Chapter 312: Fame

Pan Yun calculated the money on her and figured that if she exchanged it all into copper coins, winning would hurt the money house;

losing would hurt herself.

So she decided to take the middle path and exchange only one hundred taels, harming neither heaven nor people.

Miao Zhen also started rummaging through the money box in her space, planning to make a profit too.

Miao He, seeing this, also pulled out her money box. "What if silver goes up after three days?"

Miao Zhen: "Then we'd lose."

Pan Yun: "No, as long as we don't exchange it back into silver, we won't lose."

Pan Yun glanced at the two of them and said: "Anyway, you have your space, just keep it in there and spend it slowly. Generally, without major disasters or man-made calamities, prices rise very slowly."

Miao He: "So from now on we'll spend everything in copper coins? Over fifty thousand copper coins, we're so rich."

Pan Yun: "We were already rich to begin with."

She said: "They rarely use copper coins because they're heavy and inconvenient to carry, and right now the money house's silver notes have high credibility. But you have your jade-token space, so that trouble doesn't exist—carry copper coins freely."

Seeing Pan Yun say this, Miao He pulled out another silver ingot. "I don't have much money, so I'll exchange twenty taels."

Miao Zhen said: "I'll exchange all my money, eighty taels in total."

Pan Yun looked at her enviously. "My money isn't really my money. Sigh, I have to exchange one hundred taels."

Miao He: "Little Xiao Shishu, isn't all your money supposed to be used for the temple fair? If you can't exchange it back after three days…"

Miao Zhen: "Are you stupid? If we can't exchange it back, then we just won't. Apart from this batch of grain that needs to be paid in silver, everything else can be bought with copper coins."

Pan Yun nodded: "Copper coins are money too."

Moreover, the vast majority of goods are priced in copper coins; silver is still only used by a small number of people.

The three people and one cat finished their lamb soup with flatbread and, brimming with ambition, walked into the money house side by side.

The clerk stared at the banknotes placed on the counter, his eyeballs nearly popping out. "One hundred taels, all exchanged for copper coins?"

Pan Yun said yes.

The clerk hesitated, then said: "That would be one hundred thousand coins?"

Pan Yun pointed at the "Today's Silver Exchange Rate" sign beside them and said: "Say that again while looking at this board?"

The clerk couldn't decide on his own and could only go find the owner.

The owner laughed upon hearing it and said: "Exchange it for them, as long as they can carry it away."

Pan Yun and the others could of course carry it away—a total of two hundred and forty thousand coins, two hundred and forty strings, packed into two large hemp sacks.

Pan Yun simply picked them up and left.

Now not only the clerk but even the Shopkeeper came out to watch, seeing the three of them off into the distance.

The clerk closed his gaping mouth, turned to look at the Shopkeeper, and said: "Boss…"

The owner waved his hand dismissively and said: "It's nothing. Don't spread this around."

The clerk agreed, but said: "They walked into the money house empty-handed and left with two large hemp sacks. I'm afraid the thugs on the street who are always watching the money house might…"

The owner turned and went back into the money house. "That's their business. And from the looks of it, who ends up suffering the loss is not yet certain."

Pan Yun thought the same—who ends up suffering the loss is not yet certain.

She not only carried two sacks of money through the main street, she also occasionally lifted the sacks upward, making the copper coins inside clink and jingle.

Pan Yun put both sacks of money on the ox cart and was about to drive off when the Shopkeeper from the grain shop caught up, presenting her with a small bag of mung beans and saying: "Little Daoist, these are the mung beans I'm offering to the Mountain God Temple. I ask Little Daoist to earn merit on my behalf."

Pan Yun took them and nodded generously: "The Mountain God will protect the virtuous, and the people who have benefited from your kindness will also be grateful to you."

Only then did the Shopkeeper step back contentedly, watching them leave.

Miao Zhen truly didn't understand this time and said: "Does that Shopkeeper believe in ghosts and gods or not?"

Pan Yun said: "Murderers and arsonists will also kneel before Buddha and pray for his mercy; the deeply wicked will also seek divination from the gods. People, you know, sometimes believe and sometimes don't—it all depends on what they need."

Miao Zhen: "People really are complicated~"

Miao He nodded in deep agreement.

Leading the overloaded ox out of the city gate, and seeing no one around, Pan Yun stored the two large sacks of money into her spirit-realm space. Not only that, she also stored several sacks of grain. Once the ox was relieved of its burden, the three people and one cat climbed onto the cart, sat on the grain sacks, and let the ox leisurely carry them toward Mount Sanqing.

Miao He: "Riding in the cart is still more comfortable."

Miao Zhen: "Little Xiao Shishu, if this trip doesn't lure any bandits, what do we do about the shortfall?"

Miao He: "Lure bandits? Lure what bandits?"

Pan Yun: "If we can't lure them, I'll go stroll around the prefecture tomorrow. I heard Fourth Martial Sister say that when she's short on money she often goes to tear down notices at the government office, collecting reward silver just like Hu Jing."

Miao He finally understood and hurriedly said: "Little Xiao Shishu, you don't need to work so hard. If you're short on money you can borrow from me—I still have a little."

Pan Yun gave her a grateful look and said: "Although I'd love to cling to your thigh, I spend too much money. I'm afraid I'd break your leg. You don't know how much money I'm burning through right now."

Her senior martial brother had just spent a hundred taels of gold on her two days ago.

Gold, gold—just mentioning gold reminded her of Master Huang, not far from Long Hushan. She wondered how he was doing now, and whether he'd be willing to give her another gift of gold when she visited him after New Year.

Lost in thought, Pan Yun and the others had already walked half the journey, and Mount Sanqing appeared before them. Pan Yun looked back, and Miao Zhen also looked back, then said after a moment: "Little Xiao Shishu, it looks like you'll really have to go tear down notices."

Pan Yun: "…Is the public order in our Yushan County really this good? I swaggered down the street carrying two sacks of money and nobody came to rob me!?"

"What about the money house owner?" Pan Yun said: "Isn't he angry? Won't he leak some information outside, letting people come rob me?"

Miao Zhen: "Either they look down on this bit of money, or they know they can't beat us and don't dare come."

Pan Yun: "We're just three weak, helpless little girls. How can they be so cowardly?"

Pan Xiao Hei, squatting to one side, snickered and meowed: "Don't waste your effort. Nobody dares to mess with people from the Sanqing Abbey. I heard everything—those thugs nearly stared holes through the sacks, but the moment they saw the Daoist robes you were wearing they didn't dare follow."

Pan Yun grabbed it and gave it a rub. "If you knew, why didn't you say so earlier?"

Pan Xiao Hei: "You'd have found out eventually anyway."

Pan Yun gave it a resentful shake, letting go only when it stretched out its claws to scratch her, then asked calmly: "What else did they say?"

Pan Xiao Hei: "What could they say? Though the money house owner did say you might be Pan Sanzhu, the one who went on a rampage in Quanzhou recently, and told the clerk to treat you with more respect."

Pan Yun was stunned. "I'm this famous?"

!. Read

In fact, Pan Yun was even more famous than she had imagined.

Within the Qingshan Realm, nothing showed — perhaps because gossip cannot be spoken in front of the person involved, and the one at the center of an event is always the last to know. The Qingshan Realm was perfectly peaceful, but outside Mount Sanqing, things were bustling, with all sorts of rumors flying everywhere.

Master Xuanmiao and Tao Ji, who had gone out, felt it most keenly.

The two had not been long out of Mount Sanqing before they overheard people in an inn discussing the matter of slaying the Japanese pirates in Quanzhou.

"I heard there was a Daoist Master who had attained the Dao, who went around with two junior martial nephews cutting down everything in sight — he alone killed a hundred Japanese pirates."

"I heard it was close to a thousand. It's spread all over the Min-Zhe region, and people have started worshipping her."

"Worship is putting it mildly — I heard the villages in Quanzhou that were massacred by the Japanese pirates want to erect a stele for her, the government office wants to recommend her for merit, and even the Emperor wants to meet her."

"That impressive?"

"What's this Daoist Master's name?"

"Pan Sanzhu."

"Huh? My great-grandmother on my third aunt's side's distant niece's maternal cousin's family also has a longevity tablet at home — also named Pan Sanzhu."

"Could it be the same person?"

"Temple-haired and white, with two Daoist attendants waiting on him — also an immortal who has attained the Dao, said to be over two hundred years old."

"Then it can't possibly be the same person. The one in Quanzhou is said to still be young — in the prime of life."

"By 'prime of life,' do you mean past the age of thirty?"

"Enough of that — do you know about the thunder that struck Mount Sanqing not long ago?"

"We do. What about it?"

"They say that thunder was meant to strike down an immortal — Mount Sanqing is about to produce an immortal."

Master Xuanmiao and Tao Ji: …

The news was chaotic and jumbled, but indeed no one had connected the three people together.

Master Xuanmiao said with a grave face, "After we eat, we'll go to the Thousand Breaths Brothel."

Tao Ji agreed.

The Thousand Breaths Brothel stood in the quarter of willows and flowers — it was, in fact, a pleasure house.

It had three floors. It was not yet night, so the place was not very lively; the Misses were mostly resting. On the first and second floors, there were only people drinking wine, eating meat, and chatting — clearly not sons of officials or wealthy families, but mostly Jianghu folk carrying blades and swords.

Master Xuanmiao and Tao Ji, in their Daoist robes, were given only a glance by the doorman, who stepped aside and let the two of them in.

The moment the two stepped inside, everyone seated on the first and second floors looked over in unison, and the lively scene fell silent at once.

Master Xuanmiao, expressionless, found a seat in the first-floor hall — one shielded by a pillar, which blocked most of the line of sight.

Master Xuanmiao raised her head and swept a glance around. Everyone her gaze touched looked away, lowering their heads, not daring to meet her eyes.

Only then, satisfied, she told the waiter, "A pot of wine. Invite a Miss of the Spring generation down to keep us company."

The waiter was taken aback and hurriedly said, "Daoist Master, it's daytime — the Misses of our house do not receive guests."

Tao Ji took out a silver ingot and set it on the table. Master Xuanmiao said in a low voice, "Go invite her."

She said, "If I come at night, I'm afraid Qianchun Qin won't dare accept."

The waiter, hearing her call Miss Spring Qin by her full name directly, dared not refuse any longer and hurried upstairs to summon her.

Spring Qin pushed open a window on the third floor and looked down. At one glance she spotted the figure in Daoist robes, cool and aloof, seated by the pillar. She rose at once, shot the waiter a sideways glare, and said, "This person — you dare slight her? Go change a pot of good wine, bring up a few side dishes, and put it all on my tab."

The waiter hurriedly assented.

Spring Qin drifted down the stairs like a butterfly. The moment she saw Master Xuanmiao, her face broke into a smile. She shoved Tao Ji aside and nestled against Master Xuanmiao's side. "Reverend Xuanmiao, it's been so long since you came — this one has missed you terribly~~"

Good night

(End of chapter)