As Zhao Yunxiao walked through the streets, he could not help but admire the resilience of the residents of Thousand Autumn City. The incident with the Scarlet Leaf Sect had caused the city to lose quite a number of people, followed by more deciding to leave with Fei Qing and Cong Liexian for the central regions of the Duyuan Empire.

Even then, the city seemed to have bounced back to its original bustling state in no time.

Zhao Yunxiao did not bother returning to his inn, choosing to head straight for the Hei Residence instead.

"You are already back, Young Hero Zhao?" Gang Yeshan exclaimed in surprise as she greeted Zhao Yunxiao at the front hall. "That's much faster than I had imagined! Did the venerable leaders of the Black Tortoise Sect already come up with a solution?"

"Let's talk about that later. It seems like your Hei Clan has become a lot more lively," Zhao Yunxiao quickly changed the topic.

Before leaving the last time, he had told Gang Yeshan that he would be reporting this matter back to the sect. With more information, the sect administrators should be able to come up with a better solution to handle this matter.

So, it was rather embarrassing to have returned without having done what he promised.

"Well, yeah..." Gang Yeshan smiled weakly. "The young master has recruited the majority of the members of the vanguard party from the previous coalition strike, so the number of servants has increased by quite a bit. Thankfully, there haven't been any problems so far. However, I cannot help but worry, you know, especially with the arhat idol statue being sealed away at the moment."

"Speaking of which, would it be possible to bring me to the statue?" Zhao Yunxiao asked. "There's something that I'd like to try."

"Oh, certainly!" Gang Yeshan agreed without hesitation.

She had read the nuance from Zhao Yunxiao's words, and thus correctly guessed that he had yet to obtain any answers from the Black Tortoise Sect administrators. However, she would still welcome any attempts from Zhao Yunxiao himself.

After all, there was really nothing to lose.

One additional day that the statue remained sealed away meant one additional day that the Hei Clan would go without the protection of the arhat idol. She might not be as worried if Hei Lao was not as much of a troublemaker. But with how things stood, as long as there was even a slight chance of success, she would definitely not object to Zhao Yunxiao trying all the ideas in his head!

Following Gang Yeshan's lead to the small temple, Zhao Yunxiao skilfully deactivated the Impregnable Shell Array – this time entirely so.

Under the curious gazes of Gang Yeshan and Old Ping, he kept away the array flags before walking up towards the jade statue.

They had expected him to bow respectfully to the statue as he had always done, but Zhao Yunxiao did not do so this time. Instead, he walked up to the statue and directly picked it up, pressing it directly against his body.

"Get out, Kindness! Here is a much more fitting shell for you! Hurry up and attach yourself to it!" Zhao Yunxiao pleaded softly.

At the same time, he drove his dantian to channel essence energy around the small jade pagoda, wanting to guide it out towards the statue. Unfortunately, his essence energy passed right through the small jade pagoda, as though its existence in his dantian was but a mere illusion.

Huu-!

Zhao Yunxiao let out a regretful sigh after a few moments of silence, and gently placed the jade statue back on the altar.

As expected, getting rid of Kindness was not going to be this simple.

Well, at least he tried.

By now, the statue had started to bleed from the eyes once again.

"Are you all right, Young Hero Zhao?" Gang Yeshan asked hesitantly.

Old Ping might not have heard his words earlier. But as a cultivator, Gang Yeshan had clearly caught the strange things that he was whispering to the statue.

Wanting to get rid of his own kindness? Was it some kind of strange ritual?

"Ahem!" he cleared his throat awkwardly before turning to face the duo from the Hei Clan. "Now then, let's try to solve this matter once and for all."

"Was that not it?"

"...That was not it."

"Ah, that's good to hear," Gang Yeshan nodded. "Please go ahead. We will observe from outside the door."

"Thank you," Zhao Yunxiao turned back to face the jade statue.

With the destruction of the hidden space leading to the expulsion of such vast quantities of corruption aura, Zhao Yunxiao understood that the Untethered Sage's statue would likely continue to show such ominous signs for the foreseeable future.

And if his conjecture was correct, while it might take a long time, these ominous signs would eventually stop after the aura of corruption on Blueflag Mountain fully dispersed.

That said, these ominous signs should not be of much concern. They were merely reactions to an external phenomenon that should not have any fundamental impact on the statue in any way.

That was why he had returned to undo the Impregnable Shell Array and reclaim his array flags.

Of course, he had hoped that Kindness could be attached to the jade statue as well, but that plan had unfortunately failed.

Nevertheless, now was a good time to try out the new trick in his arsenal – the Divine Tether.

Zhao Yunxiao had managed to gain some enlightenment into the execution of the sealing technique back in the hidden space, but using it to unseal Kindness was far too risky. Rather than that, he decided that he would try practising it on the Untethered Sage's statue instead.

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In fact, that was an idea that had sprung into his head when he first gained an understanding of the sealing technique.

Unlike the Impregnable Shell Array that completely locked down an entire area, the Divine Tether could be used in a far more targeted manner. By sealing away even the slightest traces of corruption aura in the area, it might just be possible to completely eliminate all ominous signs exhibited by the statue.

Not just that, but it might not even take away the statue's ability to act as a protective charm for the Hei Clan in the process!

Of course, that was all in theory. He would have to actually give it a try to find out for sure.

Zhao Yunxiao closed his eyes, the governing concepts of the Divine Tether appearing once again in his mind.

A sealing technique that did not adhere to the world laws, but indiscriminately bent them to its will.

He waved his hand lightly, and energy fluctuations rippled around his arm. The air around him seemed to have turned into something akin to water – viscous and tangible.

At this moment, Zhao Yunxiao appeared to have become capable of sculpting the air as he wished. Or perhaps it was not the air that he was moving, but the myriad world laws themselves.

But just this much was still not enough.

He was still only moulding the air in his direct vicinity, but what he needed was to gain control of the entire surroundings. Or at the very least, he needed to gain full control of the surroundings of the jade statue.

Only then would he be able to entirely block out the jade statue, preventing it from detecting even the slightest traces of corruption aura coming from Blueflag Mountain.

Basically, he needed more time to prepare.

With each subsequent wave of his hand, a greater amount of air started to move in tandem.

Bit by bit, the surroundings seemed to be aligning to his movements.

Bit by bit, he seemed to be gaining control over the area.

Even his perception of his surroundings began to change. Before today, his spiritual sense had always been a reliable tool that allowed him to capture everything around him, be it matter or energy.

But now, a brand new type of information started flowing into his mind – a type of information that he had never been able to grasp in the past. It was obscure and intangible, yet clearly present in countless forms.

Having seen visions of the past from the memories of the Zodiac General and the Untethered Sage, there was no doubt in Zhao Yunxiao's mind.

These were the world laws that governed the rules of reality.

They were like innumerable layers of webs, omnipresent in nature as they stacked over one another. They existed in the same space yet were clearly distinct. Connected with one another yet retained distinct properties. Each web's concentration varied not just in comparison to others, but also with regard to the location. They appeared stronger in some areas and weaker in others, likely influenced by the existence of sources of similar elements.

He had no way of identifying each of the unlimited world laws, yet clearly understood what he had to do.

As his hand passed, the world laws moved in response. This alone came as no surprise, as it was only natural that energy movement would influence the strength of the world laws in the surroundings.

However, Zhao Yunxiao could do more than just that with the activation of the Divine Tether.

He lightly pinched the air in front of him, plucking out a small portion of a particular world law from its greater web. Observing it in his hand, he still had no idea what it truly represented, only that it felt warm to the touch.

Repeating the same movement, he plucked a portion of law from another web. This time, it felt sharp and chilling.

Releasing both hands, the two pinches of world laws dissipated into the surroundings, rejoining their respective webs in a natural manner.

It was a surreal feeling, especially for Zhao Yunxiao, who had never come into contact with the world laws in the past.

But now was not the time to immerse himself in this new sensation. There would be plenty of opportunities to do so in the future.

He started searching through the webs, neither by sight nor by touch, but by sensing them with his perception.

At this point, he understood. The world laws were omnipresent, so there was no need to reach out with his hands. Instead, he closed his eyes and focused, feeling the innumerable webs that shrouded over him.

Seconds passed, turning into minutes.

Minutes turned into hours, underlined by the setting sun.

Zhao Yunxiao remained standing motionlessly in front of the jade statue, doing nothing but silently sensing his surroundings, trying to find the one thing he was looking for.

"Undo the seal, and you shall be rewarded with power beyond your wildest dreams."

Zhao Yunxiao: "..."

This again?

He ignored the call of Kindness, focusing on the work at hand.

At the door, Old Ping had long reached her limit and left to take a rest. This left only Gang Yeshan who watched on patiently, wanting to see just what this disciple of the Black Tortoise Sect was planning on doing next.

And she definitely did not regret doing so, as what happened next shook her to her core.

Zhao Yunxiao's eyes suddenly shot open, leaping forward without hesitation to deliver a palm strike upon the jade statue, only for his palm to stop short of making direct contact. But while his palm did not make physical contact, the storm of energy that resulted revealed that it might not be the case in the energy aspect.

But rather than feel alarmed by what he seemed to be doing to the statue, Gang Yeshan immediately focused on an entirely different matter.

"Did the world laws just...?!" Gang Yeshan could not help but gape in surprise.

The common understanding in the cultivation world was that only after breaking through to the Essence Physique realm would cultivators be able to touch upon the world laws. There were rumours that top-tier members of the strongest factions were able to circumvent that rule and touch upon the world laws beforehand, but even that was usually only after they had reached the Peak Essence Gathering realm.

Yet before her very eyes, Zhao Yunxiao had directly expelled traces of world laws from the arhat idol statue.

This was a cultivator at the Advanced Essence Gathering realm!

Had she not witnessed it herself, there was no way that she would believe this story even if she heard it from her most trusted companions!

Zhao Yunxiao did not stop there either.

His hands moved quickly to draw numerous words in the air, chaining them into long verses. Following which, he pointed towards the jade statue, and these hovering words started to emit a bright glow.

Seal!

What followed was a moment of silence.

The glowing words slowly dimmed into nothingness. The storm of energy died down to allow stale air to fill the small temple once more.

Nothing seemed to be different on the surface, but both Zhao Yunxiao and Gang Yeshan instinctively understood that something had changed on a fundamental level.

Huu...

Zhao Yunxiao let out a breath of relief before wiping the blood from the jade statue's face. Seeing that it did not continue to bleed, he finally proceeded to loosen the bindings on the statue.

As Gang Yeshan watched on from the temple entrance, she could not help but feel goosebumps appearing all over her aged body. At the same time, a joyful smile inevitably appeared across her face.

At long last, the protective charm of the Hei Clan no longer had to be left in such a disrespectful state!

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