Chapter 427

Ordinary martial artists looked down on the scholarly practice of using seals.

But Qu Le might be different.

Because of his high status, he inevitably had to sign documents, but his handwriting was ugly, so seals were very useful.

According to her third senior brother, among those with names and reputations in the Wu Lin Alliance, half had seals, and at least two-thirds of those did so because their handwriting was ugly.

Only the remaining one-third might genuinely love seals.

A good seal isn't cheap—it costs money for the stone and money for the engraving.

So her third senior brother warned them: to avoid spending extra money later, they must start practicing calligraphy now, lest their ugly handwriting shame them.

Although she had never seen Qu Le's handwriting, his face looked like someone with bad handwriting.

Pan Yun judged by appearance that Qu Le's handwriting was ugly, rummaged through his room top to bottom, and finally pulled out a small box from a bundle in the cabinet; when she opened it, inside were two seals.

Pan Yun strained to distinguish them but couldn't tell, so she kept searching.

She pushed aside a stack of silver notes, frowning, "Why isn't there even any seal paste?"

Pan Xiaohei stood guard at the door, heard a sound from across the room, and immediately mewed, "Hurry up—it sounds like someone's waking up."

Pan Yun rummaged in her space and pulled out ink, bit her lip, dipped the seal in ink, pressed it onto paper—and her eyes lit up.

"One private seal, and one is the Wu Lin Alliance's official seal," Pan Yun rejoiced, pocketing both seals. "Perfect, perfect."

She put the seals back in the box and took them, restored the unpacked luggage, and returned every single silver note.

She finished all this with rustling sounds; across the room, the door opened, a man walked out with eyes closed, head tilted back, dazed, shivered, then shuffled toward the latrine.

He didn't notice the commotion in the opposite room, but Pan Xiaohei, crouched by the window, recognized him and mewed in delight, "One of the Three Heroes."

Pan Yun closed the wardrobe and walked to the window, leaning out with Pan Xiaohei to look.

Not long after he left, the room stirred again—another hero opened the door and shuffled dazedly toward the latrine.

It was clear Pan Yun's beating had left marks—he walked with a limp.

Pan Yun thought for a moment, decided not to leave yet, and patted the cat's head. "Watch closely—when the last one leaves, tell me."

"Mew—what else are you going to do?"

Pan Yun pulled out several letters from the unpacked luggage, thought for a moment, glanced only at the addresses on the envelopes, pulled out two sheets of paper, and folded the rest back in.

She folded them and tucked them into her robe, whispering, "Do the job right—the handwriting on the invitations matters too. Go back and have Seeing Miao Zhen and the others imitate them."

Pan Xiaohei had nothing to say.

It said, "The last one hasn't come out yet—still going to search?"

Pan Yun frowned. "Yes. Better to have extra backup—if things go wrong, we'll have someone to take the blame."

Pan Xiaohei: "You're so ruthless. Are all Daoist Priests like you?"

"Nonsense. Don't tarnish our Daoist reputation," Pan Yun said. "This is personal behavior—don't generalize to the whole sect, let alone the entire group."

"Daoist Priests as clever, quick-witted, and adaptable as me are rare."

Pan Xiaohei: "Daoist Priests as shameless as you are even rarer."

The girl and the cat muttered as they left, ignoring Qu Le, still hugging his quilt and snoring soundly on the bed.

They slipped into the room across the hall.

Their door was nowhere near as sturdy as Qu Le's—opening and closing made a creak-creak sound.

The man on the bed rolled over heavily, pulled the quilt over his head, and mumbled, "Can't you two drink less water before bed?"

Pan Yun tiptoed forward, flipped her palm, and pinched a smoldering sedative incense between her fingers; she gently waved it above the quilt.

The man's eyes slowly dimmed—he sensed something wrong, sniffed carefully, made a snuffling sound, then his eyes widened, he clapped his hand over his mouth and nose, opened his mouth to shout—and collapsed, whimpering…

Seeing he had noticed, Pan Yun struck him with a palm strike before he could turn, knocking him unconscious.

Not content with that, she praised him: "Good. Your alertness is far better than Qu Le's—just your cultivation's a bit weak."

Pan Yun knocked him out, then placed the sedative incense at his nostrils so he inhaled twice; just as she was about to put the incense away, footsteps tapped outside.

She instantly stuck the incense on the bedside table and ducked behind the door.

One man entered, followed closely by another.

Both walked silently to their beds; after three steps, one hero suddenly stiffened, paused—then a shadow flashed, a sharp crack, and he collapsed sideways.

Pan Yun had already moved beside the second hero; her hand came down, crack—striking his neck, then her leg shot up, catching the first hero just before he hit the ground.

Pan Yun slapped her palm—the second hero thudded onto the bed; she then picked up the first hero, half-leaning on her shin, and laid him on the bed too.

The noise was quiet, but someone next door growled, "Three Heroes, if you three keep messing around like this, I'll throw all three of you out. Every night it's you three getting up, walking like you're at war, slamming doors like you're breaking them down—can't you be quieter?"

Pan Yun stood motionless until the curses faded, then began searching the room. Their luggage was far more limited—three people, but combined, less than Qu Le's alone.

Pan Yun finished quickly, pulling a few letters from each of the three bags; only one had a seal, and beside it was a box of seal paste.

Pan Yun pressed it—found it was a private seal. She thought, then pulled a stack of paper from her space and began stamping it loudly.

She stamped a pile of blank sheets, wiped the seal clean, put it back, then took all the letter papers from the envelopes, leaving only the envelopes.

Pan Yun tiptoed to the door, fingertips brushing the wood—then remembered something, turned, walked to the window, gently opened it, flipped out, leapt up, landed on the roof, chose a direction, and vanished quickly.

Pan Yun slipped back to Yin Zhai, avoiding the Crimson Robe Guards' sight; Wang Cong's room was dark now, and the entire Yin Zhai lay steeped in darkness.

She crept along the wall's shadow to her window, about to lift it—when a flash of red caught her eye; she looked up and met the gaze of Xiao Hong, hanging upside down from the eaves.

Her heart skipped two beats.

Seeing her pat her chest, Xiao Hong swayed gently, hair covering her face, only two eyes visible, voice hollow: "If you've done no wrong, you won't fear ghosts knocking at your door at midnight. If you're scared of me, you must have committed some terrible sin."

Pan Yun instinctively glanced toward the distant roof.

!. Read

Xiao Hong said, "Don't look. I just came from them—they're sleeping soundly."

Pan Yun quietly pushed open the window, flipped inside, and whispered to Xiao Hong still hanging outside: "Come in!"

Xiao Hong drifted through the window.

She had already come in by the time Pan Yun lowered the window.

She casually set Pan Xiaohei down on the table from her shoulder, and Pan Xiaohei automatically jumped off the table, found his own nest, and lay down.

Beside the cat's nest was a handkerchief; he picked it up and wiped his own paws, watching the person and the ghost as he wiped.

Pan Yun took out her inner garment, changed out of the night-traveling clothes she was wearing, glanced back slightly and asked, "You're not going out to play — what are you hanging under the eaves for? Don't you know a ghost scaring a person can scare them to death?"

"I was just playing a moment ago," Xiao Hong said. "I just wanted to know when you'd be back. I didn't expect you'd get a fright seeing me. What bad thing did you go do? Why didn't you take me along? I could have kept watch for you."

Xiao Hong said very proudly, "When I keep watch, no one can spot me. Tonight I even drifted right up in front of two Embroidered Uniform Guard, pressed my face right up to theirs and stared into their eyes, and they didn't notice me at all."

"But the smell on them was awful — a whole body of baleful Qi, the bloodiness thicker than what's on me. Don't ask me to stare them down again next time."

Seeing she had finished changing, Xiao Hong drifted closer and stared at her face. "You seem to be in a pretty good mood. What bad thing did you actually go do?"

"Nothing much — just stole a few seals and a few letters, that's all."

Xiao Hong looked completely puzzled. "What's worth stealing about those things?"

Pan Yun pushed her face away. "You wouldn't understand."

Xiao Hong was taken aback. "Has your talent gotten stronger? I didn't deliberately reveal my body, and you didn't use magic power either — yet your hand could touch me?"

At those words Pan Yun lowered her head and glanced at her hand, realizing that just now she hadn't been circulating her talent either, yet she had seen Xiao Hong hanging under the eaves at a single glance.

Pan Yun hid her feelings, her smile half-real, half-mocking: "Yes, stronger and stronger. My cultivation hasn't grown for nothing."

Xiao Hong muttered under her breath, thinking that with her talent getting stronger, she'd have to be even more careful in everything she did from now on.

She drifted toward the outside; reaching the window she paused and looked back at her.

Pan Yun stepped forward and helped her open a crack in the window so she could go out.

Xiao Hong thanked her very politely.

Pan Xiaohei thought they were making far too much of things. "She can clearly pass straight through the wall — she insists on making you open the window."

"You're a Yin Spirit, you wouldn't know this — the making and carving of doors and windows, the craftsmen all have their own subtleties in it. They can block ghosts and gods."

"Although a slightly more powerful ghost or god can't be stopped, they'd still feel uncomfortable passing through."

Pan Yun reached out, patted the wall, and said, "For example, with my ability I could easily smash this wall, but when I do my hand still takes the force — not enough to hurt, but still uncomfortable. So if I can open the door and walk out, why would I insist on smashing the wall to get out?"

Pan Xiaohei: "You always have a reason."

Pan Yun: "That's because I'm a reasonable person."

She opened the letters she'd felt her way back with, and turned sideways toward the window to look at them.

Although she could make out the writing on the paper even in the dark night, it tired her eyes; after two lines she couldn't read any more.

She simply put them away and said, "Forget it, I'll read them tomorrow morning. Going to sleep."

Pan Yun felt that no sooner had she closed her eyes than it was already daylight.

Lively chatter drifted in from outside. She stretched lazily, recovered her spirit, then got up and leaned against the wall, taking out the letters she'd put away last night to read them.

They were the sheets of paper pulled out from between Qu Le's two letters. After scanning one line, Pan Yun sat up straight.

This wasn't a letter written to Qu Le at all!

(End of this chapter)