Chapter 18: Xuanji

"Gu Ice Cicada?"

Pan Yu explained, "I read about it in an ancient book. The Gu Ice Cicada is said to be carved from a strange stone from beyond the heavens. It is moist and jade-like within, yet exquisitely beautiful on the outside. However, anyone who possesses this object will meet with great disaster. Legend has it that Southern Border shamans placed a Gu curse upon it. It was lost long ago; I never expected someone would just discard it in a paddy field."

Xu Xian was momentarily speechless. "You really are all-knowing, aren't you?"

"I only know what I know!" Pan Yu said with a radiant smile. "It was just a coincidence. How did you know he had picked something up and taken it home?"

"I'll explain later. Hey, brother! Your family's illness was likely caused by that Ice Cicada."

The villager was half-skeptical, fearing the two were working together to scam him. Xu Xian added, "Is it true that you feel better the moment you leave your house, but feel unwell as soon as you're inside?"

"Yes, yes! I've walked over ten miles to get here, and I actually feel much better now."

"That's it. Get back quickly. Your family is still being poisoned by that Ice Cicada. Every moment you delay is another moment of danger."

The villager thanked them profusely and hurried away.

Watching the empty porch, the two finally breathed a sigh of relief. Pan Yu’s eyes, dark as polished lacquer, stared intently at Xu Xian. Xu Xian felt a bit uneasy. "Is there something on my face?"

"Alright, I'll tell you. The illness he had—I've heard of it. There's a type of stone that can emit invisible light, much like sunlight, except this light is extremely harmful to humans. The symptoms are exactly as that man described. I just happened to have heard of it, that's all."

Pan Yu took on a thoughtful expression. "That is truly unheard of, yet it sounds perfectly reasonable. I am simply curious, Hanwen, how did you know? In all the books I have read since childhood, I have never seen such a thing recorded." Her bright eyes remained fixed on Xu Xian.

Xu Xian felt a wave of helplessness. Why was it that other transmigrators could show off modern knowledge whenever they wanted, while he was subjected to such scrutiny? Facing someone like Pan Yu—a high-IQ youth with the confidence of "if it's in a book, I've read it" and incredibly sharp insight—any excuse he made felt full of holes.

"Fine, fine," Xu Xian said resignedly. "A Taoist who passed by my house when I was a child told me."

Pan Yu stared at him and blinked, her long eyelashes fluttering. Then she gave a long, drawn-out, "Oh..." as if she found the explanation barely acceptable.

Xu Xian finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Creak. As they were talking, the door opened. An old Squire walked out backward, bowing with folded hands, his face flushed with joy and his mouth full of thanks. It seemed he had achieved his goal. At the moment the door was being pulled shut, he even squeezed out one last "Thank you!" through the crack.

Xu Xian couldn't help but step forward to ask the old man, "Elder? Are you finished?"

"You're the one who's finished! Today is a day of great joy for me, great joy!" Though the Squire spoke as if scolding, there wasn't a hint of displeasure on his face; he was overflowing with happiness. Xu Xian tactfully asked, "May I ask where this joy comes from?"

It was as if the Squire had been waiting for someone to ask. Without needing further prompting, he immediately began to speak volubly. It turned out he had a young concubine who had recently become pregnant. For a man who had remained childless his whole life, this should have been a good thing, but the old man had worried it might not be possible at his age. He had come specifically to seek a divination: first, to see if the child was his own, and second, to see if it was a boy or a girl. As it turned out, both answers were exactly what he had hoped for. How could he not be thrilled about begetting a son late in life?

Xu Xian leaned his head against the doorframe weakly. This fortune-teller could not only act as a weather satellite but also provided paternity testing and X-ray services. Truly, they were an essential companion for home and travel!

"That Taoist Master had such a sage-like aura, with his white hair and a youthful complexion—he is clearly an enlightened master. After his divination, he really proved to be an old immortal." The Squire spoke to his heart's content, praised the fortune-teller a few more times, and then departed in high spirits.

Xu Xian nudged Pan Yu with his elbow and whispered, "Hey, do you think that kid is really his? He's already so..." Xu Xian made a gesture indicating the man's advanced age.

Pan Yu shrugged. "How should I know?" Pan Yu ignored Xu Xian, whose gossip-loving soul had been awakened, and reached out to knock. But before her hand could touch the wood, the door opened on its own. A young girl with her hair in twin buns, dressed in Taoist robes, said with a giggle, "You must be the scholars from Jintian Academy! My master sent me to receive you." The girl was delicate and cute, her dark, lacquer-like eyes darting around restlessly.

Xu Xian sighed. "Anyone who could have a disciple like this must be either a man or a woman."

Pan Yu burst out laughing. "Who else could there be besides those two?"

Xu Xian said dismissively, "That's where you are uninformed, Mingyu. In the lands of the Southern Barbarians, there is a country where they can change men into women, but the transformation is incomplete, leaving them as neither man nor woman. They are called ladyboys."

Although Pan Yu’s male disguise relied on extremely exquisite illusions and she was indeed a woman, the words "neither man nor woman" still caused a knot of annoyance to rise in her heart for no reason.

Pan Yu’s footsteps faltered slightly as she laughed. "Boasting again. You've probably never even left the Jiang-Zhe region in your life; how would you know such things?"

"A Taoist who passed by my house when I was a child told me." Xu Xian's "panacea" explanation worked its magic again, and he silently vowed never to show off again.

Pan Yu joked, "Is your home a Taoist temple? You have Taoists passing by every day, and each one is apparently a poetic, literary genius with a photographic memory."

The two joked and chatted as they followed the girl into the temple. The girl turned and closed the door, and in an instant, all the clamor of the outside world was shut out. The small courtyard was as quiet and secluded as if it were deep within a mountain. There were lush bamboo groves, jagged rockeries, and a cool breeze. Xu Xian felt a vague sense of déjà vu, yet he couldn't quite place it.

After passing a cluster of rockeries and following a stone path through a bamboo forest, the little girl skipped ahead, humming an unknown nursery rhyme. The sound blended with the whistling of the wind through the bamboo, as if the sea of green were swaying along with her song.

Pan Yu frowned slightly and whispered to Xu Xian, "This courtyard cannot possibly be this large." From outside, she had seen the corners of the perimeter walls; it was just a small temple. Yet they had been walking for at least the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, and they still hadn't reached the end.

Xu Xian was still immersed in his earlier sensations and answered subconsciously, "If it is not an illusion, then it is real!"

His words seemed to touch upon something hidden. In an instant, the light of the Sun Star within his soul flared up. Just as he finished speaking, the little girl leading them cried out happily, "We're here, we're here!"

The girl's crisp voice interrupted their thoughts. They looked up and saw they had indeed reached the main hall.

"Master, Master, they're here! They've arrived!" The little Taoist ran inside to announce them, glancing back cautiously at Xu Xian before she entered.

Xu Xian and Pan Yu exchanged a smile, feeling that the trip was already worth it.

Stepping into the hall, they didn't find the "old immortal" with white hair and a youthful complexion described by the Squire. Instead, there was a female Taoist around twenty years old. She wore cloud-stepping boots and apricot-yellow robes; her dark hair was gathered in a bun held by a single wooden hairpin. Her simple attire possessed a natural, otherworldly grace, which, combined with her stunning beauty, gave her the air of a celestial maiden descended to earth.

Xu Xian thought to himself: Could this be the legendary "little secretary"?

The female Taoist led with a gentle smile and a bow. "This humble Taoist is Yu Xuanji. Greetings to you both. My title within my sect is Tianjizi."

He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but Xu Xian felt that although Yu Xuanji greeted them both, her gaze remained fixed on his face. He quickly laughed at his own vanity; with a peerless beauty like Pan Yu standing right there, what woman would focus on any other man?

Yu Xuanji announced her sect title, but seeing Xu Xian show no reaction other than a slight smile, she felt he was even more profound and inscrutable.

"Is the Taoist Master the head of this temple?" Pan Yu asked.

Xu Xian added curiously, "Didn't that elder say the master of this place was an old man?"

Yu Xuanji praised, "Young Master Pan has a keen eye." Then she turned to Xu Xian. "Young Master Xu, did you not just say 'if it is not an illusion, then it is real'? In this world of truth and illusion, who can truly tell the difference?"

Her clear, autumn-water eyes rippled with a gentle smile as they lingered on Xu Xian’s face, giving him the sensation of a spring breeze. Yet within that gentleness, there was something that prevented anyone from getting closer. It wasn't pride or coldness, nor was it a deep, unreadable nature—it was a wondrous state of being, like a crane among chickens, standing solitary and independent from the world.

Xu Xian had felt something similar from Pan Yu before, yet it was distinctly different. Pan Yu’s eyes were like a deep pool; though they seemed perfectly clear, one could never see what lay hidden within the depths.