4: Twelve Hours, Karma and Life

The warmth brought by the three Medicinal Pills still flowed through his Dantian and his limbs.

This sense of reassurance, of the fire of life being refueled, was enough to make anyone who had struggled back from the brink of death revel in it.

However, at this moment, the warm current within Lu Yuan's body rapidly solidified into a block of cold lead, plummeting straight into his abdomen.

High-Value Target: In three months, the 'nine revolutions soul returning grass' will appear in Black Wind Abyss.

Effect: Perfectly repairs the Dao Foundation.

Current Observers: 3 (all are Golden Core Stage).

Golden Core Stage.

These three words were not a mountain, but the heavens.

It was an insurmountable sky, lying between him and that newly emerged Spiritual Plant.

He was now just a cripple whose Spiritual Qi had barely recovered, and whose cultivation had fallen to the Qi Refining Sixth Layer.

The gap between Qi Refining and Golden Core was a chasm in the level of life.

A single thought, a single breath from them, could make him perish in both body and soul.

To seize an Opportunity from three such beings, the very notion was a joke.

Lu Yuan forced himself to calm down.

This was a survival instinct honed over years of being a Loose Cultivator, living on the edge of a blade.

The more desperate the situation, the more his mind had to be like ice.

His gaze returned to the light screen, carefully studying the options information.

'nine revolutions soul returning grass' Call Option, Price: 50 Karma points.

Fifty points.

His entire net worth was only 5.1 points remaining.

Yet he dared to dream of buying the most expensive stock on the Exchange.

He didn't even have the qualifications to enter.

"How do I lower the option price?"

Lu Yuan asked in his mind.

The option price is determined by the target's value, expiration time, market volatility, and intensity of competition.

Suggestion: Reducing the intensity of competition or increasing the certainty of the event can effectively lower the premium.

The Exchange's prompt was emotionless, yet it pointed him to the only path forward.

Reduce the intensity of competition.

Translated, that meant making the three Golden Core Stage observers disappear or lose interest in this transaction.

Increase the certainty of the event.

Translated, that meant ensuring this grass must, and can only, fall into his hands.

Lu Yuan's eyes changed.

The emotions of surviving a disaster completely evaporated, replaced by the focused, impersonal attention of a trader locking onto a target asset.

He couldn't be a treasure hunter passively waiting for an Opportunity.

He had to become an active liquidator, a "market maker" manipulating the market.

"Conduct preliminary due diligence on the three Golden Core Stage competitors."

He gave the command.

This investigation will consume 1 Karma point. Confirm?

"Confirm."

Information was his only weapon.

On the light screen, the number 5.1 flickered, changing to 4.1.

Immediately, three codes wrapped in halos appeared.

Code: Medicine Obsessive. Permanent sphere of influence: Danyang City.

Code: Love Fool. Permanent sphere of influence: Qian Family of Tianfeng City.

Code: Sword Demon. Permanent sphere of influence: Bloody Forbidden Ground.

Beneath each code, there was only a single, minimalist annotation.

But this was enough.

An Alchemist obsessed with Medicinal Pills? A powerful family member troubled by love? A battle maniac cultivating in a Forbidden Ground?

Vague customer profiles began to form in Lu Yuan's mind.

Each of them was a target he would need to analyze, strategize against, and "short" with all his cunning over the next three months.

Just then, a terrifying Spiritual Pressure descended without warning, fiercely gripping the entire area around Black Wind Cliff.

The mountains and forests fell silent.

Spiritual Qi surged wildly.

In the cave where Lu Yuan was hidden, broken stones rattled down, and his Divine Soul violently swayed under this pressure, threatening to extinguish at any moment.

Foundation Establishment Stage!

And it was Late Foundation Establishment Stage!

At the same instant, a bloody warning flashed frantically across the light screen before his eyes.

Warning: High-threat target 'Zhao Tian' (Late Foundation Establishment Stage) has arrived at the scene.

He's here!

Li Mo's uncle, Qingyun Sect's outer sect deacon, Zhao Tian.

He arrived so quickly!

"Activate 'Real-time News' and lock onto target Zhao Tian."

Lu Yuan lowered his voice, consuming 0.1 Karma points.

The light screen's image shifted.

In the mirror, a middle-aged man with a sinister face, wearing a Qingyun Sect deacon's robe, was suspended above Li Mo's corpse.

He was Zhao Tian.

Zhao Tian landed, squatted down, and carefully examined the corpse.

He ignored the traces of animal gnawing, his fingers lightly pressing on Li Mo's twisted neck.

A faint sound of bone dislocation emanated.

He then flipped open Li Mo's eyelids, scrutinizing his pupils.

Zhao Tian's brows furrowed, and a flicker of confusion passed through his eyes.

The cause of death seemed absurd, like a fatal fall.

But he didn't believe it.

No matter how useless Li Mo was, he was still Qi Refining Seventh Layer; he wouldn't be scared to death by ordinary beasts.

Zhao Tian's gaze swept around, finally settling on the direction Lu Yuan had disappeared, his eyes filled with a greed that almost spilled out of the light screen.

A secret that could cause a Qi Refining Seventh Layer Cultivator to die so strangely.

Something his nephew would pursue to this extent.

This was definitely not an accident.

Behind this, there must be a huge Opportunity hidden.

The next moment, Zhao Tian took out a yellowed Talisman from his Storage Pouch.

He bit his fingertip, dabbed on a drop of essence blood, and softly chanted a spell.

"Thousand Mile Tracking!"

The Talisman ignited without fire, turning into green smoke that merged into Li Mo's corpse.

Immediately after, a red Karma thread, invisible to Mortal eyes and even to the Divine Sense of ordinary Cultivators, slowly extended from the corpse, trembling as it pointed in the general direction where Lu Yuan was hidden.

Warning: You have been locked onto by a Karma-type secret art.

Source of Lock: Zhao Tian.

Effect of Secret Art: The opponent will precisely locate your position within twelve hours.

Twelve hours!

The light in Lu Yuan's eyes contracted to its most dangerous point.

His life-or-death distance from a Late Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator was mercilessly compressed to within twelve hours by this secret art.

Run?

How could a Qi Refining Sixth Layer Cultivator escape the pursuit of a Late Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator?

Fight head-on?

That was suicide.

This invisible red Karma thread was a lit fuse, with the other end tied to himself.

The shadow of death loomed once more.

But this time, Lu Yuan showed no panic.

He forcibly shielded himself from the chilling pressure, immersing his entire mind in the Great Dao Options Exchange.

He was not a Cultivator who only knew how to run.

He was a trader.

Since it was a transaction, there was no dead end that couldn't be solved, only "financial tools" that couldn't be found.

He began frantically scanning the Exchange's interface, searching for any tradable options related to "Zhao Tian," "tracking," and "Karma."

He had to find a way to sever this thread before he was caught.

Or... perfectly transfer this deadly "risk."