40: A bottle of Zhenqi liquid caused a stir in half the world

At dawn, the first ray of purple energy came from the east, and before it could illuminate the earth, it was completely absorbed by Xuanyi's small stall.

On the stall cloth, the outline of the blurry figure became more solid, as if it could step out of the cloth at any moment.

Amidst the flowing light, a crystal-clear glass bottle materialized out of thin air. Fine, dragon-like golden threads wound around its body, and a single drop of golden liquid floated silently within, emitting a pure Qi aura that made one's soul tremble.

The first bottle of "Pseudo-Three Caverns True Qi Liquid" was complete.

A Yuan, who had been waiting by his side, felt a burning flame ignite in his usually dead eyes for the first time.

He stretched out a slightly trembling hand, his fingertips almost touching the glass bottle with a pilgrimage-like reverence.

This drop of liquid was his only hope of breaking free from the shackles of fate.

"Wait."

A broad, strong hand blocked him, firm and powerful.

A Yuan suddenly looked up, staring at Xuanyi in confusion.

Xuanyi's gaze was as deep as night. He shook his head, his voice calm but unyielding: "This thing must be given to the person who needs it most."

A Yuan's body stiffened, the flame in his eyes instantly dimmed, returning to its former dead silence.

He silently withdrew his hand, took a step back, and once again became that silent shadow.

"Heh, naive." Gongshu Yin, who was sitting cross-legged nearby, calculating something with a peculiar set of divining sticks, let out a cold laugh. Without raising his head, he said, "Xuanyi, what do you think this is? Is it candy? There are at least eighty thousand, if not a hundred thousand, martial artists across the land who are stuck at the peak of Houtian and can never glimpse the threshold of Xiantian in their entire lives. Once news of this liquid gets out, your little Cloud Dream Mountain will immediately turn into a meat grinder. Who do you give it to? Giving it to anyone will cause a monstrous disaster, not only harming the recipient but also completely exposing your stall to the eyes of all hungry wolves."

Before his words had even finished, an unexpected change occurred!

The glass bottle, resting in the center of the stall cloth, seemed to understand Gongshu Yin's warning. The golden threads on its body suddenly lit up, emitting a clear, resonant hum!

Buzz—!

With a flash of golden light, the True Qi Liquid transformed into a streak of light, ignoring space and obstacles, tearing through the sky, and instantly vanishing into the horizon!

Its speed was so great that even Gongshu Yin, a grandmaster of mechanical arts, had no time to react, only able to stare with wide, astonished eyes.

"It... it flew away on its own?"

Xuanyi was also stunned, then he stroked his chin. This stall was even more temperamental than he had imagined.

Meanwhile, at the foot of Cloud Dream Mountain, in a remote and dilapidated village.

A sallow-faced, emaciated boy lay on a hard bed, his legs long atrophied, his eyes dull and lifeless.

Three years ago, he was hit by a runaway horse while saving a neighbor's child, breaking his spine and leaving him paralyzed in bed, enduring cold looks and ridicule.

Just as he was utterly disheartened and preparing to end his life, a golden light, without warning, pierced through the roof and accurately hovered before him.

The boy thought it was a hallucination before death, but then he saw the glass bottle tilt on its own, and that drop of liquid, like molten gold, slowly dripped down and merged into his glabella.

In an instant, an indescribable surge of magnificent vitality exploded within his body!

His dry and withered meridians were like a parched land receiving sweet rain, and his cracked bones were enveloped and reshaped by warm energy.

He could even "see" the broken nerves in his body reconnecting at a visible speed!

A profound sense of Qi, from nothing to something, broke through the barrier between Houtian and Xiantian!

A powerful wave of energy, centered on the thatched hut, suddenly spread outwards!

The crowing of roosters and barking of dogs in the village instantly ceased, and everyone felt a pang in their hearts.

The boy suddenly sat up from the bed, looking down at his legs, which had regained sensation and were even filled with explosive power. Tears streamed down his face.

He had broken into the Xiantian realm!

Three hours later, the entire spiritual network of the Great Xia Dynasty completely exploded!

"Extra! Extra! Wang Hu, a paralyzed boy at the foot of Cloud Dream Mountain, consumed a mysterious liquid and broke into the Xiantian realm overnight!"

"Exclusive Revelation! Wang Hu personally confirmed that the liquid was a miracle from heaven, suspected to be a divine manifestation from Cloud Dream Mountain!"

"Shocking! According to reliable sources, Wang Hu not only fully recovered from his injuries, but his root bones were also cleansed and reshaped, comparable to the sacred sons of top sects!"

One stone stirred up a thousand waves!

The Xiantian realm was the dragon gate that countless martial artists yearned for.

A single step separated mortals from the transcendent.

And now, a paralyzed cripple had ascended to heaven with a single drop of mysterious liquid!

This news was like a nuclear bomb, detonating among the high-ranking officials of various major forces.

At the peak of Kunlun, the Sect Master urgently emerged from seclusion and summoned all elders for a meeting.

From Penglai in the East Sea, several treasure ships set sail, heading straight for the mainland.

In the Northern Kingdom's Royal Court, the patriarch of the Golden Family smashed his beloved wine cup, his eyes dark.

And as the controllers of the martial arts world's order, the Under Heaven Society immediately activated the highest-level emergency plan, sparing no expense to blockade the news and dispatch secret agents to Cloud Dream Mountain.

However, it was all too late.

The blockade by the higher-ups only incited a frenzy among the common people.

Countless rogue cultivators, martial artists from small families, and even some old monsters whose lifespans were nearing their end, all stuck at the Houtian bottleneck, swarmed towards Cloud Dream Mountain from all directions like sharks smelling blood, stirring up an unprecedented "liquid-seeking tide."

As night deepened, the stall became even livelier than during the day.

Su Qingzhu, dressed in a capable outfit, held a constantly flickering jade slip in her hand, reporting to Xuanyi at a rapid pace: "Boss, the data has been compiled. In the past twelve hours, the stall received anonymous offerings from the spiritual network: two hundred and thirty-seven spiritual herbs over three hundred years old, forty-nine ancient talismans capable of withstanding a Xiantian strike, twelve incomplete martial arts scrolls of unknown grade... The most exaggerated is a wealthy merchant from Xiliang Prefecture who directly offered their family's ancestral land deed, passed down for three generations, just for a single drop of divine liquid."

Xuanyi listened to the report, his face calm and unperturbed, only looking up at the continuous stretch of lights at the foot of the mountain, like stars fallen into the mortal world.

He ignored the fanatical seekers and instead said to A Yuan beside him, "Come, accompany me down the mountain for a stroll."

A Yuan silently nodded, following behind him.

The two avoided the crowd and entered a dark, dense forest at the foot of the mountain.

Deep in the forest, a long-abandoned mountain god temple loomed faintly.

Before they even got close, Xuanyi stopped. He felt dozens of faint yet extremely special Qi fluctuations emanating from the temple.

He pushed aside the knee-high weeds and walked to the window of the dilapidated temple, looking inside.

Inside the small temple, there were twenty to thirty children huddled together, mostly ranging from seven or eight to a little over ten years old.

They were all pale, their eyes vacant, and their hands and feet were bound with heavy iron chains, the other end of which was fixed to the cold ground.

They were not martial artists and had no True Qi in their bodies, yet they had an extraordinary innate perception of the Qi flow between heaven and earth.

They were "Qi mediums," pitiful individuals born with a unique gift.

Because they couldn't cultivate, they were treated by major sects or aristocratic families as "living compasses" for finding spiritual veins and exploring secret realms. Once they lost their value, they would be ruthlessly abandoned, or even used as materials for refining certain sinister magical artifacts.

Looking at the children's numb eyes, Xuanyi's fists involuntarily clenched.

Behind him, A Yuan's body began to tremble uncontrollably.

He curled up in the corner, burying his head deep in his knees, his voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz, yet filled with endless coldness and fear: "I... I was also locked in a basement like this... They made me identify the direction of spiritual mines... Every three days, they'd change the direction... If I pointed wrong, I wouldn't get any food..."

Xuanyi fell silent.

He turned and looked at the girl who had been following him like a shadow.

For the first time, he felt the heavy shackles of a "past" on her.

After a long while, he took a deep breath and took out an empty glass bottle from his Pregnant — this was the bottle left after the True Qi Liquid was formed.

He walked to the front of the temple and gently placed the bottle into the already cold incense burner.

He promised A Yuan behind him, and also, it seemed, the children in the temple: "Tomorrow, the stall will automatically send ten bottles."

Just then, a lithe figure emerged from the shadows of the forest; it was the Iron Lady.

She held a peculiar communicator, which had just been crushed into fragments, in her hand, a cold smile on her face.

"The Under Heaven Society's secret order: 'Obtain the True Qi Liquid formula at all costs; if met with resistance, kill without mercy.'" She casually tossed the fragments away, her gaze burning as she looked at Xuanyi, "I just dealt with a team of scouts who snuck up the mountain for you. Now, let's discuss a deal."

"Speak."

"I'll guard your stall for three days, keeping all those blind flies off the mountain." The Iron Lady stated decisively, "The condition is—the next bottle of True Qi Liquid goes to my sister. She's been stuck at the peak of Houtian for ten years."

Upon hearing this, Xuanyi grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth: "Alright, but my stall has rules; she has to come and ask for it herself."

"Good!" The Iron Lady didn't hesitate for a moment, turning and melting into the night, leaving only one sentence: "Within three days, not a single fly will make it up the mountain."

Gongshu Yin, beside them, rapidly manipulated his divining sticks, muttering to himself: "Vow power data updated: nine points of 'righteousness' vow power added, four points of 'courage' vow power added... Heh, with good wishes as fuel and righteous deeds as fire, the foundation of the Dao Market is taking root in this bustling mortal world."

At the third quarter of the Zi hour, the deepest part of the night.

The stall suddenly vibrated violently!

The light from the figure on the stall cloth intensified, almost illuminating the entire night sky.

On all the newly generated True Qi Liquid glass bottles, dense blood-red patterns appeared simultaneously, like the blood vessels of a living creature, filled with an eerie yet sacred beauty.

A cold warning directly surfaced in Xuanyi's mind.

"Massive covetousness detected; greed, killing intent, and malicious vow power have exceeded the threshold. Initiating 'Protector Backlash' mechanism—the next batch of True Qi Liquid will randomly bind to the 'user's destiny.' They will receive its blessings, but also bear its karma."

Xuanyi's pupils constricted. He looked up at the starry sky, murmuring, "This stall... it's becoming more and more like it's alive."

A Yuan, who had been silent, slowly raised his head.

He looked at the flowing light and mysterious stall cloth, speaking actively for the first time, his voice still a little hoarse and raw, but exceptionally clear.

"It's not alive."

"It's choosing... the one who can uphold the Great Dao of this world."

The moment his words fell, the towering figure on the stall cloth, enveloped in myriad lights, slowly raised his right hand, pointing distantly towards the bustling mortal world outside the mountain, where lights and darkness intertwined.