The Villain's White Lotus Halo Chapter 19

Big thanks to Kirrs for translating this chapter! (And the next two) Let's learn some history (and indulge the author in some worldbuilding)

Syn Chapter 19 – Stellaris¹

The carriage rumbled as it traveled on Western Continent's main road at lightning speed, raising a cloud of dust. The young man lifted up the carriage curtains, a pair of slightly upturned delicate eyes examined the outside. Coincidentally, the lady who also peeked out the curtains in the adjacent carriage, met with his billowy eyes, quickly averting her already flushed face from his gaze, and somewhat audaciously, covered her mouth and let out a giggle.

Duan ChongXuan smiled back at each one.

Yin BiYue was dumbfounded, this entire journey… didn't his face feel stiff?

After the matter of Bao Pu sect disciples, the three were in low spirits, thus speeding up their journey. They were out of Panlong district in less than three days.

Sure enough, going onto YunZhong road was peaceful. Duan ChongXuan rented out a carriage from the inn, requested a coachman, and lifted up the carriage curtains whenever bored. From his account, this was one of the ways a person could travel. It was cultivation, as well as part of life.

Regarding the chatterbox's reaction to riding the carriage as a novelty, he was riding it as if it were a luan² bird. Yin BiYue honestly could not understand.

Could it be that this scam always flew when he goes out?

No, it was probably because he was too oppressed at Xi Hua Peak.

By comparison, Luo MingChuan was far more silent.

When the carriage only have three people and the sole  chatterbox was busy looking at the scenery and ladies, this kind of silence seemed somewhat awkward. Or maybe the only person who felt it was awkward was Yin BiYue.

Fortunately, it was only awkwardness right now and not restlessness due to danger.

In the past, so long as the distance with Luo MingChuan was a bit close, Yin BiYue would feel uncomfortable and take up precautions. But during this journey, the carriage was not big. Even if two people sat on opposite sides, the distance between them was at most three feet.

Subsequently, he gradually became accustomed.

Occasionally when he locked eyes with Luo MingChuan, he was able to barely pull on his lips and return a small smile.

This kind of progress was worthy of a celebration.

After Yin BiYue became more light-hearted, Luo MingChuan became more guilty.

He felt that due to his slip of the tongue that harmed shidi, he needed to find a chance in the future to straighten out Yin BiYue's obsession so that he will no longer lose his way.

From his previous experience, Luo MingChuan believed himself as someone who recognized and amended for his mistakes.

Yet shidi just sat there, less than three feet away. When he looked at him, his eyes momentarily held a smile.

He suddenly felt confused.

It was like during midsummer, outside of the school library. An evening wind passed through, and the fully bloomed pagoda flowers showered down, covering his entire body.

Luo MingChuan began to focus on meditating 'Words of Quiet Mind'.

Consequently Yin BiYue's keen senses perceived the minute change of atmosphere in the carriage.

This kind of change came from Luo MingChuan. After he closed his eyes, his body's spiritual energy became steady and peaceful.

If one said that martial cultivation emphasized long-term intense practice, just like how sword cultivators practiced the sword every day, honing the skills of the sword, then for spiritual cultivators, innate talent for spiritual veins and suitable dharma were more important.

Yin BiYue remembered when Luo MingChuan first joined Cang Ya as a martial cultivator; his shifu painstakingly searched for a good sword for him called 'Shen Zhou'. Who knew that after he went through the Falling Essence stage barrier, his spiritual vein was awakened, thus, making him better suited for spiritual cultivation.

Yin BiYue carefully thought;

When they were exchanging blows in the Violet Heaven Secret Realm, Luo MingChuan used the dense thicket, which sprawled out endlessly in a heartbeat, to block his sword. He guessed that Luo MingChuan's spiritual vein leaned towards controlling the vitality of vegetation.

During the questioning in Cang Ya dungeon, Luo MingChuan used the Jia Lan Spiritual Pupil Arts.

Yin BiYue researched before that this was a Buddhist dharma, originating from one of the 'Double Buddhist Temples' XinShan temple.

Cang Ya doesn't teach this. Maybe Luo MingChuan learned it from Lan Yuan school or from another circumstance. Even though it wasn't like a secret skill that couldn't be passed on, it was just that the requirement of innate talent was extremely high.

Clearly, Luo MingChuan's innate talent for the spiritual vein was nearing total purity.

This entire journey, with encounters of mountain bandits, Luo MingChuan always used his core energy to congeal a barrier that directly repelled others. It was fairly clear that his core energy was abundant. Or in other words, his spiritual vein was broad and could  store generous amounts of core energy.

Yin BiYue thought spiritual cultivation was annoying, but who knew that Luo MingChuan could do these whatever arts, as well as the ones he have not yet revealed.

And then in the corner of his eye, he saw Luo MingChuan's sword on his waist.

The longsword was plain and a deep green.

Like the budding of emerald bamboo. When the wind blows, it will not snap. When the rain comes, it remains unsoiled. Like a lone boat braving the winds and waves on the river, despite the night rain and the swaying, unchanging in its original intentions.

The definition of nobility.

The sword's blacksmith's -YanQin's- 10 years work of blood and sweat; the nobleman's sword, ShenZhou.

Luo MingChuan always openly wore the sword, yet very few people noticed it.

It was because his temperament was excessively mild and peaceful, to the extent that it weakened the sword's sharp aura.

Even if they did notice, people would believe he wore the sword only to remember his master Zheng YangZi's benevolence.

Yin BiYue suddenly felt a bit cold.

If Luo MingChuan already stopped using the sword, then why did that sword have not a sliver of dullness?

If he still continued with sword practice, then how was he able to divide his attention to practice spiritual cultivation teachings?

Countless experiences from predecessors confirmed that if one practiced both cultivations, then the only road they can take is towards death.

Yin BiYue had read through half of the collection of ancient books in school, in all different kinds.

He swiftly searched through his mind and ultimately came to a conclusion.

This kind of person does not exist in the present age. However, millions of years before, in the 'All Saints Era', there was one.

The saint at XingShan Buddhist temple, known as 'All-knowing'. Ever since humans understood the use of spiritual qi from heaven and earth to transform into core energy and started practicing cultivation, there had been records in the ancient books, that there was only one person who broke through the Buddhist cultivation, spiritual cultivation, and the martial cultivation barrier.

But that saint perished long ago and did not leave behind an heir; that era had long since disappeared.

The atmosphere in the carriage was as calm as a lake, seemingly very suitable to think about history and old affairs.

Yin BiYue was also like Luo MingChuan, eyes closed and meditating.

Prior to humans' existence, the land was populated by otherly beasts, created by the accumulation of spiritual qi. Due to the horrid natural environment and fighting every kind of otherly beasts, slowly, the earliest humans understood cultivation and entered the era of human civilization.

Four hundred thousand years afterwards, the cultivation movement reached its peak.

Countless saints and sages emerged, along with those who even broke though saintly realm and touched the heaven's doorstep; 'immortal beings'. At the same time, demonic cultivation was on the rise. Mo Zun³ and many strong demonic cultivators were able to face the 'immortal beings'.

This 'All Saints Era' continued for a hundred thousand years.

In the long stream of history, it was short yet splendid.

After that was a destructive battle where countless cultivators perished. Many sect families were left with no heir. Demonic cultivators from the Eastern continent were also broken up into the 'Twelve Palaces'. Afterwards, calamity descended: the heavens rained fire, the earth split open. The calamity continued for an entire year; the five continents were filled with desolation, and the lives of people were dreadful.

In another thousand years, all living things began to recover; the vegetation revived once more.

The land created a new kind of vitality.

Due to the heavy amount of demonic cultivation in the Eastern continent, it was still in chaos. The few big cities each individually claimed power.

In the western continent, Bao Pu sect established its own faction, Cang Ya mountain was inaugurated. Using the hundred thousand mountains as the boundary, one South one North, the sect became the new founder of order. Many influential families attached to them to establish towns, and the lives of normal people and cultivators alike all gradually returned to normal.

The Southern continent's QingLu Sword Sect and XinShan temple heirs were still alive, therefore, they continued with the old order.

In the northern continent, a sage appeared who led a group of strong, banished demonic cultivators, unified the land, and established the Northern empire.  

Seemingly, everything was slowly becoming better.

But many people quickly found out, cultivators' highest cultivation was at the stage of Sage and couldn't improve any further. It appeared to be the limits of aptitude. They could only slowly wait for death.

Six hundred thousand years before, a new sage appeared after the previous sage died. Luckily, a sage's life span was incredibly long, counted by thousands of years.

People gradually adapted to a world without saints.

This is the long 'End of Dharma Era'.

Until Wei JingFeng went through the calamity of lightning and fire.

And became a Sword Saint.

The circumstances suddenly changed, and the entire world was shocked.

It was like a sign of the natural law or merely a coincidence.

The thousands of years afterwards, geniuses repeatedly appeared in different lands, like bamboo after the spring rain. Hence many people exhibited the potential to step into the domain of saints.

For example, with the world famous sword saint's first disciple Jun Yu, Bao Pu Sect's Lin YuanGui, the even younger QingLu Sword Sect's Zhong Shan, and LianJian's Qu DuiYan. There were also several other unknown young ones who had not yet become famous, who silently cultivate and only occasionally have a few rumors about them come out.

In the coming of thousands of years, one can almost imagine, when this group of geniuses become mature, the five continents' structure will inevitably be changed.

Of course, future matters have too many variables and are hard to predict.

The academy director named this era 'Stellaris'.

As a result, many cultivators, after knowing that their sect produced a genius, will proudly say "we are living in the Stellaris era."

The appearance of the Sword Saint signified the end of older era and the beginning of the new one. Yin BiYue thought to himself, this really was very cool.

But was the change of eras really good thing?

Changes implied disputes; disputes implied chaos.

When Yin BiYue opened his eyes, he saw the still, close-eyed Luo MingChuan, sitting in the slight jolting of the carriage, his breath quiet, and on his waist, ChenZhou as tranquil as him.

He didn't know the role Luo MingChuan would play in the future.

Maybe this was the best era, as well as the worst.

At that moment, Luo MingChuan woke from his meditative state. He opened his eyes and immediately locked onto the cold gaze of another.

The youth at the opposite side stared at him frankly, concentrated yet silent. There seemed to be an unsteady worry churning deep within his eyes.

Like a calm lake striking a rock, it instantly broke the calm state of his mind.

Not knowing why, he involuntarily avoided the youth's gaze, trying to cover up by asking, "is something the matter shidi?"

Yin BiYue, from the moment Luo MingChuan opened his eyes, choked up.

Caught red-handed secretly looking at the protagonist. How! To! Recover!!!

'I was just thinking if your future's road will be wide or not. A hero or a tyrant.'

'You look real handsome, I was just casually looking at you when there was nothing to do hehe.'

Hehe the fuck! What are these stupid responses!!

And to think in this moment Luo MingChuan asked "is something the matter shidi?"

Fudge!!

Can this story even include swear words?!!

Yin Biyue could only feel all the blood going up to his face, he'd never come across any situation that was even more awkward than this.

With Luo MingChuan's unusual train of thought, he couldn't have thought I was staring at him all this time, right?!

This kind of thing will absolutely be considered as perverted right? This is too degrading!!

The more awkward it was, the more he couldn't think of a plan. Just when Yin BiYue decided to fuck it and say 'nothing, just casually looking'…

'Ding — detected user's embarrassment stat exceeded 100, automatically determine the situation as difficult, initiate Halo Helper?'

My god, what an improvement from last chapter.

1) The meaning of the words is “a group of stars”. I was tempted to use constellation, but I found out Stellaris, the game, was named this in chinese, so I made the executive decision to use it as the title (it sounds cooler, no?)

2) The mythical blue/green phoenix-like bird of chinese myth.  

3） Mo Zun means demonic elder/lord/ect, like a title, but it gets used as a name later on so we will keep it like this.

A much shorter chapter this time, and with far less explaining to do!! Lots of history and explanation! In light of the short chapter, kinda boring content, and the fact that I have chapter 20 and 21 ready to go, chapter 20 will be posted soon!

Shout out to and for editing from our friendly neighborhood

syn

Chapter end