I am going to speed through the second epilogue in the novel since the drama had added some parts into the show already.
Title: Xiaoyao Sect- View on Life
That year, after Tantai Jin finished the Xiaoyao Heart Code test, his four senior brothers were no longer capable enough to teach him so Zhaoyou taught Tantai Jin himself.
“Do you know how to play chess?”
Tantai Jin shook his head, “No.”
“Come and sit, I will teach you.”
Tantai Jin sat down in front of Zhaoyou.
Zhaoyou said, “Chess is like life, watching chess is like examining the heart.”
After Zhaoyou explained the rules of chess in detail, the master and the disciple played against one another. Zhaoyou held the white pieces and Tantai Jin held the black pieces.
The young man’s fingertips were pale and cold, the jade-like black chess pieces were very beautiful in his slender fingers.
Tantai Jin is very smart, almost as soon as Zhaoyou finished explaining the rules he was able to quickly make connections and draw inferences.
After a bit, Tantai Jin lost.
He pursed his lips, and his eyes lit up with interest, “Again.”
Zhaoyou played another round with him, looking at the board, Zhaoyou signed in his heart.
Watching chess allows one to see the heart. The young man’s chess playing style was vicious, did not regard the lives of soldiers as life, and is without an ounce of compassion. The chess pieces are sacrificed in masses under his fingertips, but the only thing the young man could see in his eyes was victory.
— Unscrupulous, that’s the word that came to Zhaoyou’s mind.
“Jiumin, go to the library tonight and look for the eighth blue book on the second row. Read it and recite it for me tomorrow.”
Although Tantai Jin didn’t understand the purpose of this but Zhaoyou was obviously more capable than the senior brothers to teach him so even though he didn’t respect Zhaoyou in his heart but he still replied with downcast eyes, “Yes.”
Following Zhaoyou’s direction, Tantai Jin took out the book that he was asked to memorize.
The blue book cover looked old, it was called “Enlightenment.”
Seeing the name, Tantai Jin frowned.
Opening the book, there were handwritten notes that were obviously made by young kids. Tantai Jin took the book to the senior brother in charge to register it.
The senior brother was quite surprised, “Why is Junior Brother Jiumin reading a beginning book for children?”
“Master asked.” Tantai Jin replied, “So Senior Brother, this is a beginning book for children?”
The senior brother laughed, “This is a book for children under ten years of age.”
“… understood.”
That night, Tantai Jin opened that book, and the first page talked about love.
He stared at the word for a while, before expressionlessly turning to the second page, “Goodness”
He turned the page again, and it was “Loyalty.”
Tantai Jin read it once and memorized the whole book. Tantai Jin thought Zhaoyou would test him the next day but he didn’t.
(Skipping over the next part because this is when Zhaoyou sent him to the blind widow who had been waiting for her son.)
The old woman waited for fifteen years regardless of the weather and was very happy when she died.
Zhaoyou appeared and said to Tantai Jin, “Let’s go.”
The small courtyard’s door closed in the snowstorm. In that year, Zhaoyou didn’t teach Tantai Jin too many immortal spells but instead, took him to travel from time to time.
Sometimes he would become a general, and the captain would end up dying to protect him.
In actuality, if the captain was willing to bend a bit (I am assuming if he was willing to betray the general), then not only would he not have died, but he could’ve become a high-ranking official with lots of money. This way, his wife and young son would not have had to live their lives without him.
Yet, the captain put on Tantai Jin’s cloak and resolutely said, “General, go quickly, stay well in this life!”
In Tantai Jin’s eyes, the morning glow filled the sky. The young soldier wearing his cloak, fell under the sky full of arrows.
Another time, Zhaoyou had him become a seven or eight-year-old child. The child’s beggar brother had snatched someone else’s steamed bun and was beaten until he was covered with wounds but he still came running madly back to put that already dirty steamed bun by his mouth.
“Ah Wen, you eat, I ate already when I was outside so I am not hungry.”
Tantai Jin had turned into a thin child, sitting in front of a dilapidated temple, looking out at the pouring rain.
He lowered his head and took a bit, the steamed bun in his mouth was cold and hard. The eight-nine year old boy next to him swallowed hard and tried not to look at the steamed bun. Laying down on the straw, the boy said in an optimistic voice, “Older brother passed by a school today and saw all those young gents studying. When my little brother gets a bit older, then older brother will send you to school too. Once you studied, then you can take the exam, then little brother will no longer go hungry but will have a big chicken leg to eat every day.”
Tantai Jin chewed the steamed bun in his mouth and asked, “Then what about you?”
The boy replied, “Me? Ah, little brother just need to find some small job for me.”
Tantai Jin did not say anything more. The next day, the rain stopped, and the boy who had slept huddled in a ball was woken up by hunger.
“Little brother? Little brother?”
There was no one around him. The only thing left was a delicate wooden box. The boy opened the wooden box, and inside was a roast chicken.
Tantai Jin didn’t use an umbrella, the rain did not stain his black robe at all.
Zhaoyou looked up and smiled, “You are back.”
“Yes, Master.”
As always, Zhaoyou didn’t ask any questions and Tantai Jin still didn’t say anything.
A long time later, Zang Hai asked about this matter, “Little senior brother, back then Master always took you out traveling, what did you learn?”
Several senior brothers gathered around, obviously very curious as well.
When they had gone out for training, they had learned how to subdue demons, how to break water (I have no idea what that is). Little senior brother, as a genius, maybe he learned things that were completely different from them?
What did he learn?
He thought of the old woman in the snowstorm, the young captain who died for loyalty and truth, the young beggar who was beaten for snatching a steamed bun…
One face after another flashed across his eyes.
After a long silence, Tantai Jin said coldly, “People are dumb.”
Four senior brothers “………”
Title: Xiaoyao Sect- To Love A Person
Tantai Jin remembered that in his second year in Xiaoyao Sect, the third senior brother Zang Lin fell in love with someone.
It was a new female disciple named Nie Shui.
Zang Lin told his sect brothers every day how beautiful, intelligent, and considerate Niu Shui was.
Tantai Jin had seen the woman once. She was wearing Xiaoyao Sect’s green robe that had a tassel she had made herself hanging on it, and she always spoke with a hint of a smile.
The sort of girl that had a sweet appearance and an even sweeter mouth whenever she spoke.
When she saw Tantai Jin for the first time, Nie Shui couldn’t pull her eyes away. She came over with a smile and hooked the hem of Tantai Jin’s clothes with her finger.
The corner of Tantai Jin’s mouth curled up as he looked at her mockingly and said in a low voice, “Junior sister Nie, my Third Senior Brother is watching you from behind.”
“What!” Nie Shui was startled, looked, and found that there was no one behind them. Looking back at Tantai Jin, a somewhat embarrassed Nie Shui awkwardly pulled her hand back.
- The disciples of Xiaoyao Sect have to go on assignments in order to earn points to exchange for precious items that will aid their cultivation. In order to please Nie Shui, the Third Senior Brother started to go on dangerous assignments. What Zang Lin doesn’t know is that all his gifts to Nie Shui are going to other men Nie Shui was dallying with.
- After one of the senior brothers worriedly tells Tantai Jin that Zang Lin will probably die in one of these dangerous assignments he keeps going on for Nie Shui, Tantai Jin decides to get a demon to seduce Nie Shui. As Tantai Jin predicted, Nie Shui fell for the demon and was eventually discovered to be pregnant with the demon’s child.
- Nie Shu’s punishment was to have her immortal essence taken away from her and walked the Spirit Slaying Ladder. Tantai Jin’s plan was working perfectly until Zang Lin stunned everyone by volunteering to take Nie Shu’s punishment for her.
“Zang Lin, you are crazy!” the senior brothers said angrily.
Tantai Jin turned and looked at Zang Lin coldly.
Zang Lin bowed to Zhaoyou and his sect brothers one by one.
“Master, this disciple is not filial. Senior brothers, junior brother, you all should just think I have gone mad.”
Nie Shui was pregnant, if she really walked the Spirit Slaying Ladder, she would die.
Zhaoyou closed his eyes and let out a heavy sigh.
So that day, Tantai Jin watched as the foolish man walked a step at a time through the thousand-step Spirit Slaying Ladder until he fell down in front of him drenched in blood.
He paused and then caught Zang Lin.
With tears in his eyes, Zang Lin let out a wry smile, “Little Junior Brother…”
“Hmm, Third Senior Brother.”
“When you like a woman in the future, remember to like a really good person.”
Tantai Jin asked in a low voice, “Do you regret it?”
Zang Lin shook his head, “No, a man has to be responsible for the person he likes. It’s just from now on…Zang Lin no longer likes her.”
When you fall in love with a girl, even if she is a bad person, a liar, or an easy woman, but you still need to be good to her, to protect her.
The day Zang Lin left the Xiaoyao Sect as a mortal, he looked to be very cared-free. Carrying a backpack, he clasped his fist and said, “The mountains are high and long, may there be a chance to see my fellow brothers in this life again.”
Zang Hai turned his head to hide the tears in his eyes.
Xiaoyao Sect could not accept Nie Shui anymore, but even to this point, Nie Shui was unwilling to leave together with Zang Lin. With her immortal essence still intact, she decides to go find her previous boyfriends.
The day she escaped from Xiaoyao Sect, a pair of black colored boots appeared in front of her.
The young man tilted his head and smiled at her.
“This life of yours is not worth his cultivation.”
My Third Senior Brother, how lonely he must be alone.
(It might seem odd that Tantai Jin is talking like Zang Lin is already dead when he is not. However, to immortals, a mortal’s life is extremely short and is gone in a blink of an eye, so to Tantai Jin, Zang Lin is all but about to die.)
On the day before the winter snow arrived, Tantai Jin lay on the roof with blood all over his body, his face stained with Nie Shui’s blood, reminding him of the liar who had left the soul-destroying nails in his heart.
His fingers scratched the roof tiles of the mortal world, leaving a streak on the clean snow.
He muttered, “Ye Xiwu, this me who is utterly selfish, am I not worthy to love you?”
I, who killed Nie Shui without any feeling of guilt, have I not changed at all?
At that time, Tantai Jin didn’t know one day what he would give up for Su Su. How he would swallow the loneliness and tears, to carve a tombstone in the imperial tomb, to walk alone through the lonely path that is the World of Despair, to bring spring to the Six Realms.
All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com
So good. I thank the author for such a wonderful story. I think Leo Luo did a great job in portraying him.
I thank you Ninja more than anything. For you helped us bridge the understanding beyond language.
Wow! What a sad, lonely soul is Tantai Jin. He must have gone through an incredible amount of growth in Xiaoyao sect that we don’t see in the drama to get to the point of sacrificing his life to save the realms. It still surprises me to see how a person with such darkness in his soul managed to fall in love and turn out saving the world with his death.
Have you translated the entire story? This makes me want to read more!
Wow. He’s so scary-mean and vicious in the novel! I’m glad they gentled him down in the drama.
Ha ha, he really was much scarier in the drama but our heroine was also that much more of his match in the novel as well. By mid novel, both our hero and his men (including his tiger) were all pretty careful whenever they are around her, since she could usually outwit them both in smarts and fist. I too am glad that they gentled our hero for the drama, but I do think the novel did a more accurate job of portraying his demon nature.