Readers, as many of you have noticed (and vocalized), the translation of HJC has become increasingly sporadic over the past few months.  After repeated failed attempts to reach out to Zen, and a discussion about this with the other translators, I'm forced to announce that HJC is going on an official (but hopefully brief) pause as we cut Zen off from posting on Wuxiaworld and look for a new translator to take his place.  Any donors to HJC's unfinished queue who provide proof that they donated to the current HJC queue can send us an email, and I'll refund you out of my own account.  Alternately, if you so choose we will roll over the queue once we find a new translator.  We invite interested, responsible translators with a solid track record to reach out to us regarding this project.

Your complaints have been noticed from the very start, and the reason I have been silent and haven't had much to say is primarily because I know as much as you regarding the status of Zen... which is to say nothing. Over the past two to three months, we have repeatedly tried and failed to get in touch with Zen, including multiple emails to multiple accounts he has used, Skype messages, and more.  Unfortunately, Zen has been completely unresponsive; the only reason I even know that he's okay is that he's still posting two or three chapters a month.

To be honest, I'm extremely uncomfortable with this decision, which is why I delayed it for so long despite the many (MANY) complaints that I've read and winced at.  Putting aside the fact that Zen's been with us for over two years, many of the actions that I have taken over the years such as negotiating and paying for authorizations for Wuxiaworld were meant to help and protect the translators who worked on these projects.  I am pretty much as pro-translator as it gets, and it really sticks in my craw that I now have to forcefully intervene.  Unfortunately, I've completely exhausted all tools available to me, and we are at (and probably past) the point where responsibility to readers and to the project itself outweighs my responsibility to the translator.

Since we began, every single translator who joined Wuxiaworld knows that Wuxiaworld stands for both speed and quality; we started off with a quasi-official standard of at least three regular chapters a week (which is what I was doing for Coiling Dragon at the time) before even considering donations, and as time has gone up we've upped that to 5-7 chapters per week for new people (the old-timers are 'grandfathered in').  While everyone takes breaks from time to time, communication is an absolute must, and unfortunately there's been zero communication with the readers or us for months.  As a result... I wish Zen nothing but the best, thank him for his two years of translation, and genuinely hope he's doing well, but we're going to have to move on.

On a related note; I also realized that the translation for The Grandmaster Strategist by Tannheuser has also been on hiatus for quite some time now.  Tann actually has been in intermittent contact with us, and several times has told me that he actually has a few chapters ready to go that needs editing.  Unfortunately, getting back into the translating groove has been a bit difficult for him, but I'll keep nudging him and hopefully we'll see this novel be brought to completion.

Thanks as always for being readers and supporters, and hopefully we'll have HJC back up sooner rather than later!