Chapter 281: Breaking Out of the Siege

Under the afterglow of the setting sun, Miao Zhen and Miao He respectfully brought out the statue of the Mountain God Pan Gong, and together knelt before the small divine statue to pray.

Tao Ji, impatient with their slowness, took out a talisman paper and spread it flat. His thumbnail scraped across the pad of his index finger, a bead of blood welled up, and he immediately dipped a bit of cinnabar, mixing it with the blood to write on the talisman paper, drawing a talisman: "Senior brother, come quickly, urgent!"

The moment the speech talisman was complete, he waved his hand and the talisman paper ignited without fire, burning to ash at his fingertips in a moment.

The people hiding in the shadows did not dare approach too closely, but whether human or demon, their eyes were sharper than ordinary, and seeing them perform rituals and draw talismans, they grew somewhat anxious: "What are they doing?"

Someone looked at the ever-lower-hanging lightning and gloated: "Have they decided to undergo Tribulation Crossing here? I don't think that thunder can hold back much longer."

"Here? At least find a place with slightly denser spiritual energy, no? Not afraid of failing the Tribulation Crossing?"

The speech talisman vanished. Master Xuanmiao looked up at the thunderclouds for a while, then lowered his head to look at Pan Yun, who was gradually entering meditation. Knowing she was about to reach her limit, he said: "Feed the horses. In two quarter-hours we travel through the night. Miao Zhen, Miao He, you two get off the cart and run on your own. Travel light."

The method of traveling light was to stuff everything on the cart into the spatial storage. Red Fox, Miao Zhen, and Miao He got off the cart to run on their own, and even the light-as-air Xiao Hong and Pan Xiaohei were chased off the cart.

Only Tao Ji, who drove the cart, and Master Xuanmiao remained on the cart.

Pan Yun had been sitting motionless on the cart the whole time; she had now entered a state profound beyond profundity.

She knew she could not break through now, and she knew there was danger outside, so she did not enter full meditation. She could hear Master Xuanmiao and the others' voices, but those voices seemed to pass through a layer of gauze—she heard them, yet they did not fully reach her heart.

It was like hearing words in a half-dream, half-awake state.

Primordial force filled her meridians; she felt immensely powerful at this moment—the kind of strong where she could kill an ox through the air, or swat down a mountain.

So she still had to restrain the urge to vent.

Primordial force carved open her meridians bit by bit. Under inner vision, it was brute-force excavation, and so the pain was unbearable.

Most of Pan Yun's mind was on the primordial force, so when she suddenly noticed another force appear, it had already overflowed from her Upper Dantian.

Pan Yun saw that energy, like a golden airflow, surge into her meridians, merge with the primordial force, and then try to rush down toward her lower dantian.

Pan Yun reacted sharply—if she let it go down, wouldn't that be the end?

Wouldn't she ascend on the spot—ah, ptooey—meet King Yama on the spot?

Pan Yun immediately took control, guiding it into other meridians, wandering, wandering—like playing a match-three avoidance game—the meridians it traveled through must ultimately avoid converging at the lower dantian.

As it traveled, the primordial force gradually took on a golden tint, passed through the middle dantian, and re-entered the meridians.

She discovered that when the primordial force was mixed with golden energy, not only did the pain lessen while forcibly widening the meridians, but the hard damage from the widening was also immediately smoothed over, restored to its original state.

No wonder the Monks separated the cultivation of merit into its own lineage, not hesitating to cultivate reincarnation for it—this merit... really is heaven-defying.

She had always assumed the Spirit Realm had used merit to unseal itself, but now it seemed it only needed her to have merit on her person for the seal to be lifted, without consuming it.

Was this because the Spirit Realm was bound to her for life?

Then why didn't it show when she did merit before?

Was it because she herself was short on virtue at the time, so the merit she gained was filling the deficit?

The more she thought, the more Pan Yun felt a little stifled, yet also a little pleased—this meant all the merit truly acted upon herself.

To be more certain, Pan Yun circled the middle dantian area a few times before returning to the Upper Dantian.

The Mud Pill Palace is the most mysterious region of the human body. Although she could use inner vision, she had never clearly seen it to this day, nor fully understood it.

Even in her previous life, when her cultivation was higher, her understanding of the Mud Pill Palace was not complete.

There were always many unsolved mysteries.

Her Mud Pill Palace was not large; inside, apart from a Spirit Realm, there wasn't much space left.

Pan Yun carefully guided the two streams of energy to merge into one, flowing through her meridians, then entering the Mud Pill Palace...

The Mud Pill Palace already held a fair amount of primordial force, and now it bulged a bit more...

The primordial force in the Mud Pill Palace was slowly dyed gold. Pan Yun simply mixed the golden energy flowing out from the Spirit Realm into it, enduring the intense pain as she chipped away at the Mud Pill Palace bit by bit.

This was no different from hammering her own divine sense.

With every move, her veins bulged, her heart rate spiked, and sweat kept pouring out...

But this was indeed the best way to consume the two streams of energy within the body.

Under the repeated hammering and brute endurance, excess primordial force and golden energy were continuously drawn into the Mud Pill Palace...

With a "boom," Pan Yun's ears rang and her vision swam; her whole person went blank for a moment, and a flash of white light appeared before her eyes. When she came back to herself, she saw her Mud Pill Palace greatly changed—the Mud Pill Palace, which had previously only fit one Spirit Realm, had instantly become much more spacious.

The white primordial force that had been clogging the Mud Pill Palace and the golden merit instantly separated, drifting leisurely within the Mud Pill Palace like white mist and golden quicksand.

The Spirit Realm still sat at the very center of the Mud Pill Palace, but all eight directions were now much more spacious—about an inch more on top, and even more open around the sides. The white mist concealed it within, making it appear and disappear like the ethereal fog between mountains.

And the golden merit, like golden silk, drifted past the tips of its petals, appearing utterly sacred.

If one ignored the three array progress bars of different colors on its head. At this moment, Pan Yun finally felt that this array progress display bar was a bit ugly.

Seeing clearly the changes in her Mud Pill Palace, Pan Yun, while guiding the two streams of energy clogging her meridians up into her Upper Dantian, cheered inwardly: "I'm too awesome, I'm really a genius—this is cultivation not advancing, but divine sense breaking through first."

Pan Yun looked at her Mud Pill Palace with delight, planning to continue controlling the changes in her primordial force.

She felt this round of changes gave her more confidence in controlling the timing of her breakthrough.

But she did not know that the instant her divine sense surged, the three wooden plaques hanging at her waist shattered with a snap, and the merit that had been hidden all along was suddenly exposed before everyone, instantly blinding all eyes.

The black cat following the cart let out a loud "Meow!" and kicked off with both legs, flying toward Pan Yun...

The instant the wooden plaques shattered, Master Xuanmiao, sitting beside Pan Yun, drew a circle in the air—a yin-yang circle appeared beneath her hand, enveloping Pan Yun within it.

At the same time, she drew her sword.

And before her sword was fully drawn, the humans, demons, and monsters who had been ambushed on both sides of the Lin Zi—blinded by Pan Yun, this little golden figure—instantly reacted. No longer waiting for the lightning from the sky to descend, they surged toward the cart in an instant.

Master Xuanmiao fully drew her sword, stood before Pan Yun, and instantly took flight. The sword flashed like a streak of light under the dim moonlight—bang, bang, two sounds—and an unfinished-transforming yellow weasel spirit and a pitch-black person tumbled down from midair...

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Miao Zhen and Miao He closely pursued behind the cart. The moment the yellow weasel spirit hit the ground, Miao He kicked him on the head with a bang, breaking his neck outright. Miao He's face paled slightly, but her feet didn't stop as she ran after the cart with quick steps;

Miao Zhen, meanwhile, flashed something in her hand, a saber appearing, and as she passed by the pitch-black person, she swung once—the opponent's head was separated from his body.

She didn't even glance, following close beside Miao He to chase the cart.

Hong Yan and Xiao Hong, following behind, trembled with fear—they had never killed a person~~

They had never killed a demon either~~

The two wanted to run, but the moment they turned their heads, they saw countless shadows chasing after them with a whoosh, and they were terrified, hurriedly running after the carriage.

If they fell behind alone, they'd be torn apart by the demons and monsters behind them, right?

One after another, things caught up.

After all, Tao Ji and the others had a carriage. Except for a small portion of things that would take shortcuts to get ahead and wait at their ease, most relied on their own abilities to chase alongside and behind the carriage.

So as long as their carriage didn't slow down, it would be very hard for them to form a siege.

Master Xuanmiao stood on the carriage, killing every person and demon she met. If something rushed out ahead to block them, before the carriage even got close, she would leap into the air and kill the person or demon before the carriage arrived.

Her sword was extremely fast—so fast that only afterimages could be seen. The people and demons charging up usually only managed a few exchanges before being killed.

Then she flashed back onto the carriage in an instant, blocking the attack coming from the left side.

Sometimes she might not be able to kill her opponent in a single strike, but she could still gravely wound them. As soon as they fell off the carriage, Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He waiting behind would come up to finish them off.

Sometimes she couldn't rush back in time, so Tao Ji and Pan Xiaohei would each guard one side. As long as they held out for three breaths, she could instantly return to reinforce them.

Under the dim night, one could only see Master Xuanmiao's sword gleaming coldly, sword-light flickering, and things continuously letting out shrill screams as they fell from midair.

They had been galloping for over half a shichen, and still nothing had been able to touch the carriage.

At this time, Wang Feiyin, who had received the message talisman, was rushing through the night at high speed.

In the darkness unseen by Master Xuanmiao and the others, something watched everything in secret and said softly: "They're coming…"

Ahead was a narrow pass. On the right was a not-very-tall mountain peak mainly made of stone; on the left was a dense forest.

At this time, quite a few people were standing on the mountain peak. Watching the carriage speeding toward them from afar, they exclaimed: "It really is merit golden light—truly dazzling. She's so young, how has she already achieved such merit?"

"Maybe it's the blessings of her ancestors."

"Did her ancestors save all the living beings under heaven?"

"It could also be merit from her own previous life."

"If we eat her, our cultivation will greatly increase, right?"

In the darkness, one person said hesitantly: "But if we eat her, we'll be struck by lightning, right? She has so much merit—the Heavenly Dao must favor her. Under its protection, let's not even talk about whether we can eat her; even if we did, we'd be tainted with great sin. This… we'll be struck dead by lightning, right?"

Silence fell over the mountain peak. After a long while, an aged voice said: "Cultivation is going against the heavens in the first place—we're meant to be struck by lightning. Those who are unwilling can leave now; no one will stop you."

"Such thick merit is no less than a heaven-sent treasure. If heaven gives it and we don't take it, that would be the real sin."

Everyone reached a consensus: "Tell the demons opposite to get ready. The moment the carriage comes in, we'll make our move. We can't wait for her to break through—fifty li ahead is the Three Pure Realms, and I don't want to fight Wang the Eccentric."

Good night.

(End of this chapter)