Chapter 278: Transaction

Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He pondered briefly, agreed with her view, and even the three-tailed fox herself felt Pan Yun was right, so she extended her paw toward them.

Xiao Hong, cautious, hesitated: "This doesn't seem right—what if we poison the fox?"

Pan Yun: "Probably not. Foxes ultimately transform into human form, so they must be able to eat human food."

Miao He rummaged in her space and pulled out a porcelain vial, placing it in the red fox's paw: "I have one vial of cultivation pills left, but none for awakening intellect—I'll need to return and brew them."

She paused, adding: "I'm not certain I can succeed."

Pan Yun's eyes flickered, asking: "Why not come back with us to Mount Sanqing and wait? As soon as the pills are ready, you'll get them. Otherwise, how will I contact you—a demon and a ghost—after we part?"

The red fox's eyes sharpened, her front paw pressing firmly to the ground as she eyed them warily: "Humans have too many schemes. You want to trick us into your territory."

Pan Yun: "... You can't even beat my senior sister, and Xiao Hong can't beat me. If we meant to kill or capture you, we could do it right here. Why would I bother tricking you all the way to Mount Sanqing?"

The red fox stiffened, realizing her logic held weight; she relaxed her paw and sat back on her haunches, thinking seriously: "Is Mount Sanqing far?"

Pan Yun: "Not very far. If you're willing to go, I'll generously gift you a copy of the Dao De Jing."

The red fox blinked. "The Dao De Jing?"

Pan Yun's face turned solemn: "Yes. This is the sacred scripture of our Daoist tradition. To become a god or sage, one must cultivate this text. You're a fox—your path differs from ours—but since you seek to awaken intellect and transform into human form, it's clear the Dao's principles are universal across species. I advise you to study the Dao De Jing thoroughly."

The red fox regarded her with grave seriousness: "You'd just give me such an important scripture?"

Pan Yun's expression remained solemn: "Because you deserve it."

She said: "I see you have excellent talent. You've reached three tails without accumulating karmic debt—clearly self-disciplined and strong-willed. You've also helped Xiao Hong, a lonely ghost—clearly kind-hearted."

"Talent, self-discipline, kindness— even the Dao Ancestor would take delight in you and praise you. So you deserve this book."

The three-tailed fox's tail lifted high with pride, boasting: "I don't eat humans! Human meat tastes awful—worse than rabbit. Don't worry, I won't kill randomly. I'm going to become a righteous fox—only killing the wicked."

Pan Yun nodded vigorously, promising: "When we return to Mount Sanqing, I'll give you the complete Dao De Jing."

The red fox nodded: "Alright."

She thus agreed to accompany them to Mount Sanqing.

Beside her, Xiao Hong opened her mouth but held back.

The red fox noticed and asked: "What's wrong?"

Xiao Hong: "I—I've heard of the Dao De Jing."

Pan Yun: "Isn't it the Daoist scripture?"

Xiao Hong opened her mouth—yes, it was the Daoist scripture. Though illiterate, she knew that much.

But... wasn't the Dao De Jing sold in every bookstore?

Why did Pan Daochang make it sound like only she had one?

Xiao Hong felt uneasy—she had the sinking feeling they'd been tricked again by Pan Daochang.

Seeing they agreed, Pan Yun immediately crouched before them: "Now you can tell me your cultivation method?"

Xiao Hong couldn't stop her—the red fox already said: "It's simple: inhale moonlight and yin energy. It's one of my ancestral cultivation methods—I awakened the blood memory after learning it."

The red fox directly revealed her cultivation method to Pan Yun.

Beside her, Xiao Hong grew uneasy again, unconsciously scratching her head, feeling they'd been cheated again—but she couldn't recall exactly how.

Only after the red fox finished publicly explaining the method did Xiao Hong suddenly remember: "Wait—we haven't settled the price yet! Besides the two pills, you owe us money!"

Pan Yun gazed at her silently: "I've already heard the method."

Xiao Hong and the red fox's eyes widened instantly—they only then realized. Before they could speak, Pan Yun smiled warmly, stroking the red fox's other tail: "Don't worry. Even though I've received the method, I'm a righteous Daoist—I won't renege. How much money do you want? Human money? Or ghost money?"

"Human money, of course," Xiao Hong cut in before the red fox could speak. "Ghost money isn't real money. When Red Yan transforms into human form, she'll need to spend it in the human world."

Pan Yun asked: "How much do you want?"

This question left Xiao Hong and Red Yan speechless.

One didn't understand human society or prices; the other didn't know the method's value and couldn't gauge it.

Besides, they'd already asked for one vial of cultivation pills and one of intellect-awakening pills—how much money would be appropriate?

Xiao Hong glanced at Red Yan and ventured: "T-two taels?"

Two taels would sustain Red Yan's human life for half a year to a year—enough time to find work.

The more she thought, the more convinced she became—she hardened her tone: "Two taels!"

The red fox, unfamiliar with humans, deferred to Xiao Hong: "Two taels!"

Pan Yun looked at the ghost and fox with pity, immediately pulling two silver notes worth twenty taels from her space and handing them over.

The red fox curiously examined the two pieces of paper, but Xiao Hong said: "We don't want paper notes. We want silver. Copper coins are fine too."

Pan Yun had neither silver nor copper coins totaling twenty taels—but Seeing Miao Zhen did.

Seeing Miao Zhen promptly lent her junior aunt twenty taels in silver.

Hand over the money—well, the method had already been received, and all three had heard it.

Xiao Hong couldn't hold the money, so the red fox took it—and opened her mouth with a loud "Ah!" as the silver vanished.

All three stared at it, eyes gleaming. They hadn't seen it swallow—so it wasn't eaten. Then... they all turned to its belly, astonished: "You've opened an inner space?"

The red fox didn't care: "Don't you have one too?"

They did—but theirs weren't part of themselves. Come to think of it, only their senior brother could open an inner space within his own body.

His sleeves—no matter how many robes he changed into—always held everything. She didn't believe the space was in the sleeves. Clearly, that was just a disguise—the space was in him.

Pan Yun was deeply curious about how they opened inner spaces within their bodies, for in her past life, human technology advanced rapidly—even without spiritual energy revival, they'd created space buttons.

After spiritual energy revived, opening inner spaces simply gained another method—it was no longer monopolized by tech giants.

Even cultivators of arrays could open inner spaces.

So in her past life, human inner spaces relied on objects; only demons could open them within their own bodies.

Because object-based spaces were cheap—at least, anyone could obtain one with effort—no one ever tried to open one within themselves.

Pan Yun had never studied this matter.

Just because she didn't go investigate didn't mean she wasn't curious—with a ready expert right here, Pan Yun went ahead and asked directly.

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The red fox wasn't stingy, but her experience amounted to a single sentence: "When I cultivated my third tail, it came naturally."

Pan Yun mused, "Obviously humans aren't..."

In her past life, legends spoke of great figures who cultivated to the Fourth Marquis, yet she'd never heard of anyone whose alternate space was located on their own body.

Seeing Miao Zhen: "You can go back and ask Grand-Xiao Shishu."

Pan Yun: "Grand-Xiao Shishu would only tell me to cultivate properly and stop letting my thoughts run wild."

She glanced outside and asked softly, "Has Third Xiao Shishu coaxed Fourth Martial Aunt back to good humor yet?"

Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He also poked their heads out to look, then shook their heads after a while. "Not a sound."

Pan Yun gave the two of them a meaningful look. "You two go out and have a look, give Third Xiao Shishu a hand."

Miao He shrank his neck. "I'm not going. Fourth Xiao Shishu's scolding really hurts."

Seeing Miao Zhen thought for a moment, then rose and said, "I'll go have a look."

Pan Yun and Miao He watched her off with the eyes of people sending a warrior to battle.

Tao Ji hadn't coaxed Master Xuanmiao at all—he simply sat at her side, accompanying her as they both looked up at the stars.

Hearing footsteps behind him, Tao Ji turned his head, saw it was Seeing Miao Zhen, and asked, "Are you done talking?"

Seeing Miao Zhen nodded. "Little Martial Aunt bought the technique for one bottle of cultivation pills, one bottle of Kai Zhi Dan, and twenty taels of silver."

Master Xuanmiao's brow furrowed slightly.

Tao Ji was briefly stunned and asked, "Miao He can already refine Kai Zhi Dan?"

Seeing Miao Zhen shook her head. "Not yet, the Kai Zhi Dan is still owed, so Little Martial Aunt invited them back to Mount Sanqing together—once the pills are refined, she'll give them to them."

Master Xuanmiao:...

Tao Ji mulled it over, then caught on. "She got the technique?"

Seeing Miao Zhen nodded.

Tao Ji: "What a black heart. That ghost and that fox are pretty dumb too—aren't they afraid Little Martial Junior's heart is even blacker, that she'd trick them back to Mount Sanqing and refine them into pills?"

Not only can a three-tailed fox be refined into pills, even a yin soul can be refined into a pill to nourish and supplement the divine soul.

Seeing Miao Zhen: "Little Martial Aunt's heart is perfectly upright—she probably never even thought of that. Third Xiao Shishu, you know too much, so you think too much too."

Tao Ji: "Just say straight out that the black-hearted one is me, why beat around the bush?"

Seeing Miao Zhen fell silent.

Tao Ji, seeing she still wasn't leaving, asked, "We're watching the stars here. Is there anything else?"

Seeing Miao Zhen: "Third Xiao Shishu, Fourth Martial Aunt is hungry. Go make her something to eat. I'll stay and keep Fourth Martial Aunt company watching the stars."

Tao Ji opened his mouth, then looked toward Master Xuanmiao.

Seeing Master Xuanmiao tacitly agree, he rose grumbling, "You lot are getting lazier and lazier—even boiling a bowl of noodles needs me to do it."

Tao Ji, grumbling and muttering, went back into the ruined temple. Seeing Miao Zhen sat down at Master Xuanmiao's side, and together they lifted their heads to look at the starry sky.

"Martial Aunt, are you reflecting on whether you were wrong?"

Master Xuanmiao gave an "Mm."

Seeing Miao Zhen: "And the conclusion?"

Master Xuanmiao: "I don't think I was wrong."

Seeing Miao Zhen: "Then does Martial Aunt think Little Martial Aunt was wrong?"

Master Xuanmiao was silent.

(End of chapter)