Now that he had made up his mind, Zhao Yunxiao did not wait any longer. He left the Sect Library and headed straight for the Sect Market to gather the materials he required.
It was an expensive endeavour that resulted in a painful dent in his stash of sect points, but he had no better options.
The blood of the wartower tortoise was deteriorating by the second, so he definitely did not have the luxury of time to go gather these materials by himself.
Unfortunately, like most other tortoise-type beasts, wartower tortoises were few in numbers and rarely seen even in their normal habitats. Unless he was willing to wait patiently till he encountered another, which he wasn't, this also eliminated the option of simply gathering the required materials before going to hunt another.
Before long, Zhao Yunxiao found himself back in his residence, with a large emblem drawn onto the ground. Wartower tortoise blood was collected in a big bowl right at the centre, while a variety of different materials had been strategically placed at various points within the large emblem.
Behind him, a freshly lit incense burnt silently in his incense holder, allowing a light trail of soothing smoke to waft through the room, creating an ambience of relaxation.
Huu-!
Zhao Yunxiao took a deep breath, and his eyes lit up in determination.
Time to begin!
He stamped his foot onto the corner of the large emblem, causing it to buzz into life. The lines of the emblem started to give off bright red light, turning the inside of his residence into the colour of blood.
At the same time, he made a small incision near his left chest. This incision was positioned such that, had it been deep enough, it would directly reach his heart.
Zhao Yunxiao drove his dantian to the limit, channelling all the essence energy he could muster. The huge energy stream was split into two halves – one entering the emblem and spreading out to the various items placed on it, the other directly entering the blood in his body.
He made a few mudras with his hands, and the wartower tortoise's blood within the bowl rose into the air, forming a red stream that headed towards Zhao Yunxiao.
Similarly, the blood in his body seemed to have been pulled in by some mysterious force, starting to stray from their usual pathways as a stream of blood exited his body through the incision in his chest.
The two distinct streams of blood rose into the air and met at the midpoint between Zhao Yunxiao and the container, joining together upon contact and forming into a rotating globe of bright red blood.
Zhao Yunxiao's eyes lit up in excitement upon seeing this.
No signs of rejection!
Despite already having done his due diligence through experiments, seeing things go well in practice still gave him a great sense of relief!
One by one, the spiritual fruits and plants that he had prepared began to burst apart, their essences forming multiple small streams that similarly merged into the globe of blood.
A few talismans burst into flames. The ashes settled back onto the floor while the resulting smoke formed a spherical layer around the globe of blood.
Now!
Zhao Yunxiao clasped his fingers tight together, and the layer of smoke suddenly collapsed inwards, compressing the globe of blood within into a tiny ball no bigger than a centimetre in radius.
It might be small, but a significant amount of spiritual pressure could now be felt being emitted from its core. Even a clueless new cultivator would be able to tell that there was more to this small red ball than what met the eye.
Under the careful control of Zhao Yunxiao's essence energy, the small red ball slowly floated over towards him, eventually entering his body through the same incision that he had made on his left chest earlier.
Everything had been relatively simple up to that point, but what followed was no longer nearly as easy.
The small red ball ruptured the moment it was introduced into Zhao Yunxiao's body, causing large amounts of foreign blood to erupt from within and flood his bloodstreams.
Along with the emergence of the foreign blood came an intense pain that surged through every single corner of his body. Not only did the foreign blood apply immense physical pressure on his blood vessels, but it also emitted strong waves of energy undulations that felt like they were pounding his body from within.
Zhao Yunxiao frowned as he forcibly suppressed his instinct to expel this foreign blood.
He knew that this pain was only temporary. Once he managed to fully assimilate the bloodline of the wartower tortoise, there would be no more of such discomfort. In fact, the process could even be seen as a baptism of sorts, serving to strengthen the physical endurance of his body and mental endurance towards internal pain!
As the foreign blood came into contact with the blood flowing through his body, the two started mixing together under the combined catalyst of the array and his essence energy, slowly forming into one single entity.
Steeling his resolve, Zhao Yunxiao drank a special elixir, which introduced yet another source of pain that burst forth once it entered his body.
Of course, he was no masochist seeking to experience a higher level of pain for no good reason. Even though this elixir would cause a powerful burning sensation to form within his body, it would also help in hastening the process of bloodline assimilation.
The shorter the process, the fewer complications there would be!
Huu-!
Zhao Yunxiao closed his eyes and let out a deep breath to calm himself, repeatedly telling himself to relax his body and maintain a peaceful state of mind.
Thankfully, both his mental and physical fortitude levels were off the charts in comparison to his peers, which gave him the confidence to proceed with this. After all, there were not just a few who had ended up succumbing to the pain of bloodline assimilation in the past.
Those who were physically weaker could end up sustaining internal injuries, with the more serious cases taking decades to recover, if ever. In the worst-case scenario, their bodies would directly explode, unable to fully withstand the pressure from the foreign bloodlines.
As for those who were mentally weaker, things were slightly more complicated. Simply wrecking their surroundings as a form of mental release was already considered a relatively good outcome. In extreme cases, cultivators were even recorded to have experienced a complete collapse of their minds, becoming living corpses who would forever lose their ability to think.
Now that he was experiencing the pain for himself, Zhao Yunxiao could understand how others ended up failing to endure through the entire process.
Even for him, the pain level was high enough to demand his complete focus in enduring it, preventing him from splitting his psyche to continue controlling his clone.
But still, it was manageable!
Even if it were to take days, he could still see himself enduring through the entire process!
"Undo the seal, and you shall be rewarded with power beyond your wildest dreams."
Don't need it!
I will attain power with my own two hands!
Zhao Yunxiao roared in his mind, though none of that excitement showed on the outside. Instead, anyone looking at him now would see nothing but someone in peaceful meditation.
"Undo the seal, and you shall be rewarded with power beyond your wildest dreams."
Zhao Yunxiao: "???"
This was the first time that he had heard this line sound out in his head twice in a row.
Up till now, he had only heard this voice in his head when facing some sort of powerful threat or difficult challenge.
Could Kindness, or the entity within, have detected some unknown threat that he was unaware of?
Or did it not think that he could endure through the entire process?
"Undo the seal, and you shall be rewarded with power beyond your wildest dreams."
The third time in the span of five minutes.
Now, Zhao Yunxiao could not help but feel slightly worried.
Just in case, he decided to send his spiritual sense inward to find out if there was anything amiss with the assimilation process.
Unfortunately, he was a step too slow.
His peaceful expression immediately revealed an expression of shock as the unmistakeable aura of the Divine Tether suddenly exploded out from within Kindness.
Before he realised it, this aura had already washed over every corner of his spiritual meridians, every inch of his blood vessels, and every cell on his body.
And then, there was silence.
Zhao Yunxiao simply stood there for a good few moments, his mind blank and confused.
Only then did he finally register what just happened.
Everything was gone!
The pain was gone.
The wartower tortoise's blood that he had introduced into his bloodstream was gone.
The elixir that he had consumed to expedite the process was gone.
The entire process had come to an end, with the materials that he had specially purchased for this ceremony all consumed and gone!
What in the world?!
How?!
He knew that the culprit was Kindness, but how could it still execute the Divine Tether in its current state?
And why?!
Zhao Yunxiao anxiously examined his dantian with his spiritual sense, only to see the jade pagoda Kindness just slowly rotating in place, pretending as though it had not just wasted all of the sect points that he had invested into this blood assimilation ceremony.
"You ancient bastard...!" Zhao Yunxiao cursed under his breath.
As frustrated as he was, he was completely helpless at the moment. He knew who to blame for this outcome, but there was simply nothing he could do about it!
Why?
Why? Why? Why? Why? WHY?!
No, stop. Stop and think things through properly.
Zhao Yunxiao sat down and took a few deep breaths to calm himself down before recounting the events that had just taken place.
He did not know just how Kindness managed to activate, but there were four possibilities that he could think of as potential reasons for its activation.
One possibility was that since Kindness was currently using his body as its host, the jade pagoda had mistakenly registered the wartower tortoise's blood as a foreign threat that was trying to invade the body of its host and consume his blood. This triggered it to purge the foreign blood entirely as an act of self-preservation.
Another possibility was that the wartower tortoise's blood truly was a threat to him, and Kindness had correctly acted to save him from the potential consequences.
A third possibility was that Kindness had deemed the wartower tortoise's blood to be of too low a level to befit the bloodline of its current host body.
The last possibility he could think of was that Kindness was trying to stop him from becoming stronger. After all, a stronger puppet would be more difficult to convince and control.
Of the four possibilities, the last one was the most unlikely. How could someone on the level of the Untethered Sage possibly fear his assimilation of the bloodline of a mere Essence Physique realm beast like the wartower tortoise?
But if it were any of the first three possibilities, then that left him with yet another question.
Why was Kindness truly trying to help him?
Was it because nobody would be able to undo the seal once he was gone?
That was not entirely out of the question.
But did that also mean that he could forget about performing any sort of bloodline assimilation for as long as Kindness remained in his dantian?
Damn it.
This Kindness was not just terrifying as a ticking time bomb, but its continued presence would negatively impact his cultivation journey as well. He really had to get rid of it as soon as possible!
That said, since it had acted to purge the blood of the wartower tortoise that had been introduced into his body, did that mean it would also activate when it came to other foreign substances entering his body?
If that was the case... was he basically immune to poison now?
Zhao Yunxiao quickly shook the thought out of his mind.
Regardless of whether it was true, that was not something that he should be counting on whatsoever.
Who knew how many times Kindness would activate, or if there were some specific conditions that had resulted in its activation earlier?
It would be an unexpected benefit if that were the case, but it was best not to be reckless about such things until he was absolutely certain.
As for now, he could only reluctantly keep the wartower tortoise at the back of his mind, destined not to be revisited until he had found a way to get rid of the Kindness within him...