Guide to the Rebirth of the Evil Woman in the Immortal Realm - Chapter 28

The Number One Sword Immortal in Heaven and Earth?

Shen Fuxin felt as if she had heard these words somewhere before. She couldn’t help but think to herself that these sword immortals were truly, every last one of them, utterly shameless.

By the time they had explored nearly the entire small city, the two of them turned back toward Shen Sha’s meat stall. It was already afternoon. Walking down the dilapidated street, Shen Fuxin looked at Ji Ting, who had remained unusually quiet throughout the walk, and suddenly asked, “If this Shen Sha really is the demoted Shen Sha, what do you plan to do with her?”

Ji Ting replied, “Bring Shen Sha with us.”

Shen Fuxin wasn’t surprised by the answer. Ji Ting’s connection to the Divine Realm ran deep; her actions weren’t those of a typical divine envoy serving a High God, but rather those of the so-called “rebel faction” under Wuzhen and Shen Sha from years ago.

Looking at Ji Ting’s elegant jade robes, washed until they were slightly faded, Shen Fuxin naturally filled in the blanks of the story in her mind.

Perhaps Ji Ting was a great general under the War God Wuzhen. Before Wuzhen died, she entrusted the great cause of revenge to Ji Ting, passing down these jade robes as a legacy. Though Ji Ting’s memory was erased, she could not forget her mission, so she descended to the mortal realm, vowing to lead her former comrades back to glory.

Ji Ting glanced sideways at the dazed Shen Fuxin, feeling a bit helpless, wondering what strange tangent her thoughts had wandered off to now. She waved a hand in front of Shen Fuxin’s eyes. “What are you thinking about?”

“Nothing,” Shen Fuxin said, snapping back to reality. If they fought their way back to the Divine Realm, it would be beneficial for her; it would make it easier to find her mother amidst the chaos. She picked up the thread of Ji Ting’s earlier thought. “Shen Sha has been in the mortal cycle for tens of thousands of years. Her memories have long been washed clean. Is she even willing to go with us?”

The Market Conflict

They had circled back to the market where Shen Sha set up her stall. Ji Ting lowered her eyes to think for a moment, but before she could answer, she saw a crowd gathered around the stall at the end of the street, shouting about something.

The two exchanged a look and quickened their pace, squeezing through the crowd. They saw Shen Sha standing silently behind her wooden cart chopping meat, while a strange man stood in front of the cart, spitting as he ranted.

Seeing more people arrive, the man in the tattered cloth shirt became even more animated. He shouted angrily, “Nobody buy pork from this widow anymore! It’s because of her pork that my wife has become possessed!”

A wave of murmurs and jeers erupted from the onlookers. People have loved a spectacle since ancient times. A nearby vendor chimed in, “That’s strange. I sometimes buy her pork for my own family, and I haven’t seen any possessions!”

The man’s neck turned red with fury. “Bah! My wife has been wrong ever since she ate that meat! She used to be a virtuous woman who didn’t talk back or hit back. Now she’s actually arguing with me! I came home from a day’s work to find the dishes unwashed and the laundry unhung. She said sewing and raising kids all day is exhausting and asked me to help out. You tell me, is that how a human speaks!”

Shen Sha didn’t even look up. She continued chopping through large pork bones, blood and bone fragments flying. She was covered in splatter but seemed oblivious. The man took her silence for a guilty conscience, and his aggression intensified.

The crowd gossiped. Some advised him to keep the peace and not get angry with his wife, others suggested he just go home and give her a beating, while some even said he should just divorce her and find a new mother for his children.

Watching these people who lived off the blood and bone of others, Shen Fuxin frowned. She turned to Ji Ting and said, “In broad daylight, how is it that a beast is standing upright and barking like a human?”

Ji Ting nodded, looking around. “I hear it too.”

The man, hearing this, turned around. Seeing two women who didn’t look like they could fight, he rolled up his sleeves and walked toward them, making a move to strike. “Don’t think just because you’re women I won’t hit you.”

Before he could finish his sentence, a butcher knife flew through the air with a 噌 sound, landing perfectly right in front of his feet. If he had taken one more step, he likely would have lost his entire foot.

Shen Sha looked up. Her amber-yellow eyes, usually so silent, flickered like the eyes of a fierce tiger. She said coldly, “Try moving one more inch.”

The man was clearly a coward at heart. He swallowed hard, his hands frozen, but he still kept his neck stiff and shouted, “See! She wants to kill me to silence me! Killing her whole family wasn’t enough, now she’s attacking innocent civilians! Who would dare stay where this widow is?”

The Protector

Shen Sha stood at the center of the argument. Her expression remained unchanged, but she stood there quietly as if enduring something.

Ji Ting noticed her eerily calm face and felt a faint sense of unease. This state was familiar. She needed to find a way to end this farce quickly; otherwise, once Shen Sha truly started moving her hands, she might end up slaughtering the entire city without distinction.

Just then, a mother and daughter squeezed through the crowd.

They were in rags, carrying wooden sticks, and stood in front of Shen Sha’s cart. It was the same family that had borrowed pig offal from her yesterday. The woman had left the infant and other children at home, bringing only her eldest daughter, who had already begun to recover. Her hands shook as she gripped the stick, clearly terrified, but she didn’t budge an inch.

The little girl ran in front of Shen Sha. Even though she didn’t even reach Shen Sha’s waist, she widened her eyes and shielded her. “You are not allowed to chase away the Butcher Sister!”

Shen Sha froze, looking down at the child blocking her path.

“Sister is a good person. When I was sick, she let us have pork on credit to make soup,” the girl argued, her voice trembling. “She is a good person. You are the bad ones!”

The crowd gradually went silent, but the man continued his excuses. “Who doesn’t know your little brat had consumption? Two days ago, she was dying, and she gets better after eating her pork? You dare say there’s no witchcraft involved?”

Shen Sha’s tightly clenched fist loosened. She reached out and gently patted the child’s head. “Forget it. I’m done for today. I won’t be setting up the stall.”

She washed her hands, said goodbye to the woman and child, and pushed her small wooden cart away. Ji Ting followed her, but Shen Fuxin stayed behind, staring silently at the man who was now picking his teeth and bragging to those around him.

Ji Ting tugged at Shen Fuxin’s sleeve. “Not coming back?”

Shen Fuxin obviously had no intention of leaving it at that. Ji Ting knew exactly what she wanted to do by her expression. Thinking of Shen Fuxin’s eldest brother whom she had skewered on her sword that day, Ji Ting rubbed her brow. “Fine. I’ll go with you.”

Retribution

The man, having bragged his fill, bought a bottle of cheap yellow wine and stumbled his way home. Shen Fuxin and Ji Ting followed him from a distance, winding through a secluded alley until the man kicked open a door with a loud 哐當 and burst into his home.

He was slurring his words from the alcohol. “Bring a basin of water for me, for me to wash my face!”

The sound of a child crying immediately came from inside. The man seemed to be throwing things around, venting his frustrations at home. Hearing the child cry, he kicked and cursed, “Jinx! All you know how to do is cry!”

He took a few steps, searching for his wife but finding no sign of her, knocking over several items along the way. Just as Shen Fuxin was about to enter, a woman’s weary voice came from inside: “Your father is drunk. Go out and buy him a pot of tea to sober him up. Get it from the shop by the city gate; it’s cheaper.”

The child responded and ran out the door with a few coins, brushing past Shen Fuxin and Ji Ting.

The moment the door closed, a loud thud came from inside, followed by the sound of a heavy object crashing down. Ji Ting held Shen Fuxin back and said softly, “It seems there is no need to go in.”

The sound of beating laundry came from the house, one blow after another, becoming slower and looser. After a long time, everything fell into silence.

The Revelation

When they returned to Shen Sha’s home, it was another hazy twilight.

Shen Sha sat in the courtyard with her head bowed. A few days ago, she had indeed sold pork to a woman. That woman’s face had been full of suffering, so Shen Sha had slowed her chopping to listen to her woes for a long time.

She had no witchcraft, and there was no poison in the pork. Shen Sha had simply told her: “You are a human being too. He has no right to treat you as anything less.”

Thinking about what the woman might have suffered after the man returned home, Shen Sha stood up to leave, only to run into Shen Fuxin and Ji Ting. Ji Ting stopped her. “What are you doing?”

Shen Sha frowned. “I’m going to check on that family from today.”

“No need,” Shen Fuxin said. “That man was killed by the wife he always looked down on. He should be a pile of mush by now, buried in the cellar of his house.”

Shen Sha stopped in her tracks. Even though the man was dead, the criticism and judgment of the woman would never be far behind. She lowered her eyes again. “The officials will find her.”

“They won’t.”

Shen Sha suddenly looked up. She looked at the composed Shen Fuxin and Ji Ting, remained silent for a moment, and finally asked, “Are you cultivators who possess magic?”

Shen Fuxin said, “No.”

The red-haired, amber-eyed butcher gave a slightly embarrassed laugh. Of course, how could legendary cultivators appear in this ruined little country? Perhaps the child’s recovery yesterday was just a coincidence, and she was overthinking.

Shen Fuxin said, “We are gods.”

Ah? Shen Sha looked up in bewilderment at these two gods who had broken her bed and eaten three bowls of rice porridge plus four or five sweet potatoes. She didn’t know what to say.

Shen Fuxin’s voice was cold and flat, but her words were one shock after another. She looked at Ji Ting, who had no intention of stopping her, and continued, “Perhaps you are too. Shen Sha, we have been looking for you for a long time. Do you want to come with us?”

How could there be a god who slaughters pigs? Shen Sha looked at her calloused hands. Although she found it hard to believe, she couldn’t help but ask, “If you say I am a god, then what was I like before?”

“Perhaps there isn’t much difference between then and now,” Ji Ting said, gazing at her as if trying to find scattered fragments of memory. “You were always one to hold a blade. Except now you kill pigs, while before, you killed the wicked.”

Shen Sha sat on the steps. Twilight had faded, and the night air was cool. She recalled the scattered fragments that had frequently entered her dreams since her youth, making her unable to distinguish between dream and reality upon waking. The fluttering banners, the yellow sands, the tall warhorses. They would gather to drink celebratory wine—the friend wearing a mask, and the friend with black hair pinned up who was jokingly called the strategist.

In her dreams, she was an invincible War God, but she woke up as the most ordinary butcher in the mortal world.

Shen Sha remained silent for so long that Ji Ting and Shen Fuxin thought she wouldn’t agree. After a long while, the butcher put down her knife and spoke in a low voice.

“Give me seven days,” she said. “In seven days, I will go with you.”