Chapter 159: Discipline

Pan Yun slept until afternoon.

When she opened her eyes, faint daylight filtered into the inner cave; she sat up, stretched with a loud yawn, and exclaimed, "Comfortable!"

Pan Xiaohei heard the noise and came in from the outer cave, saying to her, "Your life here is anything but boring. They feared you couldn't cultivate and would damage your foundation, feared you'd grow bored and develop psychological issues—but not one of them considered how perfectly at ease you'd be here."

Pan Yun turned her neck and got out of bed. "I've got food, drink, and a phone. I could stay locked up for three years. A mere one and a half months?"

Pan Xiaohei: "You have a phone now?"

Pan Yun grinned at him. "I don't have a phone, but I've got you."

The vast library within the Spirit Realm held so many books, just reading about the Ming Dynasty alone could keep her occupied for years.

In the first half-year, she had to cultivate, study, and earn money; her progress in Ming history was painfully slow—just studying the *Great Gao* and the *Great Ming Code* took up a significant portion of her time.

Here, she couldn't cultivate—but she could study the Penitence Cliff.

"Once I've exhausted every possible angle of studying the Penitence Cliff, I'll just flip through the books in the Spirit Realm when I'm bored," Pan Yun said, lifting her chin. "I hope the Penitence Cliff doesn't disappoint me—let it be truly boring."

Pan Xiaohei looked up at her, suddenly feeling she appeared towering; it suddenly lost confidence in the Penitence Cliff—could this place really contain her and achieve the Academy's intended punishment?

Of course not.

As soon as she rose, Pan Yun hurried to wash up, lit a fire to boil water, wiped herself down, applied medicine to her backside, then stood at the cave entrance, watching the wind and water below.

Pan Xiaohei walked over to her side, meowed, and asked, "You're not afraid of heights anymore?"

"As long as you don't appear behind me and try to kick me off, I'm not afraid."

Pan Xiaohei gave her a look of disdain, crouching at the edge. "I'm not afraid of you standing behind me, because I trust you won't kick me—so your fear of heights stems from distrust of human nature and feline nature. What trauma did you suffer before?"

Pan Yun glanced at him. "You're overthinking. You trust me because my moral value is high—you're certain I'd never do something that harms others without benefiting myself."

Pan Xiaohei leapt to its feet, furious. "So in your mind, am I a cat that would do something harmful to others with no gain for myself?"

Pan Yun lowered her gaze, fixed her eyes on it, then suddenly smiled, crouched down, and picked it up into her arms. "You're right—you're not that kind of cat."

Pan Xiaohei's mood improved; it settled into a comfortable spot in her lap.

The girl and the cat enjoyed a rare moment of quiet harmony, watching the river below surge onward.

After a long while, the slanting sun cast golden light that turned orange upon touching Pan Yun.

Her profile glowed gold-red; Cheng Lingzi, riding his sword as he patrolled, paused midair, hovering to watch her.

Pan Yun's gaze shifted slightly, turned her head, and met his eyes; seeing him standing atop his flying sword, she was startled.

This was the first person she'd seen in this world who flew on a sword—his cultivation must have reached at least the First Marquis realm.

Pan Yun stared steadily at him.

Seeing only a faint flicker of surprise in her eyes, not wild astonishment, Cheng Lingzi smiled.

He burst into laughter, spun once in midair, then descended, glancing into every cave to confirm none showed signs of disturbance.

The occupant of Cave Jia-3 couldn't stand his ease and asked, "What are you laughing at?"

"I laugh because the Dao lineage has a worthy successor."

"The Dao lineage has no successor worth a damn," the man said. "Wait—Daoism is declining; its lineage will vanish soon. I calculate daily, nightly: in a hundred years, Daoism will flourish again; in twenty more, it will peak and then decline, then vanish. Hahahaha! I want to see how long your Penitence Cliff can hold us!"

Cheng Lingzi stopped outside his cave and smiled faintly. "A hundred years? By then you'll be dust—you won't even live to see the Dao lineage vanish."

The man fell silent, then roared in fury: "You're lying! If you have the guts, let me out—I'm strong enough to live three hundred years!"

Cheng Lingzi gave him a small, infuriating smile. "I don't have the ability. And I won't let you out."

The man was enraged, screaming "Aaah!" several times, charging wildly at the cave entrance—only to be violently repelled by an invisible force, slamming hard into the rock wall.

Cheng Lingzi clicked his tongue, then flew back up to the mountain peak.

At the same moment, Pan Yun looked up at the rock ceiling, then down at the mountain beneath her feet, and asked, "Did you feel that? The mountain just trembled."

"I felt it," Pan Xiaohei said solemnly. "Could it be an earthquake?"

Pan Yun looked confused. "Earthquakes? Does Jiangxi even have earthquakes?"

Both girl and cat stared blankly—but the trembling vanished quickly.

Pan Yun pondered. "It felt more like someone was striking the mountain…"

"Tch. Who's got that much strength? So much yuan energy they can't even use it all?"

She wouldn't dare waste yuan energy here—every bit of yuan and internal energy in her body was precious.

Unless for experimentation, no one could make her use power here.

The sun sank lower; Pan Yun finally sat on her mat and resumed her research. This time, she sealed her dantian—and discovered that without yuan energy circulating through her limbs and meridians, what drained away was her body's own energy; within moments, she was hungry.

Seeing this, Pan Yun dared not test further; she immediately unsealed her dantian and activated her yuan energy. Only then did the gnawing hunger and energy depletion slowly fade.

She exhaled, emerged from meditation, and, still shaken, pulled out a steamed bun and bit into it. "Terrifying—terribly terrifying. This isn't the Penitence Cliff—it's the mouth of a glutton. It eats everything."

Pan Xiaohei was also shaken. "Take it easy—don't kill yourself."

"Do you think I'm that kind of person?" Pan Yun said. "I value my life."

She quickly proved it to Pan Xiaohei.

She began converting her yuan energy into internal energy.

It was merely a difference in how power manifested.

Before entering the Three Pure Ones Temple, she hadn't known the distinction—because in her past life, everyone absorbed spiritual energy and cultivated spiritual power, what they called yuan energy.

Only here did she learn that most people lacked the innate ability to cultivate directly; to enter the Dao, they first had to train in martial arts.

!. ead

When their martial skill and understanding of this world reached a certain level, they could transition from martial artist to Dao cultivator.

Pan Yun had pondered the reason.

Her conclusion: the spiritual energy of the Great Ming was far too thin. Ordinary bodies had never been struck or refined by spiritual energy, so they lacked the talent to cultivate.

After all, in her past life, after spiritual energy revived, people awakened all kinds of innate talents.

Almost everyone could cultivate.

In short, after entering the Three Pure Ones Temple, she examined the dantians of Miao Zhen and Miao He, learned how their martial arts were cultivated, tried it herself, and succeeded.

So she knew how to convert yuan energy into internal energy—and even how to overlay internal energy atop yuan energy.

After the conversion, she found the rate of energy leakage remained unchanged—meaning, if one unit of yuan energy could become ten units of internal energy, the energy loss slowed tenfold.

Pan Yun's lips curled. She looked down at her hands. "Looks like it's not very smart after all. Of course—no matter where you go, Heaven always leaves a way out. Hahaha…"

Pan Yun stood up, hands on her hips. "I think I can stay here not just one and a half months—but a year and a half, no problem."

Pan Xiaohei scoffed at her arrogance. "Then stay?"

"No thanks—I'm still young. Right now, cultivation should come first."

From then on, Pan Yun's life gradually became orderly.

Each morning, as the first streak of dawn appeared, she rose, sat with Pan Xiaohei at the cave entrance, watching the sunlight slowly illuminate the opposite mountain, casting shimmering fish-scale reflections on the river.

Then, in the morning light, she brushed her teeth and washed her face, lit a fire to warm her steamed buns.

She wouldn't wait for Cheng Lingzi to bring food—even though he was punctual, he only delivered water and buns around the Si hour. She was still a child; breakfast should be eaten early.

After eating, she studied the cave; when tired, she took out books from the Spirit Realm.

If the books she'd bought in this world grew dull, she'd lie back, sink her consciousness into the Spirit Realm, and read the data from books she'd imported from her past life.

Everything was available—never boring.

The cave Cheng Lingzi had assigned her was truly excellent—not only spacious, but with a fine view.

If she rose early, she could watch Cheng Lingzi descend from the peak each day, carrying two wooden buckets, stepping down the cliff face, reaching the river, swinging and lifting the buckets to fill them, then stepping back up.

Each step he took was planted firmly on the cliff wall. Pan Yun watched with fascination. "Have you noticed? He's not using yuan energy, not even internal energy—he's relying purely on his body's strength to stay balanced, carrying two full buckets."

Pan Xiaohei didn't understand why she loved watching this so much. Ever since the first day she saw him fetch water, she rose early every day to watch until he completed ten trips and stopped coming down.

"It's just fetching water. You could fly down on a sword, use internal energy, even tie a rope and use a lever—why go through all this trouble?"

"He's pushing his body's limits," Pan Yun glanced at it. "You're not human—you don't understand. Human cultivators don't just seek eternal yang spirit—they also hope their bodies remain eternally strong."

Because no one knew if cultivating the yang spirit truly granted eternal existence.

But cultivating the body? That definitely extends lifespan.

In short, humans are greedy—they want both, and they want both strong.

Pan Xiaohei: "So you want to train too?"

"Of course," Pan Yun said. "Body and yang spirit are mutually reinforcing. Since childhood, my body has been weak—I've felt it clearly during cultivation. My energy is nowhere near what it was in my past life when my body was exceptionally strong. Since you stopped stealing my spiritual energy, my post-cultivation spiritual energy first nourishes my body, then improves my meridians, dantian, and yang spirit."

(End of Chapter)