Even Ghosts and Gods Avoid Him [Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio]

With no family, no kin, no fate, and no friends.

On a snowy winter day, Xie Man, alone beneath a bamboo hat with a long saber at her waist, trudged through the deep snow to deliver the thing that would save her life to the teacher who had given her a name.

Her teacher did not believe in ghosts or gods and taught her to read and write, but soon fell ill and took to bed.

A traveler returns home on a snowy night, a traveler returns home on a snowy night. Xie Man has nowhere to go. In the darkness, only her inborn fearlessness shines bright.

For a bit of loyalty, she crosses mountains and seas, traveling thousands of miles just to bring back a soul.

Only after entering the world of demons and ghosts does she discover how many injustices there are in this world.

If that is so, then I shall draw my blade

And cut down every demon, god, monster, and fiend in my way!

The lighthearted version:

Xie Man is an orphan. She’s just a tiny bit more handy than other people, and a tiny bit colder-faced.

She’s also a tiny bit more fond of picking up things other people don’t want.

Ding~

Painted wall +1

Fox demon +N

Ghosts and monsters +N

Mortals +N

…

But it turns out some people still want the things she picks up. They knew their value all along; they were just afraid others would find out.

So Xie Man draws her blade.

Gods and Buddhas, ghosts and monsters, worldly power…

She can cleave them all to pieces.

P.S. The heroine is a cold-faced, saintly wisecrack machine. Her face is genuinely cold, she really does kill people, and she really is a saint.

The heroine has no divine or demonic bloodline. She is human, and human from beginning to end. There is no awakening bloodline or mystery about her origins. This is simply the story of a young swordswoman in black, wearing a bamboo hat, roaming freely through a world of strange tales, righting wrongs wherever she finds them.

Thesis: I’m not hard to kill. I’m simply fearless.