According to the information he had devoured and digested, the black pottery jar contained a kind of peach gum.
Duan Rong returned to Pan Yong’s cave, holding the small black pottery jar, which was only the size of a fist.
He stood at the edge of the cliff at the cave entrance, suddenly turned his hand, and a broken chain was in his grasp. With a gentle flick, he threw the broken chain into the mist-filled valley.
Duan Rong entered Pan Yong’s cave.
Pan Yong’s corpse had been cleared out, but the cave still reeked heavily of blood. Duan Rong walked slowly to the table where a copper mirror stood, and in the basin of water, the surface had already calmed, Pan Yong’s face floating eerily above it, lifelike...
With just a glance, Duan Rong moved to the corner and uncovered a stone pot.
At the cave entrance, Duan Rong piled up dry wood and melted the peach gum in the stone pot...
About half an hour later, Duan Rong stood in front of the copper mirror inside the cave. In the wooden basin beside him, there was now only a basin of bloody water, with Pan Yong’s face no longer visible.
In the copper mirror, the face was exactly Pan Yong’s, with eyes emitting an inquisitive cold light.
While in Xianggu County, Duan Rong had devoured the Artifact Spirit from Fang Jingbao’s ring at Weiyang Square, thus acquiring the abnormal technique of the Disguise Technique.
Using the Disguise Technique, and now with Pan Yong’s face, he was the spitting image of living disguise, a false corpse brought back to life.
At this moment, a series of bone-crackling sounds erupted from inside Duan Rong’s body.
In just the span of a breath, his stature suddenly shrank by a half-head.
Since Pan Yong was slightly shorter, Duan Rong used the Bone Shrinking Technique to reduce his body by half a head.
Looking at the face of Pan Yong in the copper mirror, which seemed like it had traversed time, Duan Rong felt a chill wash over him. In a daze, it felt as though he was in a spectral world, a ghost that painted on a face to disguise itself.
With a cloth bag tied to his waist, Pan Yong left the cave, glanced up at the sky—the night was not yet falling; there was still plenty of time. He suddenly smiled eerily and walked along the cliff wall towards the iron chain.
Pan Yong slid down the cableway, his figure vanishing into the dense white fog.
He arrived at the mountain head of the Lower Courtyard and then walked along the familiar mountain path into the Lower Courtyard.
Pan Yong went straight to Old Qin’s room.
As soon as Pan Yong stepped inside, he heard Old Qin coughing there. After coughing a few times and drinking several sips of strong tea, the coughing subsided.
Old Qin looked up and saw Pan Yong enter.
Pan Yong said, "Old Qin, as soon as the medication was reduced, the old cough started up again?"
Old Qin sighed and said, "Just bracing myself. Who knows if these old bones will last until Master Shang returns?"
Pan Yong said, "Master Shang left so suddenly; we can only hope he returns soon..."
As Pan Yong spoke, his tone carried a hint of melancholy.
Old Qin said, "What brings you here?"
Pan Yong smiled and said, "Well, I was hoping to make a trip to Divine Cloud Prefecture. With the journey back and forth, it will take about ten days."
Old Qin frowned.
According to regulations, a registered disciple must have a steward’s personally signed note to leave the mountain, which they would submit at the Lower Courtyard for approval.
However, with Shang Xiangyu absent now...
If they followed the rules, Pan Yong wouldn’t be able to leave the mountain.
But Old Qin didn’t want to turn Pan Yong away either. After all, he needed Pan Yong for his medicine, and it would not bode well to offend him.
After a brief consideration, Old Qin looked at Pan Yong and said, "Since Master Shang isn’t here, let’s make an exception this time."