Oh right... That, uh, happens, well not every night I think, but a few times lol. I forgot about that because the MC never got angry at the ML for it, even after he found out. I think the scene you mentioned is the last time that the dream thing happens too, but that was a dream and not a flashback. I guess... that does put it as non-con? But the MC doesn't really care after the fact? Fun fact, I don't know how many times the MC and ML did it in public lmao. And they pissed off Zhou BeiNan like twice for being so shameless (first time, they left ZBN waiting downstairs for them. the second time, they started to do it in the baths and everyone had to evacuate hahahaha)
Ok to answer some questions on spoilers, I need to drop the biggest plot twist of the novel: This is not actually a transmigration novel. The premise I laid out at the beginning? It's all false. It's what the MC was told what happens (and the story you get at the beginning), but the truth is that ML and the "villains" never tried to steal from or betray their sects. What happened was this: the other junior, Jiu ZhiDeng, who appears in the flashbacks, was from demonic lineage. He grew up in FengLing because he hadn't awakened his demonic side yet (and was put with the righteous sects to get him out of the way), but after he awakened his demonic heritage, he returned to the demon sect and then swiftly became the head of it. After some plot reasons, he decided to eliminate the four sects. He wiped out the QingLiangGu sect (Lu YuJiu becomes the sole survivor), and subjugated the others. To those that didn't obey him, he locked them into the Wilderness. After XXZ (MC) tried to confront him alone, he tricked XXZ and sealed his cultivation. He then tricked ML into thinking that XXZ (MC) was in the Wilderness, and so the ML went in to try to find XXZ. After that, because he also was in love with XXZ (MC), he sealed XXZ's memories and crafted an illusion of another life for him, where XXZ became known as Xu Bing, so that Xu Bing/XXZ (MC) would be his. So throughout the novel where Xu Bing feels like he's becoming overly involved, it's actually him regaining his memories (he keeps fainting during the flashbacks too, one part had the ML carrying him around during/after a fight lol). And the ML and MC had gotten together ages ago. So yea, the group are XXZ's old friends and comrade in arms, and never did anything wrong QAQ. On ML framing the MC for killing their Shifu ML never framed the MC for anything, he was only always like a high maintenance girlfriend lol. He would rather die than harm MC, although his over protectiveness to the extent of not caring about others did cause some conflict between the two. The MC really did kill his Shifu. His Shifu was possessed by a demon, so MC stabbed him. Shifu lied to MC that he'll be fine (so that MC would stab him), and so MC was devastated after his Shifu died. MC lost his right hand in the process. That's why even as Xu Bing he had no right hand (only a wooden prostheses), but his memories on the origin of the wound was different. Also MC had no choice but to run from the four sects, which is how he ended up alone in confronting Jiu ZhiDeng. Ending on XXZ's (MC) hand ML grew another hand for MC. So even though he can't wield a sword (he uses the left to fight), he can hold a brush. On backstory of ML and MC and how ML ended up in the Wilderness MC is the senior martial brother of ML after picking him up. ML was, from the very beginning, super sticky to MC. MC was overly lenient and doting to ML (and to Jiu ZhiDeng), and both of them would fight for his attention. MC thought at one point that the ML and Jiu ZhiDeng liked each other because they were always paying attention to each other (as rivals) lmao. When ML first made advances on MC, MC was kinda pissed? I think he got forcefully kissed? Then after that he relented and then the two of them proceeded to have the most shameless relationship ever after. So when MC (with the memories of Xu Bing) met up with ML again, to ML it's just a continuation of where they left off. Although, there's also another reason why ML insists of binding MC next to him when they sleep but this post is too long now. When ML went to confront Jiu ZhiDeng, Jiu ZhiDeng lied that he broke MC's limbs and tossed him into the Wilderness. He also then tossed MX's fan in, so ML ran into the Wilderness because even though he didn't really believe Jiu ZhiDeng he wasn't willing to risk it being false, since the Wilderness is a deadly place and what if the MC was really in there defenseless? Oh! Also, there's more than the main pairing in this novel! For M/M there's the ML/MC, Zhou BeiNan/Lu YuJiu, Qu Chi/Tao Xian, one side demon character/MC's older brother (implied), and a villain/one of the righteous sect people (that one ends sadly, luckily it's only a super side thing). For M/F there's Zhou Wang's parents, Wen XueChen/Zhou Xian (THIS ONE MADE ME CRY SO DAMN MUCH). Uh, warnings, although I said most relationships (for the main group) are stable, that doesn't mean all of them end happy.
Well he was useless for about 1/3 of the novel, which excluding flashbacks means he was useless for about 2/5? 1/6? of the book. At one point MC was like "ever since I've entered the Wilderness I've been either fainting or getting kidnapped" lol. MC was told his cultivation was crippled, but actually it was sealed. He slowly regains it. He also fights with his left. The part where he fully regains his cultivation is a doozy.
...Alright so I just realised I underestimated the amount of non-con by the sheer lack of crying (of the victims). Damn you danmei tropes *shakes fist*. I'll go edit the warnings post. For those who want to know what bad stuff occurs so they see if they want to avoid this novel, I can give a quick list(on the warnings post) or a slightly more detailed one.
Finally had time to sit down and write! The following list is based off my memory so I'll probably miss stuff :v List of some bad stuff, I'm trying to focus on the dub/non-con stuff but I'll get sidetracked. Basically everyone's lives sucks. MC gets molested by ML often when asleep before they got back together. ML often keeps him asleep with flower aroma and uses vines. MC was initially suspicious (when he had no memory) but after he finds out he doesn't follow up. There's the usual MC goes "no not here" token protest, ML does it anyway shenanigans, they both enjoy themselves anyway. So in general ML likes to keep pushing MC, MC complains but let's him. Doesn't sound very healthy on the surface but they trust and love each other (one part has ML telling MC not to go too far from him before a battle, MC says it should be you not going too far from me, I'm leaving you my back and then pats his own back). I think it works in part because both MC and ML have very strong personalities (i.e. they aren't pushovers - MC can taunt ML with "if you're so capable why don't you try doing me until I cry." LOL OK THEN MC). ML prevents MC from finding out that Jiu ZhiDeng is attacking the sects, and when MC learns of the attack, ML ties him up to prevent him from leaving. This is what truly gets MC angry - it crosses his bottom line and he just leaves ML behind. In fact most if not all of the main cast tend to be similar - if they themselves get hurt, it sucks but they'll handle it. If their loved ones get hurt they go ballistic. MC gets captured, sealed and brainwashed by final villain JZD into living a different life (Xu Bing lives in an illusionary world), JZD creeps on him by being every single person in the illusion. JZD revives Wen XueChen after he dies and brainwashes him into thinking that the demons cultivators are the righteous ones and vice versa, WXC becomes a side villain for a while. This is one of the few events the main cast reacts to the most. They're pissed with JZD about a whole bunch of stuff (like murder and exile) but this takes the cake for them. WXC goes insane after he remembers and buries himself with his wife, but since he's undead he can't die, so he's just...sleeping/lying underground. Yea I keep repeating it but this one made me cry so hard, he just went straight to the BE where being buried "alive" next to his wife is what gives him the most peace. His daughter (Zhou Wang) couldn't even reunite with him because their first meeting was as enemies, and ZW doesn't even use his surname (WXC carves a tiny "Wen Wang" into a wall as a sort of wishful thinking to himself and oh my god I'm just dead). MC's Shifu gets body jacked and raped by his nemesis (demon cultivator), he's more concerned with the demon trying to kill MC though and dies binding the demon and himself together to prevent the demon from escaping. They're sorta eternally bonded together now which really sucks for the Shifu, who could have ascended to immortality. MC gets kidnapped by ex-fellow sect member and given aphrodisiac, ML kills the lady before she does anything and uh feels up MC himself (with the vines again). ML y u so creepy you're lucky MC lets you get away with murder. MC gets kidnapped by ghost king who attempts to body jack him with his lover (a junior cultivator who got tossed into the Wilderness alongside everyone else). The lover by the way had a falling out with the ghost king before he died so the body jacking part was solely by the ghost king. Warnings for a lot of people dying, and physical torture of a lot of people. Generally those exiled to the Wilderness became more feral to survive. While some maintain a sense of morality, others throw it all away to survive (see: side villain lady who kidnapped MC - she was a perfectly upright honourable cultivator who bravely chose to walk into the Wilderness instead of kowtowing to the demonic cultivators). MC's brother also gets revived (forgot by whom) and is basically is half insane - his memory is jumbled and he doesn't recognise his brother. Other than being revived (no one asked dead people for permission) he isn't forced to do anything though. JZD's mother was held hostage by a side villain who tied their lives together in trying to control JZD as a puppet king, doesn't really work out for him ultimately.
I believe that they meant if the translator indicated they didn’t want the novel spoiled then that particular poster wouldn’t continue. Either way there’s no rules against spoiling in a spoiler thread, so rather if people don’t want spoilers they will just stay away. Nothing beats the original anyhow. But in a story like this with a lot of knives and so many chapters it is nice to have a rough idea where things are going.
Hello @redxx! Thank you very much for all your hardwork! Yup my personal preference is I wouldn't continue if I knew an active translator doesn't want the novel spoiled. So I had meant 'on the condition that I have no knowledge of the translator's intent'. Thank you very much for letting me know, and all the best with your translations! EDIT: A couple of weeks ago (ok a month sorry I'm a major procrastinator) the translator contacted me with the decision to allow spoilers to be discussed. So this is to inform anyone who had misgivings on commenting on this thread that it's open season and please feel free to discuss ahead of translations of this lovely novel. Again, if the translator is seeing this, many thanks for all their hard work. I went to look at their translations briefly a while back and was impressed by the effort (and footnotes - I love footnotes) that went into it, so I hope that they know that their efforts are greatly appreciated!!! Just FYI I have no life (haha what is work life balance???) so if you're asking for a spoiler and I don't respond it's because I'm trying not to get fired. HA.HA.HA. I'm sure others are also interested in discussing spoilers too! Just wanted to make it clear because I don't want to sound like I have a monopoly on this but also I don't want to let people think I'm leaving them hanging or anythinggggggggg
Q.Q why did the shifu had such an eeeend QAQ did the villain really throw the mc in the forest or the mc went there by himself ? (if he went as far as to create an illusion for him then why didnt he try to forcefully keep him by hie side ?) Also what happened to the minor villain who took JZD's mother?
I knowwwww he was such a cool shifu aaaaaa my kokoroooo QAQ Wen Xuechen put MC in there to try to kill ML, guess how that turned out ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ (WXC: posts on r/TIFU). JZD wasn't a happy bunny when he found out lol. The translators notes in one chapter made fun of this too lmao - something like the ML in the after notes going: Who was it, who put my shixiong here ♫ If I remember correctly, tortured in the dungeons - can't remember whether he finally died.
I just wanted to ask, does the main character ever find out that what he believed was his life as an author, was actually fake, and that he truly was a senior brother all along?