Chapter 244: A Talisman Points the Way

Pan Yun sliced through the ropes on Song Bei's hands with one sword stroke; he scrambled up and put on his inner garment.

After he finished dressing, Pan Yun tapped the bundle with her sword and said, "The next gift is a pair of pants. Who are your Great Chieftain and Second Chieftain?"

Song Bei said, "We take orders from the General's Office. The so-called Great Chieftain and Second Chieftain are merely officials dispatched by the General's Office. In truth, all affairs in Great Ming are managed by me."

He said, "I know what you want to ask. I can tell you straight: I do all this not only for wealth, but so that the glory of my Kikuchi family might rise again in the capital."

Pan Yun understood—he wanted to restore his family's honor.

She gazed steadily into his eyes and could not help but smile. Though she did not know what he was hiding, most of what he had said was largely true.

But… "Restore your family with resources gained through burning, killing, and looting? Aren't you afraid your clan will fall into hell forever?"

Song Bei: "So long as I can restore my family, I fear neither ghost nor god. Besides, I didn't fear them when they were alive—why would I fear them as ghosts? My Kikuchi family is also protected by our household gods."

Pan Yun gave a cold laugh, tossed him the pants, and moved on to the next question.

She truly did as she said—not only interrogating Song Bei, but also questioning the other Gray Guards.

Each time she interrogated someone, she had them brought out alone; the others had their mouths and ears sealed shut, so they could see but could not hear, and certainly could not speak.

Unless one could read lips, no one would know what she had asked or what the person had answered.

Cross-checking several accounts, one could tell who was lying and who was telling the truth.

Whoever lied, she gave them a sword stroke on the spot. Pan Xiaohei used his medicine pouch to lure back a great many poisonous insects.

Pan Yun dug a shallow pit, scattered insect-luring powder inside, and once they had all crawled in and were writhing about, she sprinkled insect-repelling powder along the rim to keep the poisonous bugs from climbing out and escaping.

Pan Yun grabbed a centipede, and amid the terrified shriek of one Gray Guard, she placed it on his arm, then pricked his arm with her sword. Blood welled up, and the centipede immediately wriggled happily forward.

Pan Yun withdrew her sword and crouched beside him, saying helplessly, "You can't blame me for this. I only asked you—what is the name of the island where you hide your treasure, and in what direction does it lie? Such a simple question, and you still refused to answer. Of course I had to punish you."

The Gray Guard shrieked, "I'll talk, I'll talk!"

Pan Yun said unhurriedly, "What you said was false. Before you, I asked several others, and your answer doesn't match theirs."

The Gray Guard shrieked and could not speak. The other Gray Guards beside him, whose hearing had been sealed so they could see but not hear, went deathly pale, completely unaware what question their comrade had been punished for.

Ah Xin, who had been kept behind to observe, and the two other Blue-Clad Guards wore deeply complicated expressions, because Pan Yun had never actually asked the previous three Gray Guards that question.

Watching him writhe in agony, Pan Yun added coolly from the side, "Oh my, this centipede venom is really something—your blood is already turning black, and your lips are going dark too. At most half a shichen, and without the antidote, you'll be beyond any cure, won't you?"

Pan Yun said with a beaming smile, "I didn't expect you to be so loyal to your superiors, not even caring about your own life. Impressive, truly impressive."

"But your loyalty to them doesn't mean they think much of you," Pan Yun said. "Just look at the clothes Kikuchi Wu Bei is wearing, and you'll know how many of my questions he answered for me."

"You ronin are nothing but nameless, family-less ruffians and scoundrels. If they truly cared for you, would they have granted you a family name? Given you any future to speak of? Among those who follow them, has anyone truly been able to leave the sea, step ashore, and become a samurai?"

"They use you as expendables, yet you worship them as gods. What you don't know is that they still laugh at you for being fools—a pack of nameless vagrants who dare to dream that loyalty will earn them a surname and the protection of household gods…"

Before Pan Yun could finish, the Gray Guard whose wound the centipede had latched onto let out a piercing scream. His eyes bulged as he bellowed furiously, "Shut up! Shut up! On Divine Turtle Isle—Divine Turtle Isle in the northwestern sea!"

With a slap, he dropped flat on the ground, muttering expressionlessly, "Everything we plundered is temporarily stored there, and from there shipped back to Hirado."

"Hirado?" Something flashed quickly through Pan Yun's mind, but too quickly for her to catch hold of it.

But she had noted Divine Turtle Isle, so she asked, "How does one get to Divine Turtle Isle? Do you have a sea chart?"

The Gray Guard laughed bitterly, "I don't have a sea chart. Only Kikuchi-dono has one. And without a sea chart, no one can find Divine Turtle Isle—not even Kikuchi-dono himself."

Pan Yun raised an eyebrow and turned her head to look at Song Bei, who lay flat nearby with his acupoints sealed.

Song Bei had no idea why she was suddenly looking at him. His heart was uneasy, when he saw her break into a smile and beam sweetly at him.

Song Bei: …

He grew even more uneasy.

Night fell. Pan Yun had finally interrogated every Gray Guard; she even bluffed them, asking whether any Japanese pirates were hiding among the Blue-Clad Guards.

She bluffed several people, and every answer she got was negative.

Pan Yun then said to Ah Tong, "Either they don't know, or they're formidable enough to collectively deceive me. But I think the second possibility is zero—because they've already told me where they hide their treasure; they wouldn't lie to me about something like this."

Ah Tong said, "There can't be any Japanese pirates among us Blue-Clad Guards. We're all born and raised here, neighbors who know each other."

"You still think Song Bei is a Han man, an ill-treated illegitimate son of the Song family forced to make his way in the jianghu. So your words carry no reference value."

Ah Xin: …

"If Daoist Sanzhu doesn't trust me, why did he specifically keep me behind to observe?"

Pan Yun said, "I kept you here to serve as witnesses—so you know I haven't wronged these people. They are Japanese pirates with ulterior motives."

Pan Yun patted his shoulder and said, "Though you're not clever, you value loyalty. The brothers under you trust you, and I imagine the people on the island trust you too. When the time comes, try to persuade them not to throw their lives away fighting me over a band of Japanese pirates."

Ah Xin exhaled, nodded, and said, "Daoist Sanzhu, rest assured. The people on the island are very reasonable. Once they know these men are Japanese pirates, they absolutely won't shield them."

Pan Yun gave no opinion either way. Ah Xin was a capable man who could live well even without Song Bei, so he had overlooked one issue: the others, once separated from Song Bei and no longer serving as pirates, might not be able to survive at all, or at least not live well.

They would defend Song Bei even more steadfastly than Zhu Zixun had—whether or not he was a Japanese pirate.

But Pan Yun did not say this out loud to discourage Ah Xin.

The night deepened, and the spirit motes in the forest grew more conspicuous. Unlike the dense swarms before, they now resembled summer fireflies—plenty, yet not so thick as to make one's heart race with dread.

Seeing Miao Zhen and the others had gathered quite a number of bones. Some dug pits while others buried the collected remains; the spirit motes vanished.

Zhang Weiliang, covered in dirt, walked back in a daze and told Pan Yun, "I collected twenty-eight sets of bones. I didn't find Zhang Weiqin."

Seeing Miao Zhen: "I collected thirty."

Miao He: "I also collected thirty."

Hu Jing: "Thirty-two."

Su Ying: "Thirty-five."

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The others also reported their numbers in turn.

Pan Yun nodded in satisfaction and said, "Everyone's done well. Rest for the night, and we'll continue tomorrow."

Li Ji asked, "But the person still hasn't been found."

Pan Yun: "That's because they're too dim-witted. Fine, I'll give you a little more guidance."

Pan Yun took out a fire talisman and a Lei Fu, stacked the two talismans together, pinched her fingers to activate them, and flung them out. Seeing Miao Zhen flung out a horizontal saber, which pierced through the talisman paper and carried it high into the air. The fire talisman went "bang" and burst into flames, and at the same time lightning "crackled" down, sparks flying everywhere, painting half the sky red in midair.

Everyone below looked up at the sky, dumbstruck.

Hu Jing murmured, "It's just like fireworks…"

Su Ying, meanwhile, dropped to his knees with a "thud," gazing up at the sky: "So the mystic arts are real after all, which means Mazu truly exists. Bless me, Mazu. Your believer has sinned."

Pan Yun, standing at his side: …

Weren't these spells and talismans her doing?

Why worship Mazu instead of her?

The horizontal saber carried the talisman halfway up the sky before falling. Seeing Miao Zhen reached out to catch it, but upon seeing blue-white current still flickering along the blade, she immediately pulled her hand back.

With no one catching it, the horizontal saber spun a few circles in midair, then with a "clang" embedded itself in Zhu Zixun's leg. Zhu Zixun let out an "Ah—!" scream of agony.

The blade went straight through his leg and into the ground.

Pan Yun raised an eyebrow. She first glanced up at the two talismans still exploding, then stepped forward and gripped the blade. "Hero Zhu, would you like me to pull it out for you?"

Zhu Zixun, drenched in sweat, glared at her and Seeing Miao Zhen. "You did this on purpose."

Seeing Miao Zhen, seeing Pan Yun look her way, immediately said, "I can swear it wasn't me."

Pan Yun: "I trust my martial niece. If she says it wasn't her, then it wasn't. So many people were standing on the ground, right beneath the blade, and it didn't stab any of them—it turned aside just to stab you. Clearly you've committed too many sins, so your luck has turned terrible."

"Hero Zhu, the heavens are punishing you. I think you should do more good deeds, or else your bad luck will only keep piling up."

Pan Xiaohei: "Meow, worry about yourself. After you killed the first person, you turned off the reminder function in the Spirit Realm array. You think turning it off makes the deducted merit not count? Dare to take a look at your Mud Pill Palace? The merit bar on your Spirit Realm has retreated all the way back to the starting point."

Pan Yun ignored him and kept talking to Zhu Zixun. "For example, why don't you share some inside information about the Japanese pirates?"

Zhu Zixun, enduring the pain, said: "I'm not a Japanese pirate, and I didn't even know they were Japanese pirates. What inside information could I possibly have?"

Pan Yun curled her lip. "Is that so? I thought after following him for seven or eight years, you'd know some secrets we don't."

Zhu Zixun said nothing.

Pan Yun withdrew her hand and stopped helping him pull out the blade, leaving it stuck in him just like that.

She looked up at the sky, walked aside with a worried expression, and said, "Such a big commotion—if Zhang Weiqin and the others still can't find their way out, then they must be dead."

Zhu Zixun, trembling, reached for his wound, wanting to pull the blade out himself, but because of the blade's length, he couldn't reach the hilt at all. Besides, he was a little timid about doing it himself.

He couldn't help but look at Pan Yun.

Pan Yun kept gazing up at the sky, ignoring him.

At this moment, those looking up at the sky along with Pan Yun and the others included not only Zhang Weiqin and his group in the forest, but also Master Xuanmiao and the others far out at sea.

The moment Xue Shao saw the fireworks exploding red across half the sky, he hurriedly asked Master Xuanmiao, "Daoist priest, what signal is that?"

"It's a signal to guide people," Master Xuanmiao said. "It means they're fine."

There's still one more chapter tonight.

(End of this chapter)