My words have become law; I truly have no desire to display my divine power before others.

Ye Qingfeng looked at him and smiled slightly.

You're right.

The man was stunned.

The onlookers were stunned.

Ye Qingfeng said unhurriedly, "You yourself said that unless the ginseng speaks and says whose it is, then I will let it speak."

The man snapped out of his daze and burst into laughter: "Make ginseng talk? Are you crazy? Ginseng is dead, how can it talk? If you can make it talk, I... I'll call you 'Dad'!"

Ye Qingfeng ignored him, and simply walked up to A Luo and looked down at her.

A'Luo raised her head, her eyes blurred with tears, and looked at the young Taoist priest, wondering what he was going to do.

Ye Qingfeng stretched out his hand: "I'd like to borrow those two ginseng roots."

The man hesitated for a moment, but still took the two ginseng roots out of the cloth bag and handed them to him.

Ye Qingfeng took the ginseng and held it in his palm.

One plant was dried, the other fresh; they were both ordinary, nothing special about them.

Everyone was staring at him.

The man crossed his arms, a look of anticipation on his face: "Playing tricks! I'd like to see what kind of schemes you can pull!"

Ye Qingfeng did not look at him.

He simply looked down at the dried ginseng in his palm and blew on it.

The mist was wispy, like celestial vapor.

Then--

The dried ginseng plant moved.

It trembled slightly in that palm.

The onlookers thought they were seeing things, so they rubbed their eyes and looked again—the ginseng was indeed moving.

Its tendrils gently unfurled, and its ginseng root slightly lifted, as if looking up at someone.

Then, a voice rang out.

The sound was very soft and delicate, like the wind rustling through the grass, or like someone whispering in the distance.

But everyone heard it clearly:

"I...I'm A-Luo's...I was dug up by her on the south slope the day before yesterday..."

Everyone is stupid.

The man's mouth was agape, and his eyes were practically bulging out.

The ginseng plant was still saying, "That person... is a bad person... He stole from me... stole A'Luo's things..."

The onlookers were deathly silent.

Then, someone exclaimed "Ah!", someone took a step back, and someone's legs went weak and they almost sat down on the ground.

"Ginseng...the ginseng spoke!"

"This...how is this possible?!"

"A god! This is a god!"

The man came to his senses, his face turning ashen, and pointed at Ye Qingfeng, cursing.

"You... what kind of sorcery are you using?! You must have used some kind of illusion! How can this ginseng talk?! You... you're faking it!"

Ye Qingfeng looked at him, his expression unchanged: "What I used was not sorcery, but justice."

The man sneered, "Fairness? What fairness? You think you can fool people by just making up a sound? Let me tell you, I'm not buying it!"

"This ginseng is mine! You're making it talk; you might be manipulating it with some kind of magic! That's not evidence!"

A'Luo exclaimed anxiously, "How can you be like this! The ginseng has already spoken, and you still won't admit it!"

The man stubbornly insisted, "I don't admit it! Who knows what kind of sorcery he used! Maybe it was ventriloquism, maybe it was puppetry! Anyway, this ginseng is mine, and I won't acknowledge it no matter who comes!"

The onlookers began to whisper among themselves.

Some people thought the man was just making excuses, while others thought what he said might not be entirely unreasonable—it's so strange that ginseng could talk; no one has ever seen anything like it.

What if that Taoist priest used some kind of trick?

The clan elders hesitated as well.

He had lived most of his life and had never seen a ginseng speak.

This Taoist priest's methods are indeed somewhat unbelievable.

As far as he knew, the unorthodox sects in these Hundred Thousand Mountains did not seem to have any magic that could make plants and trees come to life!

Ye Qingfeng looked at the man and suddenly smiled.

The smile was faint, yet it sent a chill down the man's spine.

"Aren't you afraid of being struck by lightning for lying?"

The man was taken aback for a moment, then hardened up again: "Struck by lightning? I've lived for decades and never seen anything like being struck by lightning! Don't try to scare me!"

He had barely finished speaking—

"Boom!"

A muffled clap of thunder suddenly sounded in the sky.

The thunder wasn't loud, but it came suddenly and startled everyone.

The man was also stunned. He looked up at the sky—it was cloudless and sunny.

He breathed a sigh of relief and sneered, "Thunder? Where's the thunder? It's a perfectly sunny day, why would there be thunder? Stop playing tricks!"

Ye Qingfeng didn't speak, he just looked at him.

Seeing that he didn't speak, the man assumed he was scared and became even more arrogant: "What? Speechless now? I told you, this ginseng is mine!"

If your village continues to cause trouble, I... I'll spread the word everywhere! I'll say you're colluding with evil sorcerers and harming outsiders!

He reached out to grab the two ginseng roots.

Just then—

"Boom!"

Another clap of thunder.

This sound was much louder than the previous one, causing the ground to tremble slightly.

The man's hand froze in mid-air, and his face began to turn pale.

He looked up at the sky—it was still cloudless and sunny.

But the thunder was so real.

His lips began to tremble: "This...this is a coincidence..."

He gritted his teeth and reached out to grab the ginseng.

"BOOM—!!!"

A bolt of lightning struck down right at his feet!

A fist-sized crater was cleaved in the ground, the bluestone slabs shattered, and stone chips flew everywhere.

The man screamed in terror, fell to the ground with a thud, and trembled all over.

His pants were soaked – he had wet himself in fright.

People around were so frightened that they backed away one after another. Some exclaimed, some screamed, and some even knelt down.

"God has intervened!"

"May he be struck by lightning! He really should be struck by lightning!"

The man slumped to the ground, his whole body trembling like a leaf.

He looked at the still-smoking crater at his feet, then at the now-vanished lightning bolt in the sky, and finally broke down completely.

"I was wrong! I was wrong!" he cried, his voice trembling. "I was bewitched! I stole it! The bag was hers, and the ginseng was hers too!"

I stole it while she was watching the magic show! I was wrong! I'll never do it again! Please, God, don't punish me! Don't punish me!

He lay prostrate on the ground, kowtowing repeatedly, his forehead hitting the stone slab with a thud.

A Luo stood to the side, watching the arrogant man who had just been so domineering now tremble with fear, and suddenly felt a pang of unease.

She wiped away her tears, picked up the two ginseng roots from the ground, and carefully put them back into her cloth bag.

The elder, regaining his composure, waved his hand: "Guards, seize this thief!"

Several guards rushed forward and pinned the man to the ground. The man didn't resist, only cried and begged for mercy: "I was wrong... I was really wrong... Please don't kill me..."

Lu Yang and Miao Gui stood to the side, chests puffed out, looking smug—as if they were the ones who had just shown up.

The onlookers, seeing this scene, began to discuss it amongst themselves:

"This Taoist priest is truly a deity!"

"To make ginseng speak, what else could it be but a deity?"

"From now on, when you do business in the ginseng-gathering village, you'd better be honest and not try anything clever. Otherwise, Heaven is watching!"