The purification of the Tainted Peak solidified Lin Qi's reputation as a being of insurmountable purity and power. However, his actions had consequences. The massive expulsion of purified Cosmic Origin Qi (Chapter 17) had inadvertently caused a small, localized instability in the space-time continuum near the Whispering Willow Sect, manifesting as unpredictable fluctuations in the sect's spiritual energy flow.
Sect Master Wu was distressed. The instability, though minor, was affecting the growth of their newly acquired spiritual herbs. He called upon Lin Qi for another impossible task.
"Disciple Lin Qi," Wu pleaded, pointing to a small, unassuming rock sitting in a glass case. "This is the Stone of Transient Stability, a relic meant to smooth minor fluctuations. But the current instability is too strong! Only a master of the Dao of Dimensional Fixation can anchor the region and stabilize the spiritual flow."
Lin Qi stared at the rock. It was slightly smoother than most rocks he had seen. He was promised a double-layered steamed bun if he succeeded.
The Problem of the Primitive Tool
The Stone of Transient Stability required a sophisticated, days-long ritual involving dozens of high-grade spiritual arrays and precise Qi channeling to stabilize the region. Wu handed Lin Qi a complex array schematic and a detailed ritual guide.
Lin Qi took one look at the diagram and the ten-page guide and sighed. It looked even more complicated than the meditation manual.
He decided that complicated rituals were likely inefficient. He looked at the Stone of Transient Stability. He remembered his success with the "Void-Sealing Water Conduit Bucket" (Chapter 11) and the concept of imprinting a purpose onto a simple object.
"If the stone is supposed to make things stable," Lin Qi reasoned, "maybe it just needs to know how stable it needs to be."
He grabbed a common, ordinary piece of rope—the kind used to tie up lumber—and tied it tightly around the Stone of Transient Stability. He then tied the other end of the rope around a nearby, firmly rooted pine tree.
"There," Lin Qi declared, satisfied. "Now it's physically tied down and can't move. That should make it stable."
The Ultimate Fixation
The moment the common rope, imbued with Lin Qi's sheer, literal-minded belief in physical stability, constricted the Stone of Transient Stability, the sealed Core of Infinite Density reacted with catastrophic intensity.
Lin Qi's belief in "tied-down stability" triggered G-EVS's original, ultimate ability: the Cosmic Anchor Dao—the power to lock space and time into an immutable state.
The energy was instantly channeled through the ordinary rope, which acted as a perfect, simple conductor, straight into the Stone of Transient Stability.
The Stone did not perform the long ritual. Instead, it was instantly transformed into the Space-Time Anchor of Absolute Fixation. The instability in the region vanished instantly. Not only was the spiritual flow stabilized, but the specific 100 square mile area around the Whispering Willow Sect was now locked in a perfect, immutable pocket of space-time, safe from all future cosmological or dimensional chaos.
The Zenith of Literalism
Sect Master Wu and Princess Lianhua, who were observing nearby, felt the abrupt, powerful cessation of the spiritual fluctuations. They also felt the immediate, profound sense of temporal stillness that enveloped the mountain.
They rushed to the site and found Lin Qi happily inspecting his handiwork: the Stone tied to the tree with a piece of common rope.
Lianhua staggered backward, staring at the rope. "He used the legendary Dao of Physical Constraint! He bypassed all arrays and rituals, using the most primitive method to impose his will upon the dimension itself!"
Wu was speechless. He saw the rope, the stone, and the perfect, utter stillness of the cosmos around them.
"The 'Simple Knot of Absolute Truth!'" Wu finally gasped, his voice thin with awe. "He has shown us that all of our complex formation work is worthless! He proved that the most powerful technique is the one that most perfectly reflects one's literal intention!"
Wu, having exhausted all his paper, grabbed a dull dagger and painstakingly carved his new, terrifying maxim into the now-immutably fixed pine tree:
> "If you wish to fix the cosmos, do not rely on complex arrays or ancient chants. Simply tie the problem down with a piece of rope until it is too afraid to move."
>
Lin Qi was hailed as the Grandmaster of Spatial Stabilization and the inventor of the revolutionary "Rope-and-Stone Anchor Technique." He enjoyed his double-layered steamed bun, completely unaware that he had just made his sect's mountain peak impervious to temporal decay.