51: Debt Collection

The midnight wind suddenly carried a metallic, rusty scent of blood.

That wisp of golden Dragon Qi drifting out from the crack in the bronze monument was like an invisible fuse; one end connected to the sleeping stall, and the other end tightly gripped Zhang Xuanyi's Divine Soul.

He snapped his eyes open, those eyes that were slightly dimmed due to blood loss now shone with an astonishing brightness.

He felt it, a hunger and a summons originating from the very life Origin.

“What’s wrong?” Su Qingzhu was startled by his sudden reaction and hurried to steady the swaying bamboo chair.

She saw that Zhang Xuanyi's face was even paler than before, veins bulging at his temples as if he were enduring immense pain.

Zhang Xuanyi did not answer; his consciousness was being frantically pulled by that wisp of Dragon Qi, forcibly dragged deep into the earth.

He “saw” the Dragon Qi like a nimble little golden snake, ignoring the earth and stone Restriction, heading straight for the Forbidden Ground in the back mountains of Longhu Mountain Tianshi Mansion.

“It's... the Dragon Locking Well.” The Old Earth Vein Turtle poked its head out again at some unknown moment, its voice carrying unprecedented gravity and a sigh. “Ninth Cloth Master, do you think the debts of the Dao Market are just the vengeful Souls of those merchants? That is only the interest. The true principal was stolen by the Tianshi Mansion.”

Su Qingzhu gasped: “Stolen what?”

In the turtle's murky eyes, Zhang Xuanyi's pained expression was reflected as it said word by word: “What the Tianshi Mansion owes the Dao Market isn't Spirit Stones, it's the Dragon Heart!”

Dragon Heart!

These two words were like a thunderclap, exploding in the minds of Zhang Xuanyi and Su Qingzhu.

The stall is a Dragon; without a heart, how can a Dragon live?

No wonder it was only sleeping, no wonder it was weak to this extent!

That hundred-zhang illusion last night was perhaps just the final radiance of its remaining power.

The poison of the Gui Xu Well, the so-called “True Liquid”—the source of everything instantly became clear!

“Xuan Weizi... he wants to refine the Dragon Heart!” Zhang Xuanyi gritted his teeth, squeezing this sentence out from between them.

He could feel that after the wisp of Dragon Qi reached its destination, it transmitted back waves of intense, suppressed, and desecrated wailing.

“He wants to destroy the Foundation of the Dao Market, making you, the Cloth Master, bear the debt of a collapsing market for eternity, with your Divine Soul utterly extinguished!” The Old Earth Vein Turtle's voice grew lower. “That Dragon Locking Well is suppressed by ninety-nine Black Iron Chains, and the bottom of the well is carved with filthy ‘Reverse Three Caverns Talismans’. It is eroded year-round by Gui Xu Turbid Qi just to wear away the spirituality of the Dragon Heart. Now that the Cloth Master has returned and the Dragon Qi has resonated, Xuan Weizi will surely speed up his actions to perform that genocidal deed!”

“I can't let him succeed.” Zhang Xuanyi struggled to stand, but the wound on his chest and his empty qi sea made him stumble, nearly falling over.

In his current state, let alone breaking into the Tianshi Mansion's Forbidden Ground, even walking down this mountain would be a struggle.

Su Qingzhu hurriedly supported him, her eyes full of anxiety: “You're injured like this, how can you go? That's the Tianshi Mansion's Forbidden Ground, filled with experts and layered with Restrictions. Going there is just seeking death!”

“Not going is also waiting for death.” Zhang Xuanyi spat out a mouthful of blood-streaked saliva, his gaze exceptionally determined. “Not just for me, but also for those thirty-six ‘Liquid People’, and the entire Mount Longhu that is being kept in the dark. This tumor must be removed.”

He took a deep breath, sat back on the bamboo chair, and pressed his trembling hands onto the cloth surface of the stall.

Since he could not go in person, he would let the Dao Market go itself!

“Once the Heart Anchor is set, the Dragon awakens...” he murmured to himself, recalling the words of the Illusion Market Boy.

He closed his eyes, sinking his entire mind into his brow, connecting with the newly established “Heart Anchor.”

In an instant, he merged with the entire stall.

His perception became the stall's perception.

“Dao Market, lend me your Dragon Vision!” Zhang Xuanyi shouted in his heart.

The Myriad Laws Runes on the stall's cloth surface suddenly lit up; the golden light no longer radiated outward but contracted inward, all of it flowing into the wisp of Dragon Qi that had already reached the Forbidden Ground.

Zhang Xuanyi's vision suddenly broadened, as if he had undergone Soul Emergence, following that wisp of Dragon Qi to instantly “see” everything in the Forbidden Ground.

It was a massive underground karst cave, the air filled with a nauseating stench of blood and decay.

In the center of the cave was a bottomless ancient well—the Dragon Locking Well.

Black mist swirled around the well's mouth, and ninety-nine Black Iron Chains as thick as a baby's arm extended from the walls, tightly entangling the object within the well like venomous snakes. Each chain shimmered with a sinister runic light.

At the bottom of the well, a golden heart as large as a water vat, which should have been as brilliant as a scorching sun, was pierced by these chains, pulsating weakly and dimly.

Every pulse brought out wisps of black gas—the very source of the Gui Xu Well poison!

The surface of the heart was covered in scars that looked like they were made by knives and axes. What flowed from those scars wasn't blood, but a thick “True Liquid” with an eerie luster.

Beside the well sat a person cross-legged—it was Xuan Weizi!

A ritual altar was set before him, and on the altar lay three unconscious “Liquid People.” The black patterns on them had already spread to their cheeks, and their life force was faint.

Xuan Weizi was chanting incantations and forming hand seals. Black Talisman were generated out of thin air, taking the form of malevolent ghosts. They shrieked as they pounced on the golden Dragon Heart, biting frantically to accelerate its corruption.

The life essence of those three “Liquid People” was being continuously extracted by the altar, turning into fuel to bolster the fierce power of the black Talisman.

This was the truth behind the “True Liquid”!

Using the lives of Tianshi Mansion Disciples as sacrifices to catalyze the contaminated Dragon Heart, extracting that poisonous “essence,” and then using it to control even more people!

“You beast!” Zhang Xuanyi's Divine Soul roared, a wave of towering rage nearly overwhelming his reason.

Seemingly sensing the prying of the Dragon Qi, Xuan Weizi snapped his eyes open, his cold gaze sweeping toward the well's mouth.

He sneered: “The Ninth Cloth Master? Indeed, an impatient brat. Do you think that with this wisp of residual Dragon Qi, you can do anything to me? I have already refined seventy percent of this Dragon Heart. Once I succeed, the entire Dao Market will be a plaything in my palm!”

Having said that, he pointed his fingers like a sword and struck fiercely toward where the Dragon Qi was prying: “Get back, and watch how your Dao Market walks step by step toward destruction! The tianshi decree has been issued; before tomorrow morning, your stall, along with you, will be turned to ash!”

A sharp and peerless Sword Qi slashed through the air, instantly severing the connection between Zhang Xuanyi and that wisp of Dragon Qi.

“Pfft—”

Before the stall, Zhang Xuanyi violently spat out a large mouthful of blood, his body falling backward like a kite with a broken string.

His Divine Soul's connection was forcibly severed, feeling like a heavy blow to the head, making his vision go black and his internal organs shift out of place.

“Zhang Xuanyi!” Su Qingzhu cried out as she caught him, her touch meeting ice-cold skin.

“I'm fine...” Zhang Xuanyi panted, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth. There was no trace of dejection in his eyes; instead, a more intense flame burned within them. “I saw everything. Xuan Weizi is using living people to sacrifice and refine the Dragon Heart. He said... the tianshi decree has been issued.”

The Old Earth Vein Turtle sighed: “The tianshi decree enforces justice on behalf of heaven and can mobilize the Tianshi Mansion's Mountain-Protecting Array and all the Elders. Once activated, it carries the momentum of a thunderbolt, relentless until death. You... have no time left.”

A desperate situation.

An unprecedented desperate situation.

His body was severely injured, a powerful enemy was nearby, and the strongest reinforcement, the “tianshi decree,” had become a death warrant.

It seemed that no matter how one looked at it, this was a dead end.

Su Qingzhu's knuckles turned white from the force of her grip. She looked at the dying Zhang Xuanyi, then at the ancient stall lying quietly on the ground, and suddenly made up her mind.

She took out a crystal-clear jade bottle from her robe and held it to Zhang Xuanyi's lips: “This is my sect's secret ‘Azure Wood Spirit Pith’, it can temporarily sustain your life force and stabilize your heart pulse. You stay here and guard the Dao Market, I'll go!”

Zhang Xuanyi was stunned: “Where are you going?”

“To tell everyone the truth!” Su Qingzhu's gaze was clear and resolute. “Xuan Weizi can deceive for a time, but not forever! Within the Tianshi Mansion, there must be Elders who can distinguish right from wrong. I will make public his crimes of using living people for Alchemy and polluting the Dragon Vein! Even if the tianshi decree has been issued, I will let those executing the order know exactly who they are trying to kill and what they are supposed to be protecting!”

The young girl's figure under the cold moonlight appeared thin yet full of strength.

However, Zhang Xuanyi shook his head and pushed her hand away.

He grinned, and although the smile pulled at his wound and looked a bit gruesome, his gaze was filled with a frenzied Battle Intent.

“No, you don't need to go anywhere.” He propped himself up on the edge of the stall, slowly, inch by inch, straightening his body again. “You're right, he can't deceive everyone. But he miscalculated one thing.”

“What?”

“He thinks that when a creditor comes to the door, they will only knock.” Zhang Xuanyi's gaze swept over the profound runes on the stall, over the golden-eyed old dog that was still growling, and finally landed on the majestic mountain gate of the Tianshi Mansion in the distance.

“But he forgot that when a creditor is pushed to a dead end...”

He took a deep breath and poured all the remaining strength in his body, mixed with the warm blood that had just surged up his throat, into the stall beneath his feet.

“...they will tear down the entire house!”

The moment his voice fell, the entire stall—that “Dragon” that had slept for untold ages—gave its most violent tremor since Zhang Xuanyi took over!

The Myriad Laws Runes on the cloth surface no longer lit up one by one but were like a bursting flood, instantly radiating ten thousand feet of golden light, shooting straight into the clouds!

The old dog guarding the stall howled at the sky. The howl was no longer a low growl but had transformed into a true, world-shaking Dragon roar!

The Old Earth Vein Turtle retracted its head in shock, leaving behind only a trembling exclamation: “Madman! He wants to... proactively open the market, and it's a... Market of War!”

Within the golden light, the three phantom stall owners reappeared, but this time, they were no longer selling goods. Instead, they transformed into three majestic divine generals holding laws and weapons.

Immediately following that, the seven vengeful Souls of the merchants who had just been released actually transformed into seven armored Illusion Market Guards, holding Talisman Blades with solemn gazes.

The stall, this sleeping ancient Dragon, under the will of its new master, the Ninth Cloth Master, revealed its fangs for the first time!

Zhang Xuanyi stood in the center of the golden light, his clothes fluttering loudly in the wild wind. He looked toward the Tianshi Mansion, his voice not loud, yet clearly spreading throughout the entire back mountain.

“Xuan Weizi, Tianshi Mansion... wash your necks, I'm here to collect the debt!”