40: I, the rule maker

After completing the two-way trade with Lin Fan and Su Qing, Lu Yuan's accumulated karma points profit finally touched a hidden threshold.

In his mind, the cold, emotionless mechanical voice changed for the first time.

It carried a sense of sluggishness, like a program upgrade.

Accumulated profit has reached one thousand karma points... Seat authority upgraded.

Current Seat: Institution.

The translucent light screen unfolded silently before him.

Above the familiar Exchange interface, a new, flickering pale golden button appeared.

New function unlocked: Market Maker.

Authority description: Can consume karma points, define, create, and anonymously issue new short-term Karma contracts to targets within a specific range.

Lu Yuan looked at that line of description.

His expression didn't change, but a surging tide rose in his eyes.

If before he was merely a speculator who could see market inside information in advance, an arbitrageur parasitic on the rules.

Then from now on.

He possessed the qualification to define his own rules and print his own 'stocks'.

He became the dealer.

Lu Yuan decided to test this new function immediately.

He needed a target that was simple enough, controllable enough, and whose outcome would not trigger any chain reactions.

His gaze fell on the Spirit Stone allowance that Outer Sect Disciples relied on for their monthly livelihood.

Life in the Outer Sect was hard and monotonous.

Three Low-Grade Spirit Stones each month were the only hope for everyone's cultivation.

The person responsible for distributing these Spirit Stones was a steward surnamed Liu in the Outer Sect.

Through several days of observation, Lu Yuan had long confirmed that this Steward Liu would deduct one-tenth from the allowance of newly promoted Disciples every month.

Not much.

But enough to be disgusting.

A perfect test subject.

Lu Yuan returned to the simple dwelling allocated by the Sect, which barely allowed him to live.

He sat down cross-legged.

His consciousness sank into the Exchange, and his fingertip tapped the golden [Market Maker] button.

A brand new editing interface popped up.

Lu Yuan consumed ten karma points.

He wrote a few words in the 'Underlying' column of the contract.

Underlying: In the weed patch on the south slope of the back mountain, three days later, a unique Spiritual Plant named 'Illusion Heart Plant' will be discovered, possessing slight hallucinogenic and calming effects.

Illusion Heart Plant.

A name he had just fabricated.

A Spiritual Plant that didn't exist in this world.

Then, he set the 'call option' for this contract and anonymously pushed it to several Outer Sect Disciples who had been most severely oppressed by Steward Liu and were already resentful.

Push completed.

Lu Yuan did not stop; he switched back to his familiar Exchange interface and found an already existing option target related to Steward Liu.

He himself heavily bought a 'put option' for 'Outer Sect Steward Liu Quan, ruined by greed within three days'.

After doing all this, Lu Yuan got up and left the room.

The gears of Karma had begun to turn.

But it still needed an initial push from the physical world.

He went to the Sect's medicinal field and exchanged a few insignificant contribution points for some of the most common, worthless Spiritual Plants.

Using his already well-versed knowledge of pharmacology, he mixed the juices of these Spiritual Plants in specific proportions and repeatedly catalyzed them with his weak Spiritual Qi.

One by one, 'pseudo-Illusion Heart Plants' with slight hallucinogenic effects and a truly exotic fragrance were born in his hands.

Late at night, when all was quiet.

He quietly planted these Spiritual Plants in the weed patch he had already selected on the south slope of the back mountain.

Time passed day by day.

The Disciples who received the anonymous contract initially thought it was an illusion, a Heart Demon at play.

But when all three received the same information in their minds, an absurd thought of 'better safe than sorry' began to grow wildly within them.

On the third day.

With a glimmer of hope, they agreed to go to the south slope of the back mountain.

When they actually found those few 'Illusion Heart Plants' emitting an exotic fragrance and having a peculiar shape in that weed patch, they were almost ecstatic.

They immediately reported the matter.

The news quickly reached Steward Liu's ears.

A new Spiritual Plant, never recorded in ancient texts, was discovered in the back mountain?

Steward Liu's first reaction was not to celebrate for the Sect, but to claim it for himself.

He thought this was his great Opportunity.

Using his authority, he reprimanded the Disciples who discovered the Spiritual Plant, forcibly confiscated the 'Illusion Heart Plants,' and prepared to hide them privately.

He did not notice.

Behind him, an Elder from the Sect's Enforcement Hall, accompanied by several Disciples, was watching him with cold expressions.

Those Disciples were the ones who had first discovered the Spiritual Plant.

Caught red-handed.

That night.

Lu Yuan not only recovered the portion of Spirit Stone allowance that had been withheld from him, but a cold, crisp settlement notification also sounded on his Exchange interface.

Contract settlement complete.

'Liu Quan ruined by greed' put option settled, profit of three hundred karma points.

Lu Yuan looked at the surging karma points, with not much expression on his face.

A perfect, zero-risk arbitrage.

He pushed open the window and looked towards the depths of Qingyun Sect.

That continuous expanse of palaces shrouded in mist.

As far as his eyes could see, the outline of the mountain-protecting array slowly circulated in the night in a way invisible to the naked eye, absorbing and exhaling Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi.

Just then.

Lu Yuan suddenly felt an extremely slight hum from the Exchange in his mind.

The frequency of this hum... actually resonated for a moment with a certain deep rhythm of the distant, massive mountain-protecting array.

Lu Yuan's eyes narrowed.

The first step in acquiring this company seemed to have yielded some more interesting discoveries than expected.