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

The man was stunned for a moment, then hesitantly took the wooden stick.

He looked at it, then looked at his companions, as if having made a decision, placed the stick against a dry stone slab, and with a heart full of frustration and chill, joined his companions in rubbing it rapidly.

Sss—

A wisp of blue smoke rose, and then a weak spark sputtered out, landing precisely on a piece of soaked fabric.

The fabric ignited instantly, and the flame whooshed up.

The workers let out a cheer, and as more and more people joined in, the sound of rubbing wooden sticks merged into a majestic and rhythmic symphony.

Something magical happened; as the sound of fire-making grew denser, ripples began to spread across the surface of the central fountain, the water droplets refracting the firelight in front of the workers, casting thousands of dancing fire shadows onto the water curtain, like a galaxy inverted here.

The security guards were all stunned, standing frozen in place.

They did not notice that the metal badges on their uniform chests, symbolizing order and authority, had begun to grow slightly hot at some unknown moment.

On the night of Qingming, Mount Longhu.

As the ancestral court of the orthodox Daoist sect, a heaven-shocking anomaly suddenly appeared within a ten-mile radius of its core Forbidden Ground.

The thousands of stone steps leading from the foot of the mountain to the caves where successive Celestial Masters had secluded themselves began to heat up step by step; eventually, the entire mountain road turned red-hot like a branding iron, emitting scorching heat waves, yet not a single flame ignited, nor was a single blade of grass or tree damaged.

All the Disciples were terrified, but no one dared to approach.

On the Star-Gazing Terrace at the summit, the current Sect Head, dressed in purple robes, gazed into the distance at the Dragon of fire that ran through the entire back mountain; after a long silence, he finally uttered only one command: Remove all Restrictions and barriers.

As the news spread, the surroundings fell silent.

An era seemed to have come to an end.

And a thousand miles away, in a residential building in an ordinary small county, a housewife was cooking with the most common gas stove.

She was suddenly surprised to find that the blue flame spurting from the burner had turned a pale gold at some unknown time.

As she stirred with her spatula, an indescribable, wonderful fragrance rose from the pot, instantly penetrating the walls.

The residents of the entire building, no matter what they were doing, stopped all their actions the moment they smelled this fragrance, closed their eyes, and expressions of intoxication and lingering aftertaste appeared on their faces.

She looked up blankly, watching that golden flame, and muttered to herself: This fire... why does it seem like someone is laughing?

At this very moment, Zhang Xuanyi was sitting on a ridge in the mountains of Southern Anhui, leisurely gnawing on a roasted sweet potato he had just dug out of a fire.

He suddenly looked up at the deep night sky.

He saw the stars in the sky begin to shift slowly, finally arranging themselves in the center of the firmament into a huge, incomparably large character Xiao that seemed to be burning fiercely.

The characters were majestic and atmospheric, illuminating the Nine Provinces, and then they quietly dissipated as if they had never appeared.

Zhang Xuanyi smiled, threw the last piping hot piece of potato into the fire in front of him, and patted the ash off his hands.

Alright, it’s your turn to burn on your own.

After speaking, he stood up and brushed the dust off the hem of his clothes.

The transformation that had swept across the world seemed to have settled, but he showed no intention of leaving; he simply walked slowly along the winding mountain path, heading back in the direction he had come from.