Chapter 670

Dainai Yazi gripped Pan Yun's wrist and pushed outward, but Pan Yun's five fingers tightened, and no matter how hard she tried, she could not budge her in the slightest.

Her guards rushed over with blades raised to rescue her, but Xue Shao merely stepped forward two paces, kicked a pebble on the ground, and it rolled and rolled with a gurgle, tumbling into a small pit.

In an instant, an invisible barrier descended, and Xue Shao drew his sword to meet them…

The guards swung their blades toward Pan Yun's back, but before they could touch her, they were blocked by an invisible barrier, and the blades were knocked away with a clang.

They could not break the formation, so the best method was to smash it open with brute force.

So they raised their great blades to strike again, but Xue Shao had already advanced with sword in hand, one man fighting ten.

Pan Yun slowly tightened her five fingers. Dainai Yazi's eyes bulged, her hands went limp and drooped from lack of oxygen, and just as Pan Yun was about to crush her throat the next moment, a mass of black mist surged up swiftly from beneath her feet.

Pan Yun's gaze sharpened. A surge of elemental force blasted out, snapping her throat clean. After retreating two steps, she used her left thumb's nail to cut the pad of her index finger, drew an Evil-Slaying Talisman on her sword, and charged into the black mist.

"I've been waiting for you!" Pan Yun pressed forward, battling the black mist: "Worth all that time I spent choking her neck."

Dainai Yazi clutched her throat and crashed to the ground with a thud, eyes wide, mouth gaping wide open, as if wanting to breathe but unable to draw air. Black mist crouched beneath her, and before long it wrapped her up entirely.

Seeing that it still had the strength to save someone, Pan Yun hastened her assault.

A soundless, shrill sonic boom rang out. In the midst of battle, Xue Shao's vision swam, and he nearly lost his footing. He shook his head to steady himself.

The ten guards opposite him suffered even more—some clutched their heads, others simply crashed to the ground with a thud, foaming at the mouth.

Pan Yun's attention wandered for an instant, and Pan Xiaohei shrieked: "Meow—"

Pan Yun snapped back at once. The black mist coalesced into a black sword and shot straight for her heart.

Pan Yun's gaze turned fierce. In an instant, she drew the Merit Jin Guang hidden within her spirit realm and struck out with a palm to meet the black sword.

The black mist burst apart with a thud. The mist wrapping Dainai Yazi swiftly retreated, quickly merging with the scattered mist in the air into a single mass, then surged toward Pan Yun in an overwhelming wave.

Pan Yun raised her sword straight toward the sky, drawing down the lightning that had not yet fully dispersed: "Thunder-light, blazing bolt, crackling might. Jade Pivot commands, fire obeys with haste. Quickly, as by decree!"

Lightning cracked down onto her sword tip with a snap. A bolt pierced the sky and gathered firmly at her blade's point.

The black mist, which had been ferociously pouncing, faltered, occasionally retreating in haste.

Pan Yun already had both hands on her sword, hacking viciously toward it: "Die!"

The lightning on the sword shot forth, nearly parallel to the earth, pierced through the black mist with a crack, and slammed into the wall of Shankou Hall with a thud.

The wall cracked, pebbles occasionally pattered down, and it collapsed in an instant with a thud.

And the black mist was shattered to pieces by the lightning amid Dainai Jiaohong's furious roar.

"No—" Dainai Jiaohong could not accept it. This was the fortune of the Dainai clan, a shikigami they had raised for nearly a hundred years—it was meant to grow into a god!

Dainai Yazi clutched her neck and crawled up from the ground, mouth gaping wide as she stared.

Thanks to the black mist's repair, she could barely produce sound, but it was still hoarse.

Seeing Pan Yun turn with sword in hand and look toward her, she finally felt fear.

She braced her arms and slowly retreated, saying hoarsely: "If you kill me, I will curse you. The mountain god will avenge me. You will perish here and never find peace!"

Pan Yun: "Try it."

Seeing Pan Yun would not spare her, Dainai Yazi immediately began to swear a curse, but had only just opened her mouth: "I pledge my life, pfft…"

She turned her eyes in disbelief and saw her own body slumped on the ground. Looking up from below, she saw her fingers twitch slightly, and before she could make another move, she crashed down with a thud.

There was a gash on her neck, blood bubbling and gurgling out.

Pan Yun tilted slightly to dodge the spurting blood, reached out to catch her returning sword, and looked down at the still wide-eyed head: "An oath, so long as it is not finished, is not binding."

Dainai Yazi had no thoughts left. Her soul departed her body; she could not control her flesh, nor even her own spirit. Everything fell to stillness.

Jin Guang flashed through Pan Yun's eyes. She watched it leave the body and slowly dissipate into the air, then withdrew her innate divine ability.

She turned her head to look at Xue Shao.

Xue Shao and the others had also stopped fighting.

It was not that he was formidable enough to truly defeat ten men alone.

Thanks to the black mist's sonic boom, he had won lying down.

Pan Yun stepped out of the barrier and looked at him curiously: "You were so close—how were you unaffected?"

Xue Shao: "Probably because my will is firm and my mind is clear?"

Pan Yun nodded, lifted her foot, and stepped over a guard lying on the ground.

Dainai Jiaohong was surrounded by the remaining guards. He clutched his chest, his breathing like a broken bellows.

Pan Yun knew she had wrecked him. With current medical skill, he would not last much longer.

Pan Yun stood before him, ignoring the guards blocking her path, her gaze falling directly on him, the corner of her mouth lifting slightly: "Do you think they can stop me?"

Dainai Jiaohong pushed the guards aside, struggled to his feet with their support, his face ashen: "You always strike cleanly. Stopping to talk to me now—what do you want?"

"I want your Dainai clan's Tsuruga Port and three sea vessels."

Dainai Jiaohong: "Impossible!"

Pan Yun tilted her head: "Then your clan dies out, and I take it myself?"

Dainai Jiaohong laughed coldly: "You are a Han, and this is Japan. Tsuruga Port is Japan's most important port. The Great Ming's tally-trade and Kyoto's transshipment all pass through here. Even if you slaughtered every Dainai, you could not hold Tsuruga Port."

Pan Yun laughed coldly: "I have the Yamana clan."

Dainai Jiaohong's chest tightened, but he showed nothing on his face. At this moment, his mind was无比 clear: "If the Yamana clan were useful, my Dainai clan would not have bypassed them to split half of Iwami Province, bypassed them to become honored guests in Kyoto.

You are a guest from afar—you probably don't know yet. My Dainai clan has already been officially designated as Guardian De Da Ming of three provinces, on equal footing with the Yamana clan!"

This, Pan Yun truly did not know.

And then—the Yamana clan really are useless.

Such big news, and the Yamana clan didn't even know.

Oh, it's also possible they knew but dared not, and were unwilling to tell her.

Pan Yun laughed coldly: "So what? I only need to borrow the Yamana clan's name."

"The Yamana clan cannot hold Tsuruga Port either."

Pan Yun hugged her sword and said, "Then I'll just use Tsuruga Port to trade him for another port. Perfect — I sit back and reap the fisherman's profit."

Dainai Jiaohong: …

He drew in a deep breath; the air entered his lungs, and a sharp, burning pain flared.

He grew a little clearer-headed: "Rather than trading with the Yamana clan, how about I give you a different port."

Pan Yun lifted her chin, gesturing for him to go on.

"I'll give you Nanao Port."

【Where is Nanao Port?】 In her planning, this was a port she had never even heard of.

Pan Xiaohei searched within his own body, and in an instant pulled up the answer. 【It's near Omori Township. Historically it could transship the silver from the Iwami Silver Mine, but now — at least in the records of Great Ming's history — there's barely any mention of it. It should be a very small, very desolate seaport.】

Pan Xiaohei shouted inside her head: 【Pan Yun, he's playing you! Tsuruga Port is such a huge port, yet he's trying to fob you off with one this small!】

Xue Shao walked over at some unknown moment, and whispered to her: "Agree to it."

Pan Yun had been about to agree anyway — she didn't care about the port's size; being able to get close to the Iwami Silver Mine was well worth it — but Xue Shao…

She raised one brow slightly.

Xue Shao had already leaned close to her ear and whispered: "I saw this place on the map Yamana Mochiyori took out. It's very close to where we're headed."

Only then did Pan Yun let her gaze fall on Dainai Jiaohong, and said in a low voice: "Fine. The port is changed to Nanao Port. We'll write up a contract right now as proof, and we'll swear an oath!"

Pan Yun said: "Whoever breaks this oath — let their line be cut off, in the next life be grass and trees, be livestock, anything but a human being!"

What a vicious oath.

Dainai Jiaohong's whole body jolted, his face turning even paler.

For a man who raised shikigami and used unorthodox arts to preserve his own fortune, he believed utterly in the efficacy of oaths — especially since Pan Yun was a practitioner of the Divine Way.

Dainai Jiaohong, afraid of being cheated, added: "I only promise to give you the port. Whether you can hold it is up to your own ability. If you can't hold it, that doesn't count as me breaking the oath."

Pan Yun gave a cold laugh: "As long as your Dainai clan doesn't attack, I'll consider your oath fulfilled."

Dainai Jiaohong gritted his teeth and accepted.

Pan Yun added: "And three sea-going ships."

Dainai Jiaohong's heart bled as if cut, and he still wanted to haggle.

Pan Yun lowered the arm she'd been hugging across her chest, and the sword tip flicked up to press against his chin.

The guards tensed up, their hands gripping their sword hilts tight.

Pan Yun: "My patience is limited. Are you sure you want to keep haggling with me?"

Dainai Jiaohong: "Three sea-going ships make up half of my Dainai clan's sea-going ships. The clan isn't something I alone decide."

Pan Yun used her sword to lift his chin, and tilted her body slightly so he could look past her toward the distant horizon behind her: "You sent men to raid the Yamana clan's army, didn't you? Go ahead and guess — in the end, the ones who cross over Tian Geng, will they be your men, or Yamana's men?"

Dainai Jiaohong's breathing grew rapid.

Pan Yun said with a light laugh: "Dainai Jiaohong, all I want from you is one port and three sea-going ships. But Yamana — what he wants is the whole of Iwami Province, an Iwami Province where the Dainai clan no longer exists."

Dainai Jiaohong stared at Pan Yun with blood-red eyes.

Pan Yun looked straight into his eyes, and said softly: "Yamana Mochiyori and I are allies. If they come over, I really can't go back on our pact."

Even Naito Hiromata, collapsed on the ground, couldn't help but speak up and urge: "Head of the house!"

Dainai Jiaohong squeezed his eyes shut hard, and in a hoarse voice agreed: "Fine!"

Pan Yun, satisfied, withdrew her sword, and at once had Naito Hiromata draw up the contract.

Pan Yun picked through the rubble beneath the collapsed city wall, picked out a relatively flat brick, gave it a kick, and the brick flew through the air, landing with a slap right in front of Dainai Jiaohong.

Pan Yun produced two bowls, planted her sword in the ground before the stone, and together with Dainai Jiaohong swore the vicious oath.

The cut on the pad of her left thumb had not yet healed. Pan Yun hardened her heart, clenched her jaw, and let her thumbnail cut it once more, squeezing out three drops of blood, then looked at Dainai Jiaohong.

Dainai Jiaohong drew a blade and sliced open his wrist, letting blood drip into the bowl; the two people's blood mingled in the bowl.

Pan Yun then performed the rite, reporting the oath to Heaven and Earth, then raised the bowl and offered all the blood to Heaven and Earth.

Along with the oath, the blood seeped into the earth, and a faint thread of blood appeared on the wrists of Pan Yun and Dainai Jiaohong.

Pan Yun pushed up her sleeve and took a look, immensely satisfied, and said to Dainai Jiaohong: "Tell your descendants — whether of your direct line or not — as long as they inherit the position of Dainai clan head, this oath will pass over onto them."

Pan Yun winked at him: "The same applies to clan relatives. You represent the Dainai clan, not just yourself."

Dainai Jiaohong said with a dark face: "Rest assured, I am a man who keeps his word. I also ask Daoist Master Pan to keep hers, and take your people away."

Pan Yun slid her sword back into its sheath with a sharp ring, lifted her chin, and said: "I keep my word too."

She called to Xue Shao: "Let's go!"

"Wait," Dainai Jiaohong called out to her, and asked in a low voice: "Did Daoist Master Pan come to Japan this time for the seaport, or for the Kikuchi family's treasure map?"

Pan Yun tilted her head, and said with a cold laugh: "Why don't you ask whether it was for revenge?"

Dainai Jiaohong's heart clenched in pain, so painful he nearly suffocated.

Pan Yun shattered his illusions, and said with a cold laugh: "We came here for revenge against you for your raids and slaughter of our villages. The seaport and the treasure map were merely things picked up along the way."

Pan Yun simply turned back, her gaze sweeping over everyone — including the Japanese hiding inside the city watching — and said loudly in Japanese: "Whoever dares again to raid our Great Ming, to kill our countrymen — even if you are across the sea in a distant land, I will kill you! The soldiers and knights of Great Ming will strike you down together!"

Everyone's hearts jolted, and they silently looked away, not daring to meet her gaze.

Pan Yun's gaze swept over Tao Honghu lying on the ground, and she said to Dainai Jiaohong: "Send his head to the Yamana clan for me."

Dainai Jiaohong's face was ashen, yet he dared not object.

He knew about Dainai Yazi's trip to Great Ming — in fact, it was he who had asked her to go.

Now that Pan Yun had spared him, the chief culprit, naturally someone had to be offered up to quell Great Ming's wrath.

Dainai Yazi was one; Tao Honghu was another.

He was one of Dainai Jiaohong's most trusted vassals, the Ship-guard General — no one was more suited to serve as an offering.

Dainai Jiaohong closed his eyes briefly, but doing so would inevitably chill the hearts of his vassals.

Yet with the blade hanging at his throat, Dainai Jiaohong had no choice.

Pan Yun led Xue Shao back across the ridge, and only after they had walked some distance did Xue Shao ask, "That oath, for you…"

"No effect," Pan Yun said breezily and cheerfully. "I'm a person who has left the household, so I was never going to have children or descendants anyway. I'll just live this life well, and leave the next life to the next-life me."

Xue Shao: "…I'm asking, you wouldn't go back on the oath, right? That oath shouldn't have any binding force on you."

Pan Yun thought about it and realized that was true: "Dainai Jiaohong won't live much longer. On this trip, our grudge is considered avenged. The moment I turn around and leave, I've indeed fulfilled the oath."

Thinking this way, Pan Yun grew even happier and swaggered forward: "You're right, this oath has no binding force on me."

Pan Xiaohei mocked: "Weren't you just thinking about the consequences of breaking the oath? And you pushed it off to your next life—what if your next life is still you?"

Pan Yun: "Am I that beloved by the heavens? Live one life and then live another?" (End of chapter)