I can't remember the title. Details I remember:
- Medieval China inspired setting
- A wealthy daughter's mother is killed, so the father leaves to get revenge on the corrupt noble responsible.
- There was a Buddhist monk who helps raise her while the father is gone. When he returns to live under a false identity, he raises her and teaches her to defend herself. They are poor at this point.
- When the father remarried, his wife gets sick and he steals medicine from the emperor. His daughter pretends to be him to take on the punishment.
- She gets thrown into a pit with evil spirits after a special sword accepts her, where she becomes more powerful. She also learns to change her appearance, which is necessary because she is in the pit long enough that she can no longer pass as a boy.
- There's an arc where she saves a mermaid from an oyster farm. The mermaid was being used to make contaminated pearls.
- There's some romance with the emperor, who sees her without her disguise periodically without knowing it's the same person.
I've tried searching for this, but it doesn't seem to be widely known and is drowned out by all villainness/cultivation/wuxia stories.
Edit: Well, now I'm embarrassed. I tried doing an advanced search for fantasy / crossdressing / martial arts and it was the first result, Yeon Lok Heun. Take this as a recommendation thread, if you think that premise sounds interesting.
- Medieval China inspired setting
- A wealthy daughter's mother is killed, so the father leaves to get revenge on the corrupt noble responsible.
- There was a Buddhist monk who helps raise her while the father is gone. When he returns to live under a false identity, he raises her and teaches her to defend herself. They are poor at this point.
- When the father remarried, his wife gets sick and he steals medicine from the emperor. His daughter pretends to be him to take on the punishment.
- She gets thrown into a pit with evil spirits after a special sword accepts her, where she becomes more powerful. She also learns to change her appearance, which is necessary because she is in the pit long enough that she can no longer pass as a boy.
- There's an arc where she saves a mermaid from an oyster farm. The mermaid was being used to make contaminated pearls.
- There's some romance with the emperor, who sees her without her disguise periodically without knowing it's the same person.
I've tried searching for this, but it doesn't seem to be widely known and is drowned out by all villainness/cultivation/wuxia stories.
Edit: Well, now I'm embarrassed. I tried doing an advanced search for fantasy / crossdressing / martial arts and it was the first result, Yeon Lok Heun. Take this as a recommendation thread, if you think that premise sounds interesting.
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