Ten Years Lantern on a Stormy Martial Arts World Night Chapter 1

Two hundred years ago, in the immortal-devil war, the Ancestor Beichen sacrificed themselves for our victory. 

Ever since then, times have been mostly peaceful.

Why mostly? Because where there are people, there is Jianghu. There will be people who have more and people who have less. A pot lid will hit the handle when closed, much less people. People will squabble over the smallest, stupidest things. Even if Ancestor Beichen returned from the dead, Beichen could not stop this. 

After Beichen's sacrifice, the six disciples of Ancestor Beichen held a great funeral for Beichen. They stayed together in Beichen's abode at the top of Wan Shui Qian Shan Mountain. They lived the carefree life. They practiced martial arts and cultivated their literary arts. Every once in a while, they would hold a memorial service to commiserate the heroic deeds of their shifu. 

The six disciples spent twenty years together like this. At this point, each of them had their own families which included were expanding at a rapid rate. Then at 20 years, they suddenly realized 3 things: 

Firstly, even though the six of them were as close as can be, and there was nothing they could not solve between each other, the same could not be said of their wives, their children and their disciples (and their children's disciples, and their cousins' ... you get the picture).

Secondly, the six disciples originally thought that with the passing of their shifu, they would be alone in the world. And so they would have to survive by relying on each other. But their children and disciples went down the mountain, and they discovered that even their unpolished, scrappy skills (so bad compared to their shifu) was enough to astound the world. (Maybe even dominate it.)

Thirdly, as the saying goes: light and dark exist together. While the demons were annihilated by Ancestor Beichen, just in a decade or two, news of new demonic cults were starting to spread. The old demonic cult leader was rumored to have a hand in the eventual death of Ancestor Beichen. So the disciples of Beichen could not sit still. They decided to spread around the world, each creating their own cultivation sect to protect against the return of evil. 

All that to say, the martial brothers were splitting up. 

In regards to this drama nearly two hundred years ago, the young boy Cai Han grumbled, “Aren't they just dividing the family? Why do they have to ramble on and on? As if they never fought while on Wan Shui Qian Shan Mountain.” He was a poor child that now had to memorize this as history. 

Cai Han's elder sister now gave him a flick on the head. “Silly, can the dividing of the righteous sects be called ‘dividing the family’?”

Cai Han rubbed his head. “Then what do you call it?”

The young girl Cai Zhao had a face of righteousness as she proclaimed, “Of course it's to promote justice in the world! The descendents of Ancestor Beichen had to endure the pain of separation. This was so they can protect us from the terrible villanous and devil cultivators!”

This was what she had learned a few days ago while crouching beside uncle casserole seller's stall. The most important thing when you are travelling through the Jianghu (martial arts world) is to have a "zinger". In the Jianghu you might not always get into a physical fight, but you will always find use in a witty, striking remark. 

“Well said! My Zhao'er said it very well. When you journey through the Jianghu, always remember, your actions can be beautiful or not. But your words should always be beautiful.” Their aunt, Cai Ping Shu, clapped her hands as she spoke. She was so sick she rarely got out of bed, yet her withered and yellow face smiled free and easy. 

The young boy and girl's father, Cai Ping Chun, stood at one side. A person that never had acting skills since birth, he struggled but was unable to force a smile. Cai furen Ning Xiao Feng sat by the bed with a bowl of medicine. She gently blew on a spoonful, but a teardrop fell in the bowl. 

They knew this day would eventually come. But when it really happened, their hearts hurt with sadness. 

Twelve year old Cai Zhao blinked her eyes, her long lashes caressing her cheeks, as if premonitioning the sadness that would arrive. 

Within a few days, Aunt Cai Ping Shu passed away. Cai Zhao fell sick immediately. It took a while for the little girl to recover. In honor of her aunt, she observed funeral rites* for 3 years. 

The twelve year old girl was now fifteen. Cai Ping Chun proposed that it was time for Cai Zhao to become a disciple. He had even contacted the martial arts sect and arranged everything. Qing Que Sect-- the only sect descended from Ancestor Beichen who remained on Wan Shui Qian Shan Mountain. They were the number one sect in the martial arts world. On the martial arts world ranking, they took the top spot. This was pretty impressive, right? 

Cai Zhao was still too sad to become a disciple. “Let's wait a bit.”

“If we wait any more, you'll be eighteen!” Her father cried. “If you don't become the disciple of a righteous sect before you're eighteen, do you want to become a devil cultivator?!” 

Cai Zhao's delicate eyebrows frowned. “I like staying at home. Outside doesn't have the food I like to eat or the place I like to sleep. I won't be used to it. Dad, I don't leave the house and haven't gotten in trouble, how can that make me a devil cultivator?”

“Is there a single market stall that you’re not familiar with in town? That counts as not leaving the house? You’re always out around the streets…” Ning Xiao Feng snorted. She saw her husband give her a look, so she corrected her attitude.

Gently, she said, “Your great grandmother’s parents thought so. They thought about how sickly their daughter was. How she couldn’t even get up and go buy makeup in the market. How could anything happen if she just stayed at home? And look what happened. Even the demonic cult’s devil cultivators pale in comparison to the chaos she caused! So, go to Wan Shui Qian Shan Mountain for 3 years. It’s ok if you go and don’t learn anything. It’ll stop other people from gossiping about you—this was also your aunt’s wish!”

“Your mother is absolutely right.” Cai Ping Chun clapped his hands on the table with finality. And it was settled like this.

Cai Zhao puffed out her tender cheeks, feeling extremely resentful in her heart. 

Aunt Cai Pingshu was the person Cai Zhao respected and loved the most in her life. Aunt was upright and virtuous throughout her life and could be called the light of the righteous path. However, Cai Zhou had no ambition since she was a child. She just wanted to get up after a full sleep and dip her fingers in water, paint herself pink with makeup, eat delicious food and drink. She had no aspirations beyond this in life.

Now that her hero has passed away, Cai Zhao was in pain, but she also hoped that she can act like her role model. To act like Aunt who had great moral character and actions, and fulfill Aunt Cai Pingshu's wishes... Ah, but it would also be great if she did not have to leave Luoying Valley. She can follow Aunt in other ways, ah.

This struggle existed because the Cai family in Luoying Valley has a strange destiny - the daughters of the Cai family must become a disciple of another family and cannot stay in her own family to grow up. Otherwise, she would cause trouble at minimum, or cause seriously earth-rendering catastrophe at worst.

In the early days, the descendants of Beichen all lived together on the Qian Shan Wan Shui Mountain. The children of the six families were indistinguishable from each other. It was often that the son of family A learned swordsmanship from the uncle of family Y, and he learned sabre skills from the uncle of the B family, and then he went to the the eldest brother of the C family to learn how to ride a horse and to flirt with girls. At that time, the Cai family's daughter's problem was not obvious yet. At most she fought petty squabbles with her bothers and sisters.

As soon as the families separated, the first daughter of the Cai family who grew up in her own family started the path of being a Villainess like no one else could - she was unruly and rebellious, arrogant and despotic, a pity about her extremely high martial arts talent. No matter how much her parents persuaded her, she still went her own way, looking for secrets on martial arts and ferocious beasts and birds of prey in every nook and cranny of the martial arts world, and at last, she indeed got into great trouble.

This female ancestor was quite candid, and disappeared without waiting for others to settle the score with her. She disappeared from the martial arts world. She left an impression on the world. In the past few decades, martial arts practitioners all over the world would only shake their heads when they mentioned Luoying Valley.

After another generation or two, after passing through several unscrupulous daughters of the 'ordinary level', the new female devil of the Cai family exceeded all her predecessors. She not only acted with no regards to the law and rules of the martial arts world, in the end she got together with the greatest devil of the demonic sect. It forced her biological father to lead the righteous martial artists to exterminate her for justice. He personally led the righteous people to encircle and suppress the demonic sect and clean up the family - but this matter later fell through, because the female ancestor also followed the same pattern and walked away and disappeared.

Although these first few Villainesses had brilliant achievements, the person who really sealed the strange fate of the Cai family was Cai Zhao's great-aunt, who was said to be as angry as a gossamer for eleven months of the year.

For nearly a hundred years, the Cai family practiced strict adherence to their family rule. The daughters were constantly sent to the brothers' sects to eliminate disasters. The Cai family has not had a female devil for a long time. When this great-aunt was born with a congenital defect, Cai Guzhu and his wife felt sorry for their daughter's frailty and could not help but relax their vigilance and leave her at home to recuperate. Unexpectedly, it later set off a bloody storm that was shook the world.

From then on, the Cai family no longer dared to take chances. Whenever a daughter was born, they would contact the brothers' sects (honestly to see which master at that time had a good temper. And loose rules. The most important was that the martial arts sect was loose and not too restrictive of freedom. The Cai family did not wish for their daughter to come back learned, or to become a heroine, or to be accomplished in the world. They only wanted their daughter to be safe and happy, mayhaps if they were lucky, their daughter could also come back with a son-in-law.

For example, Cai Zhao's aunt, Cai Pingshu joined Peiqiong Villa Sect, one of the six Beichen sects, at the age of ten.

And looking at it the other way around, as long as the daughter of the Cai family obediently joined another sect, she will be either gentle and virtuous or be a beacon of righteousness. The current ceiling for the Cai's daughters was Cai Pingshu, a heroine of the generation. Not only had she been astonishingly talented since she was young, she was stunningly beautiful, famous all over the world, and able to turn the tide of disaster. She could also have a lovely marriage and a happy family.

So from this we could see, history was a tough taskmaster, and Cai Zhao had no choice under this pressure but to travel far away from home and go find a teacher to avert disaster.

Valley Master Cai Pingchun, who has been used to being bossed around by his sister Cai Pingshu since he was a child, was quite efficient in sorting out general affairs. In just three days, he got the luggage and servants ready for their trip to Qingque Mansion in Jiuli Mountain.

On the day of departure, there was a huge crowd of valley residents and townspeople who came to see her off. Cai Zhao held her handkerchief with tears in her eyes and kept waving to the outside of the carriage. Ning Xiaofeng dragged her daughter back from the window.

Cai Zhao sighed with tears in her eyes: "Without me, how lonely the shopkeepers of the many shops in the town will be."

Ning Xiaofeng huffed. "Look outside the carriage. Are the people seeing you off with tears streaming down their faces, or are they beaming with joy?"

Cai Zhao looked closely and saw that the situation was exactly as her mother said. She stopped crying immediately, and felt a bit aggrieved. "Sure enough, there are so many heartless people in the world - the boss of the rouge shop said that I was the most insightful customer he had ever encountered, and the silk shop owner, a few days ago he also said that it was the luck of three lifetimes to meet an astute shopper like me."

Ning Xiaofeng casually remarked, "Was he being sarcastic?"

Younger brother Cai Han was curious. "Mom, what's the opposite of the luck of three lifetimes?"

Ning Xiaofeng rubbed her ears. "A walking disaster.”

Cai Han sat in his father's arms and giggled. 

Cai Zhao said angrily: "These shops are really short-sighted and ignorant. The reason why our Luoying Town has become the most popular market within a hundred miles in just over ten years is because we have always adhered to my aunt's wishes, no matter what the seller is. Whether it's food, clothing or dental work, we all strive to be honest, strive for excellence, buy from the best, and have a good reputation."

Cai Han muttered, "But my sister is too particular. To eat a bowl of wontons, you have to make the wonton filling from 70% front leg meat and 30% shrimp paste. Why does it have to be the front leg, why not the hind leg..."

Cai Zhao looked surprised. "Hind leg is okay if we make braised bone sauce and pork. Of course the clear soup wontons require front leg meat. The hind leg meat is so thick and hard, can’t you tell?"

The three other members of the Cai family shook their heads in unison. A small wonton had that tiny bit of meat in it, who could tell?

Cai Zhao shook her head and sighed.

"You guys are too easygoing. Why are the cooking skills of so many century-old shops stagnant? It's because you careless customers are so used to it. Alas, what my aunt said is right. ‘I have worked hard for the people of the world, and yet the people have many misunderstandings of me’..."

The Cai couple couldn't bear it anymore and covered their ears together.

Cai Zhao struggled to plead again: "Father, mother, since it doesn't matter whether I learn martial arts or not, why do we have to go to the Qingque Sect? I heard that we have a new Qingzhu Gang outside Luoying Valley. I think it is very good. I go and worship that gang leader as my teacher. I can go out in the morning, and go back to home to sleep at night."

Cai Pingchun frowned and said, "The Qingzhu Gang was originally formed by hoodlums who were rowing bamboo rafts on the river. They can only be considered semi-part of the martial arts world..."

"Dad, you can't say that. Gang Leader Wang is somewhat famous for his seven-seven-forty-nine martial arts moves with a sailing paddle."

Ning Xiaofeng said casually, "Isn't that the name you came up with a few months ago and then persuaded Uncle Casserole to tell Gang Leader Wang."

Cai Zhao’s lips puckered.

Ning Xiaofeng continued: "To say that the Qingzhu Gang is ranked among the lowest is giving them some face. Truthfully speaking, they may not even rank. If would rather go there than the number one Qingque Sect, then our number one sect will get a slap in the face. But to be honest, I don’t like your future master…”

Cai Pingchun coughed.

"...your future master's wife." Ning Xiaofeng completed in time. "But, your aunt personally agreed for you to go to Qingque Sect, so weigh that yourself."

Cai Zhao sighed. "...Okay."

~*~

T/N (translator's note): And that's the end of chapter one! Please leave me a comment if you enjoyed or want to chat. Thanks for reading :)

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