One Person: I, the Dragon Tiger Stall King! I Won!

45: A dog’s nose is sharper than a Taoist priest’sThe night wind whipped up the tattered cloth of the stall; on the back of the star chart, the handwritten words ”Debt Repayment” glowed faintly warm.

Zhang Xuanyi’s gaze slowly shifted from the bottle of clear liquid in his hand toward the direction of the Tianshi Mansion, his eyes as deep as an abyss.

It wasn’t a question, but a cold confirmation, as if through layers of night, he had already seen a web of fate.

The piercing pain from his shattered wrist bone jolted Hu San Dao out of his shock. He stared fixedly at the old dog with smooth fur and burning golden eyes, a strange rattling sound coming from his throat: ”You... what did you give it to drink?!” This was no ordinary beast; that breath of purified golden Qi was clearly the protective True Qi that cultivators dreamed of!

Zhang Xuanyi ignored him, simply bending down to gently tap the old dog’s forehead with his knuckles and smooth its fur, as if comforting a partner who had performed a great service.

”Old Huang, good job.” He gave a name to this old dog that had guarded the stall for many years.

Old Huang whimpered comfortably, the fierce light in his golden eyes receding as he returned to his lazy demeanor. However, his gaze toward Zhang Xuanyi now held an indescribable sense of spirituality and dependence.

”Zhang Xuanyi!” Su Qingzhu’s voice trembled slightly as she quickly used spare rope to tightly bind the two thugs whose Meridians had been sealed by Liu Qingyi, rendering them unable to move. ”What do we do now? Call the police? Is this... illegal detention?” She was a professional journalist after all; her first reaction was always procedural justice.

”Call the police?” Liu Qingyi snorted coldly. She held the list recovered from the hidden compartment at the bottom of the kiln, her fingertips radiating a chill. ”Tell them there’s a poison in this world called ’Corpse Oil Mixed with Yin Crystals’ that is colorless and odorless, and in three days, it will make the ’Qi’ inside a person’s body explode like a bomb? Or that we found this counterfeit den thanks to a dog?” She shook the paper with thirty-six names on it. ”In their eyes, we and these three guys are all lunatics.”

Liu Qingyi’s words were like a bucket of ice water, extinguishing Su Qingzhu’s last shred of hope.

She looked at the mountain of empty bottles and forged seals inside the kiln; every bottle could represent a broken family.

Outside the kiln, the behemoth known as ”Tongxuan Hall” was rising in the Three Cities with unstoppable momentum. The crazed ”Liquid People” online had even begun to revere its founder, White Deer Elder, as a deity.

At the thought of White Deer Elder’s sage-like appearance, contrasted with this filthy, stench-filled counterfeit den, Su Qingzhu felt a bone-chilling cold.

This was a meticulously planned scam, with a high-and-mighty deity at one end and buried underground evil at the other. People like Hu San Dao were merely the most insignificant link connecting the two.

”I... I can expose them!” Su Qingzhu clenched her fists, the indicator light on her recording pen flashing in the darkness. ”I want everyone to know the truth!”

”It’s useless,” Zhang Xuanyi finally spoke, his voice terrifyingly calm. ”Before you present ironclad evidence, you’ll only be treated as a lunatic slandering a deity, drowned by the spit of those millions of ’Liquid People.’ They won’t believe the truth; they only believe in the miracles they want to believe in.” He stood up, walked over to Hu San Dao, and squatted down, looking directly into the other’s face, which was distorted by fear and agony.

”Where is Lin Qi?” Zhang Xuanyi asked.

A flash of terror crossed Hu San Dao’s eyes, quickly replaced by madness: ”I don’t know! Even if you kill me, I still won’t know! My life is worthless anyway, but trading it for three buildings? It’s worth it!”

”Is that so?” Zhang Xuanyi smiled. He pulled a melon seed from his pocket, slowly peeled it, and offered the kernel to Old Huang’s mouth.

Old Huang swallowed it in one gulp, squinting his eyes in enjoyment.

Zhang Xuanyi’s movements were unhurried, yet they exerted an unprecedented pressure on Hu San Dao.

”Do you know what else I sell at this stall besides Purification Talismans?” Zhang Xuanyi asked softly, as if chatting about daily life. ”I also sell an ’Obedience Talisman.’ Stick it on someone, and they’ll answer whatever is asked. However, the side effects are a bit large; after using it, a person becomes... a bit like a dog.” He glanced at Old Huang, who was wagging his tail nearby. ”In the literal sense.”

Hu San Dao’s pupils constricted suddenly. He looked at the sentient old dog, then at the harmless smile on Zhang Xuanyi’s face, and a chill surged from his tailbone straight to the top of his head.

He had spent half his life in the Jianghu, committing murder and arson, but he had never seen such bizarre methods!

This had already exceeded his understanding of the world!

”I’ll talk! I’ll talk!” Hu San Dao’s psychological defenses instantly collapsed. ”Lin Qi... Lin Qi is the Senior Brother of Tongxuan Hall and White Deer Elder’s most trusted person! These fake liquids—he gave them to us and told us to find people to test them! He said it was to filter out Disciples with the most ’Immortal Fate,’ but in reality... in reality, it was just to see who lived and who died!”

”Where is he?” Zhang Xuanyi’s tone remained calm.

”He... he went back to Mount Longhu three days ago, saying he was going to the Tianshi Mansion to ’pay his respects’! He also said... he said he wanted to give the current Tianshi a ’surprise’!” Hu San Dao blurted out everything like beans spilling from a bamboo tube. ”The people on the list are all those who came into contact with him in the past half month and were ’bestowed liquid’ by him! I’m only responsible for this West City area; I really don’t know about the others!”

Mount Longhu, Tianshi Mansion!

Those words caused the expressions of both Liu Qingyi and Su Qingzhu to change simultaneously.

That was the orthodox sect of the world’s Dao, a Holy Land with a thousand-year Legacy!

For Lin Qi to bring such a sinister thing to pay his respects, his intentions were truly damnable!

Zhang Xuanyi’s gaze grew even darker.

He recalled that line of small, cold text from the System: ”First target marked.” A Yuan never spoke nonsense; his mark would inevitably point to a key node.

Could it be... He suddenly asked, ”Who is the first name on the list?”

Liu Qingyi glanced down at the scrap of the ledger: ”It’s Lin Qi. He was the first test subject. The ledger records that the dose he took was three times that of the others, but there’s a note in red ink next to it—’No issue’.”

”’No issue’?” Liu Qingyi herself found it absurd. ”Impossible! With that amount of Corpse Oil Yin Crystals, even if he were a cultivator made of iron, his Qi Mansion should have been blown apart. How could he be fine?”

Zhang Xuanyi slowly stood up as a terrifying thought began to take shape in his mind.

If Lin Qi wasn’t dead, there were only two possibilities.

One, he had a special antidote.

Two, he wasn’t human at all.

”A Yuan,” he murmured in his heart, ”who exactly is it that you’ve marked?”

The System remained silent.

But Zhang Xuanyi felt that the burning sensation from the back of the star chart was becoming increasingly clear.

The handwriting of ”Debt Repayment” seemed to come alive, urging him to make a choice.

Thirty-six lives, three days.

This small bottle of Purification True Qi Liquid in his hand might be able to save one or two, but it certainly couldn’t handle such a large scale.

Moreover, once he used this Heaven-Defying liquid on a large scale, it would inevitably alert certain existences he wasn’t yet ready to face.

”It’s too late,” Zhang Xuanyi said softly, as if announcing a fact to himself and his companions.

”What’s too late?” Su Qingzhu asked urgently. ”We’ll go find the people on the list right now! One by one! We’ll save as many as we can!”

”I’m not talking about them.” Zhang Xuanyi shook his head. He tucked the precious bottle of True Qi liquid back into his robe with a decisive motion. ”Hu San Dao said Lin Qi went to the Tianshi Mansion to give the current Tianshi a ’surprise.’ White Deer Elder established Tongxuan Hall in the Three Cities with great fanfare, wanting the whole world to know. They aren’t afraid of exposure because they are conducting... a grand sacrifice.”

Liu Qingyi’s heart skipped a beat. ”You mean...”

”They aren’t trying to make money from fake liquid, nor are they trying to filter for Disciples.” Zhang Xuanyi cast his gaze toward the foot of the mountain, where the city lights merged into a single expanse, like a river of stars in the Mortal world.

And at the center of that river of stars, the construction site of Tongxuan Hall was brightly lit throughout the night, like a crouching behemoth.

”What they want is for these thirty-six people to die suddenly at the same time in different locations from the same ’divine medicine.’ They want to create an unprecedented ’miracle,’ a spectacle composed of death. When countless believers witness this, what will they think?”

Su Qingzhu’s lips lost their color. She murmured, ”They will think... it’s a divine punishment, a sign that Mortals cannot withstand divine grace. And those who survive, like White Deer Elder and Lin Qi, will be seen as the true messengers of God...”

”Exactly.” Zhang Xuanyi’s voice was as cold as ice. ”A meticulously directed martyrdom is enough to completely deify Tongxuan Hall. At that time, when they release the real, perhaps less potent ’True Liquid,’ they will be able to harvest the faith of an entire era.”

What a mad and vicious plan!

”We must stop him!” Su Qingzhu’s voice was resolute.

Zhang Xuanyi, however, looked in another direction—toward the Tongxuan Hall construction site.

The night was deep, but the clamor over there never seemed to stop.

He could imagine that at this moment, countless brainwashed and fanatical ”Liquid People” were gathered there, waiting for their deity’s next bestowal.

”Stop them? No.” The corners of Zhang Xuanyi’s mouth curled into a cold arc, a smile that held a hint of madness and a bottomless exhaustion. ”We won’t stop them.”

He turned around and said to Liu Qingyi and Su Qingzhu, ”Handle these three men properly; leave no traces. Before dawn, we have something more important to do.”

”Do what?” Liu Qingyi asked.

Zhang Xuanyi didn’t answer directly. He looked up at the horizon that was about to turn pale; the lights at the edge of the city seemed to dim at that moment.

”When the old idols fall, new ones must take their place,” he said softly, his voice scattered by the night wind. ”Instead of waiting for them to sacrifice the believers, why don’t we... go and deliver a true miracle to those devout people?”

His gaze was profound, as if piercing through the last bit of darkness before dawn to see whether it was a hypocritical monument or an unforeseen storm that was about to rise above that fanatical construction site.