Totem (图腾) by 油炸包子 (Deep-fried Stuffed Bun)

[unis777]

Hello!
I will be translating a web novel by the name of Totem (图腾) by 油炸包子 (Deep-fried Stuffed Bun). Chapters are around ~6100 Chinese characters each (I did not think this through O_O), so it'll take a while for chapters to be released. It's complete at 275 chapters (looong chapters though..). I will be posting the first 5 chapters here, then simply post the links to my website later on. My site: https://ceruleonice.wordpress.com/

(As the chapters are supeeerrr long, I have decided to post chapters on my site in two parts. Only after the whole chapter is completed will I post here.)

Here is the synopsis:

This is a world of totems. Here, people believe that power is derived naturally from all of nature: fire, earth, numemon (TL: I don’t even know), wolves, the Twelve-Winged Golden-Eyed Dragon King, even going so far as saying that humans themselves… as long as they are naturally formed, can communicate with this power and summon it as their own “faith totem”. Jiang Nan, an anatomy professor on earth, the kind of unfortunate man who doesn’t even deserve to find a woman in his life, has come to this world.


Ranking System:


The way of totems consists of 3 stages of 9 ranks of 81 levels. The 1st stage, Totem Warrior phase, which is divided into primary-rank Totem Warrior, intermediate-rank Totem Warrior, and superior-rank Totem Warrior for a total of 3 ranks, with each rank consisting of 9 levels. The 2nd stage, Totem Master phase, which is divided into primary-rank Totem Master, intermediate-rank Totem Master, and superior-rank Totem Master for a total of 3 ranks, each consisting of 9 levels. The 3rd stage, Totem King phase, again divided into primary-rank, intermediate-rank, and superior-rank Totem King, each rank consisting of 9 levels.
(Ps: At present, I’ll use Wei Ke Duo as an example. The strength of his faith wolf is in the 1st stage, at the 9th level of a primary-rank Totem Warrior. Basically, it’s ‘Primary-rank 9th level Wolf Totem Warrior’. – author)

I'm not exactly very fluent in Chinese... so any feedback is appreciated, and you have been warned. Have fun reading!

[unis777]

Chapter 1! Here: https://ceruleonice.wordpress.com/totem/chapter-1/

Note: first few chapters are always slow going, just fyi (don't be thrown off)

Chapter 1: Twenty-Seven Seconds, You Deserve to Be Incapable of Finding a Girlfriend!

Early morning, Paris Medical University, Human Anatomy Class.

“Protest, we must protest! The administrative office actually arranged a twenty-six year old professor for us. This is an insult to us!”

On the platform, an old man with two patches of graying hair on either side of his head shouted animatedly as he waved his arms.

This old man’s name was Dandy* (dān dí), and he was the headmaster of a third-rate medical university, as well as a famous scholar of human anatomy.
(TL note* I don’t even knowww; diminutive of the name Andrew)

Not long ago, Dandy had received an invitation from the Paris Medical University. On it, it read, “Headmaster Dandy, in the past few years, upon looking over the field of human anatomy, I’ve had a breakthrough in research. As such, I have specially established a class for advanced studies. If you are interested, please inform me by December 1st!”

Dandy was a bit displeased. To let a headmaster go and become a student, wasn’t this just bullying people?

However, Paris Medical University was the world’s best among first-rate medical institutions, and they were especially known for their academic program on human anatomy. Dandy felt that if he didn’t go, wouldn’t his fellow colleagues and peers of the same field think him unreasonable? Would the professors at Paris Medical University consider it as him not giving them face?

Following this train of thought, Dandy ultimately attended with extreme reluctance!

But then, when he went into the classroom, once Dandy saw the identities of all his other classmates, the grumpiness in his heart immediately vanished into thin air, and he instead got excited to the point that he couldn’t contain himself!

God, this advanced studies class only has thirty-six students: thirty-six people, twenty of them chairmen, twelve of them headmasters, three of them that enjoyed the reputation of an international anatomic authority, and the final one was amazingly the recipient of last year’s Nobel Prize in medical physiology!

This classroom was clearly only for the expert scholars and specialists to study!

To be able to become a classmate with so many prominent and distinguished people… face, face!

“Greetings, fellow students!”

Right at this moment, Dandy heard a voice resonate through the air, and lifting his head, he saw that it came from two educational assistants that walked in.

One assistant pushed a portable dissection table, and on it was placed two adult male cadavers. “Fellow students, this is anatomic subject we will be using for this class. Please pay close attention: this one is a thirty-six year old who died in a traffic accident, while the other is a twenty-eight year old who died from swine flu…”

The other assistant carried a stack of blue-bound booklets and handed it out one by one, “Fellow students, within this blue-bound booklet is a brief introduction of the professors for this term’s advanced studies class. To better learn the curriculum, we ask that all esteemed guests read it thoroughly and understand your instructors in advance…”

The main show has arrived!

To be qualified to teach so many scholarly authorities and experts, exactly what kind of person was this new instructor?

Dandy was incomparably curious, and reverently opened the blue-bound booklet to the first page…

“This term’s advanced studies class instructor, Head Professor You Jiang Nan: Jiang Nan, Chinese nationality, twenty-six years old…”

Reading up to here, Dandy’s expression changed, “What is the meaning of this? The educational administrative office actually arranged for a twenty-six year old instructor? Could it be that they have no knowledge of our identity? We’re professors, chairmen, headmasters, and one of us is even a Nobel Prize winner!”

“This is ridiculous, absurd! I’m already sixty-eight years old this year. I definitely cannot accept a twenty-six year old instructor!”

Another expert also stood up, and with a “bang” that booklet slammed onto the floor. “What kind of medical accomplishments can a youth of twenty-six years achieve? How much ability could he have to educate us?! Absurd, too absurd!”

Other self-confident experts, although they didn’t voice their objections, also revealed extremely unsightly expressions!

When Dandy saw that his voice of protest had unexpectedly lead a group of seven or eight other experts to echo him, he immediately grew hot-blooded and rushed onto the rostrum, “Fellow scholars, fellow seniors, originally I didn’t even have the qualifications to address you. But this time, the educational administrative office has truly gone too far! We must raise a protest! Furthermore, we should also send a proposal to the educational administrative office to make this Professor Jiang Nan youth to beat it! Who’s with me?”

“I’m in!”

“Count me in as well! Ai, this is simply too outrageous!”

The atmosphere in the classroom immediately reached a boiling point, and the two assistants exchanged a glance and laughed bitterly, “What should we do? Based on the identities of these long-time specialists, they are completely qualified to raise a protest, and are also completely qualified to drive this Professor Jiang Nan out…”

“What can we even do? I’m going to go look for Professor Jiang!”

One assistant already felt that the circumstances were already out of his control, and stealthily slipped out of the classroom.

However, right as he went out the door, he saw a glasses-wearing youth leaning against the wall, on one hand gently cleaning a cane, and on the other calmly laughing…

“Professor Jiang, you*, you’ve already arrived?”

*addressing in a more formal, respectful manner

God, since you actually came, why didn’t you go in? The assistant hastily said: “Professor Jiang, hurry up and go in to take a look. The mood of those scholarly experts is already…”

“Calm down, calm down!”

The youth continued to clean the cane. Only until there wasn’t even a speck of dust left did he take his sweet time to reach the classroom entrance, “Alright, I’ll go settle them down.”

The assistant sighed and anxiously said: “Professor Jiang, be extra careful. The identity of these long-time specialists are in no way similar to those commonly seen. Don’t offend them by any means…”

The youth was already about to push the door open, but turned and laughed at the assistant’s words, “Mister, do you know why?”

“Huh?”

“Why I can become a professor at just twenty-six years old, while *you, who are already thirty-two years old is still only an assistant?”
(*formal)

“This… please advise me.”

“Because in my perspective, those so-called specialists and authorities are meant to be offended, are meant to be surpassed, are meant to be conquered! Do you understand now?”

……

“Esteemed seniors, good morning!”

Jiang Nan pushed open the classroom door, walked onto the rostrum and spread his arms wide, “Let me give a brief introduction of myself, Jiang Nan. You may call me Professor Jiang, or Teacher Jiang!”

In that split second, the whole classroom went silent.

The specialists all measured this ‘Jiang Nan’ with suspicion, thinking, this is Jiang Nan? What refined and elegant bearing, what a perfect smile…

However, no matter how good his outward appearance, it did not hide the fact that he was only twenty-six years old!

Jiang Nan must be driven out!

Jiang Nan measured and took into consideration all the expressions of the specialists before him. Without even giving them a chance to speak, he used his cane and *waved it at his ear, “Alright. Everyone’s identities, everyone’s dissatisfactions, I’ve already heard it from the outside! Esteemed elders, you believe… that I am not capable of educating you all, is that correct?”
(*就用手杖拨了拨自己的耳朵 raw because I’m unsure, but I’m assuming he’s signalling them to be quiet because he’s already heard enough)

The specialists shared mutual glances between themselves, and finally Dandy stood up, “Correct, we believe that you don’t have the qualifications to educate us!”

“But, my qualifications, my capabilities… just because you’ve assumed so… does it mean it’s correct?”

Dandy was stumped.

“Alright. Esteemed elders, I will give you all an opportunity, an opportunity to authenticate my capabilities: this class’ originally planned curriculum is canceled. Within the period of one class, just within the anatomy category, you all may challenge any aspect of my abilities! If I fail, then you all won’t have to send a proposal to the administrative office. I will take the initiative to leave. But, if within your group none of you can prevail over me…”

Jiang Nan shook his head and laughed, no longer continuing to speak further, but those scholarly experts were able to understand the implied meaning, “If even your assembled group of thirty-six of the world’s most outstanding anatomy experts still can’t prevail over me, then please willingly and genuinely attend class, and sincerely call me… Teacher Jiang!”

Jiang Nan just sat beside the cadavers, “Right now, who wishes to be the first to challenge me?”

The scholarly experts suddenly began to hesitate. It’s not that they were afraid of losing, but based on their identity and status, to go and challenge a twenty-six year old youth…

Was shameful!

After a long while, Dandy hastily put himself out in front of all the other experts, striding to stand before the dissecting platform, “This youngster who doesn’t know how high the heavens are and how profound the earth is, I, Headmaster Dandy of Sofia Medical University, have come to give you a lesson!”

Jiang Nan chuckled, saying: “Elder, what aspect of my ability do you wish to challenge?”

“As everybody knows, the speed at which one dissects a cadaver symbolizes the degree of understand an anatomy specialist has towards the structure of the human body. More importantly, it indicates the standard of anatomical experts. Jiang Nan, I will compete in dissection speed with you!”

Dandy grabbed a scalpel from the platform and took out a stopwatch, declaring arrogantly: “I don’t know how long you need to completely dissect a cadaver, but I only need three minutes! Jiang Nan, do you dare to compete with me?”

“I’ve already said, I will accept any kind of challenge.” Jiang Nan shrugged.

“Alright, then I’ll start timing now!”

Dandi used one hand to start the stopwatch to time it by seconds and brandished the scalpel with the other. Like lightning, he used the scalpel and pierced into the chest area of the cadaver!

The eyes of the rest of the specialists all revealed a sort of excitement!

Completely dissecting a cadaver wasn’t just an average person’s understanding of ‘cutting a corpse to pieces’, as if ‘killing a pig then skinning and deboning it’ only.

A fully intact human body consisted of tens of complicated groupings and systems——the heart, the brain, the skeleton… Only by removing these organs and body parts and categorizing them into groups on the dissecting platform, while making sure that each individual organ was a single entity within the group, would this be considered a ‘complete dissection’!

Dandy’s boasting of only having to take three minutes, if he didn’t lie, then his understanding of the human body structure had already reached the level of ‘knowing it like the back of his hand’. As such, he would have no qualms in identifying himself as a ‘scholarly authority’ in regards to anatomy!

Jiang Nan faintly chuckled as he observed Dandy’s dissecting technique, then suddenly asked: “Elder, if my dissecting speed is slower than yours, then I’ll naturally excuse myself. But… what if yours is slower than mine?”

Dandy momentarily blanked out, then snorted: “If I’m slower than you, then from this day forward, no matter where I am or what situation I am in, I will refer to you as ‘honored teacher’!”

Jiang Nan laughed in satisfaction and moved to one side of the other cadaver, slowly extending out his cane…

Click! The cane split apart, and a set of master craftsman dissecting tools unexpectedly appeared!

“Good heavens, this is…”

The experts stood dumbstruck, and some even leaked expressions of greed. To an anatomy specialist, this cane was an absolutely priceless treasure!

“Esteemed elders, although the person who gifted this cane to me stated that this cane was supposedly constructed from a meteorite fallen from the heavens and conceals seventy-two different types of dissecting tools, and is truly marvelous beyond compare, can you all temporarily forget its quality please? That is because… I am about to begin dissecting!”

Jiang Nan attracted everyone’s gazes, then beamed as he looked at Dandy, “This esteemed elder said that he only needed three minutes to completely dissect a cadaver, which is very good. I am very content to fulfill the role of his instructor. But… to completely dissect a cadaver, I only need twenty-seven seconds!”

Only twenty-seven seconds to perform a complete dissection?!

The specialists exploded into an uproar, “Preposterous, this is absolutely impossible!”

“You all think it is ludicrous, impossible? But I only want to say this——that none of you understand doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist!”

Suddenly, Jiang Nan lightly flicked his cane, and an exquisitely sharp scalpel jumped into the palm of his hand as he spun and pierced it into the cadaver’s throat!

“Esteemed elders, how many of China’s historical anecdotes do you know and understand? Have you heard of a story by the name of ‘*Butcher Ding’s Bull Dismembering’?”

(*TL: It’s a fable, but I can’t seem to find any English translation of it, and I’m much too lazy to translate it. Anyways, it’s basically equivalent to skilled and magical craftsmanship, and being able to control your hand any way you want and understanding the object of craftsmanship to an unimaginable level.)

As he dissected, Jiang Nan also fixed his gaze on the group of scholarly authorities, his sudden words seeming as though they had no relevance.

One specialist muttered: “It’s a really famous story. It was said that Butcher Ding was able to dismember an ox in just ten some seconds.”

“If you take the concept of ‘Butcher Ding’s Bull Dismembering’ and apply it to dissecting a human body, could one completely dismember a human body?”

The specialist was stunned, “Could it be… that you are capable of Butcher Ding’s technique?!”

Jiang Nan laughed and didn’t answer him, “I’ll ask you another question, have you all heard of ‘interlocking blade’?”

“Nonsense! Interlocking blade is the fast dissecting technique in Western anatomy, of course we know! However, the interlocking blade technique has been long since lost in transmission!”

“Who said it’s been long lost?” Jiang Nan’s voice suddenly boomed!

“Butcher Ding’s technique, I’m capable of it! The Western interlock blade technique, I’m also capable of! Furthermore, by fusing these two techniques together, I’ve even developed my own dissecting method! I’ve named this method, ‘Golden Inch Blade’! Chinese people say that an inch of time is worth an inch of gold… in other words, golden inch blade means that in dissecting cadavers, I’m always efficient and economical with my time…”

Only after Jiang Nan threw away his scalpel and beamed as he pointed at the cadaver did the specialists shockingly discover that the cadaver in front of Jiang Nan… had already been completely dissected!

Only twenty-seven seconds to completely dissect a corpse!

Almost at the same time, Dandy had completed his dissection as well…

And on his face was a blank expression. Yes, he and Jiang Nan had finished dissecting at the same time, but Jiang Nan had only begun dissecting after giving him two minutes and thirty-three seconds! Furthermore, Jiang Nan had simultaneously dissected and gazed at the specialists as he conversed with them, not even sparing a glance for the cadaver below the scalpel, so how much time did this waste?!

Just twenty-seven seconds to completely dissect a corpse!

This clearly implied that based on Jiang Nan’s comprehension of the human body structure, he already stood at the peak of humanity’s medical field, and absolutely had the ability to teach any scholarly authority!

“Honored… Honored teacher!” Dandy addressed him with extreme difficulty as he stated in the bet.

However, Jiang Nan instead went to the behind the rostrum, “Esteemed elder, I can’t accept this title of honored teacher. Human anatomy is a deep and profound branch of study. Just by contesting in dissecting speed doesn’t mean that you are not equal to me. From now on, if *you could please use your experience to aid me in fulfilling this academic term’s curriculum? As for our bet… How about just think of it as a bit of humor!”
(*more formal/respectful way of address)

The specialists broke out in thunderous applause. Such a humble youth! Triumphing over another, yet still preserving so much face for the other person. What fault could be found with this kind of instructor?!

Dandy, on the other hand…

Jiang Nan looked towards the scarlet-faced Dandy and snickered in his heart, thanks for serving as the backdrop for my glory! “Right now, are there any others who doubt my ability? Are there any others… who wish to take my place as instructor?”

The classroom was full of absolute silence.

……

Towards evening, it started to snow heavily from the sky, adorning this famously romantic capital with a thick blanket of silver.

It hardly ever snowed in this temperate, ocean breeze filled Paris, much less snow heavily. As such, the vehicles on the road didn’t neglect to make their preparations, and they all began to slow down and drive cautiously, afraid that they might hit a pedestrian on the side of the road.

Jiang Nan had already concluded one day of the academic program, and carrying his cane, he stood before the entrance of a coffee shop.

At this moment, he was completely different from the way he was in the classroom. Rather than being an energetic, driven young man, he was unsure of himself, ill at ease, and bewildered, as if he was an extremely inexperienced and shy large boy!

Every family has its problems, and Jiang Nan was no exception. In all of his twenty-six years of life, he had only one huge regret in his heart…

He was like any other man, and thirsted for love, longing to have a young and innocent girlfriend.

But…

In his twenty-six years of life, he had confessed his love to eight women, and was rejected by all these eight woman in a row!

A twenty-six year old medical professor, annual salary of hundreds of thousands, and handsome, actually couldn’t find a girlfriend for himself. If this was spoken out loud, would anyone believe it?

Jiang Nan also didn’t quite believe it, but in reality, not only did he never have a girlfriend, he was still a virgin!

In order to say goodbye to his single life, he had just arranged to meet a with beautiful woman at a coffee shop: he determined that during this date, he would take a chance and confess his love.

He hoped that on his ninth confession, he would be able bid farewell to his single life!

As snow slowly drifted through the air, Jiang Nan pushed open the door to the coffee shop.

The cafe was very peaceful, and seven or eight couples sat opposite each other as they each whispered to each other. However, from time to time, a man would cast a glance towards the coffee table overlooking the window.

There sat a beautiful and fashionable woman, and her every movement and action stole the spotlight of all the women within the room!

She was the person Jiang Nan wanted to confess to.

Once she saw him enter the shop, the woman stood and called out to him with familiarity, “Jiang Nan, long time no see.”

“Don’t say anything, don’t ask anything. The reason I called you out today was just so I could ask you a question——you, can you be my girlfriend?”

Jiang Nan took a deep breath and said as he closed his eyes.

Too direct? The woman stared blankly, “This…”

Jiang Nan stealthily opened his eyes to dart a glance at the woman, then swiftly closed them again.

The seconds ticked by, and finally, the woman laughed, “I’m sorry, I don’t think we are suited to each other. We…can we still be ordinary friends?”

Ai, rejected again! Jiang Nan spoke stiffly and formally: “Why not? Is it because I’m not good enough?”

“No, you’re outstanding enough. In regards to outer appearance, there is nothing to criticize, and in terms of financial situation, you’re earning ten or so times more than me. As for education…”

“Then why would you still reject me?!”

He felt thwarted, and could no longer control his perfectly flawless smile, instead hastily interrupting her and bluntly staring at her!

The woman was a bit indignant at his staring, “Are you forcing me to speak the truth? Fine, I’ll tell you. It’s because I can’t accept your field of specialty!”

“My specialty?”

“Yes, your specialty, human anatomy! I can’t imagine accepting a boyfriend who’s a human anatomy specialist in any situation——these two hands of yours, everyday they touch numerous corpses, dig out numerous organs dripping with blood, yet late at night, you’re still going to caress my body with those hands? Furthermore, I don’t want to imagine that you, a passionate anatomist, will hoard various organs of different people, and every morning while I’m in the kitchen cooking soup for you, I won’t be able to help but think——God, just several feet below me are countless organs steeping in formalin, and even being preserved… I apologize, I got a bit emotional. But I’m speaking honestly——Jiang Nan, it’s natural for you to have a passion towards anatomy, but this only makes me feel repulsed. In fact, it makes me feel like no longer having any relationship with you! This is the reason why I’m refusing!”

After she was finished speaking, the woman stared at Jiang Nan with an icy expression, not flinching the slightest bit!

After a long while, Jiang Nan pushed up his golden-rimmed spectacles, and resuming that so-called perfect smile, he answered, “I understand now. Goodbye!”

His tone was a bit agonized…

The woman immediately walked off without hesitation, but after a few seconds, she suddenly stopped and returned. With a ‘bam’, she slapped down several crisp, green bills to Jiang Nan!

His eyebrows furrowed, then he used his hand to push back the money, “What’s wrong? You think I can’t settle the bill?”

“No, it’s not that I think you can’t settle the bill. I only wish to abide by my words——I don’t wish to have any sort of relationship with you, even being treated to a cup of coffee is unacceptable!”

At this, the woman turned and charged into the freezing, snowy world without a second glance. And Jiang Nan just sat there by himself, a cane for anatomy that was even more lonely than himself accompanying him…

This was his ninth rejection now!

……

There was once a person who jokingly said, men who study anatomy are unlucky fellows who ‘deserve to be incapable of finding a girlfriend’.

To Jiang Nan, this phrase was the truth…

In the twenty-six years of his life, he had confessed eight times——excuse me, nine times, yet he had been rejected a whole nine times!

Everytime, the reason for the rejection was frighteningly similar, “Jiang Nan, I’m sorry, I really can’t accept your specialty, that nauseating human anatomy!”

“Jiang Nan, you’re a disgusting bastard. Don’t even think about letting me see you again!”

“I beg you, just forget about me, it’s impossible for there to be love between us…”

Reaching this bone-chilling conclusion, Jiang Nan’s heart was extremely unreconciled, “Why, why aren’t there any women who are willing to accept human anatomy! Why, why aren’t there any women who will love the me as a human anatomist?!”

It’s not that he hadn’t thought about giving up human anatomy for a perfect love… but, could he truly do so? If he didn’t have any true love towards human anatomy, could he have achieved the accomplishments he had today?

Anatomy, cadavers, he couldn’t bear to part with these two things, couldn’t cut them off!

Even if he was facing an unmatched beauty!

Jiang Nan had a whirlwind of thoughts in his mind…

Suddenly, honk honk! A piercing horn resounded through the air behind him!

Turning around to look, it turns out that a sports car had lost control on the frozen road, and through the windshield, one could see that the driver’s face was full of alarm and panic. She thought that she had alerted Jiang Nan for quite a while, but his heart was no longer there and he failed to notice.

Bam! Jiang Nan’s eyes went wide as he watched himself get shot into the air, and as he floated at death’s door, his heart flooded with regret and unreconciliation!

“I bitterly studied anatomy for twenty-some years, and now, I can say the purpose of every single muscle as if listing my family’s valuables; I can completely dissect a human body in twenty-seven seconds; even, even completely assemble the human body from a pile of fragmented organs within three minutes… yes, these abilities have brought me success and recognition, won me the title of genius of the anatomy world, the number one researcher of the human body! But, they have also gotten me rejected nine times, made me deserve to be unable of finding a girlfriend!”

Jiang Nan’s body slammed onto the icy road, and in the last moments of his life, he used his hand to adjust his golden-rimmed spectacles and settled himself in an extremely elegant dying posture (TL: those priorities doh. but dying in style), and then… he laughed self-deprecatingly.

“Alright, alright! What use is there in being able to completely dissect a body in twenty-seven seconds? F*** me, I’m an unlucky guy who deserves to be incapable of finding a girlfriend!”

Jiang Nan slowly closed his eyes, so he didn’t see that right at the moment of death…

The cane he had been tightly gripping in his hand had disappeared!

[Tiānlánsè]

Hmm this is not my thing sadly :/
MER > Totem

[unis777]

Hmm this is not my thing sadly :/
MER > Totem

it might be... after a number of chapters :P (which i need to translate TT_TT)

[unis777]

Here's chapter 2 guys! Link: https://ceruleonice.wordpress.com/totem/chapter-2/
BTW Chapter 2 = a lot better than chapter 1.

Chapter 2: Big Talk of Yulianne

“Gentlemen, would you like to have the continent’s most beautiful woman accompany you for a spring night every night? Would you like to bewitch the moon with one blade, and possess the exceptional power to fell a thousand-troop army in one stroke? Do you wish to have an endless and inexhaustible amount of authority and wealth?”

……

Evening, Yuanzhi Continent, on a street of Sun City.

An obese old man dressed in a robe stood on a flight of stairs, fiddling with his beard and speaking softly as he said these phrases full of attraction and enticement.

This old man was a wandering minstrel, and he was currently in the middle of making money through singing stories which spoke about a number of young heroes that shook the continent.

And the phrases he had just said signified the beginning of another tale.

A number of leisurely passerby’s surrounded him, and one particularly knowledgeable passerby immediately began applauding when he heard the minstrel’s opening phrases, “Old sir, could it be that the story you are about to sing next is about the continent’s number one beauty—the story of Yulianne (尤里安)?

The old man lifted high a forgotten container for his profits and loftily said, “Correct, it certainly is the story of Yulianne!”

Many people within the crowd immediately revealed impatient expressions, “Che, the name of Yulianne has already shaken the continent, and we’ve long since heard her story to the point that we’re sick of it. Change to a new one!”

“Exactly! If you asked me to tell you the name of my grandmother, I probably wouldn’t know, but if you asked me who the most beautiful person on the continent is, then *I would immediately be able to tell you—Yulianne!”
(TL: arrogant form 老子)

“Don’t you have any other new stories? If you don’t, then just come down, haha!”

Several scum people began jeering, trying to force this old man down.

But the old man wasn’t panicked in the slightest bit, and lazily sighed, “Indeed, Yulianne’s beauty is truly too famous. Whenever someone mentions her, the first thing people in the world think of is always her soul-ensnaring, star-like eyes; it’s always that graceful stream of long raven hair, always that smile capable of tearing down cities and nations… You all have long since gotten fed up with hearing this, and I’m also tired of saying it, so!”

The subject suddenly changed, “So I won’t talk about Yulianne’s appearance today. What I will speak of is Yulianne’s… blade!”

“Yulianne’s blade?” Hearing this, the crowd quieted, “Could it be that Yulianne was also a warrior that used blades?”

The old man didn’t answer, and instead gazed loftily at the twilight that followed the setting sun, then with a voice thick with passion, he began to speak, “Three years ago during late autumn, the Beastman King of the Great Plains, whose name was *Abrund (阿布伦多 ā bù lún duō), and was also known as the ‘Golden Lion’, led a force of one million through Jiangnan in an attempt to forcefully level our Rheim Empire!”
(*TL: Okay, take my name choosing with a grain of salt but these are definitely supposed to have English counterparts. If you have a better suggestion, feel free to let me know. Other than that, I’m just doing some guess work…)

“我王起兵迎战，但连战连败，半月内，阿布伦多连克我国一十七座军事重镇，万里国土沦陷，一时我王悲愤成疾 ，几欲流亡海外，以图东山再起……”
“Our king gathered soldiers to contend head-on with their forces, but they were continuously defeated. Within a fortnight, Abrund had seized seventeen of our military’s strategic towns, and nearly ten thousand *li of our country’s territory had been taken over. For a period of time, our king fell ill from grief, and nearly went into exile quite a number of times, but *made a comeback…”
(1 li 里 = 500 meters; idiom:东山再起 = literally to return to office after living as a hermit on Mt. Dongshan; TL: okay I’m not sure about this paragraph so I’m leaving the raws above)

“But who would’ve thought that Abrund’s forces had advanced with such lightning speed that they had already besieged our nation’s capital. Although our king really wished to leave, he couldn’t anymore!” The old man stamped his foot hatefully on the ground, when his tone suddenly underwent a complete change, “But it was just at this moment that a note suddenly appeared on Abrund’s table, and on it were characters dating back to the Milky Way Era, a paragraph of ancient lettering…”

Then the old man tilted his head and stared into the distance towards the unending billows of green mountains and hills, his tone extremely artful, yet overflowing with killing intent.

“闻君率百万大军渡江南来，投鞭断流，军威浩荡，不胜心向往之！月圆之夜，当借君首级一用，邀月对酌，岂不 美哉？”
“The great king leads his force of one million through Jiangnan, a mighty army capable of stemming the current, their might vast and mighty, yet unequal to the ambition of the heart! But on the night of the full moon, once the head of the great king is taken, to drink together with the moon, isn’t it beautiful?”
(TL: not sure about this one at allllllll, but context clues guys, read the following dialogues)

The people on the street gawked in astonishment: “Could it be that this note was written by Yulianne?”

“Exactly. Yulianne couldn’t bear to see the destruction of the empire, nor stand to see humanity fall under the oppression of the beastmen race, so she purposefully wrote a note to Abrund, requesting him to take his forces and return to the Great Plains. But what kind of character was Abrund? He was the king of beastmen, the bravest within the Great Plains and for miles around! Would a simple note be able to frighten him?”

The old man answered his own question, “Abrund’s response was… immediate orders to besiege the city and do an all-round attack! That night, it happened that an autumn wind was blowing, scattering the leaves throughout the air, and the massive force of beastmen marched in formation, drawing nearer step by step…”

“But just at this moment, the city gates opened! Dressed in pure white with a silver mask covering her face, Yulianne slowly strode before the army of beastmen and said in a light voice, ‘Withdraw, or die?’”

“Abrund laughed heartily, ‘Just relying on yourself, you wish to obstruct my force of a million men?!’”

“As his tone fell, a silver light flashed, and holding Abrund’s head, Yulianne turned to the rest of the beastmen forces and said in a light voice, ‘Withdraw, or die?’”

“Both sides possessed a million-man force, one thousand generals, and there were several tens of peak experts, yet not a single one of them… had seen Yulianne’s blade clearly! This is what was called: bewitching the moon with one blade, felling a thousand-troop army in one stroke!”

Clink, clank~ the people in the crowd threw out copper coins one after another, the greatest praise and encouragement for a story.

After reaping his rewards, the old man began speaking with even greater enthusiasm, “Abrund was killed, and the beastmen army naturally crumbled from within, so Yulianne swiftly stole away. The following two years, the people talked about Yulianne’s legend nonstop. Within those two years, she had consecutively defeated thirty-four blade experts, thoroughly establishing herself in the continent as the owner of the fastest blade. Even government authorities acknowledged her strength, and if Yulianne was considered second-place, no other would dare to call themself first! But following the rise of her prominent reputation, people began to discover a strange thing: Yulianne always wore a silver mask on her face year-round, and never revealed her true face to anyone… Why was this? People grew ever more curious, and numerous rumors began spreading until finally, people believed one explanation—Yulianne’s blade method was godly, but her appearance was hideous, so she… didn’t have any face to see other people!”

After speaking up until here, the old man suddenly halted, building their appetite in suspense, “Tell me, how do you think Yulianne responded to these people?”

The old man’s laughter rang through the air, “Last year, the eastern region of the continent held a beauty pageant to decide the East’s ten most beautiful women. However, right before the night of the awards ceremony, Yulianne privately found these ten women, and pulled off her mask right in front of them, laughing as she glanced at them and left… The second day, the ten beauty contestants declined to attend, declaring that they had no qualifications to receive any reward. They said… as long as Yulianne existed, the title of beauty would never turn to them!”

At this point in time, the sun had nearly set in the west, casting a long shadow from the old man’s figure, “From then on, Yulianne’s title as the number one beauty traveled throughout the whole world, and people could count it as an honor to have seen her beauty. But here’s a bit of tantalizing news. At the beginning of this year, when the name of Yulianne had reached the peak of fame, she suddenly made yet another decision that had people thinking her outrageous…”

Reaching the climax, the old man suddenly shut his mouth, his eyes brimming with mystery as he looked at each and every one of the crowd’s anxious faces.

“What happened?!” He listened to the crowd’s angry shouts and pleas, “Dammit, you’d better hurry up and tell us!”

The old man began roaring with laughter, his manner of speaking so astonishing that even he didn’t quite believe himself: “Yulianne withdrew from the Knight’s Union to become a chef skilled with the knife!”

“Huh?!”

“Furthermore, Yulianne even said that if anyone’s blade speed could surpass her’s… Hehe, if it was a woman, then Yulianne would help her do any one thing as long as it didn’t go beyond the line of morality.”

“What if it was a man?!” the crowd asked frenziedly.

“If it was a man, Yulianne would bring her wealth, which was comparable with a country’s vast wealth, bring that blade of her’s which could bewitch the moon, bring her strength which could fell an army with one stroke, bring that top-notch, absolute beauty of hers… and marry him!”

Hearing this, the crowd suddenly went silent…

After a long while, one listener in the crowd suddenly leaped up, strong and burly, “Look at *me, *I am also a chef skilled with the knife, so I’m going to look for Yulianne and compete with her!”
(*TL: arrogant pronoun)

“Mister, don’t invite hate onto yourself! You’re not the only one who wishes to take Yulianne as a wife. But… who’s knife work do you think can trump the owner of the fastest blade in this world?”

The chef’s face went scarlet as he retorted, “*My blade is able to dismember an entire ox within half an hour!”
(*My = arrogant way of referring to himself)

The old man nearly cried from laughter, “To dismember an ox, Yulianne only needs twenty-seven seconds!”

“Gentlemen, if you want to wed Yulianne, first learn that supernatural twenty-seven second blade method and then talk!”

The old man ending his story with this warning, then gathered his copper coins together and went into a tavern.

Those who had wanted to express their intent chattered and discussed with one another, “Only twenty-seven seconds to dismember a whole ox, is Yulianne still human?”

“Ai, if I could have Yulianne as a wife, my whole life would have meaning, but dammit… This blade of *mine isn’t fast enough!”
(*arrogant pronoun)

At this moment, within the crowd, a youth of average stature and good proportions dressed in shabby clothes quirked his mouth and said disdainfully: “Rodi (罗迪 luó dí), do you know? This old fellow is definitely spewing crap. Twenty-seven seconds to dismember an ox, f***, how could such a quick blade method possibly exist?”

“Just because you don’t understand doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist!”

A youth of fifteen or sixteen years stood beside him, shaking his head as he said this.

This youth was likewise dressed in shabby clothes and also well proportioned. But what was different was that his height was a bit above average and his appearance was handsome, not to mention that he had striking, light silver hair.

His disposition was also distinct from the rest of the crowd, and one could faintly see a sort of obstinacy and haughtiness and a bit of an air of one who would always lecture others. Rather than a fifteen or sixteen year old youth, he seemed more like a weathered and experienced man who’d suffered tribulation, like a mature man who was about to turn thirty.

“I don’t understand, but don’t tell me YOU understand?”

The thin and frail youth who had just been mocked grabbed Rodi by the collar and said in a loud voice: “Can it be that you’ve seen the blade method that can dismember an ox in twenty-seven seconds?”

Pointing at his nose, Rodi answered, “If I told you I’ve seen it, and can even perform it, would you believe me?”

“I believe, believe that you’re an idiot!” The youth guffawed, “If you truly know this blade method, then why haven’t you gone to go compare with Yulianne? Don’t tell me that you have no interest in the continent’s number one beauty.”

Rodi just laughed but didn’t answer. Dismembering an ox in twenty-seven seconds, he really could perform this blade method, and could even do it faster! But… he truly had no interest in the continent’s number one beauty!

The continent’s most beautiful person was also a woman. As long as one was a woman, none of them would love him!

Because he loved to dig out hearts dripping with blood!

Because he enjoyed dissecting human bodies into organ systems!

Because he couldn’t bear to part with corpses and dissecting, because he was an unfortunate guy that deserved to be incapable of finding a girlfriend!

Rodi, former name, ‘Jiang Nan’…

[deathblade]

Hmm this is not my thing sadly :/
MER > Totem

I really don't understand the need to post something like this.

Good luck on the translation, unis777! Seems pretty interesting and unique.

[unis777]

Good luck on the translation, unis777! Seems pretty interesting and unique.

Thanks! Hopefully I chose a good novel... this is a time investment ;~;

[Tiānlánsè]

Training to be master of neutrality (Neutral?) betweeen horrible leecher and supporting fan. You cant hate can you? But if you do then i still have a long way to go

[HasNoLove]

i thought if this typical reincarnation-gender bender, but . . .
i like it XD

[unis777]

Chapter 3! https://ceruleonice.wordpress.com/totem/chapter-3/

Dang this one tugged on the heart strings.

Chapter 3: From Heaven to Hell

Jiang Nan didn’t know what happened, but all he remembered was that after the car accident, he opened his eyes to an unfamiliar world.

He had reincarnated, and taken over a white youth’s body named Rodi.

And this world was called Yuanzhi Continent. Here, there was no so-called magic, battle qi, nor any mythological beasts; here, people believed that power stemmed from natural living things, and developed a type of mysterious power called ‘totem’. Here, totem masters were the top of the top, and they possessed unparalleled status. Here…

Enough!

Did this whole mess even have any relation with Jiang Nan?

Jiang Nan was only a slave!

More accurately, the body of Rodi which Jiang Nan occupied belonged to Count West (维斯特), his master, and he was only a pig herder on West farms.

Every morning before it was even light, he would be lashed awake, then cut the grass, feed the pigs, clean the pig pen… He was always bustling, and only late at night would he rest and take his meal, but this was his only meal. There would only be two pieces of charred steamed bread, and a big pot of barely seasoned wild herb soup.

If any pigs gave birth, the master and his household definitely wouldn’t sleep, so Jiang Nan had to accompany them until dawn. If any of the fat pigs caught illness or lost some weight, Jiang Nan would receive twenty lashes of the whip as punishment…

This was the only thing Jiang Nan could imagine for his entire life! Totems… totem masters… was a slave even qualified to think of such things?

It’s not that Jiang Nan had never rebelled, but once, when he had only uttered two phrases of complaint, he was taken by the farm overseers and hung up and whipped thirty times. He just narrowly avoided being whipped to death.

He had also thought about running away, but this was the world of totems, and on his shoulder was a mysterious mark that would allow those mysterious totem masters to catch him and bring him back even if he ran until the ends of the earth. Then… it would be a whipping until he could only spasm lifelessly, to serve as an example to those who wished to run away as well!

Eventually, Jiang Nan began to accept his fate as a slave…

From an anatomy professor of great standing and prestige, he had degraded into slave caretaker of pigs. Jiang Nan believed that the goddess of fate had played an insane joke on him!

Oh, I apologize, Yuanzhi Continent had no goddess of fate.

Rather, as long as nature and all living things persisted, there was a reason for everything. It could be that Jiang Nan was so frustrated because he had done something he shouldn’t have done in the past world.

……

“Mr. Tom (汤姆), do you still remember what we came into town to do? Look at the time!”

Jiang Nan took the cane hanging at his belt and lightly knocked it against Tom’s head.

That youth who had mocked Jiang Nan was named Tom, and was also a slave who took care of the pigs. Both of them had went into the city to purchase some pigs, but took advantage of the opportunity to be a bit lazy and listen to the story of Yulianne.

“Don’t you know? We came to buy pigs… Aiya, not good, not good. We only thought about listening to the story. Don’t you know? If we don’t get those pigs before nightfall, the overseer’s going to beat us to death!”

Tom always like to say the phrase ‘don’t you know’ because his family had been slaves for seven generations. As such, he had considerably more experience than other slaves, giving him an air of superiority.

“Calm down, I counted the time. We can still make it if we leave right now.”

After Tom put away his cane, the two people disappeared from the streets of Sun City.

What was weird was that the cane which was made from other worldly material and hid seventy-two types of dissecting instruments actually came along with him into this world, and Jiang Nan couldn’t figure out why. However, carrying this cane made him feel in his spirit as though something had been entrusted to him, and this gave him a sort of security in his heart.

As such, Jiang Nan used mud, grease, and rotten leaves to muddy the cane, allowing it to look as if it had just been thrown on the street like something nobody wanted or cared for… a rod for sifting through manure!

Not long after the two men began walking, the crowd on the street still hadn’t dissipated, and they were still discussing the matter of Yulianne.

At this moment, that obese minstrel who was sitting in the tavern stuck his head out of the window. Seeing that there was still a crowd, he gleefully said: “This old man’s story has already been told, yet you’re still not scattering? Could it be that you guys wish for me to tell another?”

Nobody acknowledge the old geezer.

“These ungrateful wretches, have you forgotten who told you the story?”

Indignant, he leaped onto the dais and cleared his throat, shouting: “Ladies and gentlemen, if any of you want to hear about Yulianne, then turn your heads this way and look at me! This old man knows something big, something good!”

Something good? A number of passerby’s turned their heads out of curiosity.

The old man’s head bobbed as he laughed, when his face suddenly straightened and he said in a serious voice: “Within a month, Yulianne will appear in Sun City!”

“What?!”

All the gazes of the crowd again fixed onto the old man, and one said in pleasant surprise: “Old mister, aren’t you deceiving us? Would Yulianne come to a place like this?”

“Within one month, if Yulianne hasn’t come, then this old man will jump down from here!”

The old man’s voice was incredibly captivating as he spoke resolutely, “Gentlemen, would you like to have the continent’s most beautiful woman accompany you for a spring night every night? Would you like to bewitch the moon with one blade, and possess the exceptional power to fell a thousand-troop army in one stroke? Do you wish to have an endless and inexhaustible amount of authority and wealth… your blade method only needs to be faster than Yulianne!”

……

Sun City was simply a town of around thirteen to fourteen thousand people located in the midst of a mountain range, encircled by golden yellow soil.

This soil was so valuable because the amount of crops produced when planted in this soul would be twenty-some times more than normal, and was thus called ‘golden soil’.

Count West’s farm was situated on top of the golden soil, and took up around 2,900 *mu. The farm possessed 4,800 slaves, and was the largest farm in the vicinity of Sun City.
(*TL: mu = unit of measurement)

Right as the sky grew dark, Jiang Nan and Tom promptly arrived back at the farm. At this time, that repulsive and despicable overseer, unknown if had drunk a lot or just took advantage of female slave, was in quite a good mood. After checking the live pigs, he waved his hand and said with a smile: “Your work isn’t bad. Go on, you guys can rest for the night.”

“Hurrah! Did you know? Caretaker, I’m grateful to death to you!”

Tom leapt up in excitement because to slaves, resting for a night was the most extravagant reward.

Jiang Nan, on the other hand, only nodded his head, then turned to leave.

“Rodi!”

The caretaker suddenly called after Jiang Nan, then mockingly said: “Tom can go rest, but not you! Miss ‘Weylin’ (维兰) is currently looking for you!”

Miss Weylin!

When he heard this name, Jiang Nan who had unflinchingly faced the provocation of tens of old-time experts and referred to them as things that should be conquered suddenly looked as if he had just swallowed seventy or eighty flies. Speechless, he just laughed bitterly.

Weylin was Count West’s younger sister, and could also be considered as Jiang Nan’s master.

Fairly speaking, Weylin was Sun City’s most beautiful woman, and had turned nineteen this year. She possessed a bust size that assaulted one’s visual senses to the limit, and had a body line as curved as the path of a roller coaster (TL: that description though.) Starting at age fifteen, she began to help the Count manage the farm, and was a lovely and remarkably capable woman.

However, while Weylin possessed a beautiful outward appearance, she had a considerably irritable temper that couldn’t be worse. Whenever she spoke, it was so foul and biting unlike her age, and at the drop of hat, she would take out her whip and lash a person. It was exactly because of this temper that although she was already nineteen, she still hadn’t been married off, and had become Sun City’s infamous ‘leftover spinster’.

And for some specific reasons that Jiang Nan didn’t feel like saying aloud, Weylin always looked on him unfavorably, constantly searching for an opportunity to sort him out…

When Jiang Nan found Miss Weylin, she was in the middle of supervising the female slaves as they washed clothes by the creek that ran through the farmland. Seeing how Jiang Nan took his time walking over, she grew furious and roared: “Rodi, I had told you to arrive by the afternoon, and right now…

What time is it right now? Did you even take what I said to heart?!”

Jiang Nan silently uttered the next half of Weylin’s speech because almost every time, she started berating him with the same opening. After that, she’d deliberately find something to nitpick on and make things hard for him. “Calm down, Miss Weylin. Haven’t I come already? What instructions do you have for me?”

Weylin snorted, then pointed towards several baskets of laundry beside the creek, “Go, go wash the clothes! You, a lowly slave, dares to have the audacity not to take my words to heart, so your punishment is to wash one hundred articles of clothing before dark. If you can’t finish, then you’d damn well not think about sleeping!”

Before dark? F***, it was already 7:30 in the evening!

Jiang Nan wanted to say, “Honorable madam, do you not recall that for a period of time, even though it wasn’t right, your mother at least dealt with my body reasonably?”

However, he did not let slip a single word, and diligently got to work washing the clothes.

If one was a slave, one must have the bearing of one!

Seeing that Jiang Nan actually began performing the labor of women, the female slaves began snickering. One of them even pointed at Jiang Nan’s handsome face and mocked him, saying, “Rodi grew up to be so handsome, and even washes clothes for women. Teehee, it’d be great if master could just marry you off.”

“Stop dreaming already. For handsome slaves as Rodi, they’re generally gifted to the nobility who have lost their husband as a present…”

“You lowly slaves, what are you talking about?”

After hearing the slave girls’ commentary, Weylin was fuming to the point that she drew out the whip at her waist and ‘Pah!’, she lashed Jiang Nan’s face. “If you dare to talk drivel again, this woman’s going to whip this pretty boy to death!”

Jiang Nan’s face began developing a welt lined with blood, and shrugging his shoulders, he continued to wash the clothes.

Even though it was another party’s fault, he would get thrashed, and this kind of situation would occur nearly everyday. Anger, vexation, unreconciliation… Ah save it. He was long since numbed to these things!

Didn’t someone say he was a lowly slave?

However, it was a bit weird. Weylin would often lash Jiang Nan’s face, but never before had any wounds left a scar. Even counting the time that Weylin had once used a knife and torn his nose, several days later it still recovered to its former condition.
(TL: Remember kids, don’t marry this type of woman.)

This infuriated Weylin, so she would often scold him by calling him a ‘pretty boy who wouldn’t repent even in death’.

……

Yuanzhi Continent had three moons: one golden yellow, the other blood red, and the last a mild silver color.

When these three moons had reached their highest point in the night sky, the female slaves had long since gone to rest, and the enormous West farm only had a few patrols going through their rounds. Jiang Nan, however, was still washing clothes one by one by the creek.

Right at this moment, ‘crunch, crunch’, a piercing nose resounded from beside the creek.

A woman had crawled over.

This woman was a disabled person, and in the pant legs of her trousers, there was nothing but empty air below her knees. As her body lay atop a flat cart, her two hands grabbed towards the ground, and her crawling speed was just a tiny bit faster than a snail.

On the other hand, while one didn’t have to look for a word to describe this woman’s age and appearance, in truth, this woman’s face had two grisly scars that intertwined together sinisterly. Adding the fact that she had appeared in the middle of the night, she was basically a malevolent-looking and horrifying demon!

But when Jiang Nan saw this terrifying face, he only began laughing from his heart, “Auntie, what are you doing here?”

This woman was called Alisa (艾丽莎).

She was Rodi’s mother’s sister, so obviously she was his maternal aunt.

It was said that Alisa had once been a beautiful woman, but just a day after she had become a slave, a cruel and lecherous male master had wanted to possess her. As such, she had unhesitatingly and resolutely seized a fruit knife and carved 108 cuts onto her face.
(TL: okay IDK if it literally means 108 or if it’s just some expression to say a lot, so just a note.)

It was also said that when that brutal and lecherous male master had found out about Alisa’s decision, he exploded in rage, and immediately called people to cut off her two legs!

Of course, those were all just rumors, and in Jiang Nan’s eyes, Alisa had genuinely been this way already.

He still remembered that the first day he was reincarnated into this world (it was probably because Rodi’s body was originally very frail or because of some other obscure reason), it seemed as though his body suffered dehydration, and couldn’t even stand up.

No one on the farm would care about the life or death of a slave. Therefore, Lord West, several overseers, and a number of slaves, besides Weylin who had been preoccupied, all waited for Rodi’s life to run its course, not to mention that a few thugs had even brought a burlap sack over to take Jiang Nan, whether dead or not, and feed him to the wild dogs!

Right at that moment, Alisa has dragged her disabled body over and blocked the thugs, pleading and begging Lord West, “Master, I beg of *you, Rodi is not yet dead!”
(*TL: respectful term)

Lord West had only shrugged, “My dear Alisa, I won’t raise a useless person. Even if he hasn’t died, he is already of no use…”

“Yes, Rodi is useless, but I am not yet useless!”

Gritting her teeth, she spoke, “*Lord, I still have two hands. I will put forth all my effort to perform manual labor worth two people, I beg you, as long as you give Rodi back to me…”
(*TL: They alternate between Lord and Master)

Lord West’s character wasn’t bad, and curling lips, he agreed.

Alisa thanked him profusely, then dragged Jiang Nan who was like a dead dog to a shanty. She sobbed broken heartedly and said, “Rodi, you still live, thank goodness you still live! Lie down, from now on Auntie will provide for you!”

From then on, this woman would drag her disabled legs and perform two people’s worth of manual labor in the day, then pick up wilted vegetable leaves to boil as porridge at night. Miraculously, Jiang Nan was able to live.

And at the beginning of his rebirth, Jiang Nan was unable to speak the common language of Yuanzhi Continent, nor did he recognize all the people next to him. He could only put on the facade of an ‘idiot’ to observe this world with a detached point of view.

During that challenging period of time, as always, it was Alisa who bore the hardship of educating Jiang Nan in language, reading, and the general knowledge of a slave. One could say… if there was no Alisa, there would be no Jiang Nan today!

For a woman who had sacrificed herself for him to this extent, would Jiang Nan still consider her face as horrifying? Would he not be most willing to call out the word, ‘Aunty’?

People’s hearts were of flesh, not stone, and thus susceptible to feelings and emotion!

……

As Alisa arrived before Jiang Nan, she smiled, although on her it seemed a bit unsettling, “Because you didn’t return, Auntie couldn’t sleep, so I came to look for you.”

Slightly raising her head, her terrifying face expressed uneasiness, and she shouted: “What would I have done if you didn’t return? What if you had been killed by someone?”

Jiang Nan only laughed bitterly.

好吧，艾丽莎姨母其实是一个病人，准确说，她患有‘间歇姓幻想精神病’，也就是医学上所说的‘ 臆病’。
Alright, Alisa was actually a sick person. More accurately, she had contracted ‘intermittent delusional psychosis’, or in medical terms, ‘hysteria’.
(TL: noooo idea of this paragraph. I searched up these terms and I’m not sure they’re correct, so I’m leaving the raws.)

She always deluded herself into thinking that there were people out to murder Jiang Nan, and after just several minutes, she would start inquiring of every person anxiously, “Is my child still alive? Is my child still alive?”

If a whole day passed without seeing Jiang Nan, she would drag her disabled body around and look all over the place for him, on one hand searching, on the other hand bawling and wailing, “*Wuwu, my child has definitely been murdered, Rodi is already dead, wuwu…”
(*TL: onomatopoeia for crying/whimpering)

But really, who would come and murder him? His present rotten life wasn’t even worth the value of a dog!

Jiang Nan ground out a few smiles with difficulty, then consoled his aunt, “Auntie, don’t worry. Nobody came to murder me today. Miss Weylin only told me to wash clothes.”

“It’s fine as long as you’re alive, it’s fine as long as you’re still alive…”

Alisa breathed a sigh of relief, then took out a shabby bowl from the flat cart, “Rodi, you’re exhausted from the whole day, so eat.”

Slaves were only allowed to eat one meal a day, but Alisa always worried that Jiang Nan didn’t eat enough, so she would always secretly boil a bowl of porridge for him.

But, seeing the contents of the bowl, there were a few withered leaves, some muddy yellow soil that, while edible, would most likely lead to digestive problems, and a dirty pile of mud. This was the porridge that Alisa had boiled.

Because the soil within the porridge was called golden soil, Alisa even called what she cooked ‘golden porridge’.
(*TL: ahhhh so pitiful this is making me emotional)

Honestly speaking, Jiang Nan couldn’t drink this kind of porridge, but thinking about how his aunt had dragged her two disabled legs here and picked those withered leaves, he simply tilted his neck and ‘gulp’, he drained the bowl in one breath.

“The porridge that Auntie makes is the continent’s best porridge!”

Alisa laughed and her scar-filled, horrifying face scrunched up, then she began muttering to herself, “It’s fine as long as you drink it, it’s fine as long as you drink it. Tomorrow, Auntie will boil a bowl of porridge for you again…”

Counting the days, Jiang Nan had already lived in Rodi’s body for half a year, and for this half year, he would drink this bowl of porridge nearly everyday.

Considering the past Rodi, in truth, Jiang Nan’s body had already been nourished by this ‘golden porridge’…

For ten whole years!

[unis777]

Chapters 4 and 5 of Totem out! Chapter 4 link: https://ceruleonice.wordpress.com/totem/chapter-4/

First, chapter 4:

Chapter 4: Order to Kill

Jiang Nan finally finished washing one hundred articles of clothing at 3:30 in the early morning, then pushed his aunt on the flat cart back to their dwelling place.

Alisa had accompanied him until 3:30 in the morning!

They lived in a shanty next to the pig pen that was around one meter high and highly susceptible to wind. It was also filled with the pungent smell of pig manure, but even so, this shanty had attracted many jealous gazes from other slaves.

This was because from the slaves’ perspective, the shanty was so close to the pig pen that there would be opportunities to secretly take some of the discarded pig meat from the slaughterhouse. It was simply the most perfect slave house!

“Auntie, even though Miss Weylin punished me, she didn’t hurt me, so next time could *you go to bed earlier next time?”
(*TL: respectful term)

Jiang Nan on one hand pushed the cart into the shanty, and on the other spoke in a soft voice to Alisa.

“How is that okay? How is that okay?” Alisa repeatedly shook her head, “You’ve toiled bitterly for a day, and are tired and hungry. If Auntie doesn’t make a bowl of golden porridge for you, you’ll go hungry. Not to mention…”

Her voice suddenly grew angry and fierce, “What if they come to kill you? If Auntie is not by your side, who’s going to protect you?!”

Auntie’s illness truly was getting much more serious.

Jiang Nan sighed bitterly. As a medical professor, it wasn’t that he had never thought about curing her illness, but…

He specialized in anatomy! In regards to psychiatric illnesses, he didn’t even understand one thing!

In his past life, a friend of his who specialized in psychiatry had said, “Illnesses of the heart require medicine of the heart. If you wish to remedy their spirit and the mental aspect of their illness, taking medicine is essential. But even more important is that you must find where the mental illness stems from, then cut it down from the root.”

Following these words, Jiang Nan had previously asked of his Aunt’s feelings and thoughts four or five times: exactly who did the ‘they’ that wanted to kill him refer to?

However, whenever Jiang Nan would ask these kinds of questions, his aunt’s eyes would abruptly open wide and she would begin to tear her hair out in grief, loudly yelling: “Don’t kill him, don’t kill him! Rodi is only a child! If you want to kill, then just kill me! I’m the one who’s done wrong… if we really have done wrong!”

There were many times that Alisa had even yelled herself hoarse and immediately fainted on the spot!

After similar scenes occurred, Jiang Nan didn’t dare to ask anymore. Clearly, his aunt had extremely distressing memories buried deep inside her heart, and for the time being, she couldn’t mentally bear this type of inhuman pain.

However, Jiang Nan had gleaned a few pieces of information from the overseers.

According to what the overseer had said, Rodi and his Aunt were purchased ten years before. At that time, a slave trafficking caravan had passed through Sun City, and one of the overseers had coincidentally wanted to buy a few slaves and thus went to take a look. It turned out, his first glance had landed on Alisa, and he had been shocked into a daze!

At that time, Alisa didn’t have that monstrous face, and although she had already contracted mental illness, when she was calm, her speech was dignified and elegant, her bearing graceful and poised. Even being a slave, she carried a clear air of nobility! The overseer thought that if he bought such a beautiful woman, she would definitely catch the eyes of the lecherous master, so he took out two gold coins on the spot and purchased Alisa and the six-year-old Rodi.

Unexpectedly, one gold coin was returned because the seller had said that the two were bought from the black market, and didn’t have any proof of identity. As such, they weren’t worth the high price of two gold coins.

No proof of identity? No problem. Couldn’t that overseer just ask Alisa herself? Thus, he persisted and purchased the two. However, when he had returned to the farm, he was grieved to find out that every time he brought up the past, Alisa would go mad, and nothing would be answered!

As such, nobody in the farm knew of the two people’s pasts nor their names, so when registering the two, the overseer had simply picked random names for them.

“Rodi, go to sleep. Tomorrow we still have work to do!”

Jiang Nan was pulled back to reality by his aunt’s call, and taking a look, he suddenly realized that his nose began aching.

It was already November, (TL: if there even is a November) the latest stage of autumn. The shanty was basically like a small icehouse, but Auntie had actually curled up in a corner of the shanty, using her body to block the holes where wind could blow in!

And at the center of the shanty, the warmest place, was a scraggly blanket… left for Jiang Nan.

“Auntie, sleep here. The wind is strong over there.”

Jiang Nan wanted to shift his aunt over, but Alisa’s eyes suddenly opened wide and she rebuked him, “Out of the question, out of the question. These cracks are so big, what would we do if ‘they’ snuck in through here and killed you?!”

Ai…

Jiang Nan was left speechless, and could only spread the blanket over his aunt’s body.

Soon after, Alisa began to snore softly, but no matter how Jiang Nan tried, he couldn’t fall asleep.

He was dissatisfied with the fact that he had fallen to such a level, but he was further occupied in his mind with a small incident that had occurred several days in the past…

……

During the evening a week before, a slave who was in charge of taking care of the horses had died from illness, and the master overseer had instructed Jiang Nan while plugging his nose, “Rodi, go take this dead body and bury it under the farmland. Dammit, even if you’re dead, you should still contribute to the farm by at least serving as fertilizer!”

“As *you wish, master overseer!”

Although it appeared as though Jiang Nan was extremely reluctant to accept this task, once he turned around, he carried the corpse with a beaming smile to a remote grove.

This was a corpse, the human body that Jiang Nan most understood!

After he had been reincarnated, Jiang Nan had one big question that always dwelled in his mind: he wanted to know if the human body structure on the Yuanzhi Continent had any differences from the body structure on earth.

This was the natural curiosity of an anatomy expert!

And now, the farm overseer had given Jiang Nan an opportunity…

Click, Jiang Nan opened up his dissecting cane to begin dissecting the corpse in preparation to analyze the physiological structure of the humans on the Yuanzhi Continent.

But right at this moment…

“Rodi, don’t do it!”

Like a ferocious lion, Auntie Alisa had jumped out from who knows where and clamped down on Jiang Nan’s wrist with her teeth.

She spoke vaguely: “You want to dissect this corpse? You cannot, absolutely not! Rodi, Auntie is already a disabled person, and death will not begrudge me, but you can’t die! You absolutely must take revenge, you must live and take back all that is rightfully yours from ‘them’!”

I’m screwed! Auntie saw the dissecting cane! Jiang Nan’s thoughts were in a flurried mess, and therefore didn’t clearly hear what his aunt had said.

Only after a full three minutes later did he resume his normal expression and ask: “Auntie, why can’t I dissect this body?”

Gritting her teeth, Alisa’s demonic face was brimming with hatred and rancor, “Rodi, you remember what Auntie is about to tell you. Hundreds and thousands of years ago, all the powerful nations on the continent, all the totem masters, and all the totem aristocracy all jointly issued three death declarations!”
“Any person who dissects and studies a corpse will be regarded as revolting against nature, kill three generations!”
“Any clan who produces a clans member that dissects corpses will be regarded as revolting against nature, kill the whole clan!”
“Any nation that shelters a person or clan that dissects corpses will be regarded as revolting against nature, kill the whole nation!”

After saying these three death declarations, the knife scars on Alisa’s face distorted into a sinister look, as if she was discussing multiple incidents of large-scale massacres, eras and eras of history dripping with blood!

Jiang Nan was stunned to the point that he was speechless. Only after a long, long while did he roar in a hoarse voice: “These f***ing death declarations! Why are there three such death declarations!

“This…”

Alisa had an odd look on her face, “Auntie can’t say for sure either. In any case, it’s prohibited to dissect corpses. Come, we’re going back!”

At this, Alisa dragged Jiang Nan back to the shanty.

Maybe it was because of Auntie’s mental illness, but she never brought up this incident again. Naturally, she didn’t inquire about the matter of Jiang Nan’s dissecting cane either.

And naturally nobody paid any attention to that corpse, and it slowly rotted and decayed in the wilderness…

But just three days before, a fool discovered the dead body, and maybe he had been starving to death or had mistaken the putrid flesh as dog meat, but the fool began howling, then took numerous bites of the flesh.

Of course, the corpse was subsequently torn to pieces by him.

And yesterday when Jiang Nan had entered the city to buy pigs, he had seen the fool at the entrance of Sun City.

At that time, the fool and his whole family had been hung on the city gate, and a number of executioners had been sharpening their blades in preparation to execute them by *death of a thousand cuts!
(*TL: old form of capital punishment)

There was even a sign hung on the fool’s chest, and on it was written: “This man illegally dissected a corpse, kill without pardon!”

It was exactly that first death declaration: any person who dissected a corpse would be regarded as revolting against nature, kill three generations!

……

Because of this matter, Jiang Nan couldn’t get a good sleep for the past several days. He felt a bit apologetic to that fool, and further felt… Isn’t this world seriously too f***ing insane!

Calm down, calm down, to be a good model, one mustn’t speak vulgar language…

But, why was it prohibited to dissect corpses?!

Was it that Yuanzhi Continent didn’t know? If human anatomy, the foundation of medicine, didn’t involve any dissections, it would be impossible to reach such a high degree of modern medicine!

Was it that those who issued the declaration didn’t know? Even though dissecting human corpses looked gory, horrifying, and scared people at the very sound of it, it was the top academic discipline in studying and researching the mystery of the human body! How many mysteries of the human race had been uncovered due to medical dissections?!

Jiang Nan suddenly felt that being a slave wasn’t unbearable. It was mainly just getting whipped and drinking wild herb soup.

But as a person who had once been a scholarly authority in human anatomy in the modern era, to be reborn into a world that prohibited dissecting, one could only wait to die of illness then be buried in the ground and turn to dust. How tragic was this!?

Damn it, damn it. Jiang Nan couldn’t help but sit up straight, fiercely cursing: “F***ing damn it!”

“Rodi, that you haven’t slept for the majority of the night, who are you cursing? Don’t you know, you almost scared me to death!”

Suddenly, a voice of complaint transmitted from the outside, scaring Jiang Nan out of his wits.

But once he heard that familiar ‘don’t you know’, he let out a sigh of relief, then stealthily crept out of the shanty, “My dear Mister Tom, it’s already three in the morning. It should be you that’s frightened me!”

“Three in the morning? Good heavens, have you lost it?”

Tom exaggeratedly pointed at the sky where the three moons had already nearly set. It was at least five in the morning already.

Jiang Nan had tossed about in bed, unable to sleep, for two hours!

But Tom didn’t inquire further, and grabbing hold of Jiang Nan’s arm, he simultaneously ran and told him: “Hurry, hurry up and go to the threshing floor with me. Don’t you know? Miss Weylin has ordered all of the male slaves to assemble at the threshing floor. If we’re late, we’re going to get whipped to death.”

“Don’t tell me something big happened?”

“Something big, big enough to shock you to death!”

Tom exaggerated his expression, “Don’t you know? We’ve ran into an opportunity, an opportunity to switch from a slave to an ordinary person!”

From a slave to an ordinary person…

Jiang Nan’s heart contracted, and he felt as if all the blood had rushed to his head in a flash. But, he still kept that model face of indifference and passiveness, “En, that’s very good news. Please do continue.”

[unis777]

Second, chapter 5! https://ceruleonice.wordpress.com/totem/chapter-5/

Alright guys, so as I previously said, I will only be posting chapter links starting from chapter 6.
Enjoy!

Chapter 5: Totem Pillar

On the Yuanzhi Continent, experts and masters were as common as the clouds and as numerous as droplets of rain, and all of these experts and masters had one common name… totem master!

Once a person became a powerful totem master, that person would naturally pass down his or her special secret skill to their descendants. If their descendants were skilled in running and handling a business, they would prosper like a rolling snowball to become a flourishing ‘totem aristocracy’.

The continent’s most powerful and wealthy totem aristocracy was undoubtedly the Rheinhardt Clan, also known as the ‘First Totem Millennium’.

And Jiang Nan’s master, Count West, was a member of the Rheinhardt Clan.

Of course, he was only an insignificant outer member, and his farm was located thousands of kilometers away from *Rhein headquarters.
(*TL: raws cut it from Rheinhardt to Rhein)

Jiang Nan had already eventually understood all of these above matters, but as he and Tom went towards the threshing floor, Tom still babbled on and repeated it anyway.

After listening a while, Jiang Nan got a bit impatient and shrugged his shoulders, then looked at the dark clouds in the sky: “Good, tonight’s moonlight should be pretty nice. What do you think?”

“Alright, alright, I’ll just say it bluntly then!”

Tom understood Jiang Nan’s meaning, and chortling in embarrassment, he said: “Our opportunity of changing our identity as a slaves means having a relationship with Rhein headquarters!”

“Yesterday night, a big fish called Overseer ‘Ceci’ (吉吉) arrived from Rhein headquarters! Do you know what he came to do?”

Tom could barely contain his excitement and started dancing, “Overseer Ceci said that Rhein headquarters wanted a large force of strong youth. He ordered the Count to prepare two thousand of his strongest and most robust male slaves and have them assemble before noon today. We’re going to the threshing floor so that Overseer Ceci can look over us and choose.”

After saying this, Tom sunk into a wonderful, imaginary fantasy, “Hehe, once we’re chosen by Overseer Ceci, then our identity as slaves will be automatically removed, and we’ll become common residents of the Rheinhardt Clan!”

“Rodi, we’re two of the most youthful and strong slaves. We’ll definitely be chosen by Overseer Ceci!”

Common residents…

To the carefree Tom whose parents had already died and was the seventh generation of a family of slaves, this truly was a splendid piece of news.

But Jiang Nan was speechless, and his expression had only dulled. After hesitating for quite a while, he asked: “Only youthful and healthy slaves have the qualifications?”

Tom also grew silent, “En.”

If only young and health slaves were eligible, then what about Auntie Alisa?

Could he truly just discard his aunt, leaving by himself to become an exalted, free person? Like this, Auntie would only have death awaiting her!

Jiang Nan halted his steps.

Tom realized what Jiang Nan was thinking and consoled him: “Rodi, you can first become a common person and earn money, and then redeem Alisa from her identity as a slave!”

“Tom, you understand Auntie Alisa’s condition, I’m afraid… before I earn enough money, she’ll have already died!”

Jiang Nan abruptly turned around, “I’m going to go back and feed the pigs. Mister Tom, I wish you good luck!”

“Hey, you’re not going to participate in the selection at the threshing floor?”

Jiang Nan’s steps were firm, and he barely even hesitated.

But at this point in time, the threshing floor was nearly right before their eyes. A brawny black man had seen Tom and Rodi, and seeing their youthful and strong bodies, he waved them over, “Aiyaya, you two slaves really aren’t bad. Come over and let me take a look!”

This two meter tall, muscled black man who wore a golden silk robe and round cap… was actually an effeminate man!

A slave overseer swiftly went over to urge Jiang Nan, “Rodi, why is a pig guy like you hesitating? This man is Overseer Ceci from Rhein headquarters. Hurry, hurry up and go!”

Jiang Nan sighed. As a slave, he didn’t have choice of refusing him.

Fine, I’ll just act as though I’m sick and purposely not get selected so I can stay behind and take care of Auntie!

Thinking of this, Jiang Nan held back his breath then softly poked at his third and fourth rib…

Immediately, his expression grew flushed, as if he had caught sickness and had a fever.

To a medical professor, faking sickness was truly too easy.

Unexpectedly, when Overseer Ceci drew nearer to take a look, the Jiang Nan whom he had originally thought to be healthy and strong actually seemed quite sickly, and he couldn’t help but stare at him. Then, he turn to take a look at Tom, saying: “Aiyaya, you strong and healthy slave, what is your name~?”

“Don’t you know? My name is Tom!”

Jiang Nan stood within the group of slaves and didn’t feel like listening to the conversation between the two, and thus absentmindedly studied the circumstances surrounding his situation.

Just by taking a few glances, he suddenly discovered that the atmosphere was a bit fishy!

In the past, the threshing floor only had around two or three hundred slave workers, so the amount of slave overseers that were present to maintain order also weren’t many. Even though today was a big day where all the slaves would be assembled, it was already enough to have all the 280 overseers present. But today… besides the slave overseers, in the vicinity of the threshing floor, there were even two or three thousand soldiers surrounding the area!

Heavy black armor, fiery red cloaks, and matching long bows and daggers, several thousand soldiers stood ramrod straight around the threshing floor without even the smallest noise!

What an elite force!

And behind the troops, there was still twelve gigantic pillars that were seemingly as thick as cisterns, twelve meters tall, and covered with a red cloth.

“Do you know what these pillars are for?”

When he heard this phrase, Jiang Nan knew that Tom had returned so he didn’t turn his head as he asked, “Don’t tell me you know?”

“Hehe, Overseer Ceci already told me. These pillars are called ‘totem pillars’, and are especially made to test one’s ‘innate totem talent’!”

“To test one’s innate totem talent?”

“Exactly. They’re able to detect whether you are eligible to become a great totem master.”

Jiang Nan finally turned his head around, and looked at Tom suspiciously, “They need totem pillars just to select men for a strong labor force?”

Tom was just about to explain, when Overseer Ceci saw that the slaves had pretty much already assembled, and raised his hand in a graceful gesture to indicate that they gather before him.

“Aiyaya, you young and strong fellows, come here, come here! Someone has something to tell you!”

Immediately, goose bumps prickled all over Jiang Nan’s body, and taking a look, beside Tom who was extremely eager to get rid of his identity as a slave, the other slaves were also subtly scratching their arms.

Overseer Ceci began to talk as if addressing children: “The reason someone has come here, is because of two issues~! First, to select two thousand strong slaves to go to Rhein headquarters in Celestial Flower City to become the common residents there… It’s easy~ All of you will carry fifty kilograms of rice and run three laps around the threshing floor. The first two thousand to complete the three laps will be chosen!”
“As for the second matter… Teehee, this person has come to pick out some strong men to enter Rhein headquarters’ directly subordinate army!”

Join the army?!

The threshing floor had lapsed into absolute silence.

If the word ‘common residents’ excited the slaves to the point of trembling, then joining the army… would get them stirred up to the point that they would go insane!

On the Yuanzhi Continent, the status and treatment of soldiers were the top of the top among all occupations. Even if it was just the most ordinary military cook, he would be paid twelve silver coins per month! In other words, as long as one was a soldier for half a year, it would be sufficient to buy the strongest male slave in the market!

“Yi? How come none of you are talking anymore?”

Overseer Ceci all at once clapped his hands in front of his chest, “Ah, I understand~! All of you are so excited that you can’t even say one word, right?!”

No longer did anyone think that Overseer Ceci effeminacy was disgusting. On the contrary, all of the slaves thought that he had a f***ing heavenly voice!

“But, don’t get too happy just yet! The Rheinhardt Clan’s army isn’t a place that just anyone can enter. Those who wish to join… must possess ‘innate totem talent’!”

Sweeping a glance over those twelve totem pillars, Jiang Nan had already guessed what their purpose was.

As expected, Overseer Ceci swung his bottom around and went near the totem pillars. Patting the pillars, he said: “See these twelve pillars? They’re here to check whether you have ‘innate totem talent’ or not. Remember, after running, you are to come directly here to the totem pillar area. As long as the totem pillar shows that you have innate totem talent, then you have the opportunity to become a noble totem master… Aiya, congratulations~ You would become grand soldiers~!”

At this moment, the troops’ general stood out and shouted: “Right now, listen to my orders! Every slave heft up a sack of rice and start running! After you’ve finished running, go straight to the totem pillars and assemble there to start checking your innate talent!”

“Yes!!!”

Tom, who had long since prepared, answered with a loud shout, and gathering his strength, he picked up fifty kilograms worth of rice and began dashing towards the very front like a madman, “Don’t you guys know? I’m definitely going to be number one!”

Other slaves stared blankly, then immediately reacted. One rushing past Li Xuan urgently shouted at him: “Younger brother, what are you spacing out for?! If you want to become a common resident and join the army, run!”

“To no longer be a slave, run!”

Amidst the fanatical charging of several thousand slaves, Jiang Nan seemed noticeably weird. He was taking his time as he heaved a fifty kilogram sack of rice and ran alongside fifty-some year old slaves in the very last group.

In reality, Jiang Nan’s physical condition was even stronger than Tom’s by a few levels, and if he truly wanted to get first place, almost nobody would be able to outrun him. But he couldn’t run and get first place, much less become a common person thousands of miles away from here!

Or else, who would take care of Auntie Alisa who cared for him and him for her?!

It took about eight or nine hundred meters to run a circle around the threshing floor, and for those who ran quickly, they could reach the finish line in twenty-some minutes.

Tom really was number one, and was exhausted to the point that he was gasping for air. But, he still forced himself to control his breaths and stick out his chest, yelling loudly: “Lord Officer, do you know? My name is Tom!”

“Very good, resident Tom. This is proof that you’ve broken away from your identity as a slave!”

At once, the officer handed a small badge to Tom, then tore off the red cloth on one of the totem pillars, shouting: “Resident Tom, I now command you! Put your back to the pillar, close your eyes, and sense the environment around you. The totem pillar will determine the circumstances surrounding your innate talent!”

So this was the method of determining one’s innate totem talent?

Jiang Nan who still had two laps left to go looked curiously over, and only saw Tom with his back to the totem pillar and his hands tightly clasped, constantly mouthing his prayers, “Don’t you know? Don’t you know, don’t you know that I’m so very excited right now?”

Suddenly!

Boom, boom, boom!

The ground reverberated with ripples of booming sounds, and immediately after, a humongous, circular dark cloud appeared atop the totem pillar. On top of the dark cloud was a clearly jagged, palm-sized rock.

What did this mean? Tom looked nervously towards the officer…

The officer laughed, “With a rock-like physique, you can communicate naturally with stones, and have the potential to summon rocks as your ‘faith totem’! Mr. Tom, you are no longer just a common resident, and have the opportunity to become a noble rock totem master of the Rheinhardt Clan, a guard directly subordinate to headquarters! Congratulations!”

“Yes!”

Tom lifted his head, and with his face streaming with tears, he broken-heartedly cried out, “Father, Grandfather, Great-grandfather, Great-great-grandfather… Do you guys know? Tom is no longer a slave anymore! Tom is a grand soldier!”

“Congratulations, Tom…”

With a bitter laugh, Jiang Nan ran even slower in gloomy silence.

[billybuton]

Thanks again for the update...

If you can, put the your blog ( the update / new chapter ) at aho-updates.com

[unis777]

Thanks again for the update...

If you can, put the your blog ( the update / new chapter ) at aho-updates.com

Sorry! I'll try to get it on there as soon as I can!

[billybuton]

Sorry! I'll try to get it on there as soon as I can!

LOL.. you don't have to say sorry... it's just suggestion... coz alot of people visit the site ( aho-updates ) looking
for new update of web novel translation..

[unis777]

Oops. Just realized I forgot to post Chapter 6: Ghost Totem - https://ceruleonice.wordpress.com/totem/chapter-6/

[unis777]

Hehe whoops...! Forgot again ._.
Chapter 7: Good-for-Nothing, or Genius? - https://ceruleonice.wordpress.com/totem/chapter-7/

[unis777]

Chapter 8: Exploiting the Power of a Nation, Enticing a Ruler’s Favor is out! https://ceruleonice.wordpress.com/totem/chapter-8/

[unis777]

Chapter 9: Twenty Seconds, Golden Inch Blade Again out!
https://ceruleonice.wordpress.com/totem/chapter-9/