The Curse Returns to Its Master
On the hill overlooking the plains, with one food item and two hammers, the Civil Engineering Fairy had appeared in the builder category once again! The return of the Tomok Seonnyeo! It was nothing short of a signal flare announcing that the winner of that century-spanning spiritual showdown between the Tomok Seonnyeo and the Jin Family curse was the Civil Engineering Fairy herself. Naturally, people with nothing better to do had no choice but to flock in to witness her prowess.
“Fairy?”
“Are you the Tomok Seonnyeo?”
“Come now, you people. Can’t you see with your own eyes? If I’m not the Tomok Seonnyeo, then who is?”
“Well… your clothes… It seems you were hiding your true power.”
Jin Seol had stayed up all night to make her a new shaman robe. It wasn’t entirely new—she had simply patched various fabrics onto an existing garment. Thanks to that, the colorful cloths that once flapped about in chaotic layers had now melted into the fabric itself, flowing and stretching in perfect harmony with the beautiful curves of a woman’s body. Aside from the rather tight fit around the chest and hips, it had become a magnificent outfit that elegantly captured Cheong’s grand and majestic aura. Cheong, who didn’t particularly care about clothing, couldn’t help thinking that Jin Seol might have missed her calling. Had she become a seamstress instead of a martial artist, her name might have echoed across the entire Central Plains.
“Come now, you people. Do you want a taste of my miraculous hammer? Get those filthy eyes off me. Tsk tsk. I came out today to build a house, you know.”
However, the people’s expectations today weren’t focused on the Tomok Seonnyeo’s monstrous strength. They were dying to hear the truth of that night—the grand confrontation between the Tomok Seonnyeo and the curse.
“Um, Fairy? I heard you caused quite a commotion in the middle of the night…”
“What’s so special about that? Some sinister thing came to the shrine at night, so I simply chased it away. No matter how vicious a curse may be, it’s still just a human creation. Once General Xiang Yu gives it a good scolding, it scatters in terror, screaming and vanishing in an instant.”
Cheong spoke, fully immersed in her shaman role-play. Her voice came out sharp and fierce, making her look every bit the proper shamaness to anyone watching.
“Fairy? Aren’t you cold? On a day like this, you shouldn’t be swinging a hammer in the freezing wind. You ought to have a cup of warm liquor instead.”
“Hmm. Should I?”
The culture of buying tea or alcohol in exchange for a good story was a long-standing tradition in the Central Plains. And so, a jar of steaming yellow wine was placed before her with a thud. Yellow wine was best enjoyed warm, after all. Cheong downed the free drink in one refreshing gulp and began her tale.
“After finishing the construction at the Jin Family manor and setting the materials outside, a thought suddenly occurred to me. ‘Ah, today we might have an unwelcome guest.’ This is the intuition of the greatest carpenter in Henan. But who am I? The greatest carpenter in Henan. There’s no reason to fear some random evil spirit, so I didn’t turn in early.”
The listeners tilted their heads. What was this intuition of the greatest carpenter in Henan? And what did carpenters have to do with evil spirits? Did Henan carpenters hunt ghosts? Was it because of Shaolin Temple?
“Then, in the middle of the night, I woke to the sound of an evil spirit creeping in. Do you know what an evil spirit sounds like when it arrives? It’s like ssaaaaah—the night wind blowing gloomily—and from far, far away, from a distance too distant for human ears, comes the sound of footsteps. Thud. Thud.”
The crowd swallowed hard.
“So I quietly hid myself to see what kind of curse this was. Yes. Then the evil spirit burst into the Wu Mi Gai Shrine, and suddenly—ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling—the bells meant to ward off evil started ringing wildly on their own. It was shaking so violently I thought the bell would shatter.”
“And then? What happened next?”
“So our eyes met, that insolent thing and I. My god, I’ve never seen eyes like those. They gleamed like a beast’s with pure malice. This wasn’t an evil spirit that had only devoured one or two people.”
Cheong lowered her voice.
“But from here on—”
“Server! More yellow wine!”
“Lady Tomok Seonnyeo likes this one, right? What kind— No, never mind. We’ll order one of every kind.”
In the Central Plains, it was basic etiquette for a storyteller to cut the tale off at a cliffhanger like this. In Cheong’s hometown terms, it was the equivalent of ‘to be continued in thirty seconds’ or ‘after this commercial.’ So the experienced listeners placed fresh offerings on the now-clean table.
Cheong blinked.
“I wasn’t asking for more drinks.”
It was absurd, but… well, it still felt good. Cheong emptied another large cup of yellow wine and reset the mood.
“I’m not saying my throat is dry. It’s because what I’m about to say is extremely ominous. Do you all know what this curse truly is?”
“A curse doesn’t arise on its own. Have you ever seen something that didn’t exist in the world create itself? The same goes for curses—there must be someone who made it. Someone killed a person with a heart full of venom, wanting to harm the Jin Family greatly, and sent this thing out.”
“Who… who is it? Could it be… those people?”
One spectator chimed in. Those people—the ones whose name could not be spoken. It wasn’t that there were no noseless shamans in the Central Plains; it simply referred to the Sapa bastards. The hallmark of cities where the Sapa held power was that the common people dared not casually utter their names.
Cheong shook her head.
“Actually, even I don’t know exactly. I can only tear apart such evil spirits with divine strength like General Xiang Yu. Even if I chased the root and dug it out, those cursed wretches wouldn’t tell the truth.”
“Then… has the Jin Family’s curse been lifted?”
“No. Not yet.”
Cheong cut in firmly.
“A curse, you see, doesn’t disappear if it fails. It returns to the caster—the one who created it. Haven’t you heard the saying? If you want to curse someone, dig two graves.”
The spectators looked confused. Cheong herself looked confused. Huh? Was that not it? Was it not graves but something else that needed digging? Or was it three graves instead of two? Wasn’t that a famous saying?
It was because this wasn’t a saying from the Central Plains but from those Japanese pirates.
“If you wish to curse another, dig the grave of your enemy and your own. If the curse succeeds, it harms its owner as payment for its labor, so you must dig your own grave as well.”
“So even if the curse works, you still get hurt?”
“That’s the terrifying part of curses. That’s why, since ancient times, people have avoided curses and sorcery, calling them wicked. But what’s even scarier is when the curse fails. Do you know what happens when a curse like this gets badly injured by a spiritual carpenter like me?”
“W-what happens?”
Cheong finally reached the main point.
“It takes its anger out on its owner. Since I drove away that vicious curse, it will surely cause great harm to the one who created it. If anyone in Gwangju suffers a truly enormous disaster, they are the ones who cursed the Jin Family.”
The audience’s eyes sparkled. It meant people in Gwangju would soon suffer a very, very big disaster. Wasn’t this a forecast of an impending storm, a great spectacle, a massive jackpot of entertainment? The listeners were already fidgeting in their seats, mouths twitching, dying to spread the rumor.
Cheong added fuel to the fire.
“However, a curse has the habit of recognizing those who know about it. Since you’ve all heard from me what the Jin Family’s curse is, you might suffer misfortune if you’re unlucky.”
The Central Plains people’s love for superstition ran deep.
“Gasp. Then what should we…”
“You’re not going to start selling talismans now, are you?”
This was also the moment when such shamans usually pivoted to business. The timid or superstitious ones looked ready to pull out their wallets at once. Those with slightly stronger wills thought they didn’t believe it but, since it felt ominous, might buy one if the price was right. A few even frowned, ready to stand up abruptly with an “Aish, I’ve been had.”
Cheong clicked her tongue loudly.
“Who are you calling a merchant! Would this shamaness let people come to harm from the story she herself told? I have a solution—that’s why I shared the tale.”
“W-what is that solution!?”
“Spread the story I told you far and wide. If everyone in Gwangju knows about the curse, the curse will think its fame is only natural and stop paying attention entirely. So tell as many people as possible that the Jin Family’s curse has been broken, that the vengeful curse is returning to its owner, and that they will soon suffer a great calamity. Understand?”
Fortunately it wasn’t a costly solution, and since they were already dying to spread what they had heard, it was something they would have done anyway. It required no real effort.
“Now then. Since I’ve enjoyed the drinks and snacks, go spread the word about the curse and avoid disaster. The more people who know, the safer you become. Yes. So go out into the world and spread this news.”
At that, the listeners rose up fervently like disciples and spread the teachings of the greatest carpenter in Henan far and wide.
The common folk said: Have you perhaps heard that news? It is a fearsome and evil tale, but entertaining to the ear, and by listening, you too shall obtain safety.
To which the listener replied: I have eagerly awaited such news through this long winter. Come, storyteller, accept this drink of mine and grant a tale to this poor traveler writhing in boredom.
With the desperate propagation that combined the Central Plains people’s gossip instinct and curse avoidance, the newly updated rumor spread like wildfire across the dry winter fields.
Thus, the hot topic in the city was the curse. Would the curse the Civil Engineering Fairy spoke of truly strike its owner? And who was that owner? If it was a ‘great calamity,’ just how terrible would it be? It was the perfect topic to chatter about during the farming off-season.
Some dismissed the Tomok Seonnyeo as a fraud spouting nonsense, while others countered that since she had completed the Jin Family construction without issue, she must possess real spiritual power. Impromptu betting rings sprang up on the spot.
There were all kinds of bets. Bets on who would be hit by the returning curse. Bets on when it would strike. Bets on whether the Tomok Seonnyeo truly had divine power and whether a disaster would really come. And so, with many people of Gwangju and the fate of the betting money on the line, they waited for the new incident.
----
Naturally, the ominous rumor also dug its way into the Salwol-pa.
That those who had cast the curse on the Jin Family would instead suffer a great disaster from their own curse.
At that, the leader of the Salwol-pa, Lee Wang-chul, paced frantically around the leader’s hall.
“What the hell are the Jin Family bastards plotting?”
However, Strategist Bang remained calm.
“It’s ‘repay grievance with grievance, repay blood with blood.’ They’ve essentially announced their intention to take revenge in kind.”
‘Repay grievance with grievance’ meant returning resentment with resentment, and ‘repay blood with blood’ meant wiping blood with blood—the mindset of a true man who takes revenge exactly as he received it. This was slightly different in nature from the Western Region saying ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.’ At that time in the Western Regions, it was an era where a single shoulder bump could kill a person, so the phrase meant to only return a shoulder bump for a shoulder bump. Revenge is fine, but value human life. Therefore, ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’ was not about revenge but a law encouraging forgiveness.
But Central Plains people would tell such timid mindsets to go to the dogs. Revenge was considered so important in the Central Plains that it was said one wasn’t a real man if he wasn’t vicious, to the point it was treated as a basic component of personhood.
However, separate from that, a gentleman’s revenge is never too late no matter how late it comes—meaning the vicious mindset of hiding one’s inner thoughts and waiting for the right moment was also considered a great virtue.
So the Jin Family had openly spread the rumor, essentially declaring ‘we will take revenge.’ Therefore, it was only natural for the Salwol-pa leader to grow tense, sensing something big was coming.
If it was force against force, the Gwangju Sapa could unite and overcome it. But if tricks were pulled in secret, it was his own safety that would be threatened first. The Jin Family Head was a master of the Harmonious Realm, after all. What if he barged in while he was enjoying his hobbies—drinking with gisaeng and other pleasures?
“They used their heads quite well. If the Jin bastards pull tricks and aren’t caught, rumors will spread that the Salwol-pa cast the curse. If they are caught, the justification remains clear regardless.”
However, Strategist Bang remained calm. What a reliable sight. Lee Wang-chul grabbed onto him.
“Then, then what should we do?”
“For the time being, stay quiet as if the sect has closed its gates. We must also prohibit individual actions by our martial artists. Since they’ve already spread rumors about a curse or whatever, they will try to inflict harm on us somehow. If in the end no harm comes to us, it will only make the Jin Family look ridiculous. But if we don’t step forward, the most they can do is a nighttime raid, no?”
It was a suggestion to temporarily halt the sect’s activities so they would be forced to launch an impatient nighttime raid.
“But isn’t that nighttime raid the problem?”
“The Jin Family is short on personnel. Moreover, every warrior is a direct descendant of the Jin Family, making them irreplaceable resources. So if we capture just one or two, they will obediently retreat.”
Strategist Bang was calm as always. When the strategist maintained his composure, the lord also gained peace of mind and courage.
“As expected! You have it all thought out! As expected of my Zhang Liang! No, to me, Strategist Bang is even a step above Zhang Liang!”
Lee Wang-chul showered Strategist Bang with praise.
It was then. Urgent footsteps approached rapidly, and without even being told to enter, the door to the leader’s hall slid open with a violent rattle! Almost as if it would break.
“You bastard, how many times have I told you to get permission before—”
“It’s a disaster! The Geumjeok Faction! The Geumjeok Faction!”
“The Geumjeok Faction? What about those bastards?”
“The Geumjeok Faction has been destroyed! It’s been turned into a complete wasteland!”
----
Cheong also heard the news.
“Eh.”
Cheong was simply dumbfounded. What? Why was the Geumjeok Faction suddenly ruined?