The sky was gloomy and rainy.
In an empty training ground in the middle of a vast open plain.
A group of teenagers had formed a circle, Zhen Jin at this moment was falling to the ground in the centre of these teenagers.
The teenagers looked down at Zhen Jin and laughed and taunted with faces of disdain.
A blue-haired burly figure with hair sticking out from his head like steel needles took the lead.
The blue-haired teenager spoke while crossing his arms and stepping on Zhen Jin’s shoulder: “Zhen Jin, always keep in mind, the fact that your Bai Zhen clan is only a viscount and that you are the losers! Did you really think you could stand on equal footing with us?”
The blue-haired teenager suddenly raised his foot and kicked Zhen Jin’s head and smiled: “Today we gave you a lesson! From now on, no matter where you see us in the castle, you must obediently bow your head and get out of my way.”
2
“A lesser noble must act like one. If I ever see you look at me Qing Kui, I will cripple you.”
3
“Do you understand?”
Qing Kui growled as he slammed Zhen Jin’s head into the mud.
“I under...understand. Cough cough cough!” Zhen Jin quietly said.
”Hahaha.” Qing Kui smirked, lifted his foot and walked away.
Before leaving, he spoke again: “Of course Zhen Jin, if you are not convinced, you can challenge me any time. I, Qing Kui will be waiting anytime anywhere!”
“Cough cough cough.” Zhen Jin struggled to sit up. He coughed again because opening his mouth allowed dirty water to get into his throat.
Seeing his depressed look the teenagers lost interest.
“Pooh, what a person!”
“Did he really think he could challenge young master Qing Kui? With what?”
“An embroidery needle? Hahaha.”
With the rain falling hard, the teenagers grouped around Qing Kui and burst into laughter as they entered the castle.
Zhen Jin sat in the mud and let the rain hit him.
He was covered in wounds and had a pale complexion. After sitting for a while, he looked at the sword in the mud.
It was his sword.
It was a very thin rapier.
4
The rapier sat soaking in the muddy water showing no glimmer of its past.
The memory suddenly ended here.
Zhen Jin came back to reality and couldn’t help but frown: “I am from the Bai Zhen family? Their territory seems to be located in the south, part of the southern nobles who joined the Sheng Ming Empire in the last one hundred years. It seems we used to have been a count before."
5
Around one hundred years ago, Emperor Sheng Ming swiftly conquered and united the continent even making the most stubborn resistance surrender.
These stubborn resistors became the new nobles of the Sheng Ming Empire.
However prior to the war, the Southern nobles and the Sheng Ming Empire nobles had a long time hatred for each other.
Both parties had many friends and family die on the battlefield. Both were covered in the blood of each other.
So when the new nobilty joined Templar Knights like Zhen Jin they naturally suffered from the old nobility’s supression and discrimination.
6
Zhen Jin felt a little puzzled.
This is a memory of humiliation yet he did not have any anger or hatred.
7
“Strange, I feel calm as if I am a bystander.”
“One more thing…”
He focused directly not on the contents of the memory but on a question--why did the memory appear?
“This memory appeared when I tried to use the long sword.”
This was the same type of weapon but when I tried the scimitar I did not have any memories emerge. But when holding the hilt it emerged.
Back then at the river, the first thing I could remember is was the oath I took when joining the temple. That time was the first time I heard the word templar from Zi Di’s mouth.
Zhen Jin reviewed these two experiences and speculated: “It seems the key to unlocking my memories is to find a trigger point.”
This trigger could be a word or an object like this sword.
Zhen Jin thought deeply.
He looked at the ordinary long sword and asked in his heart: “If I were not holding this long sword, but the scimitar would my memories still appear?
“If I want to activate my battle qi what kind of trigger should I look for?”
Zhen Jin and Zi Di dug together and buried the two guards and moved on.
Zi Di followed the route they had explored through before to go back.
The two dared not go deep into the rainforest.
It seems the deeper in, the greater chance of encountering a gold level magic beast.
With no way to use battle qi or magic, the two are in a very dangerous situation. Instead of randomly exploring the unknown they retread the same path.
At least the current crises during the journey have been solved or were detected.
8
Of course there would also be new problems like the bloodstreaked snake.
But compared to other routes this was undoubtedly the safest one.
After hiking some more, it was evenfall.
The young couple carefully chose a place and arranged to spend the night there.
Dry wood and grass were not hard to gather.
Zi Di kneeled next to the fire wood with some flint.
Click, click.
She hit two flints together and quickly created a spark.
9
Fire spread to the grass and turned from orange to red burning quickly.
A small smoke cloud rose up.
Zi Di quickly put aside the flint and blew once.
The breeze fanned the flames and it quickly spread across the hay growing to the size of a fist and turned the smoke thick.
“That will do.” Zi Di's visage was joyous, she then stood up and withdrew a few steps.
After a while the flames completely spread forming a bonfire.
Zi Di put away the two flints.
In the past she only needed to snap her fingers to create a small flame.
This was one of the magician’s spells.
10
But on this island, iron level magic is completely unusable and impossible. Instead regular firestarters like flint were much more practical.
11
Without flint, creating fire by hand was quite troublesome.
As the fire burned it created warmth and light chasing away the darkness of the night.
The couple did not use the fire to cook but sat around eating rations and drinking water.
Regardless of whether it was the flint, rations, or water all were obtained from the two dead guards.
Although the rations are hard to swallow, in this case one can’t be picky.
Today’s trek was full of thrills. They managed to stay alive even amongst all the magic beasts including those on the silver and gold levels. They also found a bit of equipment and plenty of food and water. Can’t all of this make them feel happy and extravagant?
After eating and drinking, the couple carefully organized the remaining food and water.
12
Zhen Jin calculated in his heart and slightly frowed: “We only have enough food and water for two days.”
Whether it is a girl or a young man, they need to eat more than normal people.
Especially Zhen Jin who needs to eat three times as much as Zi Di.
This was not surprising.
Zi Di practiced magic and her vitality was iron level. Zhen Jin was likely to have silver level cultivation. The higher the vitality the greater the food intake and nutrition needed.
13
Zi Di estimated: “It will take us seven days to get out of the rainforest following this path. But it doesn’t matter, we brought enough supplies along the way and established many campsites along the way. There are some supplies at these campsites. So if there are no surprises, food should not be a problem.”
Zhen Jin nodded and felt relieved.
He took out the long sword and wiped it with a cloth.
Weapons need to be maintained.
Although the long sword was ordinary it brought Zhen Jin a sense of security.
“Too bad there isn’t a crossbow.”
Civilians were forbidden from using crossbows but Zhen Jin’s group had some when going to White Sands City.
According to what Zi Di said the expedition team searching for Zhen Jin had five crossbows.
But along the way they were lost.
After the blue haired wolf took a volley of arrows it specifically targeted the shooters and even directly bit the weapons themselves.
Seeing Zhen Jin wiping the long sword, Zi Di came over: “My Lord let me examine your injury.”
Zhen Jin nodded.
After removing the bandage, he found that most of his injury had healed.
“Good medicine.” Zhen Jin praised.
He sat on a rock and Zi Di kneeled down.
The girl first pulled out some medicinal powder and sprinkled evenly over the wound then softly wrapped a new bandage onto Zhen Jin.
Lastly Zi Di put on Zhen Jin’s arm guard.
Zi Di looked at the arm guard and sighed: “If only my lord had this iron arm guard earlier then the bloodstreaked snake would not have hurt you.”
The fire reflected off the arm guard with a blur of orange light and onto Zi Di.
Zi Di’s black hair under the light of the fire flashed a halo.
Her wheat skin looked delicate. At that moment a bodily fragrance passed through Zhen Jin’s mind.
Zhen Jin moved involuntarily and could not help but reach out and stroke Zi Di’s hair.
Zi Di shivered.
“M-, my Lord.” Zi Di bowed her head, Zhen Jin’s actions seemed to scare her, causing her to breathe like a nervous kitten.
Zhen Jin saw she was uncomfortable and he quickly retracted his hand asking lightly: “Zi Di what kind of person do you think I am?”
14
The young man asked with the memory lingering in his mind.
After the second memory appeared he had been thinking and reflecting on it.
“As a Templar Knight from southern nobility it is guaranteed to be discriminated against.”
“But in my memory, am I a coward?”
“No, not necessarily.”
Zhen Jin felt there were other possibilities.
These days he learned more about himself.
Memories only served as one of many ways to judge oneself.
For example when Zhen Jin woke up and opened his eyes, he saw the wolf jumping into the air. Instantly without thinking he attacked. In the end, although he accidently killed the wolf, it still showed Zhen Jin’s solid foundation in combat.
Subsequently after seeing the giant lava turtle, a powerful gold level creature, Zhen Jin always kept calm and collected even when nervous.
Later on when he found the guard’s body he searched it carefully and calmly without disgust as if it were normal. This may be proof that he has battle experience. At the very least, veterans would not react to such things.
When following the clues he could easily extrapolate the fight between the wolf and the guards. This power surprised him a little.
"In my memory when challenged by Qing Kui I didn’t really fight. There are two possibilities.”
“The first is that I was weak but trained and became strong.”
“The second was that I feigned weakness.”
Zhen Jin felt the second possibility was more likely.
The reason being that when the memory appeared, he was calm and even a bit indifferent.
If it really was humiliating, shouldn’t his heart have been hateful and angry?
Facing Zhen Jin, Zi Di pondered for a moment and responded: “Lord Zhen Jin, I do not know much about you.”
“But based on the rumors, your Lordship was not close to women and was a loner. Even when something big happened you do not show emotions.”
“You spent most of your time at the temple as a serious and silent ascetic. Also your food, your clothing, and even your every move were elegant and calm like a rich noble."
"Although you had few friends you were very helpful, protected the weak, and helped the poor. The lower class admired you, my lord.”
“Also my lord, when you suddenly moved your hand and successfully entered the White Sands City Lord’s competition, it was a great surprise to the other templar knights.”
“Oh?” Upon hearing this Zhen Jin couldn’t help but frown.
Zi Di’s reply made his heart quickly visualize a young man with a castle.
But what surprised the teenager the most was that he did not understand the situation between him and Zi Di.
“What is going on?”
“Is she not my fiance?”
“If it is not love then why did she not leave me?”
“What is the relationship between us?”
Zhen Jin wanted to continue asking but suddenly a buzzing noise appeared.
The two immediately turned their heads to look at the jungle which suddenly lit up with a thousand “flames”.
The “flames” converged into groups and swarmed Zhen Jin and Zi Di.
“What is this?” Zhen Jin got up quickly and protected Zi Di with a dignified look.
A small part of the “flame” exuded a bronze level vitality.
“This is?” Zi Di saw the true face of the “flames” and her face became pale.
"These are fire-poison bees! My Lord, we need to run!” Zi Di decisively stepped forward and put Zhen Jin behind her.
“Go quickly Lord!!” Zi Di shouted urgently, revealing a deathly spirit.
Author’s note
Sorry, today's update is a bit late. Yesterday, we discussed a way with the management, and tomorrow we will announce a new group of new books. Last night, I spent more than 2 hours communicating with the friends in the group and answering some questions. But there are still many groups that have not gone. I received a message from the management this morning, saying that some groups waited for an hour last night, but I did not come! Bow and apologize here! One's energy is too limited. This week I will take another time to communicate, and I will start to improve this activity mechanism
Notes
You know when looking at Zhen Jin’s name, it translates to Golden Needle. Apparently the author has stated this is significant. What I didn’t expect when reading through again was more needle metaphors from him. That was a surprise and I suspect that more are hidden by the veil of mtl in future chapters. Also the author in these past few chapters implies that blue hair is a sign of evil. (I mean he’s not wrong)
Side notes
Rip Zi Di isn’t a jade beauty with her tan skin.
Qing Kui is the first arrogant young master of the series who is also entirely irrelevant for all currently released chapters.
I highly suspect that magical weapons are in this world as the sword Zhen Jin has right now is called “ordinary”.
Finally world building within a flashback cliche.
Translation Notes
2. 给我乖乖让路，缩到一边去 translates to obediently give way, and shrink off to the side) (get out of my way sorta summarizes this interaction
3. 下等贵族就要有下等贵族的样子: “A lesser noble must look like a lesser noble.” is the more direct translation
4. 刺剑 translates to bayonet but I feel this can’t be right so I am going to go ahead and translate it as rapier
5. The introduction of the holy light empire. I will translate it as Sheng Ming Empire because translating names usually doesn’t happen.
6. Help plz on this. I actually don’t know if my translation is correct. I tried to get the correct meaning out but I am not sure my translation is accurate
7. uses 和 but or makes more sense for grammar
8. Put “current” as there will be new problems but all current problems are solved
9. Not sure if I directly translated it correctly but I do know how firestarting works.
10. 戏法之 translates to trick but I think spell works better unless it really does mean trick down the line
11. debating whether 被禁止得死死的 means left for dead
12. Everytime I see “少年,少女” or “少年和少女 I will use couple.
13. 生命层次跃 translates to level of life which I will translate to vitality. Also cultivation is 修为 nice
14. 针金的心思却不在儿女情长上面: I really want to translate this as Zhen Jin wasn’t a pedophile and he quickly retracted his hand.