On the eighth day of the lunar new year, the time has come again for the fighting competition that is held every hundred years.
This time, the competition is being held in Hengyang Sect. This fighting competition has gone through a drastic change from the previous ones. In the past, the competition was held for the purpose of exchanging information and fighting against demons together. Now that the two races are coexisting peacefully for the time being, the competition naturally became a way to test the rising generations.
Su Su wrote a letter to Gongye Jiwu previously expressing her hope to bring the young demon cultivators to the competition with Tantai Jin.
Gongye Jiwu read the letter and of course had no problem with it at all.
Knowing the Demon God is coming, Hengyang Sect had started their preparation a few days ago to entertain their demon guests.
To be honest, the disciples are pretty worried. The scene of how Tantai Jin had slaughtered everyone in sight was still vivid in their memory and to think such a scary demon is coming to their sect, they can’t but wonder if any of them would survive if he was displeased.
Even knowing clearly that Tantai Jin had saved the Six Realms, the psychological trauma is still lingering.
Well aware of the fears among Hengyang’s disciples, as one who trusts the Sect Leader, Gongye Jiwu could only inwardly let out a helpless sigh.
Fortunately, he has a good attitude and assures the others, “Don’t worry, even if something goes wrong, the Sect Leader will die before you guys.”
Yue Fuya (Lan An’s son) said in amazement, “Senior brother can actually make a joke?”
Gongye Jiwu just smiled faintly.
The disciples were not comforted by Gongye Jiwu’s cold joke. On the day of the competition, everyone anxiously waited for Tantai Jin’s arrival.
Black clouds gathered in the sky, and the strong darkness caused everyone to look up.
A nine-headed bird monster chariot came from the sky.
Gongye Jiwu said with a gentle smile, “Junior Sister.”
A hand as white as jade lifted the curtain on the chariot revealing Su Su’s smiling face, “Senior Brother, Fuya!”
Su Su jumped out of the chariot. She hasn’t seen her former home for a long time. They supposedly came for the competition but it was really for her to come back for a visit.
Su Su used to be everyone’s little Junior Sister in Hengyang so now that she is back, all the Senior Brothers and Sisters were all overjoyed, and instantly forgot her goddess status and surrounded her.
Soon, there was a big group around Su Su, chattering happily away.
The demon cultivators that were following the nine-headed monster bird pulled chariot, looked at Su Su then up at the immense dark cloud above the chariot, and all promptly chose to be as quiet as a clam.
They all know, this kind of useless competition, the Demon God couldn’t care less about it.
It’s not that their young demon cultivators are afraid they would lose. Demons are a contentious race and are all eagerly ready to fight. It was said the reason the Demon God is unwilling to come is that there are many former love rivals here at Hengyang Sect.
Apparently, all of them were kinder and more upright than Demon God was in the past.
And now, their Demon God’s mood is not too lovely. Even the nine-headed bird could feel it.
Tantai Jin held Ah Mi with one hand, got out of the carriage, and immediately saw the handsome Gongye Jiwu standing there, the person that has been so deeply entangled with his fate.
Tantai Jin narrowed his eyes and walked over with his daughter in his arms as if nothing has ever happened between them.
The expression in Gongye Jiwu’s eyes was warm and gentle, neither sad nor happy. When he saw Ah Mi, he was slightly started, and the expression in his eyes softened.
“You are Ah Mi?”
Ah Mi stared at Gongye Jiwu with her big round eyes, and blinked after a bit, and reached out a hand toward him, “Uncle, hold.”
Gongye Jiwu stretched out his arms a bit stiffly and took Ah Mi from Tantai Jin.
Tantai Jin raised an eyebrow, and let go.
Su Su looked at Ah Mi then at her now very stiff Senior Brother, she walked over to Tantai Jin and secretly pinched his waist, “Hey, what are you and Ah Mi up to now?”
Tantai Jin lowered his eyes and looked at her with a smile, “It’s fine if you don’t trust me, but why don’t you even trust your own daughter?”
Su Su “………” Ah Mi only behaves a bit better in front of her. Ever since Tantai Jin returned, Ah Mi has turned into a lawless little devil.
But the kid’s father would just smile appreciatively every time and encourage Ah Mi to keep going with whatever mischief she had committed.
Ah Mi’s appearance takes mostly after her, but she is, after all, a mix between a god and a demon god. Deep in her bones, she still has Tantai Jin’s unique pernicious nature.
Su Su hears the little girl asked Gongye Jiwu while biting her finger, “Senior Uncle, where is your wife?”
Gongye Jiwu was silent for a moment before replying gently, “Senior Uncle does not have a wife.”
“Oh, why doesn’t Senior Uncle have a wife?”
Gongye Jiwu rarely spent time with such a young child and ended up in a staring contest with Ah Mi as he realized he didn’t know how to answer her question.
Su Su hurriedly walked over, “Senior Brother, let me have Ah Mi.”
Ah Mi turned her head and glanced at her father.
The corner of Tantai Jin lips curved up, hard to tell if he is happy or angry.
Ah Mi naturally listened to Su Su more and decides to let Gongye Jiwu go.
“Sorry, Senior Brother, Ah Mi dirtied your clothes.” Su Su said.
Gongye Jiwu looked down and indeed, saw a dirty child size palm stain on his shoulder, there were even some sugar crumbs on it.
“It’s not a problem.” He cast a spell to quickly clean up his clothes, “The competition is about to begin, all cultivators please take a seat.”
Everyone left to go find their seats.
Su Su stared at the two, one big and one small face, and warned, “No making trouble at Hengyang, and no pulling prank on Senior Brother Gongye Jiwu, do you hear?”
Ah Mi was very obedient and nodded quickly, “Ah Mi understands, Mother.”
Su Su kissed her little face, “Ah Mi is so good.”
Ah Mi is a child after all and was soon happily watching the competition.
“And you, Tantai Jin?”
Tantai Jin was silent for a moment, seemingly quite reluctant.
Seeing that Su Su is still staring at him, he could only say, “Got it.”
Su Su let out a sigh of relief. Tantai Jin will definitely do whatever he promised her.
Su Su smiled and whispered exactly that in his ear. Hearing her words, a faint smile surfaced in his eyes.
Gongye Jiwu saw them talking to each other.
Sitting beside him, Yaoguang (Su Su’s senior sister who is in love with Gongye Jiwu) said enviously, “I used to think that Cang Jiumin is gloomy and cold, but now, it looks like he treats Su Su very well.”
Gongye Jiwu nodded slightly.
Yes, he does treat her pretty well.
Whenever Su Su spoke, Tantai Jin listened intently, with only Su Su in his eyes. No matter what Su Su said, there is always a tiny spark of light in his eyes.
As the Demon God, he didn’t care what his subjects would think of him. After he finished peeling grapes for Su Su, he then peeled grapes for Ah Mi. He didn’t take a single bite during the whole banquet.
Thousands of years of grievances between them. The two of them have been entangled since their mortal life to now. Gongye Jiwu had prepared himself to be targeted by Tantai Jin but nothing happened.
Tantai Jin even nodded at him politely before turning back to look at Su Su.
Seeing her smiling happily, Tantai Jin also smiled.
That smile was rare and pure. At that moment, Gongye Jiwu suddenly understood why Su Su liked this person.
Even though Tantai Jin used to be selfish, cold-hearted, arrogant, vicious and certainly someone who would not easily let go of a grudge that had built over a thousand years, but it only took one sentence from Su Su, and all of Tantai Jin’s thorns were immediately plucked off.
A heart of sincerity actually appeared in the body of a demon god.
Gongye Jiwu silently drank the wine in his cup. As long as Tantai Jin is treating her well, then his heart is at ease.
******************************************
Su Su and Tantai Jin stayed overnight at Hengyang Sect.
Tantai Jin is very familiar with this place. In the dream world, when he was still Cang Jiumin, he had been here before. (This is a dream world that the drama didn’t show.)
At that time, Su Su sat by Tianchi Lake and made a sword tassel for him but regrettably, that tassel was never finished. Later, right before Tantai Jin headed to his death, he had imagined their time together in the dream world and completed the unfinished sword tassel himself.
For Tantai Jin, this place used to be one filled with sadness for him.
But now, this is where she grew up.
He want to walk the path she had walked, to meet people she knew, to participate in her part of life that he had not been in.
In the depths of Tianchi Lake, there is a wooden house, Su Su used to practice her cultivation there since she was young.
Su Su sat cross-legged on the beaded mat and showed Tantai Jin things from her childhood.
She took them out one by one from a wooden box and recounted her memories to Tantai Jin, “This is the straw grasshopper my father made for me, this is a gift from my senior sister, this is the amber frog my senior brothers used to scare me….”
Tantai Jin listened intently, like the studious young man he had been in the mortal world.
With a faint smile in his eyes, he patted her head.
Su Su didn’t ask about his childhood. She knew Tantai Jin’s childhood was probably not very good. His past was filled with hunger, hypocrisy, and hatred.
So now, she has the patience to take him to see many wonderful things.
Just like the World Life Talisman she had shown him previously, laying out the beautiful painting scroll in front of him. Filling what was missing in his heart.
She encouraged Tantai Jin to return to Xiaoyao Sect and allowed him to in a very unskilled manner spoil their daughter. Despite all the unfairness that heaven had treated him back then, Su Su is making up for them in other ways.
On this night, they slept in the wooden house, on the same bed Su Su slept on previously.
With Su Su in his arms, Tantai Jin placed a kiss on her forehead. Resting her head on his chest, Su Su slept peacefully.
A breeze came in softly. Su Su who had been a goddess for a long time by now, opened her eyes. The red demon mark between Tantai Jin’s brows is flickering slightly, bringing with it a vicious and ominous feeling.
This was the inner demon that had been quietly following him since he returned to the Demon Realm.
In other words, it is the inner demon that belonged to the fate of the demon god. (This is a bit complicated so I will include an explanation at the end.)
It had passed through the gaps in the World of Despair, and attached itself to Tantai Jin. In a rather amazing manner, this inner demon was also produced by “Tantai Jin” so he felt nothing and couldn’t tell that something was amiss.
Su Su had always wanted to know what it was. She couldn’t investigate it in the demon realm, but tonight, she could.
Silently, Su Su cast a spell as the sycamore trees rustled outside the window.
An invisible spell formation was activated to help her catch the inner demon hidden by the demon god.
Su Su closed her eyes and pressed her forehead against his. Because Tantai Jin is completely unguarded against her presence, she was easily able to see the demon god’s inner demon with the aid of the spell formation.
It belonged to another person, but it was also “Tantai Jin.”
What she saw was the lifetime Tantai Jin had spent without her by his side.
Tantai Jin grew up as a mortal and fought hard to survive as an ordinary person but ended up failing at the last moment.
The young man died in the blazing fire, gazing at the lonely world until his last moment.
In his eyes, there were pain and confusion.
The blazing fire was like a wall, separating him from everyone else. Inside the blazing fire, he was lonely and frightened. Outside of the fire, the people were cheering loudly, celebrating his death by fire.
Like a child who is clueless of what he had done wrong, his body curled up in a ball, unable to shed a single tear.
Su Su’s heart suddenly felt as if it had been torn into pieces.
“Tantai Jin!”
Through the fire, she took the young man’s hand.
The young man trembled and raised his black eyes to look at her.
With a single glance that seemed like a million years had passed, the pain in his eyes seemed to be gone, replaced with a gentle faint smile.
—this life is full of pain, but when you held my hand, then it is one of happiness.
The young man carefully squeezed her hand back.
Gradually, the scene dissolved with him, the heart demon hidden within fate had dissipated.
Su Su yawned, her heart content.
The first ray of the morning came into the room.
Tantai Jin opened his eyes.
Su Su is still sleeping peacefully in his arms. He touched the hidden demon mark between his brows.
When he was swept into the World of Despair, he had seen his other self. The one who died without love thread, the demon god who only knew intrigue and trickery.
And those lonely memories, at this moment, are very very far from him.
The glazed bead bracelet on his wrist glowed under the translucent light of the sunlight. He lowered his eyes to look at the bead bracelet, and thanks to the spell formation that had not completely faded away, he saw what Su Su had secretly added to the beads all those years ago.
– it was a goddess’ most precious blessing and love.
Stunned for a long time, on an ordinary morning, the demon god who was born without love and tears, suddenly felt his eyes welled up with tears.
-The End-
Translation note: Inner demons here are like an obsession or a thought you can’t let go of. We are not talking about a physical being per se… although in these worlds, inner demons can and often will turn into a sentient beings that can be separated from the person. In cultivation, inner demons can happen to all, even to gods. In fact, the more powerful someone is, the more formidable their inner demons usually are. Inner demons are troublesome for all cultivators because they are essentially the person’s evil thoughts or obsessions. Obsessions are called obsessions because you can’t make them go away easily. Cultivators will usually be forced to deal with their inner demons eventually since inner demons have the tendency to impact a person’s cultivation progress negatively.
Here, this inner demon belongs to the previous “Tantai Jin” that we met in Epilogue 6. Apparently, the lonely manner “Tantai Jin” died became an obsession to him, and eventually became an inner demon.
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This is the end of the epilogues (I did leave one epilogue out but it was the story between Su Su’s parents so I wasn’t too interested in it)! It was fun sharing the novel comparisons with you guys! I do have to admit the whole process of trying to watch the drama AND reading the novel at the same time was a lot harder than I thought. I was really having a difficult time not mixing the novel and the drama together, let alone remembering which storyline was in which one or what was left out in the drama. I did still enjoy the process though so I will probably do more of these if the right drama+novel combination came along.
As for the one reader who asked if I would translate the novel…I apologize the answer would be no. The last time I said yes to that request was 2018 and as you guys can see, I am still doing the Phoenix translation now. (For you Phoenix fans, can you guys believe it has been that long?! There are probably only like 10 of you guys still reading the translation but I am still very very impressed you guys have stuck with me for that long!) Honestly, if I ever do a whole book translation again (and I really don’t see myself doing that), I think it will take an extremely good novel AND a drama adaptation that was a complete train wreck. I actually quite liked the Till the End of the Moon drama adaptation, other than the ending which is why we ended up having all these novel translations. I will never understand why C-drama feels the need to turn a perfectly satisfactory novel ending into a bad one.
Anyhow, feel free to ask questions about what happened in the novel! I can’t promise I will remember the answer but maybe someone else will.
All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com
Thank you ❤️
Thank you so much for doing this, Ninja! I greatly appreciate this labor of love and your generosity in taking the time to share it with us. If it wasn’t for these translations, I would have been left with the disappointing drama ending in my heart. I am satisfied that two characters I grew to care deeply about had their happy ending. I send everyone who bemoans the ending on MyDramaList the link to your epilogues.
I am still reading your translation of Rise of Phoenixes even though I have missed several entries. I stopped at Feng Xi Wei’s kidnapping and started back up when Ning Yi is back at the palace with her and she is about to be seduced by Shaoning. I have a lot of catching up to do! As always. You are a star! Thank you!
Thank you, thank you!! I LOVED these translations.
Also, I read the Phoenix translations still! In fact, I reach all your translations and love them. Thank you
Thank you, Ninja, for feeding my addiction! I have been reading your translations since forever and you actually changed the way I view Mondays. I now look forward to them instead of dreading their arrival.
Any other story you decide to share is a very welcome bonus. <3
I am still following all the Rise of the Phoenix translations and look forward to them every Monday! Keep going! I know there are more than 10 readers! I hope you do publish it as a book. I’m wondering whatever happened to Helian and his mysterious wife? Will we find out later?
I love your translations and am deeply grateful you decided to take them on. Thank you for giving me something to look forward to every Tuesday morning! ❤🙆♀️
Ninja! There are lots of us hardcore followers of TROP! You make my Mondays something to look forward to. I totally understand not wanting to translate Till the End of the Moon, especially since there is another website (Second Life Translations) doing it since 2021 and still going (you two are so awesome). However, I am a bit confused of the Epilogue version of Tantai Jin. I thought he was reborn as a mortal (Bai Zi Qian). How was he able to become the demon god again? Is it that once his memory was restored, he was able to regain god status as well? I originally thought Susu would only be able to live out the mortal life span with Bai Zi Qian. Thanks for your insights!
The author doesn’t explain how Bai Zi Qian became the demon god again. I personally logic it out this way: Bai Zi Qian was always the demon god. For whatever reason, Tantai Jin, the demon god had sealed up his own memory and hidden the Tantai Jin part of himself away. Bai Zi Qian lived as a mortal but at the end of the day, deep inside, he is still the demon god. Once that memory seal is broken, then Bai Zi Qian is back to his true self as Tantai Jin. And as Su Su pointed out, Tantai Jin/Bai Zi Qian is not one who would fall in love at first sight, so I think Tantai Jin might not have buried himself too deeply either. This is not always the case in other stories, but in this particular world, it seems the moment a god takes his/her rightful place as a god, they gain those powers. It was that way with Su Su and the previous Tantai Jin, so I think it was probably the same way for Tantai Jin/Bai Zi Qian in the epilogue.
Ninja, THANK YOU!!!!!!!! I have really, really enjoyed reading these translations – they have indeed softened the ending of the drama in a much more satisfactory way. I’m blown away at how accurately though both Bai Lu and Luo Yunxi got the characters of Su Su and Tantai Jin; I really felt reading your translations that they were those very same incarnations in the drama (unlike TROP, where they both feel a bit separate to me – good still but as though they are close cousins of the drama versions, if that makes sense).
And I agree with Troptina above, we TROP fans are hardcore and have stayed with you for two (woah, TWO!!!) years! I’m still enjoying those translations – sometimes they have me grinning ear-to-ear (the last few up and personal translations especially 😄)
Anyway, truly thank you!! xx
I was just wondering, so Mingyue and Sang Jiu has no connection to Susu and Tantai Jin other than being a fragment of a dream then? When I watched the drama, I actually thought that Mingyue and Sang Jiu could of been Susu and Tantai Jin’s first incarnation and that the reason Susu is born with pure energy, is because at the end of their tradgic love, Mingyue tried to give his divine essence to Sang Jiu. Thus resulting in Mingyue being stuck between half demon and half God, but something happened in between and the Demon God was able to trick Mingyue into being the next demon God. At least this was what I thought. This is what results in Mingyue can never being able to repay Sang Jiu all the miseary and pain that was caused when she was with him. Thus resulting in this love hate relationship of Susu and Tantai Jin. Like I know you mentioned the reasons why each character chose them to represent them in the dream, but I just couldn’t help it and think that this could of been a possibility too. Like how Sang Jiu fallen to her demonized self, could Mingyue of fallen into his demonized self that’s why due to all the anger of losing Sang Jiu and his love, he forsaken his love thread and seek to be the demon God in order to end his life thinking it’s the only way to make it up to Sang Jiu? I don’t know the more I say the more confusing it gets. lol, but this is what I was thinking about. I feel a dream version of themselves is like another life incarnation, so it’s not really a dream, but not really real either? 🙃 Ok I’m just making it more confusing. I’ll stop.
Also, thanks for clarifying for us. I’m still here on day 3 crying my eyes out.
Gracias por estas traducciones!
Por cierto, yo soy una lectora fiel de The Rise of Phoenixes
I can totally see your logic there and I think it is a direction the story could’ve easily taken. As far as I remember though, the novel makes it pretty clear that Mingyue and Sang Jiu were not the reincarnations of our two leads. There are a few reasons for that (which none of them would matter if the author had decided to make Mingyue and Sang Jiu the previous lives of our two leads). 1. Mingyue is a god, and one who cares very deeply for the world at that, even in the very depth of his grief. One gets the feeling towards the end of that particular storyline that Mingyue really was never in danger of being demonized. How can he after watching all his dearest friends sacrifice themselves for the world? 2. They don’t make too big of deal out of this in the drama but Su Su is born “pure”. So pure here is not the same as innocence or good. While Su Su is certainly good, but the “pure” here has actual power that eventually gave Su Su the ability to even suppress Tantai Jin’s demon bone. Therefore, it would’ve been impossible for Su Su to become demonized like Sang Jiu. 3. I don’t believe they mentioned this in the drama, but when Sang Jiu died, she was completely wiped out of existence as the consequence of her later actions so there were no possibility of reincarnation. (I don’t know how that works with the dream world, since they also made it sound like Sang Jiu is the one who chose Su Su…but the dream world belonged to Mingyue so maybe each of the characters evolved out of his memory and then chose based on what Mingyue remembered them?)
Thanks for explaining. It makes more sense now. It just leaves for much more questions too. lol however, it all ended. so we’ll have to keep it at that. i’m still curious about the demon god and his origins, but at the end of the day i feel he really wanted to have all those emotions other than hatred, fear, sadness, and loneliness. because if he didn’t want to feel love and happiness, why did he let su su go when she was young and just developing? he was curious about her and maybe knew that if he can die another way, it’s not too bad to get killed by the one he loves? i felt the way the drama protrayed it, the demon god only wanted to open that despire portal thingy was so he can die along with the world and turn to dust. so if su su was another of his options why not. do in the end he was kind of caring for all that he says that he’s not? 🙃 this just keeps getting confusing. sorry i keep throwing these here. just so much left unanswered.
Dear ninja, just so you know, I’ve not closed this tab on my mobile for over two years too. Thank you for making this effort and again, it’s so cool for me to recognise through you, that TROP fans are also fans to TTEOTM.
So this website has been some solace pre and post pandemic. I’ll keep following you. And, perhaps we will all find a drama or novel later on, that is worth all this hard work after all!!
I do very much agree with you, and am equally puzzled why C dramas have to kill an ending so badly. For instance, Love like Galaxy also started strong and then got a little convoluted toward the end. I hope one of you become a director or they should at least consult you next time to reach us international fans 🙂
Ah, you had to mention Love Like a Galaxy. I have been fighting the temptation to write a few posts about Galaxy’s ending. I was fine with the drama’s ending but there were parts of the novels ending that were so awesome that I was really disappointed the show chose not include. Now that I am done with Till the End of the Moon, I might tackle that next.
I’m glad I read & listened to the radio drama of this scene. A Mi was so adorable calling JiWu uncle then Susu came to Tantai Jin suspecting with to plot something nasty with A Mi “What the hell are you doing to A Mi” line still made me laugh.
Right now, only the manhua version is still on going and it is going to take a while to finished the whole novel.