Chapter 58 Averted Disaster

The carriage rumbled out of the county town. Once it cleared the bumpiest stretch of road and reached the main highway, the driver cracked his whip repeatedly to urge the horses into a faster trot.

Master Qian could not help but stick his head out of the carriage window to look ahead and behind. The sun was pleasant today, and the ground showed only a few lingering puddles from the heavy rain of the past two days. Everything looked fine, with no ominous signs of disaster whatsoever.

Master Qian heaved a sigh of relief, pulled his head back inside, and sat upright. He called out to the driver in front, "A bit faster."

The driver acknowledged the command, patted the horse's flank, and the carriage picked up its pace.

With a sudden *thwack*, Master Qian felt something strike his face. He instinctively covered his cheek and, looking down, saw a thumb-sized stone that had fallen into his lap...

He subconsciously glanced out the window; the stone seemed to have flown in from that direction just now.

Before the thought could even fully form, Master Qian's eyes widened in horror. He threw himself toward the carriage door and screamed, "Stop—stop immediately!"

At that very instant, with a deafening rumble, a massive boulder rolled down the mountainside with unstoppable momentum. *Bang!* The world turned upside down. Master Qian was sent hurtling through the air. He only had time to catch a glimpse of a blinding white light before he slammed heavily onto the ground.

He scrambled up nimbly, his lips trembling as he looked back at his carriage. A colossal boulder had smashed the carriage body and sent it plunging down the cliff. The driver and the horse had stopped right at the edge of the precipice.

The carriage frame was already shattered. The terrified horse let out a shrill whinny, lashed out with its legs, broke free from the reins in the driver's hands, and bolted away, disappearing in a cloud of dust.

Master Qian also wanted to escape this rockfall zone, so he pushed himself up against the ground, intending to stand. But his limbs turned weak and refused to obey. He could only stretch out a hand toward the driver, pleading, "Come and help me up..."

Before his words faded, another rumbling sound echoed from the mountain. Both of them raised their heads simultaneously, only to see several more huge boulders rolling down directly above Master Qian's position...

Master Qian's heart turned cold. Since he could not stand, he began to crawl toward the base of the mountain, hoping to press himself against the rock face to evade this wave of falling stones.

He thought he was moving, but in reality, he hadn't budged an inch. To the driver, it looked as though the master was paralyzed with terror, sitting rigidly in place without moving at all.

Tears streaming down his face, the driver scrambled and stumbled toward Master Qian, crying out, "Master! Master..."

He stumbled, ran a couple of steps after getting up, and tripped, landing right in front of Master Qian.

The giant boulders arrived in the blink of an eye.

The master and servant exchanged one look, burst into tears, and huddled together to await their doom.

The tumbling rocks thundered past, rolling right behind their right side and right past their left front. Splintered gravel battered their bodies. The deafening roar continued for a long time before finally dying away.

The two men, eyes squeezed shut, felt no pain. They opened their eyes with trembling hearts, only to discover that giant boulders had rolled all around them—in front and behind. Yet the exact spot where they cowered was completely free of large rocks, save for the shattered pebbles that had rained down entirely upon the driver.

Master Qian's lips quivered, unable to speak for a long time. Suddenly remembering something, he hurriedly fumbled for the pouch at his waist.

Pulling open the drawstring, he saw that of the two peace talismans inside, one was radiant with flowing light and scorching to the touch, while the other had grown dim in color, its very lines blurred and faded.

Master Qian immediately cinched the pouch tightly, clutched it to his chest, and bowed repeatedly in gratitude. "Divinities and Buddhas protect us, divinities and Buddhas protect us."

"Master, let's hurry away! What if there's another rockfall..."

Master Qian was terrified too and scrambled to his feet. Knowing that the peace talisman had worked filled him with a surge of strength, and he stood up with ease.

The master and servant supported each other as they hurried back.

Once they finally cleared that treacherous stretch of mountain road, the two collapsed onto the ground.

Having survived a catastrophe, they finally broke down and wept bitterly.

Master Qian was in no mood to think about his friend and brother-in-law now. His mind was entirely occupied by Pan Jun. Supported by the driver, he stumbled back home. Ignoring his disheveled appearance, he immediately summoned the steward. "Quick! Prepare a lavish red envelope with one hundred taels of silver and send someone to deliver it to Mount Sanqing immediately for the little Daoist priest Pan."

"Master, the city gates are about to close. To leave the city at this hour..."

Master Qian snapped, "They're about to close, but they haven't closed yet, have they? Hurry up and go, don't delay."

Just as the steward was about to leave, Master Qian called him back. "No, I must go myself. She saved my life after all! I must go and offer incense to the Patriarchs of Sanqing. You send someone ahead with the money first, but don't say anything else. Wait until tomorrow when I go to Mount Sanqing in person to explain."

The steward gave a helpless assent. Just as he was about to step out, another servant came running inside. "Master, Young Master Sun from the Sun family is here."

The Sun family had come to announce a passing. Master Qian's brother-in-law had ultimately failed to wait for his wife's brother and had passed away today during the eighth double-hour.

At that exact hour, Master Qian had just set out toward Sun Family Village.

Hearing this, Master Qian burst into loud wailing. It was a near miss—their household had almost been forced to hold two funerals back-to-back.

Unable to make the trip to Mount Sanqing, Master Qian still had to attend the mourning rituals at Sun Family Village. He changed his orders once more, instructing the steward to personally deliver the money to Mount Sanqing bright and early the next morning. "Tell little Daoist priest Pan that as soon as I finish dealing with these matters, I will visit the mountain to pay my respects. Tell her she must wait for me—she must wait!"

Cold sweat beaded on the steward's forehead as he repeatedly agreed.

The city gates were already closed; nobody could leave now anyway, so the condolence visit would have to wait until tomorrow.

The Qian family summoned a doctor to examine Master Qian's injuries. After a thorough checkup, aside from a few shallow scratches on the back of his hand and bruised knees, there was not a scratch on his body.

Even the face that had been struck by the pebble earlier only bore a small bruise and hadn't even swelled up.

The driver, however, was in a rather miserable state. Not only did he have numerous abrasions and a fractured tailbone, but two of his ribs were also broken. Fortunately, his internal organs were untouched, and he would recover after a good period of recuperation.

Filled with gratitude that the driver hadn't fled but had instead rushed back to help him, Master Qian not only covered all medical expenses and bestowed a generous reward, but also appointed him as his personal, exclusive carriage driver.

Pan Jun remained completely oblivious to all of this. Darkness had fallen, and they were still climbing the mountain.

Returning to Mount Sanqing under the cover of night, there was no time left for any recreational activities. Everyone simply washed up in a crisp, efficient manner and went straight to sleep.

Early the next morning, Wang Feiyin sorted through the medicinal herbs they had brought back, matched them with the herbs growing on the mountain, and compiled three sets of herbal remedies.

He handed the packages to Xuanmiao. "Brew these and have them soak in them."

Xuanmiao acknowledged the instruction and summoned the three disciples to the alchemy room.

Half of the medicinal ingredients in the alchemy room had already been sold, leaving the room noticeably emptier than before.

Tao Ji carried wooden batons and tubs for them, lining three of them up in a row, with four alchemy furnaces standing nearby.

Xuanmiao placed the herbal packages into three of the alchemy furnaces and instructed the girls to fetch water, gather firewood, and stoke the fires.

"Today, I will teach you how to brew the body-tempering medicine, the precautions to take during a medicinal bath, and the cultivation techniques you can practice while soaking."

Because of differing constitutions, each person's medicinal bath varied, and the meridians that needed to be cleared were also unique to each individual.

"Fifth Junior Sister has already achieved inner vision, so the meridians you need to clear and expand can be easily located to guide the medicinal potency for impact. Therefore, the most arduous part for you will be enduring the pain. As long as you can withstand the agony in your body and meridians, the benefits of the medicinal bath will reach their absolute maximum."

Xuanmiao turned her head toward Miaozhen and Miaohe. "As for the two of you, the greatest difficulty lies in guiding the medicinal potency into your bodies, following the cultivation method I teach to impact your meridians and temper your muscles and flesh."

The three of them swallowed hard in unison and asked, "Does it hurt very much?"

Xuanmiao nodded solemnly. "It hurts a great deal, but the results will be twice the effort with half the work."

Otherwise, why would they have spent so much money buying herbs for them?

Each brewed their own medicinal ingredients. Pan Jun opened her herbal package and, following Xuanmiao's instructions, rinsed them in water first before soaking them.

After letting them steep for a full fifteen minutes, she fished them out to drain, and then placed the steeped herbs into the large alchemy furnace.

Mount Sanqing lacked many things, but it certainly never lacked alchemy furnaces of all shapes and sizes.

They had a dedicated room for storing various sizes of alchemy furnaces, appropriately named the Furnace Room.

It was said that every single cauldron inside had been custom-ordered from the outside and carried up the mountain piece by piece on the back of her unseen eldest martial nephew.

Therefore, despite Pan Jun being the newest arrival and firmly choosing talismans as her primary discipline upon arrival, not a single matching cauldron was missing from her allotment.

Large, medium, and small—she could refine whatever pills she desired.

Wang Feiyin had even thoughtfully carved her name onto her alchemy furnaces.

In Wang Feiyin's own words: "I hope that one day, the alchemy furnaces of our Mount Sanqing disciples can be hung high before the Venerable Heavenly Lord of Dao and Virtue in every Daoist temple."

Pan Jun nodded earnestly. "Don't worry, Senior Brother, I will definitely work hard."

Wang Feiyin didn't place his hopes on her, though; his expectations rested on Tao Ji and Miaohe.

Right now, Pan Jun was using her largest cauldron to boil the medicine.

Following Xuanmiao's instructions, she boiled two buckets of water down to one and a half buckets, poured it out into the wooden bathing tub, and waited for it to cool to a certain temperature before stepping in.

The three of them stood before their respective batons, watching the swirling steam rising from the water, swallowing nervously.

Xuanmiao stood behind them and asked, "Have you memorized the cultivation techniques we just taught you to circulate?"

All three nodded together.

"Then get in."

Pan Jun let out a breath, closed her eyes, opened them, gritted her teeth, stripped off her clothes, and stepped across the rim. *Huh? Aside from being a bit scalding, there's no other problem.*

Pan Jun sat down on the small bamboo stool inside, crossed her legs, and patted the water involuntarily as she said, "Fourth Senior Sister, it's not uncomfortable at all."

Xuanmiao glanced at her, and seeing that all three had settled inside, she smiled slightly. "It's good that it's not uncomfortable. Now begin practicing your respective cultivation methods according to what I taught you just moments ago."

Pan Jun regulated her breath and circulated her cultivation technique. Only then did she feel the abundant medicinal potency surrounding her entire body.

The medicinal potency was drawn by the technique into her body, causing a prickling sensation on her skin. When she guided the medicinal potency to impact her meridians, the surging medicinal power rushed into her channels like a flash flood, shoving away all the debris blocking their path and forcing the narrow meridians open...

Pan Jun could not help letting out a sharp hiss. Sweat beaded on her forehead, but she endured the pain and pressed on.

Xuanmiao watched with satisfaction and turned to look at the other two. Though they lacked inner vision, they were also running their techniques and already feeling the pain.

Yet unlike Pan Jun, who could witness her own meridian transformations, they could not see the changes inside their bodies. Thus, whenever the pain peaked, they instinctively slowed down their circulation to ease the suffering.

As for Pan Jun—because she could see it clearly, the sense of accomplishment brought by cleansing her meridians caused her tolerance for pain to skyrocket. Consequently, not only did her circulation speed not slow down, but it actually accelerated.

Beyond the meridians, Pan Jun could also observe how the medicinal power battered her muscles after clearing the channels. She felt her long-frail muscles and flesh gradually softening and growing robust under the impact and soothing influence of the medicine...