Chapter 112

Seeing Miao Zhen: "How much is Little Uncle asking us to borrow?"

Pan Yun: "I think you want to borrow a hundred taels from me."

Seeing Miao Zhen couldn't help laughing, then nodded. "Then we'll borrow a hundred taels."

Seeing Miao He: "I can also hold two hundred taels for Little Uncle."

Pan Yun: "What do you mean 'hold'? This is a loan."

"Yes, yes, yes, it's a loan."

Tao Yanbai ran out with a firestick, eager to join. "Little Uncle, I want to borrow a hundred taels too."

"Of course, of course."

None of the adults needed to get involved—these four kids handled it all themselves.

Pan Yun handed each of Miao He and Miao Zhen a hundred-tael silver note, then told Tao Yanbai: "Your hundred taels are silver ingots—I'll bring them to you in my room."

Seeing Miao Zhen's eyes lit up; she immediately returned the silver note. "Little Uncle, I don't want silver notes—I want silver ingots too!"

Seeing Miao He instantly followed suit, returning his note. "Me too—I want silver ingots!"

Pan Yun: …

Pan Yun took back both silver notes, glanced at Tao Yanbai, and was about to hand him one when he hurriedly added: "I—I—I still want silver ingots."

Pan Yun retracted the note. "Fine. Borrowers are all masters. You decide."

The three of them grinned broadly.

Tao Ji called from the kitchen: "Yanbai, are you done? Come back and tend the fire!"

"Yes!" Tao Yanbai turned and rushed back to the kitchen.

The meal still needed time to cook, so Pan Yun led Miao Zhen and Miao He back to count the silver ingots.

Pan Yun never kept her money outside—she stored it all in the Spirit Realm. She returned to her room, pulled out a cloth sack, took out the silver ingots from the Spirit Realm, then carried them out to Miao He and Miao Zhen.

The three squatted on the courtyard's blue stone slabs, unrolled the sack, and the plump, gleaming silver ingots glowed with a heart-stirring luster under the setting sun.

Even Pan Yun, owner of this wealth, couldn't help sighing: "It's true—same amount. Seeing silver notes stirs a faint emotion, but seeing these ingots? My heart goes wild."

Miao He grabbed an ingot, stroked it again and again, nodding vigorously. "It's not mine, but even touching it makes me excited."

Pan Yun waved her generous hand. "Choose—pick out a hundred taels yourselves. The rest is for Yanbai."

Though all ingots looked identical, Miao He and Miao Zhen carefully selected them, laid them on the ground, compared them meticulously, and finally chose what they deemed the finest ten ingots.

Both spread out their robes, placed the selected ingots atop them, and gathered the fabric to carry them back—but the ingots were too heavy; the robes sagged and choked their necks.

Yet they stubbornly persisted, tilting their heads upward to carry them back, making Pan Yun burst into laughter.

With the money lent out, Pan Yun ate her meal with great contentment. No further mishaps occurred. The next day, while brushing her teeth, she didn't bleed again.

She even wandered deliberately through the mountains, giving Heaven ample opportunity—but not a single accident happened.

For two straight days, all was peaceful. She still gained fifteen merit points twice daily. Life returned to calm.

Pan Yun was certain now: "Money I lend out, if not returned, isn't counted as mine under the Law."

Pan Yun clicked her tongue. "So even Heaven knows: don't lend money lightly. Once lent, it might truly cease to be yours. No wonder when I borrowed from Senior Disciple, if I didn't return it within two days, the system automatically counted it as my asset."

Pan Xiaohei ignored her musings. "Is the final experiment to give the money to them?"

Pan Yun looked at it as if it were an idiot. "If lending the money solves the problem, why consider the final step? The premise for the final experiment is that lending the money harms me or them."

"Now I just wait for my father's letter—to see if receiving the money affects him." Pan Yun's gaze grew deep. "I already have a rough idea of what happens if I give money away."

Pan Xiaohei: "What result?"

Pan Yun smiled faintly at it. "When I give you dried fish, are you happy?"

Pan Xiaohei said nothing. Seeing she kept staring, it gave a slight nod.

Pan Yun: "Look how delighted Miao He and Miao Zhen were seeing the ingots. If I gave them the money, wouldn't they feel grateful? Isn't that the same as earning merit?"

Pan Yun felt refreshed and clear-headed. "Experiment over. We can sleep peacefully and cultivate in peace."

Pan Xiaohei: "That's it?"

"Oh, right—I still need to make a toothbrush. I'm sick of willow twigs."

Pan Yun returned and soaked all the boar bristles she'd collected last time. It wouldn't be done in a day, but she wasn't in a hurry.

The next day was the Ceremony of Inviting the God and Installing the Shrine. For these two days, they'd eaten only vegetarian food—the meat and ribs were still frozen in the well.

Before dawn, the Daoist temple staff rose, bathed, changed clothes, washed their faces, then put on their finest Daoist robes and descended the mountain—well, that was just Pan Yun and the children. Wang Feiyin and the others wore colorful ritual garments. At the mountain's base, they opened the Mountain God Shrine and began preparing for the Ceremony of Inviting the God and Installing the Shrine.

Villagers flocked to witness the ceremony.

The deity statue, wrapped in red cloth, was carried to the shrine's front. The old, small Mountain God Shrine still stood. Wang Feiyin had specifically ordered it preserved, cleared the area around it, and connected it to the new shrine—making it a kind of forward platform.

Wang Feiyin took out the painted talismans, arranged the talisman array. Just as the first slanting rays of dawn pierced the Shanfeng, he drew his peachwood sword, leapt onto the open ground before the Mountain God Shrine, and began the ritual to invite the god.

The open space before the Mountain God Shrine was about a hundred square paces, all rolled flat by stone rollers. Now, villagers surrounded the perimeter. As Wang Feiyin leapt into the center, Master Xuanmiao's bell chimed—"Ding ling"—a clear, sharp tone.

Tao Ji blew his flute; Wang Cong struck the wooden fish—"Ding dong." The sound, unhurried, pierced through the flute's melody and echoed through the mountains…

Pan Yun only stood with Miao Zhen and the others, watching the spectacle.

Wang Feiyin danced and chanted to the music. The normally still spiritual energy stirred, became active. They followed Wang Feiyin's sword movements, gradually forming a magnetic field.

Pan Yun's cultivation method activated. Her eyes saw thousands of threads enveloping the area. As Wang Feiyin danced and chanted, the magnetic field grew larger and larger, bringing back that familiar sensation.

She saw Pan Gong's figure slowly coalesce in midair.

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Wang Feiyin whirled around, his gaze locking onto Pan Yun. Cold and stern, he commanded: "Pan Yun, why aren't you dotting the eyes yet?"

Pan Yun snapped back to attention, stepped forward to the statue. Seeing Miao Zhen hurriedly followed, holding a tray.

She dipped her brush in ink, paused, then solemnly painted the pupils into the statue's eyes.

The moment the eyes were completed, Wang Feiyin thrust his sword straight upward and roared: "Invite the God to take his seat!"

The figure of Pan Gong hovering in midair twitched a barely visible smile. A strand of divine consciousness detached and instantly sank into the statue.

Pan Yun and Seeing Miao Zhen were closest to the divine statue, and both saw what seemed to be a flash of light in the statue's eyes; the porcelain deity, which had only looked brightly colored and very new, suddenly gained a spiritual presence.

The watching villagers could not help but cheer loudly, clapping their hands with a series of claps, and someone said excitedly, "This divine statue seems to have come alive all at once."

"Daoist Wang's skill has deepened again."

With the deity successfully invited, the crowd carried the statue to the altar inside the temple and set it in place. As the temple keeper, Pan Yun lit incense and led everyone in kneeling to pay respects.

Pan Yun lowered her eyes and bowed, then raised them again to look at the statue and silently said, 【Master, from now on, you can sit here and enjoy the incense offerings of this region.】

Pan Yun inserted the incense, and Wang Feiyin and the others also offered incense one by one. The villagers immediately set out the melons, fruits, eggs, chickens, ducks, fish, and so on that they had brought, pulled out their incense, and began to worship.

In an instant, smoke from incense curled inside and outside the mountain god temple, like an immortal realm.

Pan Yun could not help walking to the doorway, looking back at the altar piled with offerings and bristling with incense, and could not help sighing, "This is all incense offerings."

Not only did the villagers of Fenshui Village come to offer incense, but villagers from several nearby villages, hearing that the Mount Sanqing Mountain God Temple was holding a deity-inviting and temple-settling ceremony today, all hurried over.

So it was extremely lively; at a glance it was all heads of people, and the road was so packed one could barely move.

Pan Yun came out and was utterly astonished, turning her head to ask Wang Feiyin, "Did our Daoist temple announce we were inviting people?"

"No. Didn't you find it troublesome and not want to hold a banquet? So we didn't invite the village elders, nor fellow practitioners. The villagers all heard about it and came on their own."

Inviting the deity and settling the temple serves, first, to announce it to the neighboring villages, and second, to make it lively. Normally one would invite the village elders of nearby villages, as well as fellow practitioners from nearby Daoist temples, to let them know a new mountain god temple had been established.

But doing it that way would require inviting people to a meal, and Pan Yun disliked arranging such things, feeling it took too much energy.

The common folk's thinking is simple: once her master fulfills a few wishes for people and makes a name, plenty of worshippers will come on their own — the faith of believers like that is purer.

After coming up with so many reasons, at the root of it Pan Yun simply disliked the trouble.

She had not expected that, even without any announcement from them, so many people would come.

With so many people coming, the villagers moved quickly: set out offerings, light incense, make a wish, pay respects, wait about a dozen breaths, then pick up their baskets, gather the offerings they had brought, and go out to let the next person in.

The next person did exactly the same.

Those in a hurry simply set out offerings right in the open ground outside, lit incense, and bowed toward the divine statue from afar.

Wang Feiyin, along with Tao Ji and Wang Cong, carried over three large jars, filled them with river sand, and set them right out on the open ground in a row, facing the divine statue inside the temple.

Wang Feiyin called out to everyone, "You can also stick your incense here, and at that little shrine too — as long as you're sincere, the mountain god will receive it."

Pan Yun instantly came back to herself, immediately rolled up her sleeves and went over to maintain order. "It's the same, it's the same — as long as you face the mountain god's direction and keep the mountain god in your heart, worshipping anywhere is the same."

She ran back to the small room nearby, took out the spare kneeling cushions, and set them outside the temple.

The villagers who squeezed over, seeing this, took the cue and knelt on the cushions, made a wish, then knocked their heads on the ground with a clatter, and only then went to set out offerings and burn incense. While burning incense they made another wish and bowed again, following the rule that more courtesy never offends the gods — not only did they bow toward the statue, they bowed to the left as well, and to the right as well…

Villagers came and went, went and came again. As temple keeper, Pan Yun not only had to maintain order but also listen to the wishes of the worshippers.

End number 6

(End of this chapter)