak and exhausted to save himself from the strike of the broken finger.

In the dark and gloomy entrance to the north mountain, no one expected that a Great Sword Master from the Academy will use Satanism techniques. No one was prepared for this. The ending seemed to be clear - the elder will be killed by the Great Sword Master and the whole team will be slaughtered.

But Ning Que was prepared.

He prepared for a long time.

When the scholar spoke indifferently of his Satanism, Ning Que was not scared or angry. He cautiously watched every movement and action of the enemy and quietly moved his body, finding the perfect position.

When the middle aged scholar started to absorb the qi of nature into his body, the fallen leaves were flying and swirling in the air with the flow of qi. Using the leaves as camouflage, Ning Que stood up and aimed his bow at the opponent and pulled the bowstring.

Exerting force from his right arm and waist, he violently pulled out the bowstring. Just like a full moon, the soft but enduring bowstring stored tremendously force and let out a buzz. The arrow on the string was like a snake, it vibrated slightly but quickly rested its body, preparing for its deadly attack.

When the broken finger of the middle aged scholar flew towards the elder, Ning Que released his index and middle finger. The bowstring bounced back rapidly and an arrow shot out like a lighting, piercing through multiple falling leaves and went straight toward someone’s chest.

Weng weng weng!

The bowstring vibrated violently. The black arrow flew into the air like dark lighting and pierced through the falling leaves and tear the night sky apart. Just before the Great Sword Master’s broken finger landed its hit on the elder’s forehead, the arrow shot into the scholar’s chest.

The flesh and body of xiuxingist were not much stronger than regular people. Especially xiuxingists like swordmasters, psychic masters, and charmist. Their bodies became really weak due to long periods of meditation; therefore they need to focus on close range defenses. Besides loyal guards defending their sides, these xiuxingists also wear light armor inside their robes in case of ambushes from assassins.

In the last moment of his life, this Great Sword Master from the Academy did not hesitate to use Satanism techniques to kill the strongest Psychic Master of the enemy. It was clear that his mind was determined to accomplish his goal, that’s why when he noticed that someone was using a bow to sneak attack him, he didn’t do anything to stop the person.

There was only lakes formed by the qi of nature in his sea of soul. The broken finger was like a black line surfing on a dangerous wave, struggling to advance further. The scholar needed to focus all of his spiritual force on the broken finger to successfully land the strike on the elder. He did not allow himself to be distracted by anything, even if it was a killing blow from a cold arrow.

Plus there was a protective light armor beneath his green robe, he believed that the arrow shot out of nowhere has no ability to kill him from such a long distance.

“Pu”, with a quiet sound, the arrow stuck into his chest and the arrowhead rotated with a much faster speed than a regular arrow. The sharp arrowhead teared the green robe apart in an instant and squeezed into the small openings of the light armor.

The arrow was in the flesh of the Great Sword Master, and blood are flowing out of it.

But the middle aged scholar did not care, he did not even lower his head to look at his wound. The tiny blood drops on his forehead came together to form a stream and flowed towards his eyebrows.

Having an arrow in his body was painful, but he did not die from it, so what?

But Ning Que shot more than one arrow...



* Sky Seeking Court- a place in the capital where the people try to predict the future reading stars
** pranayama- meditation to smooth out ur breathing a yoga technique

[Catahn]

Wow you've practically caught up with the Manhua! Thank you for the doule chapters Binggodude!

[Joval Pasam]

thanks for the dou chapter binggodude....

[billybuton]

Wow.. double chapter...
You're Da Man...
Thanks for all the hard work...

[Laoren]

Aw.......cliffhanger......please don't keep us hanging for too long.
Thanks binggodude

[Aequitas]

Mmmm Ning Que so godlike~ I look forward to your group's translations so much

[Xīxuè]

Binggodude, how many chapters does each volume have?
I want to ask because I saw in mangaupdates that the novel has 5 volumes.

[binggodude]

Binggodude, how many chapters does each volume have?
I want to ask because I saw in mangaupdates that the novel has 5 volumes.

There is like above 250 chatpers PER VOLUME... YEA its onl 5 volumes but REALLY LONG VOLUMES

[Catahn]

There is like above 250 chatpers PER VOLUME... YEA its onl 5 volumes but REALLY LONG VOLUMES

That is insane. How many pages is that for a volume?

[Xīxuè]

So all in all about more than 1250 chapters? Damn awesome!

[C a t]

The Cat believes this story is underrated and deserves more views and the cat bows to the translator for their work

[Anh Nam]

Thanks binggodude

[binggodude]

That is insane. How many pages is that for a volume?

Well i only have the web site chapters not the actual book so i can't tell. Also Chinese use condense wording system unlike english so you can't really proportionalize it. but my friends were kinda traumatized to translate the book bc of the length of one volume.

ALSO GUYS there won't be a chapter posted today because one of them needed to take care of buisness out town so this is also a heads up message.

[kai9004]

Thanks for the chapter binggodude

[binggodude]

Gonna be a double chapter tomorrow one at my lunch time period in school. Sorry guys no chapter today. Tomorrow at noon my time i will put up chapter 13 and night tomorrow chap 14. The guy same guy had a sudden outside night dinner which he didn't expcet from his family. So yea.... Sorry for the problem.