Chapter 416: A Battle of Wits and Hearts (1)

The Earthwork Immortal Lady was leaving!

The Divine Lady who had turned the Gwangju Zen Hall upside down — the very pride, specialty, and landmark of Gwangju itself — was none other than the Earthwork Immortal Lady.

Every single one of her movements was the talk of the town.

Just yesterday, they said the Divine Lady had eaten Baegun Pork Trotters, and she’d cleaned them so thoroughly that the leftover bones gleamed so brightly you could see your reflection in them.

They said those mirror-like bones were stacked up to a man’s chest — front legs, back legs, enough to butcher twelve pigs.

Normally, a rumor like that would just get you snickering.

What kind of beggar shows up and licks the bones clean?

If it’s twelve pigs, that’s forty-eight trotters — is she a person or a pig? Did a pig eat a pig? People would laugh and joke about it.

But this was the Earthwork Immortal Lady — the one who cursed vicious loan sharks to death and punished the brutal Gwangju Zen Hall with her hammer.

With both supernatural power and overwhelming physical strength, the Divine Lady had cleared most of Gwangju’s commoners of debt.

After all, in winter, there were hardly any commoners without debt to the loan sharks — and wasn’t the Zen Hall the one that would even put fishing on credit?

So of course, shrines to the Earthwork Immortal Lady were already springing up all over Gwangju, complete with wooden effigies housed in shrines as big as birdcages at the street corners.

That’s how deep the Gwangju people’s reverence for the Divine Lady ran.

“Well now... you think the mighty Divine Lady ate Baegun Pork Trotters for no reason? Surely it must have been part of some grand design. Maybe something in line with the workings of heaven and earth? A sacred dish? A meal chosen according to fate.”

“Well then, we should eat Baegun Pork Trotters too.”

And so, Qing’s dinner one night became the must-have meal of Gwangju the next day, and the city’s white boiled pork trotters, Baegun Pork Trotters, sold like wildfire.

Countless pigs, they said, shed countless tears over it.

Which was why, whenever the Earthwork Immortal Lady sat down for a meal, people would prick up their ears for even her most trivial chatter — just in case they might catch a single thread of heavenly insight.

“Sworn Sister, what’s in Hwado? Anything worth seeing?”

“Hado? What’s that?”

“Mmm. Yeah, I figured...”

“I don’t know! Ah, this is tasty.”

“If it’s so tasty, why are {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} you giving it all to me?”

“Hehe. So you can eat more, Sworn Sister. But why Hwado? You planning to go there?”

“Heading back. The Guangdong construction is finished.”

“When? You leaving now?”

“I’ll head out after lunch tomorrow.”

It was a shocking announcement.

The commoners who had been eavesdropping in secret pricked up their ears so hard their chopsticks just swirled in the air, food hovering between mouth and nose as they absentmindedly brought it toward their lips.

Hearing the villagers’ gasps, Qing finally felt at ease enough to start eating in earnest.

And of course, watching Qing eat in earnest made the commoners gasp all over again, breathlessly praising the divine spectacle.

****

So the road out of town was lined with people — the entire city of Gwangju laid out along her path.

Had Qing not known better, she might have thought there was some festival going on.

“What’s this? Is there a festival?”

Naturally, she asked, because she didn’t know.

“They say the Divine Lady is leaving!”

“What, you all came out to see me off?”

Looking left and right at the crowd that had gathered like a parade audience, Qing felt her chest swell just a little.

“Divine Lady! Don’t go!”

“Divine Lady! Please come again! Next time, visit our pier! We’ll give you a proper feast!”

“Thank you! We’ll never forget!”

“You saved my son’s life! I’ll pray for your long life and health forever!”

One after another, they called out, and she couldn’t help wondering, Did I really do something that deserves this much gratitude?

She hadn’t expected this much fervent affection just for wiping out a single Dark Sect faction.

Then again, these were people who had suffered for years.

And the Earthwork Divine Lady was open and easy to approach.

In the middle of her departure, a group of loafers blocked the road.

The moment they saw her, they dropped to their knees and started wailing — whether the tears were real or fake was anyone’s guess.

“Oh, Divine Lady, you can’t leave like this! Please, lift the curse, lift the curse before you go!”

A glance at their karma showed they were far from innocent.

What curse? Qing tilted her head.

Yeom Hwiyoung had always been careful, making sure not to draw her wrath — he’d investigated thoroughly and chosen only those truly deserving before killing them.

These were loan sharks he’d never touched.

“If you’d perform a rite for us, we’d give you as much gold and silver as you want...”

“Ha! You want me to hold a rite to bless villains? And what use is gold and silver — tainted with blood and tears — to me?”

“Divine Lady! I was wrong, I was wrong! At least tell me what I must do to escape the curse...”

The curse, no doubt, was the work of her ‘son,’ the Supreme Beggar.

In short, they were begging for their lives.

When death is at the door, apologies are nothing but regret — never repentance.

Regret and repentance are entirely different things.

Qing’s voice turned harsh.

“And if I don’t tell you? Want to try me?”

She raised her hammer.

The loan sharks’ hired thugs, lined up behind them to block the road, flinched and failed to hide their fear.

They’d come along because their boss had ordered it, but who in their right mind would try to stand against the Earthwork Divine Lady who’d single-handedly annihilated the Zen Hall?

“Untie it yourself. The one who tied the knot should untie it. If you know you’ve earned someone’s grudge, you know why you earned it. So work it out with the people themselves! I swear, I’ve seen it all now.”

“Divine Lady! Please, don’t—”

CRACK!

In an instant, a mushroom-shaped cloud seemed to bloom before everyone’s eyes.

Brows furrowed all around. Ouch, that had to hurt.

The fool had crawled toward her on his knees without knowing his place, so Qing had no choice but to deliver a searing nuclear headbutt of divine judgment.

The loan shark clutched his head, unable to even scream, and rolled on the ground.

Even on her way out, the Earthwork Immortal Lady left her mark.

Look at that vile bastard grovel and squirm — what a sight!

She was the very embodiment of refreshing catharsis, the Lady of Pure Air herself.

And so, the Divine Lady departed.

...But then?

...Wait. Really?

The people of Gwangju felt something strange.

From the guest of the Jin Family Manor — the Heavenly Flower Sword — there was something... familiar.

Like the scent of the Divine Lady lingering on a strange woman.

Of course, the Heavenly Flower Sword was a sacred figure of the martial world, a righteous dragon of the orthodox factions, and a famed heroine of the Murim.

Why would she imitate the Earthwork Immortal Lady?

At first, no one thought much of it.

No — their thoughts were forcibly erased.

Her beauty was so intense that the moment you saw her face, your mind went blank.

Just seeing her stopped your feet, and you could stare endlessly without ever tiring.

They said she rivaled the greatest beauties under heaven — but who said “rivaled”? She was the greatest beauty under heaven.

Standing next to Jin Sojeo, she somehow made Jin Sojeo look plain.

Qing, when she kept her mouth shut, was elegant.

Her beauty fit the classical image of a Central Plains lily, but with a smaller head and sharper features — in Qing’s homeland, they’d call it a straight upgrade.

Of course, compared to Baihe — the “Greatest Beauty of the Age,” famous for the most perfect bosom in history (always half-exposed) — Qing lacked that sheer, heavy mass of flesh, which gave Baihe a distinctly vulgar air.

But that heavy mass of flesh... didn’t it look familiar?

That tall stature, the dramatic curve from waist to hips...

That steep drop to such a regal backside — hadn’t they seen it somewhere before?

The uncanny familiarity of her stunning figure owed much to the special shaman’s robes tailored by Jin Seol, designed to emphasize the body’s curves.

Of course, Jin Seol’s reasoning was simply that the curves were too beautiful to hide.

In her aesthetics, a woman’s clothes should showcase her finest features.

That’s why Jin Seol herself always bared half her breasts — whether the top half, the bottom half, or the deep valley between.

And then there was the way she kept her sworn sister by her side...

The people of Gwangju began calling the woman who was the Heavenly Flower Sword’s sworn sister a demon temptress.

Why? Because that’s exactly what she looked like.

A face that infuriated men.

Devastatingly sexy — lust incarnate!

With two such utterly different beauties together, even the Gwangju folk — whose eyes had been spoiled by Jin Seol’s presence — found themselves flocking for another round of beauty-gazing.

And above all — the eating.

How could there be two women in the world who ate — no, devoured — food like that?

It wasn’t eating, it was shoving food in by sheer force, as if the goal was just to make it disappear down the throat.

At first, their beauty distracted people into thinking, Wow, she eats so much and still looks so radiant.

But then... Wait. Isn’t that... the Divine Lady?

Still, if she was pretending not to be, what could they do?

They weren’t so tactless as to pry when she clearly wanted to hide it — and besides, they owed her. So they just pretended not to know.

In fact, it was questionable whether she even intended to hide it.

After all, what kind of righteous heroine of the Murim personally rolled up her sleeves to rebuild structures, wielding the skills of a master carpenter?

Same height. Same bearing.

A dopey sworn sister.

Sometimes seen with the Divine Lady’s “son.”

A seasoned carpenter. Easygoing.

Eats like a fiend.

Yeah. It was her.

So as the reconstruction of Jin Family Manor progressed, the buildings’ exteriors remaining the same while their innards were completely remade, the sorrowful stench of the past gradually disappeared — and the people of Gwangju moved from suspicion, to conviction, to certainty.

And so, fifteen days after the Divine Lady’s “return,”

The reconstruction of Jin Family Manor was finally complete.

****

While Jin Family Manor celebrated the end of the works with a feast, another place lay under a pall as heavy as a funeral.

The Killing Moon Sect.

The people of Gwangju called it the “Cooperative Killing” — not a massacre, but a cooperative slaughter.

Because the storm of blood that swept Gwangju, killing only those who deserved to die, was something they fully approved of.

That “cooperative slaughter” had destroyed the Zen Hall.

And not just destroyed it — the attackers hunted down every affiliated organization, wiping them out one by one.

The Golden Pavilion had fallen too.

The masters of its affiliated Golden Sword Hall were found dead in their own chambers, day after day, until only a few remained — paupers who had burned their debt papers, sold off their assets, and given away what was left.

Three Dark Sects had planned to rule Gwangju.

They meant to crush Jin Family so completely that it would never rise again — three against one.

That plan evaporated in an instant.

Now, far from becoming the rulers of Gwangju, they were in danger of having to pull down their plaques and flee.

Jin Family had already sent invitations across Guangdong to recruit warriors and disciples — maybe they wouldn’t recover their former glory as the strongest in the province, but they’d soon regain the top position in Gwangju.

Which was why Sect Leader Lee Wangchul of the Killing Moon Sect was in a panic.

“Strategist Bang, is the Demonic Alliance... is the Demonic Alliance really not going to give us support?”

“Do not worry, Sect Leader. I’ve already sent word. Before long, the Alliance will send a Gold-Rank Combat Squad to our aid.”

“Oooh, Strategist Bang! Truly, only you can do it!”

The Gold-Rank Combat Squads were the Demonic Alliance’s very elite.

If Lee Wangchul had even a shred of self-awareness, he would know that there was no way such a force would be dispatched just to save the Killing Moon Sect.

Those squads were made up of top experts assigned from each Dark Sect under the Alliance — deploying one required the Alliance to burn not only silver and gold, but political capital as well.

But the support the Alliance had already given them was no small thing.

Hadn’t they sent Bang Cheokmyeong, the chief strategist of Nangogak, in person?

Hadn’t they also sent crates of elixirs, telling them to obstruct Jin Family’s recruitment while growing their own strength?

With that much investment, surely when the plan was in jeopardy, they’d spare even a Gold-Rank Combat Squad.

“Indeed, Strategist Bang, you are my very own Zhang Liang!”

Lee Wangchul meant it.

How grateful was he? Grateful enough to have bought expensive calligraphy brushes and sent them to Strategist Bang’s son, who was preparing for the civil service exams.

It wasn’t even a gift that could yield immediate benefit — only when the strategist returned to the Alliance would he learn of it. That alone showed how heartfelt Lee Wangchul’s gratitude was.

Of course, it was mostly to curry favor with Bang Cheokmyeong himself.

Any strategist with the pull to bring in crates of elixirs deserved to have a bribe sent ahead, so that when he returned to the Alliance, he’d remember Lee Wangchul and the Killing Moon Sect fondly.

“If not for you, Strategist Bang, I would never have dared to come this far! You are truly... uh... yes, the reincarnation of Zhang Liang!”

Lee Wangchul praised him with utter seriousness.

Strategist Bang was getting calluses in his ears from all the Zhang Liang talk.

Seriously — did this idiot only know one famous strategist?