Tale of an Ordinary Cultivator

"Hahaha! I guess I should be honoured that even the famous Untethered Sage has decided to come after me!" Luo Qin laughed from his throne of bones. "But you are overestimating yourself, old fart! You are already a relic of the past. Instead of just quietly living out the remaining of your few short years, to think you actually chose to come and end your life at my hands. You are just as foolish as the many who have tried to come after me before you did!"

"I might be old, but I'm still capable enough to deal with someone like you," Jiang Taiming said calmly as he slowly approached from across the giant marble hall.

"Enough of this meaningless talk. Let me show you just how much the world has changed while you have been secluding yourself, masquerading as a learned scholar!" Luo Qin slammed his palm on the arm of the throne, and a dark aura dense enough to have turned tangible started extending out towards Jiang Taiming.

Yet facing this eerie attack, Jiang Taiming was unfazed.

He continued walking forward, unbothered even as the dark aura started to shroud around him. The dark aura stuck to his body like viscous sludge, seeking to devour him whole.

This strange black material covered his face, his arms, his torso, his legs... Soon, not an inch of his body could be seen, yet he continued trudging forward as though this dark aura were a mere illusion.

Of course, it was more than mere illusion.

"What?!" Luo Qin stood up in disbelief as Jiang Taiming continued approaching despite already being completely covered in his corruption aura. "How are you unaffected?!"

It was not just him either. Even Zhao Yunxiao could not help but feel amazed.

This was not the first time that he had seen Soul Devil Luo Qin's attacks. He had had the opportunity to witness the Zodiac General Long Shiqian's multiple battles with Luo Qin, and had witnessed the use of this technique several times before.

Luo Qin's opponents had always tried all sorts of ways to keep the dark aura at bay, yet those who still fell to this technique were not few. In stark contrast to that, this was actually the first time that he was seeing someone capable of treating it with such blatant disregard!

"See? I told you that I am still capable enough," Jiang Taiming said, his voice passing through the black material that had long covered his entire face.

"Hah, looks like the famed Untethered Sage is not completely undeserving of your name!" Luo Qin's aura of corruption erupted in an instant. "Well then, let's see if you can take this one head-on!"

Huge globes of darkness appeared in the marble hall, with dark lightning crackling around each of them. An overwhelming aura of corruption filled the surroundings, warping the reflections in the shiny marble floor into a hellscape of nightmares.

And like arrows released from their bowstrings, all of them simultaneously shot towards Jiang Taiming.

Yet once again, Jiang Taiming seemed to pay them no mind. He continued walking forward, looking directly at Luo Qin. Or at the very least, he would have been looking directly at Luo Qin had his eyes not been covered by the materialised corruption.

Caution roared into action, and Jiang Taiming's figure suddenly disappeared from its original spot, appearing next to the exit.

"Why would I need to take that head-on?" Jiang Taiming asked in a carefree manner, his body now completely free of the black material that had completely covered him just a moment ago. "...Especially when you aren't staying to watch the show."

Kindness appeared in his hand as he spoke, emitting a wave of energy in all directions.

This forced the concealed Luo Qin to reveal himself, staggering back a few steps in a mixture of shock and pain. At the same time, the original Luo Qin crumbled to dust.

It was clear that he had attempted to escape by distracting Jiang Taiming's attention, only to be caught by the latter.

"Damn it!" Luo Qin cursed as he made to retreat, but his efforts were for naught.

"Mercy."

Luo Qin's movements instantly slowed to a crawl. As the movement techniques that he had always taken pride in granted him the speed of a mere centimetre per second, he could only stare helplessly at the nonchalant-looking Jiang Taiming.

It was at this moment that he realised just how the Untethered Sage had managed to force the entire orthodox world to accept his unorthodox existence – Jiang Taiming was simply on a completely different level as compared to his past pursuers!

"You don't have to be scared. I am not here to take your life."

"You aren't?" Luo Qin transmitted his voice differently to Jiang Taiming's mind. In his current state, it would probably take half a minute just to complete those two words if he had tried to speak instead.

"That's right," Jiang Taiming said. "All I need are your memories."

"My m- Dream on!" Luo Qin rejected immediately.

No one would be willing to hand over their memories to another. This did not only apply to cultivators too; even ordinary mortals would feel the same.

Laying bare their entire life to others would not only entail revealing all their secrets, but also potentially those of their acquaintances.

Considering that, it was no wonder that some might even regard their memories as more important than their lives!

"It doesn't matter what you say. The outcome will not change," Jiang Taiming raised Kindness in front of him.

Before his eyes, Luo Qin's figure began to warp. His body elongated into something akin to a string as a powerful suction force pulled him directly into the jade pagoda.

Jiang Taiming turned around, leaving behind the huge yet aimless globes of corruption energy as he slowly made his way out of the large marble hall.

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Zhao Yunxiao could not believe his eyes.

He had seen just how much Zodiac General Long Shiqian and his comrades had struggled against Soul Devil Luo Qin, yet still failed to capture the latter despite the death of so many. Yet the Untethered Sage was able to subdue Luo Qin with such ease that it almost felt like an adult dealing with a kid.

Only that this was no kid. This was the feared and terrifying Soul Devil Luo Qin!

This was the best proof that even among geniuses, there were still distinct differences in terms of their talent. The Zodiac General was already a great genius in his own right, but the Untethered Sage was simply too ridiculous.

Zhao Yunxiao could not help but recall the moment when Jiang Taiming stood alone atop the golden hill in the separate space, looking down on the entire generation of geniuses who were kneeling towards him.

In his current generation, would there also be someone capable of instilling such helplessness in everyone else?

If there really was one, then please let that person appear soon.

Zhao Yunxiao was really looking forward to seeing if Gu Qiansi and the others would be just as excited as him when witnessing such a moment!

What happened after their fight were events missing from the historical records.

Jiang Taiming did not kill Luo Qin immediately. Instead, he returned to the separate space that he had originally created for the purpose of leaving his legacy, where he began the long and delicate process of weakening the sealed Luo Qin before extracting memories from him.

It was not just memories either.

The power of corruption was forced out of Luo Qin bit by bit, used as experimental material as Jiang Taiming sought to find out more about the concept of souls and corruption. With time, the entire separate space became filled with the aura of corruption, though this seemed to have no effect on Jiang Taiming himself.

That said, his true goal was still only the mastery of souls. Grasping Luo Qin's mastery of corruption was merely a necessary step in understanding Luo Qin's cultivation path as a whole.

Luo Qin cultivated the path of souls and corruption at the same time. With these two concepts so intimately entwined in his memories, Jiang Taiming had no choice but to learn both if he wanted to truly master Luo Qin's path.

Despite the vile acts that Luo Qin had performed in the past, Zhao Yunxiao could not help but feel for him at this moment.

Jiang Taiming completely treated him as an experimental subject, plying him with all sorts of torture just to weaken his will and ready him for extraction of memories and energy.

Luo Qin had begged for mercy countless times, offering to directly tell Jiang Taiming all that he wanted to know. However, Jiang Taiming was not having it. In his eyes, it was too simple to lie. Only the information that he extracted himself was the most reliable.

And with Jiang Taiming's seals in place, Luo Qin could not even try to kill himself to end this pain.

In the hands of the Untethered Sage, the once-feared Soul Devil Luo Qin had turned into a truly pitiful existence.

However, Zhao Yunxiao soon came to understand that Luo Qin had not nearly been as helpless as he had thought.

While Jiang Taiming had subjected him to years of suffering, he, too, had been silently plotting his revenge.

"Damn it, what tricks did you pull?!" Jiang Taiming roared in anger.

"Heh, you've finally realised?" Luo Qin laughed weakly from within Kindness. "You might be strong, but you are not truly invincible. Do you really think that you can do this to the great Soul Devil and get away unscathed for so long? Dream on!"

"Tch! You are asking for death!" Jiang Taiming clenched his fist, and an immense pressure fell upon Luo Qin, forcing his soul to the limit. "Speak! What did you do?!"

"Go ahead, do whatever you want! I'm not a fool. It's not like you are intending to let me go after this anyway!" Luo Qin answered in defiance. "Unfortunately, it's too late for you as well! Even in death, I will take pride in the fact that I have managed to take down the great Untethered Sage!"

"Die!" Jiang Taiming squeezed his fist tight. With that, Luo Qin's presence in Kindness, which had already been faint in the first place, completely disappeared.

What followed was another period of long seclusion, during which Jiang Taiming tried to expel the aura of corruption that had started to spread within him. He had no idea how Luo Qin managed to sneak it into his soul, but he knew that he definitely had to stop it before it completely took over him!

Alas, the ways of the Soul Devil were too tricky, and Jiang Taiming also no longer had the vitality of youth on his side.

After years of failing to control the spread of the corruption aura, he finally came up with a last resort.

First, he reconstructed the entire hidden space, adjusting its contents altogether.

Then, by employing the profound ways of the Divine Tether, Jiang Taiming directly sealed himself inside his own life-bound treasure – Kindness. With that, he began the process of purifying his soul as though he were purifying a treasure.

There were definitely side effects to doing so – side effects that would have definitely caused others to hesitate. However, those were all secondary from his point of view. Preserving his wits and autonomy was still the most important matter.

The only real downside to him was that after sealing himself within, he would not be able to leave on his own.

That was on purpose as well.

By doing so, even if the power of corruption managed to overwhelm him temporarily at some point, he would still be forced to remain within instead of potentially breaking out and ending the purification process prematurely.

As long as the purification process continued, he was confident that with the passing of time, he would definitely be able to expel all traces of corruption.

But that was also why there was a need to pass down the Divine Tether as part of his legacy.

Zhao Yunxiao felt his surroundings fade away into whiteness once again. But when the colours returned this time, he was no longer in the same room as before.

He found himself seated in a similar wooden room, with a small jade pagoda hovering in front of him.

Kindness – the life-bound treasure of the Untethered Sage.

On the ground directly below it was a pair of worn boots, but Zhao Yunxiao knew for a fact that it was anything but ordinary.

Caution – the signature treasure boots of the Untethered Sage.

In front of Caution, lines of words had been carved into the ground, giving off a faint glow as they formed verses that detailed the governing concepts of the Divine Tether. By mastering the Divine Tether, one would be able to invoke the Untethered Sage's signature move – Mercy.

An ancient voice sounded out at this moment, confirming the suspicions in his mind.

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