Chapter 1045: Better to Let Flow Than to Block

Pan Yun: "But I don't want to stir up this trouble. My master is good—he has a lot of karmic debts, but he cares for me, he's a mountain god, and I have my senior disciple brother. If I leave, how heartbroken would he be? Sigh~~ There isn't a single reliable person in the sect. My senior nephew earns all the money and the whole sect spends it. If I leave too, he'll truly become a beast of burden, spending his whole life earning for the mountain sect."

Zhang Zijin: "Isn't he that already?"

"He isn't that now," Pan Yun said. "He does it because he likes it."

"What's the difference? Aren't both of you just earning money for Mount Sanqing?"

"Of course there's a difference. In the first case, he must earn money—the entire mountain's burden rests on his shoulders. In the second, it doesn't matter. As long as he can support himself, fine. If he can't, he can always come back—I'll be his backing."

That's the difference!

Zhang Zijin glanced at her, knowing further persuasion was useless.

If she stayed at Mount Sanqing for personal gain, he could lure her away with greater benefits;

but she stayed because of duty.

In this world, only duty cannot be seized.

A man's duty to his country is loyalty; to his parents, filial piety; to being human, benevolence; to his friends, righteousness.

Loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, righteousness—can any of these be taken by profit?

Pan Yun pushed the array diagram toward him, her eyes full of seduction: "Elder, what are you doing?"

Zhang Zijin felt a flicker of interest, but refused to yield so easily. After scanning her, he said: "If you can regrow your hair to full length within fifteen minutes, I'll do it."

Pan Yun raised an eyebrow. How hard could that be?

In just two days, fine sprouts had already emerged on her scalp—she grew hair fast. Even her eyebrows had sprouted black buds. She simply didn't bother exerting herself—she wasn't incapable.

Pan Yun sat cross-legged, eyes half-closed, her qi circulating through her body, steam rising all over her. In moments, the eyebrows drawn with eyebrow pencil grew back, and the Daoist headcloth on her head was lifted off by the new hair and fell to the ground. Her hair grew visibly past her shoulders before slowing to a stop.

Pan Yun opened her eyes and looked at Zhang Zijin with triumph.

Zhang Zijin glanced at the array diagram on the table, nodded, and said: "I'll study it. You may go."

Pan Yun grinned slyly: "Elder, the Ministry of Works has plenty of records. Their officials and craftsmen don't understand arrays, but their skills are exquisite—they always have brilliant ideas. Why not visit them often? You might gain some inspiration."

Zhang Zijin sneered and pointed to the door: "Get out!"

"Got it." Pan Yun stood and left immediately.

Zhang Zijin grunted. Including his time guarding the Nanjing palace, he had spent over seventy years in the Zhu family's imperial palace—he knew these emperors and ministers far too well.

He trusted Pan Yun because they were the same kind. He knew she, like him, cultivated for the Dao, but had principles—what she would and would not do.

He didn't trust those officials, and he trusted the Emperor even less.

Pan Yun was free to deal with the Emperor and form alliances—he didn't care. But he would never place himself in the same danger as her.

He had survived seven dynasties without falling—not because he was smarter than those officials, but because he kept his word: he guarded only the palace and the Emperor from demons, monsters, and otherworldly intruders. He never meddled in politics.

He was willing to study the Spirit Communication Array for the sake of the Daoist sect's advancement—but only through his exchanges with Pan Yun. He would never contact any imperial court official.

They had merely probed each other with a single sentence—both understood perfectly.

Pan Yun turned in a circle, stepped out of the room, stood in the courtyard, thought for a moment, then decided to see Xue Shao before leaving.

At the end of last year, after completing his inspection tour of Jiangnan, Xue Shao returned to the capital to report. The Emperor, remembering his great achievements, promoted him to Right Assistant Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate. His uncle, Xue Xuan, also rose to Minister of Justice, having repeatedly solved Master Qian cases.