Chapter Thirty-Two: Reading the Lines

According to their pact, Pan Yun was to contribute one-fiftieth of the spiritual energy she cultivated to the Spirit Realm. She had been diligent, practicing day and night without pause, yet the Spirit Realm had shown no change from consuming this energy.

Unexpectedly, today it suddenly unlocked a portion of its seals. Not only did it reveal seven of the thirteen Taoist True Qi techniques and a beginner’s handbook on talismans, but it also expanded the secondary space used for storing physical objects.

Merit... is it about saving lives?

Pan Yun was lost in thought.

The Realm Spirit watched her eagerly, and seeing her return to her senses, it immediately probed, "Perhaps we should cultivate merit?"

Pan Yun asked, "Do you have a cultivation method for that?"

The Realm Spirit fell silent.

Pan Yun sneered.

The Realm Spirit ventured, "Doing good deeds... is always useful." Its voice grew smaller. "It's always useful."

Pan Yun retorted, "I can't wait, and my father and brother can't afford to wait either."

The Realm Spirit wanted to persuade her further, but Pan Yun impatiently cut it off: "Why can't I have both? Does cultivating hinder me from doing good deeds? Or does doing good deeds hinder my cultivation?"

The Realm Spirit: ...Fine, perhaps its thinking was just not broad enough.

Pan Yun's thinking was even broader. "Besides, aren't you there? When I’m busy, you can do it. The merit from the good deeds you perform will be credited directly to you. Isn't that better than me receiving it and then splitting it with you?"

At this point, Pan Yun narrowed her eyes. "Speaking of which, the merit I gained from saving people is not within the scope of spiritual energy. Why was the Spirit Realm able to absorb it directly?"

The Realm Spirit replied, "...I don't know."

Pan Yun stared at it silently.

The Realm Spirit shouted, "I really don't know! If I knew, would the golden light of merit that the Prince of Zhou gave you still be floating around like a cloud?"

Pan Yun looked at the tiny golden cloud in her Mud-Pill Palace, deep in thought. "Let’s investigate this."

The Realm Spirit was more than happy to oblige. Having lost many memories after being sealed, it likely knew even less about its own nature than Pan Yun did.

The Realm Spirit had resided in Pan Yun's Mud-Pill Palace for eight years and was well-acquainted with it. Since the Spirit Realm was its spiritual body, it felt right at home.

Although the Mud-Pill Palace was her own, Pan Yun had not been practicing internal observation for long, and her divine sense was depleted by the effort.

She and the Realm Spirit split up, searching every corner within the Spirit Realm. Just as she was about to lose her hold on her divine sense, she suddenly remembered that the Research Institute had once placed a formation on the Spirit Realm specifically to track the spiritual energy invested and the progress bar of the seal-breaking.

After all, corruption and embezzlement existed everywhere.

The Spirit Realm was like a bottomless pit; no matter how many resources were invested, it rarely changed. Without tracking the spiritual energy and the progress, no one would have the confidence to keep investing. Otherwise, the researchers might have descended into infighting due to suspicion before the seals were even broken.

With this formation in place, it was convenient for researchers to track the relationship between energy input and progress, and for supervisors to monitor the process. The public also trusted the concrete numbers displayed by the formation more. Otherwise, if you claimed to have fed a high-energy jade to the Spirit Realm, who could verify it? The Spirit Realm couldn't talk.

Pan Yun’s divine sense appeared at the top of the Three-Jade Spirit Realm. The small avatar manifested by her divine sense performed a hand seal. The spiritual energy in her body was guided into her Mud-Pill Palace and danced at her fingertips. Once the seal was complete, a stream of light flew into the Spirit Realm.

The Spirit Realm glowed with flowing light, and two bars slowly appeared at the top: one red, one blue.

The senior who designed this formation had once said proudly, "It’s just like playing an old-fashioned online game. Doesn't feeding the Spirit Realm feel like feeding a teammate?"

When treasures were fed, the red bar would shoot forward, while the blue bar remained motionless. Occasionally, after heavy feeding, the red bar would fill up several times before the blue bar would move forward even a fraction.

It was this situation that caused some in the Research Institute to oppose further investment, arguing that the seal-breaking consumed too much and the output was not proportional to the input. Another faction, however, became even more determined to continue, reasoning that if breaking the seal required so many treasures and so much energy, it only proved how powerful the Spirit Realm's functions must be.

The pain point of the current world was the loss and fragmentation of heritage. If they could read so much knowledge from the Spirit Realm, perhaps the ancients had done the same? By breaking the seal, they might gain the treasures of past civilizations and bridge the gap in their broken cultivation history. Just thinking about it made any sacrifice seem worthwhile.

Pan Yun’s master belonged to neither the first nor the second faction. He formed his own, known as the third faction. He decided to go the technical route: break the formation, unlock the seal.

Pan Yun was one of his most prized disciples, and she naturally supported him. Then, on a certain day in a certain month, while Pan Yun’s master was researching how to break the formation, he touched something, and the laboratory exploded...

So, the technical route wasn't so easy to walk either.

Pan Yun hovered in the air before the progress bars, her emotions complex. The Realm Spirit emerged and looked at the formation with her, feeling equally conflicted. "You found it?"

Pan Yun said, "My senior brother earned his PhD degree based on this formation. Looking at it now, he didn't make it perfect—humans cannot modify it, but a Realm Spirit can."

The Realm Spirit felt awkward and explained, "I didn't modify it; I just shielded you from it. It has been working all these years, and I was so annoyed that I tried several times to destroy it but couldn't find a way."

Pan Yun asked, "Are you trying to tell me that you’ve also spent these eight years feeling uneasy?"

The Realm Spirit fell silent.

Pan Yun circulated her cultivation technique, allowing more spiritual energy to enter her Mud-Pill Palace. She fed the energy to the Spirit Realm; the red bar moved forward slightly, but the blue bar remained still.

Pan Yun reached out toward the golden cloud. As it swirled around her fingertips, she pointed toward the Spirit Realm. The golden light of merit flew into it. The red bar didn't move, but the blue bar jumped forward a notch. The Realm Spirit was ecstatic. "I felt it! One of the seal nodes has loosened."

Pan Yun looked at the remaining golden cloud, thoughtful. "It really is this effective."

The Realm Spirit nodded repeatedly. "Very effective, very effective."

Pan Yun was about to speak when there was movement outside. She sank her divine sense and opened her eyes. The Realm Spirit flew out from her forehead and merged into the body of the shallowly breathing black cat. Both human and cat looked toward the door.

A moment later, there was a knock.

Pan Yun said, "Come in."

Tao Ji pushed the door open. Seeing that her money was still spread out on the table, he frowned slightly. "Why haven't you packed up yet? Aren't you going to follow the funeral procession for the Prince of Zhou later?"

Pan Yun asked calmly, "Are you all going?"

"We are going to see him off. Tomorrow morning, we set off to return to Mount Sanqing," Tao Ji said. "We have been out for too long."

Pan Yun nodded. "Alright."

Seeing her so compliant, Tao Ji couldn't help but look back at her several times as he left.

Pan Yun closed the door, gathered all the money she had collected over the past few days into the Spirit Realm space, and went to see off the Prince of Zhou.

In the region of Zhou, the Prince was considered kind to his people. Compared to his uncles and brothers who were fond of eating human brains and livers, kidnapping men and women, or tying up commoners to use as punching bags, his known hobby was merely writing and staging plays.

His father, the late Prince of Zhou, had left him a vast medical legacy, including herbal estates, pharmacies, and doctors. As a member of the royal clan, he could not engage in business or compete with the people for profit, so the pharmacies were operated by the local government as semi-charitable institutions. The doctors under his name were dispatched wherever there was an outbreak of disease.

Thus, the Prince of Zhou was deeply loved by the people.

When the Prince's coffin was carried out, the streets were filled with mourning commoners, and local gentry and officials had set up offering tents along the road. The people who had once benefited from the Prince’s kindness followed the funeral procession all the way out of the city, only turning back after being persuaded by the Prince’s household staff.

Although the imperial decree for Zhu Zijin to succeed his father had not yet arrived, he was the heir apparent and remained the new master of the household. The people in the mansion were calm, and no chaos ensued.

Zhu Zijin, holding the hand of young Zhu Tongqi, who was dressed in mourning clothes, saw the three of them off at the gate and couldn't help but make one last attempt to persuade them. "Are you three Taoists sure you won't stay a while longer? My mother was very fond of Taoist Xuanmiao, my son has grown close to Taoist Pan, and Taoist Tao’s medical skills are superb. I would very much like to invite the three of you to be my guests."

This was not the first time Zhu Zijin had mentioned it, but all three refused firmly.

Cultivation was so joyful and free; they had no desire to be confined in a mansion as house guests.

Unlike his father, Zhu Tongqi felt no sorrow. He broke free from his father's hand and ran forward to grab Pan Yun’s hand. "Big sister, go wait for me at Mount Sanqing. Once my mourning period is over, I will come find you to become your apprentice."

Pan Yun: "Become my apprentice?"

Zhu Tongqi looked at Tao Ji and grinned.

Tao Ji smiled back at him, only restraining himself after a sharp look from Xuanmiao. He muttered under his breath, "This child has a talent for my alchemy..."

Zhu Zijin broke into a cold sweat and finally stopped trying to keep them, enthusiastically seeing them off. He held his son’s hand tightly and coaxed him, "You must learn to read first. When you grow up, you can go to Mount Sanqing to play. Otherwise, if you go out and don't even know the way, what if you can't find your way home like last time?"

The gate closed behind them. From this day on, the Prince of Zhou's mansion would be in deep mourning, and the doors would not be easily opened.

Pan Yun glanced back at the tightly shut gate. The entire estate was suffused with purple energy that soared upward without interruption, suggesting that the next Prince of Zhou would be just as well-supported by the people's energy as the last.

Xuanmiao also glanced back before sitting in the carriage. "Let’s go."

Pan Yun hugged the black cat and hopped into the carriage.

The heir to the Prince of Zhou had been generous, gifting them a mule cart. He had originally wanted to gift a covered carriage, but Tao Ji had refused, as covered carriages could not hold as much.

Heading south, Tao Ji bought cheap goods all along the way: herbs, fabric, spices, shoes, socks, ready-made clothes... He even stockpiled several wooden basins. Don't ask why; the answer was always that it was cheaper here.

At first, Pan Yun and the black cat could lounge in the carriage, watching the clouds and enjoying the wind while focusing on researching the reading formation in the Spirit Realm. She wanted to add a "merit" reading bar.

She and Pan Xiaohei had already discovered why it could absorb merit directly. During the time the Realm Spirit was separated from its main body, she had nourished it with spiritual energy, and the Spirit Realm, having lost its spirit, seemed to have mistaken her for the Realm Spirit itself.

Combined with the fact that it was already connected to her soul and bound by a pact, the result was that it was now truly one with her. This meant that if she died, the Spirit Realm would likely be destroyed, or it would follow her soul into reincarnation. Unless she died and was reborn again, she couldn't be certain, and this was an experiment that couldn't be completed in one lifetime.

In the end, just as she was getting a handle on the formation, the cart became more and more cluttered. Finally, she could only sit on the very edge of the cart. Forget watching the clouds or studying the formation—she had to struggle just to keep from being bounced off.