What happened next was, of course, predictable.

In the stampede of cultivators scrambling for their lives, the price of Samantabhadra True Leaf plummeted. Having just breached the thousand-point milestone, it now cascaded downward like a waterfall.

The spectacle drew repeated exclamations of awe from Jiao Xiuyuan.

"Fellow Daoist, your divination art is truly miraculous!" he said. "Had you not warned me, I might have ended up sharing their fate. I can almost see it now—countless cultivators, their Dao hearts shattered!"

He spoke with undisguised schadenfreude.

In Tianshu Province, Tantai Can and the others had just completed their trades and were quietly congratulating themselves on their good fortune when the Tianxuan Mirror's announcement reached them. Their expressions cycled...