Chapter 326

Zhou Wan Niang paused in thought, then nodded: "Fine, leave it to the next family. Young Daoist, please tell her to cut it clean—if she can't bring herself to do it, come back to me. I'm learning to castrate chickens these days; I'll make sure it's done perfectly!"

Pan Yun nodded vigorously, "Yes yes yes, I'll definitely tell her!"

Zhou Wan Niang stared fixedly at Pan Yun, then put down the scissors and fell to her knees with a thud, bowing her head to the ground, "Young Daoist, you've saved my life. I will erect a long-life tablet for you and worship you for the rest of my days. Please tell me your Daoist name."

Pan Yun, looking troubled, held her up: "I… I'm Pan Yun, also called Pan Sanzhu. You can erect a long-life tablet under whichever name you like—but don't kneel."

"This is the merit of a good person. I helped you because I should. Your better days are still ahead," Pan Yun said. "Your household will one day be peaceful and harmonious, raising a great benefactor who serves the people."

Da Chun barely snapped back to awareness. "What?"

Da Chun's mother slapped his head, then pulled him down to kneel beside her. "Young Daoist just divined Da Bao's fate—she said he's extremely filial and intelligent, will become an official, and will honor you and Wan Niang deeply. Hurry and kowtow to thank the Daoist! When Da Bao grows older, you must send him to school."

Da Chun's mother whispered in his ear: "You must treat Wan Niang better from now on. Don't ever lose your temper with her over this again—she's the one who suffered. Her heart must be a thousand times more pained than yours. When Da Bao grows up and finds out how you treated his mother, he'll never forgive you…"

Da Chun stared blankly and nodded, staring at his bloodied wife and the large scissors before him, his body trembling uncontrollably. He would treat Wan Niang well—he would never mention this again.

The villagers stared at the bloodstained scissors beside Zhou Wan Niang, all silent.

Zhou Wan Niang asked Pan Yun to stay, saying she would kill a chicken and cook her a meal.

Pan Yun looked at the large scissors in her hand and shook her head repeatedly. "It's getting late—we still have to go to the next victim's home. We won't eat."

Zhou Wan Niang: "Young Daoist, I'm fast at killing chickens—just one slash to the neck, a dip in boiling water, and in fifteen minutes I'll pluck every feather. It won't take long to stew it."

Pan Yun shook her head again, firmly taking her leave.

She dared not even drink water in the village, and hurriedly dragged Hua Buliu, who remained unconscious, away.

Far from the village, once the villagers could no longer see her, Pan Yun stopped and dropped Hua Buliu, his body drenched in blood.

Pan Yun looked at him, then, heart aching, pulled out a vial of medicine, tipped out a pill, and shoved it into his mouth.

After leaving the village, Qu Le regained consciousness and came over to ask, "What kind of medicine is that?"

"A blood-replenishing, qi-nourishing pill," Pan Yun said, then tapped several acupoints on him. "These are the stopping-blood acupoints. I don't know how well they'll work—just hope he doesn't die for now."

Qu Le frowned. "Why save a lecher?"

Pan Yun glanced at him. "Who said I'm saving him? I'm saving someone else."

Pan Yun found him an obstruction. "Go away quickly. Once you're gone, I can take him to the next victim."

Qu Le: "I'm not a gossip—I won't spread the victims' information. Why can't you take me along? Besides, can you two carry him? Don't you still need me to carry him?"

Pan Yun frowned. She didn't want Qu Le along because she intended to fly there directly with her medicine cauldron.

Senior Brother had said: to avoid mortals becoming obsessed with immortals and ruining their own futures, flying on magical objects—clearly divine techniques—must never be used before ordinary people.

Any magic used among mortals must appear half-real, half-fake.

That is, it must look real enough to convince, yet plausible enough to be dismissed as illusion—giving loved ones ample reason to dissuade the mortal from pursuing cultivation.

Flying… this is too hard to dismiss as fake. That's why she shooed Qu Le away.

He'd wept and begged to become Senior Fourth's disciple after seeing half her sword-flight—if he rode her medicine cauldron, wouldn't he die trying to become a cultivator?

He's a man of the Jianghu; convincing his family and friends shouldn't be hard. But the key point is—he has no talent for cultivation.

He knows how vast the sky is, yet cannot fly; he knows how beautiful the sea is, yet cannot swim; he knows how delicious chili peppers are, yet cannot eat them…

Just imagining it made Pan Yun ache for him. "You don't need to carry him. Go away. Go find Chang Mingwei."

Qu Le looked at Pan Yun, then at Seeing Miao Zhen, and turned to leave.

But he didn't go far. Once out of their sight, he leapt into the grass and hid, muttering: "Sneaking around—clearly hiding something. I'll see what it is…"

He peered from the grass, but was too far away—he couldn't see a thing.

Pan Yun watched his figure vanish, then grew grim. She turned to Seeing Miao Zhen: "I'm taking him to Guangfeng County. I'll return before dark. You go back and watch Zhou Wan Niang—if she shows signs of suicide, stop her; if she shows will to live, return to Huicheng and wait for me."

Seeing Miao Zhen agreed.

The two immediately split up. Pan Yun picked up Hua Buliu and took off with lightness technique. Once far from sight, with no one around, she threw out her medicine cauldron, grabbed him, and leapt inside. The cauldron shot upward with a whoosh, flying toward Guangfeng County. Qu Le hid in the grass for a long time without seeing Pan Yun pass by. He crept back—only bloodstains remained. The woman and Hua Buliu were gone.

Qu Le stood frozen. "Where's the next victim's house? They ran this way—but the person isn't here?"

Qu Le gritted his teeth. "Are you kidding me? You're using feint and deception on me?"

Pan Yun, who had no concept of Qu Le at all, had already left him far behind. She flew with the unconscious Hua Buliu straight to the outer wall of Guangfeng County.

Now she noticed the medicine cauldron's flaw: "Too big. Too conspicuous. Not nearly as good as a flying sword."

Pan Yun worried about her flying artifact. "I wonder what Master Wang the blacksmith made for me. So agonizing—I hope it's big, yet hope it's small."

Pan Yun picked up Hua Buliu and stepped onto the city wall, leaping over it and landing inside.

What else could she do? Carrying someone like this, she couldn't just walk through the gate—it'd be too troublesome.

Pan Yun dragged the unconscious Hua Buliu a short distance, spotted someone approaching, and instantly flung him into a shadow. Then she walked toward the person. "Good person, wait—a moment. Could you tell me how to find the Liu family on Wanning Street?"

The passerby stopped. Seeing Pan Yun was a young Daoist, he pointed. "I don't know the Liu family, but Wanning Street is that way. Follow the road to the third intersection, turn right, then left after two more intersections, then right again—that's Wanning Street."

"The street's long. Ask someone there—they might know the family you're looking for."

!. Read

Pan Yun thanked him, waited until he was far away, then returned, picked up Hua Buliu, and leapt onto rooftops, heading straight toward Wanning Street.

Perhaps from all the bouncing up and down, Hua Buliu woke up.

He opened his eyes to countless rooftops, the crisscrossing streets below still confusing—but oddly familiar.

Before he could place where he was, memories of his unconsciousness surged back. He felt his lower body—and was overcome with despair. He began to struggle.

Pan Yun glanced down at him. They were nearly there. She quickened her pace, leaping several times until landing on a rooftop. She made Hua Buliu look down at the street below: "Familiar?"

Hua Buliu's right hand was broken from the kick, but still movable. Once steadied, he instinctively reached down to touch his groin—only to feel blood.

He looked at Pan Yun in agony, voice hoarse: "Kill me. Kill me!"

Pan Yun slapped him hard across the face. "I asked you—do you recognize this place?"

Hua Buliu finally saw the street below. His gaze instinctively drifted to a spot, then lifted to Pan Yun. "You're here to avenge yourself on the Liu family?"

Hua Buliu was furious and confused. "What grudge do you hold against me? Why treat me like this? I don't remember any of the women I took having relatives like you."

Hua Buliu preyed on women—but he cherished his life. He only targeted families powerless to retaliate. The best-off among them were county magistrates' daughters—yet even the entire county constabulary couldn't catch him.

Moreover, after the incident, the county magistrate's daughter hanged herself on the spot—there was no incident at all.

He had investigated, and not a single one of those families had any connection to jianghu people; none of them would have a relative like Pan Yun.

Pan Yun slapped him across the face and said coldly, "Every woman under heaven is my sister. You hurt my sister, and you still dare say you have no grudge against me?"

With that, she directly sealed several of his important acupoints, hoisted him up, and flew toward the direction he had been looking.

The main culprit was right in her hands. With a direction and his cultivation, Pan Yun pinched her fingers to calculate once more, and quickly locked onto the place most entangled with him. She immediately flew over with him.

When she reached the rooftop, Pan Yun was about to go down when she saw four or five old maidservants and maids bowing out of the courtyard below, escorting a physician out. One of the old maidservants, while seeing him off, slipped money into the physician's hand and said in a low voice, "Please keep it confidential, Physician."

The physician gave an assent and slowly disappeared from Pan Yun's sight.

Hua Buliu grinned broadly. Seeing Pan Yun turn her head to look at him, he grew even more brazen, and said softly, "She's definitely dead. You came too late."

Pan Yun seized his throat and asked coldly, "What did you do?"

Hua Buliu said contemptuously, "These women lost their chastity and should have died immediately. They actually lived until now—how do they deserve to be called women? I only came to see her, to see how she still had the face to live in this world!"

Pan Yun's fingers tightened slightly around Hua Buliu's throat, her eyes filled with cold light.

Hua Buliu could barely breathe, his breath faint, yet he still groaned out: "This Liu Zhang-shi is far more chaste and resolute than Zhou Wan Niang. After I had my way with her, she shut herself in the Buddhist hall to eat vegetarian food and chant sutras. Unlike Zhou Wan, who carried on as if nothing had happened."

"I came to see her to urge her to die quickly, to fulfill her reputation for chastity. After she died, it should have been Zhou Wan Niang's turn. It's all because you ruined my good deed…"

(End of this chapter)