75: The light turns on by itself

As the sky began to brighten with the first light of dawn, the clamor atop Xie Long Mountain from the night before completely faded away, leaving only the residual warmth of charcoal embers and the faint scent of sandalwood.

The stall owners yawned as they cleared up the mess scattered across the ground; this once-in-a-century grand event had finally come to an end.

Zhang Xuanyi squatted by his own stove, using a broken bowl to scoop the last spoonful of cooled mung bean soup. Just as he was about to blow away the foam, he caught a glimpse of an extremely unusual movement out of the corner of his eye.

In the corner of the stall, that battered oil lamp that had accompanied him for three years—its wick already bone-dry—suddenly ignited without fire.

Even more eerie was that the flame was not the usual orange-yellow, but a ghostly green. At the heart of the flame, an illusory outline of a rune was slowly condensing—it was clearly the phantom of half a 'Mind-Clearing Talisman.'

His movements stiffened, but he immediately acted as if nothing had happened, dangling a grass root in his mouth and squinting, remaining motionless.

Deep within those seemingly lazy eyes, however, a sharp glint flashed and vanished.

"It's coming," he whispered indistinctly, his voice so soft it seemed like nothing more than an exhaled breath.

At the same time, halfway up the mountain, the famous mystery-exploration streamer Su Qingzhu was screwing on her lens cap, preparing to finish her work.

Out of professional habit, she opened the playback function on her camera.

The high-speed flashing images turned into streaks of light in her eyes. Suddenly, she pressed the pause button and precisely dragged the progress bar back to the moment last night when the lights were at their peak.

Once, twice... She repeatedly played the moment when the ten thousand lamps were extinguished, her expression gradually becoming solemn.

In the recording, the instant those thousands upon thousands of lamps went out was not simultaneous.

At every point where the light vanished, there was an imperceptible lingering glow, like a person's final breath before death, delayed by a full three breaths before returning completely to darkness.

This was definitely no coincidence; it was more like the collective respiration of some massive living organism, long and heavy.

Elsewhere, the manager Cui Wujiu, who was patrolling the various stalls to ensure the incense smoke had fully dissipated, was walking toward an old well at the foot of the mountain.

This well was the market's water source. Last night, believers had tossed countless wishing coins into it, and the well water shimmered with a faint golden light.

But now, not only had the golden light not faded, it was even more intense than during the night, as if a molten sun were hidden at the bottom of the well.

Cui Wujiu felt a surge of suspicion and leaned over to scoop up a handful of water.

The well water entered his mouth, crisp and cool with a strange hint of warmth.

The next second, a long-buried image exploded in his mind—three years ago, also at this market, a vendor with a blurred face was drawing talismans to exorcise evil for a worried woman for free, taking not a single cent, only receiving a sincere "Thank you for your great kindness" from her.

That vendor's figure slowly overlapped with a certain image of a man playing through life in his memory.

Cui Wujiu's whole body shook as he suddenly realized!

He had always thought that the power of the Xie Long Banquet originated from 'transactions,' that Power Of Will was a commodity with a clear price tag.

But now he understood that the true crystallization of power had already transcended the transaction itself, settling into every inch of this market's soil, every wisp of smoke, and every instance of sincere prayer and gratitude!

His expression changed drastically, and he turned to run like a madman toward Zhang Xuanyi's main stall.

But when he arrived panting, he saw Zhang Xuanyi using a pair of bamboo chopsticks to slowly poke at that self-ignited lone lamp with the green flame, as if admiring a rare treasure.

"Mr. Zhang! This fire..."

Zhang Xuanyi didn't turn his head, only saying softly: "It's not that someone lit the fire; it's the longing in people's hearts that can't bear to let it go out."

As soon as he finished speaking, as if to verify his words, the midday sun grew fierce, and a strange transformation suddenly occurred!

"Look! The lamp at Old Wang's house!"

"My god, mine caught fire too!"

Exclamations rose from all sides, and the originally quiet market instantly boiled over.

Amidst the crowd, seven or eight oil lamps that had long been extinguished suddenly self-ignited. Different talisman phantoms emerged within the flames—there was the 'Mind-Soothing Talisman' for peaceful sleep, the 'Atonement Talisman' for seeking forgiveness, and even the 'Soul-Guiding Talisman' to show the way for the deceased.

The stall owners were both shocked and terrified; such unheard-of weirdness left them at a loss. Several people grabbed water basins, intending to douse the flames.

"Nobody move!"

A sharp shout rang out like a clap of thunder. Zhang Xuanyi slammed his hand on the table and stood up, the force splashing the mung bean soup out of his bowl.

He looked around at everyone, the laziness in his eyes replaced by a sharpness that pierced through everything: "Whoever dares to splash a single drop of water will face the consequences!"

The crowd was cowed by his Aura and froze in place for a moment.

Zhang Xuanyi took a deep breath and said loudly: "What's the panic? This is 'Thought-Formed Talismans'! It's because people sincerely believed this stall could change their fate—believed so intensely and prayed so sincerely that this Power Of Will condensed into talismans on its own. The Heavens are opening your eyes!"

As he spoke, he pulled the last crumpled piece of blank photocopy yellow paper from his robe, slapped it onto the stove wall, and announced loudly: "Today, I, Zhang Xuanyi, am holding an event! Whichever house's lamp has self-ignited, the talisman phantom in that flame belongs to you! I will rub it for you once for free, without taking a single cent!"

The news spread across the entire mountaintop like the wind.

The crowd was skeptical but gathered around to see for themselves.

Just then, in front of an old woman's candied hawthorn stall, the light of that small oil lamp flashed violently. Within the heart of the flame, an ancient character for 'Filial Piety' clearly condensed.

Looking at that talisman phantom, the old woman's clouded eyes were instantly flooded with tears. She covered her mouth, sobbing uncontrollably.

Only when the people around her asked did they learn that her only grandson had been suffering from a persistent high fever down the mountain last night. While she was skewering candied hawthorns at the stall, she had been silently making a wish in her heart: 'If this Xie Long Banquet truly has gods, I beg you to show great mercy. I am willing to give up ten years of my life in exchange for my grandson's health for one night!'

An extremely simple wish, yet it contained the purest sincerity.

Zhang Xuanyi watched quietly from behind the crowd, his fingertips moving slightly as he quietly noted the matter down.

That evening, he sent a clever worker down the mountain to the old woman's house with three unusually plump heavenly eye mung beans and a note.

The note read: "It wasn't a talisman that saved your grandson, it was your heart. But since you believed, you must take it seriously from now on."

The old woman received the mung beans, ground them into powder, mixed them with water, and fed them to her grandson. The next day, he was indeed much better.

Once this matter spread, the entire Xie Long Mountain completely erupted with excitement.

As night fell, the wondrous spectacle reached its peak.

Across the entire Xie Long Mountain, no more and no less, exactly twenty-seven oil lamps self-ignited in succession!

The talisman phantoms in the flames took many forms: the 'Treasure Canopy Talisman' for seeking wealth, the 'One Heart Talisman' for marriage, the 'Scholar Star Talisman' for academic luck... Under the shocked gazes of countless people, these twenty-seven light talismans slowly detached from the lamps and rose into the air, arranging themselves against the night sky to finally converge into four dazzling characters—

The Willing Find Freedom!

That light was purer than the bright moon and more brilliant than the stars, hanging above the mountain peak for a long time without dissipating.

Su Qingzhu's live stream recorded all of this in its entirety. The number of viewers in the stream instantly surpassed a hundred million. Trembling, she changed the title to: "Today, the Dao has manifested itself."

High upon the platform, Cui Wujiu looked up at those four light talismans, divine light reflected in his old, clouded eyes. He murmured softly, his voice carrying a hint of liberation and awe: "From now on, there is no longer a need for anyone to certify the truth or falsehood of this world... If the heart believes, it is real."

At the foot of the mountain, Zhang Xuanyi leaned back in his broken bamboo chair, leisurely chewing on a newly sprouted mung bean.

He didn't even look at the miracle in the sky, as if it were just ordinary fireworks.

Suddenly, the stall cloth beneath him grew slightly warm.

Confused, he lifted a corner and saw a line of tiny characters appearing on the back of the fabric.

The characters were neither gold nor ink, appearing as if they were formed by hundreds of millions of faint points of light, carrying a vast Aura from the ancient primordial era.

The words said: You take a step back, the Dao takes a step forward.

Zhang Xuanyi stared at that line of text for a long while, his mouth spreading into a wide grin.

He flicked the cloth back into place, then rolled over, pulled a thin blanket over his head, and actually fell into a deep sleep just like that.

The mountain wind blew, fluttering the blank yellow paper on the stall, as if foreshadowing something.

After that night on Xie Long Mountain, the threshold between man and the Dao seemed to have been completely leveled.