Chapter 199: Spatial Jade Token

Pan Yun set the array knife on the table, waited for one major circulation to pass so her body brimmed with origin energy, then snapped her eyes open, took the polished jade token in her hand, picked up the array knife, and channeled origin energy to carve array lines upon it.

The array knife glided across the jade token as smoothly as brush and ink on paper; at every array node she poured in a great surge of origin energy and captured and locked down the spiritual energy drifting in the air.

The origin energy in her body drained at flying speed. As for spatial arrays, she knew them better than anyone—before lifting the knife she had even reviewed them on paper. Now, knife in hand, memories of her past life surfaced. Though she had no muscle memory in this life, her hand still settled steadily upon node after node.

At every pause, the origin energy in her Upper Dantian would flood through her hand and knife into the array node in great volume.

When she reached the forty-seventh array node, the origin energy in her Upper Dantian was nearly spent. She sped up the circulation of her art, capturing the spiritual energy in the air and converting it into origin energy, while at the same time squeezing out the origin energy stored in her meridians, bones, and blood, not letting the array line beneath her knife break.

A fifth-tier spatial array was still a bit of a stretch, even though it was only a very small one.

Pan Yun's brows did not move; she kept carving. When she reached the forty-eighth array node, the little origin energy that had just accumulated in her Upper Dantian was drained in an instant, while at the same time a great surge of origin energy poured out of her meridians to fill the remaining deficit.

Vast amounts of spiritual energy were drawn by Pan Yun's art and crowded into her body; almost the moment it entered, it traveled only half a circulation before being converted into origin energy and pressed into her Upper Dantian, so that the spirit realm in her Mud Pill Palace could not even get its promised share.

Pan Xiaohei squatted to one side, raised his head, and soothed his main body for a moment, not disturbing Pan Yun.

Pan Yun's knife tip never stopped, continuing leftward and downward, and before long it reached the final array node.

At this point, every drop of origin energy in Pan Yun's whole body rushed toward the array node. The origin energy just cultivated in her Upper Dantian was drained dry, then the meridians were drained; once the meridians were empty, the muscles and sinews would be next. Seeing that her foundations were about to be damaged, Pan Xiaohei cursed and grumbled, but still let his main body draw out a portion of spiritual power to feed back to Pan Yun, filling in that last missing bit.

The origin energy was locked into the array nodes; forty-nine array nodes lit up, flickering three times in the bright room. Vast spiritual energy was drawn by the array into the jade token. Pan Yun seemed to hear a snap—a sub-space was split open by origin energy and spiritual energy, propped up, and then the array nodes flickered, stabilizing the space.

The space on this side of the jade token was now stable.

Pan Yun was the creator of the space; she did not need to look carefully to "see" the size of the space she had propped open. It was a three-meter cube—length, width, and height each about three meters. Not very large, but more than enough to hold their valuables.

Pan Yun let out a breath of relief. After confirming the space was stable and would not collapse, she immediately set down the jade token and closed her eyes to absorb spiritual energy.

Her Upper Dantian, lacking origin energy, now ached and felt terribly uncomfortable.

The moment Pan Yun relaxed, vast spiritual energy poured in through her seven orifices and the pores of her skin, gathering in her meridians. As her art circulated through the meridians, it swept the spiritual energy along through her body. After one minor circulation, a very small portion remained at the spirit realm in her Mud Pill Palace, and the rest returned to her Upper Dantian.

But for her vast Upper Dantian, the origin energy refined in one minor circulation was merely a thin waterline at the bottom.

So she did not stop, and the spiritual energy surged toward her in a frantic scramble.

The three people living in the main room, who had gotten up at dawn to sit in meditation and cultivate, discovered that this morning's spiritual energy was especially thin, yet very active.

Their hearts stirred, and they all opened their windows at the same time and leaned out to look.

The moment the three heads poked out, they saw another head poking out from next door. After exchanging a glance, they all turned their heads at the same time to look at Pan Yun's room.

There they saw the spiritual energy so dense it had become fog, almost condensing into spirit pearls hanging from the eaves.

The three fell silent.

After a long silence, they realized they could neither beat her nor compete with her, so they silently closed their windows and went back to bed.

After thinking it over, they still felt that sitting in meditation to cultivate at this moment was a waste of time, so they simply got up, washed, and went out to practice swordplay.

Zhang Weiyi, meanwhile, continued packing his luggage.

He had already received his ordination certificate and graduated, so he had to leave the academy to gain experience in the world. After three years he would take the ordination examination, and then he could use those three years of experience to seek a position.

Originally, he had planned to stay at the academy.

But because of Pan Yun, he decided to leave.

He always felt that an academy with Pan Yun was more dangerous than the jianghu, so it was better to leave.

At this moment, he was even more certain his thinking was right. Fortunately, when Pan Yun arrived he was a fifth-year student about to graduate. If he were Xue Hua or Deng Zining, he'd have to stay another year—truly unlucky.

Pan Yun's single session of meditation lasted until the sun hung high before she came out of it; by then her Upper Dantian was only half full.

But there was nothing for it—she had been sitting in meditation too long and could not sit still any longer, and besides, she was hungry.

Pan Yun opened her eyes, clutched her belly with an "aiyo," braced herself on the chair to get down, and caught a whiff of a stench. She looked down at herself, gave a sniff, and instantly scrunched her face in disgust.

Pan Xiaohei, who had long since hidden far away, snickered, "Disgusted with yourself—so you do know you're filthy?"

Pan Yun looked baffled. "I didn't break through, so why would so much filth be expelled?"

"Congratulations, you've turned misfortune into blessing," Pan Xiaohei said. "Originally, because of your innate deficiency, even though your talent was good, your foundations were still a bit lacking. But this time you challenged your limits and timely absorbed spiritual energy to convert it into origin energy, and actually made up for the foundations lost to your innate deficiency."

Pan Yun's eyes brightened at this, and she said delightedly, "Really?"

Pan Xiaohei: "You can check for yourself."

Pan Yun sank her mind inward and looked at her body.

At a glance there was no difference—her upper, middle, and lower dantians were still the same size, her meridians still the same width—but as long as she looked carefully and closely, she could spot the differences.

Among them, the walls of her upper, middle, and lower dantians had all changed color, becoming smoother, the bottoms more solid, and the origin energy stored within compressed more tightly.

The origin energy gathered mostly in the lower dantian, where it now resembled a pool of azure water; the four walls of the dantian were smooth and could lock the origin energy in with great gentleness.

As for the middle dantian, it had made her heart much stronger, and she could even feel more spiritual energy with every breath.

Because she had been sickly since childhood, her heart and lung function had never been very good. After Pan Xiaohei stopped fighting her for spiritual energy and essence, her body had slowly improved and her heart and lungs strengthened a little—no longer gasping for breath after climbing a mountain.

But it was only the strength of a normal person. Now, she felt she was far stronger than a normal person, and finally had the feeling of "I really am a genius."

Not only in comprehension and talent, but also in body.

A genius in every way.

With her dantian foundations strengthened, though her meridians had not widened, they too had been reinforced. Her sinews and bones were strong, her three dantians flourished, and her five viscera and six bowels grew strong along with them.

Moreover, they would not stop when she ended her cultivation, but would keep growing—because she was young and her five viscera and six bowels were still developing, they would grow stronger and stronger.

Wasn't this exactly the effect they sought by soaking in body-tempering medicinal baths?

Temper the sinews and bones, then strengthen the five viscera!

After finishing her inspection, Pan Yun proudly put her hands on her hips and laughed out loud, "I really am a genius!"

Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He, who had been waiting outside the door with their chins propped on their hands, leaped up on the spot at this loud laughter and called out, "Little Xiao Shishu, you've come out of meditation!"

Miao He, hearing that triumphant voice, knew at once it had succeeded, and called out happily from outside the door, "Little Xiao Shishu, did you succeed?"

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Pan Yun got up to open the door. "I succeeded, come in and look quickly."

Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He, however, stepped back in unison and hesitated, "Little Xiao Shishu, you... maybe wash up first?"

Pan Yun: "You think I'm filthy?"

Though Seeing and Miao Zhen very much wanted to nod, they kept shaking their heads to deny it.

Pan Yun snorted and said, "Fine, because I find it disgusting too."

Seeing and Miao Zhen brought over two buckets of water; Pan Yun tossed two fire talismans into the water, and soon the water grew hot.

Pan Yun simply washed her hair along with her body.

After washing all the dirt off her body and wiping her hair slightly, she used her Nascent Soul energy to dry it; steam rose up, and in less than half a watch, her hair became fluffy and completely dry.

Pan Yun walked out of the washing room with her hair loose, seeing the two of them sitting quietly before the table, staring intently at the pale green-and-white jade plaque on it; she walked up and said, "The space jade plaque is done."

She took the jade plaque, turned it over, and asked, "There are only some lines on it—would you like me to carve something else onto it? It'd look nicer."

Miao Zhen swallowed and asked, "Can you carve it? Won't you break it?"

"No, I won't," Pan Yun said. "I still have this skill. See here? This is the blank area—you can carve flowers, grass, birds, or things like that. What kind of design do you want?"

After carefully studying it, Miao Zhen said, "It's mostly pale green here—how about carving a lotus leaf?"

Pan Yun looked and nodded. "Alright. This upper part is pale white—a transition. I'll carve a lotus blossom here, with lotus leaves below; together they'll look nice."

Miao Zhen clapped her hands repeatedly.

The three of them studied the jade plaque again and sighed in unison, "Too bad there's no space to carve a lotus root."

After saying this, all three fell silent at once.

Miao Zhen whispered, "Do you also think carving a white, plump section of lotus root underneath would be more fitting?"

Seeing: "But there's no yellow-brown here."

Miao Zhen: "The lotus root can be pale greenish-white too."

Seeing: "I've never seen or heard of such a thing."

Pan Yun: "It's your own thing—you wear it and use it yourself. Who cares? If you like it, I'll carve it all for you."

Miao Zhen nodded eagerly. "Yes, yes!"

Pan Yun took up the carving knife. "I'll carve it for you now."

Miao Zhen opened her mouth, wanting to say it wasn't urgent—that she should first see the space.

But seeing Pan Yun had already begun carving, she swallowed her words.

Pan Yun's carving skill was quite good; carving on jade was as easy for her as drawing on paper. Soon, the lotus leaves, the pale white lotus blossom just beginning to bloom, and a plump section of lotus root hidden beneath the leaves were all carved.

She didn't touch a single line of the array, then made the hole.

Pan Yun blew away the jade dust, held it up against Miao Zhen's neck, and said happily, "It looks beautiful!"

Miao Zhen took it happily and asked, "Little Master Shu, how do you use this space jade plaque?"

Two things: one, this book has been placed on the anti-theft list, so updates on Xiaoxiang will be unsynchronized and delayed by about a week;

two, I've recovered quite a bit from my illness; although I still need to take medicine for a while, I'm no longer dazed after stopping IV drips, so I've decided to resume normal updates.

I just calculated how many updates I owe—I'm counting this morning's chapter as today's, so two updates are done; yesterday's is still missing, so I owe a total of eleven updates.

My god, I got sick for just one bout, and now I'm eleven updates behind—I'll resume normal updates first and see how I can catch up.

(End of Chapter)