Chapter 51: The Array is Complete

This also caught Wang Feiyin by surprise.

Then he clasped his waist and laughed loudly for half an hour, laughing until tears streamed down his face.

Pan Yun glared at him with a dark expression.

Wang Feiyin wiped away his tears, looked down and met her angry, resentful gaze, and couldn't help laughing twice more; seeing her face grow darker still, he finally forced himself to stop, gazing at her with tear-filled eyes, "How's that? Didn't I tell you it's not easy to become a disciple? Anything worth doing demands a price."

Pan Yun pondered, "So my failure to earn money downstairs wasn't just because selling talismans doesn't work down there—it's also because of you, Master?"

Wang Feiyin stroked his beard and said, "True, selling talismans doesn't work well downstairs, but people have desires—there's a large marketplace, nearly ten villages nearby—it's impossible no one would be destined to buy from you."

He added, "Whether it's me, your second senior brother, third senior brother, or fourth senior sister, our wealth luck has always been mediocre. Now you've joined us—but among all of us siblings, you and I have the worst wealth luck, because we're most deeply entangled with our Master."

Wang Feiyin patted her head and comforted her, "Just adapt quickly."

Pan Xiaohei let out a sympathetic "Meow—," then walked off elegantly.

Pan Yun, refusing to accept it, returned to her room and thought deeply for a long while; finally, she pulled out the Merit Stone and went to find Wang Feiyin, "Senior Brother, please help me split this stone."

She meticulously drew lines on it, instructing him to cut precisely along them.

Wang Feiyin looked at the small piece she'd marked and frowned, "Why are you splitting such a good Merit Stone?"

"I'm going to make an array."

"The one you mentioned—the one that measures merit?"

Pan Yun nodded. "I've prepared for a long time. I've memorized the array perfectly—I'm ready to carve it."

"You're not trying to use merit to restore your wealth luck, are you?" Wang Feiyin thought for a moment. "It's a plausible idea, but you should focus on cultivation and strive to leave the mountain soon to earn merit. What's the point of carving this? Whether measured or not, the merit you earn always returns to you."

"Senior Brother, have you heard of statistics?"

Wang Feiyin: "What?"

"It's a discipline. Since it's become its own field, it must have importance. Once I build this array, I'll be able to statistically determine which actions let me accumulate merit fastest and most efficiently."

Though Wang Feiyin had never heard of this discipline, he understood its meaning from the name, and grasped the latter part clearly.

He was stunned—stunned by his junior sister's utilitarian approach to cultivation.

"Junior Sister, you… you don't seem like a cultivator at all."

Pan Yun had heard this criticism often lately; she waved it off indifferently, "I know—you think I'm too pragmatic. But cultivators don't just draw closer to the Dao; they also struggle against Heaven and Nature. Non-striving is striving; striving is non-striving. I don't see anything wrong with improving efficiency."

Pan Yun extended the stone. "Senior Brother, do me a favor."

Though still pondering her words and disagreeing with them, Wang Feiyin had no objection to helping.

He condensed his Qi into a thread and slashed—swiftly, the Qi-line pierced through the stone.

Wang Feiyin withdrew his hand; the stone remained connected, seemingly unmarked—but when he picked it up and broke it apart, the Merit Stone split exactly along Pan Yun's drawn lines, without a single millimeter's deviation.

Pan Yun gasped, "Wow!" and gave him a thumbs-up. "Senior Brother, amazing! How do you train this?"

"Come back when your Upper Dantian holds more Qi, and I'll teach you the method," Wang Feiyin huffed proudly, finally understanding her point, and added solemnly, "Junior Sister, your logic sounds right—but cultivation is about cultivating the heart, cultivating the body. If you only grow your cultivation level without growing your heart, you'll never truly attain the Dao."

Pan Yun said, "I know. Once I get past this hurdle, I'll seriously cultivate my heart."

It was as easy to believe as saying, "Once I finish this job, I'll start sleeping early."

Wang Feiyin looked at her, shook his head, and walked away.

Whatever. If the child won't listen, she'll regret it later—he'd already warned her.

Pan Yun returned to her room with the two split pieces of stone, tossed the larger one back into the Spirit Realm space, then began meditating.

When her physical and mental states reached their peak, she opened her eyes, fixed her gaze on the small Merit Stone in her hand, and watched as it slowly floated before her. She threw a Fire Talisman with her left hand; upon contact, the stone burst into flame, engulfed entirely in fire.

She'd drawn this one specially after attending class—Senior Brother said talismans borrow divine power; she must believe gods exist, and that she could summon divine power through Spirit Energy and bind it to the talisman.

For days, Pan Yun had been hypnotizing herself into believing that the talismans generated by Spirit Energy were actually created by summoned divine power.

Now she firmly believed the Fire God was watching her, aiding her—and when she activated this talisman, she was using divine power.

Under her gaze, the Fire Talisman blazed fiercely; the Merit Stone slowly melted into a round, viscous mass.

Her spiritual awareness was heavily depleted; the three-jade Spirit Realm, glowing with a white aura, shot out from her forehead and hovered silently before her.

With a thought, the two substances merged. Pan Yun sharply sliced her right thumb's nail across the pad of her middle finger; blood seeped out. She gathered Spirit Energy at her fingertip and began carving the array she had memorized perfectly onto the three-jade Spirit Realm.

At the moment she cut her finger, Pan Xiaohei leapt upright, eyes wide with fury—she was using her own blood to carve the array, deepening her bond with the Spirit Realm.

Yet Pan Xiaohei dared not interrupt her; at Pan Yun's current level, carving this array was barely possible—had her spiritual awareness not been stronger than average, she couldn't have completed it at all.

So for now, they had only this one chance.

!. Read

Pan Xiaohei cursed inwardly but dared not make a sound to disturb her.

As the final line was drawn, Pan Yun withdrew her finger—and a flash of Spirit Light raced along the carved lines. Two hidden arrays instantly glowed, merging with the first; Spirit Light enveloped them, and the three arrays connected instantly.

The three-jade Spirit Realm flashed golden; golden streaks shimmered across its jade-white surface, as if edged with gold thread, its body subtly tinged with gold, now even more beautiful.

Pan Yun gazed at it with satisfaction, then drew it into her Crown Palace, letting it settle back into its usual place.

Pan Yun exhaled, ignoring the faint ache in her temple, and looked at Pan Xiaohei.

Pan Xiaohei sneered, "I hope you remember: the Spirit Realm is my body. Even if my spirit is currently outside, it sometimes mistakes you for me—but outsiders are outsiders. Just like a soul possessing a corpse, no matter how well it fits, it can never be a perfect match."

Pan Yun: "Like your current black cat body?"

Pan Xiaohei was speechless, stung by the retort.

Pan Yun said, "Don't worry—I'm content being human. I don't want to become the Spirit Realm. Using blood as a catalyst is just to make us closer."

Pan Xiaohei didn't respond—whether she believed it or not, she said nothing.

At this moment, Pan Yun had removed the hidden array technique; all three arrays were now active, and on the three-jade Spirit Realm hung three lines: one gold, one red, one blue.

Gold represented merit value; red represented Spirit Energy value; blue represented the progress of the Spirit Realm's seal-breaking.

She smiled faintly, satisfied. "Later, create a table in the storage section of the jade piece—dedicated to recording changes in these three lines. We'll review them periodically to see how we can break the seal most efficiently."

Pan Xiaohei: "Isn't that your researcher's job? Why am I doing it?"

"There are no researchers left now. You're the Spirit Realm's spirit—it's just a thought. Record it anytime, without wasting time," Pan Yun said. "My time is more urgent than yours—aren't we trying to accelerate cultivation and break the seal as soon as possible?"

Pan Xiaohei thought it over and agreed.

"Right, everything is for getting stronger, everything is for breaking the seal."

Pan Xiaohei snorted and said nothing.

The next day, Pan Yun was enthusiastically helping the people in the Daoist temple do good deeds.

For example, she helped Wang Feiyin stoke the fire to refine pills, helped Miao He knead dough to make buns, helped Master Xuanmiao carry a basin of washing water, helped Seeing Miao Zhen sweep the floor, yet the golden line did not move at all.

Pan Yun figured it was probably because these small deeds were too trivial, so she nearly could not help wanting to do homework for Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He—oh, no, it was seeing they could not do their homework and wanting to teach them.

As a result, she spent two quarter-hours teaching them the constellations, and the golden line still did not move a bit. "Could it be that teaching them such useful knowledge does not count as doing good? The spread of knowledge—what a great thing."

Today's lucky number is a number ending in 1, screenshot as proof

(End of chapter)