“Right, right. Please teach them, Young Master.” Fuyou hastily said.
“Teach them Tortoise Fist, that’s plenty.” Li Qiye gazed at the surging river.
“Tortoise Fist?” The two were astounded. Both thought that they have misheard.
“Yes, the sect has this move. The two of you certainly have heard of it before.” Li Qiye didn’t avert his gaze.
The two exchanged glances, not knowing what to do. The name of this technique wasn’t that pleasant. [1]
“I do know about it, it’s Black Tortoise Fist, an entry martial art technique in the sect.” Fuyou coughed and said. [2]
“What is this Black Tortoise?” Li Qiye smiled and shook his head: “The name is Tortoise Fist, no need to embellish a title. Does calling it Black Tortoise make it stronger or unbeatable?” [3]
The two had an awkward expression after hearing this. Their sect really had a technique named Tortoise Fist, the lowest and coarsest entry merit law at the low-ranked yellow level. Some even thought that this was giving it too much credit.
Why? The fist only had three actions or moves, as simple as can be.
Many in Divine Black wouldn’t consider them techniques, akin to an old man in the mortal world attacking randomly. It was slow and weak.
Even the new disciples wouldn’t want to use it, let alone older ones. A mortal who had only trained in martial arts for a couple of days could beat the crap out of its user.
Thus, what was the point of training in what essentially amounts to a training exercise for old men?
Leaving aside its effectiveness, just its name was terrible.
Some decided to change the name to “Black Tortoise” instead. This still didn’t get more students to learn it.
That’s why the two were so confused. And here they thought that he would come up with a preeminent plan.
“Really, we’re letting them train this technique?” Fuyou was worried because he cared about the children’s future.
“Why not? It’s a great merit law. Just three actions encompassed the essences and style of a tortoise.”
“Well, it’s still just a tortoise…” Huang Jie mumbled under his breath.
“What do you think your patriarch is?” Li Qiye gave him the side-eye.
“Our patriarch is a Black Tortoise with the bloodline of a divine beast, one of the strongest demons of that era.” Huang Jie smiled wryly and responded.
“Black Tortoise.” Li Qiye laughed in response: “Future descendants always exaggerate. Sure, your patriarch definitely obtained a great fortune or transformed, one akin to a carp turning into a dragon. It had some divine bloodline but this doesn’t change the fact that it used to be a tortoise, that’s his true root.”
“Stop, stop!” Fuyou shushed him, nearly wanting to cover his mouth.
Huang Jie became afraid and kept on looking around before heaving a sigh of relief at the lack of people.
After all, their patriarch was the ultimate existence in the sect. Its status in the heart of the disciples could never be replaced.
Everyone knew that it was a divine Black Tortoise. Thus, Li Qiye’s comment could be considered blasphemous – a serious offense!
“No need for this.” Li Qiye smiled: “It’s fine to be a tortoise. All living beings start as nothing then they become something, in this case, a turtle becoming a demon through the dao. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
“Please stop, my little ancestor.” Fuyou started begging while Huang Jie was horrified.
“Enough tempering will turn anything into steel, this applies to the grand dao. Tortoise or Black Tortoise Fist, whatever, one just needs to understand its essences to reach the right path.” Li Qiye said.
The two felt much better when he was no longer talking about their patriarch. They carefully thought about his words.
“Tortoise Fist is an important foundation block of your patriarch, make use of it more.” Li Qiye told them.
“Really?” The two tried to remember the origin of this move but there was no record of it.
“Absolutely.”
The patriarch had indeed created this merit law. Or rather, it would be more accurate to say that it was a passing down of instincts.
A turtle at birth would stretch its head, move its legs, and carry its shell – all instincts. As the patriarch gradually gained intelligence, it practiced these movements and began cultivating.
Alas, it lacked a good teacher and didn’t know how to do so until it met the great immortal. He taught it how to refine its movements. This culminated into a merit law named Tortoise Fist.
This was long ago and many forefathers in the sect didn’t wish to bring it up. It didn’t sound cool to let others know about their patriarch’s origin. Thus, they started spreading the Black Tortoise narrative.
This merit law also became forgotten. The future descendants didn’t wish to train it.
The two remained skeptical about this claim. Putting the name aside, just three movements. What could this actually do?
“South Fence is derived from All-things. All things include a turtle, a tortoise, and everything else. With enough training, even a tortoise can become a Black Tortoise. So tell me, what’s better than your patriarch’s initial merit law that got it so far?” Li Qiye said.
Fuyou became tempted; Huang Jie not so much. They thought about it and maybe this was worth a shot for the children.
“One little turtle might not be able to do anything, but a dozen? They will eventually grow up too. The shell of one turtle has its limit but when you stack a dozen shells together, how tough would that be?” Li Qiye elaborated.
The two quietly listened.
“Now, what if these turtles turn into Black Tortoises? Imagine the potential result.” Li Qiye finished.
“Is this possible? Reaching that level?” Fuyou still wasn’t sure.
“Your patriarch did it, going from a regular turtle to a so-called Black Tortoise.” Li Qiye laughed.
“Okay, okay, we get it!” The two became startled since this topic was brought up again.
“Well, I don’t care, your choice whether to teach them or not.” Li Qiye said.
The two exchanged glances. This was a serious choice because it pertained to the children’s future.
1. This is a hard one to translate the meaning across. Unlike the other divine beasts, Black Tortoise’s characters actually don't have the word turtle/tortoise in it. It consists of xuan (black) and wu (martial). Everyone knows that xuan wu = black tortoise automatically. The other beasts are obvious – white tiger, azure dragon, and vermillion bird; they have the corresponding character – Hu for tiger, Long for dragon, and Que for bird. So in Chinese, the character for turtle actually has a negative connotation, especially for this fist – Wang Ba. It can mean tortoise; cuckold; (insult with the flavor of bastard, son of a bitch). That’s why Wang Ba Fist just sounds so silly. No one wants to learn a technique with this name, but when you translate it to English, you get Tortoise Fist which isn’t as bad. The problem will be with the next line
2. Continuation of the previous note. So for this name, it is Xuan Wu Fist, or Black Tortoise Fist. This one doesn’t have the same negative connotation as Wang Ba Fist. However, how do I actually translate this to make Wang Ba negative while making Xuan Wu neutral? The first obvious one is Tortoise versus Black Tortoise. There’s virtually no changes there. I’ve spent 20 mins on this so far and can’t think of anything. It will just have to be Tortoise versus Black Tortoise with the context in the note
3. Yeah the impact just isn’t there with Tortoise and Black Tortoise