Before you guys get too excited, this is NOT a translation of the whole novel but a collection of meaningful scenes between our two leads. In other words, I am skipping right over 90% of the novel (palace intrigue, war, haram of male second leads, etc.) and just translating some of my favorite parts of the novel. My Wednesday post is dedicated to Journey of Flower translation so it looks like I will be making Monday posts The Rise of Phoenixes translation for the next bit.
Before we get started, here are a few important things to keep in mind about the novel vs the drama:
- In the drama, our heroine is really an idealistic young girl who stays firmly rooted in the “good guy” camp. In fact, I am trying to remember if we have actually seen our heroine kill someone in the drama. She must’ve in all the fights she was in but do you guys remember if we actually saw her killing someone? In contrast, Feng Zhi Wei in the novel has no qualms taking lives. She is a fighter who will end up commending armies, this is a girl who has never had an issue when it comes to ending her enemies’ lives. As brutal as the world in the drama was, the novel’s world was worse and our heroine is someone who had learned how to survive…even if it meant sacrificing innocent lives along the way so the rest of the people could have a fighting chance. This is a huge difference to keep in mind because it will resurface again and again as we go along.
- Our hero’s dream of creating a nation where villains will be punished and good people can prosper is the centerpiece of the drama…but that’s not the case in the novel. That’s not to say our two leads didn’t harbor the same dream per say but Ning Yi’s whole fight for the throne was more about survival than anything. There was simply no way he would be allowed to live if one of his older brothers ended up being the next emperor. A side note is that Ning Yi’s brothers weren’t anywhere near as hard to kill as they were in the drama. In the novel, the emperor has always been Ning Yi’s true foe while his brother was just obstacles he had to get rid off one by one when he gets around to it.
- Like our heroine, our hero in the novel can’t really be described as a “good” guy in the traditional sense. Just like our hero in Fuyao, Ning Yi is someone born to rule and because of the power and the scary intelligence they possess, people are like pawns on a chessboard to them. Every move Ning Yi makes is for the end goal and for the greater good so while he will try to minimize the cost of innocent blood he also realizes the necessity of it and certainly doesn’t lose sleep over it.
- This doesn’t really come up in the drama, but the fact that our heroine is the last remaining descendent of our two leads in Fuyao is pretty vital in the novel. The Bloody Pagoda, an organization that ended up being a pawn controlled by the crown prince then a bunch of other people in the drama was never one that could be controlled by anyone other than Zhi Wei herself in the novel. Having foreseen the calamities that would befall their last remaining descendent hundreds of years ago, the Emperor and Empress of Da Cheng (our two leads in Fuyao) had set up The Bloody Pagoda and gave them their only mission- protect Zhi Wei and support her in whatever she wants to do. The Bloody Pagoda as an organization has never had any interest in bringing back the nation of Da Cheng because they were expressly told by their creator that Da Cheng’s time to end will eventually come and their only charge was to protect Zhi Wei. Unlike the drama where The Bloody Pagoda was more like a loose group of men who were simply trained fighters, the Bloody Pagoda in the novel was made up of a group of people that could topple nations if they so choose.
Our two leads first meeting:
- The first chapters open with our heroine watching coldly as her uncle’s concubine falls into an icy pond. The concubine has enjoyed torturing Mama Fong and had even tried to have her relatives force themselves on Zhi Wei. Zhi Wei ended up getting dragged into the lake by the concubine but she quickly freed herself and kicked the concubine down to accelerate the woman’s death.
- Zhi Wei begins to climb out of the lake only to find our hero standing in her way, staring right at her.
Zhi Wei stares right into a pair of dark black eyes, beautiful eyes that threaten to drown anyone who dares to look into it. Crossing her arms protectively around her chest, Zhi Wei finds herself wondering if the people of this world would only notice the beauty of that face and not notice the utter coldness in those eyes.
“Move, please.” Pointing her head slightly towards at the man’s feet, Zhi Wei asks.
Not moving, the man stares at the Zhi Wei standing in the shallow water. Her wet hair spread around her, revealing a graceful petite face with a pair of eyes that seems to be staring through a thin muslin.
Certainly a fragile and harmless looking girl.
With a…a face that surprises him. (Our heroine spends most of the time in a disguise in the novel. Real disguises involving face mask (the sort that’s skin thin and changes her features) not just tying her hair up. Our hero’s surprise in seeing Zhi Wei’s face is a big hint to Zhi Wei’s real identity which will come up later.)
Covering her chest skillfully with her arms, Zhi Wei doesn’t seem to be embarrassed to be in such an awkward position nor is she flustered to be caught killing someone. Standing calmly in the water, Zhi Wei meets the man’s piercing stare without flinching.
Trying to disguise one’s self under such a pair of eyes is futile.
After a long moment, the man’s cool and aloof voice asks “You are planning to come up like this?”
Turning her hand around, Zhi Wei can see her uncle’s fifth concubine has already sunk into the pond.
“What if she floats up again?” His eyes on the far corner of the pond, the man continues “At that point, you who is in charge of clearing this part of the yard, how are you going to respond to the interrogations then?”
Zhi Wei doesn’t think the man is worrying about her, judging by the tone in his voice, it seems more of a test but why should she let a complete stranger test her?
“Oh? Interrogation?” Soaking wet, Zhi Wei walks out and flicks a few droplets towards the man. As expected, the man immediately moved out of the way.
“Fifth concubine fell into the pond while she was here meeting someone.” Zhi Wei ties up her hair and touches her face with some regret. The special paint on the concubine’s nail and the lake water were the perfect combination to wipe off the yellowish dye on her face. Due to her mother’s request, these last few years she had disguised her face with yellow dye. It had lessened a lot of trouble for her but now, all her work was for naught.
With a shrug, Zhi Wei turns around and smiles at the man “The one that should ready an explanation seems to be you.”
“To meet with me?” Giving Zhi Wei a long meaningful smile, the man asks “But, Miss, the one I was supposed to meet seems to be you and not some aged concubine.”
Returning a soft harmless smile, Zhi Wei replies “Is that right? That is surely my honor. Then, Sir…what’s my name?”
His smile deepening, the man suddenly pulls Zhi Wei towards him and whispers by her ear “You will tell me your name yourself sooner or later…”
Startled to suddenly find herself in the man’s arms, Zhi Wei struggles but finds the man completely unmovable. Despite the man’s ethereal beauty and gentle looking hands, the man is obviously an extremely good fighter.
Unused to the cool minty smell that suddenly overwhelmed her senses, Zhi Wei frowns and attempts to struggle again until she hears the sound of steps.
A deep voice demands “Where is Yu Hua? I told her to greet the guest at the lobby, why is she nowhere to be seen?”
Her heart skips a beat, Zhi Wei recognize the voice- the voice belongs to her uncle. General Qiu Shang Qi, the most respected general in front of the Emperor.
And Yu Hua…she is at the bottom of the pond right now.
Someone seems to be reporting something to Qiu Shang Qi in a low voice, but the voice was cut off when he exclaims “Ah! So you are here…”
The man replies “I was just walking around. Why? Can I not?”
“Of course not.” Qiu Shang Qi immediately bows and replies in a nervous tone.
Confused by the exchange, Zhi Wei sense that his uncle’s words might have a deferential tone but there wasn’t enough respect in it. The man’s words were strange as well…
“Concubine Yu Hua is especially skilled in dancing and music. She was supposed to come serve you.” Giving the man an awkward laugh, Qiu Shang Qi explains “But she suddenly fell ill…”
“I have seen her already.” The man’s answers in a nonchalant voice as Zhi Wei’s raised eyebrows meet his amused gaze.
Yes, he did see her…at the bottom of the pond.
Their eyes meet as a silent question and answer ensued.
…Can you guess what I am going to say?
…That’s your business.
…Scared?
…A life for a life, there is nothing I can say to that.
The woman’s eyes were smiling the whole time, hiding her true emotions other than the fingertips resting on his heart that felt slightly cool…. Rising an eyebrow suddenly, the man wonders why even through the layers of winter clothes he can still feel the coolness of her hands. It is his imagination? Or is it his old ailment that is coming back?
It has been a long time since his old ailment came back…to come back at this very moment….
Holding the woman’s gaze, he can’t figure out what this feeling is.
What an interesting person…
Collecting all the thoughts that had flashed crossed his mind in an instant, he turns to meet Qiu Shang Qi’s questioning gaze.
“Oh, I killed her.”
The words were said breezily, like he was talking about stepping on an ant.
His eyes widening in shock, Qiu Shang Qi stares at the man’s cool indifferent smile as he sucks in an involuntary breath. Qiu Shang Qi belatedly remembers the rumor that has been going around the Captial, rumors about this man’s brutal and cruel personality that hides behind his heavenly beauty. Blanketing his shocked expression in the next instant, Qiu Shang Qi replies calmly “…that’s fine then. I guess my concubine must have offended you somehow?…”
Cutting off Qiu Shang Qi’s words, the man flicks off some imaginary dirt on his sleeve and replies in a voice as cold as the winter snow “To kill someone…is there a reason needed?”
I sure hope I didn’t dash too many people’s lovely image of our two leads with this opening. The novel is pretty different from the drama. In a lot of ways, the drama made some great and necessary changes to the story but I hope as we go along you guys will see that our two leads in the novel are still quite awesome in different ways.
“To kill someone…is there a reason needed?”
“Is there a reason needed?”
“Is there a need?”
“Isn’t there?”
Wrapped in a half dried cloth, Zhi Wei drags a broom behind her as she keeps on repeating the man’s arrogant declaration.
Who would’ve thought such words could come from a man who looked so graceful and exquisite. Zhi Wei had always thought of herself as quite good at controlling her expression under any circumstance, but even she couldn’t stop herself from blinking in speechlessness when she heard the bold declaration.
Zhi Wei had thought for sure her uncle would’ve flown off into a rage or at least expressed displeasure but instead, her uncle had coughed twice, seemingly used to the man’s way of speaking. Her uncle had tried to peak around to see her face that was shielded by the man but for some reason, her uncle never tried to come close.
After a few more words, her uncle was promptly sent on his way. Once her uncle left, the man lets go of her and walked off as well. However, before the man left, he had given her a long meaningful look…a look that sent chills through her.
Hugging herself, Zhi Wei lets out a long sigh. Such terrible luck! After holding it in for so many years she gets caught the first time she killed. In the end, the man didn’t give her a hard time and had even helped her but Zhi Wei is not so naive as to think all is well…because she clearly saw his intention to kill the first time their eyes met. That’s why she froze in the pond, not daring to move a single muscle.
“The feeling of being on the chopping block while someone else is holding the cleaver is sure unpleasant…” Sighing again, Zhi Wei waves the broom around wondering when she could be as arrogant as the man…
If she could be like that, then she wouldn’t have to kneel in the snow forced to drink someone’s foot-washing water.
If she could be like that, then no dirty men would try to force themselves on her.
If she could be like that, then she wouldn’t have to live under someone else’s roof, unable to do anything while watching her mother suffer silently because of her and her brother.
Sniggering at her own wild dreams, Zhi Wei drags the broom behind her and keeps walking. Why would someone who couldn’t even live past the age of twenty think of all these useless things? (Because of her bloodline, Zhi Wei has inherited certain things that have the potential to make her very strong but if she can’t figure out a way to release their power then they will kill her eventually. She won’t find out about this until much later, so right now our heroine just believes something is wrong with her body and she won’t live past the age of twenty.)
Zhi Wei slowly makes her way out of the garden but doesn’t realize that behind the garden wall there was a pair of eyes that have been silently staring at her…taking in all the confusion and helplessness in her expression.
After a long moment…
“Ning Cheng.”
“Oh.”
“Do you think…” The man puts up the collar around his robe as he asks with a cold smile “She should be killed? She spoiled my plans, plus, I keep feeling…some danger.”
“Master.” A rather ordinary looking man dressed in all grey casts a look at the woman that is walking further and further away, used his fingers to count for a moment then replies “Half of an hour.”
Half of an hour meaning that it will take that long to kill the person and wipe away all the evidence.
Turning to look at his guard who has an unusually good instinct, the man taps a finger on the chin and says with half smile “You have become slower lately.”
“This woman is a bit different.” Replying with all seriousness, Ning Cheng explains “She gives me a very familiar feeling. A bit dark, a bit weird, a bit cold, a bit despicable.” Cocking his head, Ning Cheng thought for a moment with an expression of confusion “Like…”
The man raises an eyebrow, laughter in his eyes. A bit dark, a bit weird, a bit cold…a bit despicable.
As the man guessed, a look of realization soon dawns on his guard’s face as he claps his hands excitedly “Like Master!”
“……” Smiling as he stares at his joyful guard, the man asks “Is that right?”
Completely clueless, Ning Cheng nods fiercely and replies “YES!”
Another guard dressed in grey who has been silent the whole time wipes away the cold sweat on his brow and drags Ning Cheng away…
A half smile hovering on his lips as he stares at the fast retreating figure of his two loyal guards, the man turns towards the direction Zhi Wei had disappeared to. His eyes twinkling in interest as he remembers the woman’s face- a face that completely surprised him. After a moment, the man laughs out loud.
“….like me?”
Lazily accepting a cloak with dragon embroidery patterns from another guard, the man casts another look around before walking off with a soft smile.
“If that’s the case, then I will wait and see.” The man’s laugh wasn’t loud but the vibration of it shook the surrounding trees until the leaves start to fall, “I will see if she, like me, could survive in this storm-tossed Capital. I will see if she…”
With a pause, the man’s words suddenly turn ice cold as a plum blossom perched on the tallest branch suddenly turns to dust “….can live past three months.”
A side note on our two leads’ fighting ability… As I have mentioned a few time, this world is set in the same one as Fuyao was. Now, Fuyao involved a whole lot more fantasy elements since our leads were immortal themselves so the villains they dealt with were super villains as well. By the time the Rise of Phoenixes come along, hundreds of years have passed and the human world seemed to have fewer dealings with immortals so their abilities and power were more legends than something ordinary people could come across. Which is why on the whole, the world of The Rise of Pheonixes stuck to your more traditional palace intrigue. However, the story IS still set in Fuyao’s world and our two leads are no ordinary people so both of our leads have/or will have impressive (supernatural in our standard) fighting abilities. Anyhow, I wrote all that to explain the somewhat puzzling description of why the plum blossom turned to dust…
This also explains why the Bloody Pagoda was not an organization anyone could mess with or control. The Bloody Pagoda had all the good stuff from their masters (our two leads in Fuyao) so they had more special abilities and goodies than even the Emperor.
All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com
Wow, imagine if they had opened with that scene in the drama! Forget about helpless damsels in distress and gallant boring knights – these two characters are sure memorable. I’m intrigued and look forward to Mondays now. Thanks for your translations, Ninja!
Haha, that would’ve been an interesting opening scene. After translating this scene I actually thought “Hmm…I wondered if I just scared off everyone who kept asking for translations of the novel??”
Dear Ninja, is there a way that we can show our gratitude? For example in a form of money? I myself really appreciate your work and would like to at least give something in return… 🙂
Thank you SO much for your kindness! I actually haven’t given thought to your question at all so this came as a surprise, but a much-appreciated surprise and makes me feel all warm inside. As a blogger I think most of us eventually come to a point where we question our sanity once we calculate how much money we could’ve made if we worked at a minimum wage job for the number of hours we put on our blog, but of course readers like you makes it all worth it then.
Back to your question, I am not super tech savvy so I am fairly clueless about what options are out there but I will for sure start thinking! 🙂
I can only speak for myself but I’m sure that your selfless efforts of translating novels surely keep you followers’ spirits and some would give whatever they could afford. I truly do not have any words that even remotely express how thankful I am and I think it is only fair to give you support in some ways even if through and imho much reasonable donations. Hahah I don’t know much how this stuff works either, but I think maybe you could open an account on the famous Patreon or add a Paypal donation button here? It’s a shame that you lost your precious blog and such site as Patreon could rebuild your fame and assemble once again your fans 🙂 Be sure to check it out and take your time!
I will be sure to check it out! Thank you for the suggestion!
This is great and many thanks Ninja! Can ‘t wait to read more.
Thank you so much for the work. Can’t wait to experience the characters again through the novel (even if it’s not the whole thing)! Something to look forward to on Mondays XD
Love it! I second Joy W.
Love your translations. Thank you so much Ninja!
Thanks for the translation! Do you know if the local book publisher has come out with the English translation of the novel? This wikipedia entry seems to suggest there is an English volume, but I don’t see any more info about an English translation version anywhere else.
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A9%E7%9B%9B%E9%95%B7%E6%AD%8C
I followed the link but it was the Chinese wikipedia page for the drama. I didn’t see a reference to English publication (at least novel wise). Which section did you see it at? As far as I know, I don’t believe there is an English translation coming out..but then I am not searching for one either, so do let me know if you end up finding one because that would mean I can stop my Monday translation posts… 🙂
On that link, under 2018 07, it says “附 擢英卷.” Does that mean there is an English volume available?
Ahh, I see where the confusion came from. The third Chinese character is the same word as “English” but in this instance, it actually means elite (even though it is the same Chinese character…). “附 擢英卷” means the author had included a test paper that our heroine had taken. The test is called 擢英卷 which means “Selection of Elites”, in another word, a test to pull the elite out of ordinary. So it is an extra bit that contains our heroine’s written answers to the emperor’s questions.
This is better than the movie…….
Thanks!!! Great translation! We will be waiting for next monday!
Thank you so much!!!
Thank you so much for this translated excerpt from the novel, as well as the additional commentary. It is very informative and sheds a new light on the characters for sure.
I have thoroughly enjoyed this series on Netflix. Thankfully they have all 70 episodes. I have watched the entire series and some episode several times in an attempt to fully understand the back story and history of the Empire. However, I have a couple of questions that I still can’t seem to find the answers for. Hopefully, you can help.
1. What is Ning Yi’s recurring illness? And how long has he had it?
2. What was the full reason that Ning Yi was locked away for 8 years? I gather that he was only 18 at the time, but I can’t find a complete explanation.
Thanks in advance for your reply and assistance.
Keep up the great work… I have so enjoyed your site and look forward to your new posts.
Warm regards!
Ning Yi was poisoned since he was eight. He had fallen into a coma after that fateful night with Bloody Pagoda. By the time he woke up, his mother had “died” and he suddenly went from a beloved son of his father to one that had fallen out of favor with the Emperor. The guess is that Ning Yi was poisoned by his brothers while he was in his coma.
In the drama, Ning Yi was locked away for eight years because he had tried to save the third prince. Remember that whole revenge thing with the crown prince? The crown prince had famed the third prince for treason and took the opportunity to kill the third prince. Ning Yi had shown up with an army to try to save the third prince but he wasn’t able to save his beloved brother. (FYI, this part is quite different in the book so our hero was never locked up.) Trying to save his brother= supporting his brother’s rebellion against the emperor so that’s why our hero ended up where he did.
Awesome! Thank you soooo much for using your valuable time for this. With no hope of ever learning the language, I sincerely appreciate the effort.
Soy de Perú, y no sabes como aprecio tu traducción. Habrá algún día traducción al español?espero que si.
Debe ser muy hermoso el libro.
Lo busco al autor para saber de algo pero nunca encuentro nada.
De que año es el libro?
Por favor si pueden me responden.
The web novel (Huang Quan) was published 2010 while the novel itself was published in book form in 2012 (republished again in 2016) The author’s pen name: Tianxia Gui Yuan.(天下归元)
Muchas gracias por tu respuesta es muy valiosa. por favor en que pagina web esta el libro? me lo podrías enviar el link.
No hay ninguna información del autor, no encuentro nada sobre èl en internet.
The novel in Chinese is 凰权. If you plug that into google search there should be plenty of sites that have the novel on it.
Reviewers on Rotton Tomatoes said that the drama covers only half of the book. Is this correct? What happen for the half of the book?
Thank you for translating. You are the best!
Nope, the drama covered the whole novel…sort of. The drama deviated quite a bit from the novel so there are parts in the drama that never happened in the novel and there are things in the novel that were never shown in the drama (since it wouldn’t work with the changes).
I can see that opening being NingYi in the drama too. lol
Oh this is awesome! Thanks for taking time to do this 🙂 Now I have even more motivation to keep studying Chinese.
Thank you again, I checked 5 times today for the updated peice.
Thank you so much for taking the time out and translating the actual novel for us. The first meeting sounds so interesting I wonder what would have happened of the show had followed the same path….a more dark but faced-paced show perhaps…
Thank you for this! I have given up the search for an English translation and will gladly take your condensed version. I have a question about the drama. I am on my second viewing of the drama and still have a question about Feng Hao. Was he really a remnant of Da Cheng as described by his tattoo and birth card, or was he actually the biological son of Qiu Minying? There is a scene in the 52nd episode, I believe, where there look to be two male babies laying beside Qiu Minying. Gu Heng replaces one of the males with Feng Zhiwei and takes one of his own sons as the remnant in disguise and jumps off the cliff with him. It seems as if Feng Zhiwei is the remnant and not Feng Hao. Unless Feng Zhiwei’s mother had twins? Hope you can clarify this for me.
In the novel, Feng Hao IS Mama Feng’s (Qiu Minying) biological son. HOWEVER, Mama Feng herself thought Feng Hao wasn’t because her husband told her their son had died. That whole thing is pretty messy but we will get into it as the translation of the novel gets going. Feng Zhiwei is the last remaining royal blood of Da Cheng which is why in the drama she chose to kill herself because as long as she is alive there are people who will try to use her as a reason to rebel. (That reasoning doesn’t work in the novel, but again, we will get into that as well.)
Was Xin Ziyan even in the novel? I keep wondering if he was executed or pardoned in the drama for his crime? 🙁
Yes, Xin Ziyan is an important character in the novel, although not to the point he was in the drama. Xin Ziyan’s whole thing with our heroine is pretty complicated in the novel but extremely well done (even better than the drama) so I will definitely cover his part of the story in the novel translation. For now, I will just tell you that Xin Ziyan wasn’t killed in the novel, but did pay such a heavy price that as a reader you can’t help but feel bad for him.
I really loved this character and what happened to him in the drama was so heartbreaking. I didn’t even expect that for him. I kept racking my brain over it, but I guess it’s open for self-interpretation in the drama. Really appreciate it, you gave me some closure by giving me those “good” news that at least he’s alive in the novel haha 🙂 Looking forward to snippets of him, because I’m sure there’s a lot more story to Ziyan <3
What role did prince Helian have in the novel and did our Heroine really marry him, and did he really tried to kill her.
Our heroine really did marry Helian but they both knew it was just a way for her to stay alive so it was never a real marriage.
As for Helian shooting Zhi Wei: No he didn’t try to kill our heroine. Helian’s whole plan was to make our hero shoot him in front of Zhi Wei in hopes that our heroine will be so disappointed with Ning Yi that she would finally settle her heart and become his real wife. Unfortunately for Helian, his little trick costed his life since the villain used the opportunity to kill him instead.
By the way, in the drama Helian started to turn greedy and resentful towards our heroine towards the end but that’s not the case in the novel. I will cover his story a bit in the novel translation but he pretty much stayed as the perfect male second lead the whole time. Helian’s is such a lovable and epic character in the novel so I was sad to see his character made into a resentful man (at least towards the end) in the drama.
Thank you so much! I’m loving your translation! I am so excited that you’re doing this! I can’t wait for Mondays! I’ve read some of the comments and I noticed a few people asked if there was a way to show our appreciation for all this work. I would certainly like to contribute something for all your effort and time. If you do come up with something (ie paypal, gift card). Let us know.
Thank you again. You’ve made my evening.
Thank You for clearing up so many questions.