20: Lord, hello to you

The shadow in the alley was a natural observation post.

Lu Yuan's figure completely merged into it, his Aura suppressed to the extreme.

For the first time, his gaze completely shifted from his prey, Zhao Si, and fixed on the mysterious female Cultivator.

He had to scan her.

Even if the cost was high.

Unidentified threats were the biggest risk variable in the trading model, enough to collapse even the most perfect arbitrage strategy.

His mind stirred slightly.

On the Exchange's light screen in his Sea of Consciousness, a faint golden data stream silently extended, crossing the crowd and locking onto the black cloak.

The next instant, Lu Yuan felt a slight sting in his brain.

The data stream hit an invisible wall, made of pure void, and dissipated.

A line of cold, crimson text slowly appeared on the Exchange panel.

Warning: Target is shielded by an Advanced Karma Law Magical Artifact. Scan failed.

Forced scanning will alert the target and require an estimated payment of 100 or more karma points as computing cost.

Lu Yuan's pupils suddenly constricted.

That ominous premonition was confirmed most directly at this moment.

This woman was not only professional but also had an unfathomable background.

Should he act directly and snatch the manual from under her nose?

This option was crossed out.

The risk was too high, almost suicidal.

Lu Yuan's gaze shifted between the three again, and in his mind, an invisible game board of strategy quickly formed.

Zhao Si was the "prey."

The female Cultivator was the "mantis stalking the cicada."

He himself could no longer be the "slingshot man" behind the mantis.

He had to be the one... to overturn the chessboard.

He observed quietly.

The female Cultivator had excellent patience; she allowed the crowd to surge, her Aura showing no fluctuations.

She was waiting.

Waiting for Zhao Si, this Loose Cultivator greedy for a bargain, to enter the more secluded and deserted path leading to the back door of the Flowing Cloud Market to save a few Spirit Stones.

That was her pre-set hunting ground.

Lu Yuan's finger flicked lightly in his sleeve.

He no longer looked at the two.

He opened the "Event Trading" section of the Great Dao Options Exchange.

A dazzling array of future possibilities were displayed like goods on a shelf.

One incense stick later, the Artifact Refining workshop in the East District of the Flowing Cloud Market will lose control of its furnace fire. Price: 3 karma points.

Half an hour later, Butcher Zhang's wife will brawl with Tailor Li in the street. Price: 0.01 karma points.

These were all cheap, insignificant "market fluctuations."

Lu Yuan's gaze skipped directly to the bottom, to the dark red entries marked "High Risk, High Impact."

He found what he wanted.

High-Value Event Option: The Flowing Cloud Market patrol guard, having received false intelligence of a 'demonic Cultivator sighting,' will blockade and forcibly clear West Street indiscriminately in half an hour.

Purchase Price: 20 karma points.

Twenty karma points were enough to acquire a top-tier defensive Magical Artifact.

But using it to leverage a target coveted even by a Golden Core Cultivator and to probe an unfathomable threat—this "risk investment" had a sufficiently high return.

Lu Yuan did not hesitate in the slightest.

His capital, which had surged due to the leveraged acquisition, now became the chips to leverage a larger game.

Purchase successful.

Having done all this, he looked up again at the alley entrance.

In his eyes, that unique, all-seeing indifference of a trader reappeared.

What he bought was not chaos.

It was certainty... Half an hour, neither long nor short.

Zhao Si finally reached an agreement with the stall owner on the price of the last "Blade Talisman," contentedly tucked a few yellow papers into his bosom, hummed a tuneless ditty, and limped towards the secluded path.

The female Cultivator's figure followed silently, like a ghost.

Everything was unfolding according to her script.

But just as Zhao Si stepped halfway into the path's entrance...

Dong—dong—dong—

Three urgent and dull bell tolls came without warning from the watchtower in the center of the Flowing Cloud Market.

This was the highest level of alert!

Immediately after, the ground began to shake.

Curfew! Full street curfew!

A demonic Cultivator has infiltrated! Everyone, do not move, squat down with your hands over your heads!

Uniform shouts, accompanied by the clang of heavy armor hitting the ground, came simultaneously from both ends of the street.

Large numbers of Flowing Cloud Market guards, clad in standardized armor and wielding Spell-breaking crossbows, poured in like a tide, aggressive and formidable, pushing anyone in their way and smashing anything they encountered.

The order of the entire street collapsed completely within three breaths.

Screams, cries, and the guards' shouts mingled together, turning into a boiling pot of porridge.

Zhao Si had never seen such a scene.

The slickness on his face was replaced by terror; he scurried away, head in hands, no longer caring about taking any secluded path, directly merging into the scattering crowd, wanting to escape this place of trouble.

His flight completely disrupted all of the female Cultivator's arrangements.

In the shadows, Lu Yuan could clearly sense a very subtle fluctuation of irritation in the female Cultivator's Aura, caused by her disrupted plan.

She was forced to act early.

An almost imperceptible dark light shot out from the female Cultivator's sleeve, striking Zhao Si's ankle.

Zhao Si screamed and fell to the ground.

Before he could react, the female Cultivator's figure, like a weightless falling leaf, moved through the chaotic crowd in a few leaps and bounds, closing in on him and striking his chest with a palm.

Although Zhao Si was a Loose Cultivator, he had some of the ruthlessness of a desperado.

At the critical moment of life and death, he flung out a stack of Talismans from his Storage Pouch, activating all of them regardless of what they were!

Fireballs, ice cones, and wind blades exploded in the confined space.

The female Cultivator snorted coldly, flicked her cloak, and actually blocked all the low-level Spells.

But she was also delayed for a moment.

Just in that instant of struggle, an ancient manual wrapped in beast hide flew out of Zhao Si's embrace, arcing through the air.

Everyone's attention was on the guards and the small-scale skirmish.

No one noticed this inconspicuous "miscellaneous item."

Except for Lu Yuan.

He silently thought, "Exercise."

The micro option he had purchased, worth only 0.1 karma points, took effect.

Call option executed: liu xuan's manual of the dao of alchemy will most likely fall into a beggar's broken bowl three zhang ahead.

The next moment, the angle of the manual's tumble in the air showed an extremely strange, tiny deviation that defied physical inertia.

It silently dropped into the chipped, broken bowl in front of an old beggar who was curled up in the corner, trembling.

A soft "clang" was drowned out by the endless clamor.

At the same time...

Stop! Why are you running?!

A Cultivator from the guard squad was waving a halberd, driving away the obstructing crowd.

Lu Yuan's figure was "just" among them.

He had a perfectly timed look of panic on his face, his steps faltering, as if pushed by someone behind him; he stumbled and lunged towards the beggar.

As his body was about to touch the wall, his hand, in a very natural posture, braced itself in the beggar's broken bowl.

When he stood up again, the beast-hide manual had disappeared.

He didn't even look back, but followed the crowd, being "driven" by the guards, running out of the Flowing Cloud Market.

The entire process was smooth and seamless, without a trace.

He succeeded.

The fisherman profited.

Lu Yuan's figure quickly disappeared at the Flowing Cloud Market's exit, merging into the deepening twilight.

He was ready to immediately go to the City Lord's Mansion to complete the transaction with Chen Changqing.

But just as he stepped out of the Flowing Cloud Market's boundary for the very last time...

A clear, emotionless female voice, without any warning, directly sounded deep within his Sea of Consciousness.

The voice ignored the barrier of Divine Sense.

Scribe of the Heavenly Secret Pavilion, why act so dishonorably?

The Pavilion Master asked me to convey his regards to you.

Lu Yuan's steps suddenly stiffened.

A chill, more biting than any before, shot from his tailbone to the crown of his head.

All the blood in his body seemed to freeze completely at this moment.