Yulan City.
Inside Hall Master Yuanxiang's cave abode.
Hall Master Yuanxiang sat cross-legged, colored mist continuously emerging from his body, especially his head.
The brilliant colors were beautiful, yet somewhat eerie, but they also seemed to possess a special beauty, as alluring as a poisonous rose.
A snake-shaped phantom coiled throughout the quiet chamber, its head above Hall Master Yuanxiang as it opened its mouth and continuously devoured the colored mist.
Lu Yin Walker stood behind him, a dark red crystal floating above his right palm, like the snake's core-or rather, its origin.
The snake shadow moved under his control.
A strange fluctuation radiated outward, faint but continuous.
As the colored mist was gradually devoured, the rate at which it seeped out also decreased.
Time passed.
Only when the colored mist surging from Hall Master Yuanxiang's head had thinned to wisps, almost imperceptible compared to its initial torrent, did Lu Yin Walker stop.
The snake-shaped phantom continuously shrank, finally returning entirely into the dark red crystal.
The faint fluctuations emanating from the crystal gradually faded as well.
Hall Master Yuanxiang opened his eyes, stood up, and looked at his old friend.
"Lu Yin, thank you so much for this."
He felt an ease he had not experienced in a long time.
"Unfortunately, it only treats the symptoms, not the root cause." Lu Yin Walker shook his head, a trace of disappointment in his eyes.
The mist was a tangible manifestation of the mind pollution accumulated within Hall Master Yuanxiang, but its root had not been removed.
As time passed, Hall Master Yuanxiang would eventually return to the state he had been in before the pollution was purged.
Even now, his ease was only temporary.
A few hundred epochs, a few thousand epochs-in any case, it would not last long.
"This