Chapter 231

As the night deepened, the camp gradually fell quiet. After Pan Yun completed three minor Heavenly Cycles and took her healing medicine, the injuries she had slapped out herself were mostly healed.

She lay down to sleep as well.

She felt she had only just closed her eyes when the internal clock she had set for her body woke her. She opened her eyes; the firelight had already dimmed.

Pan Yun casually picked up a few pieces of firewood and tossed them onto the fire, poking at it to make the flames burn brightly again.

She looked toward Pan Xiaohei's direction. 【Go.】

Pan Xiaohei stood up, shook the dead leaves off its body, and soundlessly crept forward a stretch. When eyes glanced its way, it nimbly climbed a tree, its entire cat body hiding among the branches.

Hu Jing caught a glimpse of a cat tail flashing between the branches and, seeing it lying still on the tree, finally looked away.

That was Pan Yun's cat; Hu Jing couldn't help paying attention.

He looked toward Pan Yun, only to discover she had actually gotten up and was adding firewood to the flames.

Hu Jing was startled and instinctively turned his head to look at Zhu Zixun.

Zhu Zixun was sleeping inside the cart, so his movements couldn't be seen, but the firelight reflected on the cart, making it possible to tell he was lying down.

Daoist Sanzhu, whose injuries were said to be worse, could sit up halfway through the night to add firewood and tend the fire, yet Zhu Zixun was still asleep.

Hu Jing fell into thought.

And in a place Hu Jing couldn't see, beneath the dead leaves, several mice marched in a line. When they neared the cart, they emerged from under the leaves and, using the cart's shadow as cover, scurried forward without making a sound.

The guards on night watch patrolled once around the cargo carts, then sat down by the fire and complained in low voices to their companions: "It's always us keeping watch…"

"Keep your voice down. If those gray-robes hear you, there'll be another fight."

"I'm afraid of them? Their martial arts can't compare to ours, they don't do any work normally, all they do is stand over us throwing their weight around…"

Pan Xiaohei nimbly made its way to the branches above their heads. It heard their conversation, and so did Pan Yun.

She raised an eyebrow, her gaze sweeping, and in the darkness precisely located the gray-clothed men, some lying down, some leaning.

The guards' clothes were all similar—common blue and gray cloth—so she hadn't thought much of it before, but now it seemed there was a difference between the guards in blue cloth and those in gray.

Pan Yun noted this in her mind. Through the black cat's eyes, she watched the mice below flickering in and out of view, splitting into two groups to find the two carts.

One guard seemed to hear a sound and got up to walk over; the mice immediately hid motionless inside the wheel.

The guard circled the carts once, found nothing amiss, and returned to the fire.

The mice waited a moment, heard the footsteps recede, then climbed up along the wheel onto the cart, and shortly slipped inside.

The three mice crept carefully through the cart, and before long found a box that was relatively thin and had been knocked about.

The three mice gripped the same corner from three directions—one on top, one on the left, one on the right—and at the same time opened their mouths and began gnawing: crack, crack, crack…

After an unknown length of time, the drowsy guard was suddenly startled awake, as though he had heard the crack-crack-crack sound.

Two guards exchanged a glance, got up, walked to the cart, and circled it once more.

The mice clinging to the box alertly stopped gnawing and lay motionless.

"Damn it, where did these mice come from?" The two guards kicked at the wheel, paused a moment, heard nothing more amiss, and only then turned and left.

The two returned to the fire and sat down. After sitting for quite a while, just as drowsiness crept back, that rustling, scratching sound started up again.

The two guards heard it, were extremely annoyed, and stood up once more.

They had only taken two steps when the sound stopped again.

The two guards heard it, were exasperated, but still walked around the cart once, even crouching to look underneath, though they didn't dare reach out to lift the blue cloth.

The two returned to the fire seething, and before they'd been sitting for even half a quarter-hour, the rustling, scratching sound rose again.

The two guards: …

The two had lost all patience, exhaled a long breath and leaned against a tree, simply not caring anymore, sprawled out as the rustling, scratching sounds drifted over from the cart.

After listening to the rustling, scratching sounds for so long, they actually grew accustomed to them.

After an unknown length of time, the rustling, scratching sounds finally stopped. The two couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief, then closed their eyes to rest at ease.

Meanwhile, on the cart, the smallest mouse slipped into the box, and shortly emerged with something held in its mouth.

The three mice descended in an orderly fashion and scurried along beneath the cart's belly. Occasionally a guard heard a sound and looked over, saw it was just mice, and paid no mind.

The wilderness was full of mice, but fortunately what they were escorting wasn't food, so they weren't afraid of these little creatures.

Pan Xiaohei didn't travel on the ground, but leapt and bounded through the branches. After putting some distance behind, it climbed down along the trunk, waited for both groups of mice to gather, then turned and walked at the front to lead the way.

Pan Xiaohei led the mice in a line to the riverbank, while Pan Yun by the fire took out a formation disk and set it down, then used a small knife to carve eyes and noses into three pieces of wood she had broken off—one placed at her own side, two side by side beside Miao He.

Pan Yun nudged Miao He and Seeing Miao Zhen.

The two opened their eyes, said nothing, and quickly scrambled to their feet.

Hu Jing, who had been glancing at her from time to time, felt his vision blur. He couldn't help but blink, and when he looked back at the fire, he saw Pan Yun still sitting cross-legged in meditation, with her two martial nephews lying beside her.

Hu Jing looked away, sweeping his gaze over the other fires and the other people.

He thought he had simply been too tired just now, which had made his vision swim.

Having now surveyed the whole scene and found nothing amiss, and seeing the night-watch guards up and patrolling, he closed his eyes to rest, wanting to ease his fatigue.

!. Read

Meanwhile, Pan Yun and Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He had already tiptoed into the woods, heading straight for the river.

Xue Shao and Xi Jin were already standing by the river, at that very moment staring wide-eyed at Pan Xiaohei.

Xue Shao suddenly turned his head. Before him were still a few trees tangled together, but his gaze dropped to the ground, fixed on an empty patch, and he called out tentatively, "Daoist Pan?"

Pan Yun tore off the invisibility talisman on her body, her form revealed. "How did you spot us?"

Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He also peeled off their invisibility talismans, flanking Pan Yun at her sides and slightly behind.

Xue Shao pointed at their feet. "It's autumn and winter, lots of fallen leaves on the ground. Out here, unless you can walk on air, you'll leave traces."

Pan Yun glanced down at her own heels. "Lucky for us not everyone has your powers of observation, or we wouldn't have gotten out tonight."

What Xue Shao was even more curious about was, "You're so conspicuous—how did you slip past their eyes and ears? They should notice you're gone pretty quickly, right?"

Pan Yun: "'We' are sitting by the fire meditating and sleeping right now. That part doesn't matter."

She didn't ask Xue Shao how he had evaded their eyes and ears, because Song Bei didn't pay much attention to the merchant caravan following them, so Xue Shao could move far more freely than they could.

If even like this he couldn't safely evade their eyes and ears, how could they cooperate in the investigation afterward?

Better toss aside the idea of an alliance sooner rather than later.

Pan Yun stepped past Xue Shao and walked up to Pan Xiaohei, asking, "Did you get the thing?"

Pan Xiaohei proudly stepped aside on her cat paws, revealing the line of mice following behind her.

Two little mice were protected in the middle; under Pan Yun's gaze they trembled all over, but still spat out the things in their mouths, and it wasn't over yet—after spitting out what was in their mouths, they kept spitting more out.

Two small piles of grayish-black stuff landed on the withered leaves, and Pan Yun and Xue Shao squatted down together to look.

Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao Heye were curious beyond measure, squeezing aside the nosy Xijin, squatting down on Pan Yun's left and right, and together widening their eyes to look at the things on the withered leaves, "What is this?"

Pan Yun and Xue Shao each pinched a bit of the stuff, held it to the tip of their nose and sniffed it, and their faces changed drastically, "Gunpowder!"

Xue Shao looked at Pan Yun with a complicated expression, "Just a little bit off, and we might have had casualties today."

Pan Yun: "No wonder Song Bei got so nervous the moment I started fighting Zhu Zixun—turns out there was this stuff in the caravan."

This was mature gunpowder. Once she and Zhu Zixun's strikes went slightly awry and a palm slammed into these two carts, given the size of these two carts, it could've sent them off on the spot.

Xue Shao took out a handkerchief, poured everything into the handkerchief and put it away properly, saying in a deep voice, "This is a matter of great importance—we have to notify the Quanzhou government office."

Pan Yun, on the other hand, stroked her chin and said, "The Japanese pirates have already circled around to the rear at Shuangyang Village and Huaihua Village—do you think the people in the Quanzhou government office are of any use?"

Xue Shao's heart stirred, and he looked at Pan Yun, "You also suspect they're pirates?"

Pan Yun: "You suspect they're pirates?"

Xue Shao paused, then nodded, "Yes, but it's not just me—there's also my friend."

He said, "I suspect they use sea islands as bases, constantly buying weapons and ironware from the interior to arm bandits for plundering. I originally thought they were escorting ironware, I didn't expect it would be gunpowder."

Xue Shao's heart stirred, and he murmured, "Gunpowder—is this purely for making gunpowder, or is it used to pack cannons? Have pirates with cannons already appeared along the coast now?"

Only one update today, will make up for it tomorrow

(End of this chapter)