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aquadrazi · 3 years

Text

Find Someone to Carry You

Chapter 45

One Year Later

“I hear that they’re letting that fierce corpse run the Nie Sect.”

“Are you SERIOUS?”

“I hear he’s just helping.”

“But…he’s…”

“Look, I’m not saying it’s a BAD idea, I’m just saying…”

“Tell you what, YOU go up to Chifeng-Zun and tell him he can’t do something.”

“Let’s see how that works out for you.”

“Just make sure you’re FAR away from us when you do it.”

“Yeah, I don’t want to be impaled by association.”

“Speaking of impaling…has he killed the Jin bastard yet?”

“I don’t think so. Sect Leader Lan keeps visiting on a regular basis.”

“I wonder why they’re keeping him alive…”

“No idea, everyone ELSE who was involved with hurting the Yiling Patriarch seems to have disappeared…”

………Lotus Pier………

Sect Leader Jiang,

I shall start with business. We have received your invitation to Lotus Pier for the One Month Ceremony for Sect Leader and Madam Jin’s new daughter. The courtesy of not holding it at Koi Tower was not lost on us. I am pleased to inform you that we will be accepting your invitation.

Wei Ying expressed interest in visiting early, so he could have some time to adjust before a large number of people arrived. I’m guessing that means that this letter may arrive only JUST before us, since it looks like he’s packing as we speak.

Now, on a more personal note. Wei Ying has told me that he would like to see you. I gather the letters you two have exchanged have gone well, he has not shown me their contents, but he is excited when a new one arrives, and seems to be in a pleasant mood afterwards.

His nightmares and panic attacks are becoming fewer and farther between, so I think we might finally be over the worst of it. He does still fixate on his experiments. Is that something that he has always done, or this this a new thing that has developed?

If you see Jin Ling before we do, the rest of the Juniors would like to send their regards. They also said that there was to be some sort of…ceremony? Celebration? I wasn’t sure as to what they were speaking about, just that some sort of milestone had been achieved and they were going to “kidnap him for some fun”. I’m guessing there will probably be large quantities of alcohol involved.

It looks like I shall have to send this letter off now, since there appears to be a small fire…

Regards,

Lan Wangji

Jiang Cheng carefully folded the letter and placed it in the box with the others. He had been corresponding with Lan Wangji for about a year now. Ever since he returned to Lotus Pier. They still hadn’t located Jin Zixun, but he couldn’t spend the rest of his life waiting in the Nie Stronghold. He had a Sect to run after all. He was confident that if anyone could find him, Nie Huaisang’s spies could.

“Please have my brother’s rooms prepared. He is coming to visit.” Jiang Cheng told a servant. In traditional Yunmeng Jiang fashion, he soon heard the excited and bellowing calls echoing all throughout Lotus Pier “Wei Wuxian is coming home!” He smiled and let out a relieved breath.

He’s ready to see me.

I’m missed my brother.

Lan Zhan could hear the calls as he landed Bichen. It seemed that his letter had only JUST arrived, and the word was still being spread. He quickly looked at Wei Ying to see how he was doing, since all around them the news that he was coming was echoing.

Wei Ying had his head down, and was fidgeting with the hem of his outer robes. Lan Zhan placed his finger under Wei Ying’s chin and raised his head. He saw tears forming in his eyes.

“It seems they are exited that you are home.” Lan Zhan comforted.

“I didn’t think it would hit me this hard, being…home…” Wei Ying said with a small smile.

“Mn” Lan Zhan removed his finger and grabbed for Wei Ying’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “Wei Ying is strong. Wei Ying is loved.” Lan Zhan had gotten used to verbalizing for Wei Ying often. It seemed to help him to recover from what he had endured, and remind him of Lan Zhan’s feelings, when his mind tried to lie to him and make him feel undeserving.

Sect Leader Jiang stood alone on the path ahead of them, as unassuming as possible. He squeezed Wei Ying’s hand again, to remind him to breathe.

“Your brother loves you. He remembers your smile, your laugh, how you used to push him in the lake…” Lan Zhan continued to list off memories and things about Wei Ying that were NOT that day in Koi Tower. This was another trick that had seemed to work in the past.

When they reached Sect Leader Jiang, he could see tears falling down his face. Before anyone could say anything he pulled Wei Ying into a hug. “I missed you so much.” He cried.

Wei Ying returned the hug just as tightly, and started crying as well. “I missed you too.”

Lan Zhan found something interesting to look at elsewhere, and let the brothers have a good cry, while the excited voices of the Yunmeng Jiang Sect echoed around them.

Wei Ying is home.

Wei Ying woke up and he realized he was alone. Not just in the bed, but Lan Zhan wasn’t in the room at all, which was strange. Lan Zhan hated leaving him alone. It was almost like he thought that Wei Ying would disappear if he didn’t look at him every few minutes. He hadn’t quite realized how much his husband had really meant it when he had said “mine” that first time, like he was some precious treasure that Lan Zhan had found and was jealously hoarding.

Not that he felt suffocated. Quite the opposite. Lan Zhan would follow him around wherever he wanted to go. Patiently wading through crowds of people in markets, or hiking up the sides of mountains to get a better view of the clouds. It didn’t matter. Wherever Wei Ying wanted to go, Lan Zhan would follow.

Wei Ying was starting to feel like something was wrong. There was no note. Lan Zhan had always either left a note, or someone had come along to visit with him, as if they had requested some time with him alone. He pulled the blanket around him tighter as he padded out of the room. He needed to know where his husband was.

He saw the lamps were lit in the main hall, which was strange for this time of night. Maybe something was wrong. Maybe Lan Zhan didn’t want to wake him, and rushed to a meeting. He could make out voices as he got closer. One was his brother. He sounds REALLY angry. One was Lan Zhan, which made him feel instantly better. One was A-Sang, which he guessed wasn’t so strange. Who else would have prompted a meeting like this in the middle of the night. He also made out the sound of a muffled voice, like someone talking into a gag.

Since Wei Ying had grown up in Lotus Pier, he was VERY aware of how to sneak into the main hall and eavesdrop unnoticed. It wasn’t HIS fault that Jiang Cheng had decided to rebuild everything EXACTLY the way it was before. He was feeling pretty proud of himself as he settled into his old spot…until he noticed…HIM.

Wei Ying froze, and he had trouble remembering to breathe when he saw that the muffled voice belonged to Jin Zixun. He didn’t want to be there, but he couldn’t move. He was frozen, his brain had somehow decided that if he tried to sneak back out, Jin Zixun would SEE him. He didn’t want to be SEEN.

Jin Zixun was on his knees, surrounded by Nie Guards. Lan Zhan threw up silencing talismans on the main hall, and Jiang Cheng waved his hand, sealing the room.

“Hey…now we can’t order snacks!” Nie Huaisang whined, earning him a glare from Jiang Cheng.

“I don’t plan on this taking long enough to REQUIRE snacks.” Jiang Cheng growled, causing Nie Huaisang to pout.

“We must finish this before Wei Ying wakes. Left him alone.” Lan Zhan explained.

Wei Ying wanted to shout out to him, to let him know that he was there, but his throat was sealed closed in fear. He KNEW that he was safe, there was no way that Lan Zhan would let Jin Zixun hurt him, let alone what his BROTHER would do if he even TRIED to touch Wei Ying again, but he just couldn’t move or say anything. His mind was trapping him there.

If I stay here, perfectly still, not making a sound…maybe he won’t see me…

I don’t want him to see me

I’ll be safe here.

Nobody ever found me here before

It’ll be fine

*********************Graphic torture***********************

A couple times Wei Ying had been punished by Madam Yu in this very hall, so he wasn’t surprised to see the Nie guards pin Jin Zixun to the floor and find the bolts to tie ropes to, to hold him in place. He was laying on his stomach. Jiang Cheng unleashed Zidian and began to strike him, as Lan Zhan knelt down and grabbed Jin Zixun’s wrist, feeding him spiritual energy to heal him after each hit.

Having been hit by Zidian himself, Wei Ying knew the kind of pain Jin Zixun was in. His fear began to diminish as he watched his brother mercilessly beat the man that had tortured him. The fabric of his robes was being ripped to shreds, but Lan Zhan dutifully kept knitting the skin of his back together again after each hit, prolonging the punishment.

They seem to have done this before.

I wonder how many times…

When it looked like Jin Zixun was going to pass out from the pain, A-Sang drew up a talisman and flung it at him. Wei Ying supposed it was to keep him awake.

Jiang Cheng stopped. “Flip him over, and remove his robes.” He ordered the guards, panting for breath. He looked like a wild animal. He clearly not controlling his rage at all.

Jin Zixun was now spread out on the floor, in an X, naked and sobbing. Jiang Cheng continued to whip him with Zidian. He shrieked and screamed as his tender flesh was lashed over and over. Lan Zhan continued to knit it together as fast as Jiang Cheng broke it open.

I wonder how long they’re going to do this.

Are they going to continue until Jiang Cheng gets tired?

Jiang Cheng moved from Jin Zixun’s torso to his thighs, also landing hits across his exposed cock and balls. The first time it happened Jin Zixun couldn’t even scream. He looked like he was choking and his entire body had seized up. The inhuman scream he let out a couple of seconds later caused A-Sang to cover his ears and grimace.

Finally, after what felt like hours, Jiang Cheng began to tire. He huffed and hunched over, continuing to glare at Jin Zixun as he sobbed on the ground. He took the end of Zidian, and wrapped it around Jin Zixun’s cock, starting at the base, and wrapped it around, all the way to the tip, encasing it. He then sat down on the ground and sent pulses of electricity through Zidian. Lan Zhan let go of Jin Zixun’s wrist and let Zidian’s damage take hold.

Slowly, Zidian scorched and burned at Jin Zixun’s cock. Jiang Cheng would yank on Zidian, pulling Jin Zixun’s cock away from his body, and watch as he shrieked and arched his back, trying to relieve the pulling.

************End of Graphic Torture************

It was a horrible scene, and Wei Ying couldn’t stand it any longer. He uncurled himself and slowly slid down from his hiding spot. No one seemed to notice him as he padded towards his brother, they were all fixated on the writhing man on the floor. He knelt down next to his brother and put a gentle hand on his shoulder.

Jiang Cheng looked up at him with wide, questioning eyes. Wei Ying slowly unsheathed Sandu, and padded over to Jin Zixun, the blanket still draped over his shoulders like a cape. He lifted up Sandu with both hands, and looked into Jin Zixun’s eyes as he drove it straight through his heart. Wei Ying wanted him to know that he was showing the mercy that he was never given himself. He was allowing Jin Zixun to die, and end his pain.

He stood there for a minute, leaning on Sandu for support because he was shaking so badly. Finally, he felt Lan Zhan come up behind him and scoop him up, cradling him to his chest as he carried him back to his room.

The One Month Celebration was a boisterous and borderline disorderly affair, like most in Lotus Pier. Jiang Cheng had a feeling that it had everything to do with the presence of his brother. Everyone just seemed…happier, louder, more excited… over the past few weeks since he had come to stay. It was like the grim blanket that had shrouded Lotus Pier had been lifted and Wei Ying had brought the sun and the breeze with him.

Once Jin Ling’s friends had arrived for the ceremony, the excitement just rose a few levels. Wei Ying had taken to basically playing with the Juniors, like a big kid. He still can’t get the picture out of his head of the day he found them in the lake, having some sort of battle that involved one person swimming while another person was on their shoulders, trying to knock another group over with sticks. When he asked Lan Wangji about it he had just shrugged and told him that there WERE rules, he was just unaware as to what they were.

Jiang Cheng had found himself often over the past few weeks, sitting with Lan Wangji, watching his brother have fun. Letting the warmth of his brother’s smiles and laughter wash over him and cleanse him of all the anger and the hurt he had been carrying for years.

One day, after all the guests had left except for Wei Ying and Lan Wangji, Jiang Cheng found his brother sitting at the end of the pier with his feet in the water, staring off at nothing. Jiang Cheng sat down next to him, and he turned to look at him, with a small smile on his face.

“Is this really all real?” He asked with wonder.

“Of course it is, you idiot.” Jiang Cheng responded, punching him lightly in the shoulder.

“Oh.” Wei Ying replied, then a twinkle entered his eye. “Then I guess you’re going to be mad that I probably ACTUALLY burned down the side shed.”

“You-“ Jiang Cheng flushed.

Wei Ying laughed and jumped up, sprinting away from Jiang Cheng.

“Come back here so I can break your legs!”

“You’re going to have to catch me first!”

#mdzs fic #the untamed #graphic torture #family feels #wangxian #brothers

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seoafin · 3 years

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BYE I WAS IMMERSED WITH GENSHIN’s STORY PLOT (AND THE FANARTS ON MY TL) WHICH WAS ALSO DROPPED EARLIER THIS MORNING AND FORGOT ABT JJK FOR A SPLIT SEVONDSJJSJEJ

but anyways ,, jjk 145// the more i write abt it, the more i’ll sound incoherent, this is ur last warning to ignore this 🧍‍♂️(1)

the one who is based on avalokitesvara (i’ll start calling it them as kannon from now) that i mentioned was actually brain (out of ppl) 😭😭

kenjaku (羂索) is shorten from "不空羂索観音 (fukukenjakukannon)" ,, they existed b4 the heian period... older then sukuna ?? suggested that brain is at least 1k years old... hsjsjjsjs

fukukenjakukannon, a manifestation of the buddhist god of mercy and compassion,, perhaps of some interest is that the fukukenjaku shares some kanji with gojou's infinite void followed by kanjis for trap & rope, with kannon directly referring to an all-knowing/overseeing divine existence. it rly does seem that kenjaku, tengen, and gojou's fates have all been strongly interwined throughout history,, kannon has been perceived as both male and female depending on the portrayal and the region, not unlike jjk's kenjaku switching bodies and genders over the course of time (kamo vs kaori vs getou)

some associations with kannon may be relevant to jjk. namely, as yuki mentions, salvation ,, kannon is a deity to serve his subjects, and resolve their suffering by eliminating its source,,, in which case, i think kenjaku's goal may possibly not be too far off from geto’s ,,,,, he may think that he is saving a group that is enduring greater suffering than any other. whether that is shamans, cursed spirits, or sth else entirely is up for debate. given his persistence over the millenia, and the likelihood of spreading suffering worldwide through a universal tengen merger, it's more than likely that he has a very personal motive. note that under his plan it is specifically the evil of a human that would spread and destroy all of humankind connected through tengen

this is an interesting contrast to sukuna, who is much more whimsical and far less calculated. i think the clash between these 2 in the past will have strong relevance for the future,,, on the other hand, since kannon has historically manifested in response to the suffering of various beings, it may be that the feelings of cursed spirits as a whole have led to kenjaku's existence. he could very well be a curse born from curses, instead of from humans.

okay now what i'm really excited abt: the relationship between kenjaku and the 6 eyes. 1 of the functions of kannon is to protect the 6 realms of rebirth/the 6 paths. u may already be familiar with this buddhist concept as it has been referenced in a variety of animanga (notably it is a major plot point of naruto, it's mukuro's ability in KHR, etc.). there's strong reason to believe this concept also has connections to the gojou 6 eyes ability. i think if we get to learn more abt the 6 eyes, i may be able to speak more on this point.

(as a side note here, i’ll mention that there’s an association between kannon and the protection of aborted children, perhaps relating to og kamo and the death paintings)

at the very least, we know that kenjaku and the 6 eyes are in opposition, and i'm speculating that the gojou bloodline is the true manifestation of a protective deity, at least for the humans, and kenjaku's goals are antithetical to that,,, perhaps, as yuki kind of suggested, taking the name kenjaku is a joke of sorts. if sukuna is malevolence incarnate, kenjaku is mercilesness,,

i think some of the core concepts being explored by the tengen storyline are that of form and existence. gojou satoru, tengen, kenjaku, and eventually the star plasma vessels are existences that transcend the norm,,, toji on the other hand, is the only example of the opposite. an existence that shouldn't have ever existed, in a sense. kenjaku seemed to have used that to his advantage in his manipulation of the events in hidden inventory,,, but it also leads me to believe that only a similar anomaly could undo the new destiny he's setting up for himself.

geto was the perfect piece to set kenjaku up for success in conducting a merger and putting this culling game into motion. geto's path has led to this outcome,,, in which case, an apt parallel as we have known all along is that gojou's path should lead to the counter-outcome: megumi, yuuta, and especially yuuji— these 3 will be the key to unravelling kenjaku's plan.

also tengen said that kenjaku’s objective is to send all the ppl in jpn to higan or turning all non shamans into one but he doesnt have enough cursed energy to do that,,, i did say that yuuji’s birthday took place in the 4th solar term where a part of a week long celebration haru no higan (higan 彼岸→other shore, buddhist pārāmitā), when ppl would honour the dead and sweep ancestral tombs took place,,,

so theres this buddhist mantra, called the “heart sutra” and the last verse of the sutra is,,

there are many sutras in buddhism, but the most well-known among them is probably the Heart Sutra,, altho it depends on the sect (of buddhism), the heart sutra is often read at funerals and memorial services, so even if,, and for some reason the sutra is often associated to kannon even in the utube thumbnail 👁👁 if u search up prajnaparamita sutra,,

heart sutra has the meaning of "an important teaching to reach the state of enlightenment by the power to see through the truth and essence." which is based on the idea of "void" as this important teaching,, the sutra tells us what we shld do to be free from the suffering of this world and live in peace,, in the heart sutra, the idea of "void" is especially important.

buddhism can be broadly divided into theravada and mahayana buddhism,,,,

theravada is a teaching that only some ppl (those who practice buddhism with strict lifestyle like the monks) reach the state of enlightenment, while mahayana is a teaching that all ppl (some who practice Buddhism) can reach enlightment even if u dont practice anything related to the religion,,, the idea of the void has the idea of not being caught up in individual things and not being obsessed with it, and the idea of heart sutra belongs to the category of mahayana buddhism

"void" does not mean "empty" but "no substance (no fixed shape)". the sutra also states that "everything keeps changing" and "although it keeps changing, the essence (core) of things remains the same."

for eg, the idea is, "i am me, no matter how old i am,, my appearance and various abilities deteriorate, how I am evaluated by others, whether i feel good or bad."

in other words,,, it’s a teaching to be aware of the essence without being caught up in the phenomenon of change.

"void" means "no substance (no fixed shape)", which means that u don't have to be obsessed with things or get caught up in one value.

eg, the reason why diamonds are beautiful is that diamonds arent beautiful from the beginning, but that humans decide that they’re beautiful,,, and that each person has a fixed evaluation of the movement of their hearts that they feel is beautiful. but thats not always the case right?

the last verse goes like this :

“Therefore, Prajna Paramita is known as the most divine mantra,

the great enlightening mantra,

the utmost mantra,

the incomparable mantra,

destroyer of all suffering!

Since what is true is not in vain, listen to the mantra of the Prajna Paramita– it goes like this:

GATE GATE PARA GATE PARASAM GATE BODHI SVAHA!”

the translation of the last line is: “going, going, going on beyond, always going on beyond, always becoming buddha.”

quoted from a web here : “it suggests movement toward awakening. It expresses the enlightenment of a buddha as an unfolding process, rather than a steady state. It puts us in the hopeful position of one who may not have arrived, but who may be on the way. The destination may not be an end, but the journey itself.

As appealing as this translation is, it is by no means the only one. When you do an Internet search for the terms “Heart Sutra” or “Prajna Paramita” you get numerous references. At these various pages you will find several different translations of the mantra. These include:

* Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond. Oh what an awakening! All hail!

* Gone, gone, gone beyond altogether beyond, Awakening, fulfilled!

* Gone, gone, gone to the Other Shore, attained the Other Shore having never left.

* Gone, gone, totally gone, totally completely gone, enlightened, so be it.

* “Oh, you have done! You have done! You have completely crossed the margin. This is Enlightenment! Congratulations!” “

the irony though of toji dying thinking that he should've stuck his principles but actually having ridiculous impact on the world,, this also puts a new spin on the "look upon the flesh of one who is free" (afaik it was left untranslated on his cover page when he invade dagon’s domain) and the implication is imo,,, the more cursed energy, the more restrictions and so in a way humanity goes into a devolution the more cursed energy there is because they will be bound even more tightly to the cycle than before,, which is the irony of the kenjaku & bodhisattva linkage

toji had a heavenly restriction and has zero cursed energy, which is an anomaly that is his own, which makes me wonder what he would've been like if he had an expressed technique,,, but it's the zero cursed energy part, that uniqueness, that makes him powerful in canon

im rly curious how having cursed power automatically seems to lock u into a binding,,, which is seemingly fate. the shaman world rly operates entirely on rules,, where this is because of tengen's barriers or the origin of techniques being more commonplace im not sure

i used to think CTs came abt when individual sorcerers made pacts with supernatural beings etc but now im not sure,, despite leaning hard on shinto and buddhist frameworks there isnt much overt indication over what is and is not a real power in canon,,, like we have mahoraga but are bodhisattvas assumed to be real and exist? or as figures of belief, are they and other figures of shinto mythology, all just cursed spirits in the end?

but that tengen is linked with the proliferation of 6 eyes and star plasma vessel, makes me start wondering how and why tengen started this whole barrier thing,, like yes jpn has a ton of cursed spirits but was it before or after the barrier i can't remember now

maybe Kenjaku was messing around too much back then,, i like how sukuna also maybe had very lil to do with this and is possibly going to interfere as a wild card once more. is the idea to use him as a hail mary so u convey more ppl to the other side all at once? unless kenjaku thinks sukuna is the person who got closest to the next evolution of humankind and is actually a fan 🥴

but yeah if sukuna and megumi can remake the world together can they just hit the reset button so tengen isn't somehow this massive jungian collective unconscious? is sukuna going to accidentally save the world lol,,, i didn't care for fate themes before since it felt like akutami hadn't wholly committed to it as a theme,,, but fate and collective responsibility/influence on the individual just became a much bigger theme

also the mind/body/soul thing with tengen,,, when is that idea coming back

so tengen and sukuna are so far the only ppl who have said to have evolved into curses, whereas kenjaku still seems to be a shaman, as well as angel. what catalyzes that??

also how tf are the cursed weapons made i have questions,, just putting it out here but i actually thought that if toji, presumably, didnt rebel and defected from the clan,,, what are the chances of zenin thinking of turning him into a cursed weapon lol

,,, does being a cursed spirit mean u are bound even more tightly to fate? or do u escape because u are no longer a human bound by ur technique and u are instead just energy that keeps cycling over and over.....cursed energy rly just karma with strength mechanics???

why did gojou get rid of the black rope only for yuuta go to find more??? seems contradictory,, like...did he exorcise sth in that couple years gap?? or were there other reasons? or is HE the one scared since he also hid the inverted spear of heaven,,, makes me wonder how common knowledge all these mechanics actually are

trying to wrap my head around potential megumi learned helplessness or not being able to work through his own problems, or if it's this weird backward wishing that he didn't HAVE to deal with problems if he didn't HAVE to do these things and there were simple solutions,,, like i don't think he's exactly lazy bc he seems to do a lot of work behind the scenes, but there's a certain stasis to him, a wishing not to know. i wonder if he was ever given the "u are a child and I'm the adult" speech nanami gave yuuji

nanami, qifrey and maybe reigen are the adult/ mentor figures i wish was/ is in my life orz

i think it's kind of funny how 145 is like suddenly christianity! this manga is just abt the many ways people seek freedom and want to be delivered,,,

but im not going to talk abt it 😔 — i only have lil to no knowledge abt it other than the lil trivias my friends dropped time to time whenever we’re having a discourse abt religion suddenly lmao and im not a big fan of talking abt things idk abt bc i’ll just look stupid otherwise LMAO

its interesting to note that christian have this uh for a lack of better way to describe it, higher power which can grant u eternal salvation or damnation while buddhism is just fending for urself in pursuit of enlightment ,,, while buddhism also have beings like devas/ deities it just means that 1) if ur born as one, u must have done a good deed sometime in one of ur previous lives,, 2) u just have a ridiculous long life span but yes u’ll eventually die again and rebirth as sth depending on ur actions,,, that goes for living in gods, demi-gods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts or hells realms

this is completely unrelated but,, my mother used to blast the heart sutra frequently in my house back then and the only thing i catch is the “gate gate parasamgate bodhi svaha” which i used ,, whenever i see sth..that is supposed to be unseen

theres this time i stayed behind in cram school for an exam,, i purposely took a another path from my usual one to clear my head (but im still familiar) and i saw this guy standing on the side road and the only thing that went thru my mind back them was “why is he not moving? is he waiting for someone? is he lost or sth,, the main road is just 6 foot away tho lol”

it was until i keep looking at each house that i finally notice that the spot he stood on is not even a ground lvl asphalt,, it’s a fucking sewer which means that he’s actually floating 😭😭 i just jogged and say sth along the line “wow today, ma is cooking hotpot for dinner (i actually have no idea what she plans to cook everyday) i dont want to eat it cold,, so i better hurry up” out loud while chanting the verse in my head

theres also this time me and a friend were sitting on my motorcycle after getting our late night food run until a particular smell and when we stay silent, a woman is singing on the branch right above us that we dipped right away and i almost catch a ticket for speeding all the while thinking abt that verse💀

i dont mind seeing one of “them” but i do have a problem with them following me back home and end up haunting my house for some period of time,, that one or sth ghost who slam things around and giggle in the middle of the night is enough for me to deal with 😀

now im off crying abt genshin (again) now and i’ll go back to sleep afterwards,,, ALSO I LOVE WITCH HATE ATALIERJSJEJEJ- 🐱 (2)

you literally brought up THE SAME EXACT QUESTIONS I HAVE!!! like why would gojo send yuuta to find more of the rope if he destroyed it in the first place?? unless he destroyed it in the heat of the battle with miguel during the prequel but it didn’t look like that. also i saw on twitter kenjaku might not even be a male?? apparently when referring to kenjaku, tengen didn’t use gendered pronouns. im also super curious as to how the six eyes, star plasma vessel (riko...), tengen, and kenjaku are all entwined because kenjaku’s plan was a long time coming, even though he was foiled two times already.

this reminds me of the heavenly restrictions because im still so confused about what exactly it is!! is it something a person is born with or is it something that is placed on a baby by another person??

you brought up fate too and i think that’s such an interesting concept like with akutami making more and more references to the heian era and the “golden age of sorcery” in the end I feel like everything led up to this moment. the existence of cursed energy too just feels like this “endless cycle of fate” which makes sense considering this theme also kinda aligns with yuuji’s birth which was pre planned. idk...this whole thing is suddenly feeling so much more insidious than we may have originally thought.

the sudden christianity mention is a pretty odd choice on akutami’s part but a lot of ppl (including me) are speculating that hana is going to be a harbinger of doom or something. once again is she even japanese?? the western concept of angels have never been particularly altruistic either.

unfortunately gojo has always been treating megumi like an adult so i don’t think he was ever given the “you are a child” talk from gojo. we can see it in their first meeting too. when their conversation takes a turn to serious, it becomes a conversation is from one adult to another. gojo also seems like the type to pile even more responsibility onto megumi because gojo isn’t responsible, so megumi had to pick up that slack.

i agree with you. i think sukuna is literally a wild card LMAO he does what he wants when he wants and that’s in. i don’t even think you can have a contingency plan for sukuna because he’s just that unpredictable!!!

nanami, qifrey and MAYBE reigen LSDNFKJFKN....reigen beats gojo by far though so i’ll give reigen that (that's not saying much tho tbh 😭) reigen's still sexy as hell tho 😁

also you mentioned khr!! khr is one of my favorite mangas of all time....although amano akira cannot write women despite being one khr still holds a very special place in my heart. i had no idea mukuro was influenced by kannon (to be fair i was like 14) but then again...mukuro’s eyes....i can’t believe our tastes in animanga are the same....bestie our taste>>>

HELLO???? YOU’RE RUNNING INTO SUPERNATURAL CREATURES LIKE THAT??? also motorcycles!! now im like 80% sure you're in SEA somewhere, bc as someone who lived in a SEA country for 3 years and went to school in a haunted building I feel you LMAO

#as always....you truly never miss!!!!#and witch hat atelier is sooo good #i love qifrey....white haired anime man of my heart!!!#🐱 anon #all ur analyses are MWAH

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manychocolatefactories · 4 years

Text

CatCF Milk Chocolate: Part 1, the kids

About this version: Milk Chocolate was inspired originally by a mix of the book, the vibes of the 1971 movie and the Tim Burton movie aesthetic. A bit more goofier and whimsical than the other versions. In term of era, I thought of it as a mix of 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

In this version seven Golden Tickets are spread throughout the world, and each time one is found the same female reporter (her character is a reference to the musical) goes to interview the children. Another recurring joke is that while the hunt is going on for the Tickets, there are all sorts of ridiculous debates on television such as: do the Golden Tickets really exist, or is this just a hoax ? Do the Golden Tickets give cancer? Can animals go on a tour like humans? What happens if a Golden Ticket winner dies before the tour? Are the Golden Tickets linked to the rise of youht delinquence? Are the Golden Tickets a proof of Wonka's alleagiance to the obscure sect of the Golden Bird?

First Winner: Augustus Gloop

(Based on Augustus Gloop)

This Augustus was actually based on an idea Stained-by-the-sea allowed me to "borrow" a bit. Stained noted that Augustus always made him thought of this section from the movie "North", about Buck and the Texan parents. If you don't know what I am talking about, I'll leave links down there. And this is such a perfect matc I had to dig a bit down there.

This Augustus is basically a mix of all the archetypes associated with Texas and Nevada. But more precisely, he is basically "Buck" from North - a boy whose family (and his own mindset) embody the motto "bigger is better".

The Gloop family always thought that they should be "the biggest and the bests" and that "bigger is better". Ironically, the Gloop parents themselves are regular-sized people, but they clearly enforced this mentality on their son. Augustus is a big boy. Literally. He is tall, he is thick, he is fat, he is very, very big. He is probably one of the tallest, and definitively the largest boy on the tour (in fact, he once or twice gets stuck in the doors of Wonka factory). He eats ten meals per day, and we are not talking of regular sized meals. We are talking piles of ribs, kilos of potatoes, entire chickens... His parents also prepared for him a "big" and "best" future - paying the local sportive teams to claim he is a sports champion despite Augustus never setting a foot on a sports field, arranging his marriage with the local beauty queen of the state he lives in, already preparing the three different houses he will live with his fifteen kids... As a result, Augustus isn't just big and fat physically, he also has a massive and bloated ego. He thinks that he is the best at everything, and that he should have absolutely everything he wants.

The Gloops themselves are actually the masters of the state they live in, so to speak. They are the wealthiest and most influential industrials of the area: they built highways, casinos, hotels, private villas, they are cow-farmers, owing a lot of slaughterhouses, and also dig for oil and gold. They want their business to be the "biggest there ever was" and all they do is exaggerately big: their villas are enormous, their hotels are everywhere, their farms hosts several thousands cows, their mines are among the deepest in the world...

Trouble is that, due to their expansion and consumption of everything, they are a threat to the landscape and the environment - destroying forests to build their roads and buildings, drying out the lands to feed their farms... in fact, part of the reason why their state looks like the most desertic parts of Texas and Nevada is due to their actions.

Think... Buck from North. Think Art Land from Mar Attack. Think an evil (and obese) version of Clay Bailey from "Xiaolin Showdown". In fact, if I remember well in one episode Clay turns into a sumo for one of the Showdowns... this would probably be Augustus' appearance in this version: sumo Clay Bailey. (Edit: Yes, I checked out, it is episode 23 of the series).

Second Winner: Clarence Crump

(Based on: Clarence Crump)

Clarence didn't had any kind of personnality in the original drafts outside of a desire to prove he was right. As a result, I decided to have a lot of fun and create my own character.

The idea of vanity has already been touched several times with the other brats, but I wanted to give it its own character and kid. I also wanted to create a polar opposite of Augustus, denouncing the fact that being skinny can be just as bad as being fat when in excess. As a result, Clarence Crump is here a boy obsessed about being thin, and proud of being too skinny for his own good.

Mr. Crump is a pseudo-health guru that keeps writing phony and very dangerous diet books, the kind that will advice you to stop eating altogether to lose weight. As for Mrs. Crump, she is a beauty pageant champion (local and regional, and while she acts as if she was some national beauty champion, she always failed at nationals). From their union was born a child who inherited their vanity, pride and obsession with "health"

Black haired, very pale, very thin, very slender, to the point his bones show, Clarence delights in being skinny, and works as a teenager model promoting the "thin-fashion". He is also the embodiment of fat-shaming, never missing an occasion to insult fat people (in fact he often calls Augustus a big fat cow). He uses however the excuse of health for that (a trick his parents taught him) - promoting extreme thinness by talking about health and fat-shaming people in the name of health allows one to be much more horrible than normally accepted.

A good proof of how Clarence actually is just very vain and obsessed with being thin, and not at all defending health - Clarence condemns sports for being unhealthy, because according to him "muscles are unhealthy because they don't make you look beautiful, they make you look ugly".

He always wears short and black sleeveless tank-tops, the point being that he needs to show as much as his body to the world as possible, to be a "living example". He even wears his black short and tank-top during the tour (despite it being winte - the only thing he wears on top of his clothes to not get cold is a skunk fur coat).

Third Winner: Miranda Grope

(Based on: Miranda Grope)

This character was based on Dahl's own character of "Miranda Grope" from early drafts of the story, the horrible and atrocious girl allowed to do "whatever she wants".

In my version, the Grope parents are hippie-like people, the father having a very long beard and being covered in fleas, while the mother is covered in flowers and oss (plants that grew over her), and both always wearing rose-tinted glasses. They are the kind of parents that refuse authority and orders, seeing these (and social norms as a whole) as a "dictatorship". They prefer to trust their daughter to find her own way in the world, believing that experience is the best teacher in life. The result? They lazily raised her by telling her they would never forbid her anything and that she could do anything she wanted.

Miranda is a devilish little girl who does only what she wants, and becomes extremely violent when prevented from doing something. Or when people say something she doesn't want to hear. Or just when people she dislikes are near her. She shouts, the screams, she insult, she kicks, she hit, she throw enormous and terrifying tantrums. She has a very wide range of insults, and a truly evil mind : most of the things she wants to do are borderline crimes. It seems for her only chaos and destruction is "fun", a true little punk.

Miranda has a disastrous haircut because she cuts her hair herself, and she is always wearing the same clothes that she rarely washes): a white shirt, a blue sweater with long sleeves, and a plaid tiles skirt. An outfit that looks strikingly like a school uniform - but it is pure irony, because Miranda hates more than anything in the world school. She doesn't go to school, and the only time she went near one was to try to burn it down. (Her appearance is in fact based on Lauren Child's illustrations for Miranda, if you are wondering).

Fourth Winner: Veruca Salt

(Based on: Veruca Salt)

For this Veruca, I wanted to do something slightly different... here, Veruca doesn't want everything just because she is a spoiled rich brat. She is still one, but she is also the product of post-WW2 consumerism.

This Veruca was born surrounded by advertisements, logos, slogans and product placements. On television, in the streets, in shops, in journals, at the radio... She grew up with them and was influenced, brainwashed by them. As a result, she is obsessed with obtaining everything that was advertised, and she herelf looks like a walking billboard since she is covered in big, flashy logo and keeps reciting different brands' slogans and mottos. As soon as she sees something she saw publicity of before, she needs to obtain it at once. She is a true zombie, only hearing the call of the shopping mall and of the television advertisements.

One idea I had was that the Salt parents actually worked for (or where at the head of) a wealthy advertisement company, known to produce, design and create all kinds of famous publicities and slogans - and that they used their daughter as a guinea pig for their tests, and delighted in Veruca being so addicted to consumerism. In fact, they may have named her Veruca because at the moment of her birth they were working on advertisements for an anti-wart product, so that's all they had in mind.

Fifth winner: Herpes Trout

(Based on: Mike Teavee)

I went with this version of Mikee Teavee with the focus on "violence" already present in the original work, but also heavily used in the opera (and touched a bit in the 2005 movie).

This Herpes Trout is the embodiment of the fear of kids becoming violent upon watching television and playing video games (his only two passions in life). He has a true fascination with guns and firearms - US soldiers shooting aliens, gangs shooting each other, cowboys shooting at bandits, it's all he ever plays and watches. Herpes worships violence, and is absolutely obsessed with war (here I am thinking of all the wars present from the 60s to the 80s, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Glasgow Ice Cream Wars...). War propaganda and the fight being glorifyed heavily influenced him - as a result his biggest dream is to go at war in some foreign country to kill everyone there and come home a hero.

Herpes comes from a family of rednecks and hillbillies from the deep country. They are not poor however, they are wealthy enough to have television and several video games, but they are uneducated people full of stereotypes, discrimination and hate. They named their son Herpes because they ignored what it meant but just thought of it as an "intelligent" name. Herpes has everal brothers and sisters, and all have a disease name.

Herpes himself is a big and strong kid, who followed body-buildings process a la Charles Atlas and military training, becoming impressively muscular. However, he retained a soft, childish and chubby "baby face", which kind of ruins the effect of this massive, muscular, almost adult body. Always dressed in a military outfit, he carries everywhere with him guns and firearms, the question being: are they real? Or are they not?

Sixth Winner: Violet Glockenberry

(Based on Violet Beauregarde)

I wanted with this version to take back the idea of a competitive and "sportive" girl obsessed with contesting and winning - introduced in the Tim Burton movie.

This Violet is a tall, muscular and strong girl. She won numerous sportive competitions, but this doesn't make her just arrogant and prideful like in the Tim Burton version. In my version she is also very aggressive and violent (a bit like in the original novel). She is a nasty and rude bully easily prone to anger (in fact, if she keeps chewing gum it is mostly to calm her down sot hat she doesn't punch everyone around). Her parents originally pushed her towards competitions to manage her anger issues, but sports only gave her more strength and destructive power. In fact, they became terrified of her, while she considers them losers here to serve her - she basically thinks of herself as self-made, literaly.

Seventh Winner: Charlie Bucket

(Based on: Charlie Bucket)

For this Charlie, I wanted to go with a Charlie similar to the original illustrations of the character: blond hair, blue eyes, a white boy...

Basically, he is the original Charlie. Very sweet, very innocent, a gentle kid, the best of the group.

However I changed slightly his background. Charlie in this version is not the grandson of four grandparents, but rather the big brother of four younger siblings - and his family here struggles with trying to feed five children (and a total of seven mouths) despite having very humble and low-paid jobs. I think Charlie has taken the role of a parentive figure for the siblings, but at the same time him spending so much time with young children helped him keep in touch with his "childish" side.

#charlie and the chocolate factory #catcf #milk chocolate #retelling #charlie bucket #violet beauregarde #mike teavee #augustus gloop #veruca salt #miranda grope #clarence crump

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chanoyu-to-wa · 6 years

Text

Nampō Roku, Book 2 (29): (1587) Third Month, the Last Day, Midday.

29) Third Month, Last Day; Midday¹.

◦ Two-mat room².

◦ [Guests:] Bungo Yoshimune [豊後義統]³, Tawara Yotsuo [田原四郎]⁴, Rōju [良壽]⁵.

Sho [初]⁶.

◦ Tōyo [東與]⁷.

◦ On an ō-ita [大板]⁸: ◦ yuen-buro [油煙風爐]⁹ ・ kama unryū [釜雲龍]¹⁰ ・ kan [クハン]¹¹ ・ habōki [羽帚]¹².

◦ On the tana: ◦ in a na-kago [菜籠], the charcoal¹³.

▵ Shiru hoshi-na sakura-gai [汁干菜・櫻貝]¹⁴.

▵ Namasu [ナマス]¹⁵.

▵ Kamaboko ・ unagi [カマホコ・ウナキ]¹⁶.

▵ Ae-mono [アヘモノ]¹⁷.

▵ Senbei ・ iri-kaya ・ shiitake [センヘイ・イリカヤ・椎茸]¹⁸.

Go [後]¹⁹.

◦ The [scroll in the] toko was rolled up²⁰; [in a] naga-fukube [長フクベ], flowers of the wisteria²¹.

◦ Ō-ita as before, hishaku [ヒシヤク] ・ futaoki hikkiri [蓋置引切]²².

◦ Mizusashi imo-gashira [水指芋カシラ]²³.

◦ Chaire Enza [茶入圓座]²⁴.

◦ Chawan kuro [茶碗黒]²⁵.

_________________________

¹San-gatsu misoka, hiru [三月晦日、晝].

Misoka [晦日] means the last day of the month (which, in this case, was the 30th day of the Third Month*). The date was May 7 in the Gregorian calendar.

While this chakai is included in both Shibayama Fugen’s and Tanaka Senshō’s commentaries, it is missing from the modern Japanese version edited by Kumakura Isao. As in the past when chakai were passed over, this appears to have been done without any reason given for the omission. ___________ *Some months in the Lunar Calendar have 30 days, and some have 29 days.

²Nijō shiki [二疊敷].

This was the 2-mat room in Rikyū's residence, which featured a tsuri-dana*.

The katte-guchi [勝手口]† opened onto the lower left side of the mat; and the room featured a geza-toko [下座床]‡ -- a toko that is located on the guests' left side, at the foot of the room -- all as shown in the above sketch. __________ *This is an important point, because it immediately means that the furo had to be placed on the right side of the utensil mat -- since the furo cannot be located under the tsuri-dana.

†In modern-day chanoyu, this entrance is usually referred to as the sadō-guchi [茶道口].

‡The word can also be pronounced shita-za toko [下座床].

³Bungo Yoshimune [豊後義統].

This was Ōtomo Yoshimune [大友義統; 1558 ~ 1610]*, a daimyō-nobleman, Lord of Bungo, who was the eldest son and heir of Ōtomo Sōrin [大友宗麟]. He served as Captain of the Left Guards (sahyōe-no-kami [左兵衛督]), holding the junior grade of the Fifth Rank; and as an Imperial Chamberlain (jijū [侍従]) and Councillor of State (sangi [參議]), for which he received the junior grade of the Fourth Rank.

He also participated in the invasion of the continent; but apparently he exhibited cowardess when his forces encountered the Chinese and Korean armies, and for this Hideyoshi demanded that he forfeit the province of Bungo upon his return to Japan.

Nevertheless, Yoshimune sided with Ishida Mitsunari and the Western Army against Tokugawa Ieyasu at Sekigahara, for which he was exiled to Shishido in Hitachi, where he died in 1610.

Yoshimune had been baptized a Christian on the orders of his father†, but he seems to have been indifferent to the faith (unlike Ōtomo Sōrin himself). Some allege that he returned to the faith during his years in exile, but this is not substantiated by most of the documents that survive from that period. __________ *In his other records, Rikyū usually writes this man's name either as Yoshimune [よしむね], written in kana; while his contemporaries generally wrote the name (in kanji) as Yoshimune [義宗]. That the correct form is found in this entry suggests that Jitsuzan probably corrected the material.

†His mother, though Sōrin's wife, was vehemently anti-Christian, and it seems that it was from her that Yoshimune inherited his religious apathy. His mother's name has been lost, and she is known to history only by the Jesuits' derogatory epithet of Jezebel.

⁴Tawara Yotsuo [田原四郎].

This refers to Ōtomo Chikamori [大友親盛; 1567 ~ 1643]*, third son of Ōtomo Sōrin, and a younger brother of Ōtomo Yoshimune. He remained a retainer of the daimyō of Bungo until Yoshimune was deposed in the aftermath of Hideyoshi’s first invasion of Korea. After that Chikamori gave his allegiance to Hosokawa Tadaoki (Hosokawa Sansai).

According to the Rikyū Hyakkai Ki [利休百會記], Chikamori also participated in a chakai that Rikyū gave for Ōtomo Yoshimune on the 22nd day of the Ninth Month of Tenshō 18 (1590). __________ *Tawara was his mother's family, into which he was adopted in 1580.

⁵Rōju [良壽].

This refers to Akane-ya Rōju [茜屋良壽; the dates of his birth and death are unknown], a townsman of Sakai. His name is also given as Akane-ya Dōju [茜屋道壽] (which would seem to make him a fellow disciple of Araki [Kitamuki] Dōchin [荒木(北向き)道陳; 1504 ~ 1562] together with the young Rikyū: perhaps he and Rikyū were of a similar age). His name is occasionally mentioned in other documents associated with Rikyū, including the Hyakkai Ki.

⁶Sho [初].

The shoza.

With respect to the kane-wari:

- the toko contained the scroll, and so was han [半];

- the furo, habōki, and kan were arranged on an ō-ita [大板]: and since the furo does not overlap the kane with which the other things were associated*, the room is assessed as being chō [調]†;

- and the sumi-tori, resting on the tana, made the tana han [半].

Han + chō + han is chō, which is appropriate for a chakai that is given during the daytime. __________ *According to Book Three of the Nampō Roku, the kan and habōki should be placed on the left corner of the ō-ita, with a shiki-kami [敷き紙] (a piece of kaishi folded into a square 1- or 1-sun 2-bu larger than the diameter of the kan) placed down on the ō-ita underneath the kan; the feathers of the habōki then rest on top of the kan (as shown in the sketch). While ostensibly this was to protect the ita from being scratched, in fact it seems intended to insure that the kan-habōki arrangement touches the appropriate kane (just as when a shiki-kami was placed underneath the shin-nakatsugi).

It is important that the handle of the go-sun-hane not contact the kane that is associated with the furo (since, in that case, the kan and habōki would be counted together with the furo, throwing off the kane-wari count).

†The furo used on an ō-ita must always be a small furo (whether a bronze kimen-buro or one made of lacquered or glazed pottery), generally measuring between 8- and 9-sun in diameter. The little furo known as “bin-kake” [瓶掛] today (on which a tetsu-bin [鐵瓶] is heated) are representative of the size of this kind of furo.

Note that the arranging of a small furo on this large board is not an example of “contrast” (a small object placed on a large base) as some chajin held since the Edo period. Rather, the dimensions of the ō-ita were derived from those of the ji-ita of the small daisu, and the small kimen-buro was the furo that was made to be used on this kind of daisu.

⁷Tōyo [東與].

This refers to the bokuseki written by the Yuan period monk Dōnglíng Yǒng-yú [東陵永璵; 1285 ~ 1365]* (whose name was pronounced Tōryō Eiyo in Japanese). Rikyū used the first and last kanji of this monk’s name as his nickname for this scroll.

Dōnglíng Yǒng-yú was a follower of the Sōtō sect [曹洞宗]†, and came to Japan in Shōhei 6 [正平六年] (1351) to spread the teachings of this version of Chán among the Japanese. ___________ *When writing this abbreviated version of his name, Rikyū seems to have mistaken the second kanji -- writing yo [與] (the kanji that formed the first syllable of his own childhood name, Yoshirō [與四郎]), rather than yo [璵].

†One of the two main branches or schools of Zen. The other, of course, is the Rinzai School.

Though it is an over-simplification, the Sōtō approach tends to favor a more gradual attainment of realization through the cultivation of ones samadhi -- in contrast to the desire for a “sudden enlightenment” experience that is the goal of the followers of the Rinzai tradition.

⁸Ō-ita ni [大板ニ].

The ō-ita [大板], which measures 1-shaku 3-sun square*, was one of two shiki-ita† created by Jōō -- originally, so that the sumi-temae could be performed apart from the daisu‡, in order to reduce the wear-and-tear on the daisu as much as possible.

Because the ō-ita (and shi-hō-ita) was significantly larger than the furo**, the extra space was, from the start, used as a sort of tana -- that is, some of the things that would be needed for the sumi-temae (like the habōki, kan, kōgō, hibashi††) were displayed on the board (since the daisu, or naga-ita was set up elsewhere in the room). After the daisu was retired from general use, the hishaku and futaoki also came to be arranged on the ita, too.

By Rikyū's day, years after chanoyu had evolved away from the de rigeur use of the daisu, the employment of these various shiki-ita as a base for the furo throughout the entire gathering was already a long-established convention, and this is the practice that Rikyū follows in this chakai. Nothing out of the ordinary was being attempted by him here.

Traditionally the various shiki-ita were made from the ten-ita of old daisu (whose ji-ita was so damaged that they could no longer be used), because this wood is very old (and so stable -- it will not warp the way fresher wood will), and so are finished with shin-nuri [眞塗]. Because the ten-ita of the daisu was always 6-bu thick, this accounts for the thickness of the naga-ita and the various sizes of shiki-ita.

◎ When serving tea, the chakin, chashaku, and the lid of the chaire should be placed on the ō-ita: in particular, it is important to understand that the chashaku should not be rested on the chaire when an ō-ita is present in the room (the same is also true of the naga-ita: and this convention dates from the time of Ashikaga Yoshimasa, who may have established the precedent). __________ *The 1-shaku 4-sun ō-ita was created in the modern period, and it or its use have nothing to do with the classical object.

Jōō’s ō-ita also has nothing to do with the so-called naka-oki [中置き] style of arranging the utensil mat (where the furo is placed in the center of the mat).

†The ō-ita, which measures 1-shaku 3-sun square, was made for use with the small (bronze) kimen-buro that was used on the small daisu -- originally in a room covered with inakama tatami (which measure 5-shaku 9-sun by 2-shaku 9-sun 5-bu).

The medium-sized kimen-buro was placed on a shi-hō-ita [四方板], which measured 1-shaku 2-sun from side to side, by 1-shaku. The medium furo was used on the large daisu, which could only be used in a room covered with kyōma tatami (measuring 6-shaku 3-sun by 3-shaku 1-sun 5-bu).

The large (usually iron) kimen-buro, which was used on the naga-ita (originally it was made for use on the o-chanoyu-dana, in the preparation room), was placed on a ko-ita [小板] measuring 9-sun 5-bu square -- again, originally only during the shoza (to protect the naga-ita from damage).

‡At the time when the ō-ita was made by Jōō, the daisu was used all of the time, hence the danger of scratching the lacquer by charcoal dust was a real issue.

During the Shino family’s kō-kai [香會] (and, of course, before), the charcoal was set alight and the kama was boiled in the preparation room or mizuya, and these things were brought out onto the utensil mat during the naka-dachi (which is why the guests had to leave the room and sit somewhere else while the furnishings were being changed). Jōō imitated the Shino’s way of handling things by placing the daisu (and kaigu, as well as the dai-temmoku and chaire) in the tokonoma during the shoza, while arranging the furo on a shiki-ita.

**The ō-ita is at least 2-sun larger than the furo on all four sides, and frequently it is even larger.

††Only bronze or sawari [四分一] hibashi could be arranged on the ō-ita -- the kind of hibashi that can be placed in the shaku-tate on the daisu or naga-ita. Iron hibashi were not supposed to be displayed in either of these ways.

⁹Yuen-buro [油煙風爐].

Yuen [油煙] means soot, specifically that which comes from burning oil (hence, oily soot). Here, the expression yuen-buro means a do-buro [土風爐] (clay furo). Other early names for this type of furo were Nara-buro [奈良風爐]* and abura-buro [油風爐]† -- the latter being of a similar derivation to Rikyū's term.

The specific furo in question is the one known today as the unryū-buro -- because it was made to be used with Rikyū's small unryū-gama‡. This furo is shown above.

The way to arrange the ō-ita and the furo on the utensil mat, together with the associated rules of kane-wari, will be discussed in a brief appendix that will follow this post. __________ *Because they were originally made by the potters who produced low-fired earthenware vessels for one-time ritual use at the Kasuka Shrine [春日社] and Shōfuku-ji [興福寺] in Nara. Because of the single intended use, the earthenware was fired so low that, after soaking the piece in water for any length of time, it will fall apart (thus solving the problem of getting rid of hundreds or thousands of these pieces every day during the seasonal festivals).

†Since the original intention was to waterproof the clay, rather than color it, lacquer was applied with a cloth, which was used to rub the lacquer into the low-fired clay. Depending on the kind and quality of lacquer used, the result often looked as if the clay piece had simply been coated with oil -- or (to analyze Rikyū's term), rubbed with oily lamp-black.

By Rikyū's day, these furo were being fired at a higher temperature, and properly lacquered -- often (according to contemporary reports) with kagami-nuri [鏡塗], the highly polished black lacquer that is as reflective as a mirror.

‡The incurving rim and root-like legs of this furo recall the rounded shoulder and legs of the original old Temmyō kimen-buro for which Rikyū had designed the kama.

¹⁰Kama unryū [釜雲龍].

This was the second small unryū-gama, with matsukasa kan-tsuki and an iron lid that Rikyū had asked Yoshirō to make after he presented the original kama (along with the old Temmyō kimen-buro) to Hideyoshi, for use in his Yamazato-maru tearoom on the moat within the Ōsaka castle complex.

This kama is shown above, while the kama arranged on the yuen-buro is shown below.

¹¹Kan [クハン].

These were probably the same bronze kan that Rikyū used when hanging this kama over the ro.

The kan were placed on top of a shiki-kami [敷き紙], a piece of kaishi folded into a square that was 5- or 6-bu larger than the kan on all four sides. After arranging the kan on top of the shiki-kami, the habōki was rested on top of them.

¹²Habōki [羽帚].

This go-sun-hane [五寸羽] would have been made from right-feathers -- that is, feathers that are widest on the right side of the rachis.

The kind of feathers from which this go-sun-hane was made are unknown, since, in Rikyū's period, habōki were commonly used only once, so there was no real need to record such details. All that can be said with certainty is that, in the small room, a habōki with feathers 5-sun long was the rule.

¹³Tana ni, na-kago ni sumi [棚ニ、菜籠ニスミ].

This was Rikyū's abura-dake na-kago [油竹菜籠], shown below.

The kōgō (possibly Rikyū’s ruri-suzume kōgō [瑠璃雀香合], since this was his “ordinary kōgō”) was brought out from the katte at the beginning of the sumi-temae.

¹⁴Shiru hoshi-na sakura-gai [汁干菜・櫻貝].

Hoshi-na [干菜] refers to the dried leaves (usually with the crown of the root still attached -- they are hung upside-down to dry, draped over a line) of the daikon. Since the crown of the root was usually chopped off in the market, the poor people would collect the discarded tops after the market closed, dry them, and then use them as a vegetable during the winter months when fresh vegetables were expensive. At this chakai, hoshi-na was used as a sort of delicacy, since they would prove to be a novel taste for the high-class guests at this chakai.

The sakura-gai is a kind of tellin -- a sand-burrowing clam (Nitidotellina nitidula), whose paired shells exhibit a clean, pink-colored nacre (the coating on the inner side of the shell) that is similar to the color of cherry blossoms (hence the Japanese name). The muscle would have been cut into small pieces and cooked by boiling in broth.

The soup was probably miso-shiru.

¹⁵Namasu [ナマス].

This is a sort of raw salad made from julienned daikon and carrot, dressed with rice vinegar that has been flavored (and diluted) with sake, mirin, and a little soy sauce.

¹⁶Kamaboko ・ unagi [カマホコ・ウナキ].

Kamaboko [蒲鉾] is a sort of steamed fish-paste made from white-fleshed fish. It was likely formed into small patties or tubes. Before serving, the kamaboko was deep fried in oil, in Rikyū's period.

Unagi [鰻] is the freshwater eel. It was probably lightly salted while it was roasting over a charcoal fire on skewers (this style of preparation is known as shira-yaki [白焼], and contrasts with the kaba-yaki [蒲焼] that is prepared by professional eel restaurants).

¹⁷Ae-mono [アヘモノ].

Ae-mono is another salad-like course that consists of various vegetables, and sometimes seafood, dressed with a soy- or iri-zake-based sauce.

¹⁸Senbei ・ iri-kaya ・ shiitake [センヘイ・イリカヤ・椎茸].

These were the kashi [菓子]:

- senbei [煎餅] are rice crackers. Originally little more than the scorched rice from the bottom of a rice-pot, they were usually procured from a shop that specialized in senbei by Rikyū's day;

- iri-kaya [煎り榧] are the roasted nuts of the Japanese allspice tree (also known, in English, as the Japanese nutmeg-yew, Torreya nucifera);

- and the shiitake [椎茸], when prepared as kashi, would have been grilled over charcoal, and lightly salted.

¹⁹Go [後].

The goza.

As for the kane-wari:

- the tokonoma contained the chabana, suspended on the minor pillar on the wall-side of the toko, and so was chō [調];

- the room had the furo, together with the hishaku and futaoki, on the ō-ita; together with the mizusashi, with the chaire* and chawan arranged in front of it, as shown below, and so was han [半];

- and the tana was empty, and so chō [調].

Chō + han + chō is han, which is correct for the goza of a gathering held during the daytime. __________ *This argument -- that the chaire was displayed without its tray -- is specifically made by both Shibayama Fugen and Tanaka Senshō, and so reflects an interpretation that had been voiced in the earliest days of Nampō Roku scholarship.

Apparently, then, either Rikyū had decided to use the Nade-kata enza chaire without its tray on this occasion -- or, possibly, he decided to bring the tray out afterward, at the beginning of the koicha temae.

²⁰Toko makite [床巻テ].

That is, the kakemono was rolled up and taken away. “Toko makite” was Rikyū's shorthand way of stating this, for his records.

²¹Naga-fukube ni fuji-no-hana [長フクベニ藤ノ花].

A naga-fukube [長瓢] is a fully-grown cucumber that has been dried and made into a kake-hanaire. One such, made by Rikyū, is shown below.

The hanaire was suspended from a hook that was attached to the minor pillar on the outer-wall-side of the tokonoma, near the bokuseki-mado (which, in Rikyū’s tearooms, was always located just outside of the toko).

²²Ō-ita, moto no mama ni hishaku ・ futaoki hikkiri [大板、元ノマヽニヒシヤク・蓋置　引切].

The ō-ita and furo remained as they were during the shoza. However, when preparing for the goza, the hishaku and futaoki took the places previously occupied by the habōki and kan (and are counted in the kane-wari in the same way).

The futaoki would have been one of Rikyū's take-wa [竹輪], such as that shown above.

²³Mizusashi imo-gashira [水指芋カシラ].

While Japanese scholars have long debated over the various possibilities for the place of origin of this mizusashi*, it is, in fact, a very typical example of early Joseon period ongi [온기 = 溫器] ware -- the typical brown-glazed pottery intended for day to day use, that was fired higher than unglazed earthenware (the purpose of the glaze was to make it waterproof). This jar was likely made to store agricultural seeds over the winter (the notch immediately below the mouth allowed a piece of cloth dipped in wax to be tied over the mouth, to keep the seeds fresh, so they could be planted in the spring).

The lid was not made for this vessel (and may well have been the product of a completely different pottery culture), and was likely added after the jar came to Japan. ___________ *This “imo-gashira” mizusashi should not be confused with Jōō’s imo-gashira mizusashi, shown below.

They are very different pieces, and the place of origin of Jōō’s mizusashi is questionable (though somewhere in the area of South-east Asia referred to as “Namban” [南蠻] does seem most likely). A large part of the “scholarly debate” appears to be the result of confusing one of these mizusashi with the other.

²⁴Chaire Enza [茶入圓座].

This was the meibutsu Nade-kata enza chaire [撫肩圓座茶入] that had once belonged to Jōō.

Rikyū had received this chaire, from Hideyoshi, the year before -- probably so that Rikyū would have a “good” chaire to use when serving tea to Hideyoshi and his important guests (Ōtomo Yoshimune was just such a person)*.

While nothing is mentioned, it seems most likely that the chaire was placed on the square tray that Rikyū had made for it after receiving the chaire from Hideyoshi†; and he would have used an ori-tame [折撓] that he made to match as the chashaku. (The chashaku shown above, now known by the name of “Namida” [泪], which was given to it by Furuta Sōshitsu at the time of Rikyū’s seppuku, is one that Rikyū made to be used with this bon-chaire.) __________ *Rikyū’s own treasured chaire that was paired with a tray -- which he referred to by the name of Shiri-bukura [尻フクラ = 尻膨] -- is asymmetrical. This imperfection lessened it in the eyes of his contemporaries (including Hideyoshi).

†The chaire had not been paired with a Chinese tray. However, due to its quality, Jōō felt that it was not appropriate to stand it directly on the mat, and so he had a tray made in the style of the Haneda-bon [羽田盆], albeit with a red edge (which was one of Jōō’s favorite touches, and would serve to indicate that this tray was not from an earlier period in the eyes of posterity).

Because Rikyū preferred to use trays that were only 2-sun larger than the chaire on all four sides (so that the chawan could be stood next to the bon-chaire just as if a tray were not present), he had a new tray made -- also in the Haneda-bon style (though without the red). This is the tray that is shown in the photo, and the one he probably used during this chakai.

²⁵Chawan kuro [��碗黒].

This would have been one of Furuta Sōshitsu's creations*, probably the one that Rikyū has mentioned using on several earlier occasions in this kaiki.

The chawan shown above, which bears Rikyū's kaō, and so may be the bowl that was used during this gathering.

And, though not mentioned, the koboshi was most likely a mentsū [面桶] -- which (in addition to its being the appropriate koboshi for use in the small room setting) would account for Rikyū's failure to note it down in his kaiki. ___________ *The black bowls made for Rikyū by Chōjirō did not begin to appear until the late summer or autumn of the present year (1587); thus, any reference to a “kuro-chawan” [黒茶碗] prior to that time must refer to one of the bowls made by Furuta Sōshitsu at the Seto kilns. Oribe, of course, seems to have been the inventor of the hiki-dashi [引き出し] technique. (The potters do something of the sort as a way to test the degree of firing, but they always discard the pieces so sacrificed. Oribe’s achievement was in recognizing the possibilities that plucking a piece of pottery out of the kiln while it was still red-hot, and then rapidly cooling it, made for enhancing the texture of the Seto black glaze. It was this technique that Chōjirō subsequently imitated in the creation of his own black bowls.)

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Coronavirus Live Updates: Italy Locks Down Region After Spike in Infections https://nyti.ms/2VbjqGt

Coronavirus Live Updates: Xi Acknowledges ‘Shortcomings’ in Fight Against Outbreak

In nearby South Korea, which has more than 600 confirmed cases, President Moon Jae-in empowered his government to lock down cities and restrict travel.( A DAY LATE AND A DOLLAR SHORT!!! THE HORSE IS OUT OF THE BARN AND IT'S NOW A PANDEMIC!!!)

RIGHT NOW

Pakistan and Turkey close their borders with Iran as cases there increase.

Here’s what you need to know:

READ UPDATES IN CHINESE: 新冠病毒疫情最新消息汇总

China’s leader calls the outbreak a ‘crisis and a big test.’

China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, told officials at a Communist Party meeting on Sunday that the coronavirus epidemic was “a crisis and a big test” for the country.

Mr. Xi acknowledged “obvious shortcomings in the response to the epidemic,” but did not give details, adding that officials should “learn lessons” and improve the country’s ability to respond to public health emergencies.

He said the outbreak in China presented “the fastest spread, the widest scope of infections and the greatest degree of difficulty in controlling infections” of any public health emergency since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Mr. Xi called situation “severely complex” and warned that prevention and control measures were at their “most crucial stage.”

He acknowledged that the outbreak would have social and economic effects and pledged to take measures to ease the burdens on the country’s workers and businesses. He called for an orderly return to work in places with low and medium risk, and said that areas with high risk of spreading the virus must focus on prevention and control measures.

Mr. Xi said the government would look to fiscal policies including tax cuts to help small and medium-size businesses, and work to reduce barriers to the flow of people and goods.

But, saying that the government’s response reflected well upon the party’s leadership, he said that its judgment on the epidemic was “accurate, all work deployments are timely and the measures adopted have been forceful and effective.”

“The results achieved by the prevention and control work again display the outstanding superiority of the leadership of the Communist Party of China and socialism with Chinese characteristics,” Mr. Xi said.

The meeting was attended by members of the Communist Party and government leadership, and was broadcast to about 170,000 officials across the country, the state media said.

The Chinese authorities recently acknowledged that Mr. Xi had been aware of the outbreak nearly two weeks before he first spoke about it, a revised timeline that put him at the center of efforts to control the outbreak.

That declaration was seen as a risk because it left Mr. Xi, China’s most powerful leader since the Mao era, open to questions over whether the government moved quickly enough.

South Korea’s leader urges an ‘all-out, concerted response.’

President Moon Jae-in on Sunday put South Korea on the highest possible alert in its fight against the coronavirus, a move that empowers the government to lock down cities and take other sweeping measures to contain the outbreak.

“The coming few days will be a critical time for us,” he said at an emergency meeting of government officials to discuss the outbreak, which in just days has spiraled to 602 confirmed infections and six deaths. “The central government, local governments, health officials and medical personnel and the entire people must wage an all-out, concerted response to the problem.”

By raising the alert to Level 4, or “serious,” Mr. Moon authorized the government to take steps like barring visitors from specific countries and restricting public transportation, as well as locking down cities, as China has done.

Many of South Korea’s coronavirus cases are in the southeastern city of Daegu, which has essentially been placed under a state of emergency, though people are still free to enter and leave the city. A 59-year-old man on Sunday was the sixth person to die in the country after contracting the virus.

More than half of the people confirmed to have been infected are either members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a secretive religious sect with a strong presence in Daegu, or their relatives or other contacts.

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun had urged people on Saturday to comply with a ban on large protests in Seoul, the capital, where large political demonstrations are commonplace. But thousands of Christian activists defied the ban that day, gathering for their weekly protest against Mr. Moon, whom they accuse of coddling North Korea and mismanaging the economy.

The spike of cases in South Korea, along with rising numbers in Iran and Italy, has added to fears that the window to avert a global pandemic is narrowing. The World Health Organization has warned African leaders of the urgent need to prepare for the virus; it identified 13 African countries as priorities because of their direct links to China, which accounts for the vast majority of confirmed infections and deaths.

On Sunday, China raised its official numbers to 76,936 cases and 2,442 deaths.

IRAN, SAYING EIGHT HAVE DIED, CLOSES SCHOOLS ACROSS 14 PROVINCES.

Pakistan and Turkey temporarily closed their borders with Iran on Sunday, as Tehran announced that it would close schools, universities and cultural centers across 14 provinces in an effort to curb the coronavirus. The outbreak has killed at least eight people in Iran, state television said.

Although the origin of the outbreak in Iran is unclear, the Fars news agency on Sunday quoted the country’s health minister as saying that Chinese carriers of the virus were a source of the outbreak in Iran.

Just days ago, Iran said it was untouched by the virus, and the sudden increase in cases has raised concerns that it may be experiencing a significant outbreak. Iran’s health ministry said Saturday that 43 people had tested positive, with eight deaths, state-run Press TV reported.

Experts have said that based on the number of dead, the total number of cases is probably much higher, as Covid-19 appears to kill about one out of 50 people infected.

Pakistan’s 596-mile border with Iran is mostly porous, and controlling a potential spread of the coronavirus poses a major challenge.

“Due to the very serious nature of coronavirus outbreak in Iran, we have to take stringent precautionary measures,” Mir Zia Ullah, the home minister of Baluchistan Province, which borders Iran, said by telephone. “All kind of movement has been suspended.”

He said officials planned to meet on Monday to assess how long to keep the border closed.

Turkey’s health minister, Fahrettin Koca, said in a news conference, “Because of the fact that the picture in Iran is getting worse, we decided to temporarily shut down our border with our neighbor.”

“Land and rail crossings from Iran to our country will be stopped as of 5 p.m.,” he added. “All international flights will be temporarily and one-sidedly stopped as of 8 p.m.”

Turkey has four border gates to Iran, and all of them were shut down.

Eight Iranians who were showing signs of cold, such as fever and coughing were denied entry to Turkey over the last two days, Mr. Koca said.

In Iran, eight of the 10 new cases were in the city of Qom, Press TV reported, citing a health ministry spokesman, Kianush Jahanpur. Qom has been the epicenter of the outbreak in Iran, and mosques and schools were closed there on Thursday.

Mehr, an Iranian news agency, reported that the government had begun mass distribution of masks in cities affected by the outbreak.

The closing of schools, universities and cultural centers will last a week.

The authorities have also said that concerts and cultural events would be canceled for a week and movie theaters closed, while sports competitions will be held without spectators, state television reported.

CASES IN ITALY RISE, AND THE VENICE CARNIVAL IS CANCELED.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Italy has risen by 89, officials said on Sunday, bringing the country’s total to 132.

Officials also announced two cases in Venice for the first time, as the number of cases in Veneto, where Venice is the capital, rose to 25.

On Sunday, officials also canceled the last two days of the Venice carnival, which draws thousands of people from around the world.

The announcement was made after an estimate 20,000 people attended a carnival event in St. Mark’s Square on Sunday morning. Carnival activities, which began on Feb. 8 with tens of thousands of people gathering in St. Mark’s, were to end on Tuesday.

Ten towns in the Lombardy region have been placed on lockdown, a decision affecting more than 50,000 people, after 88 coronavirus infections emerged there. And as new cases arose in other cities, Italy’s cabinet passed emergency measures late Saturday night that apply throughout the country.

Those national guidelines oblige local officials to “take all appropriate containment measures” if someone tests positive for the virus. Quarantine measures will be applied to anyone who has close contact with someone who has contracted the virus, and areas where positive cases are confirmed will be placed on lockdown.

“We are trying to contain a phenomenon, but it’s not a pandemic,” Giulio Gallera, the councilor responsible for health in Lombardy, said in a news conference on Saturday.

The lockdown in that region, announced late Friday, has closed schools, businesses, and bus and train stations. Officials have banned all public events, including sporting activities and religious ceremonies. Other Lombardy towns not affected by the lockdown have decided on their own restrictive measures.

Soccer matches on Sunday were canceled in Lombardy and Veneto. Two trade fairs scheduled for this month in Milan were postponed, and the mayor of Milan on Sunday asked that schools in the city be closed for a week.

Of the country’s coronavirus patients, 26 are in intensive care and two people have died, including a 77-year-old woman and a 78-year-old man, officials said.

THIRD DEATH LINKED TO THE DIAMOND PRINCESS IS REPORTED.

A third person connected with the Diamond Princess cruise ship at the center of a coronavirus outbreak has died of pneumonia, according to Japan’s health ministry. A Japanese man in his 80s, who was taken off the ship to a hospital on Feb. 5, died on Sunday.

At the request of the man’s family, the ministry did not specify whether he had tested positive for the coronavirus or whether he had been a passenger on the ship.

The ministry said on Sunday that an additional 55 crew members and two passengers had tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases associated with the ship to 634.

Fifty of the new confirmed cases currently showed no symptoms, the ministry said. It did not indicate whether those who had tested positive were being quarantined on board the ship or had been taken to hospitals.

The Diamond Princess was subject to a government-mandated quarantine for two weeks in Yokohama, Japan. The government’s handling of the outbreak on the ship — the largest concentration of cases outside China — has been the subject of stinging criticism.

Others who worked on the ship will return to work but will be tested for infection, Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said on Saturday, adding that 41 officials would be tested for now.

The U.S. State Department had raised its travel advisories for Japan and South Korea on Saturday to Level 2, the second-lowest out of four grades, recommending that travelers “exercise increased caution” because of the coronavirus outbreak.

TWO MORE DOCTORS IN AND NEAR WUHAN DIE AFTER CONTRACTING THE CORONAVIRUS.

A 29-year-old doctor in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the coronavirus emerged, died from the virus on Sunday, according to the hospital where she worked. It was at least the third death in a week among doctors fighting the outbreak in Wuhan.

The death of Dr. Xia Sisi, a 29-year-old gastroenterologist, was announced by Xiehe Jiangbei Hospital. In a statement, it said that she had become sick after treating coronavirus patients and that she had begun receiving treatment at the hospital on Jan. 19. She had been transferred to another hospital in the city after her condition worsened.

Wang Wenjun, a 42-year-old doctor, also died of the coronavirus on Sunday night in Hubei, the province of which Wuhan is the capital. His death was announced by Xiaogan Central Hospital, where he was deputy director of the respiratory diseases department. “He was a party member and an excellent warrior in a white coat,” the hospital said in a statement.

The deaths came three days after another 29-year-old doctor in Wuhan, Peng Yinhua, died after contracting the coronavirus. Dr. Peng, a specialist in respiratory diseases, had postponed his wedding to fight the virus, according to local news reports.

The director of a Wuhan hospital, Liu Zhiming, a 51-year-old neurosurgeon, died on Tuesday after contracting the virus, according to the Wuhan health commission.

The death this month of Li Wenliang, a Wuhan ophthalmologist who had been reprimanded by the authorities for warning medical school classmates about the outbreak in its early days, stirred an outpouring of grief and anger across China.

ISRAEL WILL BLOCK NONRESIDENTS WHO RECENTLY VISITED JAPAN AND SOUTH KOREA.

Starting on Monday, Israel will block entry to all nonresidents who have visited Japan and South Korea in the 14 days before their arrival, officials said on Sunday.

Israeli health officials instructed anyone who has visited South Korea or Japan during the previous two weeks to quarantine themselves at home. It had previously issued that warning to anyone visiting China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore or Thailand.

The decisions came after at least nine South Korean pilgrims were found to be infected with the coronavirus upon returning home from a visit to the Holy Land.

The South Korean group toured the country from Feb. 8-15, visiting crowded churches and religious sites in Israel and the West Bank, and staying in five hotels. Scores of Israeli schoolchildren who came into contact with the group were subsequently told to stay home.

Israel’s military said that two soldiers and several border police officers were in quarantine after coming into contact with the group, and the military’s attaché to China was staying in isolation with his family after returning to Israel.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said on Sunday that it had received about 5,000 calls related to the coronavirus, with about 1,000 of those redirected to a hotline dedicated to inquiries about possible infection.

Relative of a Hong Kong subway worker is infected.

The relative of a Hong Kong subway employee has contracted the coronavirus, the MTR Corporation, which operates the city’s train services, said on Sunday.

The employee is a station manager in Mongkok East, a bustling district in the semi- autonomous Chinese territory. The station manager has not gone to work since Friday and is being quarantined.

The company said it would increase disinfection at the station and has asked other employees who may have come in close contact with the manager to stay home.

After the virus began spreading within Hong Kong during the Lunar New Year holiday last month, several businesses asked employees to work from home for about 14 days, the incubation period of the disease, in an effort to contain the outbreak during a peak travel season.

But as more people have returned to the office in recent weeks, subways and buses have filled with commuters wearing masks and some wearing protective goggles and gloves.

A police officer in the city tested positive for the virus on Thursday, raising alarm that residents could have become infected as he patrolled the streets. Fifty-nine other officers, including those who had attended a gathering with him, have been placed under quarantine.

Hong Kong’s civil servants have been asked to work from home for another week, and schools remain closed until March.

The city has 74 confirmed cases of the coronavirus. Among them, two have died and 12 have recovered.

______

Reporting was contributed by Choe Sang-Hun, Elisabetta Povoledo, Austin Ramzy, Motoko Rich, Makiko Inoue, Salman Masood, Mujib Mashal, Isabel Kershner, Tiffany May, Derrick Bryson Taylor, Tess Felder, Amy Harmon, Farah Stockman, Edward Wong, Vivian Wang and Mihir Zaveri.

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Trump Was Furious That Passengers With Coronavirus Were Brought Back to U.S.

Among the passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship who were flown back were 14 American citizens who tested positive for the virus. The move took Mr. Trump by surprise.

By Edward Wong and Katie Roger's | Published Feb. 22, 2020 | New York Times | Posted February 23, 2020 |

WASHINGTON — President Trump was infuriated that 14 American citizens who had tested positive for coronavirus were permitted to return this week to the United States, said two senior administration officials. The decision had taken the president, a self-declared “germophobe,” by surprise.

Officials at the State Department decided to bring back the citizens, who had been quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan, after consulting with a senior official at the Department of Health and Human Services. But officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention objected, concerned that the passengers, among hundreds of Americans being evacuated from the ship, could spread the virus. News organizations reported on the decision on Monday, and the passengers arrived in the United States that day.

Mr. Trump, furious at not having been briefed on the Americans who had tested positive, relayed his anger to Alex M. Azar II, the health and human services secretary, and other top officials. They then alerted the White House interagency task force on the coronavirus, which Mr. Azar oversees. One official said Mr. Trump views shutting the borders to infected people as critical to keeping the country safe and wants to be seen as managing a proper response.

The top State Department official on the task force is Stephen E. Biegun, the deputy secretary of state.

During the early legs of a four-day trip this week to the West Coast meant to bolster his re-election effort, Mr. Trump paid close attention to Fox News’s coverage of the Diamond Princess that played aboard Air Force One.

Word of Mr. Trump’s reaction had already begun circulating among officials on Tuesday morning. The Washington Post and Politico first reported on it on Friday.

In 2014, during an Ebola crisis in Africa, Mr. Trump, who was then a private citizen, demanded that the Obama administration cancel flights and bar anyone infected with the virus from entering the country — including American medical workers who had gone to Africa to help. “KEEP THEM OUT OF HERE!” he wrote in a July 31 tweet after learning that one American medical worker would be evacuated to Atlanta from Liberia.

“The U.S. cannot allow EBOLA infected people back,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter the next day, adding: “People that go to far away places to help out are great — but must suffer the consequences!”

There have been at least 634 infections and two deaths from the Diamond Princess, which Japanese officials kept in isolation for two weeks at a port in Yokohama. That effort at a quarantine contributed to the virus’s rapid spread among passengers. The cluster from the ship is the largest concentration of coronavirus cases outside China, warranting its own category in data compiled by the World Health Organization.

American officials began a complex evacuation procedure on Sunday night for 328 passengers aboard the Diamond Princess. All had been examined by American medical experts and showed no symptoms of the coronavirus, Dr. William Walters, managing director of operational medicine at the State Department, and Dr. Robert Kadlec, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services, said on Monday during a conference call with reporters.

But as those passengers were bused to Haneda Airport in Tokyo early Monday morning, Japanese officials told American counterparts that laboratory tests for 14 passengers had come back positive, Dr. Walters said. The tests had been conducted two to three days earlier, but American officials, believing the timing of the results would be “unpredictable” because of the volume of testing being done in Japan, began the evacuation without having all results in hand.

American passengers who had already tested positive or who had displayed symptoms had been sent to hospitals in Japan, Dr. Walters said.

After they learned that 14 passengers had tested positive, American officials decided that the entire group set to leave Japan should be treated according to protocols the officials had developed for evacuees, Dr. Walters said. That meant continuing to transport those who had tested positive but putting them in isolation — behind sheets of plastic about 10-feet tall — at the rear of the two planes flying them back to the United States.

Dr. Walters said on Monday that he and Dr. Kadlec reviewed the possible options after learning of the test results.

“Then the question was simply this: Are these evacuees?” Dr. Walters said. “And do we follow our protocol? And the answer to that was yes on both accounts.”

Dr. Kadlec added, “We had additional expertise and experienced eyes on these people and monitoring through the flight.”

The planes landed at Travis Air Force Base in California and Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. Most of the 14 passengers who had tested positive were then flown to Omaha for treatment and monitoring by experts at the University of Nebraska.

Since then, Japanese officials have informed American officials that several other passengers among the 328 brought back had also tested positive for coronavirus. On Friday, American officials said at least 34 people inside the United States have the virus — 18 of them from the Diamond Princess. All of the 34 cases have been linked to overseas travel. There has been no sign yet of the virus spreading among communities in the United States.

The State Department is closely monitoring American citizens on board the Westerdam cruise ship in Cambodia, as well as Americans who have disembarked and are in hotels in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Those Americans are expected to travel onward at some point. One 83-year-old American woman from the ship traveled to Malaysia and tested positive for coronavirus.

Dr. Walters said Monday that 92 American citizens were still on board the Westerdam, while another 260 were in hotels in the Cambodian capital. About 300 American citizens had left the country, but “only after testing by the government of Cambodia’s ministry of health,” he said.

When asked whether the United States was thinking about arranging evacuation flights for the hundreds of Americans in Cambodia or elsewhere, Dr. Walters did not offer a direct answer. He said the State Department was “following very closely” the situation of American citizens in places where coronavirus is prevalent and of citizens who are “having difficulty in returning to the United States because of the disruptions in the international airline industry, and flights, and so forth.”

Separately, State Department officials say that thousands of Russia-linked social media accounts are spreading disinformation about the coronavirus, including a conspiracy theory that the United States is behind the outbreak.

American monitors first identified the campaign in mid-January. Agence France-Presse reported the assessment on Saturday.

“Russia’s intent is to sow discord and undermine U.S. institutions and alliances from within, including through covert and coercive malign influence campaigns,” said Philip T. Reeker, the acting assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia. “By spreading disinformation about coronavirus, Russian malign actors are once again choosing to threaten public safety by distracting from the global health response.”

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‘We’re in a Petri Dish’: How a Coronavirus Ravaged a Cruise Ship

More than three days passed before Japan imposed a quarantine. That delay and other missteps helped produce the largest outbreak of the virus beyond China.

By Motoko Rich | Published Feb. 22, 2020 Updated Feb. 23, 2020, 5:37 a.m. ET | New York Times | Posted February 23, 2020 |

YOKOHAMA, Japan — The captain came over the intercom early in the evening: A passenger who had left the ship nine days earlier had tested positive for the new coronavirus sweeping through China.

While the guests on board were unnerved, it was the final night of their two-week luxury cruise aboard the Diamond Princess. The revelry continued as the ship headed toward the port in Yokohama, Japan’s second-largest city.

Passengers dined on filet mignon, attended shows in the 700-seat theater and crowded the bars and dance floors into the night. Cruise directors hastily distributed a slate of activities, including Ping-Pong, karaoke and Bollywood dance lessons, to occupy guests who would have to remain on the ship another day while public health officials screened them for symptoms.

Hoping to soak up the final hours of their romantic voyage, Tyler and Rachel Torres, newlyweds from Irving, Texas, took in a performance by a torch singer that evening. “We didn’t really consider the danger of leaving the room,” said Ms. Torres, 24, an occupational therapist. “And since we were on our honeymoon, we refused to waste our last moments on the cruise.”

As the music played on, passengers were potentially exposed to the virus. In all, it took Japanese officials more than 72 hours to impose a lockdown after they were first notified about the case connected to the ship.

The delay by the Japanese government, along with slapdash and ineffective containment measures during the two-week isolation period, would help turn the Diamond Princess into a floating epidemiological disaster.

Feverish passengers were left in their rooms for days without being tested for the virus. Health officials and even some medical professionals worked on board without full protective gear. Sick crew members slept in cabins with roommates who continued their duties across the ship, undercutting the quarantine.

With 634 infections and two deaths, the cruise ship represents the largest concentration of coronavirus cases outside China, meriting its own category in the data compiled by the World Health Organization.

The U.S. government this past week allowed 14 Americans who were infected to board evacuation flights with hundreds of passengers who weren’t. Japanese officials have since let close to 1,000 passengers who tested negative walk free, even though experts fear some of them have been exposed and could later develop symptoms. Crew members were expected to start leaving this weekend.

On Saturday, the health minister admitted that 23 passengers had been released from the ship without taking a valid recent test and had traveled by public transit after disembarking this past week.

Now that the quarantine has ended and most of the passengers have left, the concern is that they could start spreading the virus on shore.

Japanese officials said they did the best they could in a fast-moving situation, as they tried to keep the virus from spreading within the country. After confirming the first cases among those on board, the authorities said, they moved to isolate passengers to reduce transmission. The government has said the quarantine was largely effective.

The ship operator, Princess Cruises, said Japanese authorities took the lead in testing and protocols. It added that the “focus has been and remains the safety, health and well-being of our guests and crew.”

In the early hours of Feb. 2, before the ship had even docked in Yokohama, Hong Kong officials informed the Japanese health ministry about the initial infected passenger.

A spokeswoman for Princess Cruises said the company received “formal verification” of the infection from Hong Kong on Feb. 3, and announced it to passengers on the ship that evening.

Only as the parties and shows ended around 11 that night were guests advised to stick to their rooms. After the boat docked in Yokohama, medical officers boarded the ship and went door to door taking temperatures, checking for coughs and testing some passengers for the virus.

The cruise directors scratched the planned activities the next day, while the screening continued. People still mingled on board, lining up at large buffets for meals. They used communal ladles and tongs, and shared salt and pepper shakers on tables.

Passengers figured their departure would be delayed by only a day or so. Many were walking up to breakfast when the captain came over the intercom again on the morning of Feb. 5.

The Japanese health ministry had now confirmed 10 cases of the coronavirus on the ship, he told them.

Guests needed to return to their rooms immediately, where they would have to stay, isolated, for the next 14 days.

TAINTED MEMORIES

Trapped in their cabins, the 2,666 passengers now had time to recall every encounter that might have exposed them to the virus in the days before the ship’s lockdown.

There was the buffet on Deck 14, where guests were urged to wash their hands before joining the line, though hygiene habits varied widely, some passengers recalled. Now they wondered why the buffet had remained open even after the ship’s officers learned about the infected guest.

Memories of art auctions, afternoon high teas, quiz nights and mahjong games all took on a sinister hue.

“Everything looks tainted in retrospect,” said Sarah Arana, 52, a medical social worker from Paso Robles, Calif., who left on an American evacuation flight.

A Princess spokeswoman said that the crew had carried out “routine environmental cleaning and sanitizing” using disinfectant that is “known to quickly kill coronaviruses in 30 seconds.”

Passengers worried about their excursions on shore. The infected passenger had taken a bus tour in Kagoshima, a city in southern Japan.

Gay Courter, 75, an American novelist from Crystal River, Fla., who once set a murder mystery on a cruise, dwelled on the ship’s last stop, in Naha, the capital of Okinawa. As people disembarked, public health officials took their temperatures — a measure that was becoming more commonplace as the virus spiraled in China.

Looking back, Ms. Courter wondered if the coronavirus had already started to spread. With her husband, Philip, and a group of friends, she ate noodles and fried sweet potatoes at an outdoor stall.

“In my heart, I regret doing that,” she said, “because it was such a crowded place and there were people from the ship crawling around the town.”

Each day, more cases emerged: 10, another 10, then a spike of 41.

What distressed passengers most was a sense that information was being withheld. Hours would pass between when the health ministry leaked new cases to the media and the people on board were notified.

Passengers took to counting ambulances lined up on the pier to guess how many new infections would be announced that day. Japanese guests hung banners off balconies, with one reading, “Serious lack of medicine, lack of information.”

‘NO ROAD MAPS’

Policies and protocols shifted as the quarantine wore on.

On the second day, health officials began letting those in windowless cabins out for fresh air breaks. It wasn’t until the next day that passengers were warned to keep more than six feet away from anyone else. Mr. Torres, a nurse who has since evacuated with his wife, noticed that others were not always vigilant about wearing masks on deck.

On the fifth day, passengers were issued heavy-duty N95 masks and advised to wear them when they opened their doors to accept deliveries of meals and amenities from the crew.

Halfway into the quarantine, the Japanese government announced that some people would be eligible to continue their confinement onshore — those 80 or older with underlying medical conditions or windowless cabins.

The changes didn’t inspire confidence. Passengers were waiting days for prescriptions to be filled for chronic conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure. People were running out of toothpaste and clean underwear.

Tadashi Chida, a passenger in his 70s, sent a handwritten letter to Japan’s health ministry complaining that the crew seemed overwhelmed and that quarantine officers were not attending to those with symptoms.

“The ship is out of control,” Mr. Chida said, adding that his wife had waited nearly a week for medication.

“An outbreak is happening,” he said. “We have no road maps.”

Yoshihide Suga, the chief cabinet secretary to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said this past week that the country’s authorities had “made the maximum consideration to secure the health of passengers and crew.”

At first, health officials didn’t test everyone, saying they lacked the resources. Instead, they focused on high-risk individuals: those who had direct contact with the infected passenger, and later older and symptomatic people.

Some passengers had trouble getting medical attention, even when they started to show possible symptoms. On the first full day of the quarantine, Carol Montgomery, 67, a retired administrative assistant from San Clemente, Calif., called the infirmary, saying she had a fever and wanted to be tested.

She was told that it was up to the Japanese health ministry, and that no tests were available on board. After a day passed, her husband, John, called the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo and tried to convince an official that everybody needed to be tested.

“We’re in a petri dish,” Mr. Montgomery said. “It’s an experiment. We’re their guinea pigs.”

Ms. Montgomery eventually persuaded the ship’s medical office to let the couple leave their cabin for an exam. A doctor gave them flu tests, which came back negative. The doctor prescribed an antibiotic for Ms. Montgomery’s urinary tract infection.

They still did not get tested for the coronavirus. The couple later evacuated with the Americans.

John Haering, a retired railway operations manager from Tooele, Utah, called the medical office when his temperature rose sharply. He was told that if it wasn’t an emergency, he would have to wait.

At one point, someone came to the door with a clipboard, he said, asked for his temperature and left. Inside the cabin he shared with his wife, Mr. Haering, 63, sweated it out, taking cold showers and swallowing the last of their Tylenol supply as his temperature climbed to 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

Four days later, after his fever had broken, officials in hazmat suits showed up at the couple’s door, ordered Mr. Haering to pack a bag, and loaded him into an ambulance, leaving his wife on the ship.

The next day, a doctor at a hospital about 40 miles from the port told him he had tested positive for the virus. He remains in the hospital, while his wife, Melanie, is now in quarantine on a U.S. military base.

Shared bathrooms and buffets

Through it all, crew members were working overtime, sometimes as long as 13-hour shifts. They prepared and delivered meals three times a day to 1,500 staterooms. They dropped off towels, bedsheets and extra treats for guests: Sudoku puzzles, origami papers, beauty masks and, on Valentine’s Day, chocolates.

The crew members, who numbered 1,045, had to remain on the job even as they faced the greatest risk of infection. All told, 85 crew members have tested positive for the virus.

Below deck, they shared close quarters, with as many as four to a bathroom. They ate their own meals buffet-style.

They manned phone lines as frantic guests called looking for answers to endless questions. They swabbed the decks and guardrails after each fresh air break for passengers. They did guests’ laundry. For certain tasks, they did not wear gloves, and they reused face masks for more than the recommended day.

There were also new duties: guarding the hallways at night to ensure that passengers didn’t leave their rooms. When infected passengers were sent to hospitals, crew members had to carry their luggage.

“The emotional, psychological and physical stress that we are going through now is really hard,” said a woman who worked in the kitchens, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing her job. She has since tested positive for the virus.

Even after some crew members came down with a fever, they continued to share rooms with other workers. “My cabin mate is staying with me,” said one person on the housekeeping staff who was consigned to his room when he developed a fever. “But he is working.”

“What’s the point of isolation?” he asked. “We are stuck in a box which is already contaminated.”

The virus has also ravaged public health officials who knew they were walking onto a contaminated ship. Hundreds of these officials, many of them bureaucrats with little experience in managing infectious diseases, helped with screenings and administrative tasks. Some did not wear full protective gear, and six contracted the virus.

Health ministry officials reluctantly allowed Kentaro Iwata, an infectious disease specialist, onto the ship late in the quarantine. Dr. Iwata was alarmed by the lack of control measures, even among the medical staff. In videos he posted on YouTube, he said he had observed a nurse at the ship’s medical center receiving ill crew members without wearing a mask.

“She said she was already infected, and so she was completely giving up,” he said in the videos. He took down his YouTube posts after coming under criticism for violating the chain of command on the ship.

Plastic sheeting and tape

To pass the time in captivity, passengers spent long hours streaming movies or posting on social media. They did calisthenics and watched the onboard magician perform tricks on closed-circuit television.

As the infections continued to mount, boredom turned to fear. On private Facebook groups, passengers said they were desperate to leave, with their families using the hashtag #getthemoffthatboat. They questioned the effectiveness of the quarantine, fretting that the virus could pass between rooms through the ventilation system.

After American passengers raised concerns with the embassy, an official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote that there was “no current evidence to suggest that the virus spreads between rooms on a ship through the air-handling system.” The best course, the official said, was for passengers to wait out the quarantine in their rooms.

A week and a half later, American officials reversed their position. The U.S. government announced that it was evacuating them before the end of the quarantine and would confine them for an additional 14 days on bases in California and Texas. A letter to American passengers said that “the Department of Health and Human Services made an assessment that passengers and crew members onboard are at high risk of exposure.”

The evacuation turned problematic. While the 328 passengers and crew members were on their way to the airport in Tokyo, American officials learned from Japanese health authorities that 14 of them had tested positive for the coronavirus.

They waited for hours on the tarmac as C.D.C. experts debated with officials from the State Department and the Department of Health and Human Services about what to do. It took so long that some passengers had to get off and urinate against the side of the buses.

Officials from the State Department and the Department of Health and Human Services ultimately decided to take them all. They put the infected at the back, separating them on two planes with only 10-foot plastic sheeting and tape.

As the passengers boarded, Ms. Courter was standing next to a woman as she was being told she had tested positive. “We were less than three feet away,” Ms. Courter said. “And I remember thinking, ‘I just spent two weeks to avoid anyone who is positive, and now here is one breathing right in front of me.’”

Other countries followed the lead of the United States in organizing charter flights for their citizens and new 14-day quarantines. Still, that left many to just walk off the ship at the end of the quarantine in Yokohama, including a large number of Japanese passengers, who made up half of those on board.

The night of Feb. 18, the health ministry began clearing passengers to leave, giving all certificates saying they had tested negative for the coronavirus and posed “no risk of infection.” Nearly 1,000 walked free over the next three days, some boarding city buses, others climbing into taxis.

Experts have questioned whether those passengers truly pose no risk to the general public. Some could develop symptoms later after having tested negative.

Just two days after leaving the ship on Wednesday with a negative test result, a woman in her 60s developed a fever and tested positive for coronavirus on Saturday.

The day after news emerged that the 14 passengers who had tested positive were being flown to the United States, President Trump was furious, said two American officials. The decision to fly them into the country had taken him by surprise.

On Thursday, Linda Tsukamoto, 63, a retired retail manager from Marina del Rey, Calif., who decided not to take one of the American flights, was released from the ship. She will not be allowed back into the United States for at least another two weeks, so she checked into a hotel in Tokyo.

She said that hotel staff members were wearing masks, and that there were signs warning guests of the risk of the coronavirus.

“I will stay in most of the time,” she said, “to stay safe after this long journey.”

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Reporting was contributed by Eimi Yamamitsu, Makiko Inoue and Hisako Ueno from Tokyo; Ben Dooley and Edward Wong from Washington; and Elaine Yu from Hong Kong.

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AWE Chapter 152

Chapter 152: You’re Shameless! No, You’re Shameless! After throwing over the jade piece, Xu Xiaoshan turned to leave. He had already made up his mind that, after he got back to the sect, he would ask his father and mother for more capital with which to acquire paper talismans. In the future, that was how he would make a name for himself, not magical items. Using paper talismans would be far more awe-inspiring. Xu Xiaoshan was a natural-born silkpants. He didn’t really care what his sect thought about what he did; if he liked someone, he made friends with them. If he didn’t like them, he would beat them up. As far as Bai Xiaochun was concerned, he was reluctant to admit it, but he actually liked him. Of course, if he had overcome Bai Xiaochun in a fight, he wouldn’t have hesitated for even a moment to rob him of his earthstring capture crystal. However, since he couldn’t defeat him in combat, he decided that the next best thing was to try to con him. As soon as Bai Xiaochun grabbed the jade piece, a wonderful feeling swept through him. His exhaustion vanished, and he could see everything clearly. It was almost like he had been trapped underwater, unable to breathe, and had just burst out into the open air. However, it seemed odd that Xu Xiaoshan would simply give him the jade piece so casually. After a moment of thought, he realized that he might have been cheated in some way. Before Xu Xiaoshan could get very far away, Bai Xiaochun called out, “Hold on. I don’t like taking advantage of people. Let me give you these two little treasures in exchange.” Slapping his bag of holding, he produced two flying swords that both had twofold spirit enhancements. Secretly spreading some of the aura of the final strange pill onto them, he tossed them over. “They’re not worth much, but hey, have fun with them.” The twofold spirit enhanced swords flew over to Xu Xiaoshan, whose eyes went wide as soon as he grabbed them. “Twofold spirit enhancements?” he thought, swallowing hard. “And he hands them over just like that? Have fun with them?!” Although he didn’t view twofold spirit enhanced magical items as something completely priceless, they were still relatively rare among Qi Condensation cultivators. The most telling thing was how casually Bai Xiaochun had tossed them over to him, which made it very obvious how deep his pockets were. Suddenly Xu Xiaoshan realized he had even more to learn from Bai Xiaochun than he had initially realized. To casually hand out spirit enhanced magical items was a truly impressive way to make a name for oneself. Having reached this point in his train of thought, he looked more closely at Bai Xiaochun, and realized that he liked him even more. He sighed. “Alright, look, Bai Xiaochun. Considering how nice you’ve been, I feel bad for trying to con you. If you use that jade pendant by itself, it’s pretty much useless. After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, it will simply stop working, and even have a backlash effect.” With another sigh, he tossed a second jade pendant to Bai Xiaochun. “Use them together and you’ll have a long term solution to that banesoul’s curse.” Catching the second jade pendant, Bai Xiaochun narrowed his eyes at how devious and cunning Xu Xiaoshan was. As he watched him turn to leave, Bai Xiaochun suddenly thought to himself that despite everything that had just occurred, Xu Xiaoshan didn’t really seem to be a bad person. Gritting his teeth, he called out, “Hey, hold on. Alright, listen, Xu Xiaoshan. Since you’ve been so nice, I feel bad for conning you. Give me back those two flying swords.” Xu Xiaoshan stopped in his tracks, his eyes widening. Pulling out the two flying swords, he examined them carefully, but couldn’t find anything about them that seemed out of the ordinary. However, not daring to hold on to them for any longer, he threw them back to Bai Xiaochun. Bai Xiaochun cleared his throat and then produced another set of two swords, which he threw back to Xu Xiaoshan. Xu Xiaoshan had an odd expression on his face as he looked over at Bai Xiaochun. He wasn’t sure exactly what was wrong with the first set of swords, but he could well imagine that, if Bai Xiaochun hadn’t said anything, he might have ended up walking into a disaster. Bai Xiaochun blinked a few times as he and Xu Xiaoshan looked at each other. After another long moment passed, Xu Xiaoshan sighed, eyes shining brightly. Earlier, he had only been pretending to like Bai Xiaochun, but by this point, he really did like him. “It’s not very often that I get along with someone as well as I do with you. Alright, listen, Bai Xiaochun. There’s actually a mnemonic that goes along with those two jade pendants, which is the only way to use them properly. Without the mnemonic, they’ll create a field of light that will protect you from that banesoul, but after a while, the light will fade away and leave a sealing mark on your cultivation base that will prevent you from using it for a whole month.” With a wry smile, Xu Xiaoshan tossed a jade slip over to Bai Xiaochun. “You scoundrel!!” Bai Xiaochun said with a gasp. If he had used the jade pendants in the middle of trying to reach Foundation Establishment, only to have his cultivation base sealed, he would have lost an entire month of time. He might even have lost his chance at Foundation Establishment. “You’re just as bad!” Xu Xiaoshan replied. Then he coughed dryly. “Well, I’m from the Blood Stream Sect and you’re from the Spirit Stream Sect. We’re supposed to be against each other.” By this point, he was being completely honest, which was a rare thing for him. The truth was that he had never encountered anyone like Bai Xiaochun before. “Alright,” Bai Xiaochun said. “Since you’re being so honest, then I’ll stop conning you. You know those magical items you used against me in the fight? I stained them all with a medicinal aroma that will attract banesouls.” Feeling a bit awkward, he lowered his voice and concluded, “You should probably change your clothes too.” Xu Xiaoshan’s eyes went wide; after quickly checking his bag of holding and his clothing, he looked back at Bai Xiaochun with gritted teeth. “Y-y-you!! You’re completely shameless!” “You’re just as bad!” Bai Xiaochun said, glaring back at him. The two of them looked at each other for a moment, then both of them burst out laughing. “I hope we meet again soon,” Xu Xiaoshan said with sincerity. Then he turned and sped off into the distance. Once he was out of sight, he changed clothes, his heart thumping with lingering fear. As far as he was concerned, Bai Xiaochun was as much of a scoundrel as himself, which meant that he had to be very careful dealing with him in the future. Bai Xiaochun was also sighing. Although Xu Xiaoshan was from the Blood Stream Sect, he still seemed like a good person to be friends with. “Except, he’s profoundly crafty, definitely not as honest as me. I really have to be careful dealing with him in the future. Ai. I guess I’m just too honest.” Shaking his head, he swished his sleeve and sped off. After inspecting the jade pendants thoroughly, he used the mnemonic from the jade slip to unleash their power. Moments later, a shimmering field of light appeared around him. The field of light soon became invisible, and could only be detected via divine sense. However, as far as banesouls were concerned, it made it completely impossible to approach Bai Xiaochun. Over the course of the following six hours, the girl in the white dress appeared several times. However, every time she got close, she was repelled. Her face distorted with rage, and she screamed shrilly, but it was still impossible to get close to Bai Xiaochun. After so many failures, she begrudgingly faded away and didn’t return. At that point, Bai Xiaochun breathed a sigh of relief. Convinced that the jade pendants had actually worked, he sank to the bottom of a remote lake and dug out a temporary immortal’s cave. There, he sat down cross-legged to meditate. After performing one final test to make sure that the jade pendants would drive away the banesouls, his eyes flickered with anticipation, and he pulled out the gray earthstring capture crystal. “Although I’m starting a few days later than I’d planned, I can still be the first person to reach Earthstring Foundation Establishment!” With that, he unleashed the spiritual power of the great circle of the tenth level of Qi Condensation, circulated it once, and then sent it surging into the gray crystal. The crystal was like a bottomless pit that sucked in all of his spiritual power. Then, it began to emit a gray glow which grew more intense by the moment, and soon caused powerful rumbling sounds to emanate out. The crystal began to slowly burn, transforming into a gray mist that Bai Xiaochun absorbed through his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. After more than thirty breaths of time, the crystal shook slightly and then vanished, causing massive amounts of gray mist to surge into Bai Xiaochun’s body. His eyes were beginning to grow bloodshot as the gray mist poured into him, permeating his qi vessels, swirling throughout his entire body. At the same time, pain ripped through him; the gray mist almost seemed to be taking shape, like iron chains that scraped against his flesh and blood. The pain caused him to shudder, but compared to the pain he had endured when cultivating the Undying Live Forever Technique, it wasn’t worth mentioning. Bai Xiaochun didn’t so much as let out a cold snort. Gritting his teeth, he waited until the final bit of mist bored into him. When the tail end of the mist connected with the mist which had first entered him, it created something like a circle. The moment that circle formed, rumbling sounds filled Bai Xiaochun’s mind, shaking him down to his soul. The spiritual river that was his cultivation base began to churn, blasting through all parts of his body, seemingly chaotic and without shape. However, closer examination revealed that the spiritual power was actually transforming into a whirlpool. That whirlpool was was none other than the beginning of a Tideflow! This was the most critical aspect of Earthstring Foundation Establishment! Spiritual power flowed, transforming into a Tideflow. The mist became liquid, the Earthstring Dao Foundation was formed, and mortality was severed away! Bai Xiaochun suddenly looked up, blue veins bulging out on his neck and face. Trembling, he hoarsely shouted, “Tideflow!” RUUUUUUUUUUMBLE! Instantly, the whirlpool began to rotate with more intensity, transforming into something like a black hole that sucked away all of the earthstring energy inside of him. Of course, that little bit wasn’t even one one-thousandth of what was required. However, as long as that whirlpool was formed, it would automatically absorb the earthstring energy which had built up over the past sixty-year-cycle in the Fallen Sword World! Instantly, streams of earthstring energy began to emerge from the walls of the immortal’s cave and rush toward Bai Xiaochun. Soon, the lake above him was bubbling and boiling as massive amounts of earthstring energy began to surge into motion. The sky of the Fallen Sword World trembled as earthstring energy flowed toward Bai Xiaochun from all directions. The disciples of the four sects who were in various locations in the Fallen Sword World all looked up. Some were confused, others shocked, other shaken. All sorts of mixed emotions could be seen, even disbelief. “A Tideflow! Heavens! That’s an Earthstring Foundation Establishment Tideflow!!” “Who is it? It’s barely been a month, and someone’s already formed an earthstring capture crystal and begun Foundation Establishment?!” “Is it Song Que? Ghostfang? Nine-Isles? Or is it Fang Lin!?!?” Previous Main menu Next Click to Post

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