Chapter 159

Pan Yun slept until afternoon.

When she opened her eyes, faint daylight filtered into the inner cave; she sat up, stretched with a loud "Ha!" and said, "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 be bored and develop psychological issues—but never once did they consider how utterly free you'd feel here."

Pan Yun rotated 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 in the Spirit Realm held so many books, just browsing Ming history alone could keep her occupied for ages.

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

Here, you can't cultivate—but you can study the Sighing Cliff.

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

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

Of course not.

As soon as she got up, Pan Yun rushed to wash up, lit a fire to boil water, washed herself simply, applied medicine to her backside, then stood at the cave entrance watching the wind and water.

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 you'll stand behind me, because I trust you won't kick me—so your fear of heights stems from distrust of human and feline nature. Did you suffer some trauma before?"

Pan Yun glanced at him. "You're overthinking. You trust me because my character value is high—you're certain I'd never do something that harms others and benefits no one."

Pan Xiaohei sprang to its feet, furious. "So in your mind, am I a cat that would do something harmful to others and useless to myself?"

Pan Yun lowered her gaze, staring steadily at it, then suddenly smiled, crouched down, and pulled it into her arms. "You're right—you're not that kind of cat."

Pan Xiaohei's mood improved slightly, curling into a comfortable spot in her lap.

The human and the cat enjoyed a rare moment of quiet harmony, watching the rushing river below.

After a long while, the slanting sun cast golden light that turned orange-yellow as it fell upon Pan Yun.

Her profile glowed gold-red; Brother Cheng Lingzi, riding his sword as he descended for inspection, paused midair, watching her.

Pan Yun's gaze shifted slightly, turning her head to meet his; 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 level must be at least First Marquis.

Pan Yun stared fixedly at him.

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

He burst into loud laughter, spun once in midair, then flew downward, checking every cave entrance to confirm none showed abnormalities.

The occupant of Cave Jia-3 couldn't stand his ease, asking, "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 decline and vanish. Hahahaha! I want to see how long your Sighing Cliff can hold us!"

Brother Cheng Lingzi stopped outside his cave, smiling faintly. "A hundred years? By then you'll be ash—you won't even see it."

The man fell silent, then roared, "You're full of shit! If you've got the guts, let me out—I'm strong enough to live three hundred years!"

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

The man flew into a rage, screaming "Aaah!" several times, charging at the cave door—only to be violently repelled by an invisible force, slamming hard into the rock wall.

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

At the same moment, Pan Yun looked up at the rock ceiling, then down at the mountain beneath her feet, asking, "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 human and cat wore blank expressions—but soon, the trembling vanished.

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

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

She wouldn't dare waste Yuan force here—every bit of Yuan and Nei force in her body was precious.

Unless it was for an experiment, 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 Upper Dantian—and discovered that without Yuan force circulating through her limbs and bones, what drained away was her body's own energy; within moments, she grew hungry.

Seeing this, Pan Yun dared not test further; she immediately unsealed her Upper Dantian, activated her Yuan force, and the gnawing hunger and energy depletion slowly faded.

She exhaled, emerged from meditation, and pulled out a steamed bun with a shudder. "Terrifying—terrible. This isn't the Sighing Cliff—it's the mouth of a Taotie. 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 internal Yuan force into Nei force.

This 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 force, what they called Yuan force.

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

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

Pan Yun had pondered the reason.

Her conclusion: the spiritual energy of Great Ming must be too thin. Ordinary bodies had never been struck or refined by spiritual energy, so they lacked the innate talent for Dao cultivation.

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

Almost everyone could cultivate.

Anyway, after entering the Three Pure Ones Temple, she examined the Upper Dantians of Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He, learned how their Wu Gong was cultivated, tried it herself, and succeeded in mastering it.

So she knew how to convert Yuan Li into Nei Li, and even how to overlay Nei Li upon Yuan Li.

After the conversion, she found the rate of energy leakage in her body remained unchanged—meaning, if one unit of Yuan Li could be transformed into ten units of Nei Li, the rate of energy loss decreased tenfold.

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

Pan Yun stood up, hands on her hips, "I think I can now stay not just one and a half months, but even a year and a half without issue."

Pan Xiaohei couldn't stand her arrogance and sneered, "Then stay?"

"Nah, I'm still young. Right now, I should focus on cultivation."

After that, Pan Yun's life gradually became regular.

Every day, as the first streak of dawn appeared on the horizon, she woke up, sat at the cave entrance with Pan Xiaohei, and watched the sunlight slowly illuminate the opposite mountain, casting shimmering fish-scale reflections on the river.

Then, under the morning sun, she brushed her teeth, washed her face, and started heating water for steamed buns.

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

After eating, she studied the cave, and when she grew tired, she took out books from the Spirit Realm space to read.

If she found the books bought in this world boring, she would lie flat, sink her consciousness into the Spirit Realm space, and read the book data imported from her past life.

Everything was there—she was never bored.

The cave Brother Cheng Lingzi found for her was truly excellent—not only spacious, but with excellent views.

As long as she woke early, she could watch Brother Cheng Lingzi descend from the mountain peak, carrying two wooden buckets, stepping down the cliff face, reaching the river, swinging and lifting the buckets to fill them, then stepping back up with the same motion.

Each step he took was planted firmly on the cliff wall. Pan Yun watched with fascination, "Have you noticed? He doesn't use Yuan Li, or even Nei Li—he relies purely on his body's strength to stabilize himself while carrying two full buckets."

Pan Xiaohei didn't understand why she loved watching this so much. Ever since the first day she saw Brother Cheng Lingzi drawing water, she woke up early every day to watch until he completed ten trips and stopped coming down.

"It's just drawing water. You could fly down with a sword, use Nei Li to fly down, or even tie a rope and use a lever. Why go through all this effort?"

"He's pushing his body's limits," Pan Yun glanced at it and said, "You're not human—you don't understand. Human cultivators seek not only eternal Yang Shen, but also hope their bodies remain eternally strong."

No one knows whether cultivating Yang Shen truly grants eternal Yang Shen.

But cultivating the body definitely extends lifespan.

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

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

"Of course," Pan Yun said, "The body and Yang Shen support each other. Since childhood, my body has been weak—I've felt it during cultivation. My energy is nowhere near what it was when my past-life body was exceptionally strong. After you stopped stealing my Qi, the Qi I cultivated after cultivation first nourished my body, then improved my meridians, Upper Dantian, and Yang Shen."

(End of Chapter)