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Revelations in this chapter were even more surprising than the previous one!!

I just started the side quest 河山如故, it starts with a conversation with 烈不尽烈不尽liè bù jìnLie Bujin河山如故A man who knows about the Northern Yan Alliance treasure but doesn’t want to attack the stronghold up front and instead hopes to stir trouble to get his hands on the treasure.(liè bù jìn) who is looking for the treasure of the 燕北盟Organisation燕北盟yàn běi méngNorthern Yan Alliance河山如故The Northern Yan Alliance once defending Qinghe against the Khitan Southern invasions, holding out against the Khitan cavalry for month in a fortified city (only ruins remain now, the 北盟遗址). Even though the fortress fell, the warriors of the Alliance managed to chase the Khitan army out of the Central Plains. Members of Alliance swore the Oath of Yanyun (燕云誓): 山河寸土，誓死不易, vowing to defend the land with their life.世界山河寸血，誓死不易。驱逐北虏，收复燕云。 · 945年 开运二年势力介绍世界 ›(yàn běi méng). He says that the bandits from the 龙虎寨Organisation龙虎寨lóng hǔ zhàiDragon Tiger Stronghold河山如故A group of bandits settled in the Ruins of the old Northern Alliance stronghold. They chased Jin Chunniang and her son Jin Xiaobao, robbed the Tang family, and kidnapped a descendant of the Northern Yan Alliance to get their hands on a treasure that belonged to the Alliance.世界世界 ›(lóng hǔ zhài) have captured a descendant of the Alliance, and that person supposedly knows about the treasure.

First 万事知 completed! I met Rongrong 蓉蓉 and her master Shi Qianqian 施芊芊, helped Rongrong obtain the three tokens. The observation tower and the tree were the easiest, but I remember that it took me some time to find the bird the first time I played. I remembered exactly where it was though, so it was fast this tim. Rongrong couldn’t fool her master in the end, so I guess neither of us are going to red the 《大侠秘籍》!

Met Xiao Ping’an again to demonstrate the 积矩九剑 skill. He called me a 孺子可教 (promising student) haha. This boy is quite funny, his story is becoming more and more fishy, and he said is father is a 武林漏斗 Martial arts funnel…? Did he mean 武林泰斗 (wǔlín tàidǒu) a revered grandmaster of the martial arts world?

I didn’t know the word 漏斗, I had to look it up and it didn’t make any sense. Martial arts funnel really gave me a good laugh.

Next on the list is the martial art we learn through the main story, and I’m not sure how much I need to play to get it, so it might take a while before I talk to Xiao Ping’an again.

Just read a few pages today, but it’s better than nothing. As in the first chapter, we’re spending a lot of time talking about characters that are not actual characters in the novel (they are talked about, but they don’t appear), and they’re also not clearly linked to what is at stake (though, this is the whole point, we don’t know what is at stake, nor how important these characters are in the big plot). So for now, I don’t find the beginning of this chapter all that engaging, and adding the language difficulty, I’ll probably take quite some time to read.

The second short story was so great, I loved it more than the first one. One reason is probably that I prefer character-driven stories rather than pure puzzles, and I really like the character of George. The mystery was very good too!

I’ve been adding words from 多情剑客无情剑 to my flashcards, especially the combat scenes which are the most difficult to understand for me (or rather, the only thing that requires looking up words since the novel is overall quite easy).

Exploring WWM lore and historical background is my favourite thing to do at the moment. Working on the gaming journal page is also quite fun. This game was the cause of so many frustrations when I first played it, too many items, quests, menus, materials, etc. and I had no idea what most of them did. As someone who likes things to be organised and sorted, it was kind of a nightmare.

This time, I’m confident I can figure it out, keep track of everything and create a real gaming log while studying understanding the lore better.

This really was 惊人之语! Second volume has been breathtakingly suspenseful until now, and things are getting even more interesting! I also ended on a cliffhanger, but I won’t break the rule: one chapter per day!

I’m also really glad we finally got to see more of the braided girl, Sun Xiaohong .

It’s funny, the two books are completely different in terms of everything, but I just read similar scenes in both where two characters enter a friendly competition/betting, the prize being a story.

多情剑客无情剑:

孙小红道：“我问你一句话，你若能回答，就算你赢了，我就得喝一大杯。”
李寻欢道：“我若答不出，就算输了么？”
孙小红道：“你就算回答不出，也不算输，直到我将自己问的这问题回答出来，你才算输。”

神の光:

「賭けの対象は、君が抱えている『謎』だ。できれば君自身もその答えを知らない『謎』の方がいい。もしもその『謎』が解けたら私の隣ち。解けなければ、この百ドル札は君のものだ」

I met Xiao Pingan 小平安 and displayed my mastery of 无名剑法. This child sounds like a scam haha. Next skill to display was 积矩九剑, which I already learnt, but he said we’ll continue the next time we meet.

Some of what he said was much too difficult for me, but I guess it’s fine not to understand everything, studying this in detail would take too much time, like I think there are several quotations, for example, this comes from the Daodejing, but he mixes up the last part, which is quite funny, but completely out of reach for me, unless I look things up.

弄巧若拙 does not exist, Xiao Ping’an mixes up (I mean, purposely set a trap to test our knowledge of classical idioms) two different expressions:

This is actually quite funny, it’s so sad to think that I’m probably constantly missing puns and humour because my Chinese is not good enough… Anyway, the main point is that he has 绝学 juéxué, a peerless martial technique passed down through generations that would end with him because he cannot practice martial arts (at least, that’s what he says…)

I never completed this encounter in my first play, so I’m looking forward to see what’s next, and whether there really is a secret martial art to be learnt (I kind of doubt it though!).

I really wanted to love this movie, but there are two many things that bothered me. It is a good thriller with a lot of tension and given that it’s based on true events, it was interesting to watch in any case.

What bothered me is how the main character was portrayed. I don’t know anything about the real story, so I’m obviously only just talking about the film. They portrayed the character a little bit too righteous to be an interesting character. He is shown as a hero, incorruptible, fighting for justice even putting his life in danger for it. I didn’t find this character interesting at all, and the way he puts his family in danger is also not really addressed in the film (I mean that the possibility his wife and daughters were in danger does not seem to have occurred to him?).

The film also felt strangely empty. Both the police/army side and El Chapo side looked like they only had a handful of men available, which didn’t feel realistic and bothered me during the whole film. It’s also not really clear what Carmona’s plan, and it’s strange that he didn’t send the picture to his boss sooner… or perhaps I missed something?

The end also felt very strange, like some scenes were missing. We switch from a dire situation to a happy resolution without real transition.