StarveCleric, the Martial God Asura translator!

[Kun]

At 10pm GMT+8 on Saturday 6th (which is Saturday at 6am for PST, and 9am for EST), StarveCleric will be hosting a question and answer session for MGA!

Feel free to post your questions now in advance, and they'll be responded to once the event starts. You might be interested to know why StarveCleric started translating, what he likes about MGA, or simply what his hobby is. 

[abcibimb]

Hi, thanks for this Q/A session. Do you know the total number of chapters this novel will have? Are the RAWs going to end soon?

[Vladmer]

How many wife's will  Chu Feng have in total at the same end of this series?

I think it would be fun to try and figure out and guess who they will be. We already know the possibility of the first 3 wifes unless something insane happens out of know wheres.

[smileyoo13]

Hello. Thanks for your hardwork. I only have 3 questions that I request you to answer.

a) How many chapters does the novel go ?

b) How many cultivation stages are left, counting from half-god ?

c) Which is stronger? Martial cultivation or World Spiritist cultivation ? 

Edited January 5 by smileyoo13

[mahusemak]

- Will be a pre novel about chu feng dad uncle ape ?

- any news why stopped the Manga ?

Can you recommend your second best novel after MGD ?

thanks. And looking forward for the final 10.000 chapter. Chu feng conquering the galaxy of the god spirit. 

 

[HighSkyDaoPalace]

1. Will there be more harem members beyond the 3 girls who are already his wives. Because it looks like the author is really teasing us about it.

2. When will the author revisit the story line of Qing Xuantian and the moon Immortal who possessed his two wives. Will it drag until Chu Feng reach true god or even heavenly god inside the domain of the gods.

3. How long until we enter the domain of the god? Like what minimum cultivation would Chu Feng have when he decides to go.

[Corodax1]

1. How was taking over the translation? Any hiccups or things you ran into that were difficult
2. Is it annoying that everyone is asking for mass releases even though there are no more chapters than what allows you to keep the schedule/pace?
3. Did you read MGA from start to finish(current latest) or did you pick up where the Yang Wenli left?
4. What do you think of the series and where do you think it will go in terms of story?

5. where are you from?

Edited January 6 by Corodax1

[starvecleric]

Yoo everyone, I'm StarveCleric!
Haha I'll start with a quick self-introduction

I started translating in 2016, with Experimental Log of the Crazy Lich. I was in Gravitytales for quite a while, then I jumped over to Webnovel with Library of Heaven's Path. I came over to Wuxiaworld to work on Martial God Asura in 2021 (if I'm not mistaken), and I've been here since. I recently just finished another novel called Little Tyrant Doesn't Want to Meet With a Bad End, though it's on another site. 

Just a heads up, I'm not in communication with MGA's author, so a lot of my answer regarding MGA will be based on my own predictions and what I've read too.
With that, let's go!

Feel free to ask me any question, and I'll do my best to answer hehe

[starvecleric]

On 1/5/2024 at 12:33 AM, abcibimb said:

Hi, thanks for this Q/A session. Do you know the total number of chapters this novel will have? Are the RAWs going to end soon?

Hellos! 

To be honest, I have no idea what the total number of chapters is, but if I have to predict, Chu Feng is currently at Half-God level, and there's presumably True God, Heavenly God, Martial God, and one more elusive realm above that, based on the current world building.

Assuming each major cultivation level spans like 600~800 chapters, hmmm, 7k? Hahaha! 

[starvecleric]

20 hours ago, Vladmer said:

How many wife's will  Chu Feng have in total at the same end of this series?

I think it would be fun to try and figure out and guess who they will be. We already know the possibility of the first 3 wifes unless something insane happens out of know wheres.

Haha that's a good question!

If I recall correctly, Bee did say he's reluctant to take on more waifus because he did a poll or something, and people mentioned that they dont want too many waifus
But let's theorycraft. His waifus would have to somewhat be able to keep up with him, so that eliminates Long Xiaoxiao and the Totem Dragon Clan's young miss (oops can't remember the name on the spot). Honestly, the only likely addition right now is Little Fishy, but even that's unconfirmed since Chu Feng is freaking ambiguous about it. Leading the girl on yo, that's not good. 

[Banggg]

With how English translations gaining popularity and arguably most of the truly popular series being translated in one site or the other, how do you see the future of novel translations? Are we gonna be seeing more original works in the wuxia/xuanhuan type coming out from western authors, or does the prospect of reaching bigger audiences perhaps change the way publishers and authors view the translation scene?

[starvecleric]

19 hours ago, smileyoo13 said:

Hello. Thanks for your hardwork. I only have 3 questions that I request you to answer.

a) How many chapters does the novel go ?

b) How many cultivation stages are left, counting from half-god ?

c) Which is stronger? Martial cultivation or World Spiritist cultivation ? 

a) How many chapters does the novel go?
Im guessing 7000 to 8000 at the moment judging by cultivation levels left, though there's a chance Bee might speed up? 

b) How many cultivation stages are left, counting from half-god ?
Half-God > True God > Heavenly God > ? > Martial God > ?

Spoiler

It's mentioned later on, during an auction in the Martial Cultivator Commerce Guild, that Martial God is the current peak of the world of cultivation (*could be unreliable information since doesn't include Immemorial Domain of Gods, but it's insinuated juniors in the world of cultivation are on par with those in the Immemorial Domain of Gods).
The reason their ancestors limited all the remnants to juniors is that only someone who reaches possibly Martial God as a junior could reach the level beyond it. Given so, we know there's one more cultivation level beyond Martial God, which I'd guess is the highest level.

c) Which is stronger? Martial cultivation or World Spiritist cultivation ? 

It's been suggested many times martial cultivation is stronger, but honestly, I'd say it's like a warrior vs a mage
In a direct confrontation, warriors (cultivators) are definitely stronger.
However, mages (world spiritists) have so much more utility, whether in terms of escape means, formations, figuring our remnants, teleportation, blackmailing people, etc. There are many times Chu Feng was able to deal with a much stronger enemy by his means as a world spiritists

So, which is stronger? My vote is on world spiritist here.

[starvecleric]

19 hours ago, mahusemak said:

- Will be a pre novel about chu feng dad uncle ape ?

- any news why stopped the Manga ?

Can you recommend your second best novel after MGD ?

thanks. And looking forward for the final 10.000 chapter. Chu feng conquering the galaxy of the god spirit. 

 

Will be a pre novel about chu feng dad uncle ape ?

That's unlikely. There are already many complaints about the update rate of the series on the raws side at the moment - I don't think the author would have time in the short run to write about Chu Feng's dad and Uncle Ape

any news why stopped the Manga ?

I dont have insider information, but if you ask me, publishers and artists are usually incentivized to continue a series if it's decently profitable and popular.

Can you recommend your second best novel after MGD ?

Hmm, I actually do like the first novel that I did - Experimental Log of the Crazy Lich (haha I dropped it though). It's an excellent story that's both funny, wacky, and yet serious, though it has huge information dumps that can be a turn-off. Otherwise, it would have been the best

[starvecleric]

15 hours ago, HighSkyDaoPalace said:

1. Will there be more harem members beyond the 3 girls who are already his wives. Because it looks like the author is really teasing us about it.

2. When will the author revisit the story line of Qing Xuantian and the moon Immortal who possessed his two wives. Will it drag until Chu Feng reach true god or even heavenly god inside the domain of the gods.

3. How long until we enter the domain of the god? Like what minimum cultivation would Chu Feng have when he decides to go.

1. Will there be more harem members beyond the 3 girls who are already his wives. Because it looks like the author is really teasing us about it.

Little Fishy is very possible, but not confirmed aye! (I'll be concise here since it's a common question haha)

2. When will the author revisit the story line of Qing Xuantian and the moon Immortal who possessed his two wives. Will it drag until Chu Feng reach true god or even heavenly god inside the domain of the gods.

Qing Xuantian is likely in the Immemorial Domain of Gods, since there's been no foreshadowing of him being anywhere in the world of cultivation yet. It'll likely drag till then, I'd think.

 3. How long until we enter the domain of the god? Like what minimum cultivation would Chu Feng have when he decides to go.

I'd imagine that the author might want to wrap up the Seven Realms Sacred Mansion's arc first and save his mother, so likely pinnacle True God or Heavenly God, though my prediction may not be accurate

[TribeOfOne]

What kind of difficulties have you faced while translating MGA? How is it different from the other novels you've translated?

[starvecleric]

13 hours ago, Corodax1 said:

1. How was taking over the translation? Any hiccups or things you ran into that were difficult
2. Is it annoying that everyone is asking for mass releases even though there are no more chapters than what allows you to keep the schedule/pace?
3. Did you read MGA from start to finish(current latest) or did you pick up where the Yang Wenli left?
4. What do you think of the series and where do you think it will go in terms of story?

5. where are you from?

1. How was taking over the translation? Any hiccups or things you ran into that were difficult

Hellos, thanks for the question!

It was surprisingly okay, because the previous translator, YWL, diligently kept copies of chapters with both raws and the translation, so it was easy for me to check up on terminologies and the context in which they are used. The greatest difficulty is probably getting used to the terminologies, so initially, most of my time is spent on checking terminologies while translating. Other than that, there are things previously translated that didn't fit as well in later chapters (for example, the notion of 'psyche', which became more of a thing in later chapters). My sudden addition of the term threw quite a lot of existing readers off.

But other than that, I'd like to think the transition was quite smooth

2. Is it annoying that everyone is asking for mass releases even though there are no more chapters than what allows you to keep the schedule/pace?

It's pretty cool! I'm quite used to readers asking for mass releases - and I think MGA readers are surprisingly nicer on that aspect HAHAHA! I got my flak on my previous series for failing to mass release ~~

3. Did you read MGA from start to finish(current latest) or did you pick up where the Yang Wenli left?

I got the job on a spur, so I didn't have time to catch up before I first started. Due to that, it took me a while to read to the latest haha! Honestly, I'm lucky that I had a few MGA readers in my Discord server who helped me out when I first started (my deepest gratitude to Tempestate and a few others); they helped me clarify some bits that I'm unsure about when I needed to rush chapters at the very start. 

4. What do you think of the series and where do you think it will go in terms of story?

I can see why this story gets a lot of flak, but I can also see why the story is so popular. I have to concede that it has fillers and some boring bits, but the author also knows how to build up a good hype and deliver a strong cathartic punch. I love a good face-slapping scene, and I think a lot of MGA readers can agree with that too. The story has its pros and cons, but it'd say that there is a reason why there's still a fairly large reader base despite having 5000+ chapters

Hmm, where will the story go uh? That's a tough question. He'd go up against the Seven Realms Sacred Mansion and save his mother (hopefully). That'd likely be the last arc in the world of cultivation, before he moves on to the Immemorial Domain of Gods. There'll be new characters there, and there's the Nine Sons of Fate thing, where he'd finally meet characters who can keep up with him. Beyond that, I can't really tell

5. where are you from?

I'm from Singapore, land of the water-puking lionfish

[starvecleric]

25 minutes ago, Banggg said:

With how English translations gaining popularity and arguably most of the truly popular series being translated in one site or the other, how do you see the future of novel translations? Are we gonna be seeing more original works in the wuxia/xuanhuan type coming out from western authors, or does the prospect of reaching bigger audiences perhaps change the way publishers and authors view the translation scene?

Yoos, thanks for your question too hehe! Hmm, that's quite a tough question to answer.

There are more original works in the wuxia/xuanhuan genre from Western authors, but that's still in the minority. I only know a small handful myself, such as Tinelynge (with her Blue Phoenix) and Deathblade. I don't think that wuxia and xuanhuan is a popular choice for Western authors yet. In fact, this genre would still be considered niche, in the sense that those outside the translated novel scene wouldn't know much about wuxia and xianxia.

The novel translation scene is still very niche, with most people in general not knowing much about it, but it is growing with big players (like Wuxiaworld) pushing it forward. It'd be a blessing to publishers and authors if this scene grows big enough, as it'd be another route for them to monetize their works (thus making writing possibly a more viable career for them). 

Haha it's a very generic answer, but feel free to ask more (or contact me on Discord if you're interested to discuss it)

[starvecleric]

14 minutes ago, TribeOfOne said:

What kind of difficulties have you faced while translating MGA? How is it different from the other novels you've translated?

Hello Tribeeeee!

Haha, you also know that I've worked on Library of Heaven's Path! The two novels are pretty similar in their writing, aka face-slapping and repetition of the same point. Chu Feng is technically a Zhang Xuan-like character.

I guess aside from translating, I remove some of the repeated sentences to give the novel a smoother flow, collapse some paragraphs together so that it doesn't look too disjointed, and write dialogues in a way that relays the tone better than just the message itself (i.e. if Chu Feng is being badass, Im sure you'd want to hear him saying badass stuff in English instead of badass stuff in Chinese but sounds clunky in English). I'm pretty used to doing those from Library of Heaven's Path, so it isn't too tough for me.

The main difficulty would still be the terminology, I'd say

[starvecleric]

Anyone curious to ask anything, feel free to drop a question! I'll keep a lookout on this post till Sunday midnight on my side~ 

╰(● ⋏ ●)╯

[Abdul_Adam]

Hello, @starvecleric huge fan of the work you do 😊, I am a reader from your other website hosted novel, I have a few questions.

How did you get into translating Chinese novels?

Did you already know Chinese before or did you learn it latter in life?

How do you choose what story to translate, do you have a website from where you read Chinese novels form? 

What are the other novels you are currently translating?

Any novel recommendation?, because I loved every Novel you have translateed so far. (P.S - stopped reading MGA because It got too tedious).

I want to learn Chinese, do you have any recommended ways to learn?

Thank you for all the work you do for the TL community, by bringing joy and happiness to people with the work you do, your TL work got me through COVID-19, so may you have a fantastic 2024 and may all your dreams come true 😅🥰, thank you once again 

Edited January 6 by Abdul_Adam
Spelling mistakes

[kaminfo]

- If you are in chu feng place, do you take more wifes? 😅

- how do you think that chu feng will end his grudge with the seven realms sacred mansion ? will be part of the seven realms sacred mansion or destroy it?

 

THANKS FOR YOUR HARD WORK.

[starvecleric]

6 hours ago, Abdul_Adam said:

Hello, @starvecleric huge fan of the work you do 😊, I am a reader from your other website hosted novel, I have a few questions.

How did you get into translating Chinese novels?

Did you already know Chinese before or did you learn it latter in life?

How do you choose what story to translate, do you have a website from where you read Chinese novels form? 

What are the other novels you are currently translating?

Any novel recommendation?, because I loved every Novel you have translateed so far. (P.S - stopped reading MGA because It got too tedious).

I want to learn Chinese, do you have any recommended ways to learn?

Thank you for all the work you do for the TL community, by bringing joy and happiness to people with the work you do, your TL work got me through COVID-19, so may you have a fantastic 2024 and may all your dreams come true 😅🥰, thank you once again 

Hello Adam! I'm glad you enjoyed my novels!

How did you get into translating Chinese novels?

I started with a Chinese VRMMORPG (virtual reality multiplayer game) named Zhan Long. Back then I was already a weab and had been reading from sites such as Baka-tsuki and stuff, and I happened to see this novel called Zhan Long recruiting translators. I thought it'd be fun to try my hand at it, so I applied and did a bit. 

Later on, my friend recommended The Experimental Log of the Crazy Lich to me, and I enjoyed it so much that I thought that I wanted to translate it, so I started my own WordPress and began working on it then. Haha, that was how I got started

Did you already know Chinese before or did you learn it latter in life?

In my country, Singapore, students have to learn English and their mother tongue. For me, it's Chinese, so I started learning it from a young age!

How do you choose what story to translate, do you have a website from where you read Chinese novels from? 

For stories that I translate from scratch, the story must be enjoyable to me. I like fantasy stories with a huge, interesting lore, the main characters should be likable, and the characters' actions should be rational (at least in the context of the character).

I read books from Qidian and Ciweimao, but nowadays I spend a bit less time reading Chinese books and more reading mangas and Webtoons haha!

What are the other novels you are currently translating? Any novel recommendation?, because I loved every Novel you have translateed so far. (P.S - stopped reading MGA because It got too tedious).

I just finished a book called 'Little Tyrant Doesn't Want to Meet with a Bad End' and started on a new one called 'Secular Immortal of the Nine Realms'!
I think you can try those two books!
Little Tyrant is a story with a huge lore and likable characters with strong personalities. There are some trigger points that might irk people though, but other than that, I'd say that it's a story with quite a bit of potential!
Secular Immortal of the Nine Realms is strongly focused on face-slapping, but it's much more fast-paced, so you should find it less tedious to read (i.e. fewer fillers that feel like a chore to trawl through)

On Wuxiaworld itself, I love Overgeared, Second Coming of Gluttony, and Keyboard Immortal! 

I want to learn Chinese, do you have any recommended ways to learn?

Duolingo is great. It encourages you to learn by holding your family captive.

I'm a believer that the best way to learn a language is through practice and talking with others.

You'd have to learn some of the basic phrases on Duolingo or maybe some Youtube tutorials, but beyond that, I'd encourage you to join a Discord language learning server or encourage your close friends to join you and practice together. It'd go a long way in terms of motivation if you see what you're learning is serving you well!

---

Thanks a lot for reading my work! It goes both ways - it's very rewarding to see people enjoy the books I translate. It makes me feel like what I'm doing is meaningful!

[starvecleric]

4 hours ago, kaminfo said:

- If you are in chu feng place, do you take more wifes? 😅

- how do you think that chu feng will end his grudge with the seven realms sacred mansion ? will be part of the seven realms sacred mansion or destroy it?

 

THANKS FOR YOUR HARD WORK.

Hello kaminfo!!! Oh no I can't add any more reactions, so I can't like your post, but thanks for reading my translation!

 - If you are in chu feng place, do you take more wifes? 😅

MOAR MOAR MOAR!!! The more the merrier! 
To be honest, Chu Feng is so often away from his wives that I think they should just be polygamous instead. His kind of relationships only work well in stories ~~

- how do you think that chu feng will end his grudge with the seven realms sacred mansion ? will be part of the seven realms sacred mansion or destroy it?

Well, I don't think Chu Feng will destroy the entire Seven Realms Sacred Mansion - the author has pretty much foreshadowed it by making some of the characters from the Sacred Mansion likable - and it's the home of his mother and grandmother, after all.

The root of the problem is just the Seven Realms Sacred Mansion's Mansion Master. As long as Chu Feng deals with him, everything else will fall into place. Other people in the Seven Realms Sacred Mansion like Ling Xiao and Jie Baobao are more than happy to acknowledge him. I think he'll join the Sacred Mansion, but by then, he'd already be strong enough to tower above everyone else.

[Zahard777]

Hi,

How many novels have you read so far? 

Does being a author of a popular work allow them to live a comfortable life with the money they get from the novel if its adapted into donghua or manhua?

And have you read the prequel of MGA? If yes how was the novel and what's the impact it will have on the plotline of MGA? Heard that Eggy is supposed to be the daughter of the MC of that novel.

Is there any legal issues and censoring for novels? Like what happened to Reverend Insanity?

Finally, Thanks for your hard work and diligence so we readers were able to enjoy these works. 

Wishing you a belated HAPPY NEW YEAR! and prosperity to you and your family.   

Edited January 7 by Zahard777

[starvecleric]

5 hours ago, Zahard777 said:

Hi,

How many novels have you read so far? 

Does being a author of a popular work allow them to live a comfortable life with the money they get from the novel if its adapted into donghua or manhua?

And have you read the prequel of MGA? If yes how was the novel and what's the impact it will have on the plotline of MGA? Heard that Eggy is supposed to be the daughter of the MC of that novel.

Is there any legal issues and censoring for novels? Like what happened to Reverend Insanity?

Finally, Thanks for your hard work and diligence so we readers were able to enjoy these works. 

Wishing you a belated HAPPY NEW YEAR! and prosperity to you and your family.   

Hello Zahard! A belated Happy New Year to you too! Haha, may you have a wonderful year ahead.

How many novels have you read so far? 

This is such a tough question to answer. I haven't been keeping track, but I'd guess 100+? 

Does being an author of a popular work allow them to live a comfortable life with the money they get from the novel if its adapted into donghua or manhua?

To a large degree, yes. I've been to one of Qidian's galas before, and 90% of the authors who go there are rather well-off.

I'd say most authors who have their novels adapted to donghua and manhua are quite wealthy, not just from the adaptation but the popularity of their work too, though it might depend on individual to individual (such as the contract they have, the type of story they are writing, and so on). 

And have you read the prequel of MGA? If yes how was the novel and what's the impact it will have on the plotline of MGA? Heard that Eggy is supposed to be the daughter of the MC of that novel.

I haven't read it, unfortunately. I don't think it'll have a major plotline of MGA, though I'd imagine there are foreshadows there. And to be honest, I don't expect Eggy or any of the female characters to be pivotally significant in the novel despite all the foreshadowing, based on what has happened in the novel thus far.  

Is there any legal issues and censoring for novels? Like what happened to Reverend Insanity?

The Chinese government occasionally cracks down on media content (including web novels), and Reverend Insanity was one of those hit. I Am a Superstar was another super popular novel that was taken down too. It's a rather nuanced issue, but in gist, Reverend Insanity wasn't in line with what the government thought was societally acceptable back then, so it was taken down. 

It's not the first time such a thing happened in Chinese web novel/media industry, and it might happen again in the future. Restrictions often tighten and loosen over time, depending on the societal and political climate. Some novels are brought back after some revision or after the crackdown loosens, but those are a rare few.

It's quite complex. If you're interested, do drop by my Discord and we can chat about it hahaha!

--

Have a great day!

Edited January 7 by starvecleric
Changed a bit of the wording