Chapter 788: Searching for the Bones

Zhang Liuzhen turned her head and asked Pan Yun, "Are you going back to Mount Sanqing for New Year?"

Pan Yun nodded, but said, "No rush."

Indeed there was no rush — there were still six days until New Year's Eve, and the officials of the Great Ming hadn't taken holiday yet, so naturally they weren't in a hurry either.

She decided to take Xiao Hong to find her remaining bones, and to revisit the old place along the way, to see if she could recall anything.

Zhang Liuzhen glanced at Xue Shao: "And you're just going to wander around with Young Master Xue like this? You won't even let him go home for New Year."

Pan Yun turned and asked Xue Shao, "Do you want to go home for New Year?"

Xue Shao shook his head: "I often spend New Year away from home. In previous years only Xijin was by my side. This year I have many good friends to keep the festival with — it's already very good."

Pan Yun looked at Zhang Liuzhen with a grin.

Zhang Liuzhen smiled and shook her head, advising: "Be careful on the road."

The few of them nodded together.

Li Wenying said: "Don't worry. There aren't many people in this world who can defeat them by force. It's better that they cause less trouble."

Li Wenying paused at this point, and solemnly advised Pan Yun: "You really do need to be careful. That case in Ji'an looks to involve many parties — I don't know what people, what matters, are tangled up behind it. You must be more careful.

Don't think that just because your cultivation is high you can do whatever you please. You must understand that cultivation is worth nothing in officialdom."

Pan Yun raised an eyebrow.

Li Wenying: "Don't you believe it. None of you were born of heaven and raised by earth, all alone. For officials to get a handle on you is the easiest thing in the world. Even if one day you stand alone, with nothing to fear, they will still find a way to take you."

Li Wenying said solemnly: "If a hundred men can't kill you, a thousand can't kill you — can it really be that ten thousand, a hundred thousand, a million men also can't kill you?"

Zhang Liuzhen also nodded: "The Laozu Sect ancestor who stayed in the Emperor's palace can already restore a youthful complexion and fly at will, yet he is still bound by the mortal world. So long as one day we have not become immortals, we are subject to the government's control. No — even if we become immortals, so long as we are still bound by the mortal world, we will always be subject to the government's control."

This is what is meant by the ways of the world!

Don't think that cultivation has no ways of the world — even becoming a divine being cannot escape the mundane.

Even gods must fulfill their duties.

Zhang Liuzhen smiled: "Think of your Mountain God master."

Pan Yun understood at once.

Her poor master had become a god for several thousand years now, yet he still had to come down to the mortal world to take disciples, and even after taking disciples he had no peace.

Mm — he had no peace, and her senior brother and she suffered along with him.

Pan Yun felt a deep kinship: "Looks like I have to build up a good reputation. Gods like Mazu, Guanyin Bodhisattva, and the Star of Literature never worry about this sort of thing."

Li Wenying: "…Shouldn't it be that they fulfill their duties wholeheartedly? It's because they satisfy people's wishes that their incense never ceases. In the end, it's that your master's magic power isn't enough — the people he protects are too few, so his incense isn't flourishing."

Pan Yun thumped her chest and said: "With a disciple like me around, this situation will eventually improve. Just you wait and see."

Pan Yun urged her companions to eat quickly — once they were full, they'd leave.

Oh, before leaving, Pan Yun also gave Zhang Liuzhen two fish.

Because Tao Ji had already taken Zhang Liuzhen's pulse, Pan Yun and the others didn't show off their meager skills. Once the fish were handed over, they cheerfully waved goodbye.

The moment she stepped out the gate she said: "Punishing evil and catching the wicked can also accumulate merit. Let's start from here."

Xue Shao saw at a glance that she hadn't been frightened by Li Wenying and Zhang Liuzhen, and couldn't help laughing. He nodded and said: "Good, let's start with Xiao Hong's case."

Miao Zhen and the others also wanted to help Xiao Hong get justice. They had seen Xiao Hong's suffering with their own eyes — she had died so miserably. How could they shrink back just because they feared the power of certain people?

Hmph — they weren't even afraid of the little Emperor; would they fear those people?

The group strode out with high spirits and fierce momentum.

The senior brother guarding the gate silently watched them march toward him with such force, and couldn't help rising from his cattail hassock, pressing himself flat against the wall, his fingers gripping a brick.

So long as Pan Yun dared to make a move, he dared to pry out the brick as a warning and activate the array.

Pan Yun strode forward in high spirits, reached out and pushed the gate open with one hand, and walked out in great strides. Before leaving, she even greeted the gate-guarding senior brother: "Thanks for your hard work, senior brother!" Wang Cong followed behind her and said: "Thanks for your hard work, junior brother."

Miao Zhen, Miao He, and Tao Yanbai: "Thanks for your hard work, senior brother!"

Xue Shao: "Thanks for your hard work, Daoist!"

Pan Xiaohei: "Meow—"

The gate-guarding senior brother silently straightened up, watched them walk into the distance, then reached out and slammed the gate shut with a slap.

"What I hate most is when students return to the academy during holidays."

The Great Shangqing Palace had flourishing incense, and Shangqing Town was even more bustling — not only did nearby residents come to buy all kinds of New Year goods, but people from elsewhere came to buy talismans, pills, magic artifacts, and the like.

Pan Yun and the others stepped casually into the Immortal Restaurant and sold them the things they had accumulated during this period.

Pan Yun and Miao Zhen sold the talismans they had drawn, while Tao Yanbai and Miao He sold the medicinal powders and pills they had made.

Wang Cong watched from the side, heart aching: "The price difference is way too big."

He felt a little itch: "How about I sell them for you?"

The others gladly agreed: "If you can sell them, of course that's good. We still have a batch on hand — we'll give it to you later."

Miao Zhen: "For now, let's earn a little New Year money."

Xue Shao saw this, and began to think of ways to earn money as well.

He was currently the poorest among them.

Because they could be self-sufficient among themselves, and they were used to being frugal, when the group left, apart from buying quite a few pastries, they bought nothing else.

Following the mountain path outward, the travelers on the road gradually thinned, and the trees on both sides grew denser and denser.

Pan Yun looked left and right, confirmed that no one was coming on the road for the moment, then took out the box, opened it, and called out to Xiao Hong: "Come out quick!"

Xiao Hong drifted out from her own bones. The bluish-grey on her face had already vanished, and her spirit was much improved: "I feel like I slept a nap — so comfortable."

She shivered slightly and murmured: "I still feel pain though."

Pan Yun: "But it's etched into the bones — after a while it will fade. Don't keep thinking about her. When you're free, just lie back inside. This yin-shaded wood nourishes bones and soul, and since you've fused with your own bones again, the recovery effect will be even better."

Xiao Hong agreed.

Pan Yun put the box away and asked: "Where exactly did Zhang Weiliang capture you back then?"

Xiaohong looked at the dense forest where everywhere looked the same, and shook her head.

Pan Yun knew she didn't remember. She sighed and asked, "Do you feel anything? The place where you appeared must be close to your remaining bones. Zhang Weiliang only said it was in a forest about eight li north of Shangqing Town, but didn't give a specific address. Sigh, I should have brought him back from the Kingdom of Wa. His luck really was too bad."

Since there was no definite address, they could only search bit by bit.

But Xiaohong's remaining bones were only a few segments, and finding them in this dense forest was indeed as hard as ascending to heaven.

Pan Yun first calculated with her fingers, then took out one of her finger bones to draw a talisman to guide the way, but got no result.

Her remaining bones seemed not to exist at all—no matter how she searched, she couldn't find them.

Everyone looked up at Xiaohong together.

Xiaohong said guiltily, "How about... we stop looking? Being able to find my bones, I'm already very satisfied. The bits that were lost don't matter."

"How can they not matter? Do you know you're a remnant soul right now?" Pan Yun said. "That means, outside there might be a Xiaohong Number Two, a Xiaohong Number Three. If we don't get them back, not to mention you can't recover your memories, even your cultivation will be much more difficult. Look, before, you and Sister Hong Yan were evenly matched. If you fought Sister Hong Yan now, could you still hold your own?"

That, she could not.

"Right, once this set of bones is recovered, has your memory come back at all?"