7: The clock stops for a moment, who is counting the heartbeats?

At dawn on the fourth day, the cold was like a knife, chilling one to the bone.

Zhang Xuanyi, like a stone statue merged with the darkness, squatted in the shadow of the giant ancient bell at Mount Longhu's main gate.

The shadow was as cold as iron, but it was far less chilling than the dread in his heart at that moment.

His gaze was fixed on the tattered street stall in front of him, his eyes filled with solemnity and worry.

His family's savings were almost gone.

Overnight, the once dazzling array of "goods" was reduced to a single, lonely photocopy yellow paper and two heavenly eye mung beans that glowed a faint green in the morning light.

Last night, Li Songyang had arrived aggressively with the Hall of Law Enforcement disciples, and although he was scared off by a "Thunder Talisman," the repercussions were endless.

The Hall of Law Enforcement's retaliation was swift and ruthless, with three shifts of personnel taking turns to guard the vast mountain gate, enclosing it like an iron barrel.

All pilgrims ascending the mountain, regardless of their status, were repeatedly interrogated, and any slight suspicion led to their expulsion.

This effectively cut off his customer base.

Even more critical was the system's anomaly.

For some unknown reason, the item refresh mechanism was completely locked, allowing only three items to be generated daily.

This meant he could no longer rely on quantity as he had before.

And that seemingly insignificant side effect had now become a Sword of Damocles hanging over his head—after a photocopy yellow paper was burned, the residual qi fluctuations could linger in place for half an incense stick's worth of time!

To ordinary people, this was meaningless.

But to cultivators like Li Songyang, this was undoubtedly like lighting a lantern in the dark, clearly telling the other party: "I'm here, come and get me!"

What to do?

Forcing his way through would be like throwing an egg against a rock.

Waiting would only deplete his last resources, leaving him trapped to die.

Zhang Xuanyi's knuckles turned white as his mind raced, analyzing every possibility.

Just then, he suddenly felt the tattered street stall at his feet stir slightly, and a faint warmth emanated from his ankle.

He abruptly looked down, his pupils contracting.

It was that jade tablet! The one the mysterious mute Daoist boy secretly left last night!

At this moment, this jade tablet, engraved with the character "Guan," was pressed tightly against the edge of the street stall, emitting a scorching heat.

Even more bizarrely, above the jade tablet, a line of faint golden phantom characters appeared out of thin air, as if branded into the air.

"Zi Shi, Bell Stop, Eye Open."

Six characters, like six bolts of thunder, exploded in his mind!

Zhang Xuanyi's heart pounded. He instinctively pulled out the tattered "dragon and tiger records" from his Pregnant, his fingers trembling as he turned to the page describing formations.

He found it!

The ancient text clearly recorded a long-lost ultimate trial—the Guan Xin Array!

The description of the array was profound and mysterious, but a crucial line in it perfectly matched the inscription on the jade tablet: "...Using a talisman to guide the bell, the sound waves congeal, heaven and earth become silent, this is 'Bell Stop'. In the instant of Bell Stop, one can see the deepest obsession in the heart of the person within the array."

So that's it!

"Bell Stop" didn't mean the bell would stop forever, but rather that its sound waves would reach an extreme balance at a certain moment, thereby freezing time!

If it could truly be achieved... Zhang Xuanyi's breathing suddenly quickened.

He could completely use the effect of the Guan Xin Array to inversely probe the true purpose of Li Songyang and his group's elaborate and strict defenses!

Their obsession was his breakthrough point!

However, just as he was contemplating a countermeasure, a harsh clamor approached from afar, violently tearing through the tranquility of the mountain gate.

"Come on, come on! Double-tap and comment 666, my old pals! Zhao Sanpao is going all out today, taking you all to explore the forbidden grounds of Mount Longhu! Let's see if True Person Zhang, who scared away a hundred ghosts with a single talisman last night, will perform a 'slow-motion divine punch' for us today!"

Zhao Sanpao's bulky figure, clad in a mismatched, tattered Daoist robe, was seen carrying a retractable phone stand in one hand, while the other furiously tapped on the screen, shouting at the camera with spittle flying.

Even more exaggerated, behind him followed more than a dozen men and women, all holding up their phones and looking excited.

They were clearly viewers attracted by the live stream, now filming and cheering, like a group of fanatical pilgrims rushing towards a sacred site.

Three black lines instantly appeared on Zhang Xuanyi's forehead.

This scoundrel... he really isn't afraid of death at all!

This commotion was tantamount to lighting a fuse on a powder keg.

Sure enough, before the clamor died down, Li Songyang's cold face reappeared.

Behind him were two teams of Hall of Law Enforcement disciples, each holding talisman swords, their eyes unfriendly, surrounding the entire street stall and Zhao Sanpao's live stream army.

"Illegal occupation of the road, gathering to cause a ruckus, disturbing the peace of the mountain gate!" Li Songyang's voice was even colder than the pre-dawn wind. A murderous glint flashed in his eyes as he decisively ordered, "The street stall is to be immediately sealed! All onlookers, register your identities immediately and be expelled down the mountain!"

"Yes!"

Two Hall of Law Enforcement disciples responded, their eyes fierce, reaching out to seize the tattered street stall at Zhang Xuanyi's feet.

The crowd immediately stirred. Zhao Sanpao, even more so, craned his neck and shouted, "Why! We are pilgrims who came to offer incense! Is this how you, Mount Longhu, treat your believers?"

In the chaos, a striking figure quietly squeezed into the crowd.

Su Qingzhu pulled up the collar of her trench coat, the miniature camera hidden inside already aimed squarely at the center of the street stall.

She had been staking out here for three consecutive days, and her intuition told her that today, this seemingly charlatan young man would surely reveal an astonishing truth beyond superstition!

Everyone's gaze was focused on Zhang Xuanyi.

Thoughts raced through his mind, like lightning.

Use another "Thunder Talisman"?

No.

If he used the same trick a second time, even if Li Songyang was foolish, he would certainly see through it, and might even be prepared.

But if he didn't act, this tattered street stall would undoubtedly be destroyed today!

This was not only his means of livelihood, but also held his only hope of defying fate!

There was no retreat!

At this critical juncture, Zhang Xuanyi's gaze swept over the remaining yellow paper and mung beans on the stall, and an incredibly bold, even crazy, idea surged into his mind!

He suddenly reached out and grabbed the last photocopy yellow paper.

Without the slightest hesitation, he brought his index finger to his mouth and bit down hard!

Blood welled up, carrying a hint of sweetness.

He used his finger as a brush, his blood as ink, and his wrist moved swiftly.

On the talisman paper, the basic rune of a standard Purifying and Calming Talisman instantly took shape.

But he didn't stop!

Just as the rune was about to be completed, his fingertip suddenly paused, reversing the stroke, and forcibly injected a completely different, more obscure and complex pattern into the core of the rune!

This pattern was precisely the core rune of the "Qi-Still Talisman" that he had forcibly analyzed from the faint trace of qi that leaked out when Li Songyang waved his sleeve last night, using the slow-motion playback function of the heavenly eye mung beans!

Using "Calming" as the surface and "Qi-Still" as the core, combining positive and inverse!

"Boom!"

A strange energy, unprecedented, exploded on the talisman paper.

Zhang Xuanyi ignored everything, stepped forward abruptly, and slapped this completely transformed talisman paper hard onto the cold ancient bell!

His eyes wide, his tongue thundering, he let out a low shout that echoed through the mountain gate!

"All laws return to stillness, the bell stops for a moment!"

In an instant, an incredibly bizarre scene unfolded.

The giant ancient bell merely trembled slightly; the earth-shattering chime that was expected did not ring out.

Instead, an invisible force, centered on the ancient bell, instantly spread throughout the entire mountain gate like ripples on water!

Time, as if a pause button had been pressed!

The Hall of Law Enforcement disciples, about to pounce forward, froze in mid-air, their fierce expressions solidified like sculptures.

Birds circling in the sky, their wings stopped mid-flap, hung motionless.

Withered leaves falling in the wind defied all laws of physics, suspended three feet above the ground.

Even Li Songyang, a talisman he had just waved from his sleeve to condemn someone, was frozen between him and Zhang Xuanyi, the flames burning on the talisman having ceased to flicker!

The entire world was deathly silent.

The only thing still "active" was the Myriad Laws Street Stall, the four crooked characters on Zhang Xuanyi's tattered street stall, faintly glowing, as if mocking the frozen reality.

One second, two seconds, three seconds!

After three seconds, the bell's chime, like a belated thunderclap, suddenly erupted!

"Dong—!"

Time resumed its flow.

Everyone, including Li Songyang, looked around in a daze, as if waking from a dream, their faces filled with incomprehensible terror.

They only felt a blur before their eyes, followed by a loud bang, and their minds were blank about what had happened in between.

"This... what's going on?" Zhao Sanpao stammered, and his live stream was instantly flooded with screens full of "???"

In the crowd, Su Qingzhu abruptly pressed the replay button.

When she saw the slow-motion playback of the recording, her beautiful pupils suddenly contracted to the extreme!

In those three frozen seconds, her camera clearly captured the talisman flying out of Li Songyang's sleeve. After burning in the air, the residual ash strangely formed an incomplete character "Zhen" ( town, meaning to suppress or seal)!

And at the same time, at the edge of the street stall, an unnoticed gray mark silently drew a complete circle along the outline of the tattered cloth!

This was... some kind of sealing array? Li Songyang's real purpose wasn't to seal off the stall, but to seal something!

"Time... frozen?"

Li Songyang's face instantly turned ashen. He involuntarily took half a step back, his voice trembling with unprecedented shock and terror.

"This is impossible! Absolutely impossible! Unless it's... unless the legendary Guan Xin Array has reappeared in the world!"

He stared fixedly at Zhang Xuanyi, his gaze no longer the previous contempt and arrogance, but an examination mixed with fear and disbelief.

"You... who exactly sent you?"

Facing this earth-shattering question, Zhang Xuanyi merely grinned, casually patted away non-existent dust from his Daoist robe, and looked innocent.

"Senior Brother, you're wronging me. I didn't make the bell; its temper isn't good, and it wanted to stop for a moment. Could I really stop it?"

Before he finished speaking, his peripheral vision caught a line of system prompts appearing silently beneath the tattered street stall, invisible to anyone else:

"Ding! Successfully triggered the complete form of the Guan Xin Array, misled a high-level Stranger (Qingyuan Envoy Lv.5), hidden quest [Deceive the Heavens] completion 100%."

"Ding! reverse fate altering compass unlock progress: 100%! Unlock complete!"

At the same time, around the corner of the bell tower, the mute Daoist boy's figure flashed past.

With a flick of his small hand, an ancient copper coin engraved with the character "Xin" ( Heart, heart) silently slipped from between his fingers, like a falling leaf, accurately dropping into a crevice of the tattered street stall, disappearing from view.

Zhang Xuanyi's heart suddenly pounded. He looked down at his street stall, muttering to himself, his voice so soft only he could hear it.

"Xuan character iron plate, Guan character jade tablet, and now a Xin character copper coin..."

"Good heavens... with the three eyes in place, I'm afraid this tattered cloth of mine is really going to change the world?"