Aerial Rain
Translating Web Novel

THDP Ch. 50 Part 3 – Debt (III)

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The black-robed man raised his hand and pointed his pale fingertips at one of the cultivators. “Come on.”

“You are misunderstanding.” One of the cultivators, who have been silent until now, suddenly spoke. He glanced sideways, and another man came out from behind.

The fifth cultivator…The black-robed man squinted his eyes. His hand hanging on the side already gripped a magic weapon.

Golden Core stage?

Normally, it didn’t worth mentioning before his eyes. But now, every additional enemy might become the last straw that crushed the camel’s back——even if it’s just a Foundation Establishment stage.

Misunderstanding? The man sneered. The four Nascent Soul cultivators stood in a half-circle formation. In a blink of an eye, they instantly surrounded him and Lu Qingran.

What kind of misunderstanding is this?!

“Fellow Daoists…” The Golden Core cultivator who had just arrived put on a friendly smile and said: “Be assured, we have no ill intention…excuse me, is one of you Lu Qingran?”

“Huh?” Lu Qingran was startled. Did they come to find her?

Lu Qingran subconsciously took a step closer towards the black-robed man. She glanced at the newly-arrived cultivator cautiously. Even though the other party had a friendly smile on his face, she hesitated for a long time before nodding slowly. “Y-yes…I’m Lu Qingran.”

Lu Qingran took a deep breath and subconsciously grabbed the black-robed man’s arm. He didn’t break away from her. Lu Qingran breathed a sigh of relief and raised her eyes towards the Golden Core cultivator: “May I ask fellow Daoist, for what purpose do you come to find me?”

The Golden Core cultivator smiled: “I am the clerk from Huajiang Manor’s Cultivators Alliance. You owed fellow Daoist Meng Qi a number of spirit stones and wrote an IOU for her. I wonder if you still remember?”

Lu Qingran was startled: “…I remember.”

“That’s good.” The Golden Core cultivator seemed to sigh in relief, and his smile became more gentle. “Fellow Daoist Meng entrusted us from Cultivators Alliance to recover the debt in her place. Fellow Daoist Lu, please pay it now.”

Lu Qingran blinked, unable to respond. Her mind was completely chaotic, and she was at a total loss. Meng Qi commissioned the Cultivators Alliance to collect her debt? So these people are not here to kill her…or him?

Lu Qingran subconsciously turned her head towards the black-robed man standing next to her. She clearly felt that the arm she was holding stiffened.

Lu Qingran naturally knew about Cultivators Alliance. She also knew that the alliance would help to mediate the conflicts between cultivators, including debt-collection. This was one of the systems created after the catastrophe thousands of years ago. In this era, no matter how fierce cultivators were, everyone still observed the rules set up by Cultivators Alliance.

Lu Qingran swallowed her saliva nervously. For some reason, she felt that this scene was familiar. Meng Qi…junior sister Meng didn’t change at all. Still demanding spirit stones from people.

“Fellow Daoist Lu.” The Golden Core cultivator from Cultivators Alliance once again reminded her patiently: “Fellow Daoist Meng asked us to collect the spirit stones you owed her in one day. Please don’t make things difficult for us and repay the money as soon as possible.”

Lu Qingran: ” ……”

Her face flushed even more. She has never felt so ashamed in this life. The five unfamiliar but powerful cultivators were looking at her, and there was even another man by her side, waiting for her reply. Lu Qingran opened her mouth strenuously and said very weakly: “But, I don’t…I don’t have enough spirit stones.”

Lu Qingran whispered in shame. Not to mention ninth-grade spirit stone, even a single eighth-grade spirit stone was an astronomical amount for someone like her who was still in the Foundation Establishment stage.

Lu Qingran felt the gaze of six pairs of eyes fell sharply on her. She felt so ashamed. She wanted to hide her face and ran away immediately. Lu Qingran’s family was wealthy, and she has lived well since she was born. Later, Qingfeng Valley sect leader met her, felt that she had a talent in the medical path, and brought her back to Qingfeng Valley as a personal disciple. From the moment she joined the sect, her master doted on her, and even her senior brothers and sisters treated her politely.

Even when the incident happened later and she was accused by her fellow disciples of Qingfeng Valley, she was quickly taken away by the black-robed man, so she didn’t have to face the embarrassing situation.

But now, in front of so many people, she was being confronted for her debt.

Lu Qingran’s face became hotter and hotter. Her eyelashes trembled pitifully. Her nose was sore, and her eyes reddened. She couldn’t understand why junior sister Meng Qi treated her like this. At the very least, they were used to be disciples of the same sect. Junior sister Meng Qi already earned so many spirit stones, why did junior sister have to force her into the corner? She was just a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Where did she can take out so many spirit stones?

Why should Meng Qi force her like this? To embarrass her?!

“However, fellow Daoist Lu, you personally marked your spiritual sense to this IOU. It is a legit contract.” The Golden Core cultivator frowned. “Then…how many spirit stones do you have now?”

“One…one hundred third-grade spirit stones.” With trembling hands, Lu Qingran took out all the spirit stones she kept inside her storage space item. Her eyelashes trembled, and her nose became sore. When the spirit stones were taken out, tears finally rolled down her cheeks.

The black-robed man: “…”

He turned his head and glanced at Lu Qingran. Seeing her tears finally made him recover from the shock of discovering that these people were chasing them only to collect a debt. The man took a deep breath and said coldly, “How much does she owe? I will pay it back for her.”

The black-robed man touched his storage space item, then took out a small brocade bag. To be honest, he truly looked down on these people. What a Cultivators Alliance? Just to settle a debt between two Foundation Establishment cultivators, they even dispatched four Nascent Soul and one Golden Core cultivators. If the alliance of cultivators in Three Thousand Worlds was only at this level, heh, it seemed these people would finish sooner or later, even without their intervention.

“Alright.” The Golden Core cultivator replied with a smile: “Three ninth-grade and five hundred eighth-grade spirit stones.”

The black-robed man doubted his ears: “…how many?!”

 

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T/N:

Thank you for your responses! Seems like either rank or stage. Level somehow doesn’t seem to be fit. If I use ‘stage,’ it will fit with human cultivator level (i.e. Nascent Soul stage), but somehow it also feel evolutionary.

Let’s try use them on real sentences. Which one is better:

  1. Chu Tianfeng was beaten by a fifth-grade devil beast.
  2. Chu Tianfeng was beaten by a fifth-level devil beast.
  3. Chu Tianfeng was beaten by a fifth-rank devil beast.
  4. Chu Tianfeng was beaten by a fifth-stage devil beast.

(sorry for CTF fans lol)



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20 thoughts on “THDP Ch. 50 Part 3 – Debt (III)”

  1. I think I like reading sentence 3 the best. Sentence one just kinda.. Evokes an image of CFT being hit by a fifth grader Lololol
    Many thanks

    1. Same, grade brings memories of school, level seems like pokemon so 5 is “weak” and stage 5 feels like a game…..dam idk how to say it, game floor?

  2. I am weirdly partial to number 1. Familiarity I guess. Next one is number 3 ‘rank’. The others just come off wrong. Thanks!

  3. For me -#3 – ‘rank’ sounds the best.
    But I’m not a native English speaker, and I am not from English-speaking environment.

  4. Rank sounds the best to me but in English at least rankings go lower number = higher quality. First is the best. I see what you mean about stage being evolutionary but for the same reason I think it works better to show that higher numbers = further along in the progression = stronger.

    My final answer is stage. It sounds a little bit less natural than rank, but not much, and I think it does a better job describing the relative positions.

    I don’t think I’ve said it for a few comments so this is my official statement that I appreciate you and thanks for translating these fun stories ^_^

  5. I prefer reading it as ‘rank’ instead because it kinda helps me ‘visualize’ the power difference between (if u get what I mean). But it’s up to u guys, I’m kinda okay with anything else too

  6. Anything but Level. Quite a lot of cultivation novels seems to have it translated into Rank/Stage when it comes to combat related rankings while Grade seems to be used when it comes to items such as Herbs/Currency.

  7. 3rd – Rank sounds best followed by stage though I must say stage somehow sounds weird 🤔 can’t explain in what sense though
    Level makes it sound less serious. Like the 5th (whatever) beast was extremely strong. And level makes it sound weak somehow😂
    I know it will be a lot of task but if you can then use grade for items and rank for cultivation levels as mentioned by Poppy above
    But if don’t want to then use rank I would suggest.
    Thanks for the chapters ❤️

  8. Stage is the least ambiguous, and it doesn’t sound weird, so I’d go for that. (I know this isn’t what I said the day before yesterday, but I’m clearly fickle.)
    Level doesn’t sound great, and rank and grade both traditionally count down, not up, as others have pointed out.
    Of course, instar would also be decent, and you haven’t mentioned that at all! The only problems are that it’s creepy and pretentious 😉

  9. This is such a fantabulous story n ur a absolutely fantabulous translator
    Thank u for u r hardwork
    I read in one go I was so much engrossed in reading that I just didn’t want to stop also couldn’t stop even to complement u this is amazing this author is so so amazing the characters their growth the world it’s just u can’t describe but I I just feel why does it have a vibe of Wu Yao in the demon lord ?
    But still I love this

  10. Honestly all this girl know to do is cry and act all pitiful every single time something happens that involved her. I really want to open up the sect leader brain and see what she originally saw in Lu Qingran. She can’t even do anything right.

  11. I can’t believe Lu Qingran has the gall to accuse Meng Qi of purposely forcing her into a corner just to embarrass her when she was the one who forced Meng Qi to justify her knowledge of the immortal devouring vine in front of everyone just to prove that she wasn’t colluding with the demons. Besides, she was responsible for preventing Meng Qi from healing her fellow disciples and then making their situations worse with her half-baked knowledge and conceit, so she should compensate for her mistake; she also agreed to the IOU, so I don’t know why she’s complaining about Meng Qi wanting to collect the debt she owes her.

    Thanks for the chapter! 😀

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