The Saintess Has a Showdown

[sardenr96]

The title is not very accurate. It should be something more along the lines of "the Saintness comes clean".

That's right, it was already Saintess has a Showdown back when the original fans translator started it (way back when there still no Yuri tag on it) and even before Bilibili taking over. Even after Bilibili took over they still continue with the title, so it stick somehow. The title is obviously refers to the plot stopping centered around the protagonist "pretending" as she gains reliable allies and soulpets and become someone truly strong. It was hardly noticeable for manhua readers that the title not very accurate because how the manhua differs from the original novel, somehow becoming like non-stop battle scene a la monster of the week like Jojo mangas, so the title Saintess has a Showdown just fits perfectly somehow.

Also, the novel author's other work also have the same styles of choosing their titles (I Look Too Much Like the Boss and the World Actually Believes It). Those titles sound like joking but the plot and the content actually serious.

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One side notes:

What's even more ironic is that this manhua, though the original title sounds like a joke, even rely less than situational comedy to draw laughs after the "misunderstanding" part is over. Instead it just focus on battles and pure plot. Though from time to time there still comedy but it feels like their main purpose just so to lighten the guro and how brutal and edgy the content is.

I've seen many mangas and manhwas trying to be edgy (though many times they later fall back with the shounen-ish vibe because the artist or the writer just don't have the balls). However, this manhua is on another whole level of edginess, and it done it so naturally it feels like sometimes the artist and the writer just don't give a crap about stuff. It still crazy to think this manhua is able to continue in China after that fist scene done to Rabbit, and the manhua acts like nothing happened, just the usual business. They even do something similar to other characters later on though not as intense as they did to rabbit. (The novel author also goes by the name of Rabbit, the same as that character, it is crazy how the manhua artist and the writer could get away with that scene despite this 😂😂😂).

All in all, despite the joking tone of the title, sometimes the guro and edginess can be overwhelming and uncomfortable. The comedic undertone sometimes help to smooth them out but not always. It doesn't help that the later part of the manhua is no longer as wholesome as earlier chapters. However it certainly without that kind of edginess we won't have some of the most notable scene in the manhua - like "I am Gong Lianyue" scene in Moon Calamity arc, it's one of a hell of a scene.

Also, that other manhua adaptation from the novel author feels like Gong Lianyue from the original novel if the manhua writer didn't flesh out the characters, but with a dude MC -- even the love interest is the same type characters. It somehow has the vibe I imagine if the original novel's work adapted as is (though they said they change some things from the novel). IMO because it doesn't change the work boldly from the original source like Saintess has a Showdown, it doesn't have the flair and the uniqueness as Saintess manhua does. It does however have the edge that the original novel author done with their plot, something that missing in Saintess has a Showdown because the scale of how things changed from the novel is way too much. But since the other manhua releases every week as opposed as twice a week it certainly looks very stable, unlike this manhua, which continues to trip with mistakes over mistakes (unproportional drawing now and then; clothes and customes, character names, etc, inconsistent from chapter to chapter, etc - if you look over the comments in Chinese website you'll find people whining over the failing arts many times... seriously, what did they expect a manhua with slave-like release schedule looks like 🙄)

 

[sardenr96]

Yo did they just drop over 300 worth of chapters plot twist like nothing?

Just with three panels and one bubble of text speech they completely turn this manhua's lore upside down
It's a Usual Suspect moment of manhua that even me who have read the novel (mostly skimming tho) didn't see this coming.

What's insane is that everything just falls into place, like the writer preparing for these three panels of plot twist over hundreds of chapters, waiting for it to drop. It finally makes sense now why the manhua writer changes the plot so much from the original story.

Don't open spoiler if you haven't read till chapter 389

Spoiler: wut

So after got controlled by Blood Queen and Dream Calamity, Gong Lianyue unlocked parts of her sealed memories, which revealed that she had already met Rua even before she "transmigrated". So from this there's 2 possibilities:

1. The isekai theory; Rua got transmigrated along with Gong Lianyue to a different world filled with soul pets - which is HIGHLY UNLIKELY since in several cases Rua shown to have memories (whether inherited or memories of her own) from over tens of thousands years ago over the current universe - which is why she knows Moon Calamity is coming ahead of everyone and in several occasions recognized some other characters that Gong Lianyue has never met, including the original Seven Calamities that no one except Ice Elf knows (even Ice Elf, a Calamity herself, realized it slightly late than Rua)

or...

2. There's no isekai in the first place; Gong Lianyue once lived far in the past in a place that is like the current Cold Waterfall Heaven's Gate, where mortals live alongside disguised soul pets while everything about soul power is hidden from the public. This is the most probable because a) there's other character like Little Deer that is known to be reborn this way b) one place that can be explained as Gong Lianyue's hometown from the current lore in the manhua - if you look closely Sea Realm is actually a ruined version of Cold Waterfall Heaven's Gate - it has a modern city (though isolated) and the lost soul arts that has been excavated in the Sea Realm (the veil-like defense art that Gong Lianyue used) actually is the standard soul arts in Cold Waterfall Heaven's Gate's army (they used it when their army invaded Sea Concubine Palace). In the meantime, there have been very subtle clues that Sea Realm used to be a very powerful powerhouse faction that has modern-day capability in the past, like Spirit-Connection Pond, once the most powerful faction a few hundred years prior, in possession of Monarch of Snow's hair and (possible) her ice coffins, which likely the Sea Realm acquired through friendly relationship or alliance in the past (before Spirit-Connection Pond messed up and made enemy of Monarch of Snow). There's also a statue in praying pose closely resemblance of Sorrowful Saintesses in other place like Ten Moon's organization headquarters, the one that Little Deer said no one knows the origin of - implying that Sea Realm and Sea Concubine Palace's influence reaching far and wide at some point in the very distant past. There's also a mini-arc of Gong Lianyue finding nuclear waste which is not explained specifically the the owner, implying Sea Realm have the technology on par with Cold Waterfall Heaven's Gate. So it's likely that Sea Realm is the one who created Rua in the lab as shown in Gong Lianyue's memory since Cold Waterfall Heaven's Gate, the most likely candidate, doesn't have such capability. And for some reason, after being reborn, Gong Lianyue returns to her homeland despite born in Gong Family.

Gong Family likely are people from Sea Realm that migrated out of the planet for some reason along with the Sea Realm's original soul arts and their technology intact. The ancient and powerful Sea Realm later got destroyed and became a ruin for some reason - however, alliance with Monarch of Snow should resume regardless, but now rather with the descendants of Sea Realm: Gong Family and their newly made faction Cold Waterfall Heaven's Gate, which would explain why Monarch of Snow has her subordinate as an ambassador in Cold Waterfall Heaven's Gate (which would ironically invades Sea Realm after Gong Lianyue attacks Gong Family). All this while Sea Realm was rebuilding, forgotten and lost most of their legacy in the ruin of the sea, yet still keeping their traditions from their distant past, which Gong Lianyue complained of on several occasions, on the course of regaining their former glory under Gong Lianyue's leadership.

We also can made further assumption that the main branch of Gong Family (the bloodline of Gong Lianyue and her sister) is actually Shui Family, a prominent family in the Sea Realm that has been involved in most of Sea Realm factions, making Shui Qinghou's boasts ironically underrated. In around chapter 50 it was shown that all selected Sorrowful Saintess have Shui surname. It's a possibility that Shui's bloodline have something to do with the selection of Sorrowful Saintess, which contributes to Gong Lianyue being chosen since there's no notable Shui kid around her age.

Those are my speculations on the basis of what is already in the manhua's lore. It would be faster to also talk about what's in the novel since there's some relevant information in the novel that can support my speculation, like what's the name of the powerful faction in the Sea Realm that Monarch of Snow is in alliance with - however, since it's likely there are further changes in the manhua from what I know from the novel I should keep it within the limit of the manhua. (Also, in the original novel the fact that Gong Lianyue "transmigrated" from modern-day world is nothing more that vehicle for self-insert setup like any other isekai novels so likely many of the information from the original story won't suit the new plot in the manhua)

 

[sardenr96]

So there's have been no updates for this manhua from 2 raw sites that previously have been active updating the chinese chapters (Colamanga and Baozimh). I've emailed both and have received replies only from Colamanga admin.

I've been in contact with the Colamanga admin 2 times. First when I asked for update for chapters 408 and 409 which has been delayed for several days, they replied promptly saying that it was difficult to deal with Bilibili recently back then, but the chapters soon updated on their site a few hours later anyway.

Fast forward 2 weeks later there's no more updates for chapters 410~413, so I asked them again. This time they said they don't have Bilibili account anymore so they can't get new chapters. So I guess that's it, the last website we can get the Chinese raw have stopped updating for this manhua. I've tried looking elsewhere but most websites are reposting from those two websites.

It's really unfortunate since the recent Dream Calamity arc is really, really good, with chapter 390~393 really rocks. This scene in particular has so much vibe and goes really hard.

EDIT 12/31/24:
After weeks of inactivity, in a surprise bulk update Colamanga releases 6 chapter at once. So I guess they finally solve the problem for getting the chapters from Bilibili? I'm not really sure if they have fix all the issue and back to the normal update schedule (usually Colamanga has 1 hour delay after Bilibili updates), but at least I'm glad the raw updates have not dead yet.

 

[chumbles]

cool art, but the mc is a giant pile of garbage. shes an obnoxiously autistic retard. no smarts, no skill, no cleverness. nothing. just constant "woe is me" bullshit while she does nothing to try to solve the problems she causes herself by being so fucking stupid.

 

[sardenr96]

cool art, but the mc is a giant pile of garbage. shes an obnoxiously autistic retard. no smarts, no skill, no cleverness. nothing. just constant "woe is me" bullshit while she does nothing to try to solve the problems she causes herself by being so fucking stupid.

For anyone reading this, first of all, this guy is a troll. If you look all of his posts before https://forums.mangadex.org/members/chumbles.819282/#latest-activity he's just throwing shit words like "garbage" "retard" and so on without using a single braincell to properly discuss the mangas he's talking about. In a way this guy is a worse kind of troll than the previous guy who only read 3~5 chapters.

cool art, but the mc is a giant pile of garbage. shes an obnoxiously autistic retard. no smarts, no skill, no cleverness. nothing.

Spoiler

Just from the words choice alone I can tell the MC you want is the type prevalent in self-insert manga where those MC will wow people with how "smart" and "clever" they are. However this manhua never market itself as one of those mangas - at best, she's just good at understanding Lost Scrolls and benefits a lot from them due to the identity of her previous life. In fact, a lot of those kind of power trip tropes with MC being "clever" or what not have been removed since the manhua adapted from the novel. And what we have at the start is a MC who is clueless girl who's just have some quirky soul pets with hidden identities - again, if you infer that she's "autistic retard" just from this then you don't get the point of the manhua.

From a girl who have to sneak to library and no one to rely on, gaining powerful soul pets and paying the price when she became overly reliant on them, stumbling and making mistakes when she's trying to resolve crisis without relying on her strongest soul pets.... from a simpleminded saintess who moved by rewards from missions to an empress who have to conspire with others to ambush other factions or assassinate one of seven most powerful concubines.... from a newbie who was clueless soul master who rely on her soul pets' protection to an expert who who fights the enemy by herself and protects her soul pets... in this manhua you don't get to see a MC who you can slap a label "smart" "clever" or what not but we have something that we call character development, not the shallow kind weak to strong development but a meaningful grow where she has to change her mentality and rethinking on how she can rely on other characters and finding new allies. This kind of story is so rare nowadays that people who has short attention span who only want instant gratification stories would quickly dismiss it as "no smarts, no skill, no cleverness. nothing."

Besides, the MC is not entirely have "nothing". Nowadays people throw around words like "smart" "hardworking" when measuring characters but that's only cover a narrow part of character archetypes. Obviously Gong Lianyue doesn't fall into this archetype, which is why despite this manhua have a clear battle-driven genre it feels different than other mangas with the same genre. Instead, her defining quality is that her empathy, not smart not cleverness not skill or what not; we can see this from in several cases the manhua shows that the common norm for soul master is to capture strong soul pets to get stronger - however, out of all of her soul pets not a single one Gong Lianyue acquired by capturing them. When other people think soul pets as army she thinks them as her family. Her relationship with her soul pets is the main theme of the manhua; even if you don't like her as a character saying something like "the mc is a giant pile of garbage. shes an obnoxiously autistic retard. no smarts, no skill, no cleverness. nothing." only shows how little you understand what this manhua is about.

just constant "woe is me" bullshit while she does nothing to try to solve the problems she causes herself by being so fucking stupid.

Spoiler

You say constant "woe is me" like WTF are you talking about? While I know what "woe is me" in general term mean but I have to google it to ensure I can infer the meaning behind your "woe is me" but still I fail to understand your bullshit. Like, seriously, I had to grab the meaning of "woe is me" here, from https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/woe-is-me/ it says "Woe is me is an over-dramatic, often comical way to express sadness or disappointment at an unfair situation." I had to reread it multiple times, racking my brain, but still I fail to apply these words to describe Gong Lianyue. While in very early chapters she does complaints and nags a lot it mainly serves as a gag mainly for her interaction with Rua, sometimes she complaints and can come on strong in her interactions with other characters, but those by no mean close to "woe is me" means. Are you sure you're not throwing random words to make yourself look smarter?

On the other hand, while it's true that she can be clumsy and passive when dealing with problems but the words "she does nothing to try to solve the problems she causes herself by being so fucking stupid" is very exaggerating. There are not many arcs where Gong Lianyue would "cause a problem", mainly Storm Realm arc, Cold Waterfall Heaven's Gate arc, Flower Wreath of Myriad Swamp(or blessing) arc, and there are several other cases, but those escalated mostly are not the result of Gong Lianyue being "fucking stupid".

For example, Gong Lianyue wants to challenge two titled Legendary-Tier from Cold Waterfall Heaven's Gate, in there she causes problem and does whatever she wants because there's no one in Cold Waterfall Heaven's Gate she's afraid of. However, things escalate because Ice Antelope Concubine, which is not a member of Cold Waterfall Heaven's Gate, appears out of nowhere. Is this problem can be attributed to Gong Lianyue being "stupid"? Maybe if she has better inside intelligence about Cold Waterfall Heaven's Gate Gong Lianyue can avoid this problem. But mostly this problem makes Gong Lianyue looks clumsy and passive mainly because the writer clumsily raising the stake out of nowhere, especially on new plots that don't appear on the original novel, but make little efforts to characters to catch up. This is also true in several cases like when she fights Moon Calamity and Blossom Peach Concubine - she doesn't fall into predicament because she makes "fucking stupid" decisions, it just the writer sometimes can be annoying by randomly make clumsy excuses to drive the the story toward the plot they want.