Chinese Xian Mo Chronicle 仙魔变

Name: Xian Mo Chronicle (仙魔变)
Raw Link: http://book.zongheng.com/book/175703.html
NU Link (if avaliable):
Why It Should Get Picked Up:
As a Chinese webnovel translator and an old, native leecher of Chinese webnovels, I was pissed off by the recent mess with QI and I started to ask myself: what was the best non-Qidian Chinese webnovel I had ever read that had not been translated yet? And I found this: Xian Mo Chronicle (仙魔变). It is a novel released on Zongheng, which is reportedly collaborating with WW. I expect Zongheng to be less moronic and wise enough to give this masterpiece a decent chance to meet the English world.

So more specifically, why this book?

As an old leecher, I am already tired of repetitive plot armors and stupid/unreasonable plot-holes. The same as the novel that I'm currently translating, Xian Mo Chronicle (仙魔变) has impeccable story-line and nice style of writing. It's nearly plot-hole-less and the cliffhangers last to the very end of the story. I could't predict the ending until I finished the last chapter. The fight scenes are excellent. The romance is carefully and maturely dealt with. The characters are real with true feelings and logical motivations. The only thing to complain is that it becomes a bit lengthy towards the end (which is a common flaw of Chinese webnovels).

The novel is finished in 2800k characters. It's a long story and very difficult to translate. I was hesitating to take it as my first project and finally gave up and picked a shorter one... But I still hope some team can pick it up some day, and I will definitely be glad to give a hand if needed.

Description:

Official synopsis (personal translation)
Sixty years ago, a middle-aged man walked into the Imperial City of the Middleland, with a kylin that looked like a spaniel and a mandarin duck that looked exactly like a duck.

In the same year, this man crossed the Shanhai Ridge and the Four Seasons Plain, and entered Qingluan Academy.

Sixty years later, starting from Deerwood, Lin Xi penetrated half of the territory of Yunqin Empire in an old and shabby coach. Going north all the way, his destination was as well Qingluan Academy...

It was a story about a young man who saw things differently from the others in the world, a story about the glory of an empire, about the warm blood of the youth, about loyalty and betrayal, and most importantly about the creation, teaching and passing on of a precious spirit.

My own synopsis:
Even if you have one of the most powerful gold-fingers you can dream of in a world of martial arts, you are far from being invincible. The more you discovered about the truth of this world, the more desperate and helpless you are. Humans have weaknesses and weaknesses make us who we are. As a Chinese saying goes, today Lin Xi is proud of being a part of Qingluan, and some day Qingluan will be proud of having Lin Xi.

A teaser of the Prologue (again personal translation):
The Arch of Deerwood had been struggling to stand at the east of the town for two-hundred-and-thirty years. The floral decorative patterns and the epigraph on its front that said "Timely Wind Adequate Rain" were difficult to recognize. Long and short stems of sweet wormwood came out from the crannies in the pillars amid other weeds, full of vigor.

Through the wormwood, the early morning sunshine fell on Lin Xi's body. Mottled with light and shadow, the leisureliness on the handsome face of this eighteen-year-old young man gave an illusion that he had been through a multitude of vicissitudes of life.

Standing in front of him was a comely twin-tail girl who looked two years younger than him. Compared to her thin body, her eyes were unusually large.

This handsome girl was not an inhabitant of Deerwood. She just came out from nowhere and walked to Lin Xi. Lin Xi had never seen this girl, but she began to ask him a lot of questions about him. She looked so serious from the very beginning, driving out all the childishness from her face.

"It's really hard to explain it to you. After all, it's out of sheer boredom..." Lin Xi was talking to the girl seriously as well.

"OK" nodded the girl. She moved on to another question seriously, "So what are you looking at all this time, standing here, stretching out your neck like a squab? What's so interesting with this arch?"

"I'm not admiring this arch." Lin Xi waved his head and pointed at the top of the arch, "That nest is probably going to fall. There are two squabs in it. I'm not sure if I can catch them safely. If I make it, I can give them to my younger sister as a gift."

It was a strange scene. Lin Xi was like a student answering a question from the teacher. But the teacher was even younger than the student. And neither of the two found it strange.

Hearing Lin Xi's answer, the girl didn't say anything but turned with a nod as a goodbye and left. She walked through the arch, crossed three alleys and went towards a coach staying at the side of the gravel road across the town of Deerwood.

She got on the coach, sat at the driver's position, took the whip and ordered the two grey old horses to shamble forward. She acted gracefully and skillful, as if she was used to doing this.

"All cleared?" A chilly, prideful voice of a woman arose from inside the silent coach.

"His name is Lin Xi. He's from the Lin Family, who owns of the shop at the west side of the town. Eighteen years old, he has a sister who is seven years younger than him." The girl didn't turn around when she answered, but flocked the whip gently. It seemed that she treated everything seriously, no matter when she was asking questions, answering questions, or driving a coach.

The cold and prideful voice didn't rise again, but she still continued, "People here prefer to call him Signorino Awesome."

"Oh, why is that?"

The girl turned around a little and answered, "Because he bursts out gibberish quite often, and likes to call people 'awesome'. People here think there's something wrong in his head, which is probably caused by a serious cold that he's caught over two years ago. "

"So, do you think there's something wrong in his head?" the voice in the car arose after a moment's break.

"He talked coherently. It didn't seem like he's a problem with his head. But he did say some strange things." The girl frowned a little bit and continued after a short meditation, "After I asked him some questions, he asked me if I was checking his Hukou. I asked him what Hukou was, and he said I wouldn't understand even if he explained to me. At the end, he said that he was standing under the arch because the nest on the top was going to fall. And he was waiting to catch the two squabs in it. And he was going to give them to his sister if he managed to catch them. But the nest was sitting firmly on the crossbeam under the overhanging eaves. I could only see a little bit of it from beneath. Even strong gasps of wind and storm wouldn't shake it off. And most importantly, I couldn't see a sign of living thing from where I was standing,"

"Even you can‘t make sure of it? He seems to be a tough one." After a longer break, the voice arose again when the coach was already about to get out of Deerwood along the gravel road, "But it shouldn't be tough for Qingluan Academy."

The driving girl‘s eyebrows knit tighter. She asked in a more serious tone, "I don't understand, my dear young lady."

"When we pass by the Deereast Canton Office, tell Li Xiping to arrange him to Qingluan Academy. Counting the time spent in the journey, he should arrive there in time."

"You are recommending him to the Concours of Qingluan?" The driving girl was surprised, "Why?"

"A funny reason. I remember when grandpa told me stories about that man. He said that the man used to shout things like 'the storm's coming, get the drying clothes back home!' when there was no sign of rain. " The speaker must have recalled some sweet memories. The chilliness in the voice was melting, as if delivered from a pair of smiling lips.

"Principal Zhang?" The driving girl's back shivered, but she didn't turn around.

“Who else do you think can let grandpa talk about his name all day?” the voice in the coach turned cold again, "When you get to Li Xiping, tell him to take care of Mayor Zhang. Born a plebeian, he owns seven villas in the town. Send him to the Frontier Legion in the Valley of Dragon and Snake for three years. If he can make it through there, he could keep three of them. "

 

*reads* Hey look! Another Qidian thread.
*reads*.....*reads more*......*scrolls down*
Oh god, that's long.

 

Its not a Qidian novel....... hmmmmm.......... PASS!

 

Nope it is not.

 

I meant to say it is related to Qidian. He recalled this because of Qidian.

 

Yep, but the talk here is not about the qidian issue.

 

+ 1

 

Seems like it might be a very good novel, I hope someone picks it up so I can leach read a little further.*cough cough*

 

That's ......................... harsh...

 

2.8 million characters? Damn... that's an undertaking and a half. If it gets picked up, hopefully it's by an experienced translator who is ready to commit to it

 

I'm thinking about a team of 3-5 persons...

 

My name is Wuji and I approve this message

 

Ehh, I've read this novel too. I'd say the cultivation is quite unique...

 

*push up*

 

2.8k chapters ? I don't think I've seen a story this long without it being full of filler or partly so, were there alot of boring parts ?

 

The author is known to be emotional and like to write tediously long paragraphs/chapters about details and psychological descriptions. Perhaps the translating team can make an abridgment for some passages. But speaking of the plot, it's breath-taking.

 

I just finally figured that the author is "Innocent", did the author really make that much progress in his style/approach to the story since his novel 'path to heaven' ? cause I won't hide it that it was average at best.

 

The most fascinating thing about this author is that each of his novels is so different from the previous one that every time he planned a new project it would scared out many of his old readers.
Xianmo Chronicle is so completely different from 'path to heaven' (genre/style/narration/quality) that most readers thought he was publishing for another author at the beginning.
So you basically can regard them as two independent novels.
I personally like Xianmo Chronicle a lot, Luofu is nice and interesting too, the other of his novels are not my type.

 

Hope somebody picked this up

 

hope someone pick this up +