Zhao Yunxiao did not approach Hei Lao, who was currently busy hiring on the streets, choosing to silently bypass them to visit the Hei Residence. In fact, he was hoping that he could get everything settled and leave before Hei Lao's return.
"It's good to see you again, Young Hero Zhao," Gang Yeshan greeted him at the front hall.
"Mm," Zhao Yunxiao nodded. "It seems that the number of servants has decreased?"
"I'm sure Young Hero Zhao already knows about the matter with the vanguard party for the recent coalition strike, so that can't be helped," Gang Yeshan gave a helpless smile. "That said, I heard that the coalition strike was a success. Does that mean that the arhat idol statue has...?"
"I'm here for that same reason. Let's go find out for sure if it has returned to normal," Zhao Yunxiao nodded.
Gang Yeshan could not be happier to lead the way to the temple. It had only been a few days since Zhao Yunxiao had sealed the temple away, but not being able to see the arhat idol was causing her to feel more worried by the day.
After all, despite its strange behaviour in recent days, the statue was still the clan's protective charm.
It did not take long before Zhao Yunxiao, Gang Yeshan, and Old Ping found themselves standing in front of the temple once again.
Making a few light taps here and there, Zhao Yunxiao directly deactivated the Impregnable Shell Array, and the black membrane that blocked the doorway quickly shrank away. With that, the jade statue of the Untethered Sage once again came into view.
It was only then that Gang Yeshan let out a sigh of relief. The statue looked the same as ever – held safely in place by its rope bindings.
There were no new traces of blood on it as well, testament to how the existence of the Impregnable Shell Array had managed to prevent the ominous behaviours by the statue.
"Hopefully it will be fine now, but do keep an eye on the statue over the next few days," Zhao Yunxiao instructed after performing a deep bow towards the statue. "I will return after three days. If things remain normal until then, it should be safe to remove the bindings."
"Thank you for your kind assistance, Young Hero Zhao," Gang Yeshan said.
"Don't thank me just yet," Zhao Yunxiao shook his head. "If things do not turn out as we have hoped, we might have to seal away the statue aga-"
He had yet to even finish his sentence when a familiar trembling came from the statue.
All three of them instantly turned their attention towards the statue, watching with deep frowns on their faces as the rope bindings started tightening under the statue's pull.
There was no doubt about it. Just like before, the jade statue of the Untethered Sage had started moving towards the direction of Blueflag Mountain.
Numerous thoughts ran through Zhao Yunxiao's mind as reality slapped him in the face once again, reminding him that things seldom turned out the way one wished.
But why?
Why didn't it work?
Hadn't Ke Huofen already destroyed the summoning array? Did Fei Qing and Cong Liexian end up salvaging the array?
Even if they did salvage the array, it was highly unlikely for them to have reactivated it, so why was the statue still reacting this way?
How frustrating!
"We have two options," Zhao Yunxiao said with a sigh before Gang Yeshan could ask her questions. "First, we can keep the statue sealed away, preventing the situation from worsening while I report this back to the sect. With more information, the sect administrators should be able to come up with a better solution to handle this matter. Second, we can leave the statue be and keep it bound the way that you have been doing. That way, it would still be able to act as your Hei Clan's protective charm, but we won't know how things could progress in the future."
"This..." Gang Yeshan hesitated. "What would Young Hero Zhao recommend?"
"The first option," Zhao Yunxiao answered. "But if we go with that, the clan would have to rely on itself to deal with any trouble in the meantime. This means that it would be best to avoid creating trouble in the near future."
"...Is that so?" Gang Yeshan let out a bitter smile.
How could she not know what he was hinting at?
If they wanted to go with the first option, the prodigal young master's troublemaking habits would have to be reined in!
"Incidentally, Young Master Hei Lao seems to be taking in survivors of the coalition's vanguard party right now, but you don't have to worry about them. Or at the very least, you don't have to worry about them being spies of the Scarlet Leaf Sect," Zhao Yunxiao said.
"Oh? Does Young Hero Zhao know what happened during the strike?" Gang Yeshan asked curiously.
"How would I? I only say that because I had a quick look at the survivors," Zhao Yunxiao shrugged.
"That makes sense..." Gang Yeshan thought for a moment before continuing. "Let's go with option one for now. I will try my best to convince the young master to curb his actions a little. Who knows? Perhaps this would turn out to be the perfect opportunity to change him for the better."
"Let's do that then. Just make sure not to touch the flags that I have placed on the temple walls," Zhao Yunxiao nodded as he looked at the jade statue, which had now started to bleed from the eyes.
He really had no idea what was going on with the jade statue anymore.
It was clearly still moving in the direction of Blueflag Mountain. So, if the strange behaviours of the statue did not have anything to do with the Scarlet Leaf Sect's activity in the area, could it be due to what the Untethered Sage had left behind?
But how could that be the case when these strange behaviours only started a year ago?
No, that was impossible.
After all, the Untethered Sage Jiang Taiming was someone from the ancient era. If something like this were to happen, it should have already happened all those years ago!
Suppressing the doubts in his mind, Zhao Yunxiao proceeded with reactivating the Impregnable Shell Array and got Gang Yeshan's acknowledgement before leaving.
This might not be the ideal way that he would have liked to end things here, but there was no helping it. This matter was already beyond his means.
With that, his business here at the Hei Residence was essentially over.
***
Even then, Zhao Yunxiao chose not to leave Thousand Autumn City immediately. Instead, he spent the next three days in the city, silently observing the situation from the safety of his inn room.
Hei Lao made good on his word during this time, hiring a large portion of the survivors of the vanguard party who had volunteered to join the Hei Residence. Incidentally, every young female who signed up had been hired.
His actions drew discontent from many of the other factions, but none of them did anything apart from making some backhanded comments in private. After all, everyone was aware of just how strong the protective charm of the Hei Clan was.
However, it was not until two days later, when Fei Qing and Cong Liexian finally returned to Thousand Autumn City, that the other factions finally dared to start hiring these survivors as well.
The duo's arrival immediately drew the attention of all the major factions of the city, all of them rushing to question them about what exactly happened at Blueflag Mountain.
In contrast, Fei Qing and Cong Liexian were not flustered as they answered question after question, all except for those about their identities.
We are just passing cultivators – that was the narrative that they continued to stick to.
Apart from that, their story just about perfectly corroborated that of the vanguard party survivors, adding to its credibility.
In actual fact, the leaders of the major factions within Thousand Autumn City were still not very satisfied, having sensed that the duo was still hiding some information from everyone. The only thing was that, as cultivators, they were definitely a lot more respected than the survivors of the vanguard party.
In addition, any remaining doubts were dispelled all at once when the duo suddenly announced that they were leaving Thousand Autumn City, offering to bring along any ordinary mortals, be they slaves or ex-slaves, who wished to follow them down south – towards the central regions of the Duyuan Empire.
In a way, this offer to recruit the survivors of the vanguard party was the best assurance that there was nothing wrong with them.
And to the survivors of the vanguard party, this offer sounded like a dream come true.
Considering the sheer size of the Duyuan Empire, this was essentially an offer to restart one's life in a completely new location. Unsurprisingly, many of them jumped at the opportunity, hoping to get away from this city where people would probably see them as ex-slaves for the rest of their lives.
Unfortunately, there were also some who had already succumbed to their injuries prior to the duo's return, never even getting the chance to hear of this chance.
As for the rest, Zhao Yunxiao could not help but feel happy for them.
There was no guarantee that their lives would change for the better after leaving with the duo, but there would probably be a good chance of that happening, especially considering how active Fei Qing had been in advocating for the rights of ordinary mortals.
Could Zhao Yunxiao also have rescued them from their current plight by offering to bring these people back to Purple Plum Mountain?
Perhaps.
However, doing so would not guarantee a better life for them.
After all, he was no Elder Ying Qingmu.
As an outer disciple, the most he could offer were positions as servants even if he were to bring these people back. In that case, how would it differ from their original lives that they had worked so hard to escape?
Who knows?
Bringing them back to Purple Plum Mountain, away from a place that they were already familiar with, might even end up creating a worse situation for them.
In that light, he truly envied Fei Qing's confidence and determination in helping whoever he wished to help.
But in comparison, he was still more interested in the result of Fei Qing's investigation of the cave that the Scarlet Leaf Sect had occupied at the foot of Blueflag Mountain.
It was a pity that the duo did not share much with the leaders of Thousand Autumn City, only confirming the fact that the cave was used to hide a sacrificial ritual that used blood to draw in the unusually dense aura of corruption at Blueflag Mountain, eventually allowing Ke Huofen to forge his Essence Reaper into a sword of blood and corruption.
As for the actual investigative details, be it the make and design of the array, or the various techniques used in its creation, nothing was shared. It was either because they wanted to keep this information to themselves, or because all traces had already been destroyed in the fire.
Regardless, Zhao Yunxiao was not exactly in a position to go up to them and clarify things, so he could only accept the information that had been shared with everyone.
Thankfully, they also did not mention the existence of Ah Long. This definitely reduced the chances of his involvement being exposed.
Seeing how things had stabilised in Thousand Autumn City for the time being, Zhao Yunxiao finally departed for his next destination – Blueflag Mountain.
Right from the beginning, his mission had never been to completely resolve the problem with the Untethered Sage's statue, but to pass on the sect administrators' recommended solutions.
Considering that, he had not only done enough to consider his sect mission complete, but also gathered sufficient information to report back for additional brownie points.
Now, it was time to start working on his secondary aim for this trip.
It was time to do some legacy hunting!