ENL – Chapter 76

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Chapter 76 – Hello, I am Called Erlang Shen

In the depths of night, everything was silent as Ji Fengyan finally finished after a great deal of effort. Wiping away the beads of sweat from her forehead, she looked at the large and majestic figure standing in front of her, lips curled in a satisfied smile.

Standing in front of Ji Fengyan was a large man around eight feet tall. However, his body was covered in wood grains, his mouth formed from only a single line, and those eyes of his were dark without light.

As long as one wasn’t an idiot it would have been very easy to tell that the handsome man standing there was essentially a human figure carved from wood. The difference between this human figure and other human figures was that this man’s forehead had a vertical pupil on it, looking quite bizarre.

That tall human figure just stood in place without moving. Rubbing her chin, Ji Fengyan looked at the wound on her finger which had already scabbed over and frowned.

After looking around and making sure that nobody was in the area, she took her carving knife and gently slashed open her wrist.

As blood oozed out, Ji Fengyan quickly stretched out her bloody hand and placed it in the little hole carved out on the man’s chest.

Drop after drop of blood dripped out, sinking into the place where that human figure’s heart should have been. Gradually, that figure’s darkened eyes began to shine with a bright light.

Ji Fengyan’s face became slightly pale. Seeing that everything was just about ready, she retrieved her hand and once again covered up the hole on that human figure’s chest. Nimbly wrapping up the wound on her wrist with a bandage, Ji Fengyan quickly popped a Blood Replenishment Pill into her mouth.

“Old fellow, this Young Master hasn’t broken the rules that you laid down. Using my own blood doesn’t count,” Ji Fengyan whispered. When she once again raised her gaze, they clashed with a pair of bright and deep eyes. As her lips twitched into a smile, that human figure instantly knelt down, the armour on his body that Ji Fengyan got from an unknown location making a clanging sound with his movement.

“I greet my master,” a hoarse and stiff voice reverberated out from the human figure. However, his mouth didn’t move at all and the voice just naturally came out.

She grinned as she looked at the human figure in front of her, examining it for a rather lengthy period of time. “Still okay. Thankfully this Ji City has enough spiritual energy to the point where even rotten wood also has quite a bit of spirit energy. This body of yours should probably be usable for the time.”

It was unknown whether she was speaking to herself or to that human figure.

The human figure didn’t move or speak at all as it continued to kneel.

Ji Fengyan’s eyes continued a slither of a deep smile. As her haze landed on that vertical pupil on that human figure’s forehead, she grinned. “In the future, you’ll be called Yang Jian. Understood?”

“Yes.” The human figure, Yang Jian, said.

Ji Fengyan’s smile became even more radiant.

Yang Jian. Titled Pure Monarch Erlang, also called Erlang Shen. With an additional pupil on his forehead, he was capable of overpowering all demons, devils, ghosts, and monsters. Wielding the Triple-Bladed Double-Edged Lance and mounted on the divine hound, Howling Heaven, he was one of the most famous amongst the divine immortals.

If this was the twenty-fourth century, then it was very likely that almost everybody would have known what this name signified.

However in this world, there was no divine immortal existence like Yang Jian. Therefore, Ji Fengyan could completely play with his name as much as she wanted to.

“I have Yang Jian now and still require the Triple-Bladed Double-Edged Lance. Even better would be to find a Howling Heaven Hound.” Ji Fengyan swept her gaze over the firewood room. The Triple-Bladed Double-Edged Lance wasn’t difficult; all she had to do was draw a blueprint and find a blacksmith to forge it, but the Howling Heaven Hound…

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Translator’s Note
Yang Jian(杨戬) or Erlang Shen(二郎神), as he is commonly referred to, is a rather famous warrior deity in Chinese mythology. While I won’t go into to much details about it as there are several interpretations of the legends surrounding him, most of which can be researched online if anyone is interested, there are a few things I need to say about my translations of him, his mount, and his weapon.

Honestly, in my opinion, Erlang Shen sounds pretty awkward since its more like a title than a name, but because that’s how he’s usually called in popular culture, I’ll stick with it.

About the Howling Heaven Hound(哮天犬) though, I’ve seen it translated as the Howling Celestial Dog, the Heavenly Roar Dog, etc. In the end, all of it doesn’t really quite fit in my opinion. Although they aren’t wrong, the implications of it just seems off to me. The Howling Celestial Dog one sounded as if it was a “celestial dog howling”, while the Heavenly Roar Dog sounded as if it was a “dog that had supernatural powers of causing the heavens to roar”; it seems pretty godly and all, but it just doesn’t match with that fierce and ferocious impression that Yang Jian’s mount gives. Therefore, after thinking about it, I chose Howling Heaven Hound as in its a “dog trying to howl or roar in defiance at the heavens”, and used “hound” instead of “dog” since it sounds a lot more ferocious.

As for the Triple-Bladed Double-Edged Lance, that’s a little bit simpler but also rather weird. Ye Bei used 三尖两刃刀 in the raws, however that would literally translate to Triple-Pointed Double-Edged Blade, which would sound like a pretty exotic weapon if it could actually be made at all in a combat-efficient state. Instead, in both the novel and the other research sources I used, Yang Jian’s weapon is described as a hybrid between a trident and a spear, so I’m using “lance” rather than “blade” in the translation. I also chose lance instead of spear because lances sound heavier than spears and are often associated with mounted combat.