The sky congealed into a debt ledger—clouds heavy with unpaid soul-weight pressing the playground into cracked asphalt. Zhang Xiaonian stood at the fracture's epicenter, the tumor between his shoulder blades pulsing in base-7 arithmetic. Shadows coiled like karmic chains around his ankles.
*"Escape?"*
The blood-robed woman's voice iced his eardrums, her breath reeking of rust and rotting lychees. "Your flesh is collateral."
Zhang's fists clenched. Vertebrae splintered into abacus beads as his eyes blazed indigo:
"This body isn't yours to claim."
She materialized before him, fingertip etching crimson tadpole-sigils in the air—
「債償•子時刑」
(Debt Repaid • Midnight Punishment)
Agony detonated down his spine. The tumor ruptured, spewing molten ledger lines that branded the ground:
CREDITOR: TONGSHENG LINEAGE ■ DEBTOR: ZHANG XIAONIAN ■ SOUL-WEIGHT DEFICIT: -3.00g
"Your trial..." Blood-mist solidified into bone-needles aimed at his throat. "...is balancing this ledger."
Zhang bared his teeth. Seven golden pupils split open across the tumor, projecting drowned faces onto the clouds:
Lin Xue ■ Drowned Victim ■ Hundred Eyeless Students
"Fate?" He stepped forward, asphalt cracking into flesh-pulp beneath his feet.
"I collect debts now."
The blood-needles shattered against his chest, revealing cinnabar contracts etched on his ribs:
乾坤袋 • 活符箓 • 通胜末裔
(Qiankun Sac • Living Talisman • Last Heir of Tongsheng)