Cao Yun's conclusion was just an educated guess. For that matter, he had no proof whatsoever. Many thoughts came into his mind as to how to act. Being unsure right now, he decided to retreat first and gather as much information as possible.
Lu Meihan continued their conversation. "As long as Junior Chen tries, it will be enough for me. You really seem tired... You can freely use my Coiling Silk Faction. There are plenty of ways to relax yourself."
"Thank you, Miss Lu. I have to admit that I really need some quiet and some rest. I think I'll just take a walk around your beautiful garden, it should alleviate some of my fatigue."
"Of course. We are very proud of our residence. You'll find that just walking around here is soothing for the mind. I hope you get better soon."
Lu Meihan painfully took a small bell and rang it. Immediately, the small servant who was behind the door got in.
"Ren Rong, escort our guest please. He's a bit tired and wishes to stroll through our garden." She turned back to Cao Yun. "I'm sorry but for obvious reasons I won't be able to see you off."
"Miss Lu, no need to apologize. I'll try and get Guest Elder Xiao to help you as soon as I can. Do not lose hope about this matter." Cao Yun was sincerely trying to hide his suspicion.
The small servant walked in front of him as he exited the room. "Young Master, come with me, please. I'll guide you through our Coiling Silk."
Both of them walked outside and the girl showed Cao Yun all their estate. The garden was indeed very soothing to the mind. Even with all his thoughts and suspicions, Cao Yun quite enjoyed it. There were flowerbeds, small ponds, elegant trees, and even a waterfall. Many other disciples walked around accompanied by servants of the faction. The members of the faction were used to entertain customers in more artistic ways. For example, a woman in white was playing a zither surrounded by a dozen of men.
All of them were transfixed by the music. Just by hearing it from afar, Cao Yun had to admit this music was extraordinary. It wasn't just music, it had the strange effect of entering one's mind. As it did, the person would see images related to the melody. It was really a kind of hypnotic technique. Getting out of the hypnosis was simple as you just had to focus a little on something else, but the effects were great.
Even Cao Yun got some benefits of this walk as it calmed down the Drop of Wrath even more, helping the three Perfection characters to tame it completely.
When Cao Yun finally decided he had seen enough, he asked Ren Rong to lead him toward the exit. The reason Cao Yun strolled through the garden was not to appease his mind at all. In reality, he wanted to understand the layout of the residence. All the time he was walking, he had used his mind cultivation to remember every single detail he was seeing. Right now, he had a perfect image of the entire place. So perfect that he could literally walk through it with his eyes closed.
His reasoning was simple. To confirm his suspicions, he would have to sneak in here and search the premises. For that purpose, he needed several things. The first one was naturally to know the place he wanted to sneak into. When Ren Rong walked him out of the main pavilion, he had already used all his senses to their maximum to figure out exactly how the place was structured. Once he got outside, he got even more details as he watched the pavilion and deduced new information from its size and its shape. He had only walked through the first floor so all the other floors were a bit fuzzy in his mind. But he could still place the stairs and use some cues from the first floor to imagine their layout even though they were unclear.
Then, he needed to prepare himself, but that would take some time. For now, he decided to walk back and even circulated his Shen to silence the many thoughts assailing his mind.
-
When he got back to his room, it was still pretty early and Huang Cixi was surprised. She thought he would stay out longer. These last few days, Cao Yun had indeed used all his time to train in many different ways and occupations, only coming back late in the evening. Then, he had the same routine. He spent some time with Mei Ying and cultivated in seclusion for several hours before sleeping four or five hours.
"Young Master, is everything alright?"
"Yes, thank you, Yuzhi. I just have a lot of things on my mind. I won't disturb you. Do whatever you wish as if I wasn't there. I'll retire to my room to think."
"Of course, I won't disturb you either." Seeing the serious look on Cao Yun's face, Huang Cixi got curious. But she had to be subtle about it and couldn't just ask him upfront.
Cao Yun sat cross-legged on his bed and tried to sort out his thoughts.
"Let's assume that Lu Meihan really is a demonic cultivator. She should have some techniques or artifacts to practice her art. And given her state, these are probably in her own room. That's dangerous for her but asking a servant to fetch them for her would be even more so.
On the other hand, let's assume that she only got into contact with a demonic cultivator. Then, she maybe has some documents from them. Maybe a dual cultivation scroll or some strange medicine to heal her. I think my best bet is to assume she's using some demonic ways in order to find a way to heal her backlash.
I could warn Xiao Xuefeng but if she were to launch an investigation, there's always the risk of alerting the demonic cultivators. It's possible they could have already infiltrated the sect. After all, the man who attacked us was at least a 6-star Spirit Warrior. Even with her spiritual senses, I'm not sure Guest Elder Xiao could detect such a demonic cultivator.
And if I'm wrong about Lu Meihan and she had other intentions... Then involving the elders might be a disaster for her. And it could also backfire on me for accusing an innocent woman of practicing the Evil path.
For now, I'll just lay low and focus on ways to get inside the Coiling Silk Faction residence. If I find evidence, I'll still have the opportunity to go to Guest Elder Xiao with them. I'm fairly certain I can trust her. After all, she could have just killed me in the Lunar Marsh."
With all these thoughts sorted out, Cao Yun had a plan of action. First, he would need to protect himself from illusions produced by incense or by array formations. There could also be array formations protecting the residence or able to detect intruders. So he would also need to look into array formations. Fortunately, he was friends with the prodigy of array formations trained by the chief elder of the array formation pavilion himself.
He would also need to train his stealth. After all, Lu Meihan probably never left her room so even though she was weakened, he would need to be able to hide his presence as much as possible. Thanks to his mind cultivation, his senses were as sharp as they could get. Even a Spirit Warrior, without the use of their spiritual senses of course, only had a slightly higher perception. Mortal Warriors were also more sensible to the variation of Qi in the air. These were two things he lacked right now. Normally, there shouldn't be any Mortal Warrior in the Coiling Silk Faction residence, but just to be sure, he would need to be able to suppress his Qi as much as possible.
Even though a Mortal could not control their Qi outside of their body, they naturally exchanged Qi with their environment. A very perceptive Mortal Warrior could pick up on small variations of Qi around them to detect someone's presence, but they lacked any true spiritual senses. Thankfully, Cao Yun knew there were techniques meant to hide one's Qi variations. He had to pick at least one of these techniques.
But he also had to work on his martial arts so as not to fall behind. If he could obtain clues on demonic cultivators but was too weak to do anything, that would be stupid. His goal was to find the murderers of his family, not offer his head to them.
For now, he decided to focus on his mind cultivation as it had just advanced. He knew that the higher his mind cultivation was, the more chances he had. After all, it increased his senses, his memory, his intent, his will and many other things.
A few hours ago, he had just reached the Perfection stage in his Shen character with a dangerous method. So when he entered his sea of consciousness, he made sure that everything was fine, and it was. The three characters looked like three precious stones orbiting a drop of blood. The more he looked at them the more mysterious they seemed, as if they were rocks naturally formed with these shapes. Yi the Earth intent was a golden character. Zhi the Water will was a pure black Onyx stone. Finally, Shen the Fire spirit was a gorgeous red cinnabar stone. Around it, air was steamy as if the character itself was scalding hot.
If you looked more carefully, the red character was also surrounded by very faint flames, almost invisible to the naked eye. They expanded toward the other two characters without touching them yet. It looked like it was both attracting and subduing them.
After carefully examining his sea of consciousness, Cao Yun took out the green 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks' manual. The next page showed a pure white character. So white that it was even a bit painful for the eyes as if it radiated some kind of light. When he looked at it, Cao Yun felt the Drop of Wrath which had been agitated earlier become excited again. As soon as it began to move around, the suppression from the other three characters forced it to stay still. But Cao Yun could feel its intent becoming restless. It really was drawn to this character.
With even more caution than ever before, Cao Yun tried to draw this character in his mind. As he drew it, he felt his Qi moving unconsciously along the same path within his Lower Dantian. He drew it four times before stopping. Once again, the Drop of Wrath became agitated as if it was resonating with the character. In reality, Cao Yun could have gone farther in his cultivation but he had to stop due to this Drop of Wrath. He really did not want to let it run wild in his sea of consciousness again.
Now that he had started the cultivation of the white character, he was able to read the page and soon understood what was happening. This character was Po the Metal Corporeal Soul. The corporeal soul was the soul responsible for the bodily functions. It was in charge of maintaining the body alive and was also in charge of the essence and Qi of the person. It was the soul that pushed people toward bodily actions to survive, but also carnal desires and all kinds of passions. It was easy to excite. Even though it wasn't Fire in nature, its element was Metal and easily melted by Fire.
But this character was also extremely important as it would allow Cao Yun to control his impulses more easily. One of its functions being to control the essence within someone, and consequently his Qi as well. Cultivating it would also bring many benefits in his Qi cultivation in the long run. Essence, Jing, was the basis of the Qi produced by the body. Jing was stored in the kidneys and could also travel through the Governing Vessel in the back, up to the brain. Having a strong Jing was essential for a cultivator. With this character, Cao Yun would be able to stimulate his Jing to strengthen his mind but also produce more Qi and have a better control over it.
To put it simply, he would be able to produce and absorb more Qi, more easily. And his mind would develop faster. Once more, this mind cultivation was giving him twice the results for half the effort. Paradoxically, it would also help him to control the Drop of Wrath. As it got excited each time he practiced this character, Cao Yun could also work on the harmonization of the other three to subdue it. But it was still a bit dangerous, so he did not push it too far. If the Drop of Wrath became too restless, he would stop and wait a bit. Hence, cultivating this character would be longer than the others.
Being very careful, Cao Yun was able to reach Small Success in two hours of work. Each new repetition from now on would be more difficult. To reach Perfection, he would probably need several months but it heavily depended on how the Drop of Wrath reacted, more so than his own mind cultivation.
With a very faint Po character in his sea of consciousness, he circulated his Qi cultivation. Combined with a small spirit stone, he very quickly opened his seventh meridian, the Liver Meridian. It was two days earlier than his expectations. Even with a tiny bit of success with Po, his absorption of Qi had increased. The speed at which he absorbed Qi from the stone was at least 10% higher. And the blockages he met in his meridians were dealt with with way more ease thanks to his new Perfection Shen.
Blessed with his new mind cultivation, his internal sensations were even more fantastical than before.
When Cao Yun thought he had done enough, he immediately wrote a letter. As he had reached Perfection with the Shen character, he could now write it down as perfectly as in the manual. This drawing was of course for Feng Yingyue. He also wrote everything he had experienced to cultivate it, such as the Praying Demon pill he had consumed.
Since Feng Yingyue was studying under Grand Master Hua Fenfei, she had access to almost every alchemy pills imaginable. It would be easy for her to get such a pill, or even a better one. He had an instant of hesitation on whether he should tell her about the potential demonic cultivators within the sect but he stopped himself. She knew that some of them may be infiltrated already since the incident with Luo Jiang back in Yinmen City, so Cao Yun didn't need to warn her. And he had no way of knowing whether his letter would maybe be intercepted or read by anyone else.
No one but Feng Yingyue would be able to use the Shen character as you needed to already have performed the first character of 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks'. But regarding the informations about himself and the demonic cultivators, Cao Yun was careful.