Chapter 738: I Know

Pan Yun looked up at the mural on the wall and sneered: "True Person Zhang certainly went to great lengths, and I truly am a genius—but I have self-awareness. He was willing to spare no effort to protect me from the moment I became the First Marquis, even risking offense to the Emperor; it could never be solely because of my talent or ability."

"This mural is conveniently placed—look at these traces; clearly no more than a year old, still fresh."

Xue Shao gazed up at the mural in silence.

Pan Yun turned to look at him, half-smiling: "Guess—did he paint this for me, for you, or for some other disciple?"

Xue Shao pondered: "When I first came to Si Guo Cliff, my grandfather sent me in because generations of disciples from the Celestial Master's Mansion were once imprisoned here. Legend says Si Guo Cliff was originally called Si Dao Cliff—a place where disciples meditated in seclusion—before it became a punishment chamber for errant disciples."

"Many past disciples left behind their cultivation methods and insights here, but also plenty of bitter complaints. Before I came, my grandfather warned me: only look at cultivation-related content on the walls; ignore, disbelieve, and never dwell on anything else."

Xue Shao paused, then said: "I first noticed a shadow dart past, and out of curiosity followed it here—but once inside, the shadow vanished."

Pan Yun drew her sword and severed the hand of the Daoist who had been transferring fortune to the two infants, then pulled out a drill and began carving into the wall. Moments later, she nodded to Xue Shao: "Look—just one step, and the mural's meaning changes."

Xue Shao looked at the hand gesture of blessing in the painting and chuckled: "You're altering the mural right before my eyes?"

Pan Yun: "Trust my judgment and intuition—if Zhang Liuzhen's talent is fake, I could expose him the moment I see him."

Pan Yun tapped her own eyes: "My divine talent isn't paper-thin."

She added: "If the Zhang family truly had the ability to transfer Dao-ti talent, and were ruthless enough to do this to their own child, don't you think you and I would be dead by now?"

Xue Shao raised an eyebrow: "I wonder how many who've seen this mural have figured that out."

"Let them wonder," Pan Yun said. "Why burden your mind with so much?"

She slung her sword over her shoulder and turned to leave: "Come on—we came here once in a while, so we might as well tour the whole punishment cave. There's plenty of good stuff inside."

Xue Shao let the mural go and followed her, curiously asking: "What did True Person Zhang promise you? Why are you so protective of Zhang Liuzhen?"

Pan Yun shushed him: "Walls have ears—especially in this enclosed cave, where sound echoes and amplifies. We can't discuss secrets."

"If we can't discuss secrets, can we talk about cultivation methods?" Xue Shao pointed to a line of text on the wall: "'Perform the Flying Divine Visitation to the Dipper Method in clean areas.' Sounds impressive. What is it?"

Pan Yun's eyes lit up. She pressed close to the wall to examine it: "This is valuable. Back… back before, I always wanted to learn it, but I only had the name—no method, no flying talisman—so I could only dream."

Xue Shao leaned in beside her and asked: "Flying talisman? Like it flies?"

He read the characters beneath: "Before reporting to the Dipper, if the heavens are dark, and after burning the talisman and petitioning, the clouds and mist do not part, the outcome is inauspicious—the patient retains their fate…"

"Not flying," Pan Yun said. "It's talisman calculation. There's talisman divination, trigram divination, character divination… Everything in the world—even a stick or stone picked up by the roadside—can be used for divination. Naturally, talisman calculation works too."

Pan Yun spotted the carved talisman script on the wall, her eyes gleaming: "It can calculate illness, fame, fortune, battle outcomes—even distinguish identities: nobles, scholars, examinees, commoners, patients—with extreme precision."

"For someone like me, skilled in talismans, talisman calculation suits me far better than other methods."

She had longed for it more than once—now she finally had the chance.

Pan Yun enthusiastically began copying the talisman from the wall.

Xue Shao followed suit, his finger tracing the air with pauses.

Pan Yun hesitated once, then on the second attempt, completed the talisman in one stroke—a talisman floated in midair, shimmering with spiritual light.

Pan Yun turned happily to look at Xue Shao.

Xue Shao didn't look at her at all—he was still struggling, on his third attempt.

A flash of spiritual light—the talisman briefly formed, then dissolved.

Xue Shao frowned tightly.

Pan Yun raised an eyebrow: "You succeeded—you just lack sufficient spiritual power to sustain it. Memorize the talisman script."

At once, Xue Shao extended his hand toward her.

Pan Yun: "What?"

"Brush, ink, paper," Xue Shao said. "Even the best memory is worse than a bad pen. I think there are many good methods and talismans here—I don't want to mix them up. I'll write them down."

Pan Yun pulled out brush, ink, and paper from her spiritual realm and frowned: "Didn't I give you a jade pendant?"

Xue Shao looked at her silently: "That's exactly what I want to ask—after climbing the mountain, my spiritual power was sealed. I can still communicate with the pendant's space, but I can't retrieve or store anything inside. Why can you?"

Pan Yun stiffened: "How do you know I can?"

"I didn't know at first—I just reached out tentatively. I didn't expect you actually could."

Pan Yun: …

She glared at him, gave no answer, only urged: "Hurry and write. You record this wall, I'll record that one—we'll exchange notes when we leave."

Xue Shao didn't insist on an answer—he smiled and nodded.

The two split up.

But they didn't record every method or insight.

Some methods they had already learned or seen—they skipped them.

Some experiences, you can tell at a glance they're wrong or unsuitable—so they skipped those too.

Besides recording their cultivated methods, spells, and insights, the walls also held their self-created techniques.

They clearly had great confidence—but when Xue Shao and Pan Yun tried practicing the methods on the wall, they found them useless.

It wasn't because their spiritual power was sealed and they couldn't exert much—rather, the moment they attempted the method, they felt it was fundamentally flawed.

After all, spiritual power was sealed, but internal force still worked.

Both were forms of energy—though different, both stemmed from essence, sharing similarities.

Pan Yun could draw talismans inside the cave, Xue Shao could produce semi-finished products—because both still had internal force.

Pan Yun walked past with a disgusted expression: "Deserved to be locked up—what nonsense methods have they invented?"

Xue Shao glanced back and saw the wall inscription: "Nine Intestines Transformation Method"—claiming that after practicing it, one would never need to defecate, as all matter would be converted back into energy within the intestines.

Xue Shao turned away, feeling slightly nauseated.

The two exited the cave and began searching the walls for the finest insights.

Two days later, Xue Shao and Pan Yun flipped out of the cave—their aura had grown stronger.

Cheng Lingzi glanced at Pan Yun, then at Xue Shao, and nodded approvingly: "Good—but a bit messy."

Pan Yun flicked her loose hair behind her head and frowned: "Messy? Our hair fell forward when we climbed up." Cheng Lingzi frowned, stepped back two paces, and said: "Don't you know you look like salted, marinated cured meat right now?"

Pan Yun and Xue Shao heard this, lowered their heads and sniffed themselves, gagging and nearly vomiting.

Cheng Lingzi laughed heartily, waving his hand: "Go, go, welcome you to come again next time."

Pan Yun: "Can't this cave be visited and left the same day? Why must we be locked inside?"

Cheng Lingzi's smile vanished; he said coldly: "What do you think the Reflection Cliff is? Do you come and go as you please? If you don't leave now, I'll lock you down to the eighteenth layer!"

Pan Yun grabbed Xue Shao and ran off immediately.

As soon as they stepped off the mountaintop, Xue Shao felt the sealed yuan force slowly returning to his body.

He pondered: "The stronger the sealing force the closer to the summit? But that doesn't make sense—in the cave, my yuan force was almost entirely sealed, only my neili remained usable; yet on the summit, I faintly sensed the sealing force weakening, and I had a trace of yuan force."

Pan Yun snapped her fingers: "Correct answer. The true sealing force acts within the cave—the deeper the cave, the stronger the sealing force. Supposedly, in the lower layers, not even yuan force or neili can be used—your physical strength drains away too, leaving you as weak as a sick cat, each movement like carrying a thousand jin on your head."

Xue Shao: "Is this sealing meant to contain something—or is it a high-level training ground of Long Hushan?"

Pan Yun looked at him with a half-smile: "Perhaps both?"

Xue Shao stopped asking.

As soon as they descended the mountain, the two parted ways; Pan Yun returned to Fengqi Courtyard to bathe and change clothes.

There was water in the tub; she slapped a heat rune onto the bath, and by the time she found her clothes, the water was hot.

She washed her hair and face first, then sat quietly in the tub to soak. The texts she'd copied these past two days flashed rapidly through her mind, finally settling on one mural.

Pan Yun opened her eyes, her expression solemn.

Upon returning to the academy, Zhang Zhenren—who was normally unseen and unpredictable—met with her personally. Though he never spelled it out, it was clear he intended to cultivate her to safeguard his son's inheritance of the Tian Shi Mansion.

So despite her reckless behavior outside, even with suspicions of embezzling pirate treasure, he still protected her before the Wu Lin Alliance and the Northern Garrison.

Her secret expedition with Chen Wen to retrieve the treasure was unknown, but their large-scale relief efforts to disaster victims had drawn the attention of sharp minds within the Northern Garrison and the Wu Lin Alliance—they likely realized the two had taken the treasure.

Yet, lacking concrete evidence, and since they had distributed the treasure among the people—essentially taking from the people and using it for the people—they chose to turn a blind eye.

But her coercion of the Emperor and imperial court to lift the maritime ban, indirectly causing rebel forces to attack Quanzhou and destabilize the southeast coast, had enraged the Emperor and the court.

Even so, Zhang Zhenren still protected her, preventing her from being summoned to Jingcheng for interrogation.

To be honest, Pan Yun still longed to see the young Emperor again.

She wanted to argue with him, to curse him, to despise him—sigh~~

She had prepared herself for all this.

But since she couldn't go, she wasn't disappointed; a Dao cultivator must maintain a clear, uncluttered mind, avoid agitation and anger.

If she were dragged to Jingcheng to quarrel with the Emperor, it would only slow her cultivation and harm both body and spirit. Enough—let us both be spared.

Pan Yun tapped the water's surface, but her mind was filled entirely with Zhang Liuzhen.

Come to think of it, she'd been back at the academy for days and had only seen Zhang Liuzhen once.

Thinking this, Pan Yun rose, pulled on her clothes, and ran out—the loose strands of her hair dried step by step; by the time she stepped past the courtyard gate, her hair was completely dry.

Pan Xiaohei was comfortably soaking in the courtyard, bathing himself—this was the greatest feat of overcoming his feline nature.

He lifted his head, glaring angrily at Pan Yun: "Where are you going?"

Pan Yun waved at him: "Keep soaking. I'm not going far—you don't need to follow."

Pan Xiaohei's anger vanished; he rested his head on the edge of the stone basin, continuing to soak while basking in the sun. Two days in the cave had soaked him through—no wonder this was the cave with the most imprisoned disciples; the smell inside was truly unforgettable.

Pan Yun, hair still loose, ran to Fanxi Courtyard.

Zhang Liuzhen sat quietly under a tree in the courtyard, reading a book. When the gate knocked once, he smiled, raised his head to respond—then the gate slammed open.

Zhang Liuzhen: …

Pan Yun strode in boldly: "Big Brother, are you here?"

Zhang Liuzhen simply watched her.

"You're here? Why didn't you answer?" Pan Yun walked toward him.

Zhang Liuzhen sighed, closing his book: "You gave me no chance to answer."

He placed the book on the table, picked up a teacup, and poured her tea: "Speak—what do you want?"

Pan Yun grinned, sat across from him, downed the tea in one gulp, and slapped the cup forward, signaling him to pour more: "I came to thank you for helping me. If you hadn't spoken well of me before Master Zhang, I might already be detained in Jingcheng for interrogation."

Zhang Liuzhen's smile faded slightly; he said coolly: "I didn't speak well of you. In my view, being summoned for interrogation isn't necessarily bad. Misfortune may harbor fortune—this might yet be your blessing."

Pan Yun poured herself another cup of tea: "Thank you very much."

Zhang Liuzhen continued pouring her tea.

Pan Yun reached for the cup, but Zhang Liuzhen seized her wrist: "My tea is good, but the Zhang family's tea is not. I mean it—you'd fare better enduring the storms in Jingcheng than being sheltered under the Zhangs."

Pan Yun: "Big Brother, do you and Master Zhang disagree?"

Zhang Liuzhen stared intently into her eyes: "So—are you on my side, or my father's?"

"Of course I'm on your side," Pan Yun said firmly: "I'm on the same side as Fourth Sister; Fourth Sister is on your side; round it off, we're on the same side."

Zhang Liuzhen smiled, withdrew his hand, and shook his head at her: "You're still a child."

Pan Yun huffed indignantly: "Who are you looking down on? Isn't this just a succession struggle? How does it compare to a throne fight?"

Zhang Liuzhen gazed at her with a distant look: "If it were merely a succession struggle, my father and I wouldn't disagree—after all, I am his only son."

Pan Yun's eyes darted: "So what's the real conflict between you and Master Zhang?"

Zhang Liuzhen said nothing, staring at her.

Pan Yun spread her hands: "See? You won't answer when I ask."

Zhang Liuzhen: "Do you know that the Daoist knowledge you learn at the academy is merely the most superficial?"

"I know."

Zhang Liuzhen choked: "You know?" (End of Chapter)