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

68: I am not a Taoist priest, I am a stall ownerThat invisible rift was the collapse of faith, the epitaph of an old era.

The next second, a heavy, teeth-grating ’creak’ echoed in reality.

The vermilion main gate of the Longhu Mountain Tianshi Mansion, which had stood for three hundred years and was sealed by countless talismans and formations, slowly opened inward under the gaze of all.

Behind the gate was not the imagined golden light or protective thunder, but only an unfathomable gloom, like a giant beast ready to devour, silently opening its maw.

Everyone’s breath hitched.

He’s here! The first Tianshi in three hundred years to step out of the mansion!

The crowd retreated like a tide, awe and fear intertwined on every face.

This was the supreme existence who wielded the authority over all Daoist sects, acting on behalf of Heaven to mete out punishment!

However, what emerged from that deep darkness was not the awe-inspiring Ninth Successor Cloth Master that everyone had imagined.

It was three old men in worn Daoist robes, their hair and beards white.

They walked with faltering steps, their expressions a mix of excitement and trepidation, as if holding the world’s most precious treasure, or perhaps a thunderclap ready to explode at any moment.

In the hand of the leading elder was a gilded jade scroll; the other two each held an ancient jade seal and a whisk entwined with a faint purple aura.

These three items were the symbols of the Tianshi’s authority—the Myriad Gods Register, the Zhengyi Alliance Authority Seal, and the Purple Cloud Whisk!

The three elders passed through the silent crowd, ignoring the renowned grandmasters and magnates, and walked directly to the most inconspicuous, most chaotic, yet most focal point of the entire scene: the street stall.

They looked at the young man who was squatting in front of the oil pan, intently pressing a chive pancake with a spatula, their cloudy old eyes—

With a ’thump,’ the three elders, whose seniority in the Alien World (Yi Ren Jie, or ’Outsider World’) was terrifyingly high, all knelt down, their foreheads touching the dusty ground.

”Sinners of Mount Longhu, respectfully welcome... respectfully welcome the Twelfth Successor Tianshi to his position!”

The voice of the leading elder trembled as he held up the golden scroll and jade seal in his hands, shouting hoarsely: ”The Ninth Successor Cloth Master, before his passing, decreed that whoever comprehends the ’Heavenly Eye’s Inquiry of the Heart’ shall be the new master of Dragon and Tiger! Twelfth Successor Tianshi, please... please enter the mansion to receive the seal!”

The entire foot of Mount Longhu instantly fell into a deathly silence.

All eyes focused on the young man.

Zhang Xuanyi.

He didn’t even turn his head.

With a ’sizzle,’ he scooped the chive pancake, golden-brown on both sides, out of the oil pan and placed it on a piece of oil-absorbing paper nearby, then said lightly without raising his head: ”Not going.”

Two words, light and airy, yet they struck the hearts of the three elders and all onlookers like two bolts of heavenly thunder.

Not going?

That was the position of Tianshi!

It was the leader of all Daoist sects, the pinnacle that countless cultivators yearned for but could never reach in their lifetime!

He just... casually refused it?

The leading elder suddenly looked up and said urgently, ”Tianshi! How can this be? The orthodox lineage of Dragon and Tiger, a thousand years of heritage, how can it fall to others!”

”Crunch.”

Zhang Xuanyi took a big bite of the hot, crispy chive pancake, hissing and gasping from the heat, and said indistinctly, ”A bit salty, less salt next time.”

He swallowed his food, then slowly glanced at the three elders: ”Orthodoxy? What is orthodoxy? Orthodoxy lies in the hearts of people, not in those broken stones and rotten books.”

He pointed his greasy spatula at the Tianshi Mansion, which had been closed for three hundred years, and then at the vast human world at the foot of the mountain.

”You’ve been closed for three hundred years, claiming to be orthodox, but the Daoist lineage was already broken! Who reconnected it?”

His voice suddenly rose, like a resounding bell, making everyone’s eardrums buzz.

”It’s the myriad lights of the households down the mountain, it’s the farmers toiling in the fields, it’s the busy commoners in the city! It’s you, these desperate cultivators who could only come to my stall for peace of mind! It’s their accumulated Yuanli, their humble or grand wishes, that painstakingly reconnected this incense that had been broken for three hundred years!”

”Your orthodoxy guards an empty, dead house. But my Dao lives in the hearts of tens of thousands of people. Now, you tell me, who is truly orthodox?”

The three elders were asked this question, their faces ashen, their mouths agape, unable to utter a single word.

Just then, Su Qingzhu stepped forward, standing at the very front of the crowd.

She held up a phone, its screen facing everyone.

”Everyone!” Her voice was clear and strong, ”Perhaps some have forgotten what happened on Mount Longhu three days ago.”

She pressed the play button.

On the phone screen, a recording of the Mountain Sacrifice Ceremony appeared.

The picture shook violently, and above the sky, the giant face formed by countless talismans was cold and emotionless. The thunderous ’Guilty’ verdict, like a mountain tsunami, pressed down on all cultivators, making them unable to lift their heads.

It was a despair and powerlessness that penetrated to the bone.

”The Tianshi Mansion can have a Tianshi, or it can be without one. But our Mount Longhu cannot be without this Dao Market!”

Su Qingzhu turned off the video, her gaze sweeping across the crowd, saying word by word: ”We are not here to be judged by anyone, nor are we here to beg for anyone’s grace! We don’t want anyone to manage us, we want to choose our own wishes, atone for our own sins, and seek our own freedom and ease!”

After a brief silence, the crowd erupted in cheers like a mountain collapse and a sea tsunami.

”Choose our own wishes! Atone for our own sins!”

”That’s right! Why should his single word determine our guilt!”

”We believe in this land, not that cold mansion!”

Amidst the clamor, Cui Wujiu silently walked up to Zhang Xuanyi’s stall, where his enforcement platform once stood.

He looked at the agitated crowd below, slowly raised his hand, and forcefully tore the tattered talisman on his chest, which symbolized his identity as an enforcer and which he had once been so proud of.

”Rip—”

The talisman tore apart, turning into specks of flying ash.

”From now on,” Cui Wujiu’s voice was deep and firm, echoing throughout the venue, ”I, Cui Wujiu, am no longer an enforcer of the Tianshi Mansion. I am a ’Yuanli Notary.’ Whoever wishes to atone, whoever wishes to make an oath, whoever wishes for a witness, I will be there! I swear by my Dao Heart to witness each and every one of your choices!”

The cheers of the crowd grew even more intense.

The old order was collapsing, and a new order began to sprout under the witness of everyone.

The three elders completely collapsed to the ground; they knew that the times had truly changed.

Zhang Xuanyi smiled contentedly, wiped his hands, and pulled something out from under the stall.

It was a palm-sized bronze compass, ancient in style, but its needle pointed inward and was spinning wildly in reverse.

A profound and mysterious aura of destiny emanated from it.

The last, and most powerful, item unlocked by the system—the ”reverse fate altering compass.”

He gently placed the compass on the stall and smiled at everyone: ”This thing is called the reverse fate altering compass; it can defy heaven and change fate. But the cost is immense, good and bad fortune are intertwined. Sounds amazing, right?”

Everyone was drawn to the compass, even forgetting to breathe. Defying heaven and changing fate—what a temptation!

Zhang Xuanyi, however, changed the subject, his smile becoming radiant and unrestrained.

”But do you know what the most amazing fate alteration in this world is?”

He didn’t point to the compass, but extended his arm, sweeping across the various stalls, some simple, some exquisite, at the foot of the mountain, sweeping across the faces filled with hope and yearning.

”It’s choosing your own destiny!”

His voice was filled with boundless pride and nonchalance.

”I don’t sell destiny; I only sell the right to choose!”

The moment his words fell, the ”reverse fate altering compass” emitted a crisp hum and shattered into countless pieces on its own!

But it did not turn into dust; instead, it transformed into billions of soft light points, like a brilliant galaxy, slowly merging into Zhang Xuanyi’s stall, which was made of leaves from the ”Shennong’s Materia Medica.”

On the leaves of the stall, a gentle golden flame glowed, and next to the original stall description, four new ancient seal characters slowly appeared:

”Those who wish shall find freedom.”

One month later.

The foot of Mount Longhu had completely changed.

It was no longer a simple cultivators’ black market, but the renowned ”Yuanli Market.”

Stalls stretched ten miles from the foot of the mountain, brightly lit, like a silver river on the ground.

Countless cultivators came from all corners of the world, not to seek magical treasures, but to make a wish here, or to atone for a past, seeking peace of mind.

The once majestic and solemn Tianshi Mansion had been transformed into the ”Longhu Mountain Daoist Museum,” open to everyone for free.

The three elders, once high and mighty, were now the most popular guides, happily telling visitors daily about the secret Daoist affairs from three hundred years ago and the legend of the ”Stall Tianshi.”

Zhang Xuanyi still set up his stall every day, selling his chive pancakes and heavenly eye mung beans.

Only, a bamboo chair had been added in front of his stall, where Su Qingzhu always sat, helping him collect money while busily writing in a notebook, whose title was ”The Economics of the Heavenly Dao on a Street Stall.”

One day, she put down her pen and asked curiously, ”Seriously, you don’t regret not becoming that Tianshi at all? That was the Tianshi, after all.”

Zhang Xuanyi swung his legs, leaning comfortably in his lounge chair, watching the ebb and flow of people, and lazily said, ”If I were Tianshi, I’d have to look down on all beings and dictate their paths to others. How tiring. Now, however—”

He casually picked up a piece of yellow paper from the stall, blew on it, and clear runes automatically appeared on the paper. Then he tossed it to a passing young man like a flyer, ”Take it and play with it yourself. Everyone can write their own talismans and walk their own path.”

As night fell, the entire Yuanli Market lit up with myriad lights, warm and not dazzling.

The gentle golden flame on the stall flickered softly in the night.

The figure of the old yellow dog guarding the stall flashed through the grass, seemingly having gotten fatter again.

The old turtle deep within the earth’s pulse (veins) let out a contented hum in its sleep.

Not far away, Cui Wujiu was leading a group of newly recruited apprentices, meticulously organizing rolls of ”Yuanli Archives” filled with wishes.

Su Qingzhu leaned gently on Zhang Xuanyi’s shoulder, looking at the brilliant lights covering the mountain, and whispered, ”This is probably... what the ancients called ’all under heaven finding freedom.’”

Zhang Xuanyi spat out the blade of grass he was chewing and chuckled.

”No, this is—my stall, come if you want, don’t if you don’t.”

The evening breeze blew, and in the small patch of soil beside his stall, a new batch of heavenly eye mung beans was breaking through the earth, quietly sprouting.