I'm new here, actually I specifically made this account in hopes of finding help ;w; I read a manga back in middle school, which was at least 11 years ago, and I believe it had an ancient chinese setting. In the first volume it sets up the backstory that there's a handful of kingdoms run by Emperors, and this person has a special medallion that gives them permission to pass judgement on these emperors. A young girl lives with her beautiful talented mother (she was a medicine woman perhaps?) in some village, and the daughter often gets into trouble with the local guards/palace guards even maybe?

I believe that the Emperor has his eye on the mother and one day when the child is a teen or young adult, the mother is kidnapped. At some point the daughter meets a stranger and he tags along when she goes to rescue her mother, when they arrive at the Emperor's room in the palace the mother had taken her own life to not dishonour her late husbands memory/her love for her. Because of this and other misdeeds, the stranger reveals himself to be the Judgement guy and gives the girl permission to avenge her mother by killing the Emperor.

I can't remember the name; I can't remember the characters names, but I do remember that the two end up travelling together and I believe there were Water Spirits or Goddesses in the second volume? If anyone could help me out that'd be amazing, I have literally tried looking for this for years now with no luck </3

Tried to find it for like an hour, even just going through manga one by one using the china tab XD couldn't find it :/ If I keep searching I might be able to, but sorry I wasn't able to. I hope you find it someday! Can you tell me if you do btw? cause it seems interesting XD

edit: Realized that this site didn't use my time zone so I actually spent more time then I thought searching for it XD

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Just a depressed asian walking by, pay no attention