Despite Na Rin’s deep intentions, the children of Bongrim Village thought differently.

‘What sin did I commit in my past life…’

‘Today, it feels like my bones are aching more than usual!’

‘Let’s pretend to be dead. Maybe she’ll pass over us.’

“Get up.”

The body of the Bongrim Village child lying face down like a dead frog twitched greatly.

No. Don’t waver. She won’t beat a dead person, right?

“It’ll hurt more if you don’t get up.”

“…”

“Well. It’s okay.”

A low, chilling voice reached the ears of the child pretending to be dead.

“You grow as much as it hurts.”

“I, I’m up! I’m getting up!”

“No. Stay lying down.”

“Aaargh!”

Na Rin’s tightly clenched fist struck the meridian of the half-risen child with a ‘thump!’

A sensation as if penetrating the entire body.

The child slumped down with the feeling of their pants becoming damp.

‘Phew. It’s finally over.’

Na Rin wiped off the sweat she had pleasantly shed and smiled with satisfaction.

If the children don’t slack off in their training, they’ll be able to gather internal energy several times faster than others with their softened meridians.

Wow. Honestly, this is genius-level stuff.

Where else would you find a master like me doing this for you?

If they have any conscience, they should really be grateful.

Na Rin inwardly took great pride in her actions.

“What is this commotion!”

It was by chance that the Sun and Moon Goddess witnessed that exact scene.

Ma Jung, Bi Cha, and Dae Heung reflexively lined up and cupped their fists in salute as soon as they saw the Sun and Moon Goddess.

“We greet the Sun and Moon Goddess!”

Sun and Moon Goddess.

As the gatekeeper guarding the entrance to the Ten Thousand Great Mountains, just as people cannot avoid the light of the sun and moon, no one entering or leaving the Demon Cult could escape the eyes of the Sun and Moon Goddess.

“Forget the greetings, answer my question. How can you behave so rudely at the Sun and Moon Gate, the entrance to the Ten Thousand Great Mountains! Depending on the circumstances, I could prohibit entry!”

The guides were extremely perplexed about how to explain this situation to the Sun and Moon Goddess.

To tell the truth, they would have to say, ‘You see, Goddess. The children aren’t fighting. The youngest in our group, Na Rin, is giving massages with her little fists, and while it’s excruciatingly painful and sometimes makes you want to faint, it’s very effective! Why didn’t we stop her? Well, because it’s scary!’ But even to themselves, it sounded too strange.

[Please, Bi Cha. You’re the only one we can rely on in this situation.] [Bi Cha! Do something, somehow!] [Dumping it all on me. What cowards.]

Bi Cha glared at Ma Jung and Dae Heung for completely leaving it up to him, but he also knew that he was the only one who could defuse this situation.

“I report to the Goddess.”

If he could, he wanted to infuse his tongue with internal energy.

“Are you aware that there is something called Confucianism in the Central Plains?”

Suddenly, why Confucianism?

Ma Jung and Dae Heung couldn’t even guess how Bi Cha was trying to steer the conversation.

The same was true for the Sun and Moon Goddess.

“…? Of course I know about the teachings of the Hundred Schools of Thought.”

“Then, do you know that in the Central Plains, subordinates sometimes give massages to their superiors to express gratitude and encouragement?”

The Sun and Moon Goddess thought for a moment and then answered.

“I didn’t know that, but it’s not surprising. It aligns with the virtues of respecting elders.”

“That’s exactly right, Goddess.”

Bi Cha leaped to his logical conclusion as if he had been waiting for this.

“What these children were doing was precisely that. The youngest sibling, who will soon part ways, was giving massages to her older brothers and sisters to show gratitude for their time together and to encourage them for the future. Following the virtue of respecting elders.”

It was truly an absurd statement.

“What nonsense!”

The Sun and Moon Goddess thought the same.

“The Central Plains may be vast, but in what world is there etiquette that involves hitting people?”

“That’s right! That’s exactly the problematic part!”

Bi Cha continued speaking in an excited voice, as if strongly agreeing with the Sun and Moon Goddess’s words.

“Those Central Plains people just love exaggeration! They say things like ‘a taste so good you wouldn’t notice if one person died while two were eating’, or ‘clothes are wings’. But how could you not notice if someone died while eating? And you can’t fly with clothes either. And then they say the more painful a massage is, the more refreshing it feels! Isn’t that strange, Goddess?”

“Umm?”

“Don’t you think it’s strange?”

“Y-yes. It is strange indeed.”

“That’s what I’m saying!”

The Sun and Moon Goddess pondered Bi Cha’s words for a moment.

Yes, it’s true that Confucianism exists in the Central Plains.

The Sun and Moon Goddess knew this much.

It also makes sense that subordinates would give massages to their superiors following the virtue of respecting elders.

The claim that Central Plains people like exaggeration doesn’t sound particularly unfamiliar either.

‘Did I really misunderstand?’

The Sun and Moon Goddess asked in a much softer voice.

“So you’re saying the children are pretending to be in more pain than they actually are?”

“We can’t say that outright. There are ears listening. However.”

Bi Cha cleared his throat and whispered in a lowered voice.

“All the children lying here are assigned to the Sword King Hall. Only the youngest is set to become an ordinary believer.”

“Is that true?”

Hearing this, an interesting look appeared on the Sun and Moon Goddess’s face.

It was not common for children brought by guides to be sent directly to the Sword King Hall.

It meant their talent in martial arts was so evident that there was no need to consider any other future for them.

‘There’s no way such prodigies would be unilaterally beaten by the youngest sibling who will become an ordinary believer.’

A gentle smile finally appeared on the Sun and Moon Goddess’s face.

“I see I misunderstood. Having spent my entire life in the cult, my perspective was narrow.”

“Not at all, Goddess. The children should have climbed up to the Sun and Moon Gate after finishing their Central Plains-style greeting, but we made a mistake in our eagerness to return to the cult as soon as possible.”

“It’s understandable after such a long journey. I’m sorry for keeping tired people at the gate for so long. Please, enter through the gate now.”

“Thank you, Goddess.”

As they cupped their fists and bowed their heads, the guides simultaneously let out sighs of relief.

[Thank you, Bi Cha.] [We survived thanks to you.] [Damn you guys. Buy me a drink.]

Na Rin was equally impressed by Bi Cha’s eloquence.

‘Wow. His speech skill must be at least 200.’

The impressive part of Bi Cha’s eloquence wasn’t simply that he persuaded the Sun and Moon Goddess.

It’s that while the whole thing is clearly a lie when put together, each individual statement isn’t false.

Even if the Sun and Moon Goddess later learns the truth and questions him, he could easily deny any wrongdoing.

‘I used to have quite high speech skills back in Hangzhou too.’

Na Rin clicked her tongue as if regretting something.

The numerical values shown in the status window don’t simply accumulate.

Repeating certain actions and becoming proficient can add new ability scores that didn’t exist before, but even once a score appears, if it’s not used for a long time, it gradually decreases and eventually disappears.

Because of this, while Na Rin achieved significant ability score increases in martial arts during her Blood Plum Blossom era, she had to suffer considerable losses in other areas.

For instance, ability scores like charm and speech were critically affected.

‘I guess when you’re strong, you don’t need to persuade with words.’

Na Rin told herself this, but it wasn’t true.

The Taoist priest Cheong Heo’s skill in inciting crowds was truly unparalleled, and the way Hyeon Un, the head of Hwasan, manipulated Na Rin’s master Hyeon Baek like a puppet was so skillful it was almost suspicious if it wasn’t sorcery.

Come to think of it, it seems Na Rin might have been the only absolute master whose fists moved faster than her words…

‘No, that can’t be. There must have been someone even more simple-minded in the Northern Peng family!’

As Na Rin was trying hard to remember someone more simplistic than herself, Ma Jung spoke to her while carrying, piggy-backing, and holding the fallen children in both arms.

“Na Rin.”

“I’m sorry, but can you wait here while we take the kids to the Sword King Hall? Usually, we’d divide the responsibility, but…”

Ma Jung pointed with his eyes at the exhausted children, as if it was difficult to say.

“It seems we need to carry them over.”

Half of the children who had received Na Rin’s massage had collapsed.

Half of twenty. As many as ten children were having difficulty even walking.

Ma Jung was carrying four of those ten children, Dae Heung another four, and the smaller-built Bi Cha was carrying two.

“Can you stay alone?”

“…Yes.”

Na Rin answered unusually obediently.

‘I didn’t expect it to turn out like this.’

Ten out of twenty ending up in this state was an unintended side effect for Na Rin.

‘Why did they have to resist, why! Don’t they know how good I am at acupressure?’

Na Rin, who had experience saving dying comrades on the battlefield with acupressure many times, had confidence in her skills.

As long as there was still breath, or even if breath had stopped for less than 1 gak, she was confident she could forcibly circulate energy and call them back to the world of the living.

If there was one miscalculation… well, maybe it was that dying people don’t resist?

“Oh my, I’m dying. Oh, my head, my back, my legs…”

“You’re dying? I’m already dead.”

“I’m dead too.”

“Nice to meet you again in the afterlife, you bastards.”

Na Rin watched the retreating figures of the Bongrim Village children with a worried face.

‘It would be bad if they get looked down on by the Sword King Hall kids for being so weak.’

No.

Na Rin shook her head.

It’s not always good to just establish dominance from the start.

Rather, being initially dismissed as a beggar and then taking revenge when their talent blooms isn’t bad either…

‘Huh? Where have I heard this story before?’

In her past life, it was Na Rin who was oppressed as a beggar.

And when it was revealed that Na Rin was a genius among geniuses, it was the martial siblings from Bongrim Village who were beaten to a pulp.

“It’s karma.”

Na Rin shook her head in amazement at the intricacies of life.

Martial siblings. You should be grateful to me.

It’s because I beat you in my past life that you’re in the position to beat others now. Do you know that?

‘No matter how I think about it, I’m just too kind.’

It seemed like a statement that no one but Na Rin would agree with, across both her past and present lives.

[This is the timeline separator]

‘The Sword King Hall must be quite far away.’

Na Rin was squatting at the Sun and Moon Gate, where there was no proper place to sit, waiting for the guides to return.

Slurp!

While sucking on the candy and skewers the Sun and Moon Goddess had given her to eat.

She didn’t particularly like sweet foods, but since candy was hard to come by after the war started, she couldn’t miss this precious opportunity.

“Is there no Sun and Moon?”

Startled by the sudden unfamiliar voice, Na Rin turned her head while still seated.

Standing there with one leg crossed was a handsome young man with long hair, wearing loose clothing that revealed most of his chest.

‘Oh my. I didn’t notice at all.’

Was she too careless?

Even though she had become a child’s body, her sense of presence shouldn’t have diminished.

“Don’t you know?”

Na Rin slowly stood up while maintaining her vigilance and said.

“I don’t know.”

Slurp!

Watching Na Rin shamelessly sucking on the candy, the man tilted his head as if troubled.

“This is troublesome. I can’t cross the Sun and Moon Gate carrying this without permission.”

Screech.

Only after hearing the sound of something dragging on the ground did she notice that something was hanging from the man’s fingertips.

Or rather, someone.

‘It’s a corpse.’