Chapter 548: Half a Mistake

Tao Yanbai was deeply ashamed.

Qu Le's face also flushed red, his fingers still twisting frantically.

Pan Yun stuck her head through the gate, glanced around, clicked her tongue, then stepped fully out and stood upright: "Still haven't mastered it?"

Chou Ying bowed to Pan Yun, paused, then let them go: "Practice more when you get back. By the end of this month at the latest, if you still haven't learned Earth Submersion Technique…"

Tao Yanbai, for the first time feeling like a poor student, was anxious: "What happens then?"

Chou Ying shot Pan Yun a quick glance and said gravely: "Pan Shimei knows."

Pan Yun wore a look of sorrow: "You'll lose the chance to sail the seas with us."

Tao Yanbai: …

Qu Le whirled to face her: "You knew?"

"Is it strange that I knew?" Pan Yun snorted. "I'm one of the academy's top disciples. Isn't it natural that I know some inside information?"

Chou Ying nodded in deep agreement—he was also one of the top disciples, and half a month ago, he'd received word from his master and had already begun preparing for the trial.

Qu Le: …

Pan Yun glanced at Qu Le but didn't tell him she'd known since she was in Jingcheng.

She grabbed Tao Yanbai and headed back to the courtyard.

Tao Yanbai walked in deep thought: Why couldn't he master Earth Submersion Technique?

Every time, he felt he was just a hair's breadth away.

Pan Yun said: "Yanbai, your affinity for Qi is very high, and your internal cultivation isn't weak. I don't think your inability to learn this technique is your fault."

"Hm?"

Pan Yun spoke seriously: "It's your teachers' fault—they don't know how to teach you. Go rest now. Come find me at Yin Hour. I'll teach you."

Tao Yanbai froze—that was the time when Qi in Fengqi Courtyard was strongest, and also the quietest.

Tao Yanbai nodded and agreed.

The night-owl Pan Xiaohei tagged along, mostly because he wanted to learn too.

Pan Yun didn't start teaching him right away; she made him sit in meditation first: "Your heart is pure and kind. Among the Five Elements, you're most attuned to Earth and Wood Qi. Earth Submersion Technique relies most heavily on these two types of Qi…"

Tao Yanbai sat cross-legged on the ground. At first, he felt the earth was cold, but as he activated his cultivation method, saw the Qi, and began absorbing it, the chill vanished.

Pan Yun's calm voice echoed in his ears: "Seek Earth Qi. If you feel too little, seek Wood Qi."

After about fifteen minutes, Pan Yun noticed the gathered Qi was mostly earth-yellow. She smiled faintly and softened her voice further: "Of the six methods of Earth Submersion Technique, the third is the simplest. You've practiced the hand seals for it the most. Tonight, we'll practice the third method."

Tao Yanbai immediately maintained his half-meditative state and simply formed the hand seals for her to see.

Pan Yun nodded: "Good. Now calm your mind and add the movement of Yuan Li."

Tao Yanbai didn't dare move a muscle.

Pan Yun guided gently: "Send Yuan Li out from Guanyuan, split it along the Ren and Du Meridians, pass through Zusanli, converge at Yongquan. The Ren Meridian flows to Tianding, gathers at Laogong…"

Tao Yanbai followed Pan Yun's instructions, splitting his Yuan Li into two streams—one along the Du Meridian, one along the Ren Meridian. His awareness split too, almost like a command and response.

"Concentrate Yuan Li in the meridians and acupoints—hold it still. Now, form the hand seals!"

Tao Yanbai's fingers instinctively formed the seals. As Pan Yun whispered sharply: "Release Yuan Li—"

The Yuan Li anchored at his acupoints erupted from his fingertips and soles, causing the Earth Qi swirling around him to tremble. Before Tao Yanbai could even react, he vanished with a soft *shuuu*—gone from the spot.

Pan Yun beamed: "You've learned it!"

Moments later, her expression changed. "Damn it!"

Pan Yun's fingers flicked rapidly, and she vanished from the spot.

She darted swiftly through the earth, first heading north over a hundred meters—no sign of him. She spun around and raced east back to the origin—still no one…

Pan Yun scurried through the soil like a mole, occasionally popping her head up to scan the surface—nothing, absolutely nothing. No one knew where Tao Yanbai had vanished to.

Pan Yun frantically combed every direction within a hundred meters. When she popped up again from the earth, she couldn't help screaming to the sky: "You little brat, where the hell did you go—"

Her scream lit up lanterns in several courtyards. Pan Yun didn't notice—she vanished again with a *shuuu*, expanding her search radius!

Pan Xiaohei ran like an ant on a hot pan, panting, screaming inside: 【No, no, nowhere!】

Pan Yun, still darting through the earth, said: 【Expand the search, split up. You head toward Taisu Courtyard!】

Pan Xiaohei: 【I can't sense any movement underground from the surface!】

【Then search the surface!】

Pan Xiaohei finally bolted toward Taisu Courtyard.

Pan Yun, meanwhile, grunted as she burrowed toward the dining hall. When she surfaced and realized she'd reached the dining hall courtyard—still no sign of him—she had no choice but to dive back into Fengqi Courtyard, burst into Miao Zhen and Miao He's room, and yank them awake.

Pan Yun shoved them into chairs: "Quick, calculate where your third master is."

Miao Zhen looked dazed, her forehead full of question marks—but her hands moved fast, instinctively pulling out three copper coins.

Pan Yun gripped them firmly: "Use the tortoise shell!"

Miao Zhen snapped awake instantly—only in dire emergencies would her little aunt demand the tortoise shell.

Because it consumed great energy, but yielded far more precise answers.

Miao Zhen didn't dare delay. She pulled out the tortoise shell, closed her eyes, calmed her breath, sincerely prayed inwardly, then tossed the shell.

She instantly said: "Sixty degrees southeast, where the sun rises…"

Before she finished, Pan Yun vanished with a *bang*, heading straight for the sixty-degree southeast direction, digging frantically through the earth—*kachikachi*—

Miao He, still rubbing his eyes, mumbled sleepily: "What happened to Third Master?"

Miao Zhen tucked away the tortoise shell: "Nothing serious. Just a sign of danger narrowly avoided."

After who knew how long, Pan Yun finally sensed a faint, thin breath underground. She shot toward it and saw Tao Yanbai hanging upside down in the soil, fingers still forming the seals, his face crimson, tears streaming down his temples and sinking into the earth as he spotted her.

Pan Yun sighed, stepped forward, grabbed him, and pulled him upward. Finally, she dragged him out. She glanced around—they'd passed Shihua Courtyard and were barely short of leaving the academy.

Pan Yun: "Impressive. First time using Earth Submersion, you went this far. Why didn't you just keep going all the way down the mountain?"

"Not coming out would be one thing, but how did you end up hanging upside down? Do you also feel your brain isn't clever enough and needs a bit of blood to supplement it?"

Tao Yanbai wiped his tears clean and said between sobs: "Little Uncle-Master, I thought I was going to be buried alive."

"If that breath of yours had leaked, wouldn't that have been a burial alive?"

Pan Yun carried him back to Fengqi Court, and said to the three martial nephews with a solemn face: "Starting from today, I am going to teach you the methods of survival underground."

?

The three of them looked utterly bewildered.

Pan Yun: "It's all being buried in the earth, but the vitality within the earth is not the same. You must learn to distinguish, to seek, and to earth-escape."

"Earth generates Wood. In the earth, what brings us the most vitality is actually Wood. So when earth-escaping, escape beneath a tree, and by borrowing the tree roots, not only will it grant an extra measure of vitality, it will also be more comfortable."

Pan Yun then went on to cultivate on one hand, teach her three martial nephews on another, and on yet another hand had to study the relationship between Pan Xiaohei and her physical body.

Just when Pan Xiaohei felt she could find no way to conceal her own peculiarity, Pan Yun announced a closed-door retreat, and then that very night slipped out of the Academy, took out the Three Treasure Cauldron, and with a whoosh flew straight toward Mount Sanqing.

Pan Xiaohei sat in the pot with a blank face: "Why return to Mount Sanqing for closed-door cultivation?"

Pan Yun wore a solemn expression: "It concerns life and death, of course one must return to the safest place. Am I the sort of person who does closed-door cultivation just anywhere?"

"No, but how would your closed-door cultivation involve life and death?"

Pan Yun wore an unfathomably profound look: "You'll know once we arrive."