One difficult thing about ISSTH are the various prophecies, foreshadowing, etc. The other is the occasional complex language, often Classical Chinese. Many times, unless you understand what happens later in the story, it's almost impossible to translate certain passages. To illustrate the point, I did an exercise in which I pretended Lord of the Rings was written in Chinese, and that I was translating the famous poem about the ring, except I had no knowledge about what happens in the story. See the result after the jump.

Chapter 413 Translator: Deathblade Contributors: Madam Deathblade, anonpuffs Proofreaders: Lingson and MeeBoo Memes: MemeBoo Meme Archives: joeljbright Sponsors: Allan Tam

Many, many thanks to Fellow Daoist Allan Tam for bringing ANOTHER sponsored chapter of the week, the fourth!

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Here it is in all its beauty:

Three rings for the Fairy Emperor, beneath the Heavens Seven for the Dwarf Master, in his rock tunnels Nine for the frail human, cursed to pass away One ring to boss over them all, one ring to go looking for them One ring to invite them all to be together in the dark