Chapter 115: Changing Names

Wang Feiyin raised an eyebrow. “So confident? How old are you?”

Pan Yun lifted her chin. “I was born knowing.”

Wang Feiyin snorted. “You’ve said that often enough. Even if you were born knowing, there must be limits—can you know everything?”

Pan Yun fell silent.

Wang Feiyin finally felt satisfied.

He taught her how to calculate the Eight Characters: “The Four Pillars of Destiny, also called the Eight Characters, consist of the Year Pillar, Month Pillar, Day Pillar, and Hour Pillar. Each pillar combines a Heavenly Stem and an Earthly Branch. There are ten Heavenly Stems and twelve Earthly Branches. Four such combinations form one’s birth chart.”

Pan Yun nodded. Combinatorics—she understood.

Wang Feiyin then explained the meanings of different Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch combinations.

Pan Yun was good at math, but the flood of half-familiar knowledge still slowed her mind.

Wang Feiyin had given her enough; he told her to memorize it and rose to leave.

As Pan Yun lowered her head to absorb the knowledge, footsteps approached—but stopped at the door. She lazily lifted her eyes toward the entrance.

A young scholar stood outside, scanning the Mountain God Temple.

His gaze settled on Pan Yun. He gave a slight nod, then stepped inside. “Are you the temple keeper?”

Pan Yun remained seated and nodded. “Indeed, this humble Daoist.”

Seeing she offered no further words—no invitation to sit, no inquiry about worship—he frowned. “Is this how you normally receive visitors?”

Pan Yun drawled, “Visitors? We have no visitors here—only believers.”

“So believers are the only ones allowed?”

Pan Yun: “Isn’t a virtuous person standing right here in the temple?”

The young man opened his mouth, then truly studied her. After a moment, he bowed. “I am Mo Jidi. A few days ago, my elder brother asked the temple keeper to cast a divination for me. Do you remember?”

“Of course,” Pan Yun laughed. “Even if I’d forgotten, your name alone would have reminded me.”

Mo Jidi froze. After a long pause, his lips trembled. “D-does that mean I keep failing the exams because of my name?”

Pan Yun: “If I say it does affect you, will you believe me?”

Mo Jidi fell silent for a long while, then said firmly, “I believe you.”

Pan Yun burst into laughter and invited him to sit.

Mo Jidi quickly adjusted his robe and sat across from her, eyes full of hope.

Pan Yun said seriously, “Yes, your repeated failures are due to your name.”

Mo Jidi swallowed. “Then what name should I change to?”

Pan Yun recalled the birth chart she’d glanced at that day—she’d remembered it.

Combining today’s rudimentary knowledge, she lowered her gaze, thought, then said: “Your Five Elements lack Wood. You aspire to be a pillar of the state. No character suits better than ‘Zhen.’ Change your name to Zhen, and after one more failure, you will surely pass.”

Mo Jidi murmured, “One more failure? Why must I fail again?”

“Your name has carried you for twenty-one years—how could changing it instantly reverse your fate? It takes time to harmonize. Three years is not too long; it’s just enough to dissipate past misfortune,” Pan Yun said. “Take one more exam to exhaust the bad luck. Afterward, your fortune will surge—you’ll pass the autumn exam, and even the spring exam on your first try.”

Mo Jidi pressed his lips together. “If it’s bad luck, shouldn’t your power as temple keeper be able to dispel it?”

Three years—he could do so much. He simply couldn’t afford to wait.

Pan Yun studied his features carefully, then raised an eyebrow. “I could try. But no elaborate ritual is needed—I’ll draw you a few talismans. They’ll dissolve your misfortune.”

“What kind of talismans?”

“Talisman of Cleansing Misfortune, Talisman of Calm Mind, and Talisman of Good Fortune.”

Mo Jidi lowered his eyes, thought, then nodded. “How much incense money for these three?”

Pan Yun: “Sixty taels.”

Mo Jidi understood. He rose and bowed deeply. “Please draw them for me. I am eternally grateful.”

Pan Yun agreed.

Mo Jidi placed ten taels of silver on the altar. “Temple Keeper, this is for naming me.”

Pan Yun nodded but remained seated.

Mo Jidi bowed again, then withdrew respectfully.

Once Mo Jidi was far away, Pan Yun snorted, rose, lit an incense stick for her Master, and muttered: “Master, when he comes to ask for the talismans, you should wander by his house. Push him to study hard. If he lets go of his mental block and tries, he still has a chance to pass in three years, right, Master?”

Her Master ignored her.

Pan Yun didn’t mind. After burning the incense, she sat back down and memorized what Wang Feiyin had taught her. By the time he returned from wandering the village, she had recited everything perfectly.

Seeing the ten taels on the altar, Wang Feiyin was stunned. “Where did such a large offering come from? When did Leiping Village get someone this wealthy?”

Pan Yun: “The Mo family.”

“Oh, then it’s fine,” Wang Feiyin calmed.

Pan Yun was curious. “Is the Mo family very rich?”

“Average, average. Second richest in the village.”

“Who’s first?”

“Naturally, my Wang family.”

“You don’t believe it?” Wang Feiyin said. “Go ask around— isn’t my Wang family the top family in Leping Village? Of course, not counting my branch—alas, you know, my branch has fallen on hard times.”

“Don’t believe me?” Wang Feiyin said. “Ask around. Isn’t my Wang family the richest in Leiping Village? Of course, not counting my branch—alas, you know, my branch has fallen on hard times.”

Pan Yun: “Did this happen after you became my Master?”

“Little sister, maybe we should discuss this somewhere else—right in front of the Master?”

Pan Yun: “Big Brother, the Master is the Mountain God of Sanqing. He’s everywhere. Does climbing to the summit mean we’re no longer before Him?”

Wang Feiyin looked up at the statue and gave her a thumbs-up. “You’re the boldest, I’ll give you that.”

“True,” Wang Feiyin admitted. “After becoming your Master, I started wasting our fortune. Building the Sanqing Temple on the summit cost a fortune. Then road repairs. The alchemy hall cost even more. At first, I didn’t notice anything wrong. Only after finishing these projects and trying to settle into cultivation did I realize how cursed I was.”

“Our family fortune slowly vanished. But thank goodness our Wang clan split into branches—I only ruined my own branch’s wealth. The Wang clan as a whole remains first in Leiping Village.”

Pan Yun’s mind stirred. “The village school…”

Wang Feiyin smiled faintly. “I asked the Wang clan for help. They covered half the cost. I earned the rest myself.”

Pan Yun said: “Opening the school isn’t enough. Maintaining it requires constant investment.”

“I have confidence in that.”

Pan Yun: “Big Brother doesn’t need to work so hard. Let the Mountain God Temple contribute to the school’s upkeep.”

She handed him the ten taels.

Wang Feiyin accepted with a smile, glanced at the statue seated on the altar, and said: “Good. Doing good deeds accumulates merit, which can turn your fortune. My Master and I may benefit too. If the Mountain God Temple invests, this merit belongs to the Mountain God. The less misfortune on the Master, the more good fortune for us.”

Pan Yun nodded. “Exactly. That’s what I thought too.”

Pan Yun never put all her eggs in one basket. Since their misfortune came from the Mountain God, they might as well try to fix it at the root.

Even if what they could do now was a drop in the ocean, they had taken a step, hadn’t they?

Move a little today, move a little tomorrow—someday, they would reach a thousand li away.

Pan Yun returned and began drawing talismans. She decided: every talisman sold at the Mountain God Temple would be recorded as the temple’s income, to be reinvested—good deeds as investment!

Pan Yun told Pan Xiaohei: “Come, open a separate ledger for my Master.”

Pan Xiaohei, long used as accountant and scribe, obeyed without reaction, opening a separate ledger in the spiritual realm and recording today’s income.

Pan Yun washed her hands, dried them, closed her eyes, and regulated her breath. Once steady, she began dissolving cinnabar to draw talismans.

Three talismans, each drawn in one continuous stroke.

Spiritual power surged, then sealed within the talisman script. She set it aside, unfolded another yellow paper, and began her daily talisman drawing.

Pan Yun decided: she wouldn’t send money to her father anymore. She’d send talismans. And stockpile odd talismans too—wasn’t the Sanqing Assembly coming? She’d need many then.

Besides her own, she’d also taken on the temple’s tasks.

To prepare for the Sanqing Assembly, Pan Yun was assigned twenty Peace Talismans and twenty Wealth Talismans. Wang Feiyin and Xuanmiao had even more. Even Tao Ji, who wasn’t skilled in talismans, had been assigned fifty and had been in seclusion drawing them for days.

Miao Zhen also had ten talismans to draw, but her success rate was low. She had to wait until her spiritual power peaked to attempt one—successing one a day was a win.

Miao He and Tao Yanbai prepared pills, potions, and ointments—all to be sold at the Assembly.

With Sanqing Mountain so thorough, Pan Yun grew nervous. “What if we can’t sell any?”

Wang Feiyin said: “If you can’t sell them, use them yourself. These are things you can use. Stick talismans on your body—they bring health and safety. Pills can be used too. You’ve all taken plenty of falls while training and gathering herbs.”

“Who puts a hundred talismans on their body?” Pan Yun said. “How long would it take to use them all? And there are so many pills too.”

Wang Feiyin: “Don’t worry. Your Third Brother and Fourth Sister will handle it. If they can’t sell them, send them on a six-month journey.”

Pan Yun froze. “Last time Third Brother and Fourth Sister went on a journey was to…”

“To bring you back.”

Pan Yun: “And before that?”

“Oh, to sell off last year’s surplus.”

Pan Yun: ... She had thought so. Fourth Sister was so reclusive and obsessed with cultivation—how could she have possibly met the former Deputy Chief Justice of the Dali Temple?

Pan Yun looked at calm Wang Cong. “Nephew, why don’t you stop them?”

Wang Cong: “It’s fine. My caravan still makes money. The temple’s expenses aren’t a problem. Let the elders do what they like.”

Xuanmiao and Tao Ji: … Only Big Brother enjoys this.

Still, every Sanqing Assembly, Sanqing Mountain sold many talismans and pills—just too many, so they always had leftovers.

Maybe this year they should make less?

Both glanced at Wang Feiyin.

Wang Feiyin declared loudly: “With Little Sister joining and the Mountain God Temple built, Sanqing Mountain’s reputation has risen again. We must prepare more talismans and pills—so believers won’t leave disappointed.”

Fine. Reducing was impossible. Not expanding was already a victory.

Tail number 7

(End of chapter)