Wherein there is storytelling and we learn that love manifests in the form of... temperature.
Back from vacation, so return to a (more) regular posting schedule.
Also, every chapter posted have now been proofread. Thank you so much Emma P, who has reviewed every chapter! You are great! <3 <3 And thank you to Christina H who has joined for a few of them as well!
Notes
1. Unsurprisingly for a culture that venerates the written text and anything ancestral, reactionary criticism toward rot-recitation based learning is actually an old trope found in many literary works. There are even whole philosophical movements based on the idea that what is spontaneous is pure (i.e. Daoism), and many protagonists of popular stories are maverick or dilettante type. Ye Baiyi's satire is pretty colourful though.
2. 天人合一, lit. "heavens and man becoming one", is a concept expounded on by Daoism, Confucianism and Buddhism alike. It variably refers to a state of harmonious existence, of return to nature, or, in context, achieving a higher state of being/immortality/divine-hood.
3. 悬崖勒马 idiom translated literally.
A misc. note on books and manuals:
Rare/secret/old tomes that contain mystery to the universe, more or less, is a common wuxia trope.
In The Deer and the Cauldron, the plot revolves around people trying to reunite the eight tomes to the "Sutra of Forty-Two Chapters" which hid a map to the treasure of the Manchu.
In The Smiling Proud Wanderer, the "Sunflower Manual" is the fought over tome at the origin of Invincible East's prodigious skills (and the cause of his self-castration).
And of course, the whole point of Journey to the West is to retrieve the true sutras from India.
By contrast, right now, I can't think of a single western fantasy story in which a book is the unobtainium that people try to get their hands on.
Imagine Voldemort going after Hogwarts, A History instead of the Elder Wand.
Also, 六合神功 (lit. "Miraculous Kung-fu of the Six Combinations/Universe") that I've translated as The Hermetics of the Six Combination (to suggest some voodoo/alchemy elements going on) is referred to as 六合心法 (lit. "The Heart Method of the Six Combinations/Universe") in later chapters, this one included.
To keep it simple, I won't reflect the changed name.