73: You don't believe in fate? I sell fate change

The fluctuation of that power was subtle yet clear; Cui Wujiu's pupils shrank, and his mind was shaken.

This was by no means an ordinary technique, but... a thread attempting to directly rewrite and manipulate the life trajectories of others, a domineering force that looked down upon all things as chess pieces.

In the center of the market, the crowd was bustling, and the heat waves were almost melting the bluestone road.

In front of a crude, temporary stall, people were gathered three layers deep, their clamor even drowning out the cries of the shops on either side.

The stall owner was a masked man, tall and thin, revealing only a pair of unfathomable eyes. Only one thing was displayed on his stall—a stack of yellow paper talismans.

"True Fate-Changing Talismans!" the masked man said in a raspy voice, yet it carried a strange allure. "No money, no goods required, only sincerity. With one talisman in hand, you can defy heaven and change your luck, ensuring a worry-free life!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the crowd went completely wild.

"Give me one! I'm willing to lose everything I own, just so my son can get into an immortal sect!"

"Great Master, me! I've been suppressed by my arch-nemesis for half my life. I beg you to grant me a turning point!"

"Asking for nothing? How can there be such a good deal in this world?!" someone questioned, but their voice was instantly drowned out by the even more fanatical wave.

As the law enforcement officer of the Yuanli Market, Cui Wujiu's face had already turned ashen.

He pushed through the crowd, stepped forward, and reached out to grab the stack of talismans.

A wisp of pale gold Power Of Will lingered at his fingertips. This was the official inspection Qi; any exotic treasure with energy fluctuations would have nowhere to hide.

However, the moment his fingertips touched the talismans, Cui Wujiu froze.

Blank.

Purely blank.

These so-called "Fate-Changing Talismans" were nothing more than the most ordinary yellow hemp paper. Forget Qi traces, there wasn't even a hint of spiritual fluctuation. They were just a pile of scrap paper!

"Misleading the public with demonic words. Seize it!" Cui Wujiu's voice was like ice as he prepared to take action.

"Wait!" A burly man who had just grabbed a talisman suddenly blocked Cui Wujiu, his eyes flickering with a crimson fanaticism. "We believe in the Great Master! We don't believe in you government officials!"

"That's right! We don't believe you!" The crowd was instantly ignited. More than a hundred people who had already obtained talismans spontaneously formed a circle, separating the stall from Cui Wujiu, showing blatant hostility.

"We are willing to pay the price!" The first burly man took out a walnut-sized crystal emitting a soft glow from his robes and held it high. "We are willing to pay with Power of Will Crystals! This is our own choice, what does it have to do with you!"

"We believe in our own choices!" a hundred people shouted together, the sound wave shaking the heavens.

Cui Wujiu was trembling with rage; these people were insane!

A Power of Will Crystal was a supreme treasure condensed by a practitioner's own conviction and Mental Energy. A single one was enough to exchange for a decent Magical Artifact, and they were actually going to use it for a piece of scrap paper?!

Not far away, at a corner stall, Zhang Xuanyi was leisurely squatting on a small stool. In his left hand was a skewer of sizzling roasted kidneys, and in his right was a bottle of chilled malt beer, watching with great interest.

He narrowed his eyes, a playful smile curling at the corner of his mouth: "Tsk, the show is starting."

As night fell, Su Qingzhu walked quickly to Zhang Xuanyi's stall, her pretty face full of anxiety.

As the manager of the market's data hub, she had already investigated the background of that "Fate Stall."

"It's those people from 'Jiaogu'! Three years ago, they were selling counterfeit Power Of Will Magical Artifacts and had their Foundations scorched by the backlash. They've come back to take revenge on the market!"

She lowered her voice, her tone urgent: "They use blank talismans to lure people into investing Power of Will Crystals. Once the Power Of Will inside the crystals loses its vessel and dissipates, it will form a small-scale Power Of Will storm. If over a hundred explode at once, the entire market's Foundation will be shaken! Zhang Xuanyi, aren't you going to stop them?"

Zhang Xuanyi blew the chili flakes off his skewer, took a slow bite, and said indistinctly, "Stop them? You can stop a stall, but you can't stop the human heart. Look at those people; they don't believe in that piece of paper, they believe in the three words 'can change fate.' If you go tell them it's fake now, they'll think you're cutting off their hope and will want to eat you alive."

"Then what should we do? Just watch them destroy this place?" Su Qingzhu couldn't understand.

Zhang Xuanyi finally swallowed the meat in his mouth and threw the bamboo skewer into the brazier. "Since they want to change their fate so badly, then I'll... let them change it to their heart's content."

The next day, Zhang Xuanyi's dilapidated stall was completely refreshed.

He put up a huge banner with a line of large words written in a flamboyant style: "I don't sell fate, but I'll teach you to accept it—today, I'll teach you three tricks to see through Jianghu scams for free!"

A sign was also placed at the front of the stall: "Fraud-Busting Experience Pack: Just one Power of Will Crystal to verify the authenticity of any exotic treasure on the spot. Tenfold compensation if it's fake!"

When the surrounding stall owners and passersby saw this, they all sneered.

"Is this fool crazy? Yesterday, people were fighting over those free 'Fate Stall' items, and he's charging for fraud-busting?"

"Meddling in others' business and blocking their path to wealth—he'll probably be beaten to death."

Zhang Xuanyi didn't care about these comments at all.

He brought out a large tea barrel and warmly greeted the passing pedestrians: "Step right up, don't miss out! Free Heart-Clearing Tea, quenches thirst and removes heat. It makes watching the excitement even better!"

No one knew that he had secretly ground several heavenly eye mung beans into a very fine powder and mixed them into the tea.

This item was useless for Mortals to drink, but if a practitioner drank it, their mind would become clear and their five senses transparent within half an hour, making their perception of energy several times sharper.

Sure enough, after a few gulps of the free tea, several exclamations immediately erupted from the crowd.

"Why is my 'Century-Old Warm Jade' cold?!" A Cultivator immediately took a jade pendant from his robes and found that the faint spiritual light on it was actually triggered by another miniature rune; the body was just a piece of broken stone!

"Dishonest merchant! The 'Fire Toad Saliva' you sold me is just dyed toad oil!"

"There's a hidden flaw in this Flying Sword!"

Three counterfeit transactions were exposed on the spot, and the scene became chaotic for a time.

And those who had drunk the tea, when they looked at the still-popular "Fate Stall," a trace of clarity and scrutiny unconsciously appeared in their eyes.

On the third day, as dawn was just breaking, the market was in an uproar.

"My money pouch! All my savings are gone!" a merchant who had bought a "Fate-Changing Talisman" wailed as he collapsed to the ground.

"Ah! My leg!" A Cultivator's True Qi unexpectedly flowed in reverse during his morning exercise, breaking his leg bone—and he had just tucked the talisman close to his body yesterday.

Even worse, a pair of partners who were as close as brothers actually came to blows and became enemies over who the "good luck" brought by a talisman belonged to.

Loss of wealth, physical injury, friends and family turning against each other... one misfortune after another befell those who had bought the talismans.

Panic and anger spread through the crowd like a virus.

"It's that fake Great Master! He's the one who harmed us!"

"Catch him! Burn his fake talismans!"

The angry crowd finally woke up and surged toward the "Fate Stall" like a tide, wanting to tear the masked man to pieces.

At that moment, a figure lazily blocked the way between the crowd and the masked man—it was Zhang Xuanyi.

He looked around and said loudly, "Everyone, please calm down. They sold fake talismans, that much is true."

He paused, his gaze becoming sharp as a knife as it swept over every angry and regretful face. "But what you bought... was a fluke."

Before his voice faded, he swiped his fingers in the air, and a light screen appeared out of thin air.

On the light screen, a phantom of an incredibly complex compass emerged, its needle spinning wildly in reverse.

"This is a phantom of the 'reverse fate altering compass' that I extracted from the System's final records." Zhang Xuanyi's voice spread clearly throughout the area. "This thing really can change fate. But the price is that fortune and misfortune are intertwined; if you seek one part of fortune, you must suffer one part of misfortune. But what about you? You were willing to give away a precious 'Power of Will Crystal' to a stranger for nothing, all for a vague promise. What makes you think that something as Heaven-Defying as changing fate can be done without paying any price?"

These words were like a great bell, leaving everyone speechless.

They looked at the reversing compass and then at the misfortunes they had encountered, their faces filled only with endless shame and lingering fear.

That night, the masked remnants of "Jiaogu" surrendered before the Power Of Will Notary Platform and publicly burned the talismans in repentance.

Cui Wujiu was impartially preparing to record the archives when suddenly, a change occurred!

The few Power of Will Crystals they had swindled, which had not yet dissipated, simultaneously emitted a crisp sound, and cracks burst open across their surfaces!

From within the cracks, a wisp of imperceptible yet incredibly pure Qi flashed and disappeared.

Cui Wujiu's movements froze. That aura... he had seen it in the highest-level archives!

Su Qingzhu stared intently at the energy peaks that had instantly turned red on the data screen, murmuring in a low voice, more of a statement than a question: "It's the residual Qi of the Pseudo-Three Caverns Liquid... Three days ago, you scattered the catalyst in their tea—no, in the air of the entire market. This sliver of True Qi triggered their own Power Of Will backlash... You had set this 'Karma Hook' long ago?"

Zhang Xuanyi, with a grass root he'd found from somewhere in his mouth, exhaled a breath of white mist and said calmly, "I didn't set it; they chose it themselves. Greed is the hook, and a fluke is the bait. I just gave them... an opportunity to see the truth in advance."

As his voice fell, in a corner that no one noticed, atop a node of the market's ley lines, the mouth of the old turtle that had been slumbering for untold ages seemed to twitch almost imperceptibly, and a faint trace of Dragon Qi vibrated gently deep underground.

And in front of Zhang Xuanyi's dilapidated stall, the old yellow dog that had been napping all along stood up at some point.

The setting sun stretched its shadow very long, and that shadow silently twisted and extended, like an indestructible barrier, happening to block the path between the stall and the vibrating source of the ley lines.