Chapter 261: A Great Deal of Merit

Wang Wen felt contempt in his heart; although he was on good terms with Wang Zhen, he would not flatteringly call him father-in-law.

He looked down on Ma Shun in his heart, and his back straightened a bit, but on his lips he replied, "Please pass word to Mr. Wang that I will certainly investigate the treasure matter thoroughly."

Wang Wen brought two censors, while Wang Shan brought a squad of Brocade Guards; the whole party had no chance to go home and headed straight out of the city after receiving their orders.

This was also a regulation of the imperial court, to prevent officials from communicating inside and outside, passing information, and accepting bribes, blah blah blah...

This was a rule Old Zhu had specially set up to prevent officials from being corrupt, taking bribes, and trafficking in information.

There was no need to worry about officials having no money when they went out, because they wouldn't need to spend any along the way.

Oh, according to Old Zhu's plan, that was how it was.

Officials stayed at relay stations, free;

ate at relay stations, free;

upon arriving at a locality, the local relay station would entertain them as well—whatever rank of official stayed in what room, ate what dishes, he had thoughtfully arranged it all.

As for extra expenses, to Old Zhu these were unnecessary, so they weren't taken into consideration.

Washing up and changing clothes—for a grown man, going ten days to half a month without bathing was standard practice;

Falling ill and taking medicine? Getting sick just from going out meant one's body wasn't fit enough and needed more exercise...

So many officials leaving the capital would always, under everyone's gaze, take off their official robes after leaving the city, then sneak back quietly to pack up luggage and grab money...

Officials from poor families even had to run out and borrow first before they could leave the city.

Of course, Wang Wen had no need for any of that.

The moment he left the city he slowed down, and before long, the family members who had received his message sent servants to deliver his luggage and money.

Wang Shan and his men had no need for that either.

As Brocade Guards, money came easily to them; they had no need at all for their families to send any.

The party hurried toward Fujian; among the Brocade Guards, Liu Jing's face looked especially gloomy and ugly.

At the start of the year, the vanished Wang Yong still had not turned up, so Cao Ye reported that he had failed to look after his colleague and had Wang Yong demoted to the lowest rank of Brocade Guard.

Liu Jing had gone to pace in that plum grove more than once, treading over that patch of ground that had once been soaked with blood, but after wavering between resentment and rage, he still did not dig up the corpse.

Whether he reported it himself or let someone stumble upon it by accident, Wang Yong was dead; he had already borne the consequences of Wang Yong's disappearance. Digging up the corpse now would only aggravate the consequences, not let him escape punishment.

If that were so, why bother with the extra move?

This corpse, he would keep it.

A voice inside Liu Jing told him this corpse would be of great benefit to him and would certainly be useful in the future!

Wang Shan turned his head; Liu Jing immediately lowered his head, sat meekly on his horse with downcast eyes, his back slightly bent, looking utterly humble.

"Let's pick up the pace. If we're fast, we can still make it back this year for New Year; otherwise we'll have to spend it alone out here."

The men assented, and one Brocade Guard even laughed, "It's not like we'd be alone—wouldn't we still have my lord? Being able to spend New Year outside with my lord is the good fortune of three lifetimes for us."

The corner of Wang Shan's mouth quirked up, and he urged his horse to a faster pace.

Wang Wen and the two censors rode in a carriage; seeing them speed up, they had the coachman speed up as well.

Meanwhile, having left Quanzhou, Pan Yun also told Tao Ji to drive faster.

The golden progress bar in her Spirit Realm was advancing with a ding-dong, ding-dong; along with that pleasant sound, Pan Yun felt warm all over, and she just wanted to feel the wind.

So she told Tao Ji to speed up—she wanted to ride into the wind.

Master Xuanmiao gazed steadily at her, then said after a moment, "We're not going to Changzhou Prefecture. Back to the mountain."

Pan Yun frowned and asked, "Why?"

Master Xuanmiao: "You're about to break through. Can't you feel it?"

Pan Yun was startled, glanced down at her belly, then closed her eyes to look within.

She had not been cultivating; her Upper Dantian was calm, still brimming with elemental force, with no further progress.

"My Upper Dantian hasn't changed, and my elemental force hasn't increased either."

Master Xuanmiao just looked at the top of her head and said, "Soon."

"What?"

Master Xuanmiao said, "When I first saw you on the beach, you had dark clouds over your head, looking as if you'd lose your life on the spot any moment. After you finished talking with A-Xin, the blackness over your head only faded a little."

"Haven't you noticed? Over the past two days your complexion has been getting better and better, your whole person brighter, your aura approachable, making people instinctively want to draw close."

Pan Yun: "Sounds like a merit stone."

Master Xuanmiao nodded: "You have great merit, and it's still growing. I don't know whose merit this is coming from, but it must have something to do with your bandit suppression."

"Let's go back to the mountain. Once the merit on you grows to a certain point, even if you don't cultivate, you'll still advance. Moreover," she paused, then said, "you are a disciple of the Mountain God, so you'll still have bad luck. Better to break through while you have this merit—when the lightning strikes you, give the merit two points' worth of face, and you'll suffer less."

She said, "Changzhou Prefecture isn't far from Mount Sanqing either; once you've achieved success in cultivation, you can go anytime."

Pan Yun immediately thought of her experience being struck by lightning when advancing in the 26th century. Even with the weak lightning rod helping then, she'd still been charred on the outside and tender inside, nearly failing to pull through. Pan Yun gave a shudder and hurriedly said, "Senior Sister is right. Let me think about where this merit value is coming from; let's get more of it so we can get through the Lei Jie."

"So Senior Sister, merit can weaken the Lei Jie, right?"

Master Xuanmiao gazed steadily at her for a while, then, under Pan Yun's hopeful gaze, nodded. "It can."

Tao Ji, who stood nearby, also said, "When Eldest Senior Brother crossed the Lei Jie—apart from the first time when he had no experience and muddled through it by himself—every time after, he began traveling around two years before he sensed it coming, doing good deeds madly, and accumulated quite a bit of merit."

Pan Yun, hearing this, immediately said, "I want to do good deeds too!"

Seeing Miao Zhen: "Little Martial Uncle, weren't you planning to use eight hundred taels to rebuild Shuangyang Village and Huaihua Village?"

"How is eight hundred taels enough?" Pan Yun said. "Add money, round it up, make it a full thousand taels. And it can't only be Shuangyang Village and Huaihua Village—a tall tree catches the wind; we can't let them be the target of envy and hatred. Add the surrounding villages too—add them all."

Master Xuanmiao, seeing her so generous, asked her, "How much money do you have?"

Pan Yun began rummaging through her Spirit Realm space; counting the money "borrowed" from Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He, it came to roughly two thousand three hundred taels—mainly because Zhu Zixun had too much money on him, and a little had also been scrounged from the other Japanese pirates.

"Two thousand three hundred taels, not counting the odd change—that can be my living expenses."

Master Xuanmiao then said, "Leave three hundred taels to do good deeds back at Mount Sanqing; the rest you can spend."

! 。Read

Pan Yun asked curiously, "Does the merit have to be earned in a specific place?"

Master Xuanmiao said, "You're going through Tribulation Crossing on Mount Sanqing — you ought to give your master some benefit."

Pan Yun felt she had a point. "Three hundred taels is too stingy. Let me round it up — five hundred taels!"

Before Master Xuanmiao could frown, Pan Yun went on, "A-Xin said the land in their few villages was all eventually bought up by the Zheng and Liu families. After he followed Song Bei, he never went ashore to rob — he only plundered at sea, occasionally landing to smuggle."

"He's robbed Zheng and Liu family merchant ships at sea before, and he's also bought goods alongside Song Bei and the Zheng and Liu families. So those two families smuggling through maritime trade and dealing with Japanese pirates has been going on for a long time."

Master Xuanmiao said, "Are you going to report them?"

Pan Yun shook her head. "I'm not an official — why would I go report them? The sea is banned now. If they don't run the smuggling business, someone else will. I won't do something that hurts others without benefiting myself. But I can give them a little warning and earn some hard-earned money."

Gather the money together, and she could also earn merit.

Master Xuanmiao wouldn't stop her, and Tao Ji certainly wouldn't object.

Pan Yun then asked Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He, "Do you want to come with me?"

The two of them nodded together.

Coincidentally, the town was just ahead — the Liu family was there. She had Tao Ji stop the cart, then took out all her makeup treasures from the Spirit Realm space.

As she took them out, her mind wandered off to check the records on the Spirit Realm.

It showed: merit from xxx +2, merit from xxx +1, merit from xxx +5…

Pan Yun's divine sense swept quickly through and found she didn't recognize any of them. Among them, the highest merit values were a large swath of +5, followed by a great many +2s and +1s — truly a great many, no, an enormous amount, densely packed everywhere.

It was still increasing even now, at a remarkably steady pace.

【Pan Xiaohei, could these merit values be from the coastal commoners? Thanking me for killing the Japanese pirates?】

Pan Xiao Hei said, "I'm the Spirit Realm, not the Heavenly Dao. Ask the Merit Stone."

The Merit Stone is the object connected to the Heavenly Dao — only it knows how the Heavenly Dao calculates things.

The Spirit Realm can display "merit value from xxx" because the formation array and the Spirit Realm's internal algorithms capture the information on the Merit Stone and display it.

Pan Yun pondered. 【Come to think of it, you can become a spirit — why can't the Merit Stone?】

Pan Xiaohei mocked, "How many years have I existed? How many years have I cultivated? Then look at that stone…"

It suddenly fell silent.

Pan Yun chuckled gleefully. 【Why'd you stop talking? Why aren't you smug anymore? Did you realize the Merit Stone has existed for quite a while too? Maybe even longer than you?】

"Impossible!" Pan Xiaohei paused, then mocked, "Even if it's longer than me, so what? A stone is a stone — it hasn't gained a shred of spirituality."

Pan Yun rubbed her chin. 【Before, it was just a medium connecting heaven and earth and all things, a stone recording merit and grievances. Few among all living beings knew of it, and the Heavenly Dao paid it no mind. But now it's in my Mud Ball Palace, and I pay it so much attention every day, chanting scriptures for it — could it really not become a spirit?】

Pan Xiaohei mocked, "Who do you think you are? Do you think all the good fortune in the world belongs to you?"

Pan Yun smiled. Her consciousness was just about to withdraw from the Mud Ball Palace to start doing her makeup when she saw a sudden large swath of merit appear on the Spirit Realm, accompanied by an endless stream of ding-dong sounds.

Pan Yun glanced over and saw the names of A-Xin and the others.

She raised an eyebrow. 【Looks like the peace charms and good-luck charms Fourth Senior Sister sent have reached them.】

【They went to the island long ago — even Chen Wen isn't on the mainland anymore — yet Fourth Senior Sister could still have someone deliver talismans to them. My senior sister is impressive~~】

Pan Xiao Hei stayed silent, also thinking Master Xuanmiao was impressive.

The moment Pan Yun opened her eyes, she met Master Xuanmiao's gaze.

(End of chapter)