Chapter 355: All Are Gifts

Wang Feiyin finished cleaning his room, hands behind his back, heading to tidy the herb storage, but when he saw the piles scattered across the open ground, he felt the sky was collapsing.

Watching the five crouched together, busily working, Wang Feiyin couldn't help but clutch his waist and shout, "Who did all this—"

All five turned their heads at once, immediately pointing fingers at one another.

Pan Yun pointed at Wang Cong, "Your son!"

But the other four all pointed at Pan Yun.

Pan Yun angrily slapped their fingers down with her own, "Me? It was Wang Cong who wanted to improve the wooden barrel!"

Tao Yanbai's three fingers flickered between the two, "But Little Master, you told us to move all these things out so we could work more easily..."

"Enough!" Wang Feiyin cut them off, one hand on his waist, the other jabbing fingers. "Whichever one of you came up with this, clean it all up—right now, immediately! It's nearly the New Year, it's nearly the New Year! If things are messy at New Year, the whole year will be messy!"

Pan Yun felt her research here was severely restricted, mainly because this was the herb storage—the place Wang Feiyin and Tao Ji used most frequently.

So she clapped her hands and stood up. "Let's move all this to the Mechanism Hall."

Wang Cong: "What hall?"

"The Mechanism Hall," Pan Yun said seriously. "I've decided—we'll build one beside Hanxing Pond. Perfect. Whether we're improving the laundry barrel or the rice-separation machine, we need water. Building it beside Hanxing Pond is ideal."

Miao He: "Is there even space to build beside Hanxing Pond?"

Of course there wasn't.

There was almost no flat ground there; most of the soil layer was extremely thin, resting atop massive boulders—granite—you couldn't even dig.

Plus, being too close to water meant excessive dampness, so the Three Pure Ones Monastery had never chosen to build near there.

Otherwise, with Hanxing Pond's clear water, they wouldn't have needed to trek all the way to the Dan Well for drinking water—just build houses beside the pond and turn around for a drink.

But this didn't stop Pan Yun. She raised her hand, showing them the Qi cluster in her palm, proudly saying, "With our cultivation level, are we really bound by such limitations?"

Wang Cong said, "It's just a storage shed. Even without cultivation, craftsmen can build one."

Pan Yun retracted her Qi, glanced at him, then said, "Come on, let's go build a house!"

Wang Feiyin reached out to block them. "Aren't you cleaning the rooms today? Are you still going to buy New Year goods tomorrow? Are you still going to write red couplets for free medical aid? Are you still guarding your Mountain God Temple?"

"As the New Year approaches, more and more people come to burn incense and pray at the Mountain God Temple. As the temple keeper, instead of going down the mountain to answer questions and thank your worshippers, you're obsessed with piling up wood—do you even care about accumulating merit?"

The five of them, scolded into silence, quietly gathered their things and thoroughly cleaned the monastery, their rooms, and the herb storage.

In the end, with Wang Feiyin's help, the five built a thatched hut beside Hanxing Pond.

The ground was trampled firm, a door installed, the roof thatched with rice straw—it looked less like a room and more like a storage shed.

In fact, it was a storage shed, specifically for storing the wood, saws, and other tools they needed for research.

Pan Yun finally saw youthful energy in Wang Cong: besides cleaning rooms, he'd also sawed three pieces of wood for his pedal bike.

Pan Yun carefully checked the dimensions he'd cut—they perfectly matched her mental blueprint.

True, she'd only gestured and explained how pedal power worked—no diagrams drawn—and he'd built it exactly right.

Pan Yun held the wood in awe. "A genius, Senior Disciple—you'd be a waste as anything but a carpenter."

Then Wang Cong proved with action that he wasn't just a carpenter.

The raw jade she'd given him had been carved.

Besides the jade tablet and pendant, he'd taken the whitest piece and fashioned two mother-child jade rings, strung together with two strands of deep brown-black cord, making two necklaces.

He handed them to Pan Yun. "Little Master, you said you wanted to make a space pendant for yourself—here, take these mother-child jade rings."

Pan Yun took them, lifted one, and asked, "And the other one?"

Wang Cong pointed at Pan Xiaohei. "The other is for Pan Xiaohei. I made the cords adjustable—so they'll slide to fit his size."

Pan Xiaohei perked up instantly, staring at Pan Yun and meowing loudly, "I want space too!"

Pan Yun glanced at it: 【What a waste—you're a Spirit Realm yourself; you already have space.】

Pan Xiaohei: "You're bound to me—can't you use my Spirit Realm space too?"

"The Spirit Realm's space is boundless. Each seal you break expands it further. You can store endless things inside—why are you making your own space pendant?"

"You fear I might one day surpass you and fully control the Spirit Realm's core. Likewise, I fear you might one day seal off my connection to it," Pan Xiaohei said. "Let's be honest—we both need a backup plan."

Pan Yun turned the jade ring in her hand, studied Pan Xiaohei with a faint smile, then nodded. "Fine. I'll carve a space for Pan Xiaohei too."

Tao Yanbai: "Little Master, what about me?"

Pan Yun said, "I'll carve a jade tablet for you to wear."

Tao Yanbai nodded eagerly.

Miao Zhen and Miao He got them too. Since they already had jade tablets, this time she made them a pair of jade pendants.

Indeed, with higher cultivation, more array points could be carved, and the resulting space was much larger.

And she finished it all in just one evening and night. At breakfast, just before they left, Pan Yun handed each person their gift.

Each was wrapped in a box, lined with cloth—full of ceremony.

Miao He and Tao Yanbai couldn't wait—they hadn't even finished their eggs before opening the boxes. Seeing the jade inside, they both cried out, "Wow!"

Miao He, experienced now, immediately pricked her finger, let a drop of blood fall on the pendant, focused her consciousness on it, then poured in Qi to unseal it—immediately, she saw a space vastly larger than the jade tablet.

She pressed the pendant to her chest, eyes shining as she stared at Pan Yun. "Little Master, I love you."

Pan Yun's mouth opened slightly. "Do you all express feelings so directly?"

The twenty-sixth-century Pan Yun blushed, heart pounding, secretly delighted.

Wang Feiyin glanced at her. "Where did you come from, an old scholar? If you like, say it. If you dislike, walk away. Why suppress your emotions and torment yourself?"

He said, "Cultivating the Dao means returning to your true nature. False people can never attain the Great Dao."

Wang Feiyin asked her outright, "Little Sister, do you like me?"

Normally, Pan Yun would've answered without pause—but now, looking at his face, her mouth opened, then closed, speechless.

!. Read

Wang Feiyin waited a moment, seeing she said nothing, then widened his eyes. "So! Little Sister actually dislikes me."

"It's not that, it's just, well, a bit hard to bring up."

Wang Feiyin tilted his head back and let out a long sigh. "Who could have imagined that our little junior sister is actually a reserved, shy person on the inside?"

Pan Yun immediately found her rhythm again, lowering her head shyly. "Yes indeed, I'm an introverted person."

Everyone:...

Master Xuanmiao turned her head directly to instruct Tao Yanbai on binding the jade token's spatial storage. "First regulate your breathing, then drip blood..."

Tao Yanbai followed each step. "Convert your inner force into elemental force, then use your consciousness to feel the jade token in your hand..."

The moment Tao Yanbai's inner force converted into elemental force, he immediately "saw" the jade token cradled in his palm. Then he went to "look" at it, and in just one glance, "he" was inside.

Tao Yanbai suddenly saw a space larger than his own room, startled, and immediately withdrew.

Master Xuanmiao lowered her eyes and glanced at the jade token in his hand, then nodded. "It's bound. Remember this feeling. Practice more, and you'll gradually be able to use it skillfully."

Miao He at the side hurriedly nodded and whispered into Tao Yanbai's ear, "Miao Zhen and I just kept practicing, kept practicing, and now we can take things out with just a thought."

Tao Yanbai gripped the jade token tightly, his eyes shining bright.

Only then did Master Xuanmiao open the box before her. Seeing the jade token lying inside, she couldn't help but pick it up to look.

Tao Ji also opened his box, but half his attention was on Master Xuanmiao's side.

Seeing her jade token, he was stunned. Then he lowered his head to look at his own, his face reddening slightly, and silently bound it.

Miao Zhen, sitting across from him, saw everything clearly. Once he and Master Xuanmiao had both bound theirs, she spoke up: "Third Uncle-Master and Fourth Uncle-Master's jade tokens are a pair."

Master Xuanmiao turned her head at the words to look at Tao Ji.

Tao Ji's face reddened, but he still spread open the jade token in his hand. First he leaned over to peek at the one in Master Xuanmiao's hand, then said in a feigned casual tone: "It really does seem to be a pair."

Pan Yun said: "Isn't it just a pair? These are Yin-Yang Fish jade tokens. I gave them names—Fourth Senior Sister's one is called the Auspicious Cloud Yin Fish Token, Third Senior Brother's one is called the Auspicious Cloud Yang Fish Token."

Wang Feiyin showed a look of distaste, but the moment Master Xuanmiao raised her head to look over, he immediately restrained it and even nodded in praise: "Good names, very fitting. You don't even need to see the jade tokens—just hearing the names, you can imagine what they look like."

Pan Yun: "Eldest Senior Brother, that doesn't sound like a compliment to me."

Master Xuanmiao put away the jade token, not caring at all that hers and Tao Ji's had become a pair, and simply nodded: "Then let's call them that."

She wasn't a child—did a jade token really need a name?

Tao Ji immediately said: "Junior Sister, I'll find some cord later and weave it for you. Worn around the neck, it won't fall off."

Master Xuanmiao agreed.

Tao Ji happily turned his head to ask Wang Cong, "Don't you have tiger sinew on hand? Give me some, I'll use it with paper mulberry bark to make cord."

Wang Cong:...

He silently rummaged through his storage space, found a finger-thick brownish-black cord, and handed it to him. "I have one already made."

Tao Ji glanced at it and refused. "Give me some, I'll make it myself."

Wang Cong:...

He silently locked eyes with Tao Ji, and finally still nodded: "The tiger sinew is in the storeroom. I'll go find it for you in a bit."

Only then did Tao Ji cheer up.

Wang Feiyin felt he couldn't bear to watch. He rose with his hands behind his back, about to leave, when Pan Yun called out to him and took out a box: "Eldest Senior Brother, this one is for you."

Wang Feiyin was surprised. "I get one too?"

(End of chapter)