Chapter 123: There’s a Reason for the Epithet
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 123: There’s a Reason for the Epithet
When an honored guest arrives, it is customary to hold a feast, however modest. It is an ancient human tradition to help a traveler relax and welcome news from afar.
After escorting Earth Sage to the cafeteria, I brought out all the leftover food. Unsure of what she might like, I had everything laid out on the table to welcome her.
I joyfully proposed a toast.
“Everyone, your attention, please! An honored guest has graced the Abyss! The Goddess of the Engineer Corps, the Guardian of Digging, the Reverse Undertaker, Terrastream, the Unyielding! She is the master of all these titles, the one and only Earth Sage!”
Earth Sage nodded in acknowledgment, but her expression was less than pleased as I introduced her, especially when I mentioned the last two epithets.
…I wish he’d leave out the last two. Still, this introduction should be over soon.
However, there was a curious twelve-hundred-year-old girl in this room. Tyr asked with pure wonder.
“You have many epithets. How did you come to acquire them all?”
“Haha. They are nothing so grand.”
Earth Sage politely sidestepped the question. But even if she wouldn’t answer, there was someone who would.
And that someone was me!
“Nothing grand? Every single one of them comes from a grand deed!”
There was no way I could let a famous and incredible person like Earth Sage be treated as just another passerby.
Others might stand for it, but not me. I shot up from my seat.
“It’s absurd that someone here doesn’t realize Earth Sage’s greatness! For those who don’t know, allow me to give a brief explanation!”
“No, you really don’t have to.”
“There’s no need to be modest! Tyr isn’t familiar with news from the outside world. If I don’t tell her now, she won’t be able to follow the conversation and will get pouty!”
…Calling the Progenitor, an ancient being, ‘pouty’? This one is no ordinary man either.
Earth Sage reluctantly conceded. With her permission granted, I began to introduce her like an MC welcoming a VIP.
“Earth Sage has participated in most of the national civil engineering projects led by the Military State. But as you know, nothing the state does ever goes right! For the Engineer Corps of that time, whose skills were limited to digging trenches and building wooden fences, such large-scale projects were on the verge of becoming massacres, burying as many people as they employed! People were worried it was the second coming of the Overlord! And that’s when she appeared, like a comet!”
With a flourish, I respectfully raised my hand and pointed to Earth Sage.
“The esteemed Earth Sage! Thanks to her and the earthweavers she led, the Military State was able to build sturdy roads, dams, and buildings!
And that’s not all! How to make concrete several times stronger, how to handle it, how to lay a foundation, how to find water veins and select the right soil! Earth Sage and her earthweavers taught them everything, making them no different from Mother Earth herself to the Engineer Corps! Hence, the Goddess of the Engineer Corps!”
“Hoh. A disciple of Mother Earth becoming a carpenter. How interesting.”
As Tyr’s eyes sparkled with fascination, Earth Sage could no longer refuse my introduction. I rode the momentum and continued my explanation.
“The Guardian of Digging and the Reverse Undertaker are also related to that time! One day, an engineer was buried alive while digging. It was a common occurrence on construction sites, but some citizens grew fearful, saying that Mother Earth was angry that her flesh was being gouged out. But then! Earth Sage unleashed her Earth Art! Like a volcanic eruption, like a wellspring gushing forth! The man’s body was pulled up from deep within the earth!”
Gasps of awe rippled through the room. Tyr’s reaction, in particular, was deeply satisfying.
“Ooh. I have seen Taoists perform similar feats. And so?”
“From that day on, the Engineer Corps no longer feared digging! Thus, the Guardian of Digging. Furthermore, unlike an undertaker who buries the dead, she pulls the living out of the ground, earning her the title of the Reverse Undertaker!”
“Magnificent!”
Tyr exclaimed, looking at Earth Sage with new eyes. Earth Sage’s mouth opened and closed for a moment before she managed a smile in response.
“It is merely a rumor that has been greatly exaggerated.”
…Oh, Mother Earth. Grant this poor daughter of yours the strength to endure this shame.
No matter how renowned Earth Sage was in the present day, she was a child compared to Tyr, who boasted a history of twelve centuries. With Tyr, a being as old as the Abyss itself, showing such interest, Earth Sage couldn’t bring herself to cut me off.
Having played my trump card, I continued.
“Terrastream (坤滾來) was named so because when Earth Sage uses her power, the earth (坤) flows (滾) like a river!”
“The earth flows like a river?”
“That’s right. There’s something called cement! With Earth Sage’s know-how, the Military State mass-produced high-quality cement. But while they were wondering how to transport it, Earth Sage appeared once again! Using the power of her Earth Art, she made the cement flow! It’s said that the stream of cement she created didn’t stop for a whole week!”
There was a time, they said, when the amount of cement moved by Earth Sage and a single squad of Mage Officers was greater than all the cement transported by the entire Military State.
The knowledge gained from that experience also led to the creation of the Meta Conveyor Belt, one of the Seven Major Inventions of the Military State.
“For such a thing to be possible… it defies common sense.”
“It is because she makes it possible, because she transcends common sense, that she is Earth Sage! Fame is not so easily earned!”
She was one who casually accomplished what was impossible by worldly standards. That was why people revered her.
The faith in Mother Earth had been in steady decline since the rise of the Sanctum. It was no exaggeration to say that the only reason this ancient faith, barely clinging to existence, could be revived and blossom in the modern era was all thanks to Earth Sage.
As my introduction seemed to be winding down, Earth Sage breathed an inward sigh of relief.
Not so fast. There’s still one left.
“Then what is the Unyielding (不倒者)?”
Flinch.
Earth Sage reacted for a moment to the Undying one’s question.
I grinned, explaining as if I had been waiting for this all along.
“It means ‘one who does not fall.’”
“Does not fall?”
“No one in the Engineer Corps has ever seen Earth Sage fall. Whether on a steep slope, a rocky mountain, or on ground turned to slick mud by rain. Earth Sage always walked on her own two feet.”
The members of the Engineer Corps and the laborers who participated in the construction—not a single one of them ever saw Earth Sage’s knee touch the ground.
When other two-legged humans, after enduring all sorts of hardships, would resort to walking on all fours like beasts, she always stood on two feet, and walked on two feet. She accomplished everything with her legs planted like an old tree.
“One day, a dam collapsed during construction. A weakened crack gave way, and water began to pour through the gap like mad. If left unchecked, the dam would burst, and a tremendous amount of river water would surely sweep away everyone downstream. A terrible disaster. At that moment…”
By now, everyone had an idea of what was coming next.
At the same time, they half-doubted their own premonition.
It was a feat magnificent enough to be told in stories, but too grand to have been accomplished by a human body.
“If Earth Sage hadn’t appeared then, planting her two legs firmly and blocking the breach with her entire body… that is surely what would have happened.”
“My word.”
Tyr covered her mouth with her hands, and even the Undying one let out a gasp.
It was a story they wanted to believe, yet found hard to accept. The catharsis that comes when a human being trespasses into the realm of the impossible.
Reading everyone’s emotions, I shouted as if I had done it myself.
“Even in that situation, she did not fall! Blocking the gushing water with her body, she gave a stern command to repair the dam while she held it. It was a dangerous situation where if she fell, the repair crew would all be swept away!”
But the men who had been part of the construction back then would tell that story ad nauseam whenever they drank.
Not a single person there, they said, could even imagine her falling.
“But the Engineer Corps and the laborers came down without a shred of doubt and repaired the dam. For the full day she became the dam, everyone worked without eating or sleeping until the job was done.”
As I shouted, my eyes were moist with tears of emotion.
Ah, even the tale of Earth Sage’s great deeds, which feels like it could be told for an eternity, must eventually come to an end. Why must human history be so short and fleeting?
My voice grew somber as I concluded the story.
“From that day on, they became an elite unit that battled the very earth. The legendary Engineer Corps. The unit that does not fall, the Unyielding Engineers.”
The moment my words ended, the deeply moved undying one shot up from his seat and began to chant.
“The Unyielding Engineers! What a splendid name!”
“Right? I heard the Military State honors their spirit by naming new equipment ‘Unyielding.’”
“Hah. A person seeks a place to leave their name. Though it is but an epithet, Earth Sage has achieved a tremendous feat!”
And so, the subject of the legendary Engineer Corps story…
Even after twenty years… I couldn’t shake it off.
…bitterly drained her cup, thinking thoughts that would sadden anyone who could read them.
If I had known it would turn out like this, I would have fallen down just once.
For the Unyielding—no, for Earth Sage, who wished to deny her own legend, I raised my glass high.
“Fight! Win! Unyielding!”
“Unyielding, how cool…”
“Unyielding! Unyielding!”
Tyr and the Undying one, greatly impressed, chanted her title over and over. The boisterous atmosphere even got Azzy excited, who started bouncing and yipping, “Woof! Doja!”
Receiving the respect and cheers pouring in from all sides, the one who does not fall thought to herself, I should have fallen… at least five times.
In any case, the banquet continued. Except for when the epithet ‘Unyielding’ came up, Earth Sage gladly answered the questions directed at her.
What she did after leaving the Engineer Corps, how much effort she put into training the next generation, what the doctrines of Mother Earth were.
Like zeroing in on a target, the questions started from vaguely related topics and slowly approached the main point.
I took the lead and fired the opening shot.
“So, what brings a person as distinguished as you, Earth Sage, to a humble place like this?”
It was the topic everyone had been waiting for. Tyr was interested in every story, but even the Undying one and Callis had been dying of curiosity.
…And so had the Regressor, who wasn’t part of the gathering but was merely listening from outside.
Clink.
As we reached the heart of the matter, Earth Sage set her cup down with a sharp sound and spoke with a heavy voice.
“I have come to fulfill the earnest wish of all followers of Mother Earth.”
“The earnest wish of all followers of Mother Earth?”
“That is correct. The Abyss—a scar from Mother Earth’s past fury, and a disgraceful self-portrait of all her followers. The vile side of the gravemen, buried by the deeds of the Overlord.”
As she spoke, Earth Sage gave a short stomp.
KUNG.
Earth in its ultimate form. The pinnacle of Qi Art, which channeled all of one’s power into the ground, spread throughout Tantalus.
The epicenter of the man-made earthquake spoke with firm resolve.
“The Abyss, Mother Earth’s hell that turned this land into a wasteland. I have come to this place to destroy it.”
“Destroy the Abyss?”
Yes. This was it.
The person the Regressor had mentioned, the one who would come to destroy the Abyss, was Earth Sage.
I didn’t know why she had called such a famous person a heaven-defying earthwyrm or the nightmare of the Sanctum.
But in any case, she had arrived at Tantalus several months earlier than expected!
“It sounds impossible… but hearing it from the woman who created the legend of the Unyielding, I somehow feel like it can be done!”
“…Would you please stop using that epithet now?”
Oops. Maybe I pushed it too far. Okay.