The seal lifted, the Ice Emperor returned!

The temperature inside the shop abruptly dropped.

A thin layer of frost coated the edge of the counter. Hai Bodong slowly set down his brush and stared at the young man before him.

"Who sent you?"

"No one. I came to talk business."

Xiao Yan pulled over a chair and sat down without waiting for an invitation.

"The Snake Seal Curse has suppressed you for so many years. Surely you don't intend to spend the rest of your life watching over this map shop?"

Hai Bodong's gaze sharpened.

He had lived in seclusion in Desert City for years, and few people knew his identity. Yet this brat could even name the seal.

"You, a mere Dou Shi?"

Xiao Yan smiled.

"Naturally, I'll need my teacher's help."

Almost at the same moment, a calm voice came from his ring.

"An external force has entangled his flow of energy. Simply strip it away. Nothing difficult."

Hearing that, Xiao Yan's mind settled completely.

Hai Bodong only saw his smile deepen, however, and the wariness on his face did not lessen.

"I once found a formula for the Sixth-Rank Barrier-Breaking Pill, but I still lack one ingredient. Can your teacher refine it?"

"There's no need for a pill."

As Xiao Yan spoke, Bodhi sent a wisp of pure energy through his raised hand.

The pure energy drifted across the counter and brushed lightly over Hai Bodong.

The seal that had lain dormant in Hai Bodong's body for so long actually loosened for an instant!

He shot to his feet.

In that single brief breath, his sluggish Dou Qi had truly broken through some of its obstructions!

"This..."

Hai Bodong looked down at his hands, undisguisable excitement appearing in his eyes for the first time.

Xiao Yan withdrew his hand.

"Can we talk now?"

Silence lingered in the room for a moment.

Hai Bodong sat back down, his voice much lower.

"What do you want?"

Xiao Yan pointed toward an old map in the corner.

"That remnant map. And once the seal is lifted, stay by my side for a year."

"If I encounter trouble I can't handle during that year, I'll ask you to step in."

Hai Bodong followed his pointing finger, his gaze shifting slightly.

"You recognize that thing?"

"I know a little about it."

Xiao Yan did not elaborate, and Hai Bodong did not press him.

He had studied that map for years without getting anywhere. Trading it for the removal of his seal, then spending a year repaying the favor, was hardly a loss.

He looked at Xiao Yan and said gravely:

"Agreed. But I'm promising to keep you safe, not to go around harming people for you."

"Don't worry. I haven't got the time for that either."

Xiao Yan rose with a smile.

"Let's find somewhere quiet."

A short while later, the two arrived in a quiet room behind the shop.

Hai Bodong sat cross-legged. As he circulated his Dou Qi slightly, a faint snake-shaped mark appeared on his forehead.

Xiao Yan glanced at it and asked casually:

"Queen Medusa left that?"

Hai Bodong's expression dimmed slightly.

"Back then, I fought her to protect someone and was struck by this seal."

He said only that, then fell silent.

Seeing this, Xiao Yan did not pry into the past. Instead, he called to his teacher inwardly.

"Have him restrain his Dou Qi and offer no resistance."

The Grandmaster's voice reached him.

Xiao Yan relayed the instructions, then extended two fingers and pressed them against Hai Bodong's back.

This time, he did not draw on his own Dou Qi.

A wisp of gentle power emerged from the ring, traveled down his arm to his fingertips, and slipped into Hai Bodong's body.

Naturally, Bodhi was the one truly acting.

Xiao Yan merely followed his instructions, guiding that power to the seal.

Hum!

Hai Bodong's body trembled slightly.

The snake-shaped restriction that had coiled within him for years seemed to sense danger and suddenly tightened. The mark on his forehead grew clearer as well.

Yet once the wisp of pure energy descended, the tightly coiled snake shadow loosened inch by inch.

There was no violent clash, nor any of the searing pain he had expected.

Xiao Yan concentrated and activated the See Through Walls technique he had only just begun learning. He could still see only blurred shadows of energy, but he could make out the icy Dou Qi separating from the seal little by little.

He had thought that undoing a seal like this would at least require one head-on clash.

Only now did he realize that the Grandmaster's power had not harmed Hai Bodong's own Dou Qi at all. It merely picked out the restriction that did not belong to him. Such control made Xiao Yan soften even his breathing, afraid of missing the slightest change.

It was like someone finding the knot in a rope and casually untying it.

The seal Queen Medusa had left behind simply unraveled!

Hai Bodong's eyes snapped open.

The Dou Qi suppressed for years surged from deep within his body, racing through his meridians and filling every limb and bone.

Ice-blue light shone, and a thin layer of ice formed across the floor.

Xiao Yan was just about to retreat when an invisible barrier enveloped the quiet room, containing every trace of escaping cold.

From within the ring, the Grandmaster said leisurely:

"Sit steady. A grown man like him, yet he's even more impatient than you."

Xiao Yan nearly laughed aloud.

Outside, people continued coming and going along the street, unaware that a Dou Emperor was regaining his power inside that little map shop.

After a long while, Hai Bodong slowly rose.

A pair of crystalline ice wings unfurled behind his back.

His once aged, subdued eyes now blazed with a keen edge. His white hair stirred, and the cold air in the quiet room rose and fell slowly with his breathing.

A Dou Emperor!

Hai Bodong clenched his fists, feeling the power that had returned to him, and remained silent for a long time.

At last, he let out a long breath.

"It's back."

Xiao Yan looked him over.

"How much have you recovered?"

"Two-star Dou Emperor."

Hai Bodong retracted his ice wings, but there was no disappointment in his eyes.

"The toll of these years remains. I'm still some way from my former five-star strength. But now that the seal is gone, I can slowly restore the rest myself."

With that, he solemnly cupped his fist toward Xiao Yan.

"Please thank your teacher for me."

He paused, then asked Xiao Yan's name. Upon hearing his answer, he carefully committed it to memory.

"From now on, just call me Elder Hai."

Xiao Yan agreed, while Bodhi had already picked up his teacup again, as though he had merely brushed a little dust off a table.

Back in the shop, Hai Bodong fetched the remnant map but did not hand it over immediately.

He opened a hidden compartment beneath the counter, took out another half, and fitted the torn edges together.

"After obtaining it back then, I split it in two."

"Since I agreed to give it to you, naturally I won't give you only half."

Xiao Yan accepted it, nodding inwardly.

This old man certainly keeps things straightforward.

He also took out the remnant map he had obtained in the cave and spread it across the counter. The markings on the two old sheets echoed one another, but large sections were still missing, leaving the complete route impossible to discern for now.

He had obtained another piece of the map to the purifying lotus demon flame.

Hai Bodong was a little surprised to see the other remnant map, but tactfully refrained from asking questions.

By the time Xiao Yan put everything away, Hai Bodong had stored a few personal belongings in his Storage Ring and cast one last glance at the unfinished map on his desk.

"Let's go."

Xiao Yan raised an eyebrow.

"You're leaving the shop?"

"I've sat here for so many years. It's time I went out and stretched my legs."

Hai Bodong pushed open the shop door, and dazzling sunlight fell across his white hair.

He looked back at Xiao Yan, a rare hint of a smile touching his lips.

"I won't go back on the year I promised you."

Xiao Yan followed him outside in excellent spirits.

He had arrived alone. Now he was leaving with another Demonic Flame Remnant Map and a Dou Emperor at his side.

This trip to Desert City had been well worth it!