Chapter 3: Discovered

Pan Yun: 【Since you can't help me, from now on, don't even think of taking a single bit of Qi from me. I'll cultivate on my own—I can save them too.】

Spirit Realm: 【You've been reborn with your memories—why still treat them as your family? Don't you want to go back and find your past family? I can take you there.】

Pan Yun: 【Eight years—even a dog would have formed an attachment. How much effort did they pour into raising a sickly infant who had her Qi stolen? Even without emotion, just to repay the debt of birth and nurture, I can't stand idly by.】

Besides, in her past life, she had no family—only her country to repay.

Spirit Realm: 【If you want to repay them, first repay me. When the lab exploded, it was me who wrapped your soul and escaped. Without me, you'd have scattered like them.】

Pan Yun sneered: 【If I hadn't remembered that debt, do you think you'd have stayed in my Upper Palace of Clarity for eight years? Don't pretend to be noble—you took my soul only because you needed a vessel, and I was the closest. So you saved me, and I saved you—we're even. If anything, you owe me these eight years.】

Spirit Realm fell silent, then flickered and shot out of her Upper Palace of Clarity with a hiss—but as it surged outward, a net snared it, and threads appeared out of nowhere, swiftly binding it tight.

Spirit Realm gasped: 【First refine essence into Qi, then Qi into spirit—how can you refine spirit first?】

Pan Yun in her Upper Palace of Clarity grinned at it: 【Guess.】

The balance has shifted—now Pan Yun holds the upper hand.

Spirit Realm, adaptable, changed tone: 【Since you're one of the researchers, you know I'm sealed—many abilities are unusable. Wait until I break the seal, and I can help you…】

【Too long. Your past country poured so many resources into you, and after ten years you've only partially unsealed—just enough to input data. Who knows how long until you're fully unsealed?】 Pan Yun didn't believe it had no options: 【Give me back half the Qi you've stolen from me. Let me raise my cultivation—I'll find someone to save my family.】

【I've already refined it all. Gone.】

Pan Yun sneered: 【Do you take me for a three-year-old? If you had no stored Qi, how would you maintain your space's operation?】

Spirit Realm: 【…It's barely enough to keep the space running. Everything inside is yours.】

Pan Yun: 【Discard it. Give me the Qi.】

Spirit Realm: 【Why not wait? Let me break more of the seal. I'm a Jingshen—a once-crowned Spirit Realm. Once I break free…】

Pan Yun sneered: 【Gods can't cultivate autonomously…】

Spirit Realm: 【Once I break that part of the seal, I can…】

Pan Yun continued: 【Gods still feed on the Qi I cultivate.】

Spirit Realm: 【Once I reclaim godhood…】

Pan Yun: 【Fed for eight years.】

Spirit Realm: 【Once I reclaim godhood…】

Pan Yun: 【Eight years—silent as a stone.】

Spirit Realm, weakened: 【Once I reclaim godhood, I'll compensate you…】

Pan Yun: 【Eight years—my father and brothers wrongfully condemned, and I, with no cultivation, couldn't lift a finger to help.】

Spirit Realm surrendered: 【I can give you some Qi, but half is impossible—I've refined most of it, and I need some to keep the space running.】

It added: 【You know how useful the space is—just now, if I hadn't opened it to let you hide your things, could your family have escaped that danger?】 Pan Yun fell silent. The space truly was invaluable—it had just saved her family's lives.

Today, since waking, everything went wrong: she choked on water, stumbled getting out of bed, and even the copper handle of her water bowl snapped clean off.

Dao cultivators don't suffer random misfortune—if such things happen, heaven is sending a warning. So she used her limited knowledge to cast a divination for the Pan family.

Great misfortune!

Her father and two brothers had been sentenced to exile in Datong. She'd asked about the Pan household—her grandmother and uncle's family—how could they be marked for great misfortune?

The Pan family's only vulnerability now was her.

As Pan Hong's daughter, she should have been exiled to Datong too—but her father, pained by her frail health and remembering how she nearly died last spring, hid her instead. No one outside knew she still lived.

Sheltering a criminal was a grave crime.

So after seeing the great misfortune, she immediately decided to set fire and flee.

There was no choice—every corner of the house bore her traces. She could run, but the things couldn't.

She wasn't even sure fire would erase all traces—when suddenly, a voice flashed into her mind.

Before she could ask more, knowing it had a space, she instantly gathered every Daily necessity into it, then rushed to the storage shed, hauling in more items to scatter around the room and mask the remaining traces, before hastily bidding her grandmother and uncle farewell and fleeing.

!. Read

She'd barely stepped outside when the Brocade Guard arrived—she narrowly escaped. It was right—today, it had saved her and the Pan family.

Pan Yun finally yielded a step; the human and spirit reached a temporary accord.

Spirit Realm gave her some Qi.

The Qi had always been hers—she could use it directly once released—but still she sat cross-legged, guiding it through a Small Heavenly Cycle, finally pressing it into her Upper Dantian.

After she finished, Spirit Realm asked: 【Where do we go next?】

Pan Yun lowered her gaze, thought a moment, then said: 【The Pan household is gone—Brocade Guard will watch it forever. I'm going to Datong to find my father and brothers. Come—take me a thousand li in a single stride.】

Moments later, Pan Yun stood outside the alley—silent. Silent. Endless silence.

【This is your "thousand-li stride"?】 Pan Yun sneered. 【One wall. Half an alley?】

Spirit Realm, guilty: 【All the Qi I cultivated went into breaking the seal—mostly to open the space and the techniques. And I just gave you so much Qi…】

Pan Yun stressed: 【It was MY cultivated Qi! And you didn't give much—only a little.】

Whatever. A sealed Spirit Realm couldn't be expected to do much. Pan Yun sighed, about to discuss how to reach Datong—when suddenly she felt an unpleasant gaze. She frowned, looked up.

She met Wang Yong's eyes.

He sat atop a horse, studying her—his gaze deeply unsettling.

Why is he here?

Pan Yun's eyes swept the scene—she roared inwardly: Fuck! Useless Spirit Realm—"thousand-li stride" only got her across one alley, right onto the street, where she bumped into Wang Yong, fresh from the Pan household.

Her face remained expressionless, her gaze sliding smoothly past him as if he were invisible. She scanned the crowd, locked onto a broad back, and sprinted after it: "Father…"

(End of Chapter)