Ling Wen, also called Ling Wen Zhen Jun, is the top Civil Goddess in Heaven and one of the Three Tumors—though she'd probably find that title more amusing than insulting.
She's genuinely exceptional at her job, known for her unflappable competence and a professional demeanor that rarely cracks. Most heavenly officials see her as relentlessly polite and composed, but that's only half the story. With people she trusts—particularly Pei Ming and Shi Wudu, her closest friends—she's sharp-tongued and sarcastic, quick to laugh at their stumbles while still clearly caring about them. She's got a ruthless streak in those moments, and she doesn't hide it.
What's messier is her standing among the other civil gods. Most of her temples across the mortal realm actually revered her as male, since the heavenly bureaucracy has never quite accepted that a woman could be genuinely good at the job. Female heavenly officials are rare to begin with, and the expectation is basically that they stick to ink-grinding, paper-laying, and looking decorative. Ling Wen shattered that, and it bothers people. Behind her back, the speculation gets ugly—that she clawed her way up through relentless flattery, seduced someone powerful, disguised herself as a man, or pulled off some combination of all three. None of it's true, but that's what they whisper.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
