Chapter 517: Three Treasures Cauldron

Xuanmiao was naturally intelligent; when the Japanese pirates came to her seeking the treasure map, her first thought was Pan Yun.

These Japanese pirates, for reasons unknown, had lost the coordinates to the treasure's location and now needed to come to the Great Ming Realm to find the map.

If they could find their way to her, they would certainly go after Pan Yun and the others.

Everyone who was present that night would likely be targeted.

Xuanmiao killed the Japanese pirates and originally intended to report the matter to Long Hushan and the Jianghu Alliance, leaving it to them to handle.

As if they could allow a band of Japanese pirates to roam freely within the Great Ming Realm, hunting and killing people?

Do they really think our home is the Japanese pirates' backyard, where they can come and go as they please?

But after interrogating two groups of Japanese pirates, she discovered that seeking the treasure map from her was merely routine—their primary goal was actually to inquire about Hu Jing's whereabouts and his actions that night.

This was odd.

At that moment, news spread through the Jianghu that Hu Jing possessed the treasure map and was being pursued by both Japanese pirates and the Brocade Guard.

Xuanmiao was startled and realized Hu Jing was either being framed or genuinely carried a treasure map.

Uneasy, she went to Qianxi Tower.

Qianxi Tower said Hu Jing's last known location was around Jinan.

Jinan~~

What bad luck—Pan Yun and Wang Cong and the others were heading north toward Jingcheng; they would inevitably pass through Jinan.

Xuanmiao performed a divination by instinct and changed her mind: she would no longer go to the grasslands, but instead traveled the Great Ming Realm hunting down Japanese pirates.

It was difficult for the Japanese to find one Hu Jing within the Great Ming Realm, but for Xuanmiao to find Japanese pirates within the realm was far easier.

Even if these Japanese disguised themselves well, they still differed slightly from true subjects of the Great Ming.

Besides, Xuanmiao had blood and information from several Japanese pirates; with her tracking technique, she could always catch some lowly minions.

"Otherwise, do you think that after the Mountain God Temple incident, why did no Japanese pirates go after Hu Jing anymore? Only the Brocade Guard and Jianghu people kept relentlessly pursuing him," Wang Feiyin snorted. "Because your fourth senior sister killed too many Japanese pirates—they've all turned their attention to her, swarming after her like a hive, leaving no one to care about Hu Jing or you."

Pan Yun swallowed hard and whispered, "If Fourth Senior Sister keeps killing like this, won't people start suspecting her of being connected to the treasure map?"

Wang Feiyin looked exasperated. "If your second senior brother or anyone else had done this, everyone would suspect. But when it's your fourth senior sister? Whether cultivators or Jianghu people, they all think it's perfectly normal."

He paused, then added, "Even local government offices think it's normal, so no one intervenes or suspects anything."

As if! That's Xuanmiao—someone even tried to assassinate her; could she possibly tolerate it?

Pan Yun looked worried. "Isn't it dangerous for Fourth Senior Sister to go alone to the island? She also has to protect Third Senior Brother. Big Brother, maybe we should…"

Wang Feiyin reached out—boom—a massive… pot appeared on the grass.

Everyone stared, dumbfounded.

Pan Yun's unfinished sentence died in her throat.

Wang Feiyin said, "Want to go? I've prepared everything for you."

Pan Yun climbed up from the grass, reached out to touch the entirely black-brown pot, her face filled with disbelief: "This, this, this is…"

Wang Feiyin confirmed her guess: "Correct. This is your flying artifact."

Seeing Miao Zhen and the others opened their mouths wide and couldn't close them for a long time.

Tao Yanbai: "It really does look like a pot, Grandmaster. How could you make your little aunt's flying artifact into a pot just because yours is a alchemy furnace?"

Does that mean whenever he travels with Little Aunt, he'll have to sit inside a pot?

It made him feel like he was an ingredient.

Seeing Miao Zhen studied it carefully and countered: "It looks like a lantern."

Miao He whispered: "It looks like Master's pumpkin."

All three had barely concealed distaste on their faces, but Pan Yun loved it.

She clung to the pot's side, gazing happily at the pot as tall as herself. "Big Brother, please tell Master Wang for me—I love this flying artifact."

Wang Feiyin stroked his beard. "When I first got it, I knew you'd like it—you'll stand inside and only your head sticks out, never fearing heights again."

Pan Yun, unusually, didn't argue. She carefully touched the pot's surface and walked around it once.

The black-brown pot's material was neither iron nor wood, yet both—cold to the touch.

The pot's surface wasn't smooth; when Pan Yun leaned closer, she saw intricate patterns carved into it: auspicious clouds, flowers, birds, insects, beasts, and fire…

As she stared, she felt something was off. She stepped back two paces, closed her eyes, then opened them again—her talent activated. The pot before her transformed.

It became entirely transparent and golden, surrounded by countless arrays, drawing in the five elemental energies of nature, which flowed from outside to inside, continuously powering the artifact.

Pan Yun exclaimed: "I love it so much~~"

Mesmerized, Pan Yun stepped forward and gripped the pot, pushing up with both hands—she flew straight inside.

Inside, the pot was even larger than she imagined. Standing upright, she barely showed the top of her head; she had to tiptoe to see with both eyes.

Seeing Miao Zhen and the others opened their mouths again, weakly asking: "Can you fly even if you can't see?"

"Will Little Aunt have to stand on tiptoes while flying?"

Seeing Miao Zhen hesitated, then suggested: "Maybe put a stool under the bottom of the pot?"

Wang Feiyin smiled. "Your little aunt is still young—she'll grow taller."

The head inside the pot vanished with a *whoosh*—Wang Feiyin knew she was studying the arrays inside.

He urged: "Stop gawking—just drip blood to claim it. Master Tiejiang wrote usage instructions. Let me find where I put them."

Wang Feiyin patted himself down, finally pulling out a crumpled piece of paper and tossing it into the pot: "Hurry up—I've got a lot more to tell you. I must return to Mount Sanqing before dark."

Pan Yun heard this and didn't dare delay. She examined the crumpled paper from every angle, then clung to the pot's rim and poked her head out: "Big Brother, I can't read Master Wang's writing."

Wang Feiyin pulled her out, glanced at the paper, then flipped it over: "That side is his rough calculations—this side is the real instructions."

He pointed to a line of scribbles: "This is the Defense Gate; here are the incantations and hand seals…"

Pan Yun tilted her head, studied it intently, and finally recognized the characters.

Wang Feiyin rotated the paper sixty degrees and pointed to another line of scribbles: "This is the Transformation Gate; here are the incantations and hand seals…"

Pan Yun strained to make sense of it, seeing him flip the paper three times for the three usage methods, and she froze: "Could this be Master Wang's anti-counterfeiting measure? It's too successful."

In the future, even if someone stole her flight artifact, without this manual, they'd probably only be able to use it for basic flight—all other functions would be useless, wouldn't they?

Wang Feiyin raised his eyes to glance at her and said kindly: "If thinking that way makes you feel better, then think that way."

Pan Yun: … So it's not?

Wang Feiyin shoved the paper into her hands and waved her off: "Go quickly—I've got three junior disciples to teach."

Pan Yun agreed and scampered off to claim ownership: "Miao He, give me a needle." Miao He found her a thick needle.

Pan Yun jabbed the needle into her middle finger and squeezed out a single, perfectly round, deep red drop of blood.

She flicked it—the blood droplet rose into the air, then pinged vertically down into the center of the pot's array core.

She formed the hand seals, murmured the incantation, and drew out her consciousness, linking it with the expanding pot's awareness…

In her dantian, a virtual shape of a pot appeared faintly; as her connection with it strengthened, its form grew clearer and clearer…

Radiant light flowed—first gold, then slowly darkening, finally settling into a steady black-brown, with occasional flashes of golden light along its rim.

Pan Yun opened her eyes again; the pot before her shrank, shrank, shrank further, until it became no larger than a child's palm—indeed, it looked like a plump little black-brown pumpkin.

It spun merrily before her; Pan Yun's lips curled slightly as she reached out, caught it, and turned to smile: "I'll string it up with a rope and hang it from my waist from now on."

Wang Feiyin: "… I thought you'd keep it in your space and only take it out when needed."

Wang Feiyin said delicately: "It doesn't look like a beautiful ornament."

Pan Yun protested: "Who says that? Look how round and plump it is—so cute!"

No mistake in one word, one stroke, one line, one content, one look!

Everyone fell silent at Pan Yun's sense of aesthetics.

Miao He suggested: "Little Master, why don't you try flying with it?"

Pan Yun immediately nodded: "I was just thinking that—Big Brother, don't rush back; wait for me to fly a lap and return."

Wang Feiyin opened his mouth to refuse, but Pan Yun had already tossed the little pumpkin into the air—it expanded mid-flight, instantly becoming a massive, unattractive black pot.

Pan Yun flew up first, calling out happily: "Come on, get aboard!"

Miao Zhen and the others had been waiting; as soon as she called, they all leapt up with lightness techniques, even Hong Yan and Pan Xiaohei leapt in with a thump and landed inside the pot.

Wang Feiyin raised his hand to stop them too late—he could only watch as they all, like ingredients with legs, jumped into the pot themselves.

Wang Feiyin fell silent, watching as the black pot spun once before him, then whooshed upward, and whooshed again toward the horizon…

He muttered at last: "At least give it a name first…"

Inside the pot was spacious; everyone was roughly the same height, and with a slight rise on their toes, they could peer over the rim. Wind rushed past them—they expected chaos like riding Wang Feiyin's alchemy furnace—but when the wind reached them, it seemed blocked by something, leaving only a gentle breeze.

Pan Yun laughed heartily: "This is the Wind-riding Array—isn't it awesome?"

The three nodded, eyes sparkling; Pan Xiaohei, perched on Miao He's shoulder, happily closed his eyes.

Pan Yun's toes grew tired, so she let it fly randomly in one direction, closed her eyes, and recalled—the three incantations and hand seals from the paper appeared clearly in her mind.

Pan Yun clumsily raised her hands, slowly forming and changing the seals…

Two beams of spiritual light shot from her fingertips, striking the pot's body—two silver glows flowed left and right along its surface, converged with a soft click, and Pan Yun and the others felt a slight tremor beneath their feet…

They looked down and saw the entire bottom of the pot rising—their heads emerged above the rim, then their necks, then their collarbones…

Now they didn't need to stand on tiptoe to see outside.

Crack—the pot's bottom stopped rising. They clung to the rim, each taking a side, exclaiming: "Incredible, Little Master—can the bottom rise even higher?"

"Of course," Pan Yun said. "The Gate of Transformation has three forms—rising and falling are just one of them."

Pan Yun formed the seal again, and the pot's bottom continued rising; soon, they could sit and look out. Of course, it could rise further—but that would be too much for Pan Yun.

Pan Yun formed the seal again; the pot's bottom sank, then with a series of clicks, diamond-shaped holes appeared along its sides—they could now sit inside and look out through the holes.

"This is the second transformation."

Miao Zhen and the others burst into exclamations, amazed.

Pan Yun boasted: "It's also a defensive artifact—it has a lid."

Her hand seals changed rapidly; soon, the top vibrated. Everyone looked up and saw a black-brown plate slowly extend from beneath the rim, closing slowly to encase them.

"Now, if we meet someone or a beast we can't fight, we can hide inside—it buys us time."

Miao Zhen marveled, stroking the pot's body: "So powerful, Little Master—it's this good, you've got to give it a proper name. Can't just keep calling it 'Pot'!"

Pan Yun nodded, stroking it fondly: "I've decided—I'll name it San Bao Ding! After all, pots in ancient times were called dings too."

The moment the name was chosen, it instantly sounded grander; Tao Yanbai and the others no longer found its shape unappealing—they all praised: "This artifact is truly excellent."

"This artifact is truly powerful."

"Master Wang is amazing."

Pan Yun agreed wholeheartedly: "This money was well spent."

The group flew endlessly through the sky, studying the pot—no, San Bao Ding's functions.

Only when the sun sank below the horizon did they realize how much time had passed.

Pan Yun frantically guided it back.

But they'd flown too long; though not in a straight line, they'd circled for miles.

Pan Yun poured out her spiritual energy as if it were free; San Bao Ding raced through the air at breakneck speed, returning only as the sun neared the mountain's foot.

When they stumbled dizzily out of the pot, the sky was already gray, nearly dark.

Wang Feiyin sat silently on the grass, meditating, watching them without a word.

Pan Yun collapsed onto her knees before him, tugging his pant leg pitifully: "Big Brother, we flew too fast—I'm motion-sick from the pot."

Wang Feiyin grumbled: "Serves you right!"

Miao Zhen and the others slumped to the ground, exhausted and silent.

Wang Feiyin sighed, resigned, rummaged in his sleeve, pulled out a porcelain vial, uncorked it, and held it under their noses to sniff.

Pan Yun sniffed, sneezed twice in succession, and immediately felt the drowsy miasma expelled with the sneezes; her meridians opened up, and her whole body became comfortable.

The same was true for Seeing Miao Zhen and the others.

Hong Yan and Pan Xiaohei also sniffed it; their conditions worsened even more, so Wang Feiyin gave them each a pill to chew after letting them smell it.

After swallowing it, their complexions improved, and their energy slightly recovered.

Wang Feiyin said: "Now can you listen properly?"

(End of Chapter)