"Junior Brother, go! I'll hold them off!"
Senior Brother Liu's eyes widened with raw despair as he let out a broken roar.
He was already half consumed by madness, but the last trace of reason told him the truth. He probably wouldn't survive today, but he had to save at least one Junior Brother. Someone had to return to the Sect and deliver the message.
He slapped his storage pouch hard. Several streaks of light shot out in an instant.
A talisman crackled with raging lightning, exploding with a thunderous blast that turned into a sky full of writhing electric serpents. At the same time, an ancient copper mirror rose above his head and poured down layers of protective golden light.
Even the jade flute in his hand released a wail unlike anything before. The sound waves didn't attack anymore, they thickened into shimmering barriers of solid sound, stacking together and blocking Xie Zhaolin and Elder Chou's advance.
To give his Junior Brother a chance to escape, he burned everything he had. Every defensive treasure, every talisman, every tool he owned, he threw them out without hesitation.
Light from countless tools and talismans erupted together. Explosions overlapped and collided, creating a chaotic, stormlike field of energy. For a moment, it actually forced Xie Zhaolin and Elder Chou to stop.
The flute-playing male cultivator saw the opening. Tears filled his eyes, but he didn't dare hesitate. He spun around and shot toward the valley entrance at full speed.
"Trying to run?" Xie Zhaolin lifted her gaze slightly. She didn't move at all. It really looked like she was trapped by Senior Brother Liu's barrage.
Seeing that, the fleeing male cultivator pushed his escape art even harder. He was almost out of range. Relief began to bloom across his face.
Then he heard a faint sound.
Puchi.
It was soft, almost gentle.
His expression froze. Confusion replaced relief.
He lowered his head without thinking and looked toward his dantian. A thin vine, no thicker than a strand of hair, pure emerald green and glistening with moisture, had already pierced straight through his protective aura and into his dantian. He hadn't even felt pain. Only a cold, soul draining numbness spread through him at terrifying speed.
"Uh…"
His lips moved, but he couldn't form a single coherent sound. He felt it clearly. His Golden Core cultivation that he had spent centuries refining, his blood, his vitality, his life force, all of it rushed out of him like a broken dam. The vine drank everything without mercy.
His body collapsed in on itself at visible speed. Skin dulled and dried, clinging to bone. His eyes sank. Whatever spark he had was blown out like a dying candle.
In a single blink, a living Golden Core cultivator turned into a shriveled corpse that fell to the ground with a dusty thud.
The emerald spike whipped back, carving a thin green arc in the air before slipping into Xie Zhaolin's sleeve and disappearing.
It was Zi Ying's kill.
It had already hidden itself during the earlier chaos, perfectly silent. The moment the male cultivator let down his guard, convinced he was about to live, it struck. One hit, silent and absolute, draining everything he had.
Xie Zhaolin felt the You Ming Bracelet on her wrist warm slightly. A faint, satisfied emotion pulsed from within. Zi Ying was pleased with its meal.
The sudden death hit Senior Brother Liu like a lightning bolt. He froze completely. He watched, helpless, as his last Junior Brother died just one step away from escape. No resistance, no struggle, not even time to scream. Just gone.
"No… no…!"
Despair swallowed him whole. His eyes turned blood red, tears of blood ran down his cheeks. Three fellow disciples, wiped out in moments, all of them dying horribly.
The escape route he had carved out with everything he had became nothing but a cruel joke.
"Demon girl! Monster! I'll take you down with me!" He howled, his voice shredding with rage as his Golden Core spun at a terrifying speed. Spiritual power surged wildly around him.
He was going to self destruct. He wanted to drag both of them into hell.
But just as he reached the brink of detonation, Xie Zhaolin's expression shifted. Her divine sense felt something horrifying rushing toward them from the sky, locking onto the valley with crushing force.
A Nascent Soul cultivator.
"Go!"
Xie Zhaolin reacted instantly. She grabbed Elder Chou, who had also turned pale. The Jingxiao Ribbon wrapped around both of them, and she tore open a silver talisman that had been ready in her palm.
A low hum rumbled.
Space twisted fiercely. Their figures blurred, then vanished entirely, leaving only the faint ripple of spatial fluctuation behind.
The very moment they disappeared…
A massive force crashed down from the sky, covering the entire valley. Senior Brother Liu's self destruction was instantly suppressed, crushed before it could ignite.
Two figures appeared in midair.
The leader was Elder Zhang of Tianyin Sect, a Nascent Soul mid stage cultivator, with another Nascent Soul early stage elder beside him.
Elder Zhang's face darkened as he looked down at the three corpses and the half broken, nearly crippled Senior Brother Liu. Killing intent rolled off him in waves.
"Who? Who dared kill disciples of Tianyin Sect?" His roar shook the valley, full of fury and disbelief.
They had rushed over the moment they received the distress signal, yet they were still too late.
Four of their elite disciples, three dead and one gravely injured.
The loss was devastating. The humiliation was unbearable.
"Elder… Elder…" Senior Brother Liu saw him and choked. Relief, grief, and guilt all twisted together. He fell to his knees, shaking. "Disciple is useless… I couldn't protect them… They… they…"
Elder Zhang moved in a flash and grabbed him. A controlled surge of pure spiritual power steadied Senior Brother Liu's collapsing mind and damaged meridians.
"It's not all your fault. You did everything you could. If you hadn't called for help in time, you would've died here too." His voice trembled with restrained rage.
Before landing, his divine sense had already swept through the valley. He had seen everything, including the final moment when the black robed person dragged their companion through space with an escape talisman.
That movement, light and ethereal, unreal yet flowing… impossible to mistake.
It was the movement art of Hehuan Sect, the signature high grade body technique Pianyiao Step. Only core disciples could learn it.
Even though that black robed person's version felt stranger and more unpredictable, its essence was undeniably from Hehuan Sect.
"Hehuan Sect… good. Very good." Elder Zhang's eyes gleamed with icy murderous intent.
"You dare slaughter disciples of Tianyin Sect. This won't end here."
He had thought it would be loose cultivators or some other sect robbing for treasure. He hadn't expected it to be Hehuan Sect.
He should have known. He should have realized sooner.
After the incident in Tianxing City, Tianyin Sect had pressured Hehuan Sect. No wonder the negotiations afterward had gone so smoothly. So this was their retaliation.
This blood debt would be repaid in blood.
===
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.