The Civil Engineering Fairy and the Cursed Jin Manor
On the hill overlooking the plains sat one ration and two hammers. Seomun Cheong stared up at them blankly.
The signboard that read Gwangdong Jin Family—once written in gleaming gold—now sat crooked, stained with old blood. They say a sect’s signboard is its face, and if the face is already twisted at an angle, it’s no surprise the whole place feels desolate. The main gate was shut tight, no warriors stood guard, and not a single soul could be heard. It was downright eerie.
What the hell? Did I come to the wrong place? Is this Jin Family not that Jin Family? Though to be fair, it wasn’t like the Jin surname was rare in the Central Plains.
Cheong didn’t know this, but in the Murim world, people with the same characters in their surname were considered the same clan. So yes, there really was only one Jin clan. Still, just because you shared a surname didn’t mean you were family. They judged by current territory and property holdings, not ancestral hometowns. It might make you a bit friendlier than a total stranger, but that was about it.
“Oh dear, young lady. You really shouldn’t stand there.”
Cheong turned at the voice. An old woman she’d never seen before was staring at her with a deadly serious expression.
“Huh? Why not?”
“That place has been cursed something fierce. Get involved and you’ll share in the disaster. That family’s already swallowed up hundreds of lives.”
“A curse? What did they do to deserve one?”
To Cheong, whose blood carried the memories of the Korean people, the word “curse” instinctively brought to mind karmic retribution for some terrible sin. Few cultures looked for the cause of misfortune in their own faults, so in that sense, it was a rather moral way of thinking.
But in the primitive, ancient, uncivilized Central Plains, a curse was simply a calamity that latched onto you if your luck was bad enough.
“Where’s the cause in a curse? Plenty of people perform rituals hoping prosperous families fall to ruin. If you happen to catch the attention of a particularly powerful spirit, this is what happens. Tsk tsk.”
“Hmm. So what exactly happened here?”
“It’s sal. A thick killing aura has settled over them. Get involved with this household and you’ll be attending funerals left and right.”
As the old woman spoke, a strange light—something close to madness—clearly flickered in her eyes. Cheong swallowed nervously.
“Aigoo, Mother! I’m sorry! So sorry!”
“Who is it? I need to find my son.”
“Mother! It’s me, your second son! Dong!”
“Ah. Second son. Dong-ah, go look for your older brother. It’s already past the hour of the Cat, and Il-dong must be hungry.”
It was well past noon, nowhere near breakfast. The man kept bowing deeply in apology.
“Honored warrior, my mother hasn’t been quite right in the head since she lost her eldest son. Please don’t take offense. I beg your generous forgiveness.”
“It’s fine. But shouldn’t you go after her? She’s wandering off.”
“Thank you! Mother! Aigoo, where are you going now?”
“I told them not to use the ‘mok’ radical when choosing my name, but they went and made me a carpenter anyway… Hmm? You. Dong-ah, haven’t you seen your brother?”
She really wasn’t all there. Cheong looked back up at the crooked signboard of the Gwangdong Jin Family. The old woman’s chilling gaze, the talk of curses, the killing aura. A shiver ran down her spine.
Right on cue, clouds rolled in and covered the sun, casting the area in gloomy shadow…
Creak.
The warped gate slowly began to open.
“Whoa.”
Cheong instinctively took a step back. You could cut a person down, but not a ghost. In a world where people flew through the air on mysterious cosmic energy and split cliffs apart, who was to say curses and ghosts didn’t exist?
Her hand tightened around her sword hilt. But the face that appeared through the gap in the doors belonged to a graceful, classical beauty.
For a ghost, she’s ridiculously pretty.
“Who… are you? With the face veil?”
“Miss Jin! It’s me. Seomun Cheong.”
Cheong lifted her veil as she spoke. Jin Seol’s eyes widened like saucers.
---
After greeting the weary-looking head of the Jin Family, Cheong was treated to a very late lunch. She had skipped it while rushing to get here. The Murim Alliance’s dispatch deadline was until winter, and it was currently early February. That left her with just under two months.
Why just under two months in early February? Because this year had a leap month—there were two Februaries. The lunar calendar added an extra month every two and a half years or so to keep the seasons from drifting.
So even though she had hurried, by the time she arrived in Gwangju it was already past lunchtime.
“So what exactly happened here?”
“While we were away at the Murim Competition, the Blood Sect attacked our main house. Because the matter involved the Blood Sect, the bodies were left untouched for a while. I had no idea the smell of decay would linger like this.”
Decay referred to the black fluid that leaked from rotting corpses. It was the number one liquid carpenters hated most. Once it soaked into wood, the stench was the least of your problems—the black stains of death would never come out. Any room where a body had been left to rot had to be completely torn down and rebuilt.
“The Blood Sect? Then the Murim Alliance…”
“They offered to send support, but our family decided to put it on hold for now.”
“Huh? Why?”
“We’re in no state to receive guests, and we agreed it would be better to clean up the manor first and only request help once we were ready to host people…”
The problem was they couldn’t clean up the manor. Every time they tried to start construction, the workers died. Rumors spread that the Blood Sect had placed a vicious curse on the Jin Family grounds. As a result, they couldn’t hire any new laborers or even servants. The only people left were those who had accompanied them to the Murim Competition.
“A curse, huh.”
Jin Seol shook her head. Anger clouded the beautiful face of one of the Murim Five Flowers.
“There’s no such thing as curses in this world. It was clearly the work of those Evil Faction bastards, but we didn’t realize it. By the time the situation got this bad, it really did look like a curse had taken hold.”
At first they had genuinely believed it was a curse. They had called in renowned Taoist priests, monks, and even shamans to perform exorcisms. But the deaths of the workers never stopped. Only after seeing the Evil Faction openly recruiting new disciples while sprinkling cheap spiritual medicine everywhere—medicine that was still spiritual medicine, no matter how cheap—did they finally realize what was happening.
The workers weren’t dying from a curse. Those bastards were behind it.
“Those sons of bitches. We should wipe out their entire bloodline.”
Cheong’s face crumpled into a deep scowl. Jin Seol nodded in firm agreement.
“We realized the truth far too late.”
The Central Plains people’s love of superstition was carved into their very DNA. No— the Central Plains was superstition, and superstition was the Central Plains. Even back in Cheong’s homeland, the Red People’s army had burned away every old tradition and evil custom to open a new era, but they couldn’t touch the superstitions that formed the very identity and pride of the Chinese people. Those had been carefully preserved and passed down to their descendants.
Once rumors spread that a place was cursed, who would dare set foot on such land?
“Um, Miss Jin? The Murim Alliance support unit is supposed to arrive soon.”
“What? Why?”
Cheong explained the full story—how things had been resolved in Guangxi before the support unit arrived, and how they had decided to send the unit to the Jin Family instead.
“Who would want to show anyone the place in this state?”
Jin Seol stamped her feet in frustration.
“Hmm. Then shouldn’t we just break the superstition? If people see someone working here and staying perfectly fine, they’ll think the curse has lifted. What if we let the workers live inside the manor?”
“We should have done that from the beginning.”
It was already too late. Cheong asked another question.
“So the construction was started and then abandoned? That means the materials are still here, right?”
“Yes. The high-quality materials are just sitting there taking up space.”
“Then we can just repair the manor.”
Cheong answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Jin Seol’s eyebrows drew together sharply, wondering if the other woman had even been listening.
“Didn’t I just explain that there’s no way to do that? Carpenters are especially sensitive. Even if you bring them from far away, they refuse the job and leave.”
But Cheong remained perfectly calm.
“Come on, you’ve got a skilled carpenter right here.”
Jin Seol blinked. “Where?”
Cheong jabbed a thumb at herself. “Me. Seomun Cheong. Or rather, Seomun the carpenter from Nangnyeong. Also known as Tomok Seonnyeo, the Civil Engineering Fairy.”
In the Central Plains, professions considered lowly often didn’t discriminate between men and women. A fisherman’s daughter became a fisherwoman, a farmer’s daughter a farmwoman, and a carpenter’s daughter a carpenter. The work required strength and stamina, so women usually didn’t continue it for long. Still, in the Central Plains, even wives and concubines were considered part of a woman’s profession. So it wasn’t that shocking that the Heavenly Flower Sword knew a thing or two about carpentry.
“You said you could do carpentry work.”
The head of the Gwangdong Jin Family, Jin Ja-gang, did not look like a martial artist. If anything, he resembled a stern scholar who had swallowed too many ink brushes—thin and bamboo-like. Cheong’s first impression had been Whoa, it’s a professor! Surprisingly, his speech was gentle. When Cheong asked him to speak casually, he had refused, saying that if the words were comfortable, the person would be comfortable too, so how could he speak rudely to a guest? That single sentence revealed Jin Ja-gang’s character perfectly.
“I said I could do the work of ten carpenters, so if the Jin Family members help, we should be able to complete the construction. I already checked the materials. They were well covered with tarps, so they’re still in good condition.”
“I know this is not something one should ask of a guest, but I must shamelessly beg for your help. Please take good care of us.”
“Aw, it’s nothing. But Lord Patriarch, just doing construction might be a bit boring, don’t you think? So I was thinking…”
Cheong laid out her plan in detail. Jin Ja-gang’s eyes began to sparkle.
---
Seeking laborers to participate in the manor reconstruction project. As chief carpenter, we have invited Tomok Seonnyeo, the greatest carpenter of Henan and a renowned capable shaman. She is the foremost authority when it comes to dangerous construction projects. We sincerely hope for your enthusiastic support without hesitation.
Room and board provided. Generous wages.
The Gwangdong Jin Family’s manor occupied the best location in all of Gwangju. It was no exaggeration. Located at the center of radiating roads, it had access to the city’s waterways, multiple wells fed by underground veins, and had been the seat of the region’s greatest clan since ancient times. Feng shui-wise, it was even better than the government office.
Because of that, the Jin Family manor sat right in the heart of Gwangju. It was impossible for the citizens not to see it every time they passed by.
And now, after a long time, a new notice had been posted on that manor.
Of course, it didn’t immediately draw workers. The notice hadn’t been posted for that reason anyway. It had been put up for a specific audience.
“Leader! Leader!”
“What’s with all the fuss?”
“The Jin Family is starting construction again. This time they’ve brought a carpenter all the way from Henan. Not just any carpenter—the greatest carpenter of Henan, and apparently a shaman as well. They say she can overcome curses.”
“Does that even make sense? When did they have time to send people to Henan and bring a carpenter back? The timing doesn’t add up. And since when do shamans work as carpenters? If there was such a person, wouldn’t the news have spread across the Jianghu? And are all the carpenters in Henan idiots? They just let a woman take the title of greatest carpenter?”
It was a ridiculous story full of holes from beginning to end.
“Perhaps the Jin Family came up with a scheme of their own?”
“Hmph. So even the Righteous Faction will spew lies when backed into a corner.”
The leader laughed and turned his gaze to the side. A pale scholar sitting there smiled faintly and spoke.
“Once the shaman carpenter dies too, no one in the world will dare take on the repair work. Who would buy land with such a curse on it? They won’t even be able to sell it to raise money for a move. In the end, Leader, you might be able to purchase it at a rock-bottom price?”
“Khhhh, I always say you need smart people below you. So, shall we do the same thing?”
The scholar smiled kindly and answered softly.
“Wouldn’t doing the same thing be too boring? Please kill her as brutally as possible and hang her body in the streets for everyone to see.”