Chapter 214

"I only have one son, Huang Cong, but he was born foolish. I still want to give him several younger brothers so they can care for him in the future."

Pan Yun: "Nice excuse, but whether you're doing this to care for him or to abandon him, it makes no difference. Huang Master, you will have only this one son in your entire life—it is fate, unchangeable."

Critical hit. Absolutely a critical hit.

Huang Master's expression went blank; after a long while, he found his voice: "I—I'm not that old yet..."

"Indeed, you're not old. But fate is fate."

Pan Yun said not a single extra word—just those three words, "fate is fate," left Huang Master utterly despondent.

Finally, he mustered one last plea: "Is there truly no other way? What about defying heaven and changing fate?"

Pan Yun frowned, then said after a long pause: "Huang Master, your family's lack of offspring is hereditary—and it will continue to be passed down. This is hard to change, and it won't be fixed overnight."

"Isn't the feng shui of my mansion good enough? Why is heaven so unjust to my Huang family?"

Pan Yun smiled faintly: "Heaven is precisely because it is fair that your Huang family struggles to produce heirs."

She said: "Your Huang family has committed too many sins. Huang Cong's foolishness is the result. If... future offspring are also split fifty-fifty, rest assured, Huang Master—even if your family produces three generations of fools, you'll still enjoy endless wealth and honor."

"What did you say?" Huang Master's eyes widened; he leapt to his feet, indignant: "Immortal, what sins has my Huang family committed?"

Pan Yun: "You know in your heart what sins your family has committed. And since your family enjoys heaven's blessings without merit or virtue, you must pay a price."

Huang Master's face flushed crimson as he demanded: "Are you referring to the peasant uprising two years ago, the five or six who died? But can that be blamed on me? Blame Deng Yun! He incited them to rebel—those who were crushed by the magistrates were his doing. I'm innocent! Heaven cannot be unreasonable!"

Pan Yun merely smiled without speaking.

Huang Master grew angrier, pacing in place: "Even if it was a sin, it was the magistrates' sin! The magistrates arrested them, the magistrates beat and killed them! Oh, they're officials, I'm a commoner—so heaven blames me? I'm the one who's wronged! They rented my land, agreed to pay eighty percent in rent, then after harvest refused to pay, wanted to steal my fields! There's no logic in that!"

"Heaven blames me for this, robs me of heirs—I won't accept it!"

Pan Yun sighed: "Huang Master, heaven treats all things equally. It does not favor you because you are rich and own land in the mortal world."

"Eighty percent rent—you think a peasant's year of labor is worth only twenty percent?"

Huang Master sneered: "If they don't agree, they don't have to rent. I never forced them. Once they rent, they must honor it! Keeping promises, following contracts—that is the Way!"

Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He, for some reason, grew angry listening. But Pan Yun remained unmoved, coldly saying: "Yet heaven does not see it that way."

Pan Yun sneered: "What Way? What imperial laws? What magistrates? What nobles or landlords? In heaven's eyes, none of these mean a thing."

Huang Master froze.

Pan Yun: "Heaven operates by its own rules. These rules are called the Dao of Heaven."

"Thus dynasties rise and fall, every two or three centuries. Even the noblest imperial families end as nothing but dust, trampled under countless feet. Clans, generals, beggars—all can become emperor. No matter how wealthy their ancestry, all eventually decline." Pan Yun said: "This is the Dao of Heaven. Whether family or nation, fortune ebbs and flows. Huang Master, when the previous dynasty fell, did Emperor Gengshen ask heaven why so many traitors rose to seize his realm?"

Huang Master immediately replied: "The Yuan were heretics! The dynasty had rotted, the people suffered. Our founding Emperor Taizu was no traitor—he acted on heaven's will, saving the people!"

Pan Yun smiled faintly: "So Huang Master knows that commoners obeying imperial orders cannot survive. You know there is such a thing as acting on heaven's will to save the people."

Huang Master's face flushed crimson. Even though Pan Yun was an immortal, she now deeply annoyed him—he wanted to throw her out.

"Immortal, are you here on behalf of those peasants?"

"I didn't come for them," Pan Yun said. "Though we Daoists speak of merit, we speak even more of cause and effect. Take money, then remove calamity."

"I took money from you, Huang Master. I value the merit your family will return to me later. Unless those peasants come to me, why would I lift a finger for them?"

"But," Pan Yun said slowly, "I won't act for them—but that doesn't stop me from speaking truth. Right now, Huang Master, to the peasants, you are exactly like the fallen dynasty's heretics. Under you, they live in misery."

"With this mansion protecting you, how much longer will your Huang family enjoy wealth?" Pan Yun smiled sweetly. "Those who understand, understand."

Huang Master's lips trembled: "Th-this—Immortal, you never said this before! Didn't we fix the feng shui?"

"We did fix it—the blessings will continue. Your Huang family's masters will no longer die young from the mansion's excessive fortune. But... the sins your family committed? That hasn't changed."

Huang Master's knees buckled; he collapsed to his knees. "Immortal, save me! Please bless my Huang family for ten thousand generations!"

Pan Yun: "The emperors of the previous dynasty were mighty—they nearly shattered the world—and still couldn't hire a sorcerer to make their dynasty last forever. Even our own wise Taizu and Taizong failed. Do you think I, a Daoist priest barely on the verge of becoming a human immortal, can do it?" Pan Yun waved her hand. "Huang Master, you overestimate me."

Hearing her say this, Huang Master believed her even more. He clung to her leg, wailing: "Immortal, even if you can't make us last ten thousand generations, please change our fate! At least—please make sure our next generation isn't foolish!"

Pan Yun frowned, then after a long pause said: "There is one method you might try. But I can do it—will you be able to do it?"

"I can! I can! If it changes fate, I'll climb a mountain of knives, walk through fire!"

Pan Yun's face remained expressionless: "Why would I ask you to climb a mountain of knives or walk through fire?"

She snorted: "The solution isn't hard. To untie a knot, you must find the one who tied it. Huang Master, you must erase the sins your family committed."

Huang Master: "My family hasn't committed any sins~~"

Pan Yun smiled faintly.

Huang Master ventured: "Are you referring to those lowly peasants?"

Pan Yun glanced, then pointed to the corner: "Huang Master, what do you see there?"

!. Read

Huang Master turned: "Cockroach?"

Pan Yun nodded: "Yes, a cockroach. But in heaven's eyes, it is you. It is me. It is everything in this world."

"'Lowly commoners' is a human rule—not heaven's. You want heirs. You want intelligent heirs. You must fight not human rules, but the Dao of Heaven. So, Huang Master, know your true enemy. Know what you truly seek."

Pan Yun spoke with deep meaning: "People will endure great hardship to achieve their goals. For example, I—I dislike you, Huang Master. But for my merit, for my cultivation, I am willing to advise you, willing to lend you a hand."

Huang Master:... He saw it now. Pan Yun truly disliked him—and seized every chance to mock him.

If he didn't know only Pan Yun was an immortal he could turn to, he'd have thrown her out already.

But Pan Yun's words had entered his mind: Everything for the goal?

What goal did he truly seek?

His son had been married two years, still eating and playing like a fool, unable to father a child. He feared for the future of the Huang family.

He needed a grandson. A smart grandson. So his family must stop committing sins.

Huang Master gritted his teeth: "I'll reduce the rent for the peasants. Starting this year, I'll take only sixty percent."

Pan Yun sneered, silent.

Huang Master winced: "Rent can't go lower—but I can cut the winter payments of preserved vegetables and chickens and ducks. Reduce them by thirty percent."

Pan Yun sighed, "It seems that in Master Huang's heart, silver and gold matter more than descendants—he won't even cut the extra tribute of silage and poultry by half."

Master Huang protested, "How is it extra? They lease my land to farm; the herbs that grow on it belong to me. The chickens and ducks in the countryside eat grass and vegetables—where do those grass and vegetables come from? Don't they all come from my land? So why shouldn't I demand silage and poultry from them?"

Thus, every year the tenant farmers must hand over seventy to eighty percent of their harvest, plus a fixed quantity of chickens and ducks to the Huang family, and each winter they must cut vast amounts of grass to serve as silage.

Silage, as it is called, is winter fodder prepared for cattle, horses, mules, donkeys, sheep, and other livestock—the landlord's herds are numerous, and they refuse to spend money buying it or hiring labor to cut grass, so they assign the silage duty directly to the tenant farmers.

Pan Yun stared steadily at Master Huang for a moment, seeing no need to argue further.

Never try to argue with someone whose understanding lies on a different level—especially when it's meaningless. Pan Yun simply asked, "Master Huang, if you cancel the tenant farmers' silage and poultry tribute, I guarantee your son Huang Cong will father a child within two years, and the child will not be foolish or insane; if you cut it in half, I guarantee he will father a child within three years, and the child will not be foolish or insane."

Master Huang immediately calmed his anger, his eyes darting as he said, "Fine, I'll cut it in half."

Pan Yun raised an eyebrow—indeed, unborn descendants still mattered less than money. But…

Pan Yun said, "Performing the ritual requires some items."

She wrote him a list—filled entirely with items. As she wrote, Master Huang felt his purse emptying with a whooshing sound.

(End of Chapter)