Chapter 397: There’s One Restaurant on the Plain Hill, and Two Hammers (4)

The unexpected spectacle turned into a windfall for the folks wandering around Ironworking Street.

Unlike Qing’s hometown—where everyone constantly watched clowns dancing on little screens whether eating or sleeping—this primitive ancient world had few entertainments to offer.

And so—clang, clang—the light yet sharp hammering echoed as the iron rod rose and fell.

The people’s gazes rose and fell with it.

People of this era were far more sociable than modern ones, ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) so a latecomer casually asked the nearest bystander already watching:

“Whoa, that one’s built like a warrior. What’s she selling? I’ve been feeling a bit weak lately, maybe I should buy a bottle.”

“She’s not selling medicine, they say she’s the Earthwork Immortal Lady.”

“Earthwork Immortal Lady? Like... someone building houses or something—wait, she really is building houses? Damn, the way she swings that hammer, she must be good.”

“You sure that’s real? Maybe it’s just a hollow hammer and wooden pegs—some scam to push fake medicine?”

“Can’t you hear the weight? And that sound? Besides, she said she’s a devotee of Lord Xiang Yu, and that smith insulted her, so now she’s putting on a show.”

“Even Lord Xiang Yu would drop dead in shock.”

“What kind of medicine vendor is that? Look at those breasts—that’s gotta be at least thirteen pounds up front! You think she sells breast-enlargement tonics? Maybe I’ll buy some for the wife.”

“She’s not a medicine peddler! She’s the Earthwork Immortal Lady, top carpenter in Henan—hey, damn it, what am I, her assistant? Why’s everyone asking me? And if I say it once, listen! I’ve told you five times she’s not a medicine peddler!”

Well, he did look approachable, so people kept asking him.

Then, Qing struck the iron bar hard.

It soared skyward, seemingly into the clouds.And raising her arm, she hoisted the thirteen-pound hammer and brought it straight down.

BOOM!

The ground shuddered with a deep, dull vibration.

The iron rod drove headfirst into the frozen earth, buried up to its round top.

The crowd’s eyes all squinted in unison, necks craning as if to ask, What the hell did I just witness? Is that some divine feat a human can even perform?

Qing looked at the smith and said:

“Tsk. Of course I’d be famous as Henan’s top carpenter—I serve the divine. Still doubting me? Don’t you know doubt is just a cursed disease? If misfortune strikes, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

The blacksmith rushed over and ran his trembling hand along the hammer-shaped dent where the rod had sunk straight in.

And then he, the poor smith, began to quake.

“Aiigo, aiigo, this lowly one’s eyes were clouded—I failed to recognize a divine being before me. Please, do not be angry!”

“Hm. No need. The Deity says His body is now properly warmed up. So no need to tremble so hard. You're gonna cause an earthquake.”

“Oh—thank you! Thank you very much!”

The blacksmith dropped to his knees and bowed deeply.

Hmm. That’s a little guilt-inducing.

Qing felt a twinge of conscience.

Getting angry just because she purposely hid her strength and wasn’t recognized—that was a bit much, wasn’t it?

“All right, that’s enough. Oh! General! Yes, do you like it? Yes. Then I shall pay. What, twenty silver taels? For this? Ah. Yes.”

Qing started mumbling to herself like a lunatic—asking and answering alone—and pulled a silver ingot from her money pouch.

“The Deity is pleased, so of course I must pay. That’s not too little, is it?”

“Aiigo, how could I take money from the Deity? I’ll offer it as tribute—”

“You dare! The Deity is not a thief! If the Overlord says twenty taels, it’s twenty taels! Who are you to argue? When the Deity gives you something, you say thank you and take it!”

“Aiigo, this fool was short-sighted. Please forgive me!”

Qing didn’t respond. She just dragged her hammer and walked off.

The onlookers immediately swarmed the blacksmith—

Or more precisely, they rushed to the hammer-shaped dent embedded at the smith’s feet.

“Whoa. That thing’s really wedged in there. Can’t even grip it to pull it out.”

“Henan’s top carpenter? So you have to be able to do that to earn that title? What about Guangdong’s best carpenter—can he do that?”

“She says she worships Lord Xiang Yu. That strength makes sense now—swinging that thirteen-pound hammer like it’s a chopstick!”

At this point, the objective had been achieved.

Qing did feel a bit bad about making the smith kneel, but she had paid him double the price, so it was fair compensation for the trouble.

Dragging the hammer behind her with its heavy head scraping the ground, she walked away.

Her multicolored robe already caught every eye, and now that she was dragging a hammer with it—well, the attention she drew was inevitable.

Hoping she might put on another interesting show, bored peasants with nothing to do during the agricultural off-season started trailing behind her.

With the crowd at her heels, the Earthwork Immortal Lady arrived at a construction site where wooden frames were being erected.

She hadn’t gone there intentionally—

She’d simply followed the rhythm of hammering, sawing, and team chants with her superhuman hearing.

The carpenters looked up from their work, dumbfounded.

What the hell was this now?

Why had some fake shaman appeared with a hammer?

Qing spun her hammer lightly in the air, then slammed it on the ground with a thud.

Then, resting one hand on the butt of the handle and standing cockily, she spoke:

“Hey there. Could you use an extra hand? I’m the Earthwork Immortal Lady from Henan, the top carpenter in the region. I heard Guangdong carpenters were amazing, so I came to learn a thing or two.”

“A carpenter? Judging by your hammer grip, you’re not an amateur—but what kind of carpenter dresses like that?”

“I may be a carpenter, but I am also a shaman. It is my duty to learn every form of construction under the heavens.”

“What the—what’s carpentry got to do with shamanism—?”

“Ahem! Didn’t I say it was earthwork? ‘Earth’ as in ground, ‘work’ as in wood. A carpenter joins land and timber to form—uh—habitation? So it’s, uh, widely beneficial—Hongik-style, you know? That’s why. That’s the reason. Also, I will one day build the ancestral shrine of the overlord who unifies the world.”

...That sounded pretty desperate, didn’t it?

The master carpenters all tilted their heads.

What kind of scam is this? Is she going to curse the site or something?

But then again, if you kick a shaman off a building site while the house is under construction, who’s to say you won’t anger the local spirits?

So Qing added one more line:

“I don’t need pay. I just want to learn.”

A miracle! Free labor!

The carpenters all nodded in unison.

Orthodox and unorthodox sects differ from the name alone.

Orthodox sects tend to name themselves after prominent regions, famous mountains, or auspicious Chinese characters.

Unorthodox ones, on the other hand, choose names that just sound... ominous.

Not because their founders all hit puberty late.

No—gangs tend to pick names that make them sound tougher than the rest, and when such a group overtakes someone else’s territory and expands enough to own a big manor, boom—a new unorthodox sect is born.

So it’s actually a badge of honor in the unorthodox world if your sect name sounds shady and unsettling.

It means you’re not some average pushover.

Of course, “sect (파)” in the unorthodox world doesn’t mean the same thing as in the orthodox one.

Orthodox sects like the Huashan Sect, Zhongnan Sect, and Wudang Sect use the term based on Daoist lineage.

In unorthodox circles, “sect” just means “our gang.”

Anyway, even though Guangzhou had long been under the thumb of the Jin Family’s influence—

From the Martial World Assembly to their return, there was a full three-month window where the Jin family was completely absent.

And in that vacuum, the unorthodox sects had a field day.

Now, three unorthodox sects—the Salwol Sect, Guangzhou Immortal Square Sect, and Geumjeok Sect—had seized full control of Guangzhou.

Even after the Jin family returned, they were tied up with funerals and grief, unable to regroup.

And so the unorthodox sects were burning with determination to lock in their hold.

Right now, the target of all their scrutiny was the sudden appearance of a mysterious carpenter-shaman hybrid—

The Earthwork Immortal Lady.

Even Yi Wangchul, sect master of the Salwol Sect, had taken notice.

“That so-called Earthwork Immortal Lady—what’s she up to now? Doesn’t look like she’s actually rebuilding the Jin Manor.”

“We’ve heard she’s been wandering around Guangzhou work sites... working for free.”

At that, Yi Wangchul looked baffled.

“For free? Why?”

Qing was good at anything that involved physical labor.

Whether it was natural talent or due to her transcendent body—unmatched by any human in strength, balance, and sensitivity—it was hard to say.

“Hey, Kim! Set that beam straight! What’s wrong with your arms, man? Can’t even raise a post? Look at the shaman lady—every time she grabs one, it springs right up!”

“Well of course it springs up. She’s a woman.”

That made the workers snicker.

Qing gave a faint smirk.

“Wow, your mouth’s really just letting anything out today. What exactly am I raising, huh? You want me to drive something in? I just saw a stake as thick as my arm lying around.”

“Then hammer it in, and spend the rest of your life looking after the outhouse.”

“If I hammer it, I’ll drive it right into the front column. Outhouse my ass. Just wrap a thick cotton cloth around it and change it twice a day, easy.”

Master carpenter Yeom’s face twisted.

Laughter broke out again, and with nothing more to say, Yeom grumbled:

“Some shaman. Doesn’t talk like one.”

“Look at that face. No way anyone’d take her teasing seriously. Flirting only works if your face can pull it off.”

Laughter rippled again.

And just like that, in five short days, the sharp-tongued, hard-working Earthwork Immortal Lady took over the Guangzhou worksites.

She really was that good.

She did the work of ten men by herself.

Which didn’t just save ten men—it also sped everything up.

Normally, ten men would be tied up lifting a pillar.

That took time, coordination, teamwork.

Plus, they’d all have to drop what they were doing, causing delays elsewhere.

Then the guy who strained his back would take a break, and so on...

But if Qing just picked it up and placed it by herself like some reincarnation of Lord Xiang Yu—

Well, construction progressed way faster than even a full ten-man crew.

A single day of help from her could speed up the timeline by ten days.

Soon, whenever the Earthwork Immortal Lady appeared, construction foremen flocked to her—begging her to take their silver and help out.

“All right. Anyone raising a roof today? I want to learn how you install round ridge-beams.”

“Lady Shaman! We’re doing a roof this afternoon! We’ll give you the whole house—join us!”

“Oh, nice. Where at? Bangseon Street? Great.”

Qing was starting to think—maybe carpentry really did suit her nature.

The methods she learned in Nagnyeong differed from Guangdong’s even in basic mortising.

With such a massive land, no two carpenters did things the same way.

“What the—this is how you join beams? Won’t that make it shaky later?”

“The front and back are brick walls anyway, doesn’t matter. What, how do you do it in Henan?”

“Like this.”

“Oooh! What is that? My god. Incredible craftsmanship!”

Henan-style carpentry—entirely wooden, using almost no nails and no iron at all—was a revelation to the Guangdong carpenters.

In Guangdong, wood didn’t show on the exterior, so they just hammered in big nails.

So when Qing began showing off Henan-style techniques, the Guangdong carpenters weren’t about to sit still.

“I haven’t even taught this to my apprentice yet, but you see this spot here—this is where we use glue...”

“We use yellow clay mixed with compacted stones as a base here. Helps prevent tilting when water pools.”

“You’re gonna move the column? Oh man, you’ll have to strip all the brick. Just do this instead—lift and double-beam it.”

“And where would the extra space go, huh? Better to temporarily prop it up, trim it, and fit it in properly.”

“Wait—what if we reverse the base?”

“Depends if we’re replacing the bluestone too.”

Whenever Qing asked the master carpenters about ways to replace materials without tearing down whole structures, lively discussions sparked all around her.

And somehow, things began to fall into place.