Zhao Yunxiao stood up and walked towards the new door that had appeared, stepping through to arrive at yet another identical room.

[Tread the world with caution. Treat others with the kindness and mercy that they deserve.]

Hmm?

The words on the calligraphy painting sounded a little familiar this time. Wasn't this what Jiang Taiming's mother had said to him right before her death?

Always tread the world with caution, but also treat others with the kindness and mercy that they deserve.

Those were the words that his mother had spoken even as her body was hung helplessly on the wooden stake, her bloodied face barely illuminated by the burning residence behind.

Why were these words appearing again here?

Treading the world with caution? That definitely did not sound like the way of the Untethered Sage Jiang Taiming!

Well, there was no need to think too hard about that.

He would find out soon enough.

Zhao Yunxiao sat down once again as his surroundings gradually faded away. When the colours returned to his vision, he found himself staring directly at a shocking scene.

At this moment, Jiang Taiming was standing among a pile of corpses that numbered at least in the thousands. His hands were dripping with fresh blood that stained the jade pagoda in his right hand. His entire body was drenched in red – the redness of blood that belonged to his slain foes.

His left hand tightly grasped the collar of a young lady – one whose pretty face was now obscured by wounds and bruises. Her battle robes were similarly dyed red, and her eyes, while still open, had lost their light. It was clear that she was already teetering on the brink of death.

The exhausted Jiang Taiming made her no mind, as if he was holding onto a mere decorative item.

With ragged breaths, he looked around at the hundreds more who had surrounded him. Some of them were on the ground with him, while some were hovering in the air. But without exception, all of them were staring straight at him with unconcealed hostility.

The only difference was that from the look in some of their eyes, one could tell that an acute sense of dread had started to creep in and take root in their hearts. That was understandable as well, considering the brutal massacre that they were witnessing right now.

"Give it up, surnamed Jiang! You may be strong, but you are still just one person! You can't escape today, so just make it easier for everyone. Let her go, and I promise to grant you safe passage today!" the one-armed man who appeared to be the leader shouted.

"Give up?" Jiang Taiming chuckled as he matched the one-armed man's gaze. "That sure is convenient. Why didn't you tell your underlings to give up when they were chasing me for the tome?"

"The past doesn't matter anymore. What matters is the present," the one-armed man answered. "Show her mercy, and I shall return the favour today."

"Show her mercy? Hah, how nostalgic," Jiang Taiming chuckled. "You know, my mother's last words were kind of similar. She told me to always tread the world with caution, but also treat others with the kindness and mercy that they deserve."

"Wise words – words that you should take to heart," the one-armed man agreed.

"Wise words? Do you know that she said those words while bleeding to death – killed for something that was completely not her fault?" Jiang Taiming scoffed. "Caution, kindness, and mercy? We both know that those are words of the weak. Those with strength can do whatever they want, and nobody will be able to say anything about it!"

"Is that your answer?" the one-armed man frowned.

"Those are my thoughts indeed, but I also just can't throw away my mother's dying words like it's nothing. She is, after all, my mother," Jiang Taiming shook his head.

"Wise decision," the one-armed man nodded. "Don't worry, I am a man of my word. By showing mercy today, you will also be able to live anoth-

"Therefore, from today onwards, my treasure boots shall be named Caution," Jiang Taiming declared. "With it, I will tread the world!"

"What on earth are you going on about?" the one-armed man said.

"My life-bound treasure shall be named Kindness, and the move that I finally came up with after perfecting the Divine Tether... it shall be named Mercy!" Jiang Taiming raised the jade pagoda in his hands. "With them in hand, I will honour my mother's words by treating all of you with the Kindness and Mercy that you so deserve!"

Zhao Yunxiao: "..."

Was there even a meaning to doing this?

"He must have become delirious after overexerting himself in the earlier fight," the one-armed man concluded. "Everyone, go take him down!"

"Come!" Jiang Taiming roared with a renewed vigour as he placed the jade pagoda upon the forehead of the young lady in his hands. "Look as she becomes the first among you to have a taste of my Kindness and Mercy!"

His energy burst forth from within, passing through the jade pagoda and into the young lady. There were no thunderous impacts or violent explosions. All that happened as the energy passed into the young lady was just her body silently turning stiff.

It was a strange process.

Zhao Yunxiao could not truly fathom its profundities, but if he had to describe it, it would be like some form of peaceful annihilation of life. It was as though what Jiang Taiming targeted was not the young lady's body, but the abstract concept of her life.

Through his life-bound jade pagoda that was now named Kindness, Jiang Taiming had directly sealed away the young lady's vitality, robbing her of her future. At this point, even if someone wanted to save her, how were they supposed to do it?

At the same time, his treasure boots – now named Caution – roared into action, sending him flying into the air at top speed. He was already surrounded from all directions, so the only path of escape was upwards.

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"Die!" the hundreds of cultivators quickly caught up to him.

Jiang Taiming quickly let go of the young lady, allowing her to fall lifelessly towards the ground. He then started drawing innumerable runes in the air, forming words of light that combined into long verses.

"Mercy!" he shouted as the final words were complete.

What happened next felt completely surreal.

The hundreds of cultivators chasing after him suddenly slowed to a crawl, as though time was moving differently for them. The less accomplished among them even started falling, unable to maintain their ability of flight.

While they certainly still existed in the same space, it was like the world as they knew it had just been overturned by a completely different set of rules. As they were right now, they were completely helpless as Jiang Taiming raised the jade pagoda, Kindness, once again.

A strange wave of energy passed through them and half of them turned stiff, though even their fall was in slow motion.

As for the rest, no matter how enraged they were, all they could do was look on as Jiang Taiming prepared to make his escape.

That was, with the exception of one.

"Interesting technique, but your cultivation level is still too low," the one-armed man forcibly broke through Jiang Taiming's technique, arriving before the latter in an instant. "Your recklessness is the cause of your downfall."

Bang-!

His palm struck Jiang Taiming directly in the chest, but what happened next caused his eyes to widen in shock.

"Not quite enough," Jiang Taiming grinned, as though the palm strike did absolutely nothing to him.

Of course, Zhao Yunxiao understood that the one-armed man's attack definitely made an impact. The only reason why it appeared otherwise was because Jiang Taiming had temporarily sealed away the pain to conceal any signs of weakness.

Taking advantage of the one-armed man's moment of shock, Jiang Taiming grabbed the one-armed man's arm and swung him around, tossing him back down to where the hundreds others were.

Then, he turned around and fled without hesitation.

The one-armed man quickly recovered, stopping himself before hitting his companions. However, he no longer continued his pursuit. Instead, he seemed to have entered a state of deep contemplation, his figure turning smaller and smaller as Jiang Taiming rapidly increased the distance between them.

Similar situations to this happened time and again.

There were those who were wary of his talent and wanted to nip this potential threat in the bud. There were those who wanted to beat him into submission and obtain the secrets of the ancient tome. There were also those who hated his arrogance or wanted to take revenge for those who had fallen at his hands.

While there had been a few close calls, Jiang Taiming always managed to find a way to escape, and usually not without first dealing a heavy blow to whoever was trying to hunt him down. Even when he did not manage to retaliate immediately, he would sometimes launch a sneak attack on the other party's faction as a form of delayed payback.

And as time passed, those who sought to hunt him down started to decrease in numbers, until the point where such instances became few and far between.

Jiang Taiming was already strong before, and he only became even more so as his cultivation level increased over the years.

Seemingly having realised that it was simply not worth the effort in trying to hunt him down, the cultivators of the world eventually stopped doing so. Eventually, many even tried to build good relationships with him, aware of the strength that he possessed.

With strength came freedom; with weakness came conformity. Acting freely while possessing strength was being free-spirited; doing so without strength was labelled unorthodoxy.

As time passed, his unorthodox ways were no longer frowned upon as a form of evil, but brushed off as mere eccentricities of the strong.

Jiang Taiming did not let this preferential treatment go to waste either. He travelled the realm, enjoying delicacies and courting beauties, leaving his mark in all corners of the world as he truly embodied the spirit of doing as he wished.

And whenever he left a maiden, he would leave behind a small jade statue of himself – meant both as a form of memento and as a way to watch over her for the rest of her life.

Zhao Yunxiao could not help but sigh internally at this point.

Now, he finally understood why there was a jade statue of the Untethered Sage back at the Hei Residence. To think that one of the ancestors of the Hei Clan had actually been romantically involved with Jiang Taiming in the past...

But as the years went by, even the famed Untethered Sage started to sense his lifespan slowly nearing its end.

Not quite willing to accept his fate just yet, Jiang Taiming found a pristine mountain and settled down there, spending his time pondering on the profundities of cultivation.

Elixirs and pills could only do so much in extending his lifespan. He knew that only by breaking through to the next cultivation level would he truly be able to extend his longevity.

In the process of doing so, he went back to the basics, studying and even creating various foundational techniques.

While doing so, he also created a separate space where he secretly left his legacy. This way, even if he still failed to advance in the end, he could at least live on in the form of knowledge that had been passed on to future generations.

During this time, various cultivators visited his mountain, seeking to obtain some guidance from him.

Some he entertained. Some he did not.

At times, he would go for years without allowing any visitors. At times, he would host visitors for months on end.

It all depended on how he was feeling that day... that month... that year.

And it was through one of his visitors that he eventually learnt of an evil cultivator who had been terrorising the cultivation world. Apparently, this evil cultivator was a master at the manipulation of souls and corruption, making him extremely difficult to deal with.

While this might have struck fear in most others, it only served to intrigue the experienced Jiang Taiming.

Having had no significant gains after years of semi-seclusion, Jiang Taiming decided that perhaps it was a sign to change his approach.

Perhaps if he could understand the ways of this master of soul and corruption, that would allow him to gain further insight into the ways of extending longevity. After all, instead of the body, the soul was the true root of life.

And thus, the Untethered Sage Jiang Taiming once again started to tread the world with Caution.

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