Chapter 320: The Agony of Tutoring Homework

Qu Le stretched out five fingers and said, "I'm willing to pay five thousand taels!"

Pan Yun's face bloomed into a smile, and she nodded repeatedly, saying, "Sure, sure. My Second Senior Brother still needs a disciple. Your roots and bones look decent, so I'll take it upon myself to accept a disciple on behalf of your future master."

Seeing Miao Zhen at the side: "... Little Xiao Shishu, shouldn't this matter be brought before Master first?"

The entire Mount Sanqing had the most disciples under her master's name.

Qu Le shook his head as well. "I want to take Master Xuanmiao as my master."

The smile on Pan Yun's face fell away, and she said expressionlessly, "Wake up. My Senior Sister doesn't accept disciples."

Qu Le said, "If you can get Master Xuanmiao to accept me as a disciple, I'm willing to pay ten thousand taels."

Pan Yun said coldly, "Ten thousand taels of gold?"

Qu Le was stunned. After a long silence, he gritted his teeth and said, "If it must be ten thousand taels of gold, then ten thousand taels of gold it is—as long as I can take Master Xuanmiao as my master."

Pan Yun:...

She looked Qu Le up and down, then extended her hand. "Pay me the fifty taels for helping you capture the criminal first."

Qu Le was taken aback. "I haven't even caught the person yet."

Pan Yun: "Advance payment."

"That won't do. I haven't found a single lead yet, and whether I can find the person at all is uncertain. How can I pay in advance?"

Pan Yun: "To be a person of Mount Sanqing, the first thing is confidence. If you don't even have the confidence to capture a criminal, how can you join Mount Sanqing, let alone dream of taking my Senior Sister as your master?"

Pan Yun narrowed her eyes. "You don't mean to tell me you can't even produce fifty taels of silver?"

Qu Le:...

"If you can't even produce fifty taels, how can you pay ten thousand taels of gold? Are you dreaming!?"

Qu Le was banged on a few times by Pan Yun. Unable to fight back or dodge, he could only clutch his head and shout loudly, "I don't have money on me, but my family does!"

Pan Yun: "Didn't you run away from home?"

"I did run away from home, but my father and mother only have me as their son, and my grandfather only has me as his grandson. All the money in my family is mine. Just wait for me to go back and throw a tantrum—my grandfather will definitely give me money."

Pan Yun grew curious. "Your family is that rich?"

Qu Le said proudly, "Naturally. My father was able to marry my mother entirely because my family has money."

That sounded a bit off, yet somehow didn't seem wrong.

"How about this—since you're so sincere, I'll let you become the third disciple of my Second Senior Brother. How does that sound?"

Seeing Miao Zhen: "... Little Xiao Shishu!"

Qu Le: "No. I will only take Master Xuanmiao as my master!"

Pan Yun couldn't help clicking her tongue, and waved her hand. "Then there's nothing to discuss."

She could stuff people under her Second Senior Brother's name, but she didn't dare stuff anyone under Master Xuanmiao's name.

Pan Yun called out to Seeing Miao Zhen, "Let's go!"

Seeing Miao Zhen hurriedly responded, scooped up Pan Xiaohei, and followed Pan Yun.

Qu Le gritted his teeth, but still broke into a run to chase after her, following behind Pan Yun and saying, "Can't you put in a few good words for me with Master Xuanmiao?"

Pan Yun ignored him.

"If you can get Master Xuanmiao to agree to accept me as a disciple, besides the ten thousand taels of gold, I'm also willing to offer you an additional thousand taels as a personal gift."

Pan Yun quickened her pace, afraid that the next second she would be tempted and then go courting death.

Qu Le strode to keep up and raised the price: "Two thousand taels."

Pan Yun was almost flying.

Qu Le jogged after her and shouted loudly, "Five thousand taels!"

Pan Yun stopped walking, turned back to look at him. "Here's the deal—draw a few lines for me to see."

Pan Yun looked around, found a spot sheltered from the wind, squatted down, took out cinnabar and yellow paper, and after stuffing a brush into his hand, said, "Look carefully. Draw as much as you see."

Having said that, her fingers traced through the air. Wherever they passed, white spiritual energy floated, forming a talisman that swayed in the air, as if the lines themselves were dancing.

Qu Le watched, dumbfounded. Gripping the brush, he was completely stupefied, and murmured, "This is it, this is it... this is cultivation. I, I'm going to become an immortal."

Pan Yun silently watched him. Seeing Miao Zhen also wore a look of disdain, and couldn't help saying, "Little Xiao Shishu, I don't want him as my junior brother—and having him as my senior brother is even worse."

Pan Yun was tempted by the money, and soothed her in a low voice, "Let's see a bit more."

Then, after agonizing for a long time, Qu Le drew one horizontal stroke and one downward-falling stroke on the yellow talisman, then came to a halt.

Pan Yun watched him with bright, expectant eyes. Seeing him stop just like that, the light in her eyes died out.

She clutched her chest and said, "This is even more heartbreaking than when I guessed I had no talent for cultivation. Back then, I trained for ages without my cultivation advancing, and it wasn't this painful. You, you, you—how can your aptitude be this terrible?"

Qu Le was displeased. "I'm here to cultivate, not to be a Daoist Priest who draws talismans. Your talisman wriggles around like a worm—who could draw it in one glance?"

Seeing Miao Zhen said, "I could."

Qu Le's face was full of disbelief.

Seeing Miao Zhen: "When my Fourth Xiao Shishu was young and tested his talent, he also drew it in one glance."

Pan Yun raised her hand and said, "I also drew it in one glance."

Qu Le: "... I, my master is of course amazing, and you are somewhat amazing too, but I'm not bad either. My roots and bones are excellent—before I was even twenty, I had already fought my way through the Wu Lin Alliance unbeaten." Pan Yun: "The people of your Wu Lin Alliance are really weak."

"By the way, you fought your way through the Wu Lin Alliance unbeaten—so did you win or lose against Lin Mengzhu?"

Qu Le's face was slapped red, and for a long while he didn't make a sound.

Pan Yun drew the talisman once more. This time she made it linger longer. Qu Le still only drew two strokes—and miraculously, these two strokes were different from the previous ones.

Most crucially, whether this time or the last, the spiritual energy swirling around them didn't stir at all, as if it couldn't see Qu Le's cinnabar brush.

Pan Yun:... Sometimes you just want to give up, feeling the world is just like this—why must you insist on this money?

Money is so hard to earn!

Thinking of the mountain god temple, thinking of the poor, starving devotees and her master, Pan Yun forced out a smile. "It's fine. Let's switch to star-gazing."

The next moment, Pan Yun took Qu Le and Seeing Miao Zhen up onto the roof.

Although Guangxin Prefecture was a Fucheng, it still had a curfew. Deep into the night, the entire city was shrouded in dim moonlight, save for a few scattered points of light.

So up in the sky, aside from the ring around the moon where stars were sparse, the rest of the heavens were thickly blanketed with stars.

Pan Yun casually pointed at a star and said, "Come, the simplest one — these seven stars linked together are the Big Dipper. Tell me, which way is the handle pointing now?"

Qu Le strained his neck, eyes wide open as he looked, and asked, "Which seven stars?"

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Pan Yun: "…You're already this old, and you don't even know the Big Dipper?"

Qu Le frowned. "Who says a person has to know the Big Dipper just because they're older?"

Pan Yun: "…Fair enough. Then I'll teach you now."

Pan Yun forced a smile, pointing them out one by one. "See? These seven stars, linked together, look like a ladle, and they sit in the northern sky — that's why they're called the Big Dipper."

Pan Yun turned to look at Qu Le, saw his face full of bewilderment, and a bad premonition rose in her heart. "You… you can't still not recognize them, can you?"

Before the words were even out, Qu Le had already opened his mouth to ask, "This patch of stars is so dense — at a rough glance there are more than a hundred. Wherever you point your finger there's just a whole stretch of stars. How am I supposed to tell which one you mean? Let alone link them together."

Pan Yun: "…The seven brightest ones!"

Qu Le: "They all look pretty bright to me."

Pan Yun stared at him in silence.

Qu Le finally gave in and could only keep trying to learn. After half a day of Pan Yun's effort, he finally managed to link the seven stars together.

Seeing Miao Zhen, off to the side, gave a cold snort, sat on the ridge of the roof holding Pan Xiaohei, and watched the show.

Pan Yun said nothing, but Qu Le couldn't help turning his head to glare at her.

Pan Yun: "…Why are you glaring at her? I'm asking you — what is that star called?"

Qu Le followed her pointing finger and looked up. "Yuheng!"

Seeing Miao Zhen burst out laughing with a "pfft."

Pan Yun finally couldn't hold back, raised her hand and smacked his head, exasperated: "Yao Guang! Yao Guang! That's the star Yao Guang!"

Pan Yun glanced at the sky on the verge of paling, and the stars in the heavens were gradually fading into hiding. The starry sky grew sparse and scattered, with only the Big Dipper still stubbornly hanging in the sky.

Pan Yun even suspected it was because dawn was approaching — the little stars surrounding the Big Dipper had faded, making the Dipper all the more conspicuous — that was what finally let Qu Le link them together.

Pan Yun: "Forget for now which star is which. I'll just ask you — in this season, which direction is the handle pointing?"

Qu Le's mind was like paste. When Pan Yun had taught him earlier, he was sure he'd remembered, but now he couldn't recall a single bit of it. He could only guess wildly: "East?"

Pan Yun's face was expressionless. Qu Le then said loudly, "I know — it's south!"

Seeing Miao Zhen finally couldn't hold it in anymore. She was holding back her laughter so hard that tears were nearly coming out, and she almost accidentally pinched Pan Xiaohei.

Pan Xiaohei was far more direct — he simply opened his mouth and laughed soundlessly, making sure both Qu Le and Pan Yun could see it, as a way of mocking the two of them.

Pan Yun felt a tightness in her chest.

Qu Le, uneasy in his heart, said anxiously, "Then it's west — it can't possibly be north, right?"

Pan Yun: "Why can't it be north?"

"Didn't you just say something about the handle pointing west, south, east, and so on?"

Pan Yun: "That was a mnemonic for you to memorize — just four half-lines. 'Handle west, what then? Handle south, what then?' I've repeated it several times. You still haven't memorized it?"

"There's 'handle west, south, east' — could there really be no 'handle north'?" Pan Yun said, frustrated that he was hopeless. "Handle north, and the world is in winter! It's winter right now, winter — is it pointing north or not?"

Qu Le nodded. "You're right."

"Right, my foot," Pan Yun sprang up with a whoosh and called out to Seeing Miao Zhen. "Let's go!"

Qu Le hurriedly followed. "Wait for me, I…"

"Shut your mouth, stop your feet," Pan Yun shouted. "If you keep following me, then it won't be the two of us hunting down criminals — it'll be me becoming one!"

Half a night later, Pan Yun was utterly worn down. She shook her head in disbelief: "Hard to imagine — in my past life I never suffered through the torment of tutoring homework, yet in this life I'm enduring it at such a young age."

Pan Yun shouted inwardly to Pan Xiaohei: 【Even my second brother never made me feel this helpless!】

"You're really not suited to come to Mount Sanqing!" Pan Yun said. "That ten thousand taels of gold and five thousand taels of silver — give them to whoever you want. I'm not earning your money anymore!"

With that, Pan Yun turned and walked off.

Qu Le tried to chase after her, but Seeing Miao Zhen took one long stride and blocked his path. She looked back at him and said coldly, "Stop following us. Mount Sanqing will not take you in. Don't even dream of becoming my junior brother…"

She said through gritted teeth: "…or senior brother!"

Good night.

(End of chapter)