16: You understand the whole nature better than me

The night was inky, swallowed by endless mountains.

At the end of the thousand stone steps leading to the mountain gate, the air seemed to solidify into scorching glass, each breath bringing a burning sting.

A dark figure arrived, treading on hellish crimson flames.

The flames were not ordinary fire; they did not burn grass or wood, nor scorch metal or stone, yet they seemed capable of igniting one's very soul.

The dark figure's body was gaunt, a tattered daoist robe fluttering in the fierce wind, and on his back, three palm-sized talismans floated without wind.

The talismans were a bizarre dark red, with runes on them like living things, like pulsating blood vessels, each undulation spreading a suffocating aura of destruction.

Innate Self-Immolation Talismans!

Quanxing's most vicious forbidden art in three hundred years, using one's own essence blood and soul as a guide; once ignited, it meant an endless, unyielding conflagration, burning all creation.

The one who came was none other than the Old Ancestor of Quanxing, Li Wujiu.

His turbid eyes were now sharp as knives, piercing through the last darkness before dawn, fixed intently on the lazy roadside stall below the steps.

A hoarse, cruel voice, like metal grating, broke the silence: "Hand over the System, or perish with this mountain."

The sound wave was like thunder, startling the roosting birds in the forest and causing stones to rattle.

However, the young man behind the stall seemed not to hear it.

Zhang Xuanyi unhurriedly cracked open the last melon seed, blew away the shell, and then lazily lifted his eyelids.

On the tattered cloth in front of him, scattered about were strange items like Fist Soul Candies and Memory Reels.

He casually spread out a yellowed piece of tattered cloth, on which was written in crooked handwriting: "All things can be traded, bear the karma yourself."

"Old Ancestor Li, still well, I see," Zhang Xuanyi's tone was as casual as if he were chatting with a neighbor. "Back then, you wrote a confession in front of the 'Monument of Self-Reproach' at Tianshi Mansion, with blood on your tongue, tears in every word. This junior still remembers that astonishingly brilliant closing line — 'The Dao is among the people.' Tsk tsk, I just wonder, was that sentence written for Tianshi Mansion, or for yourself?"

"Boom!"

Before he finished speaking, the three Self-Immolation Talismans behind Li Wujiu suddenly flared with intense light, illuminating him like a demon god from purgatory.

His pupils sharply contracted, and the surrounding temperature inexplicably rose several notches.

"Silence!"

With an angry roar, Li Wujiu's figure vanished from its spot like a ghost.

The next moment, he appeared in front of the stall, his emaciated hand, imbued with the power to burn the heavens, struck not at Zhang Xuanyi, but fiercely at the stone steps beneath his feet!

"Bang—"

The bluestone slabs, harder than steel, exploded like tofu, sending shards flying and smoke billowing.

Li Wujiu's objective was clear: to crush all verbal provocations with absolute power.

But just as he made his move, Zhang Xuanyi, instead of retreating, advanced, facing the blast that could almost melt steel, and gently, steadily placed the last photocopy yellow paper in his hand right in the center of the stall.

"Old Ancestor, I don't sell Systems," Zhang Xuanyi's voice was perfectly clear amidst the explosion. "But I sell 'truth.' Do you... want to see what you truly wanted to write on that rainy night three hundred years ago?"

Li Wujiu wanted to tear this so-called "truth," along with his stall, into primordial dust right in front of this kid!

The moment his fingertip touched the yellow paper, an anomaly occurred!

That seemingly ordinary photocopy yellow paper suddenly burst forth with a soft yet resilient white light.

Within the light, a complete "confession" script emerged, its brushstrokes flowing like dragons and snakes, powerful enough to penetrate the paper.

However, when Li Wujiu's gaze swept to the last sentence, "However, the Dao is among the people, how can it be monopolized?" those ten characters seemed to come alive!

The original ink began to twist and writhe, and streaks of crimson blood seeped out from between the lines. In an instant, those ten characters transformed into the original handwriting he had penned with the blood from his tongue, three hundred years ago, when the Tianshi Mansion masters pierced his shoulder blades with chains and pressed him firmly before the Monument of Self-Reproach!

Exactly the same!

That bone-deep humiliation, that unwilling roar of anger, that most authentic will that had been forcibly erased!

"Hum—"

Li Wujiu was struck as if by lightning, his whole body trembling violently.

He seemed to see his blood-soaked self from three hundred years ago, and in his ears echoed his own shouts at those sanctimonious Celestial Masters: "You sealed my talismans, but I sealed my Dao! My Dao!!"

His mind faltered!

The three Innate Self-Immolation Talismans on his back, connected to his mind, sensed the earth-shattering turmoil within him, and the runes pulsating like blood vessels on the talismans instantly became chaotic!

The three heaven-burning flames actually began to wildly reverse, burning back towards Li Wujiu himself!

"Ah—Impossible! This is absolutely impossible! This is the confession I wrote with my own hands!" Li Wujiu let out an inhuman roar, trying to steady his mind and suppress the backlashing talisman flames.

But the blood-stained words on that yellow paper were like a mirror, reflecting the deepest contradictions and torments within him.

He hated the Tianshi Mansion's authoritarianism, which regarded all "Dao" that didn't conform to their rules as heresy; but he also hated Quanxing, which he had personally founded, for devolving into a group of unscrupulous, indiscriminate murderers after he was suppressed!

He wanted to destroy the stall before him that dared to provoke him, yet the common wisdom of "collecting tears" and "selling truth" on the stall precisely pierced his softest, most unwilling spot.

The inner demon, at this moment, completely backlashed!

"Rumble!"

The first Self-Immolation Talisman exploded with a roar!

But the flames did not spread outwards; instead, they all poured into Li Wujiu's left arm.

In an instant, his entire left arm, along with his tattered daoist robe, turned into charred bone, emitting a nauseating burnt smell.

The intense pain brought him brief clarity, and it also allowed him to see Zhang Xuanyi's terrifyingly calm eyes.

Just then, Zhang Xuanyi moved!

Instead of seizing the opportunity to attack, he grabbed a handful of colorful Fist Soul Candies from the stall and flung them towards the dense forest nearby, simultaneously roaring with thunderous voice: "Su Qingzhu! Now!"

In the forest, blinding flashlights flickered wildly!

A nimble figure, holding a latest model DSLR camera, rushed out like a leopard.

It was Su Qingzhu!

She didn't even have time to regulate her breathing before projecting the image from her camera screen onto the massive mountain wall behind Li Wujiu using a portable projector!

On the screen, clearly visible was the Monument of Self-Reproach in the Tianshi Mansion's back mountain, long since weathered and blurred!

After high-precision photography and digital restoration, a section of blood-written text on the stone tablet, almost erased by time and human intervention, was clearly restored, magnified, and projected onto the stone wall!

"—However, the Dao is among the people, how can it be monopolized?"

Su Qingzhu shouted with all her might: "Quanxing was not evil at first! It was Tianshi Mansion that forced you to write that confession, they altered your original intention, erasing the true truth!"

Li Wujiu stiffly turned his head. He saw it, saw the blood characters he had etched with his last ounce of strength, now re-illuminated by a beam of light three hundred years later.

That obsession suppressed for three hundred years, that hatred that had sustained him as a demon, at this moment, was like ten-thousand-year-old ice struck by a heavy hammer, suddenly cracking into countless fissures.

The violence and madness in his eyes rapidly faded, replaced by a long, weary sense of release.

The second Self-Immolation Talisman exploded on his chest, the raging flames burning his chest into a bloody mess.

But this time, he did not dodge, nor did he even let out a whimper of pain, merely staring blankly at the blood characters on the stone wall, murmuring to himself: "So... so I tormented myself for three hundred years, not for revenge... I had been waiting, waiting for someone to... return these words to me."

As soon as his voice fell, his remaining body could no longer support him and he fell backward.

No sooner said than done, Zhang Xuanyi lunged forward like an arrow released from a bowstring. Before Li Wujiu hit the ground, he snatched the seemingly ordinary tattered cloth from the stall and, quick as lightning, wrapped it around Li Wujiu's broken body!

The moment the tattered cloth touched Li Wujiu's body, the system's notification sound rang wildly in Zhang Xuanyi's mind!

"Warning! Detecting ultra-high-level residual Qi! Absorbing..."

"Detecting strong karmic fluctuations... Target 'Li Wujiu's' long-standing grievance resolved, triggering special mechanism 'Karmic Inheritance'!"

That tattered cloth was like a bottomless black hole, swallowing all the destructive energy that had escaped from Li Wujiu due to the backlashing talisman flames—energy capable of leveling an area ten li in radius—like a whale, completely and utterly!

Even the photocopy yellow paper floating in the air disintegrated and reassembled in the afterglow of the flames, eventually transforming into a brand new yellow paper shimmering with faint golden patterns, gently falling into Zhang Xuanyi's hand.

On the yellow paper, there were only two ancient seal characters: Heart Imprint.

The system's cold notification sound reappeared: "System upgrade complete! Unlocking special item 'Heart Imprint Yellow Paper'. Effect: Can replicate any talisman or mark containing the user's 'true intention', limited to once per day. Note: Each use will force the user to bear a portion of the original owner's residual memories and emotions."

All dust settled.

Li Wujiu leaned against the cold mountain wall, with only half a breath left.

He looked at Zhang Xuanyi, his charred face devoid of expression, his voice hoarse like a flickering candle in the wind: "You... aren't afraid I'll come again?"

Zhang Xuanyi shook his head, placing the Heart Imprint Yellow Paper into his embrace, and looked at him earnestly: "You won't come again. Because you finally know that three hundred years ago, what you wanted to sell at your 'stall' was never talismans."

Li Wujiu was silent for a moment, then a faint smile, almost imperceptible, appeared at the corner of his mouth. In that smile was relief, sorrow, and a hint of approval.

He whispered with his last ounce of strength: "You... understand Quanxing better than I do..."

As his voice faded, his figure dissipated inch by inch like green smoke, finally turning into specks of light that completely merged into the breaking dawn.

Only then did a figure in a Tianshi Mansion deacon's daoist robe slowly emerge from the shadows nearby.

It was Wei Zhen.

He had witnessed everything from beginning to end, watching the talisman flames that could burn mountains, seeing the astonishing truth, and for the first time, he did not intervene.

He silently walked to where Li Wujiu had fallen and bent down to pick up a charred talisman fragment, only half-burnt, from the ground.

On the fragment, a trace of an unburnt, pulsating rune, like a blood vessel, could still vaguely be seen.

Wei Zhen's face was as still as water as he carefully tucked the fragment into his sleeve.

He looked up, gazing towards the main hall of Tianshi Mansion, shrouded in distant clouds and mist. The light of dawn illuminated his profile, but could not dispel the solemnity in his eyes.

This duel outside the mountain gate seemed to have ended.

But Wei Zhen knew that a giant stone, capable of shaking the very foundation of Tianshi Mansion, had been fiercely cast into the deep pool, which had been calm for hundreds of years, by this young man named Zhang Xuanyi.

What was coming next would be a towering tidal wave.