A New Approach

A look of concentration appeared on Arran's face as he focused his attention, concentrating his thoughts on the seal that Master Zhao had created years earlier.

The seal was the same as always — a bafflingly intricate weave of Shadow Essence, as impenetrable as it was complex.

Yet the seal's complexity wasn't what frustrated him.

Over the years, he had grown to know it as well as he knew his own body — better, perhaps. Intricate though it was, he knew exactly where every strand of Essence belonged, and exactly how they were all woven together.

Rather, what left him frustrated was that despite his knowledge of it, the seal still easily resisted his every effort to remove it.

He had long since tried the methods the Sixth Valley's Patriarch had shown him to remove it, but none seemed to achieve much of anything. No matter what he did, the seal reformed itself instantly whenever he managed to damage it.