530. The Battlefield Is Open [1st chapter of the Battlefield arc] - Logging 10,000 Years into the Future: the Battlefield arc

Preamble: This is an English version of chapter #530 of a Chinese novel. You may start reading the story here since it's the beginning of a new arc, but be sure to check the 'translation notes' section down below if you need additional information on the keywords or if you're curious about my translation choices.

TN/Foreword for those who haven't read the previous arcs and those who forgot: Lu Sheng is this story's hero and his first name is Sheng (not Lu). This story takes place in a universe with countless inhabited planets and this chapter starts on one of them: the planet where Sheng's family recently built a new home because their native planet was no longer safe. He named this new planet "planet Pregnancy" because his partner Dong Qingxue is pregnant with their child. There are also indigenous people on this planet, but they don't have advanced technology and the family is legally expected not to contact them (more about that in this chapter). Anyway, don't worry too much about what's happening on this planet since in the next chapter Sheng will leave and the rest of this story arc will take place elsewhere. Note that in this story, people who practice martial arts can live very long (hundred or thousands of years) and look very young for a long time.

Lu Sheng's mother watched her son and his partner being all lovey-dovey. Her expression was both affectionate and slightly upset. Back when her son was in school, or later when he pursued martial arts, every time he came home after a long absence, the first word out of his mouth upon entering the door was always "Mom." Not anymore.

With his keen perception, Sheng instantly detected the faint trace of disappointment beneath his mother's smile. His expression shifted. Glancing at her with a hint of curiosity, he turned to his partner and asked her, "Qingxue, do you have a sister you haven't introduced me to yet?"

Both Dong Qingxue and Sheng's mother froze for a moment before realizing what he meant.

"You little rascal! Don't you even recognize your own mother? Whose sister are you talking about?" She said, playfully feigning to be mad at him, her brows brimming with unconcealed delight. She knew that he was deliberately trying to cheer her up, yet her heart swelled with joy nonetheless. To be fair, while calling her and Qingxue sisters might be a slight exaggeration, his mother truly looked like she was in her early thirties now. She genuinely looked a good ten to twenty years younger than before.

Sheng's mom and Qingxue then chatted cheerfully for a while, reminiscing the recent trip that allowed them to catch up with relatives and friends. Sheng smoothly steered the conversation toward everyone's life on planet Pregnancy and the local inhabitants there. Only then did they learn that Qingxue had activated an energy barrier over the entire area long before Sheng caused his big stir while cultivating. [TN: there was a loud and flashy explosion during the final stage of his training/cultivation/seclusion]

Thanks to this high-tech disguise, the natives of this planet hadn't detected their presence yet. The patrolling guards ensuring the family's safety, however, had been spotted long ago. With their peculiar attires and the racket caused by Sheng during his seclusion, the natives had begun worshiping the guards as "divine beings from beyond the heavens."

Lu Sheng pondered for a moment before speaking: "The natives on this planet are also a sentient species. Communicating with them probably wouldn't hurt."

Theoretically, such communication with "primitive" civilizations required approval from the Federation government, because introducing advanced martial arts or technology would drastically increase resource consumption on the planet, violating the Federation's Natural Resource Law.

However, the planet was now Lu Sheng's private domain. He could do as he pleased there, unchecked by anyone. He had previously observed the deep-blue-skinned natives. Their innate physical potential was promising—arguably even more suited for martial cultivation than the human race of planet Azure.

Moreover, having been nourished by abundant natural cosmic energy, their foundational cultivation bases were likely stronger. It might be possible to interact and share martial arts with them. With the great calamity looming over everyone, any strength added to the universe over time could be beneficial.

The moment Sheng spoke, his sister Lu Qinghe beamed with delight. She had long harbored the desire to interact with this planet's natives, but he had previously instructed her to behave properly and avoid doing it. Now that the "ban" was lifted, it was clear there would be plenty of exciting things to come.

Sheng then proceeded to teach the Longevitytechnique to the entire family. He offered little explanation about where he learned it, merely stating it was the Federation's latest health cultivation method. With consistent practice, it promised miraculous benefits: strengthening the body, enhancing beauty, and extending longevity. He specifically urged his parents to practice diligently, noting it was far less taxing than martial arts training. Practicing a few hours daily during idle moments would yield abundant benefits.

His family always heeded his words. Seeing his earnest demeanor, they all took his advice to heart. He personally guided his parents through the basics of the Longevity technique and only after witnessing them stumble through a complete cycle did he feel reassured.

That evening, Qingxue and Sheng's mom prepared an exceptionally lavish feast to celebrate his return. Many of the dishes were unique to this planet, offering him quite a novel culinary experience.

Upon asking, he learned that during this period, his father had been training martial arts with his sister. With more free time on her hands, his mother had dedicated herself to researching these dishes, seemingly with great enthusiasm. At the dinner table, Sheng showered his mother with praise, making her burst with joy.

After dinner, perched atop a gigantic thousand-meter-tall tree, Sheng embraced Qingxue as they lazily reclined amidst the cloud-like canopy, gazing up at the starry sky above. They savored this rare moment of tranquil bliss. At this time of the year, the days on this planet lasted twice as long as an average day on their native azure planet, but the nights occupied a mere fifth of that time. Thus, the darkness felt all the more precious.

Qingxue lay quietly in Sheng's embrace, gently holding his hand resting on her belly. Suddenly, she spoke: "During your seclusion, Speaker Dunlop tried to reach you twice."

"Huh."

Sheng's expression froze, prompting him to ask, "Twice? What did he want?"

"It seemed to be about some battlefield matter. When he approached you a week ago, he asked that you emerge within three days and see him promptly. Though he added that if you didn't emerge within three days, then it wouldn't be urgent."

"A battlefield..."

Lu Sheng pondered briefly before realizing the battlefield Qingxue mentioned must refer to the interdimensional battlefield. But what did it mean, emerging within three days and seeing him urgently, though otherwise it wouldn't be urgent... Did it mean that missing the three-day window would imply losing the chance to enter the battlefield?

Sheng thought about it, then nodded. "I'll contact him later to ask."

"Hmm."

Qingxue gave a soft hum before quietly recounting the various events that had unfolded at home during his seclusion. Sheng listened intently, occasionally interjecting a comment. His hand remained placed on her lower abdomen. He could feel the energy of his baby slowly developing there.

The following morning, alone in his small room, Sheng used his communicator to connect to Speaker Dunlop's signal. The connection was established swiftly and his face appeared on the communicator's holographic projection screen.

"Lu Sheng, you've emerged from seclusion."

Dunlop greeted him with a smile. Sheng nodded, then inquired, "Speaker, you sought me out regarding the interdimensional battlefield?"

The Speaker nodded and explained, "Over a week ago, the portal to the interdimensional battlefield opened in our Hundred Great Star Regions district. I intended to ask if you wished to go, but you were in seclusion."

So it was indeed about the interdimensional battlefield.

As the primary battlegrounds between our universe and the Dark Side universe, the interdimensional battlefields gathered countless elite powerhouses. Likewise, the Dark Side Universe's most formidable forces were also present there.

Whether to prepare for the impending calamity four years hence or for even greater apocalyptic threats in the future, Lu Sheng felt it was essential for him to go. At the very least, before truly facing the calamity, he needed to understand the nature of the opponents he would face.

With this thought, Sheng quickly asked, "Is that the only opportunity? When will the next portal to the battlefield open?"

Dunlop replied, "In five years."

"Five years?" Lu Sheng couldn't help but frown. He simply didn't have five years to wait. It seemed he'd have to miss this opportunity.

But then Dunlop added, "The portal to the interdimensional battlefield in the Hundred Great district does indeed open once every five years. But I never said the portal for this opening period has already closed."

"What do you mean?"

Dunlop smiled in the holographic image. "Each portal opening remains active for a given period, during which dedicated transport ships are dispatched to ferry those wishing to enter the battlefield. What you missed last time was merely the recruitment ship responsible for our cluster of ten or so star regions."

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Translation notes by dhoo

Thank you for reading this chapter

At the end of each chapter, I'll add additional information on the meaning and translation of some of the keywords. Of course, you can skip these "translation notes" sections and read the next chapter.

Feel free to read and comment them though, I'd love to read your feedback: you can use the "paragraph comment" feature to share your opinion and discuss my translation choices.

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General note about translating from Chinese to English

It is not easy to translate Chinese texts into English, especially when they are full of martial art lingo, alien names and intergalactical mumbo jumbo. Translating this novel raises many conundrums. You might have noticed that translations vary a lot from one website to the other. There are a bunch of specific reasons for that.

First, Chinese characters aka sinograms or hanzi carry no grammatical information, for example they can be singular or plural. For example: 手 shǒu could mean hand or hands (and it could be subject or object of the verb, or have yet another grammatical function, and one character could have different grammatical natures like adjective, noun, verb, etc.).

Second, most Chinese characters have several meanings (and sometimes various pronunciations, especially regional variants). For example: 星 xīng could mean star or planet, surnames Xing or Singh, and could be associated with other characters to build many new words. 旧 jiù could be old, former, worn, etc. or mortar, or maternal uncle, brother-in-law, etc.

Third, Chinese characters (or the Japanese kanjis that derive from them) often carry different meanings when combined and sometimes only have a phonetical value (a pronunciation with no specific meaning), which makes it really hard to translate Chinese (or Japanese) while carrying all the puns and nuances. Here is a few examples:

高矮 gāo'ǎi means height while 高 gāo means high and 矮 ǎi means low. Indeed, you could try telling people that your highlow is 5 feet and see if they understand.

威廉 wēi lián means William while 威 wei means might, power and 廉 lián means incorrupt. Well, you could call your friend Incorrupt Might instead of William, they might not dislike it.

Here is a pretty Japanese compound word: flower 花 hana + fire 火 hi/bi = fireworks 花火 hanabi. Do you plan to watch the flowers-of-fire next summer?

Of course, the author plays with all of these subtleties. He builds names for places and people and martial art techniques with compound words and puns and phonetic spelling, we're not sure when the meaning matters more than the pronunciation, not sure when a concept is singular or plural, not sure about a lot of things.

To make things worse, you can find online versions of this webnovel with simplified Chinese characters and others with traditional Chinese characters, and there are again regional variants. Well, I'll try my best and in general I'll try to stick to straightforward, simple and clear translations.

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Now, some details about this chapter's keywords

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The calamity

Lu Sheng discovered early on in this story that his planet as well as his whole universe were doomed to be attacked and annihilated by the alien beasts of the Dark Side Universe. Since then, he has been doing everything he can to become stronger and be able to prevent that predicted calamity from occurring for real. A massive invasion might start four years from now, which is very little time in this universe where strong martial artists train for hundreds or thousands of years.

In martial arts, seclusion is a common practice, a time when a martial artist trains/cultivates alone, secluded.

planet Azure aka "the azure planet", planet Weilan, Azure Star

蔚蓝星 (trad. 蔚藍星): wèilán xīng: 蔚蓝 azure 星 planet

藍 lán is blue, 藍色 lánsè is blue color, 蔚藍 wèilán is azure or sky blue (literally 蔚 exuberant 藍 blue) - Planet Earth is nicknamed 藍色星球 the blue planet in Chinese and English. Lu Sheng's native planet is the azure planet, it's not our planet but it is a similar one.

In many translated versions, it is called "Azure Star" since 星 can mean star or planet, but it's definitely a planet and not a star.

planet Pregnancy aka planet Yantai

養胎星, yǎng tāi xīng: 養 raise/support/give birth, 胎 fetus, 星 star/planet

Yamu star region aka Yam star region, Little Forest star region or Sub-Jupiter region

亞木星區, yà mù xīng qū: 亞 second/inferior/Ya (surname), 木 wood, 星 star, 區 region/district

This is the star region where Lu Sheng's family now lives. In this novel, a star region is made of countless stars and planets but it's still a tiny bit of a galaxy, a local stellar neighborhood.

Note that 木星 mùxīng also means Jupiter and some English versions of the manhua call this place the Sub-Jupiter region. It's one possible interpretation, but then you lose the "star region" part ("xīng qū"). Other possible names would be Second Wood star region or Little Forest star region or Yamu xingqu. What do you think? I like Little Forest, it's really cute.

The Hundred Great Star Regions district aka the Hundred Great district or the Baida district or just the Hundred Great

百大星區, bǎi dà xīng qū: hundred, big/great, star, region/district/sector

Note : Since there is usually no indication of singular and plural on Chinese characters. 星區 could be star region (singular), like in Yamu star region (亞木星區), or it could be star regions (plural).

Hundred Great is the district where the battlefield portal discussed in this chapter is located. We can guess that this new area is "bigger" than the Yamu star region since it is said that Lu Sheng can encounter stronger friends and foes there. As implied in this chapter, the Yamu star region indeed belongs to this Hundred Great Star Regions district, which is a cluster of at least a hundred star regions (星區) like Yamu or Sawyer. So, now, Lu Sheng needs to travel a bit as there is no portal to the batterfield in his Yamu star region.

Some manhuas say "Hundred Great Star Region" without an S at the end. Well, 區 qū can be translated with many different terms including region or district and as stated above Chinese characters do now carry grammatical information: there is no change or inflection, no prefix or suffix for grammatical number (singular, plural). So, "Hundred Great Star Region" could make sense... yet it doesn't, because it's not a star region, it's a cluster of many star regions. Adding an s, Hundred Great Star Regions, or calling it differently, Hundred Great star district, are good way to show that it is not a star region.

Also, I am considering saying stellar region (星區) instead of star region.

The interdimensional battlefield, aka the alien battlefield, the otherwordly battlefield, or the strange space battlefield - Which do you like best?

异空战场, yì kōng zhànchǎng: 异 other/strange 空 space 战场 battlefield (war+stage)

异空战场 in simplified Chinese, 異空戰場 in traditional Chinese

The battlefield discussed in this chapter, where Lu Sheng plans to go, located between his universe and the Dark Side universe.

Actually, there is more than one interdimensional battlefield. Sheng is now going to the battlefield associated with the Hundred Great star district. This battlefield gathers strong martial artists from countless planets, but it still seems like a local battlefield among many. Some translations say interstellar or intergalactic, but it seems incorrect since these battlefields are not located between stars (interstellar) or between galaxies (intergalactic) of the hero's universe, they are located instead outside of this universe, between two universes, kind of like frontier/marchland/borderland territories, like numerous points of contact/friction between these two colliding universes. There is no such word as "interuniversal" yet, but sure we could make it up. If we think of universes as dimensions though, then the adjective "interdimensional" fits this situation.

Dark Side universe

陰暗面宇宙, yīn'àn miàn yǔzhòu: 陰暗面 dark side (陰暗 dark), 宇宙 universe

Lu Sheng (Holy Land) is the main protagonist of this story. Dong Qing Xue (East Sunny Snow) is his partner, pregnant with their baby. Lu Sheng's mom is Zheng Yu Fen (Pure Frangrance Zheng), his dad is Lu Da Hai (Big Ocean Lu), and his little sister is Lu Qing He (Little Grain Lu). His parents' names appear only once in the whole Battlefield arc, so in this chapter I changed it to just mom/mother and dad/father. See Glossary for more information.

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The following keywords won't be used again in this story arc, so I simplified some of them to allow new readers to not feel overwhelmed with information and names.

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the Federation, the Federation government, the Federation Natural Resource Act

聯邦 federation

聯邦政府: 聯邦 federation 政府 government

聯邦資源法: 聯邦 federation 資源 natural resource 法 law

You can think of it as the global administration. These words won't be used in this arc anyway.

Longevity technique aka Eternal Life technique

長生功: 長生 longevity 功 technique

Longevity is 長生: long green

Immortality would be 永生: perpetual green

This is a martial arts technique which actually does not grant you eternal life, but extends your lifespan greatly, as explained in the previous arc.

Speaker

The name given to the head of a Star Region.

Dunlop aka Speaker Dunlop

The Speaker of the Yamu Star Region. He seems to be an old level 12 or 13 martial artist. See Glossary.

the patrolling guards

魔銀護衛: 魔 magic 銀護 silver 衛 guards

Their whole name appears once in this whole story arc, I simplified it.

Communicating with the Natives

土着, tǔzhe: 土 earth, land, local, indigenous, etc. 着 people

It sounded colonial and patronizing, bringing progress and civilization to uncivilized people, I changed it.

Original version: "The natives on this planet are also a sentient species. Helping enlighten them probably wouldn't hurt. We could even treat it as a way to pass the time." Typically, such enlightenment projects for primitive civilizations required approval from the Federation government, because introducing advanced martial arts or technology would drastically increase resource consumption on the planet, violating the Federation Natural Resource Law."

New version: "The natives on this planet are also a sentient species. Communicating with them probably wouldn't hurt." Typically, such communication with primitive civilizations required approval from the Federation government, because (...)

guide them

Original version: "Rather than letting them grow wildly like primitive humans, it might be better to guide them onto a right path early."

New version: "It might be possible to interact and share martial arts with them."

More on the planet's name, planet Pregnancy

養胎星, yǎng tāi xīng: 養 raise/support/give birth, 胎 fetus, 星 star/planet

I could have chosen a more literal translation like "planet Fetus Nurturing" or just "planet Baby Raising", but it felt too long and I thought "planet Pregnancy" (or planet Incubation, planet Gestation, planet Placenta, planet Womb) sounded more like an exoplanet's name. Well, all of these are awkward planet names, but it is supposed to sound awkward, since Lu Sheng made that name up with regards to the pregnancy (which will last several years since the fetus is special) and his family commented that he sucked at naming things. Lu Sheng is so overpowered (and sometimes acting superior or arrogant) that I feel like we should indeed make fun of him when he sucks at something. Well, to be honest I mostly called it "planet" anyway :')

It's a planet name, hence the capitalized letters, like in "planet Earth" or "Jupiter". Some English versions of the manhua went with "BABY NOURISHING STAR", which sounds weird to me, especially for a planet (the fact that all letters are capitalized is just common practice in comics, mangas, manhwas and manhuas); but, well, this webnovel is such a self-centered space opera egotrip that the whole purpose of this planet might be to nourish/feed Lu Sheng's kid. Scary. Anyway, another option would be to keep it simple and phonetic, "planet Yantai", I kinda like it, or to make up an awkward one-word name like "planet Babincubation".

Some manhuas say "Baby Nourishing/Nurturing Star" and raw MTL versions of the novel use various names like "fertile star", "nourishment star", "pregnancy star", or "Womb Star" because... the Chinese character for star and planet is the same (星, xīng), but English does have two different words!

What do you think? Feel free to discuss it here, with the paragraph comment feature.

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More information

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About character naming in this novel

Chinese novels usually repeat full names all the way, while English novels most often skip family names. "Novelists should almost always introduce recurring characters by their full names, and from then on by just their first names" says the website storymastery.com (fancy website name haha).

Lu Sheng's full name is a short, catchy name, so it makes sense that manhuas (the only other seriously translated source that I found for this story) keep his complete name all the time. It's interesting to respect and show this Chinese common practice by following it in English.

Chinese characters and sentences occupy less space (on paper or on a screen) than English words and sentences, which might explain why it's common practice in Chinese texts to repeat people's names, techniques' names, or even descriptions. Some people say that repetitions occur more in webnovels since authors are under pressure, expected to publish long chapters once or twice a week. But regardless, Chinese and English differ.

The description 气质冷厉 (lěng lì zhōng nián, traditional characters 冷厲中年) is used 46 times in this arc. It means "the cold and stern middle-aged man" (literally cold stern middle age). It's used twelve times in chapter 533. Some chapters say "Lu Sheng" 200+ times, including in consecutive sentences, where in English pronouns "he" or "him" would be used.

So, I shortened names, sentences and paragraphs, used more pronouns. The narrator always use full names and most characters do the same when they speak. But in this chapter Sheng calls his lover 晴雪 (Qingxue) and not 东晴雪 (Dong Qingxue, traditional characters 東晴雪). He calls her with her first name. This raises the following question: is it normal for a narrator to call characters with their first name, is it a lack of respect..? Well, it's shorter for sure. And it sounds less cold than teachers, administration clerks calling people by their last name only. Though again this depends on where you are, it's common practice in eastern Asia, even among young people like high school students you often find in mangas and manhwas.

Example: 冷厉中年 (trad. 冷厲中年), lěng lì zhōngnián, cold stern middle age, is used 46 times in this story arc. In English, it would sound peculiar to do the same, but in Chinese it kinda feels like a nickname, Lengli Zhongnian. Based on its length, it could be a Chinese name while it couldn't be one in English... or could it? Coldstern Middleage. What do you think? Maybe Colstern Middledge. Cole Spinster? Nah.

Example: 俊伟青年 (trad. 俊偉青年), jùnwěi qīngnián, handsome youth, is used 8 times in chapter 583. "Strange fluctuations rippled across [the handsome youth's fist], as if some cosmic force was about to be captured by him, until [the handsome youth's fist] completely pierced through his opponent's chest." The next sentence talks about "the handsome youth's body" > A possible adaptation is "Strange fluctuations rippled across [his fist], as if some cosmic force was about to be captured by him, until [it] completely pierced through his opponent's chest." and in the next sentence, "his body". Once again, though, Junwei Qingnian could sound like a name.

About big numbers in this novel

Are the figures realistic? Should they be realistic? Who knows. Well, some of them are really, really big. In this chapter, there is a gynormous "thousand-meter-tall tree" with a nice view on the canopy (1,000 meters is 1 km, it is also about 1,100 yards or 0.6 mile, a bit more than half a mile). Some manhua versions mention "tallest plants exceeding 30,000 meters" (30,000 meters is 30 km or around 19 miles). A 19 mile high tree? I don't know about that. Someone might have gotten a bit overenthusiastic about exoplanet gardening. A thousand meters is huuuge, 30 thousands sounds exaggerated. The biggest trees on earth are 100 meters (100+ yards) and the canopy in the equatorial forests on Earth is only around 30 meters above ground (35ish yards). The biggest buildings are 400 to 800 meters (450 to 900 yards).

So, I feel like I might have to be cautious about numbers while translating this novel. And manhua translators might have to tone down the tree growing hype a bit. This thousand meter tree is already 10 times bigger than earth trees, 30,000 meters would be 300 times bigger, damn, it's hard to imagine. A "two-hundred-meter-tall tree" with a nice view over the canopy would already be huge, like, four times bigger than big tropical trees on Earth, and some plants reaching a thousand meters would be gigantic enough.

Chapter 4 - 530. The Battlefield Is Open [1st chapter of the Battlefield arc]