Wherein the author pulls at us readers' heartstrings. (And I love it.)
Thank you Emma P for proofreading! Your kind words are a great encouragement too :)
Notes
1. The "three hun (soul/spirit) and seven po (soul/senses)" or "三魂七魄" is a Daoist concept. A person's "soul/essence" is composed of three hun (that I've translated as anima) or heavenly/spiritual souls that leave the body on death; and seven po or earthly souls/senses that dies with the body. The huns are yang in nature and exist in a person's mind. The pos are yin in nature and are the seats of passions that exist in a person's carnal enveloppe.
The three hun are variably listed as 天魂, 地魂, 命魂 (hun connected to the heaven that wanders to the heavens after death; hun connected to the earth that lingers in the cemeteries after death, and the hun that runs one's fate and goes to the netherworld after death).
The seven po are: joy, anger, grief, fear, love, hate and desire.
The author is actually mistaken in conflating hun and po in this passage (they aren't the same and there aren't six hun)
2. "浮生所欠只一死" from 《过淮阴有感二首》 by 吴伟业. A poem that laments a life with nothing to live for.
3. From《离骚》or On Encountering Sorrow, by Qu Yuan.
4. Variation on 千年如一日 lit. (a thousand years is like a day) now a commonly used phrase is actually found in the Second Epistle of Peter (3:8). I can find no other Chinese references so I'm assuming that it has been popularised from the Bible.
5. 造化 is a concept in Zhuangzi's work. It's nature itself as well as its creator.
6. 春困秋乏夏打盹，睡不醒的冬三月 proverb translated literally.
7. WKX (in his obvious fit of jealousy) calls Lord 7th a "一身酸气的书生" or "a scholar that emits acid air from head to toe". "Acid air" means someone who's destitute/poor but I like the image of "sour egg(head)" so I've translated it literally.
8. "剑在人在，剑断人亡，匡扶大义，斩妖除魔" translated literally.
I love that CWN unapologetically stands by whatever he believes and is so at peace with his actions and decisions. He's not the sharpest knife of the bunch but he's a such a good little bean <3
Thanks for the translation!!
Oh wow, I really felt ZZS's complex sorrow this chapter and WKX's frustration of not being able to do anything 😭. So I guess they've decided that they can at least beat up some jerks that are bullying Cao Weining 😂
Thanks for the chapter and the notes explaining hun and po. I've read articles about it before, but something about how you phrased it finally made it click for me and I finally feel like I understand it.