Once there was a first, there was a second.
"I'm willing too!"
"Please grant me a mark, Young Master!"
"As long as I can live, I'll accept any conditions!"
More than a dozen people knelt on the floor, scrambling to declare their willingness. Their voices nearly lifted the roof off the hall, as though they feared that being half a beat too slow would cost them their place in line.
Zhou Xuan looked at them and scoffed.
One moment they had been hesitating; the next, they were practically thrusting their necks into his hands.
When lives hung in the balance, dignity wasn't worth a copper.
"Enough. Stop fighting over it."
Zhou Xuan stood.
He walked up to Xie Yuan and looked down at the Deputy Valley Master of Falling Star Valley.
"Open your dantian. Don't resist."
Xie Yuan gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and voluntarily withdrew every defense covering his Dao Fruit.
Zhou Xuan raised his right hand.
Dark purple light gathered in his palm, swiftly condensing into a tiny point. Within it, two utterly different powers—black destruction and golden law—intertwined, compressed to their absolute limit.
He diluted that point of light, then diluted it again, until its power had dropped to a level that would cause no harm.
Then he pressed a finger against Xie Yuan's dantian.
Bzz—
Xie Yuan's body jolted.
A warm current poured into his Dao Fruit and swiftly spread across its surface, forming a dark purple membrane so thin it was almost invisible.
At the same time, the restless black spots deep within his Dao Fruit frantically shrank and recoiled the instant the dark purple membrane formed, as though something had terrified them.
The icy sensation of being watched from afar vanished.
Vanished completely.
Xie Yuan's eyes flew open, his face full of disbelief.