Chapter 359: Defeat

Wang Cong struggled to climb out of bed, got dressed and went out, just in time to see Tao Yanbai opening the door with half-closed eyes.

The senior and junior brothers looked at each other and couldn't help but sigh, knowing they'd been tricked by their father (Elder Xiao Shishu) again.

But they were already up and dressed, and going back to bed wasn't realistic, so the two could only go to the kitchen to fetch hot water to wash their faces.

Tao Yanbai rubbed his belly and said, "I ate too many snacks last night and got stuffed. I'm not hungry at all this morning."

Wang Cong: "Me too."

Because they weren't hungry, they wanted to stay in bed even more.

The two fetched water and washed their faces at the cliff's edge. Just as they splashed the water off the cliff, Pan Yun and the other two came over with messy hair, carrying wooden basins.

Wang Cong asked in a quiet voice, "Little Xiao Shishu, did you all just wake up too?"

Pan Yun nodded blankly, "Eldest Senior Brother woke me up. Why do we have to get up early for New Year? Shouldn't we be able to sleep as long as we want on New Year?"

"Sleep, sleep, what sleep? Didn't you sleep enough in the cave for twenty days?" Wang Feiyin said with hands on hips: "Hurry up and wash up, then go to the pharmacy. I've come up with a new pill formula that's miraculously effective for healing internal injuries. You all go later, I'll teach you alchemy."

Pan Yun pointed at her own nose and said, "I have to learn too?"

Wang Feiyin glanced at her, "Why shouldn't you learn? Cultivating the Dao is cultivating the heart, cultivating the truth is cultivating the body. If you know nothing about the human body, how can you cultivate the Great Dao?"

"We're still disciples going out from Mount Sanqing, we can't not know how to refine a single pill, right?" Wang Feiyin said: "Starting today, you'll learn medicine and the Dao of Alchemy together with Miao and Seeing Miao Zhen."

"Miao and Tao Yanbai need to learn ten parts, you and Seeing Miao Zhen at least six parts. I'm not expecting you to master it, just that when you have doubts in your heart you can find the answers yourself."

"When traveling outside, internally you can save yourself, externally you can help others," Wang Feiyin pointed at Wang Cong and said: "Even this ignoramus knows medicine, you can't be worse than him."

Pan Yun turned her head to look at her eldest martial nephew, her competitive spirit was roused. She nodded solemnly, "Don't worry, Eldest Senior Brother. I absolutely won't give you any trouble with my studies. I'll go wash up now and wait at the pharmacy."

Wang Cong: …

Wang Feiyin said with a pleasant expression: "There's no need to rush that much. After washing up, come have breakfast."

Wang Feiyin watched the three leave with water with a warm expression, but when he turned to look at Wang Cong, his eyes and nose were all wrong. "What are you still standing there for? Time flies like a mad wild horse, whoosh, in an instant. You even made a great vow to protect your own dharma artifact. With your lazy attitude, are you planning to die of old age on the mountain?"

Wang Cong silently carried his basin back, combed his hair, took his sword, and went out.

He decided, before breakfast, to run through a sword routine first.

Pan Yun followed closely behind, also came out with her sword, and Pan Xiao Hei followed leisurely behind her.

Wang Cong couldn't help but pause, "Little Xiao Shishu, how are you so fast?"

Pan Yun: "Washing my face, putting on a hat—how long could that take?"

Wang Cong's gaze swept over her head, and he almost forgot—Little Xiao Shishu had no hair, so she didn't have to worry about combing or styling at all.

The martial uncle and nephew arrived at the square in front together, each took a corner, and began practicing swords.

After Pan Yun finished a sword routine, she felt it wasn't satisfying enough, looked at Wang Cong, "Eldest Martial Nephew, come, let's spar."

Wang Cong: "…Little Xiao Shishu, if you want to poke me to death you can just say so."

Pan Yun: "I'll suppress my cultivation and fight you. We only compare sword moves, not internal force."

Only then was Wang Cong willing, "Little Xiao Shishu, then pardon me."

Having said that, his swift sword thrust toward Pan Yun. Pan Yun raised her sword to block, and the two instantly clashed.

When Miao came tapping an egg to call the two back for breakfast, she saw them fighting from the north side of the square to the south side, and then with a few whooshes into the bamboo forest…

Miao immediately tossed the eggshell, bit down on the egg, and went chasing after them. Eldest Senior Brother and Little Xiao Shishu were fighting—the swordplay looks so good!

Pan Yun and Wang Cong fought as they advanced, and the remaining snow on the bamboo leaves was shaken loose by their qi and fluttered down.

Pan Yun spun and thrust amid the swirling snowflakes, Wang Cong retreated rapidly, blocking with two clangs, then spun and dodged—Pan Yun's sword stabbed into the bamboo behind him…

Wang Cong had already flipped, stepped on the bamboo and flew up. Pan Yun's sword didn't stop, her qi followed the bamboo joints and sliced upward…

Unfortunately, she had suppressed her cultivation; her fourth-stage internal force wasn't enough to split the entire bamboo in two.

In that brief delay, a fierce sword qi thrust down from above.

Pan Yun suddenly pulled her sword out of the bamboo and barely blocked the descending sword by holding hers horizontally.

Wang Cong hooked his foot around the bamboo's tip and struck downward. After being blocked by Pan Yun, he decisively used the bamboo's pull to go back up, and at the moment of rising he fiercely chopped down with a sword. Pan Yun's steps faltered slightly.

Wang Cong, seeing Pan Yun hadn't caught up, grabbed the bamboo and looked down, asking loudly: "Little Xiao Shishu, we're comparing sword moves—do we also have to compare military strategy?"

Pan Yun: "What military strategy? You won, come down quickly!"

Wang Cong couldn't believe it, "I won?"

He flew down from the bamboo and stood in front of Pan Yun.

Both of them were covered in snow and water, a white patch everywhere, so when Wang Cong swept his gaze over, he immediately saw a scratch on Pan Yun's shoulder, with red blood seeping out from it. Wang Cong stammered, "Th-this-this, did I do this? Am I this amazing?"

Pan Yun: "I sealed my cultivation, so naturally you'd be this amazing."

Pan Yun tapped at her Upper Dantian, her cultivation was unsealed, and she covered her shoulder again; the blood was stopped in no time.

Wang Cong swallowed, "Little Xiao Shishu, let me bandage you first. Can we not let my father know about this?"

Miao, who had been standing outside the bamboo forest listening for sounds, seeing there was no more fighting inside for a while, put her hands on her hips and shouted: "Little Xiao Shishu, Eldest Senior Brother, come back for breakfast!"

Pan Yun casually answered outward, and said to Wang Cong: "I took a look, it's just broken skin, no big problem. I'll go back, sprinkle some medicinal powder on it myself, and change clothes, that'll do."

Pan Yun sheathed her sword and walked outward, "I've summed it up—your sword couldn't kill me because your internal force is too weak. What a fine sword strike. If your internal force were a bit deeper, from my shoulder down, half my body could have been sliced off by you. You won, no doubt about it."

Wang Cong: …

"And my weakness is lack of experience, my sword moves aren't ruthless enough, and I don't have many moves to respond with," Pan Yun said: "When I killed enemies before, I relied entirely on deep internal force, using brute strength and speed to break the situation."

As long as internal force was strong enough, her strength was great enough, her speed fast enough.

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Pan Yun looked Wang Cong up and down, "Can't tell at all—do you get into fights often?"

One must know, she had been in plenty of fights herself. As for her past life, she wouldn't mention it—because she was a student doing research, the times she needed to act were few, so her experience was insufficient.

But after coming to this world, she had been in quite a few fights, and considered herself experienced.

Wang Cong seemed to know what she was thinking, twirled a sword flourish and tucked it behind him, "Little Xiao Shishu, I've also been to the Academy, and went on study tours every year. Besides, after graduating from the Academy, when I was doing business I was also roaming the jianghu."

"Bandits, corrupt officials, local tyrants, and the grudges and romances of the jianghu—I've experienced them all."

Pan Yun's eyes lit up, and she leaned in to ask, "Then do you have a reputation in the jianghu?"

Wang Cong glanced at her shoulder, saw it really wasn't bleeding anymore, and only then relaxed. Walking out of the bamboo grove as he spoke, he said, "No. Wang Cong of Mount Sanqing—one name is enough. What need would I have for a reputation?"

Pan Yun said, "I was thinking of giving myself a few more reputations, to use separately when the time comes."

Wang Cong: "Then it must be because you, Little Xiao Shishu, want to do something shady—otherwise why change your name?"

Anyone with a clear conscience would thump their chest and say, "I walk without changing my name, I sit without changing my surname."

Pan Yun thought for a moment, realized she really had gone there to do something shady, and so rubbed her nose without a word.

Miao He was still outside eating eggs.

She fished another steaming-hot egg from her sleeve, head lowered as she peeled the shell.

Hearing footsteps, she looked up and asked, "Little Xiao Shishu, does beating Senior Brother really take that long?"

Pan Yun said, "Don't wrong me. We were exchanging swordsmanship, and besides, Senior Martial Nephew won."

Miao He was stunned. "Senior Brother is that amazing?"

Wang Cong gave her head a tap. "Am I really that weak? Stop peeling—eat it back inside."

Miao He's nimble fingers tore off a piece of eggshell, then with a quick swipe she peeled the whole thing clean. Just as she was about to pop it in her mouth, her nose twitched. "I think I smell blood."

Pan Yun tugged her along at a quick pace. "You smelled right. I cut my hand a bit. I'll go back and change clothes in a bit. You help me ladle out some congee and let it cool—I want to eat two eggs too…"

Miao He popped the egg in her mouth and mumbled, "Was it cut by a bamboo leaf?"

Pan Yun gave an acknowledging sound.

Miao He said, "You shouldn't have gone into the bamboo grove to fight. Last year Miao Zhen and I were practicing martial arts in the bamboo grove, and when the bamboo leaves got swept by the qi, they were just like blades—cutting into you really hurt…"

Miao He didn't take Pan Yun's injury to heart—just a cut from a bamboo leaf, they got hurt like that all the time—so she skipped off to ladle congee and peel eggs for her.

Wang Cong let out a breath of relief, cupped his fist toward Pan Yun, and likewise went back to his room to change clothes.

The snow that had fallen on him had already melted into water; his clothes, shoes, and socks were all wet now.

Pan Yun went back to her room and looked at the wound on her shoulder. It wasn't serious, so she simply applied medicine, wrapped it, and changed into fresh clothes.

Pan Xiaohei had returned to her own nest at some unknown time and was mocking her. "Can't even beat one Wang Cong, and you still want to go wandering the jianghu like this?"

Pan Yun nodded thoughtfully. "You have a point. If one day my Upper Dantian is injured, or my yuan force and internal force can't be brought to bear, leaving only moves and bodily instinct—wouldn't I just be bullied to death? So I still need to train."

"Finish learning alchemy in the morning, then go find Fourth Martial Sister to practice swords in the afternoon. She must have a lot of sword techniques there—the sword moves I've mastered are still too few."

Pan Yun looked at Pan Xiaohei, her face darkening. "Same goes for you. As a cat—a cat who has already stepped onto the path of cultivation—you need to learn offensive means too. If I run into trouble in the future, you have to follow up at the right moment."

Pan Xiaohei: …

(End of this chapter)