Immortal Merchant

[MangaDex]

 

[alphanumericcharactersonly]

Lowkey isekai

 

[CoolOtamegane]

Isekai Lingerie Shop
I'm Sold!!!! ?

 

[ZombiesAreNotOkay]

I. need. MOAAAAAR.

 

[Ovnidemon]

So much missing pages. Also, I hope it's not only lingerie. It would be interesting to have a merchant/xianxia, but only lingerie will rapidly become boring.

 

[Pescado]

i liked it, smooth talker mc

 

[gaigous]

Damn, good shit, makes me wanna try out the novel.

 

[banjomarx]

wtf am i reading xD

 

[Weasalopes]

@banjomarx
I'll admit, this one is a little odd.
But, not much more than most of the Chinese manhwa I've come across; they all seem to have strange translations, or else the Chinese language is truly different at a base level from English, because the sentences are very odd in the same fashion throughout all of them that I've read.

I know, it says not to post spoilers on the main thread, but where else to post one's understanding of what's occurring as a whole if not here? How else to answer the question, "wtf am i reading?"

Spoiler

Anyway, this seems to be focusing on a reincarnated individual from our reality whose magic use ability is somehow "inside out" compared to the norm, so he cannot utilize the standard methods of obtaining increases in power. At first he was not aware that methods existed that he could utilize; knowledge of such methods appears to be uncommon, and only work for a small segment of those considered to be without magic ability, those whose magic ability is actually inverted from the norm rather than actually being non-existent; first, someone had to discern that he actually did have magic ability, albeit of a non-standard type, and the one who did this knew of a means to increase it. By Chapter 11's completion, he has been successful in beginning to increase his power, but has reached a plateau until he can afford more expensive power boosting treatments.

Prior to learning to increase his power, he was dealing with the reality that those of low/non-existent magic resources in this society are treated like dirt. "Might makes right", where might is measured in magical ability, those lacking in such ability are considered fair game, and have no legal protections against others manipulating things via their magic abilities.
He found a means of advancing himself financially anyway, by partnering with a lingerie merchant; apparently, brassiers, etc., were unknown in this society, and he knew enough about their construction to successfully create working versions.
However, being of little magic power, they were targeted by those who would usurp their operation.
Fortunately, the initial attempt occurred while a female member of a powerful family was shopping at their shop, and she intervened.
She also knew of a means of increasing his magic power.
She suggested he join an association to improve his social status and clout; somehow he knew nothing of associations, which seems odd if he grew up in this society, but I don't recollect if he reincarnated as a child or as an adult, in the latter case such ignorance would be more understandable.
Anyway, she arranged for her family's association to extend an offer to him. At which time the knowledge of how to increase his magic power was provided.
And it looks like others may be getting into the act; high rank females being the clientele of his shop, brings him into contact with them in an environment that favors the impression he makes, even to those who seem permanently grumpy/haughty/arrogant/convinced of their superiority.
He attempts to defuse situations where there is conflict if possible, while not knuckling under to those exploiting their higher status.

I suspect there are errors in the above summary; not suspect, I'm certain of it. But, hopefully it makes some things more clear. Mainly things omitted, but there are some where I may be misinterpreting, but still close enough that you can spot the misinterpretations when you get to the relevant sections of the story. Given the timing of updates, some of my memories of this are hazy.

So, yes, rather different from the standard Isekai setting.

 

[banjomarx]

@Weasalopes actually i just meant that the whole underwear path to greatness thing is hillarious xD but ya some ppl might be confused about the premise

 

[sedition]

The story is sloppy and all over the place.

 

[AdamKnight]

... Just what is with Chinese authors and the word CULTIVATION? Why they never even put the goddamn word to its right use? Anyone know the actual word used in Chinese and its real meaning, if any?

 

[Castella]

@AdamKnight https://youtu.be/ameckT2ZKeA

I don't know the Chinese word but I think cultivate works ok. Though I understand that seeing the damn theme everywhere can be annoying.

 

[AdamKnight]

but @Castella , if its in the youtube video, I think its just a problem of lack of exposure of westerners audience beforehand. I'm no stranger to 'ginkang' (to make your body lighter with chi) in Chinese martial arts, heck, our own traditional martial arts has the same concept. But cultivation means a process where one trying to develop a certain quality or skill.

So why a girl cultivate her boyfriend? Demonic cultivation is kinda okay-ish. But something like "cultivation world"? A fight between "cultivators"? Cultivation chat group? It kinda work, but so unusual and I believe that there are another english word that can deliver the idea much more clearly. So I suspect its coming from translation of Chinese hanzi directly to english or something, but cant confirm since I know practically nothing of chinese language.

And yes, the word appear quite often is a bit annoying

 

[Squildo]

I don't get any of this shit. Who the hell are these people

 

[Korpi93]

okey im confused when were the arrangement for him to be someones guide made? or is this one of those trash mangas that just jumps between situations because the author cant write a properly continuing story or the one adapting it into a manga is trash who cant be bothered to do it properly?

 

[raltzero]

@AdamKnight The Chinese character used for 'cultivation' in most, if not all, of these manhuas and novels is 修, which has many meanings, some of which are 'repair', 'study', 'cultivate', so on and so forth. When you mention phrases like 'Demonic cultivation（修魔）' and 'cultivation world（修真世界 or some variation）', I put forth this question to you; which sounds cooler, 'demonic cultivation', 'Studying Demons', or 'Repairing Demons'? Or 'cultivation world', 'studying world', or 'repairing world'? Now, this is just the aesthetics part of translating the Chinese character.

Besides that, there's the more important problem of "which is the right word to translate it into?" The meanings of the words 'cultivate', 'study', and 'repair' are all different, so that's something the translator has to consider too.

修 can also mean other English words, I'm just making an example of three of its definitions.

 

[harrisonchew10]

Im Gay

 

[Korpi93]

considering that this manga isnt that wellwritten... it honestly deserves to die out even if it was a somewhat entertaining read

 

[AmadeusVII]

Honestly not surprising, it was okay but then it started to get boring. Felt like the story was being dragged on. It sucks when something that had potential gets dropped. ?