21: You pay, I make the move

On the third day after the plane crash and the extinguishing of the flames, the wind on Mount Longhu still carried a lingering smell of charring.

Zhang Xuanyi squatted in front of the stall, his fingertips rhythmically tapping the seemingly tattered cloth.

In his spiritual vision, the last three spirit crystals, treated as test subjects, were being slowly but irresistibly “digested” by the street stall.

The spirit crystals didn't shatter; instead, they melted like ice and snow, transforming into strands of pure golden light, silently seeping into every warp and weft of the tattered cloth.

Just as the last wisp of golden light completely merged into the fabric, a new progress bar on his familiar system interface finally reached its end.

“Ding—”

“spirit coin generation complete (300/300).”

“Current spirit coin balance: 300.”

Zhang Xuanyi's nerves, taut for three days, finally relaxed, and he let out a long, turbid breath.

These three hundred spirit coins were hard-earned, almost as if they were pried from the mouth of a gluttonous beast.

This tattered stall had an extremely poor “appetite” for spirit crystals, as if it were consuming some unpalatable garbage.

He had just stood up, stretching his numb legs and feet, when hurried and panicked footsteps sounded behind him.

“Senior Brother! Senior Brother, it's bad!”

A Che, the young Daoist, rushed over, panting, his face flushed, clutching a roll of yellowed, damaged silk as if it were a hot potato.

“Slow down, the sky hasn't fallen yet.” Zhang Xuanyi handed him a bottle of water.

A Che didn't even bother to drink, shoving the damaged silk into Zhang Xuanyi's hand and urgently saying, “Just now, the forbidden bookshelf in the Sutra Repository behind the mountain somehow collapsed! It brought down half a wall, and this… this 'Qi-patterned cloth fragment' fell out of the wall's interlayer! Senior Brother, look, the words written on it, I… we can't understand them, but it feels… very wrong!”

Zhang Xuanyi raised an eyebrow, taking the cloth fragment.

It felt warm to the touch, neither silk nor hemp, yet possessed an ancient and weathered texture.

On the cloth fragment, eight ancient seal characters, written in a cinnabar-like pigment, flowed like dragons and phoenixes: “Wanfa is not a market, only the heart can reside.”

These eight characters seemed to possess life, with faint light flowing between the strokes, creating a subtle resonance with the street stall at his feet.

Zhang Xuanyi's heart suddenly leaped, and a strong premonition surged within him.

Almost simultaneously, the system interface flashed violently again, displaying a never-before-seen crimson-gold prompt:

“Warning: Detecting fragments of a similar Dao artifact!”

“Beginning information completion… Information source confirmed… Analyzing main body…”

“Analysis complete. The street stall's main body is confirmed as [Dao Market · Trading Cloth] (fragment). ”

“Core function: Grant wishes into Dharma, materialize the ethereal.”

“Driving core: Dao intent.”

A cascade of information flowed into his mind, and Zhang Xuanyi was instantly enlightened, all the hairs on his body standing on end.

Dao Market… Trading Cloth… Grant wishes into Dharma, materialize the ethereal!

He narrowed his eyes, muttering to himself in a voice tinged with uncontrollable shock: “No wonder… no wonder it didn't like eating spirit crystals, only interested in Yan Jiuzhang's natal talisman, which contained his true heart and obsession… It turns out what it eats isn't spiritual power at all, but 'Dao intent'!”

“Wanfa is not a market, only the heart can reside”—these eight characters were like a thunderclap, dispelling all his confusion.

This street stall was not a shop selling magical artifacts at all, but a terrifying Dao artifact that could transform intangible things like “wishes,” “obsessions,” and “Dao heart” into real, existing “Dharma”!

Yan Jiuzhang's “Dao” was overbearing, controlling, and all-encompassing.

Therefore, the “Dao intent” contained in his natal talisman, after being “eaten” by the street stall, materialized into a “Dao Punishment Yellow Paper” that could break all his Dharma.

Understanding this, Zhang Xuanyi's gaze towards the tattered cloth had shifted from initial surprise to deep reverence.

This was not a golden finger; this was clearly a shortcut to the origin of the Great Dao!

That night, at midnight.

The sea of clouds outside the mountain gate was more turbulent than usual, the moonlight obscured by thick clouds, and the world was dim.

A swift, ghostly black shadow silently swept to a hundred zhang away from the street stall, crouching behind a massive cliff rock.

It was Iron Lady, Luo Shisan.

Her left arm was wrapped in fresh bandages; the wound had healed under the effect of secret medicine, but the humiliation and terror of her arm being crippled by a yellow paper were branded into her heart.

At this moment, the burning anger in her eyes had not extinguished, but it was tinged with an indescribable hesitation and… apprehension.

She tightly clutched a warm jade talisman in her hand. Inside the talisman, a “Qi frequency tracker” composed of countless tiny runes flickered with a faint red light, precisely pointing to the inconspicuous empty space a hundred zhang away.

This jade talisman was the last token belonging to President Yan Jiuzhang that she had risked her life to retrieve from the wreckage of the crashed aircraft.

Her gaze was fixed on the unremarkable tattered cloth in the darkness.

Under her special pupil technique, she could vaguely see strands of light, colder than moonlight, flowing on the cloth, seemingly ordinary, yet emanating a majesty that made her heart palpitate.

“He only used one piece of paper… and crippled the President's natal golden talisman, which he had cultivated for thirty years…” Luo Shisan's fingernails dug deep into her palm, and she murmured, “That wasn't talisman art, nor was it magic… That was 'Dao Punishment,' a higher level of power.”

She had come this time under the President's secret order, to raid and seize the treasure at all costs.

But before she left, her master's dying admonition echoed repeatedly in her mind— “Dharma cannot be private, Dao cannot be monopolized.”

Her master had once said that all Dharma in the world originated from the Great Dao, available for contemplation and use, but never to be possessed exclusively, much less to be monopolized.

Once someone harbored the thought of “monopolizing the Great Dao,” they would inevitably face divine retribution.

Wasn't Zhang Xuanyi's power precisely a judgment on the President's “overbearing Dao”?

Luo Shisan's heart was caught in a fierce internal struggle.

On one side were the President's orders and the organization's iron rules; on the other, her master's last words and her fear of that unknown power.

After a long while, the killing intent and struggle in her eyes slowly faded, finally turning into a faint sigh.

She gently placed the precious tracking jade talisman on the rock in front of her, then took one last deep look in that direction, as if to engrave the young figure squatting in front of the street stall into the depths of her soul.

Immediately, she turned and stepped, her figure transforming into a faint trace of wind, silently moving away and merging into the vast night.

In the end, she did not make a move.

On the other side of the cliff rock, Zhang Xuanyi slowly opened his eyes.

He had long sensed Luo Shisan's prying, and even the intense struggle within her heart, he had captured a faint outline through the subtle sensing of the street stall and “Dao intent.”

But he did not stop her, nor did he make any moves, simply waiting quietly.

It wasn't until the aura filled with killing intent completely vanished into the mountain wind that he slowly stood up, walked to the cliff rock, and picked up the jade talisman, which still had residual warmth.

As the jade talisman entered his hand, the system prompt immediately sounded.

“Detecting high-precision positioning source, containing 'Under Heaven Society' exclusive Qi frequency encryption protocol. Bind as new source point?”

Zhang Xuanyi's mouth curved into a cold arc, and he silently thought: “Bind. And reverse-mark all associated nodes, naming them 'Under Heaven Society · North Line Hidden Stake.' ”

“Binding successful! Reverse marking successful!”

“Source point function unlocked: Can directionally deliver goods.”

“Deliverable goods list: photocopy yellow paper (Karma Edition) × 1, Pseudo-Three Caverns True Qi Liquid (Trial Pack) × 1.”

“Very good.” Zhang Xuanyi nodded in satisfaction.

He took out a small glazed bottle from his storage bag. Inside the bottle was a pale golden liquid, which was the last bottle of the counterfeit “Three Caverns True Qi Liquid” he had replicated using materials obtained from Yan Jiuzhang, combined with system analysis.

He casually affixed a new label, which read: “Limited gift, only for 'fated individuals.' ”

Then, he issued an instruction to the system: “Consume 100 spirit coins, set Karma delivery. Target: North Line Hidden Stake. Postscript: 'I heard you guys are very short on resources for breakthroughs?' ”

A faint light flashed on the tattered street stall, and the bottle of liquid and a yellow paper instantly vanished without a trace, as if they had never existed.

Three days later.

A thousand li away from Mount Longhu, in an underground secret chamber disguised as an abandoned mine.

A black-clad Under Heaven Society deacon was carefully unwrapping a package that had appeared out of nowhere in the center of the secret chamber.

When he saw the pale golden liquid inside, emanating a pure Qi aura, his breathing instantly quickened, and his eyes burst with ecstatic light!

“It's… it's Three Caverns True Qi Liquid! Although the aura is slightly different, this level of purity is definitely a divine medicine only usable for Grandmaster-level breakthroughs!” He shouted excitedly, “Quick! Report it! The President is saved! With this item, the President might even be able to re-condense his talisman seed, or even advance further!”

The news spread at the fastest speed through encrypted channels to Yan Jiuzhang's secret recuperation place—a fortress named “Qi Furnace Workshop,” hidden a hundred meters underground.

In the center of the workshop, half of Yan Jiuzhang's body was immersed in boiling medicinal liquid, his body covered in bandages flickering with runic light.

His crippled left arm had been replaced with a more hideous and complex mechanical prosthetic arm. Inscribed on the arm were not circuits, but layers of runic arrays. With every breath, a massive amount of heaven and earth origin energy was forcibly absorbed into his body by this “rune array arm.”

When he heard the news of the “Three Caverns True Qi Liquid appearing” and the provocative postscript, a cruel smile flashed in his eyes, which were now only filled with malevolence.

“Zhang Xuanyi… do you think a little leftover soup and water can break the will of my Under Heaven Society?”

He slowly raised his rune array arm, spread his five fingers, and made a grasping motion in the empty space towards a spirit crystal in front of him.

“How ridiculously naive!”

“Crack!” The spirit crystal shattered in response, and a violent Qi current exploded in his palm, making the entire secret chamber hum and vibrate.

“Transmit my order.” His cold voice echoed in the workshop, “Send two Xiantian deacons, with ten high-grade spirit crystals, to Mount Longhu to 'invite' him down to discuss cooperation.”

“If he refuses—” Yan Jiuzhang's killing intent was fully exposed as he said, word by word: “Then refine his street stall, along with him and the mountain, into the Under Heaven Society's 'Wanfa Production Line'!”

Almost at the same moment Yan Jiuzhang gave his order, at the peak of Mount Longhu.

Zhang Xuanyi's system interface suddenly lit up with a dazzling red light.

“Warning! Detecting high-purity spirit crystal energy source rapidly approaching, quantity × 10!”

“Warning! Detecting strong hostile intent locked on target: Street stall main body!”

Zhang Xuanyi slowly looked up, gazing in the direction of the mountain base, a cold sneer on his face.

He bent down and gently pressed the “Heart Imprint Yellow Paper,” which he had traced from the Sutra Repository fragment and contained the Dao rhyme of “Wanfa is not a market, only the heart can reside,” to the very bottom layer of the street stall.

After completing all this, he unhurriedly placed three ordinary photocopy yellow papers on the surface of the stall, making them look no different from before.

He whispered to Su Qingzhu, who had been anxiously watching all this beside him: “Get the camera ready, aim it at the mountain gate. I want the Under Heaven Society, and everyone who covets it, to see clearly—”

“They are spending money, I am betting my life.”

“But the 'Dao' is not for sale.”

The night wind swept across the mountain peak. The old street stall cloth, even without wind, had its four corners subtly curling upwards.

The four ancient characters “Myriad Laws Street Stall” glowed faintly on the cloth surface, like an awakened ancient entity, whispering and murmuring.

The next business, it's time to collect some interest.

On the mountain path, two powerful auras, like drawn swords, pierced straight towards the mountain gate.

However, just as the figures of these two Under Heaven Society Xiantian deacons were about to appear in front of the mountain gate, Zhang Xuanyi and they paused simultaneously, looking up in unison towards the higher, more distant sky.

A peculiar and oppressive mechanical roar, completely uncharacteristic of this era, was faintly coming from deep within the clouds, gradually drawing nearer.

At the same time, a sharp pang of pain suddenly pierced Zhang Xuanyi's heart through his link with the “Dao Market.”

It was a broken oath, mixed with endless grief, bloody malevolence, and resolute intent.

As if somewhere far away, something important had been broken.