The old woman's hopeful eyes stayed fixed on Song Wanníng, filled with desperate expectation. It was as if Song Wanníng was the only salvation. The last straw to cling to. She just stared at Song Wanníng.
At first, one might think that after hearing all this, Song Wanníng would feel pity, at least some sympathy. But from start to finish, she remained cold.
Over the past few years, she'd seen countless tragic scenes. She'd felt sadness, stirred by compassion. But that didn't mean anything.
Song Wanníng stared at the old woman, icy and unyielding. "You say you're innocent, but does that make us innocent?"
Because of the Mùsù star system's schemes, what would happen to their world next?
And she had been the first victim herself. The memory of her family's death was still vivid. Were they innocent then?
"You know better than anyone why this world ended up like this. Breaking Heavenly Dao's rules, always trying to steal Luck and resources from other worlds, step by step leading yourself to destruction, and look where it's gotten you.
Shouldn't you reflect on your own faults?"
Song Wanníng's gaze burned with intensity. The old woman in front of her wasn't really an old woman at all, just a projection of the Mùsù star system's Heavenly Dao.
All of this… just to soften her heart, to make her feel sympathy and shake her resolve. Too bad. She was inherently selfish and ruthless.
She could sympathize with strangers, yes. But compared to strangers, she cared far more about the lives of her family and friends. These people… she could do nothing for.
The old woman's expression changed instantly at Song Wanníng's words. The pitiful, tragic look vanished, replaced by sheer cruelty. Her eyes were like endless abysses.
"Song Wanníng, do you really insist on being blind?"
Though it was still the old woman's voice, Song Wanníng felt boundless authority emanating from it. Her heart tightened, and she silently gripped her long sword.
"It's not me who's blind. You are.
The suffering of your people is entirely your fault. You not only refuse to fix it, but you care only about invading others and stealing their resources. Someday, your own choices will devour you!"
Song Wanníng spoke slowly, each word firm, fearless.
The air around them still, as if tense with anticipation. She felt as if something was choking her neck, suffocating her.
But she lifted her head, unwilling to yield. This was only an illusion, a projection of the Mùsù star system's Heavenly Dao. If it could kill her outright, it wouldn't waste time with words. So, she wasn't afraid.
Instead, her face wore a brazen, defiant smirk.
"It's tragic for the Mùsù star system to have a Heavenly Dao like you… The ones who should save them are you, not me."
The Mùsù star system's Heavenly Dao clearly misunderstood her. Just because someone is willing to save the world, it assumes they must be softhearted? It had completely misjudged her.
"Heh heh heh…"
The old woman's low laugh sounded almost amused, as if Song Wanníng had enraged her.
"Well, well, well, worthy of the chosen savior, stubborn to the bone."
The Heavenly Dao of the Mùsù star system, realizing its plan had failed, stopped trying to manipulate her.
Since Song Wanníng refused to submit, it would just wait for her destruction.
"One day, you'll regret your choices. Song Wanníng, I'll wait for the day you beg me for mercy."
A flicker of malice passed in the old woman's eyes. Her gaze fixed on Song Wanníng, and she slowly dissipated into a shadow.
The scene collapsed around her.
The familiar formation reappeared, and all those tragic scenes vanished. Even though she'd spent years in the illusion, the moon above hadn't even peeked out again when she returned to reality.
"Sister, what happened just now? Why did you suddenly go quiet? You scared us to death!"
The little ones crowded around Song Wanníng, panic written all over their faces. She had frozen all of a sudden, unresponsive no matter what they called, terrifying them.
Song Wanníng snapped back to attention and looked at the worried little ones, her tension easing. A meaningful smile tugged at her lips.
"I think… I just saw the projection of the Mùsù star system's Heavenly Dao's will."
"What?"
"Did it hurt you?"
The little ones looked even more anxious.
"No."
She shook her head. "If it had, the Heavenly Dao wouldn't have bothered with all these games. If it really had the power, why would it need to dance around like this?"
She scoffed.
The Heavenly Dao of this world, if it weren't concerned for its people and future, would have clashed with the Mùsù star system's Heavenly Dao long ago. It wouldn't let a world on the brink act so arrogantly. But that day would come soon.
Song Wanníng had a feeling.
The Mùsù star system's Heavenly Dao coming personally meant it was out of options. Next, it would definitely launch an even fiercer attack.
To be safe, she decided that once she got out, she'd inform Mo Yang Xiānzūn and the others. Protecting the world wasn't something she could do alone. It would take everyone working together. If they withstood the pressure, they could eliminate this hidden threat completely.
Song Wanníng took a deep breath, calming herself. For some reason, she didn't feel afraid. She felt… exhilarated.
…
A few days passed, and Song Wanníng was still trapped in the formation.
The formation was stubborn, showing no signs of cracking. She tried divine thunder, but the formation seemed connected underground, drawing all force below. It remained unshaken.
Was it trying to trap her here indefinitely? She frowned. That was a dirty trick. But there was nothing to do. Countless attempts, yet the formation resisted all.
Just then, a figure appeared in the distance, moving at incredible speed.
The aura was thick with beast energy. Clearly, a beast Immortal.
Song Wanníng's heart sank. Her first thought was that this was another awakened invader. She immediately went on guard, watching as the figure drew closer.
In moments, it arrived on the island. The moment it saw Song Wanníng, it froze. "Who are you? What are you doing on my island?"
The beast Immortal frowned, its aura turning hostile instantly.
Song Wanníng noticed two translucent horns atop its head, somewhat like a dragon's. She narrowed her eyes and released the golden dragon energy inherent to her bloodline.
The beast Immortal froze for a moment, then its eyes widened.
"You—"
Was this person… also a dragon? But she was human.
Confusion flickered in its heart, and Song Wanníng pressed the advantage.
"I sensed a kindred spirit."
===
There's someone suddenly lecturing and tearing into me on AO3. It was under My Daughter is the Empire's Lucky Charm in the Head's Up chapter, which mostly talks about how I did my translation.
Their initial comment was just "DO NOT. SUPPORT. AI." When I saw that, of course I replied, explaining why I use AI in some cases, my reasoning, and all that. Just normal stuff. This notification came through on October 29.
In my reply, I said:
"Yeah, I get where you're coming from, and I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. I know AI models basically 'steal' from people's work to train themselves, especially when it comes to creative stuff like art and writing.
But here's the thing: where I live, there are no Mandarin teachers or tutors. Maybe you can find some in the city center, but that's a good hour away from me. I'm completely self-taught. So honestly, AI is a huge help for me, especially with things like names—like the examples I gave. It's not just about translating a name, but knowing how to adapt a Chinese name written in Hanzi into a localized version based on someone's nationality, like 杰明·沃克 (Jié Míng · Wò Kè) or 利贵勋 (Lì Guìxūn).
How else would I figure out their 'real' names? Sure, people might know English or Western names since they're so global. But what about other languages, like Korean? I doubt most people understand the conventions for converting Chinese names into Korean or other languages like Thai. It's tricky.
Plus, the 'Mandarin teachers' here don't have Mandarin as their first language—it's probably their fourth or later. Most people here are polyglots and speak at least two or three languages, like Javanese for daily life, Indonesian for the national language, English, and maybe another one. So naturally, their knowledge on this specific topic is limited.
Also, AI isn't some brand-new thing; it's been around for a while, making life easier. Sure, there are unethical sides to how some companies handle AI training, but advanced AI has made a lot of tasks way more accessible for regular people.
So it all comes down to this: just use AI wisely. It's really up to the individual."
Then on December 5 (yesterday), they suddenly replied with this long rant:
"First things first! Using AI wisely is not using it for literally anything. Use your creativity. You think this is called using AI wisely? No. Do you know how much AI causes damage to our environment? I don't think you do. If you do not, then I think you need to learn more. Rapid development and deployment of powerful generative AI models comes with environmental consequences, including increased electricity demand and water consumption. The environmental impact of artificial intelligence includes substantial electricity consumption for training and using deep learning models, and the related carbon footprint and water usage. There are differences between generative AI and traditional AI. You can't pick names? Use name generator or Google search Chinese names bro, you don't need to use AI for that. And I see you use AI images for these people. You do NOT know how people who learn art feel when people use AI 'art' or AI images for their work. Learn how to draw! You don't want to? Appreciate the artists—humans—that work on real art, buy their commissions. That's how you appreciate humans, you dependent AI users. You can't speak Mandarin? Then LEARN. You can't learn? You're too lazy? Too bad, don't use Mandarin at all, then! Self-taught isn't using AI, my friend. Self-taught is teaching. We have YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, all social media channels that can help you learn what you want to learn. Using a shortcut like AI is lame. I bet you write all these paragraphs using AI. I know, you're right that AI is not brand new anymore, but that doesn't mean you need to depend on AI for everything, dude. At least put effort into researching or something. I am still young, and I use purely all my efforts to do arts—draw, sing, play instruments, write, EVERYTHING. It's not good, but it's REAL. Not an AI slop. It's not that hard to learn if you have the want to. So please—please, love our world by not using AI as often as you always do, dear friend."
It literally came as one giant wall of text, no paragraphs, no spacing, just full narration. For a fuck's sake, I felt so insulted reading that.
Of course, I fired back. I started with:
"First, I'm not sure if you misunderstood something, didn't bother thinking about my answer, have seriously bad reading comprehension, or just wanted to get all 'raging' and show off how awesome you are by tearing into my work, even if you're just talking about the 'Head's Up' chapter, which mostly talks about how I did my translation.
Let me respond to your reply that suspiciously reads like an accusation."
Then I began countering their points: "Using AI wisely is not using it for literally anything," "AI is bad for the environment," "You can't pick names? Use a name generator or Google search Chinese names," "You can't speak Mandarin? Then LEARN. You can't learn? You're too lazy? Too bad, don't use Mandarin at all, then! Self-taught isn't using AI, my friend," "And I see you use AI images for these people," "I bet you write all these paragraphs using AI."
Fuck, I'm still so fucking mad right now.
I just copy-pasted my answer below. I'll give you an update if they reply again.
---
First, I'm not sure if you misunderstood something, didn't bother thinking about my answer, have seriously bad reading comprehension, or just wanted to get all "raging" and show off how awesome you are by tearing into my work, even if you're just talking about the "Head's Up" chapter, which mostly talks about how I did my translation.
Let me respond to your reply that suspiciously reads like an accusation.
About this part, "using AI wisely is not using it for literally anything"—tell me, where in my "Heads Up" chapter, in my disclaimer, or in any of my previous answers do I say I use AI for everything?
And about "AI is bad for the environment"—of course I know. I even knew that because of AI companies, RAM prices shot up like crazy, and some big companies stopped producing for the general public just to meet AI demands.
As for "You can't pick names? Use a name generator or Google search Chinese names"—did you even read my answer? I only use that for foreign names written in Chinese. If you didn't know, I'm a translator, this isn't my original work. I can't just change all the foreign names into brand new ones and call it done.
About "You can't speak Mandarin? Then LEARN. You can't learn? You're too lazy? Too bad, don't use Mandarin at all, then! Self-taught isn't using AI, my friend"—again, where did I ever say I use AI for self-learning? I literally said, "AI is a huge help for me, especially with things like names…" I only use AI for a few things, not everything. Please read it again. I even made a point that many people here are polyglots, so their knowledge about specific topics, like foreign names in Chinese, is limited. So ask real-life people for help on this topic, because their knowledge or knowledge about other specific topics is limited.
About "And I see you use AI images for these people"—yeah, I admit that in the early days of my translation project covers, which you can see on my webnovel, I used AI for 5 projects. But after that, I switched and tried my best to make the covers myself. Now I have over 20 projects, and I mostly use Pinterest images or clean up the original cover, use it as background, and add the title myself. Good? Also, for the "pictures" chapter, where I put images of how I imagine them, I picked those from Pinterest, thanks.
About "I bet you write all these paragraphs using AI"—which part of this chapter says I did that? I literally wrote, "For translation, my process is a little more involved. I always have two browser tabs open for the same chapter: one with the original text and another with a machine translation. When I hit a wall or need a second perspective on a tricky sentence, I peek at the auto-translation to compare."
Do you even get what that means, or did you just catch that I use machine translation as the final version or something? If yes, then your reading comprehension seriously needs to be addressed.
You know Google Translate, right? Yeah, I fucking use it for reference. If you don't even know what Google Translate is, then I'm not sure how to even proceed with this. And if that counts as AI in your book, fine, then yes. I also use AI for picking synonyms or checking what the initial or literal wording sounds like in MTL.
Yes, I admit I use Grammarly and other tools to check my grammar. Is that freaking bad?
Also, if you're trying to argue that copying and pasting this into an AI detector proves I used AI for it, please know those detectors aren't accurate at all. Do you want to put my work into Turnitin or something? Well, this isn't a report or paper that needs plagiarism checks.
Honestly, I don't care if you do everything by yourself. Why? Because I do that too. I have a brain, and my intelligence is something I take pride in. From your tone, though, you made it sound like you were accusing me of using AI for everything in all my projects, and that's honestly insulting. So if my reply comes off aggressive, it's because it is. And when you added "So please—please, love our world by not using AI as often as you always do, dear friend" in your last reply, all the "my friend" stuff didn't soften the tone at all. It actually comes across as diminutive in a negative way.
Let me emphasize this again: I'M NOT THE AUTHOR. Everything I upload here is just a translation. Even if it's not 100% true to the original story, it's because, like I wrote in this chapter, "I see translation as a creative collaboration with the original text. While I will never change the main plot or the core heart of the story, the journey there will be uniquely shaped by my choices." So this isn't a full-blown fan adaptation or fanfic. The lowest accuracy is still around 70–80% true to the original story.
So before you attack someone with your "knowledge," at least understand who and what you're actually attacking.