Name: 都市妖奇谈 The Legend of the Monster Alt title: Urban Legends Author: 可蕊 Raw Link: http://www.qdmm.com/MMWeb/906.aspx Category: 都市生活 urban life and supernatural elements, some xianxia elements with cultivation It feels a bit tokyo ghoulish in first two chaps (From what I've read so far) and protag feels like mc from ze tian ji. But that doesnt stop them from being ruthless. Why It Should Get Picked Up: It's not a very long novel! 69 chapters in total plus side stories. (but chapters are probably 5 times longer than the average webnovel). I was browsing through qidian and this was second on the list for All Time most recommended for Girls (wuxia and xianxia and the majority others are under the Boys section). Plus there's a 20 episode TV adaptation being pushed out right now (only found out about it when searching up a quick summary/synopsis. Teaser in next posts below. Also a nice change from typical historical fantasy, I mean who doesn't love supernatural beings doing shenanigans behind the human's backs? Description: There's a friggin' trailer for the TV adaptation that's subtitled in English here Story is told from perspective of the monsters. My translated synopsis: With the advancement of humankind, things called “Giant Cities” started appearing on this planet. Among the tall buildings, there are roads that wind like mazes. Even during the night the place lights up like the day. Human inhabitants of all kinds live here, relying on this place to survive, becoming part of the cogs that runs this city. However, humans would have never thought that every time they construct a building, every time they build a viaduct, and with every increase in brightness from lights shining unceasingly over the night, how many natural environments would be destroyed as result, how many other living things would lose their homes, such that when they gaze up they will never again see the familiar night sky. Humans will perhaps never care about the future of these creatures, but life is tenacious. For their survival they will force themselves to adapt to the new environment, the humans, and this city. Perhaps humans will never find out. Right now, this city is not only shared with stray cats, dogs, birds or bugs; there are still intelligent “living things” who adopt the outer guise of a human and hide amongst them. Out of kindness, or perhaps out of evil intentions, they live in the midst of this city for survival, hunting, evolving… As the city grows, any kind of living creature is possible...
Synopsis updated. Also mythical creatures starring include Spoiler shadow monster, (were)wolf, kitsune, zombie, phoenix, demon cat, etc. .
I made a teaser. Half of chapter 1, titled Charm of a Shadow. The chapters are rather long,so there's a still a lot of things happening within. There's 3k+ words in teaser. Spoiler: Chapter 1 First Half With the advancement of human civilization, things called “Cities” started appearing on this planet. Among the tall buildings there, roads wounded around like a maze. Even during the nighttime, that place lit up like the day. All kinds of human inhabitants lived there, relying on this place to survive and becoming part of the motions that operated this city. However, there was something humans could not have considered. That every time they constructed a building, every time they built a viaduct, and with every increase in lights that lit up throughout the night, just how many natural environments would be destroyed as result; how many other living creatures would lose their homes, and when they raised their heads, never again be able see the night skies? Humans will perhaps never care about the futures of these creatures, but life is tenacious. For their survival they will force themselves to adapt to the new environment, the humans, and this city. Perhaps humans will never find out. Right now, this city is not only shared with stray cats, dogs, birds or bugs; there are still intelligent “living things” that adopt the outer guise of a human and hide amongst them. Out of kindness, or perhaps out of evil intentions, they live in the midst of this city for survival, hunting, evolving… With the city growing, any kind of living creature is possible here. Shinan Road was the busiest district for nightlife in Lixin city. As time approached midnight, the bustling came alive and bodies basked below the multicolour neon lights while they enjoyed the present and wasted away the times. Xue Tong was running with all her might. She ran past shops one after another, and then took a turn from the main street into a cross road. Upon entering this dimmed path, the cacophony from the city behind her was suddenly far away, as if she had all of a sudden entered another world. Xue Tong looked behind. Those two men were still tightly approaching. Biting her teeth, she continued to fun forward. A car suddenly stopped by Xue Tong, and the door opposite the driver soundlessly opened. “Miss ,please get on.” “Taxi?” Xue Tong looked at the red Santana with surprise. The taxi driver probably thought she was motioning to hail the cab when she brushed her hair away just then with her hand, so he drove straight to her side. The two men at the back had already caught up. Without time to consider as to why this taxi would appear in the middle of such an empty alley instead of doing business in the busy streets ahead, Xue Tong got into the vehicle. The two men who caught up cursed, chasing and hitting the windows of the car. One of them even gave the door a kick. “Miss, where are you heading?” The voice of the taxi driver was calm, as if nothing had happened at all. “S, S University.” In regards to a student from a famous university coming and going from this type of nightlife district, this taxi driver should have already gotten used to the sight, thought Xue Tong. As a girl running out from a place like that, being chased by two men at the back, people who see this would probably think into that direction right? “Actually, just then those two people were...” However the taxi driver did not listen to her at all. Xue Tong tilted her head and assessed the taxi driver. This taxi did not install those meshed partitions that were usually in a taxi at all, so both sides could see each other especially clear. However there was no difference between being able to see clearly or not, as this driver had the appearance of an ordinary person that was seen all the time, and a person with not a single bit of presence at that. Even if she saw it ninety nine times, Xue Tong could not guarantee she would be able to recognize him by the hundredth time. Sometimes you’ll meet taxi drivers who are restless chatterboxes, sometimes you’ll meet the type who likes listening to music. Sometimes you’ll meet a taxi driver who listens to news on the radio, and of course there are ones who do not talk and do not listen to music, a taxi driver who drives in silence. Looking out the window, at a scenery that was gradually getting more and more deserted, Xue Tong suddenly had a laughable thought: At the dark of the night in a taxi, a silent taxi driver, a female passenger by herself, on the outskirts of the suburb… The car abruptly stopped. Xue Tong suddenly turned her head and stared at the driver. “We’re here!” “Ah.”Xue Tong looked ahead of the vehicle. The main entrance of S University was just ten or so steps away. “The taxi fare’s thirty dollars.” Xue Tong fished out a few bills and handed them over without counting at all. Just as she hopped off the car, it swiftly took off. Xue Tong gave her watch a glance, then looked at the giant clock that was more accurate than the sun suspended on the university’s entrance, muttering to herself, “Ten minutes, thirty kilometers from Shinan Road to here, and even through the downtown area…” “Have you heard, it’s her.” “What? Her? There are people who will buy her with those looks?” “What are you talking about?” “About that person… Shinan Road …Hoe…” “Oh oh, for real…” “…” The low whispers behind her back whether by intention or not were transmitted to Xue Tong’s ears. She curled her lips in disdain, then carried her toiletries outside the public washroom. “Tong.” Although Zhang Qian had heard those rumours, she still walked shoulders to shoulders with Xue Tong. “Do you have class this morning?” “Yeah, Professor Sun’s class.” “Me too, let’s go together later.” Zhang Qian looked at Xue Tong: an average figure, not fat and not skinny, and with a normal dress up. It took Zhang Qian a whole year being in the same class as her to remember her name. Zhang Qian could not believe in any way that Xue Tong would do those kinds of things with her appearance. However, Xue Tong did continuously come home late at night many times. Just where did she go? “Hey, quickly take look at this, there’s another one!” A male student holding a newspaper shouted with barely suppressed excitement. Xue Tong, who was sitting next to him, received the newspaper from his hands. Giant letters from the newspaper’s conspicuously coloured heading imprinted the words, “Human Killing Demon Continues Spree, Ex-convict Becomes Sixth Victim.” Seeing such a title, Xue Tong thought that perhaps this newspaper was the same as that male student, currently getting excited because of this incident. In this city, only these types of news could stir up the dull nerves of people. Within a very short ten or so days, six murders with mutilated corpses happened in LiXin city. Although it was said to be mutilated corpses, in reality only a small part of the dead were found; a head and nothing more. At the very beginning, a janitor found a human head in the pile of trash, and then a second, then a third, all till the sixth victim found today. These series of cases all shared similar points: the dead were all male, moreover the incident all happened after midnight, cause of death due to beheading by a sharp weapon. Among them, when two of the victim’s heads were found at dawn, their blood had not yet coagulated. However, among the dead were office workers, university students, street ruffians and various other identities. No matter the age, career, appearance, there was nothing in common. The case also had very big mystery surrounding it that was difficult to explain, and that was… “Six dead people, even if diced to pieces they can still fill up a good few sacks right? But the police have already combed through the city once, and not even a bit of minced meat have been found. He even carelessly threw away a human head, does he need to be afraid of people finding the corpses and hide them away?” The students used the interval before class to discuss this case. “Can’t it be the organ harvesters from the black market who’ve done it?” A student said. Another person shook their head saying, “From what I can tell, with all these continuous cases, the murderer must be a psychopath. Maybe he has a corpse collecting fetish, having the corpses displayed inside his own home, everyday facing them…” “Ahhh…” His description caused a female student to scream out. Everyone burst out in laughter. Xue Tong lowered her head to the newspaper, muttering to herself, “Corpses… been eaten up…” The photo of the victim published in the newspaper looked more and more familiar to the eye. “Isn’t that one of the two guys who chased after me last night?” Xue Tong did not know why she thought back to the taxi she took to return here. That silent taxi driver, the thirty kilometers journey that took only ten minutes… “That driver…What did he look like? How come I can’t remember it?” The professor had already started the lesson and the classroom finally became quiet. Xue Tong supported her head with a hand underneath while looking out the window thinking, “Let’s go on a trip to Shinan Road again tonight.” Xue Tong strolled a few times along Shinan Road, eyes staring at each taxi passing by quickly, “I remember the car plate seems to be 00544. En, right, it’s 00544…” She mumbled all the while, then suddenly grasped onto a lamp pole next to her as she burst out laughing. “00544, ‘try and get me’, ha ha ha ha, how is there such a number! Ha ha ha, I’m dying from laughter! ‘Try and get me’… Ha ha!” Not caring about the surrounding people looking at her as if she was crazy, Xue Tong laughed and laughed. It had been a long time since she last laughed this hard. “‘Try and get me’, interesting, then I’ll give it a try!” She slightly squinted her eyes. A taxi slowly drove up. “00544!” Xue Tong hastily waved her hands to hail the cab. “Please get on.” It was still the taxi driver without a hint of emotion in his voice. “Where is Miss going?” “East district Chengxin poultry farm.” At the corner of Shinan Road, a lady wearing a long dress stood at the spot where Xue Tong was just a moment ago, wearing a perplexed expression as she watched the taxi drive away. Her thoughtful innocence worn on her pretty countenance had attracted many guys, and finally two youths came and stroke up a conversation with her. The lady originally wanted to tail Xue Tong and that taxi, however looking at the boys in front of her, she changed her mind in the end. ChengXin chicken farm was located in a place between the city and the countryside, surrounded by corn fields just about ready for harvest. The car drove along a road that did not even have streetlights, and through the car window, one could only see the corn crops that were as tall as a person on both sides and the pitch black night sky. “Stop. It’s here.” Xue Tong had the taxi stopped in a place still far from the destination. The driver didn’t say anything at all. He not only stopped the car, but even switched off all the headlights. He turned around looking at Xue Tong. The two people stared at each other in the darkness. “You, you’re not human right?” Xue Tong asked. Xue Tong strongly grasped the driver’s neck. “It’s all because of you bastard, I haven’t had a good meal in half a month! Even if you’re not human, right now I don’t get to choose!” Saying that, she bit into the driver’s throat. “Even if you want to eat me, I don’t even have any flesh for you to eat.” The driver’s voice was still calm as ever, “So you’re actually a ground wolf. It’s all because of the existence of a gluttonous guy like you, that brought so much trouble to me.” Xue Tong found out that she didn’t feel the sensation of teeth sinking into skin, and didn’t feel the hot blood run into her mouth. She forcefully yanked, and the driver’s head rolled down from the neck to the ground. “Ugh, yuk, ate something weird!” Xue Tong spat out saliva while opening the car door to exit outside. Right now she was no longer that youthful female university student, but had long hair stretching all the way down to the ground, sharp claws protruding from hands, and fire red eyes – a ground wolf. A hand suddenly stretched out from the shadow of the car and grasped its ankle. The ground wolf was caught off guard and flung out, falling heavily into the fields. The ground wolf climbed back up from the flattened corns, looking at the opponent that appeared from within the shadows. It was no longer that youthful driver, but a mass of black shadows in the shape of a human, with only a pair of white eyes staring at the ground wolf. “So you’re only a lowly shadow demon, bah, bah, this type of monstery spirity thing is not at all edible.” The ground wolf waved its claws. “A lowly thing like you can actually cultivate a human appearance, that’s not easy at all. Unfortunately now I must have your cultivation crippled to nothing. The shadow demon dodged its head avoiding a swipe from the ground wolf’s claws, once again immediately disappearing into the darkness. The ground wolf vigilantly looked at the surrounding shadows, not knowing where this shadow demon that could meld into shadows will appear from. The shadow demon jumped out from the shadows of the ground wolf. The ground wolf nimbly jumped, leaping onto the roof of the taxi. The shadow demon wanted to pursue, but found that it could not move its body. Glancing down, it saw that one foot had been trapped into the ground some time before, unexpectedly without room to flee. “You think my name ‘ground wolf’ is for nothing? The vast land can grasp all, even a shadow like you!” The ground wolf waved both hands. Dirt and rocks flew out like arrows from the ground, piercing towards the shadow demon. Before getting pierced by the attack, the shadow demon’s body once again disappeared, and then from the shadows of those dirt and rocks, pieces by pieces appeared, then combined into one. It didn’t dare touch the ground, floating in mid-air facing the ground wolf. “Wait a moment,”the ground wolf thought of something, “Shadows don’t need to eat things right? You didn’t eat those people who only had a head left, right?” “They weren’t eaten by you?” “…” The ground wolf sat on top of the car, spread out hands and said, “What? So I actually found the wrong person, wasting half a night.” The shadow demon floated down and asked hesitantly, “Sure it wasn’t you?” The ground wolf sat cross legged on the car and said, “Would it benefit me by lying to you? Then again, do I look like the type to be picky? Eating food and leaving behind a head for the humans to see.” The shadow demon descended onto the ground, slowly reverting back to a human appearance. “So you’re saying you’re also looking for that guy?” Every time “that guy”was mentioned, the ground wolf got angry. “Of course. Do you know how much trouble it’s brought me? Originally Shinan Road was a really good hunting ground. There were so many potential food candidates, but now after it’s made such a mess, the human police and the rest all flooded into there. I couldn’t eat at all. I’ll let it go for running here and eating in my territory, but to also ignore the rules and cause a storm, you say, how can this bastard go without punishment!” It paused and asked, “You’re also looking for it? Why? It’s not totally because of food…” “Because it caused a very big problem for me. A taxi driver was among one of the people it ate. That was the person I hired to substitute my driving during daytime. Normally I only drive out at night. Now that he’s dead, the human police investigated the people around him and finding out he embezzled quite a sum of travel fares from me, in addition to the fact I normally drive at night, and not having those things called ‘alibi’, they then made me into a suspect. We all don’t like attracting attention from humans. This sort of thing makes people vexed. If it doesn’t stop creating messes, my life will be thrown apart.” “Then we both have the same goal.” The ground wolf jumped down from the roof of the car, “Wanna partner with me? Teach that bastard who don’t know the rules a lesson.” As it spoke, it reverted back to the appearance of Xue Tong. She reached out a hand towards the shadow demon. “My name right now is Xue Tong.” The shadow demon reached out and grasped her hand, and said, “Zhou Ying.” “Zhou Ying! Hahaha…” Xue Tong cracked up loudly, “You’re a shadow demon, name’s “Zhou Ying- as in all surrounded by shadows?! Your car plate is try and get me… Hahaha, it’s unexpected that a chap like you will have such a sense of humour!” Zou Ying looked at her, revealing a classical expression one would have when looking at a retard. Seeing Zhou Ying not following her, Xue Tong got disinterested after laughing for a while, waving her hands preparing to leave. She walked a few steps before Zhou Ying suddenly called out. “Wait a moment.” Xue Tong crossed her arms and looked back. “You still haven’t paid me.” “What?” “The trip’s forty dollars, thank you.” Xue Tong widened her eyes. “You.. you’re not that stingy are you?” “I already didn’t include the costs for the empty trip back.” Xue Tong unwillingly fished out her purse while complaining, “It’s fine already to just put up the appearance of driving a taxi, are you really using this as a way to earn money? If we want to earn money from the human society, there are countless methods of doing so!” “Humans earn money through working a job. My job is driving a taxi.” “But you’re not human.” “That’s why I need to learn to be a human.” Xue Tong frowned. “We have a longer life span, are stronger than them, why in the world would you learn from humans?” She said while pushing a hundred dollar bill into his hand, then waved hands saying, “No need for change!” Zhou ying still found fifty five dollars to give back to her, saying “If a lowly demon spirit like me wants to attain enlightenment, I can only do so by first becoming human, there are no other ways.” “What?” “No other ways.” “Before that!” “First becoming human.” “Even before that!” “What are you trying to say?” asked Zhou Ying. “Just then you said you want to “attain enlightenment”? I didn’t hear it wrong?” “That’s right.” “’Enlightenment’! Hahaha!” Xue Tong burst out laughing, almost rolling on the floor. She quickly leaned onto the car bonnet, hand smacking the front of the car while smiling, “I haven’t heard that in a few hundred years, now there’s still people wanting to become 'attain enlightenment’! My god, you’re such a funny guy! Hahaha… I can’t hold it anymore! You’re such a… such a… Hahaha…” Zhou Ying looked at her hitting and hitting the car bonnet, and painfully frowned. “We are demons, isn’t our raison d'être to successfully cultivate and attain enlightenment?” “Hey, hey, hey, there’s no ‘we’, right now the only person with that type of retarded thinking is you. Whether it’s me or other chaps, we’ve never heard of anyone with this type of thinking!”Xue Tong suppressed her laughing with great difficulty. Wiping her tears, she continued, “Perhaps it was like that in the past. From my memories when I was small, the same species around were all busy absorbing the essence of the sun and moon, cultivating, for the day one becomes an immortal, but that’s already in the golden history from few hundred years ago, long enough for teeth to fall out. Currently the human’s civilization is getting more and more developed, our lives are gradually getting easier, who would still need what enlightenment? For example, in the past when a person was eaten, no matter how cleaned up it was, that person’s disappearance will raise alarm and discussions in the village. Now it’s different. In such a large city, one, ten, even if a hundred people disappeared it will not raise suspicions. We only need to be clean, then we can eat to our fill. Back then, in order to mix into the crowd we needed to spill out a pile of lies, because people everywhere will ask your history, restlessly asking about anything and everything. Now it’s different, we only need to provide a legal document, then you’re a true blue human. As long as you stand there with a human appearance, no one will worry about what’s being wrapped underneath the skin. So what’s the reason for attaining enlightenment? If not to become stronger, and let us lead a better life. There’s already very little people who are spiritual masters among today’s humans. It’s already good enough to enjoy the human’s entertainment and comfortable life to the fullest. The majority of the other fellas are the same as me, having almost the same thought, thinking that this life’s not bad, why would we exhaust ourselves spending thousands and thousands of years upon cultivating, to get what enlightenment? What of attaining enlightenment? What of becoming a god, devil, deity? Must it be better than the present? Out time is also not unlimited, we should enjoy while we can instead. Not even one out of ten thousand can attain enlightenment, I advise you to not create further troubles for yourself. You don’t like eating people, next time I’ll introduce you to other fun things to do, don’t waste all your energy onto that type of thing.” After finishing her talk, Xue Tong waved her hand at him, disappearing into the earth and left.
Nice. So the girl was a land wolf. Totally didn't expect that. I am interested. Looks like I'm gonna agonize over it till someone picks it up.
Hi, I'm new at the translating thing. Just finished reading the teaser and I'm interested in translating the series. Do I need to do anything to like formally that I'm picking this series up or do I just post a link to my translation blog site?
Good luck with it! Just put a link to your blog whenever you're ready Also made revision to teaser because typos and whatnot.
Will post as soon as I'm done with the first chapter. Dustmite was right, the chapters are looooong so please bear with me X_X
*hands you coffee* You can do it comrade! By the way I changed land wolf to ground wolf because apparently according to mythology they live underground and hence the name. And immortality to attaining enlightenment though they're sort of the same thing I guess...?
I just realized my English is all messed up after reading through all those translated Wuxia novels... T_T Anyway, I will push try and push through a few chapters and see how this novel is received by the online community haha. With regards to the wolf thing, I agree that ground wolf sounds better than land wolf.
If you haven't done so already, try read the next 1 or 2 chaps to get a feel of the general direction. In chapter 2 or 3, there's a bit about Spoiler adultery . Not sure how the reception's going to be like for that Do your best! I'm sure you'll be fine After all, it's something different from wuxia and people like some variety.
Can somebody point me to an English article regarding Chinese mythological creatures? I'm having a hard time differentiating and translating (finding the appropriate English term) between 灵、神、魔、仙、灵、精、妖、鬼、怪、魃、魅、魍、魉. Update on the translation - finishing up 1st chapter, everything's on hold since I can't find decent translations for the words above. I'm guessing I need to first establish those terms since my gut tells me that I'll be encountering them very frequently throughout the series T_T
LOLLLL Maybe try asking in the translation corner here http://forum.novelupdates.com/forums/translators-corner.1026/ If it was me, it would go: spirit, god, devil, fairy, spirit, demon/daemon, demon, ghost, monster, monster monster monster... (I don't know the last few....) and I'm probably wrong...
Interesting! I'm the owner of dsyqt[dot]com (the Pinyin initials for 都市妖奇谈) - a website for this novel. And I myself is in a sorta good friendship with the author. I've actually started translating this novel in January this year (although the OP is still a lot ahead of me ._.), but have just finished the first chapter until yesterday. I wonder if you are still interested. If so, I can invite you to the google docs folder I'm using for this, just send me a PM or reply under this. @dustmite @chibineko I've also looked at the teaser OP gave, and I have to admit that it's really better than mine... But hey, I'm kinda more familiar with this novel, and maybe I know a little bit more about the ancient legends or 山海经. So we can discuss. Or if you like, you can just join the google docs and maybe comment on a paragraph or two once in a while -- it's totally okay. All I want to do is to translate this novel and introduce it to the people who are interested in Chinese culture and ancient Chinese legends and/or just Chinese Xianxia(仙侠)/Qihuan(奇幻) literature. I've been with this novel for almost ten years (but it actually first published in 2004), and I was actually just a reader like you, then I found I'm so into it, so I built the website and became friends with the author. So if you are still interested, please