80: The influence of Xinhuo

That throbbing was not an illusion.

At midnight, in the Mount Longhu market, the first things to change were the dozens of old oil lamps hanging in front of the stalls.

Without being lit, the wicks suddenly flared up with clusters of greenish-white flames.

The flames ignored the night wind, licking straight upwards into the darkness. They had no temperature, yet emitted an eerie glow that inspired awe.

The light converged, piercing through the clouds, and actually projected four grand, dragon-like and phoenix-like seal script characters onto the profound night sky—'Those Who Wish Shall Attain Freedom'.

The characters shone brightly, visible for a hundred miles.

The first to arrive were the cultivators from the mountains.

A white-haired old Daoist rode in on a Flying Sword. Seeing this celestial phenomenon, he actually tumbled directly from his Flying Sword, prostrated himself, wept tears of joy, and cried out, "The Heavenly Gate has opened! The Great Dao is within reach!" Even a Talisman Grandmaster immediately burned rare Talisman paper that had been kept at the bottom of his chest. The Talisman fire was drawn by the green flames in the sky, transforming into a fiery tornado that circled in worship.

Panic and fanaticism spread like a plague among the awakened individuals who rushed to the scene.

"Something's wrong!" Cui Wujiu's face was ashen. He was dressed in the official black uniform of the government' Awakened agency, the 'Zhenan Office', and pressed one hand onto a stone slab in the center of the market, closing his eyes to perceive.

The Dragon Qi of the underground Dragon Veins was now pulsating violently at an unprecedented frequency, as if a sleeping giant beast had been pricked by thousands of needles simultaneously. Each twitch was perfectly synchronized with the swaying of the greenish-white flames in the sky.

"This isn't a heavenly omen, it's a man-made disaster!" He suddenly opened his eyes, his pupils filled with horror. "It's the Power Of Will! The thousands of thoughts gathered in this market are resonating at the Dragon Vein node, igniting 'faith fire'!"

He darted to the core stall.

The stall owner, Zhang Xuanyi, was lying sprawled out on a bamboo recliner, leisurely chewing on a skewer of sizzling, oily grilled pork kidneys, seemingly oblivious to the heaven-piercing phenomenon.

"Zhang Xuanyi!" Cui Wujiu's voice was hoarse with urgency. "This faith fire has already connected with the earth veins. If it continues to burn, and if it gets out of control, it will cause a Qi tide to backflow, and the entire Mount Longhu will be razed to the ground!"

Xuanyi lazily lifted his eyelids, spat out a bamboo skewer, and picked up another skewer of grilled chives, mumbling, "Fire must burn, wind must blow, rain must fall. Can you stop it? Since it's a fire lit by human hearts, let it burn wherever it wants." He took a bite of the chives and smiled meaningfully, "It can burn a true Dao to the heavens, and it can also burn away this unjust mortal world—this is true freedom."

Just then, a dazzling mobile phone fill light shone over.

"Hello everyone, I'm your streamer Su Qingzhu! Live reporting on the Mount Longhu supernatural event—'Tonight, the Dao Burns Itself Up'!" Su Qingzhu held up a selfie stick, her camera precisely capturing all the incredible events.

She had originally come to uncover the secrets of this "internet-famous stall," but she never expected to encounter this once-in-a-millennium spectacle.

Her camera swept over faces that were either reverent, greedy, or bewildered. Suddenly, she paused on a corner.

A blind child, about seven or eight years old, was clumsily drawing something with his finger dipped in the mud and water on the ground.

As his last stroke fell, a wisp of greenish-white faith fire actually rose from the muddy traces of his fingertip.

In the flame, the smiling face of a gentle woman flickered in and out of view. The blind child couldn't see it, but he seemed to sense something, reaching out his small hand and softly calling out, "Mom..."

The camera sharply turned, pointing to another spot.

A man with a full beard knelt before a stall called the "regret lamp," his eyes bloodshot, looking like a madman.

He pulled out a crystal-clear stone from his embrace; it was a Power Of Will crystal condensed from his lifelong cultivation.

He slammed the crystal onto the lamp base. The moment the crystal shattered, he was engulfed by the green fire.

In the firelight, there were no cries of pain. Instead, it reflected the image of a young girl, who gave the man in the flames a forgiving smile before her death.

Su Qingzhu trembled all over. The comments in her live stream had already exploded, but at this moment, a thought suddenly struck her, and she murmured in a lost voice, "I understand... It's not us using Power Of Will; it's Power Of Will... it's the 'Dao' choosing those who can bear it!"

"Good Comprehension Ability." Zhang Xuanyi, who had sat up from his recliner at some point, finished his last skewer and clapped his hands. "Back then, I sold Talismans here, hoping people would believe in my Talismans. Now, I don't need to." He pointed to the sky, then to the ground. "The Dao is choosing its own inheritors."

On the seventh day, the influence of the faith fire completely spiraled out of control.

It was no longer confined to Mount Longhu but spread like dandelion seeds to the towns outside the mountain.

Everyone who had made a wish in the market, even if they had only had a fleeting thought, saw mysterious runes in their dreams.

Upon waking, they were horrified to discover that with just a thought, they could draw out faint greenish-white flames from their fingertips.

The prelude to global chaos seemed to have begun.

The Zhenan Office finally issued its highest directive, to completely seal off Mount Longhu at all costs.

Cui Wujiu led a large force, armed with the latest developed spiritual power inhibitors, ready to cast a net.

But at this moment, Zhang Xuanyi slowly stood up and poured the last pot of leftover mung bean soup from his stall onto the ground at his feet.

That pot of mung bean soup was brewed with water from the old well behind his stall, and beneath the well water lay the roots of the Dragon Veins.

"Seal it?" Zhang Xuanyi looked at Cui Wujiu, who was facing a formidable enemy, and smiled, a smile tinged with both pity and madness. "You can seal the mountain, cut off the roads, but can you seal the hearts of all the people in this world who want to believe in something?"

Before his words finished, the mung bean-laced soup seeped into the cracks in the ground, as if a ladle of cold water had been thrown into boiling oil.

The entire Mount Longhu trembled violently. The Dragon Qi of the earth veins, stirred by the faith fire for seven days and seven nights, surged upwards like a volcano suppressed to its limit, guided by the mung bean soup!

Golden Dragon Qi and greenish-white faith fire violently mingled in mid-air. Instead of an explosion, they transformed into a brilliant rain of light that swept in all directions.

Wherever the light rain fell, whether in rock crevices or scorched earth, tiny new sprouts emerged at a visible speed—all of them were seedlings of the "heavenly eye mung beans" sold at Zhang Xuanyi's stall.

Cui Wujiu stood frozen on the high platform, the spiritual power inhibitor in his hand hanging limply.

He stared at the new green growth covering the mountains, swaying in the wind, for a long time in silence. Then he suddenly raised his hand, took out a newly promulgated "Provisional Regulations for the Management of Mind Talismans" from his embrace, and, to the astonished gazes of all Zhenan Office members, tore it to shreds.

"My orders," his voice echoed across the field with unprecedented resolve, "From today onwards, the Zhenan Office will no longer review the authenticity of thoughts, nor will it restrict the spread of faith fire. A believing heart is a Talisman, and a rising wish is spiritual—" He paused, his gaze becoming incredibly sharp, "—but all consequences must be borne by oneself!"

As soon as his words fell, the first piercing scream came from the town below the mountain.

A fanatical believer, who had just gained power, tried to burn his enemy with the fire of his thoughts. However, due to his unstable resolve, his Power Of Will backfired, and the flames poured back into his body, instantly burning his consciousness blank, turning him into a drooling idiot.

A huge panic erupted among the crowd. The hope that had just ignited was instantly doused with a bucket of ice water.

Everyone was terrified and uncertain, their gazes instinctively turning to Zhang Xuanyi, the instigator.

But he merely unhurriedly hung a new wooden sign on his stall, with crooked writing that read:

"Today's Special: heavenly eye mung beans, buy one get one free. Advice: First understand yourself, then believe others."

On the night of the full moon, the sky-filling faith fire finally receded like a tide. The market returned to tranquility, as if the previous heaven-piercing phenomenon was just a grand dream.

Zhang Xuanyi still lay on the creaking bamboo chair, munching on a few freshly picked, tender mung bean sprouts, crisp and crunchy.

Suddenly, his eyes narrowed. On the tattered stall cloth, trampled by countless people, the last line of blood-red small characters slowly appeared in the moonlight at the corner of the cloth:

"You are not the starting point, but the kindling."

Zhang Xuanyi stared at the line of text for a long time, then suddenly grinned, stuffed the remaining mung bean sprouts into his mouth, turned over, and fell into a deep sleep.

The camera silently pulled back, moving past the sleeping Zhang Xuanyi, past the market where thousands of stall fires seemed to have extinguished.

By an unnoticed stream at the foot of the mountain, a child playing with mud mixed well water with new soil and carefully molded a blurry little figure.

After molding it, he stood the little figure on the ground and respectfully bowed towards the Mount Longhu market.

A night breeze blew, and in the mountains and fields, a new crop of heavenly eye mung bean sprouts unfurled their tender leaves towards the moonlight.

And deep within the earth veins, the ancient turtle, which had been dormant for countless years, breathed long and deep, like an ancient pendulum, gently striking the first beat of the next Reincarnation.

This silence was not the peace of all things ceasing, but the deadly stillness of an arrow just before it leaves the string, after the bow has been fully drawn.

In the mountain wind, there was no longer the roar of flames, but countless suppressed heartbeats, and eyes slowly opening in the darkness after tasting power for the first time.