28: The land deeds were burned on the street stall, but golden rice ears grew

Three days after the chaos subsided, three mu of golden rice had been harvested, refined into thirty catties of "Qi-Infused Rice."

At noon on the seventh day, the air on Kunlun Mountain's Dao Market was as thick as blood.

Mr. Broken Scale's cry, "I'm not mad! You're the ones who turned 'belief' into 'currency'!" was like a clap of thunder, shattering the last shred of reason on the mountain path.

As the broken half of the scale in his hand shattered with a crash, a visible gray mist, carrying countless fragmented, curse-like murmurs, swept across the scene like a plague.

"Curse of the Chaotic Market: Hundred Illusions of the Heart!"

This was not a spell that directly harmed people, yet it was more malicious than any blade or sword.

It did not harm the body, only the heart.

It instantly magnified the slightest greed, the most secret suspicions, and the deepest resentment in everyone's heart a thousandfold!

"My jade pendant! You touched my jade pendant just now! You tried to steal it!" A merchant in fine clothes instantly had murky white eyes and lunged at the person next to him, his fingernails like hooks, aiming straight for the other's face.

"Father, why are you so biased! Why does the ancestral boxing manual go to Big Brother and not me!" A burly man roared, smashing a fist at his white-haired old father beside him, with such force that it seemed he intended to beat him to death!

Fathers and sons turned against each other, brothers bickered, and husbands and wives became enemies.

The hundred-mile long queue, originally gathered by "wish power," instantly transformed into a living hell.

Wails, roars, and the clash of weapons mingled together, and the soaring resentment almost blotted out the sun.

Su Qingzhu bore the brunt of it; the gray misty wave hit her chest like a heavy hammer.

She grunted, flying backward, her camera slipping from her hand and crashing onto the mountain rock with a "snap," its lens shattering.

She felt as if her internal organs were dislodged, her vision went black, and even her breath carried the scent of blood.

"Qingzhu!" Zhang Xuanyi's eyes sharpened, and his figure moved like lightning, instantly appearing beside her. He supported her with one hand, while the fingers of his other hand were joined like a sword, and a faint breath of Pure Heart Qi touched her brow, steadying her rapidly collapsing consciousness.

On the stall, the golden light of the tattered cloth was dimming at a visible rate under the erosion of the gray mist.

The system's cold prompt sounded in his mind, carrying an unprecedented warning: "Warning! High-intensity rule pollution detected—'Curse of the Chaotic Market'! The Wish Power Identification System is severely interfered with, and transaction rules are temporarily invalid! The foundation of the Dao Market is shaken; please, Host, immediately eliminate the source of pollution!"

"Madman!" Zhang Xuanyi shielded Su Qingzhu behind him, glaring at the gaunt figure in mid-air.

Mr. Broken Scale stood in the center of the resentment, arms outstretched, as if embracing the chaos he had personally created.

The dense blood oaths on his robe now seemed to come alive, each character flowing with black light.

His single eye was filled with maniacal glee, and he sneered, "Mad? Hahaha! Daoist Zhang, look closely, this is the true face of the 'market'! No rules, no reason, only the most primitive plunder! You think with your ethereal 'wish power' you can establish a new order? You've merely set up a stage for these hypocritical fellows to devour each other in a different way!"

He pointed at the struggling crowd below, his voice sharp as a knife: "Look at that man crying, wanting to exchange ten years of his lifespan for medicine; he forced his creditor to death just the other day! Look at that man who wants to offer his ancestral boxing manual; his master was pushed off a cliff by his own hands! Their 'wishes' are dirtier than the dust on my scale! If you accept their 'wishes,' you are devouring this filthy karma! Your 'Dao Market' is crooked from its very roots!"

Zhang Xuanyi's heart sank sharply.

He knew that Mr. Broken Scale wasn't entirely lying.

Human hearts are unpredictable, and wish power is difficult to discern as true or false; this was precisely what had troubled him most in recent days.

But no matter what, this could not be a reason for him to slaughter the innocent!

"The Dao Market has its own methods, and human hearts have their own reckoning; it's not your place to act on behalf of Heaven!" Zhang Xuanyi's voice was cold, his spiritual sight fully open, trying to find a flaw in this "Curse of the Chaotic Market."

However, the gray mist was like an impregnable domain, resentment intertwined with human hearts, karma interwoven, making it impossible to find the core.

Whenever his spiritual sight attempted to lock onto a node, that node would immediately be submerged and replaced by new resentment erupting from the crowd below.

This curse, it turned out, used the inner demons of hundreds of people as its foundation, endlessly regenerating!

Just as Zhang Xuanyi felt an unprecedented difficulty and was preparing to use a stronger trump card regardless of the cost, a faint but incredibly clear scream pierced through all the noise, directly assailing his eardrums.

"His heart... is beating... beneath the third rib on the left... it's black... it's the eye of the curse!"

Zhang Xuanyi whirled around, only to see A Che, the quiet little girl he had been protecting in the corner, now curled up on the ground, her small body trembling uncontrollably.

Her eyes had turned into pure, unfathomable black, like two abysses devouring light.

Her small hand pointed rigidly at Mr. Broken Scale in mid-air, her voice distorted by fear and pain, yet every word was clear!

Curse Eye!

Zhang Xuanyi's mind was struck by lightning, instantly becoming clear!

He understood!

The foundation of the Curse of the Chaotic Market was the chaotic human hearts below, but the caster himself was always the only "singularity" of the spell!

Mr. Broken Scale had set the curse eye in his own heart, using his strongest obsession to suppress and drive this vast spell.

This was both the safest place and the most fatal weakness!

But how could he break through the heart, which was heavily protected by his own obsession?

Zhang Xuanyi's gaze locked onto Mr. Broken Scale's tattered robe, covered in blood oaths.

Those oaths were the source of Mr. Broken Scale's power, the manifestation of his "belief."

And to break this "belief," he had to use his original, most fundamental "belief" to counter it!

In a flash of lightning, Zhang Xuanyi made his decision.

He suddenly tore a corner from the tattered cloth on the stall; it was not ordinary cloth, but the "Heart Imprint Yellow Paper" that carried the rules of the Dao Market!

Without hesitation, he bit his fingertip, and bright red essence blood instantly gushed out.

He didn't hesitate for a moment, using his finger as a brush and blood as ink, he swiftly replicated the oldest and most core blood oath from Mr. Broken Scale's robe onto the faintly glowing yellow paper—

"If I covet a single coin, I shall never find peace in my heart for all eternity"!

Every word contained Zhang Xuanyi's own Qi and his understanding of the "Dao Market" rules.

When the last stroke fell, the entire yellow paper lit up with a roar, the blood-red characters like burning brands, emitting a resolute aura of "breaking belief with belief, breaking oath with oath"!

"Go!"

Zhang Xuanyi let out a low shout, flicked his wrist, and the yellow paper, burning with the blood-red oath, transformed into a streak of light, ignoring the obstruction of the sky-filled gray mist, like a soul-reaping arrow, shooting with extreme precision towards Mr. Broken Scale's left chest!

A trace of astonishment flashed in Mr. Broken Scale's single eye; he clearly hadn't expected Zhang Xuanyi to discern the curse eye so quickly, nor had he expected him to counterattack in this manner!

He tried to dodge, but found that he had already integrated with the entire "Curse of the Chaotic Market" domain and couldn't move at all!

"Pfft!"

The yellow paper, like a maggot clinging to bone, accurately stuck to the position of his third rib on the left chest.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a faint "sizzle" sound, like hot oil poured on snow.

The yellow paper ignited upon contact with his skin; the flames were not red, but a judgmental pale white!

"Ah—!"

A scream so piercing it sounded inhuman erupted from Mr. Broken Scale's throat.

All the blood oaths on his robe seemed to suffer the most severe backlash at this moment, the black light reversing, surging madly into his body!

The "belief" he used to construct his power was now turning into a deadly poison that destroyed him!

Clutching his chest, he fell straight from mid-air and knelt heavily on the mountain path.

Black blood gushed from both of his ears.

The madness and malice in his single eye rapidly faded, replaced by endless pain and bewilderment.

The broken scale, symbolizing his lifelong obsession, let out a crisp "crack" at the moment its master's mental defenses shattered, and completely turned into a handful of flying ash.

As the curse eye was broken, the gray mist enveloping the mountain path quickly dissipated like a receding tide.

The maddened crowd, as if drained of all strength, collapsed to the ground, their eyes gradually returning to clarity from their murky white state, their faces filled with the bewilderment and fear of those who had survived a catastrophe.

The entire mountain path was deathly silent.

Just then, in Zhang Xuanyi's mind, the dormant system finally roared to life again. This time, it was no longer an alarm, but an unprecedented declaration of rule reconstruction:

"Detecting 'belief' rule conflict... conflict resolved... 'Dao Market' rule completion initiated..."

"Completion Article Two: The innate Qi contained in 'non-spiritual payment' is insufficient to fully balance transactions. The insufficient portion must be supplemented by the Host's own Qi to maintain the fairness of the Dao Market."

"Rule completion complete. Dao Market... rebooting."

As the last four words fell, Zhang Xuanyi's body swayed violently, feeling a huge sense of weakness sweep over him.

The rules completed by the system essentially transferred the karma that filled the transactions from the ethereal "Dao Market" itself to him, the "Host."

He staggered a step, a sweetness in his throat, no longer able to suppress it.

"Pfft—"

A mouthful of essence blood sprayed directly onto the tattered cloth of the stall in front of him.

That blood was not ordinary blood, but his vital essence blood, containing his Dao foundation.

The fresh blood landed on the tattered cloth, not flowing, but instantly seeping into the fabric like mercury into the sea.

In an instant, the dim golden light of the stall suddenly flared, brighter than ever before!

Deep within the stall, the phantom of the "Qi-Infused Rice" that had transformed from the land deed, after being watered by his essence blood, suddenly surged several times in size, and the golden rice ears became incredibly solid, as if they were about to fall from the void into the mortal world in the next moment!

Zhang Xuanyi knelt on one knee, breathing heavily, his face as pale as paper.

He raised his head, his gaze sweeping over the crowd below, who were still shaken and had complex expressions. His voice was not loud, but it clearly spread throughout the entire mountain path.

"From now on..."

He paused, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and there was no longer any hesitation in his eyes, only the steadfastness of bedrock.

"Those who wish, I accept; those who deceive, Heaven will collect."

The setting sun dyed the entire Kunlun Mountain a color similar to his essence blood.

On the mountain path, the chaos had subsided, but a new, heavier and more fervent atmosphere was quietly brewing.

Everyone's gaze passed over the weakened Zhang Xuanyi, staring intently and greedily at the golden rice field that had appeared out of thin air behind him.

Every ear of rice there glowed with enchanting brilliance in the setting sun, and the Qi fragrance in the air seemed to become the only path to healing all wounds and transcending the mundane.

The chaotic market had been quelled, but the true test had only just begun.