81: Defaulters will be cleared

Inside the war puppet's chest cavity, a dull roar continued for more than ten breaths.

The sound was not like metal smelting.

It was more like chewing the bones of an enemy, grinding an unwilling soul.

Streaks of black Qi, invisible to the naked eye, seeped out from the gaps of the furnace, only to be violently drawn back in as they appeared, circulating repeatedly, as if undergoing some extreme compression.

Yun Yao huddled behind a distant rock, the pain in her body far less than the chill in her Dao Heart at this moment.

She watched Lu Yuan's back.

The man stood there quietly, as if admiring a fireworks display unrelated to him, or perhaps waiting for a pre-ordered meal about to be served.

His actions in processing the Gu Master's corpse showed no hesitation.

It wasn't a desecration of the dead, because desecration itself still carried emotion.

But he had none.

It was a more thorough indifference, the ultimate utilization of a person, completely objectified from flesh and blood to concept.

Finally, the roaring stopped.

The war puppet's chest cavity returned to absolute silence.

In Lu Yuan's Sea of Consciousness, the light screen of the Great Dao Options Exchange unfolded silently, with a line of cold golden text imprinted upon it.

“Myriad Gu Furnace” first refinement completed.

Detecting high-value Karma entanglements, high-concentration Karma, shattered Laws... Final precipitation is underway.

In the center of the light screen, a virtual crystalline container, constructed from billions of runes, condensed out of thin air.

A drop of liquid slowly formed in the center of the container.

Pitch black.

Pure pitch black; it reflected no light, was opaque, like a dark singularity that had existed since the birth of the Universe, capable of devouring all space and time.

Product Name: Karmic Poison (Pseudo)

Type: Conceptual Financial Weapon / One-time Consumable

Function: When used on a single target, it can forcibly pollute their Karma chain, causing the target's “credit” to collapse within a future period, highly likely triggering “default events,” such as: Cultivation Technique Qi Deviation, Medicinal Pill refinement failure, Lifebound Treasure backlash, encountering a sworn enemy's pursuit, etc.

Note 1: This poison ignores all physical defenses and Divine Soul barriers, acting directly on the Law level.

Note 2: Raw materials are scarce; it requires hunting individuals containing vast Karmic Karma or bearing “Heavenly Dao debts” to refine.

Lu Yuan scrutinized this report, his eyes as still as an ancient well.

He calmly assessed the applicable scenarios, risk-reward ratio, and... production cost of this “financial weapon.”

Very powerful.

But, unsustainable.

Gu Masters, such perfect “raw materials” bearing immense Karmic Karma, are rare and hard to come by.

This meant that this drop of Karmic Poison was his only, and most terrifying, trump card at the moment.

It was a unique ace, obtained in Exchange for a top-tier asset.

His gaze moved across the light screen, finally settling on the very end of the output report.

There was also a line of small text there.

By-product: Life Essence x 1 drop.

Function: Contains pure Origin power of life, usable for repairing Dao injuries, promoting spiritual plant growth, and compensating for Lifespan loss.

Next to the all-devouring darkness of the Karmic Poison, a drop of emerald green liquid quietly floated, emitting a soft glow that soothed the Divine Soul.

One black, one green; one life, one death.

Like the pointers representing sharp drops and surges on an Exchange's K-line chart, they formed a cold and eerie balance.

Lu Yuan's mind, like a precise, emotionless instrument, began to calculate.

The raw material problem for Karmic Poison must be solved.

This Burial God Abyss is filled with death, curses, and resentment; theoretically, there are large quantities of “low-quality raw materials” that can be refined.

But he needed a pathfinder.

A pawn capable of delving into forbidden zones that even Golden Core Cultivators shy away from, to seek, lure, and even cultivate these “raw materials.”

At the same time, he also needed a “culture medium,” a tool that could “accelerate” and “concentrate value” in low-quality raw materials.

His gaze pierced through the cold air and landed on Yun Yao.

This “non-performing asset” he had just forcibly acquired.

It seemed... it was time to begin the first “debt restructuring.”

Just then, the corner of Lu Yuan's eye caught an extremely subtle anomaly.

The emerald green Life Essence in his Sea of Consciousness actually produced an extremely faint Law resonance with Yun Yao's body behind the rock.

The source of the resonance was not Yun Yao herself.

Rather, it was the long-dormant exotic treasure within her body — the Hundred Flowers Illustrated Record.

A new, even crazy, idea formed in Lu Yuan's mind.

Perhaps the value of this “non-performing asset” was far greater than he had initially assessed.

He refocused his attention on the pitch-black Karmic Poison.

He wanted to engrave every detail of this weapon into his Divine Soul.

As his Divine Sense approached that ultimate darkness infinitely, he suddenly “saw” something that did not belong to this Universe.

At the deepest part of the chaotic chain woven from countless Karma and curse Laws, a more ancient, more domineering Law aura lurked.

That aura was cold, emotionless, and supreme.

It represented neither creation nor destruction.

It represented only an absolute, unchallengeable order.

— Defaulters, zeroed out.

This aura was identical in Origin to the bronze palace, the Great Dao Options Exchange, in his Sea of Consciousness.