According to the reports of the City Lord Dun Mofan, Cao Yun's family had most likely been killed by demonic cultivators. Although the information seemed authentic, it was unheard of for an entire family to be killed by demonic cultivators, and it got Cao Yun thinking. Replaying that night over and over in his mind, he began to believe that it did make kind of sense.
The leader of the attack was using a very strange blade. In the light of the moon, it almost looked as if it was constantly covered in fresh blood. The knowledge of Cao Yun concerning demonic cultivators was very thin, however he could see that this weapon was not orthodox.
Of course, it wasn't proof enough. Anyone could use a weapon with a demonic feel to it. His train of thought then incorporated Luo Jiang. Apparently, a demonic cultivator who was at the Spirit Warrior realm was trying to get into the Golden Flowery Fragrance Institute. Such a powerful demonic cultivator was rare judging by the attitude of Grand Master Hua. But that was precisely the kind of demonic cultivators who had slaughtered the Cao family.
It was a little far-fetched, but maybe it was the same person. Well, it was not that unlikely. Demonic cultivators had to hide to avoid getting purged. So very few of them were able to reach great heights in their cultivation. There could never be that many Spirit Warriors among them. And Yinmen City was relatively close to Baziyun City.
Racking his brain, Cao Yun was constantly making associations between elements and then doubting them again. The only certain fact was that he had very little to go on with. That was why he was in this swamp, not just as a shortcut to the Wubei Sect, but also to gather some intel.
The demonic cultivators who probably roamed the Lunar Marsh had only killed normal humans or very low grade cultivators. It was precisely the reason why the Governor of the Shuangli Province did not divert any of his forces to eradicate them. And it was precisely the reason why Cao Yun had chosen them. If they were weak enough, he could probably beat them without killing them. And he wanted to get them alive for interrogation.
Demonic cultivators tended to be stronger than other cultivators though. Their demonic arts allowed them to obtain great strength quickly, but it messed with their mind and hindered their progress in the long run.
Cao Yun had no first hand knowledge about their arts. The only thing he knew were rumors and none of them made him feel any remorse about hunting them down.
There were many arts that were considered to be part of the Evil Way. Among these arts, most consisted in hurting other humans. Some demonic cultivators were even known to drink human blood and eat human flesh. There were accounts of demonic cultivators bathing in blood, flaying humans alive to use their skin, and many other monstrous stories.
Cao Yun did not know which ones were true, exaggerations or pure inventions. Maybe orthodox cultivators wanted to worsen their image among the general population, but Cao Yun knew from his father that they really were evil, and sometimes mad. Indeed, when he was a little bit younger, Cao Guang had told him stories about a punitive expedition against some demonic cultivators. Of course, Cao Shui stopped him before he could traumatize the poor kid, but the story had impressed him.
Wait! Maybe that was the link! Cao Yun suddenly thought about his father's story. His father and the patriarch were forefront during this expedition, maybe the attack was a retaliation...
As these new thoughts erupted in Cao Yun's mind, there was some movement in the distance that brought him back to reality.
The young boy had been hiding around the spot where the traces were, waiting in ambush. Five men and two women just walked by. Four of the men were obviously cultivators. They were wearing light leather armors, probably to move more easily through this damp swamp where an heavy armor would be too inconvenient. Arms in hand, they were walking the other three, one man and two women. Both their hands and feet were tied up and chained together. Their clothes were torn in several places but it was still obvious that they were mere mortals without any cultivation to speak of. Traces of abuse and torture were visible on the flesh that was exposed. Following these demonic cultivators, the heads of these humans were down with gloomy expressions, almost devoid of life.
The first impulse of Cao Yun was to jump them and save these people. After some hesitation, he chose not to. He wanted to find where these demonic cultivators were hiding. His best bet was to follow them and then find their leader. Discerning the cultivation of someone was very difficult without spiritual senses but they were probably at most 4th-grade Mortals as he could not feel strong Qi emanating from them.
Every life form was enveloped by a layer of Wei Qi, protective Qi. It was a natural emanation of their vitality. As cultivators gathered Qi in their Vessels and Meridians, this layer of Wei Qi became denser and denser. Although invisible to the naked eye, it was possible to perceive a kind of vitality from this Wei Qi. Usually, only Mortal Warriors could really feel it at a distance while Mortals could just feel it around them. With his stronger intent, Cao Yun was more perceptive and he could sense that their vitality was pretty low. In the worst case, some of them could be 4th-grade Mortals, but if they were, their breakthrough was pretty new.
In any way, none of them was an opponent for Cao Yun. Most likely, he could kill the four of them with a single strike each, especially if he attacked by surprise.
-
He followed them for at least two hours. They were clearly trying to avoid any threat in the swamp. Finally, they stopped before a small pond of water full of Embalming Lake Lotus closed stems. Watching their every move, Cao Yun was perplexed. They cut off the bonds of the prisoners.
All of a sudden, Cao Yun realized what they were going to do. Embalming Lake Lotuses were lotuses that grew from corpses. Most of the time, the corpses were beasts, or even fish. But these demonic cultivators had found a way to exploit their victims even in death. Sadly, Cao Yun realized this a bit too late. Jumping from his hiding place, he tried to rush toward the group, the 'Star-Devouring Dragon' sword in hand.
One of the demonic cultivators turned back while his friends slit the throat of their prisoners. As their blood flowed down their body, there was some kind of relief in their eyes and then, they fell in the pond. While their blood was spreading and gave a reddish color to the waters, Cao Yun's sword was already deep within one of their murderer's throat.
He made quick work of them all but kept one alive. He had cut off the hand that was holding his weapon and was crushing his head beneath his foot.
Looking into the pond, Cao Yun was able to make out at least a dozen of other corpses already rotten down below. His rage was fuel for the Drop of Wrath that was starting to vibrate again. Fearing to be overtaken, Cao Yun calmed down and focused on his captive.
"You will answer my questions, or you will join your accomplices." His foot exerted more pressure, putting his head deep in the mud.
"How many are you in this swamp?"
"There are thousands of us! You'll never get out alive!" As soon as Cao Yun let go of his head to let him speak, the demonic cultivator screamed like a madman.
Cao Yun stabbed his shoulder. He had absolutely no mercy for this lunatic.
"I'll ask again. How many are you?"
Still defiant, the demonic cultivator answered as the sword rotated in his shoulder, touching his nerves. "We're twenty-three."
"Counting these guys?" Cao Yun showed the three other bodies with his head.
"Yes, yes. So, we're twenty now I guess."
"What's the cultivation level of your group?"
"No one is above 3rd-grade Mortal. Only our leader is 5th-grade." They really were weak...
"What are you doing here? Where do you come from?"
"We... our sect was destroyed by orthodox cultivators. So our sect master sent the young ones away. We fled here with our older brother."
Demonic cultivators also formed sects. Mostly their candidates were either enslaved children or criminals, outcasts. Through atrocious trainings, they could mold the young ones to fully embrace their ways. Most sect was in fact using their disciples in order to test out various techniques before the leaders could use them themselves. Demonic techniques were always dangerous for humans to perform, so it was safer to have other people test them out first.
"What was your sect?"
"The Wolf Head Sect."
"Do you have any link with demonic cultivators in the Wu Province?"
"What? No... I don't know!" As a low-level disciple, he had no way to know the actions of the upper echelon.
"What about the Meifen Province?" The Wu Province was where Baziyun City lied and the Meifen Province was just to the east, where Yinmen City lied.
"I don't know!"
"You're not really useful..." Cao Yun took out his sword from his shoulder.
"Wait, have mercy!" Understanding that he had outlived his usefulness, the young demonic cultivator tried to plead for his life.
"How many people have you hurt and killed? Having mercy on you would equate being cruel to them." Cao Yun had learned his lesson with Gu Ouyang. Some people were better off dead. If he let him live, he would probably kill again, or even harm Cao Yun later.
With one swift stab, he pierced through his heart and ended him.
He quickly went through their stuff but there was nothing of importance. He found some vials of blood and some common pills. On the body of the last man he killed, he discovered a small manual. The book had no name and explained in a very general manner how to use a human as a living furnace. This term served to designate humans that were used as tools to advance your own cultivation. Several methods were discussed such as drugging them, torturing them, maiming them, ... Once you controlled them, you could cultivate their blood to consume it, abuse them sexually to extract their energy, train your martial arts on them, test your drugs or your different cultivation theories on them, ... Cao Yun tore the manual apart and felt good about killing this man.
If the cultivators in this swamp were really juniors from a demonic sect, they would not know much. But the 'older brother' had maybe taken some documents in his run. And, whether there was something to gain or not, Cao Yun was adamant on eradicating this threat. If the Shuangli Province Governor did not take action, he would!
-
Cao Yun tried to follow the tracks of the seven people backwards. Fortunately, they were transporting prisoners so they had no time to hide their tracks. Most likely, they would have done so when coming back.
He followed their path up to a small cave. From what he had heard from the demonic cultivator, there should be nineteen people in there, all under 4th-grade Mortal and only one above, and merely a 5th-grade Mortal. However, Cao Yun could not be sure that this intel was to be trusted. But given the size of the cave, he was sure that they could not be too numerous. Around twenty was a good number from what he could see from the cave.
Taking that many cultivators on on his own was very difficult. And he did not even know if they knew how to coordinate their attacks well with each other. His best bet would be to follow some groups that were leaving the cave to pick them up one by one. When the group he had killed would not be coming back, surely a search party of some kind would be sent out.
Cao Yun decided to wait in ambush a little farther from the cave. But he got thinking. What if they had more prisoners? What if more innocent people were killed while he was waiting? Should he really just wait and not intervene? But if he intervened, he risked dying. And if he died, he would not help anyone either way.
The decision was really tough. It had completely slipped his mind to ask about other prisoners when he interrogated the demonic cultivator earlier. He should have asked if they had more of them in their camp. But what if they had? He could not take all the demonic cultivators on alone anyway...
Anxiety grew in Cao Yun as he was laying perfectly still in the swamp. All of his senses were focused on his environment, not just the cave. There was always a possibility to be attacked by demonic beasts in this swamp. It was also possible that another group of demonic cultivators would be coming back to the cave. He couldn't be sure that they were all inside.
Several hours passed.
Finally, around ten people got out of the cave. Six were men and four were women, but this time they were all demonic cultivators, no prisoners.
Cao Yun tried to make out what they were saying. Apparently, they were talking about the other group who did not return, just as Cao Yun had thought. They were complaining that maybe they decided to play with their women prisoners and lost track of time. Even the women in the group were very visual and vulgar about it.
Once again, they made it easy on Cao Yun's conscious. When he had killed Huang Lixin, he had felt indescribably bad, and even today he was riddled with remorse. On the other hand, he would not lose a second of sleep on their kind.