"Xiao Chan greets Young Hero Zhao," Xiao Chan's nervousness was obvious as she performed a little curtsy.
"Mm," Zhao Yunxiao nodded in acknowledgement. "So, did anything change for you since yesterday?"
"Change? Oh, that..." Xiao Chan lowered her voice in embarrassment. "As Young Hero Zhao has probably predicted, the others started treating me a lot better since yesterday."
As for the reason why, both of them understood without it being explicitly mentioned.
"That's good to hear," Zhao Yunxiao said while making his way to the bed. "Just like yesterday, be at ease and have a rest."
"I understand, Young Hero Zhao," Xiao Chan had expected as much and sat down at the table. Yet at the same time, she could not help but feel a slight sense of curiosity.
Yes, the other party was a lofty cultivator – possessing a status far beyond hers. But that did not change the fact that he was also a young man in his prime, so why did he seem to have no interest in her whatsoever?
Was it that in the eyes of cultivators, she was not nearly attractive enough?
She did hear from the others that he hailed from a faction that was extremely prestigious even among cultivators, so was that why his standards were much higher than others?
"Is something the matter?" Zhao Yunxiao asked.
"Oh! N-Nothing!" Xiao Chan exclaimed, realising that she had been staring at Zhao Yunxiao all this time.
Zhao Yunxiao sighed inwardly and entered meditation, not intending to continue the conversation further. He could roughly guess what Xiao Chan was thinking. And to be honest, he was not too surprised.
Be it for the sake of enjoying power and wealth, or out of mere curiosity, she was not the first person who had entertained thoughts of getting together with a cultivator, and she definitely would not be the last.
The thing was that most of these people clearly understood that cultivators seldom truly saw ordinary mortals as life partners, yet they still wished to try their luck, believing that they would be able to make the difference and become one of the rare success stories.
After all, while it might be extremely rare, it was not entirely unheard of for cultivators to take an ordinary mortal as their spouse.
But to act according to possibility instead of plausibility – this was a mistake that arose from human nature, where most people would like to believe that they were special.
In actual fact, they might even be considered fortunate if they were rejected upfront in such cases. In comparison, some ended up as playthings before being ruthlessly discarded, or worse still, silenced.
Zhao Yunxiao could not stop her from entertaining such thoughts, but what he could do was to clearly show his lack of interest.
Thankfully, Xiao Chan was not nearly as bad as many others whom Zhao Yunxiao had come across in the past. What she felt was mere curiosity towards the cultivator – a sense of curiosity that was mixed with reverence.
Seeing that Zhao Yunxiao had no interest in any sort of interactions, she dared not bother him either. Instead, she simply sat quietly at the table, just like she did yesterday.
All things considered, this could also be considered a nice break from work for her.
Time passed quickly.
This time, there was no banquet to attend, so there was no one who came to call upon them. Rather, Zhao Yunxiao was the one who ended his meditation on his own accord.
"Go inform Gang Yeshan that I will be visiting the arhat idol statue at the temple," Zhao Yunxiao said without opening his eyes.
"Y-Yes! I will go right away!" Xiao Chan quickly got to her feet and hurried out of the room.
Zhao Yunxiao did not bother waiting for approval.
He left the room shortly after Xiao Chan, heading straight for the small temple that held the statue of the Untethered Sage.
It was already evening by now. The sun was setting in the distance, casting beautiful rays of orange across the clouds.
Yet Zhao Yunxiao was in no mood to relish in the sights.
He had been thinking about the sect mission for the past few hours, yet every possible outcome he could think of was troublesome to deal with. It was just a matter of how much trouble he had to go through to get things done.
Entering the small temple, Zhao Yunxiao once again came face-to-face with the statue of the Untethered Sage.
He looked at the bindings on the statue, added by Gang Yeshan to prevent it from moving from its original spot and potentially falling off the altar. There was nothing special about these bindings, comprising nothing but ordinary ropes.
Supposedly, the statue only started bleeding from the eyes after the bindings had been added. But why did it start moving in the first place?
Just what could be so special about the Hei Clan that warranted the protection of someone like the Untethered Sage?
Did the Hei Clan have some sort of connection to the Untethered Sage? But the Untethered Sage was known to not be affiliated with any factions, nor had he left any descendants behind.
Or if this was merely a statue made in the image of the Untethered Sage, what was the intention of whoever left it here?
Zhao Yunxiao carefully extended his spiritual sense towards the jade statue, but found it impossible to investigate past its surface. It was as though the exterior of the statue was lined with some form of barrier that blocked all spiritual sense from passing through.
So be it.
Having witnessed the backlash that Gang Yeshan had received earlier today, Zhao Yunxiao knew better than to force things.
But considering the spiritual defence of the statue, it was difficult to think of anything that could possibly impact it in a negative manner.
In the end, was it a curse that was too powerful to be affected by the curse purification rites?
If that was truly the case, was it worth the effort trying to resolve it? Or should he just give up and report the sect recommendations as ineffective?
Just as he was contemplating that, the jade statue suddenly started trembling slightly. Tension on the rope bindings tightened, under obvious pressure of being stretched to their limits by the statue that seemed to be struggling to free itself.
Zhao Yunxiao narrowed his eyes and took note of everything that was happening, not wanting to miss a single detail.
He had read about these same phenomena in Gang Yeshan's request letter, but this was still the first time that he had seen it in person.
This situation did not last long. After just a few short moments, the statue stopped testing the rope bindings altogether, almost as if it had realised the futility of it all.
And then it happened.
Bright red liquid emerged from its eyes, escaping from the corner to flow down the cheeks. There was no doubt about it – this was fresh blood.
This, too, had been detailed in Gang Yeshan's request letter.
Zhao Yunxiao extended his spiritual sense to observe the blood. There was not a lot of blood, but even the small amount that kept flowing was enough to give off an ominous feeling.
Instead of essence energy, the blood contained a trace of pure world origin energy. This suggested that this phenomenon was caused by the statue tapping on the energy in its surroundings.
Probably a self-triggered event then. But what was the trigger?
Time?
According to Gang Yeshan, there was no fixed timing for this to happen.
Location?
The statue had already been here for years, so that was unlikely to be the case.
What he knew for a fact was that the bleeding only occurred after the Hei Clan bound the statue in place, preventing it from moving. But that just changed the question to what exactly could have caused the Untethered Sage's statue to suddenly start moving around in the first place?
Was it really due to being inflicted by a curse or possession by a spirit?
Curse affliction remained as a possible cause, but spirit possession could be completely ruled out by now. If these strange phenomena were truly caused by spirit possession, the blood should have been imbued with essence energy instead of world origin energy.
He extended his spiritual sense to investigate the rest of the temple, not sparing any nook or cranny as he tried to look for anything that seemed to be even slightly amiss.
There was nothing.
What about outside?
With a flick of his wrist, Zhao Yunxiao retrieved numerous array flags from his spatial pouch and quickly got to work.
It did not take long before Gang Yeshan appeared at the door. But seeing how busy Zhao Yunxiao was, she knew better than to interrupt. Instead, she simply stood silently by the doorway, patiently waiting for him to be done.
"Thank you for waiting," Zhao Yunxiao said after performing his final checks, having long noticed Gang Yeshan's arrival. "Do you recognise what I am doing?"
"Please pardon my ignorance, Young Hero," Gang Yeshan shook her head. "All I can tell is that it is a complicated array."
"It's a sealing array," Zhao Yunxiao affirmed.
"Does Young Hero wish to seal away the arhat idol statue for now?" Gang Yeshan guessed. "That makes sense. We don't know if the statue might give any extreme reactions in the future if simply left be."
"That's not quite it. I am not sealing away the statue," Zhao Yunxiao shook his head. "In fact, it's the opposite. I am sealing away the outside world."
"You mean...?" Gang Yeshan quickly understood his intention.
Zhao Yunxiao did not elaborate further. Instead, he calmly stepped forward and lightly tapped on one of the array flags.
This was the first time he had channelled his essence energy in front of Gang Yeshan, which ended up exposing his inferior cultivation level. But that did not matter too much – just the name of his faction was already more than enough to command respect and prudence from others.
Weng-!
A black emblem appeared on the floor as the array buzzed into life. Countless threads of black light extended out from the emblem, reaching out until they came into contact with the inner walls of the temple. Upon contact, the black light slowly spread across the surface of the walls, the ceiling, and the floor, turning the entire interior of the temple black.
Gang Yeshan instinctively took a step back in apprehension, positioning herself right outside the temple and looking in through the open door. She hated to say this, but this sealing array seemed even more ominous to her than the phenomena exhibited by the arhat idol statue.
It did not end there, either. Bit by bit, the black area encroached upon the open door, eventually forming a layer that blocked out the door as well.
"Young Hero...?" Gang Yeshan asked uncertainly. Did she just get sealed out of the temple?
Inside the temple, Zhao Yunxiao could not hear Gang Yeshan's call.
The Impregnable Shell Array had effectively sealed away all interferences that could come from the outside. This seal could even block off energy and senses, so how could something like sound be able to pass through?
Still, Zhao Yunxiao could not help but let out a smile at this point.
That was because the moment the Impregnable Shell Array took effect, the statue of the Untethered Sage immediately stopped bleeding from the eyes.
So, unless it was a matter of pure coincidence, the cause of the statue's strange behaviour must be something that originated from outside of the temple!