Transaction

Tao Ji was muttering about the black cat aboard the boat. "Pan Yun treats it so fiercely. I wonder if she'll abandon it to save her own life."

After all, a little girl with a black cat was quite conspicuous and easier to ask about. If it were him, he really might leave the cat behind to shake off pursuers.

Whenever Tao Ji imagined the black cat cast adrift in the human world, suffering hunger and cold, limping painfully on one leg, and perhaps, when they met again, matted-furred and filthy, with old friend and old cat facing each other without recognition, his heart ached.

Xuan Miao shot him a glance. "Third Senior Brother, don't focus solely on alchemy. You should study divination arts from time to time as well."

"Pan Yun won't abandon that cat. Though I don't know why, their fates are intertwined. The bond between that girl and cat runs even deeper than the bond between her and her father, Pan Hong."

Tao Ji asked, "Then once we reach Kaifeng, won't we only need to ask around about a little girl carrying a cat to find her?"

Xuan Miao said, "It will be difficult if she hides the cat. In any case, be thorough. Mainly ask about children around seven or eight years old who are alone."

At that age, a child only needed a little dressing up to become impossible to distinguish as male or female, so they could not even narrow it down by gender.

But they had not expected that, when they asked around Zhuxian Town, not a single child around seven or eight years old traveling alone had ever come through the docks.

One person was questioned twice and finally lost patience, snapping, "What family would dare let a seven- or eight-year-old child take a boat alone from Daming Prefecture to Kaifeng? Aren't they afraid a water ghost will drag the child away to serve as a substitute for the dead?"

Tao Ji, who had been shouted at, stood there with an innocent expression and turned to look at Xuan Miao.

Xuan Miao's brows knitted tightly. Turning away, she said, "Let's eat something first. We'll continue looking after we're full."

They found a stall and sat down. Xuan Miao took out a handful of copper coins, selected the three cleanest and most identical ones, shook them in her palm, tossed them six times in succession, then arranged the hexagram and began divining.

Tao Ji whispered, "Junior Sister, didn't you say it was bad to repeatedly divine the same matter?"

"When there is no road ahead, naturally one must divine."

Xuan Miao stared at the arranged hexagram, her brows deeply furrowed. This reading was far too strange. It showed that Pan Yun was in danger, yet the omen itself was not bad. After thinking it over, she simply swept it aside and started over.

Xuan Miao performed the simplest divination, asking only, "What direction is Pan Yun in relative to me right now?"

When the result appeared, Xuan Miao said, "After we eat, we head north. The hexagram shows that Pan Yun is north of us."

Tao Ji said, "Could she already have gone north from Kaifeng? Then pursuing her overland would be faster."

Though Xuan Miao felt that something was off, she could not figure out what it was. She could only nod. "At any rate, we cannot go wrong heading toward Datong. Her ultimate goal is to go to Datong and find Pan Hong and his son."

After eating their noodles, Xuan Miao and Tao Ji went to the Carriage and Horse Agency to rent horses.

That was right. In order to pursue someone, they had finally become generous enough to rent horses.

One rider to each horse, they galloped north along the official road, their eyes sweeping over everyone ahead of them, and did not stop until dusk.

By the campfire, Tao Ji added wood to the flames and said in disbelief, "She wasn't anywhere along the way. Could she have rented a carriage and horses like them? But I remember she had no money. Or did we search the wrong direction?"

Xuan Miao was arranging another hexagram. After a moment, she put away the copper coins and said gravely, "She is still north of us."

Tao Ji wanted to speak, but stopped himself.

Xuan Miao gave a cold snort. "I could not have calculated wrong. At the time, she clearly went south by water."

Then how could she have gotten north of them so quickly?

Tao Ji's eyes widened. "Could it be some strange art? Shrinking the Earth to an Inch, traveling a thousand miles at speed?"

The more he spoke, the more excited Tao Ji became. "It really is possible. Junior Sister, she can even hide within plum trees. You cannot perform such a strange art either. What a pity she was so fierce all along the way. It was not easy to ask about such secrets."

Xuan Miao fell into thought, considering that possibility as well.

But no matter what, Pan Yun had successfully stirred her competitive spirit. Clenching her fists, she said, "I will catch her."

In the flickering firelight, Pan Yun completed a Lesser Heavenly Cycle. She pressed the spiritual energy into her Dantian, turning it into her own strength, while the energy she could not contain dispersed through her limbs and body, nourishing every part of her.

The exhaustion of days of rushing about vanished completely. She rose and stretched her arms and legs, feeling refreshed in body and spirit. "Eight years. I have never been as healthy as I am at this moment."

The black cat lying on the leaves remained silent.

Pan Yun lowered her head and glanced at it, then sat cross-legged opposite it, choosing to speak face-to-face. "From the time we formally met until now, we have never had the space or time for a proper talk. There are no outsiders here now. For our future, don't you think we should have an open and honest conversation?"

The black cat raised its front half and sat on its haunches like her. Its hind leg was fixed to a branch, though, so it could only stick one leg out to the side, making it look decidedly undignified. Even so, it let out a solemn meow. "Fine. Let's talk."

A Spring Embroidered Saber abruptly appeared in Pan Yun's hand. The black cat recoiled in fright and rolled over with a gurgling sound. It gave an angry meow, but before it could speak, Pan Yun had already laid the saber across her knees. "See? Even without you, I can take things out of the Three Jade Spirit Realm."

The black cat's anger stalled, and it said nothing.

"In other words, the Three Jade Spirit Realm without its Spirit Being is the same as it was in the research institute in my previous life. The portions whose seals have been lifted can be used," Pan Yun said. "And now it resides within my Mud Pill Palace, one with my soul. Naturally, aside from the sealed portions, I can use everything else whenever I wish."

So to her, the Spirit Being's disadvantages outweighed its benefits. Unless it could bring her sufficiently great benefits, it would have a hard time persuading her to keep it.

The black cat had followed her all this way and knew that sentiment could no longer persuade her. She was ruthless and still held a grudge over it having devoured her spiritual energy for eight years. It was unlikely that she would take it back into her head simply because they had supported each other along the way.

"Memories from too long ago have been sealed, and I do not remember much," the black cat said. "But I still remember the purpose for which I was created."

It sat upright, gazing at the moon in the sky as it reminisced. "The human body is merely a vessel. The soul is the foundation. If the soul endures, a person can live forever. My creator wanted to turn me into a world capable of containing souls. In my world, these sentient lives could continue and transcend, possessing extraordinary wisdom."

"In my world, they could gain eternal life!"

Pan Yun raised her brows in surprise. This was not the direction she had expected things to take.

Her fingers tapped unconsciously against the saber sheath as she pondered. "A super AI? No, that is not right. Eternal life after leaving the body behind—this is something even a super AI cannot accomplish."

The black cat looked at her with contempt. "This is Spirit Refinement!"

Pan Yun glanced at it. "Did you and your creator accomplish it?"

The black cat lowered its head. "I don't know. I was sealed."

"But I know that the things currently unsealed are only a tiny corner of me. Spatial storage, memory-card functions—compared with my other abilities, they are not worth mentioning."

Seeing that Pan Yun did not refute it, the black cat spoke even more earnestly. "This world is different from our previous life. Spiritual energy here is thin, cultivation is harder than before, and its productive technology is backward. Above us sits an emperor who can decide people's life and death at will. Obtaining cultivation resources here will be harder for you than it was in your previous life."

"But I am your resource!"

Seeing Pan Yun pondering, the black cat proudly lifted its head. "You may not know this, but the cultivation methods you practiced in your previous life had always been flawed. The energy cultivated through them had an extremely low storage rate and constantly leaked away into the body around it."

Pan Yun looked at it with utter disdain. "I know. Not only do I know—everyone in the country knows. Everyone in the world knows."

The black cat's bellyful of grand declarations was instantly choked in its throat.

Pan Yun said, "Otherwise, why do you think the research institute poured so many resources into you, hoping you would unseal yourself?"

"In our eyes, you were something like a storage card, equivalent to the heavenly books of ancient times. Many experts and scholars believed that you carried cultivation methods recorded by our predecessors."

Pan Yun looked at it coldly. "Now it seems you really do have them. Not only do you have them, you remember them too. Yet you hid in my Mud Pill Palace for years, watched me use an inferior cultivation method, and never reminded me. Was it because you could devour all that spiritual energy before it had the chance to dissipate?"

The black cat was silent.

Pan Yun said, "Fine. I agree not to seal you. Now let us discuss a transaction. Do not bring up that immature proposal about giving you half the energy I cultivate. The bargaining chips in your hand are currently not enough to earn that reward."

The black cat's shoulders slumped. Its tiny body looked pitiful. "Then how much will you give me?"

Pan Yun was silent. After a long while, she said, "One fiftieth. Consider it the cost of renting the Three Jade Spirit Realm."

The black cat's chest rose and fell, but when it met Pan Yun's gaze, it still gave in. This bit of spiritual energy was less the cost of renting the Three Jade Spirit Realm than the price of trading cultivation methods with her.

After all, it was not inside its original body now. She could use the Three Jade Spirit Realm just the same.

The black cat agreed, though it could not help muttering, "So little. How long will it take me to unseal myself?"

Pan Yun said, "Unsealing cannot depend solely on you absorbing spiritual energy to undo the seals. Wait until I study formations and talismans. Then we can see whether there is a way to unseal you from the outside."

The black cat said, "Even your teachers, experts and scholars so much more capable than you, could not do it. Can you possibly be better than them?"

Pan Yun said, "I have talent. Haven't you heard the old saying? The waves behind in the Yangtze River drive on those before. I am one of the waves behind."

"Enough nonsense. Give me the cultivation method."

She needed to cultivate quickly. She had always felt uneasy, as though she had never truly escaped danger and was still beneath someone's Five-Finger Mountain.

The black cat's original body was in her Mud Pill Palace. Although it could not sense her exact thoughts, it could still feel something, as if their hearts were linked.

It could neither explain nor define it.

So it had that feeling too.

The black cat said, "The cultivation method I know is recorded on my Second Jade Fragment. Some of it was unsealed over the years, but I sealed it again."

Pan Yun said, "Oh, to keep me from noticing, was it?"

The black cat ignored that remark. "I will unseal it now. Go look for yourself. But before I do, I have one more condition."

Pan Yun gestured for it to continue.

The black cat lay down and raised its hind leg. "Besides giving me spiritual energy as rent, you must guarantee my safety—the safety of the Spirit Being!"

It emphasized, "I will keep my word. In the future, I definitely will not steal or seize your spiritual energy again. And you must promise never to think of sealing me again, and not allow anyone else to harm me."

Pan Yun agreed at once. "Fine."