Chapter 209: Disguise

After a long while, Deng's wife finally came out leaning on the latrine wall.

Her eldest daughter-in-law also came over, held her breath as she went up to support her, and helped her out. "Mother, Father told me to come check on you."

Deng's wife said with a red face, "I, I'm fine, I just went to the latrine."

Miao He walked out from the wall, looked at Deng's wife's complexion, then nodded and said, "Not bad, it's working. You should need to use the latrine two more times today. Remember to drink plenty of warm water—you must drink plenty of warm water. After eating two more meals of wolf meat, you'll be fully cured."

Deng's wife stared blankly, "Little Daoist, this is treating constipation?"

"No, it's treating accumulated cold in the belly. Wolf meat is hot-natured. Your problem is cold congealing and not being able to pass. Treating the constipation is only the first step—getting the waste accumulated in your body expelled, then dispelling the cold, letting the body slowly recover." Miao He said, "Illnesses caused by accumulated cold in the belly come in many forms. Yours looks minor, but it's actually the most serious."

Deng's wife was silent for a moment, then suddenly dropped to her knees. "Little Daoist, you're very capable. Could you divine for me where my two sons are now, and whether, whether they're still alive?"

Miao He was startled by her sudden kneeling and hurried to help her up. "Benefactor, if you have something to say, please rise and speak."

The eldest daughter-in-law beside her also turned pale, pulled her up hard, looked around nervously, then whispered, "Mother, Seventh and Eighth have already been cast out of the clan. They're no longer people of our household. Don't be foolish—if Lord Huang finds out, none of our family will survive."

Deng's wife's face went a little pale as the two helped her up, but she still gripped Miao He's hand tightly and said softly, "I, I'm not trying to do anything. I just want to know if they're still alive. As long as I know they're still alive, that's enough…"

Miao He looked troubled. "Benefactor, my divination is only so-so. If you want a divination, you'll need to find my little martial-uncle and fourth martial-sister."

The village head was still at the dinner table. Pan Yun was very interested in their village's great landowner, Lord Huang, so she asked a few more questions.

In front of the villagers, the village head was full of gratitude and praise for Lord Huang, laying it on thick, and praised every member of his household—even Lord Huang's only son, who was twenty years old but had the intellect of a five- or six-year-old, got praised again and again.

Seeing his daughter-in-law helping his old wife over, he took a careful look at her face. Seeing her complexion had improved from before, he breathed a sigh of relief and turned back, wanting to continue praising Lord Huang to Pan Yun.

Deng's wife stepped forward and hesitantly asked, "Master, shall I clear away the bowls and chopsticks?"

The village head paused, then nodded and said, "Everyone's eaten, clear them away."

The villagers sitting as guests heard this and hurriedly stood, saying, "Village head, we'll head back too. These little Daoists…"

"I'll see to them, I'll see to them. You all go back to your work. The weeds in the fields need pulling, and the weeds and straw that need burning should be burned, or we'll have pest problems next year."

The villagers agreed and left one after another.

Once they left, only the village head's family and the three of Pan Yun remained in the courtyard.

Deng's wife set down the bowls and chopsticks in her hands and was about to kneel to Pan Yun, but had only bent her knee when Pan Yun reached out to support her, smiling as she asked, "Is the benefactor going to ask me about the whereabouts of her seventh and eighth sons?"

Deng's wife's eyes lit up and she nodded rapidly. "Yes, yes, yes, Immortal, do you know where our Seventh and Eighth are now? Are they, are they still alive?"

Pan Yun counted on her fingers and said, "Benefactor, rest assured. They're still alive now, and they're doing very well."

Deng's wife breathed a great sigh of relief, her eyes welling up. She chanted a Buddhist invocation twice, then seeing Pan Yun's Daoist robe, her face reddened and she hastily changed, "Thank you, Patriarch Grandfather. May Patriarch Grandfather protect us."

Pan Yun wore a faint smile, not minding at all, and also intoned, "May boundless heavenly blessings be upon you." She smiled and said, "When benefactors have their wishes fulfilled, no matter whom they invoke, the Patriarchs are all happy for you."

The village head hurriedly asked, "Daoist, which Patriarch does your sect revere? My household is willing to set up a long-life spirit tablet for him and burn incense day and night in worship."

Pan Yun rolled her eyes and said, "I studied at the Long Hushan Academy, but I was born on Mount Sanqing. The temple enshrines the Mountain God of Mount Sanqing."

"Mountain God, ah~~"

This place was a bit far from Mount Sanqing. If they were to enshrine a mountain god, the village head would still prefer to enshrine the Mountain God of Long Hushan, because it was closer, and it would be easier to pray to him.

But meeting Pan Yun's bright, sparkling eyes, the village head thought that over these years no gods had protected his household either. These three little Daoists were the first bit of luck they'd encountered in all these years.

So the village head gritted his teeth and decided to enshrine the Mountain God of Mount Sanqing.

Pan Yun, hearing this, smiled and said, "If you're willing to enshrine the Mountain God of Mount Sanqing, then I'll carve you a tablet."

The village head's son immediately found a wooden board.

Pan Yun used a knife to trim the board, then took out a carving knife and carved a line of characters on it: "Revering the Mountain God of Mount Sanqing, Pan Gong."

The village head received the wooden tablet reverently and carefully asked about the matters needing attention for the worship.

Pan Yun smiled and said, "Our Mountain God isn't particular. As long as you're reverent, that's enough. If you have offerings, make offerings; if you have incense, burn incense. If you have neither, sincere worship alone will do."

It really was simple. All the Mountain God asked for was sincerity.

And ordinary commoners' households had nothing else, but sincerity in abundance.

The village head reverently placed the wooden tablet inside the house. Taking advantage of his sons and daughters-in-law all being outside, he then pulled five coins from his pocket and pressed them into Pan Yun's hand, lowering his voice to ask, "Little Immortal, are my two sons really doing well? Where, where are they now?"

Pan Yun pushed the money back and said, "Village head, rest assured. They're doing very well. They should be to the southeast of here now."

The village head hurriedly pushed the money back. "Little Daoist, you must accept this no matter what. We're not far from Long Hushan here, and I know the rules. I can't possibly let you go back empty-handed. It's just a small amount—Daoists, please don't look down on it."

Pan Yun considered for a moment, then smiled and accepted.

She said, "Good fortune will come to the benefactor."

Although she was interested in Lord Huang, she had only planned to list him as a future option for fleecing. But now, she decided to go meet that Lord Huang right away.

Pan Yun earned a meal and five coins, plus twelve merit points, from most of a wolf. She had only just walked out of the village entrance when she heard the Spirit Realm's chime—two +3s, which she guessed were from the village head and his old wife, and the remaining +1 was probably from those who ate the meat.

Pan Yun stood at the village entrance and pointed ahead down the road. "Let's go, we're heading to the town."

Seeing Miao Zhen held the compass and said, "Little Martial-Uncle, we can take the shortcut this way to get to Fuzhou."

Pan Yun: "We're going to the town first to meet that Lord Huang."

Of course, they couldn't go looking like this.

The three of them really were young. In a small village, getting a free meal was no problem—after all, this place was close to Long Hushan, so they could fly the Long Hushan banner. But going to a great household like Lord Huang's wouldn't work.

Pan Yun walked into the woods, spread out her bundle cloth, and began pulling things out of her Spirit Realm space.

A large, high-definition bronze mirror, and a whole bundle of jars and pots—all the disguise supplies Chen Ziwu had given her.

Pan Yun let her hair down, took out a bowl, scooped a ladle of medicinal paste from one of the jars, dissolved it in water, then dipped a special long comb into it and combed it through her hair.

Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He squatted beside her, learning.

Pan Yun wanted them to learn this skill too, so she taught them as she worked. "The disguise manual is densely packed with all kinds of methods. I haven't personally refined this medicinal paste—Chen Ziwu gave it to me. I'll write down the recipe later, and Miao He, when you have time, make some."

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Miao He agreed readily. "Alright."

Pan Yun combed her hair with the medicinal water, focusing on the temples, then simply tied her hair up with a cloth strip. After looking at her face in the bronze mirror, she began to work.

She opened the jars and pots, and following the steps written in the disguise manual, applied various things to her face in order, then to her neck and hands as well. Her appearance slowly changed.

Pan Yun untied the cloth strip. Her hair was already half-white—especially at the temples, it was grey-white. She looked as if she were fifty or sixty, or at least forty or fifty.

Miao Zhen stared blankly, then picked a quarrel: "Little Xiao Shishu, your face is still too young-looking, only looks like twenty or thirty, doesn't match the hair."

Pan Yun: "What do you know, this is called a crane's hair and a child's face."

She counted on her fingers and said unhurriedly, "Speaking of which, this poor Daoist is sixty-nine this year. Living long makes the heart softer and softer — I just can't bear to see children suffer. This Young Master Huang, barely past twenty, makes my heart ache just looking at him."

Miao Zhen: "……Hasn't that age jumped up a bit too much?"

A jump of sixty all at once?

Pan Yun tied up her hair, securing it with just a single wooden hairpin, then picked up a brush and painted two age spots on the back of her hand, saying casually, "Out there, the older you are the more popular you get — the exact opposite of our Daoist tradition. What can I do about it? I'm helpless too."

Pan Yun finished her makeup, looked at herself in the bronze mirror, nodded in satisfaction, stood up and said, "Do you see any other problems?"

Miao He, starry-eyed, shook her head directly. "Not a single problem."

Miao Zhen said: "Clothes."

Pan Yun said: "Right, the clothes — these clothes don't suit me. Let me look around."

Pan Yun dug out a pile of ruined clothes from her spirit-realm space — all clothes she had damaged while doing laundry as punishment recently.

She couldn't wear them, but it felt a waste to throw them out, so she'd kept them intending to use as rags. She hadn't expected them to come in handy today.

Pan Yun picked out two sets of dull, gloomy Daoist robes, held them up against herself, and said, "A bit long."

These were female Daoist robes. She was nine years old, but in the past two years her height had shot up, and now she was nearly one meter fifty.

Southern girls tended to be petite, only about half a head to a full head taller than her.

As a sixty-nine-year-old old woman, being a bit short was perfectly understandable.

Pan Yun decided to add a bit more height to her shoes.

Growing taller is hard for a person, but getting shorter is easy. The art of disguise includes the Bone-Contraction Art. Pan Yun wavered between taller and shorter, and in the end still chose taller.

Miao He sewed up the tattered clothes for her, while Pan Yun and Miao Zhen took out shoe-sewing needles and added a layer of wooden board to the soles.

The three of them bustled about in the wild, and by the time they finished it was nearly dark. Only then was Pan Yun properly dressed.

She gave her horsetail whisk a flick, lowered her eyes and stood still for a moment. When she opened them again, a sharpness and an air of decline had gathered about her.

The sharpness of the well-traveled, and the decline of the aged.

Miao Zhen and Miao He stared wide-eyed. "This is……"

Pan Yun counted on her fingers and said coolly, "This is the marvel of the disguise art. Every age bracket has its corresponding technique — it reverses bone age, so even a Physician feeling the bones can't tell your age."

And when bone age changes, bearing naturally changes too.

That was also why, when Chen Ziwu disguised himself back then, Zhang Ziming and the others hadn't noticed.

Pan Yun's voice had changed too, grown somewhat deep, and combined with her slow cadence, it carried a sense of great age.

Pan Yun said, "I'm still your Little Xiao Shishu. Let's go — Little Xiao Shishu will take you wandering through the world."

(End of chapter)