For a very long time, Cao Yun had mainly worked for his objectives and not by pure pleasure for his martial arts and cultivation. Having Xiao Xuegeng tell him to lay low made him think. Before being able to take down a Spirit Warrior, several decades would be necessary, even by the most conservative estimations. In the meantime, he could not just lose himself in his revenge. Even if he wanted to, he didn't have a clear objective in mind as the clues were so few.
In fact, he only had two leads. The first one was the array formations investigated by Sun Liao. Cao Yun lacked his talent for this occupation so he was pretty much useless in that regard. The second lead was the Wolf Head Sect but he could not leave the Wubei Sect for now. And even then, he probably lacked the strength to merely survive such an investigation.
Cao Yun was a bit alone with his thoughts. Since the day of the tragedy, he had pretty much gone with the flow while trying to find bits and pieces. But what would he do when he was done? All these thoughts brought him back to his father's last words, "Do not throw away your life. Live!"
He also remembered the words of Xiao Xuefeng about the Dao Heart. A Dao Heart was a way of referring to the will of someone to follow the Way. The Way or Dao could be understood in numerous manners. Most cultivators were imagining it as the cultivation of immortality, transcending their own mortality and understanding the laws of nature itself. In the end, cultivators even wanted to transcend the very laws of nature and to touch upon the absolute truths of existence. Once again, all these notions were pretty vague for a young boy like Cao Yun. There were cultivators who devoted their life to philosophy just to wrap their head around all these concepts, most of which came from Emperor Nuwa and the cultivators from the Founding Era.
Cao Yun circulated his mind cultivation and focused on the new character, the Hun. It was said to be connected to his very soul, the ethereal soul that was the vessel of reincarnation. He was sincerely trying to figure out who he really was in this life. His parents had brought him up to be virtuous and virtuous he was trying to be. He had a deep sense of justice and a strong attachment to mankind thanks to his father and his great-grandfather. All his youth, he had worked only to please his father and increase his position within the family, without questioning the world around him. Even after their death, he was still working for them in a way.
He didn't thing that this was wrong, but right now, it felt lacking, almost empty. What did he have for himself?
The only thing that came to mind was his martial arts. More than fighting, he had always loved discovering new martial arts. He had first trained just to be filial, but he surprised himself reading hundreds of books on the subject. Even the martial arts he wasn't learning, he loved reading about them. And learning both alchemy and array formations comforted him in this passion. What he really loved was learning the complexities of the world around him and within him. That was the reason why he could immerse himself in cultivation for so long and was fascinated by the new methods he was reading about.
Even his time with Feng Yingyue was marked by the many conversations they had when she taught him about her own occupation. And one of his favorite things in the Wubei Sect was playing with Mei Ying. He was giving her instructions on her spearmanship while having some fun with this little sister. He almost felt like he was back with Cao Huiying. This was a bittersweet feeling as he thoroughly enjoyed it but it reminded him of his deceased sister.
Slowly, a new sense of purpose was growing in him. He would uncover the truth about his family's massacre even if he had to topple the Imperial City in a far future. This would also benefit all mankind as he was going to purge the demonic cultivators from the entire planet. But he would also allow himself to live his life and find out who he really was and what he really loved. He would not be just a tool of righteousness, he wanted to live for himself as well. For now, what he sincerely wanted to do was deepen his understanding of cultivation and martial arts.
Thus, he decided on his schedule. He would visit the many array formations he was familiar with to test his understanding of the first three stars, especially the Root Star. The challenges were coming very soon as the middle of the year was close by, he had no interest in issuing any. He had no need for them at all. In fact, his alchemy allowed him to be absolutely self-sufficient in terms of merit points and resources, thanks to both the Wubei Merit Market and the Dragon's Fire Faction. As such, it was better not to draw too much attention on himself. And frankly, he had no idea who he would challenge. His duel against Luduo Bu was not meant to increase his ranking, but only to take down the bully who had tormented Mei Ying. And in the martial art pavilion, he could spar against many experts.
This introspection had given a new luster to the four precious stone-carved characters in his sea of consciousness. Even the Hun character was becoming a bit more tangible. Unbeknown to him, Hun the Wood Ethereal Soul was influencing his psyche a bit. This character was able to establish a deeper link between someone and their ethereal soul, the Hun. It was responsible for reincarnations but it also was the soul that pushed someone to aspire to fulfilling and spiritual goals.
The Po, the corporeal soul, was a part of the soul that was always trying to survive, it anchored the person in their body. As such, it was linked to the Qi, the energy of life. But, by trying to survive, it could use and waste too much Qi and end up exhausting the Jing, the essence of life, causing a decline in health and a premature death. On the opposite side was Hun, the ethereal soul. It was connecting the person to higher aspirations, either spiritual, philosophical or simply social. It was the desire to become a better person, to form relationships with others, but also to find one's place in life. As such, it was always ready to escape the body to reach the Heavens, which would lead to death of course.
The Jing was the tether between the Hun and the body. As long as Jing was ample, Hun would stay within the body. It would also balance out Po. But once Jing was lacking, Hun would fly out and take life with it. Then it was believed to join the Heavens and slowly drift into another life.
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Somewhere else in the Wubei Sect, Sun Liao was studying inside his private chamber within the array formation pavilion. He had finally reached the 5-star array formation master rank and was now the direct disciple of Chief Elder Suxian. As such, he did not have much to do. Just like Mei Hua, he only needed to increase his cultivation in order to cross the next step in his occupation. Only a Mortal Warrior was able to set up a Human rank array formation.
With his time mostly free, he was thinking about the array formations he had seen around the Coiling Silk Faction residence. Unfortunately, he had not seen the ones in the storehouse that were more intricate and complicated. They probably had more clues for him. But he had seen small array formations meant to detect intruders all around the residence. He even went back to the residence thanks to the new faction leader, Wang Mei. However, all traces of these array formations were gone.
As he had said to Cao Yun, array formation masters with experience tended to pick up habits and it showed in their work, even when they tried to hide it. Paradoxically, it was easier for a newbie to hide out his identity because he had no habits and mostly followed the rules to a T. Sun Liao racked his brain to remember every array formations he had seen to compare them. Very quickly, he eliminated many of them that were too different from what he had seen.
However, there was still a handful of candidates. He noted all the array formation masters who had set up these array formations. In the end, he had nine suspects. If he could see a good proportion of their work, he would be able to tell who was the culprit. As such, an idea popped up in his mind but he really hated it.
He would have to go ask them for advice. If he chose carefully the questions he asked them, he could compare their ways of setting up array formations with his memory on very specific points. However, the idea was pretty appalling. Indeed, he had been maybe a bit too arrogant with some of them. The lessons of Chief Elder Suxian had not worked perfectly, and his natural disposition had still shone through. The prospect of having to go ask questions which he knew the answers to, and even worse, asking them to people he had belittled for some of them, was really hard on Sun Liao.
Breathing deeply, he decided to put his pride aside. This was to help his friends! Cao Yun had risked his life for Ren Chao and Sun Liao was absolutely sure that Cao Yun would have done the same if it had been him instead. If his friend could put his life on the line, Sun Liao could accept to humble himself a bit. And he could still eclipse everyone else in the array formation ranking scroll later on, anyway...
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Cao Yun went back to the Howling Crane Gorges. The last time he had come, he had only been able to step in the fourth level. There were eight of them, each one measuring one li. Now that he had mastered the Root Star, his defense was heightened. While focusing on the Root Star and the Neck Star, Cao Yun slowly walked through each level. He was trying to feel the wind against his body. Clearly the 'Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars' was linked to wind and he was perceiving this element. Wind was not one of the five elements. However, it was present in the Eight Trigrams, one of the principle from the Eight Directions in array formations. From what he understood, wind was one of the eight trigrams.
Trigrams resulted from complex interactions between Yin and Yang, lesser Yin, lesser Yang, great Yin and great Yang. The wind trigram was linked with the Wood element. And coincidentally, Wood was the element of his new character, Hun the Wood Ethereal Soul. Even though it was still very immaterial, Cao Yun could feel a connection between this character and the stars in his interior sky.
The more he walked, the more he understood the concept of wind all around him. Unconsciously, he was circulating his comprehension of the three stars in his mind, reciting mantra he did not even learn. The stars were stabilizing their anchor in the sky. As he was in a state of deep meditation, Cao Yun walked several li.
When the hour was up, he was in the beginning of the fifth li. The pressure was extreme but he could still take it thanks to the Root Star increasing his defense, especially to wind.
In the following days, he went back to this array formation. Even though his understanding was becoming stronger and stronger, he realized that without further stars, he would not be able to cross over to the last three li of the way. After all, each level was twice as violent as the previous one.
Another day, Cao Yun decided to go back to the Thousand Snakes Invade the Shell array formation. This array formation able to send out attacks from all directions could be set all the way to 6th-grade Mortal Warrior. The last time he had tried it out, he had been able to resist the 2nd-grade Mortal Warrior setting for several moves. each level from then on would be increasingly more difficult.
Thus, Cao Yun decided to start with his own level, 6th-grade Mortal. This time, he would only work on his defense to train his Root Star. For that very purpose, he stayed perfectly still and took all the attacks. With the 'Dragon's Chest', he was able to easily focus his energy in the right place before the attack hit him and he received no injury. Again and again, he upped the setting, all the way to 1st-grade Mortal Warrior. This time, he was still fast enough with his Qi to protect his body. However, the attacks were actually hurting him and leaving deep bruises on his skin. Deep down though, they did not damage neither his soft tissues nor his bones. He could have easily dodged or deflected them, but that wasn't his point.
After an hour of suffering this painful tempering, he shifted to blocking and deflecting in order to work on his speed and perception. Mainly, he focused on the Neck Star and 'The Moon Grounds the Sun'. He went all the way to the 2nd-grade Mortal Warrior setting and did not test out the next level. This setting was tough but he could now stay with it for an entire hour. Before trying an even higher setting, he would need to increase both his understanding of the martial art and his cultivation. Even with a great martial art, Cao Yun's body was limited by his cultivation. Fortunately, his Qi cultivation was going smoothly.
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Finally, Cao Yun decided to go to the Warrior Dream array formation. The fighter made from energy whom he was fighting against in this array formation was always able to find flaws in his technique. Thanks to that, it was a great way to progress. However, it did not tell him what were his flaws, he had to figure that part out for himself. In fact, this motivated Cao Yun even further as he had to engage in deep thinking to improve his moves.
This array formation was very good to polish his moves, but it wasn't as optimal as fighting real battles.
After several days in those various array formations, Cao Yun decided to add another exercise to his training regimen. He would go back to the martial art pavilion. In fact, he had not gone there for a long time. Chief Elder Baishen was battle crazy but he had to admit that her training was effective.
When he went there, she would always make him fight opponents she had hand-picked specially to increase his better points and get rid of his flaws.