Huang Cixi was now cultivating Zhi the Water Will. Thanks to Cao Yun's advice, but also her own talent and merit, she had spent less than two months on Yi the Earth Intent. As she couldn't access her sea of consciousness like Cao Yun, her discussions with him were incredibly helpful. And she was also spending almost all of her time on this cultivation while also being helped by many pills, such as the Frozen Heart pill, provided by Cao Yun. Thanks to his deal with the Dragon's Fire Faction in the Wubei Merit Market, he could have almost any pill he so desired.
Huang Cixi was cultivating her mind as much as she could in order to improve her chances when she would finally receive the Life Boiling Cradle pill. The probability of failure for Xiao Xuefeng was higher than her chances of success. However, Huang Cixi chose to act as if she would succeed. And even if she failed, this mind cultivation was a good thing nonetheless. If her Lower Dantian couldn't be healed, then she still had to live anyway. With her grandfather's help, she could probably extend her lifespan to two hundred years with pills and physicians.
Huang Cixi's aim had always been political. What she was craving for was not necessarily power, but the ability to change the lives of her people. Even without her cultivation, she could still become a great minister for her family. Saint Xun Ke was proof of it. She had studied many of his works, such as 'Ruling the Waterfall to Raise the Mud'. In this treatise, Saint Xun Ke explained that the virtue of the rulers had to fall toward the common men to raise the moral of all the society. Even when a ruler had to do an immoral act, he couldn't let it affect the morality of the people.
But he also made more obscure works such as 'Darkness in Light and Light in Darkness'. In this treatise, he manipulated many aphorisms and fictional anecdotes. What he was trying to show was that ruling had never been a clean process. A ruler should stay moral and virtuous even though he might have to do many evil deeds in the shadows. A true virtuous leader would always be repulsed by these deeds and his heart would not get used to them. On the other hand, a villain would claim to do them for the greater good while enjoying the most benefits and the deeds themselves. If war was necessary, you should not enjoy killing. If lying in a negotiation was necessary, you should not revel in crafty and dishonest conducts. In other words, a ruler should not be corrupted by or used to the evil he might have to commit.
Huang Cixi had always been impressed by these works and aspired to become a virtuous leader. She had great ideas about the way she could improve the lives of everyone in the Hongchen Kingdom. But she had to prove herself before she could be taken seriously by the Emperor, or any official of the court, even in her own province. Cultivating was a way to gain credit, but this wasn't the only one. Even if she could not heal, she could still achieve many things. Huang Cixi truly had the Dao Heart Xiao Xuefeng was talking about.
However, she was still conflicted about her feelings toward Cao Yun. After her stay with him, she had finally decided to stop chasing her revenge. However, she couldn't forgive him. Instead, she even started blaming herself as she was still receiving so many gifts from him. Despite her mind cultivation, her inner demon was still within her. In fact, she was now able to sense it thanks to Yi the Earth Intent. Although she couldn't see it, there was a small ball of dark miasma in her sea of consciousness. It was slowly taking her own form, fed by her own guilt. Deep down, she felt responsible for the death of Huang Lixin.
Her second brother was coerced to go kill Feng Yingyue by her first brother. She knew it, but she didn't try hard enough to convince their father because of his injury. The poor man was convinced that this was the only way to heal himself. Huang Cixi had decided to favor her father's well-being. That was the worst mistake of her life. Even if she had had to argue or even fight with her father over this issue, she should have prevented this assassination. She had failed her morale obligations and her beloved brother was dead. And now, she also felt guilty because she liked the man who had murdered him.
Indeed, Cao Yun was clearly a morale man, talented, and caring for the people around him, even his servants. In battle, he was able to be merciless and fierce against his enemies without ever being unnecessarily cruel. He lacked the technical qualities of a leader, but he had the morale qualities a leader should have. The more Cao Yun helped her in her mind cultivation to suppress her inner demon, the stronger the inner demon was getting. This paradox was very apparent to Huang Cixi, but even if she tried to reason herself, it was useless. From what Cao Yun had told her, if she was able to reach higher realms in her mind cultivation, she could probably erase the inner demon no matter its strength. This was a race against time. Either her inner demon would become too strong for her, or her mind cultivation would reach this stage and eradicate it.
Deep down, she knew that in order to eliminate it, she had to forgive both Cao Yun and herself. Huang Lixin had chosen his path. Even though he had been influenced by their father and their older brother Huang Longwei, he knew what was right and he had chosen to ignore it. But she couldn't lay this blame on the brother she loved, she had preferred blaming Cao Yun and her other brother. Many ruminating thoughts were clouding her mind. But with Yi, she was able to clearly focus on each of them. Just like a ball of yarn, she was pulling each thread to solve her interior conflicts.
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Cao Yun had mostly focused on his martial arts, his Qi cultivation and his array formation. Quite at the opposite of Huang Cixi, he was trying to avoid all these questions. He was still advancing his mind cultivation but it was getting increasingly slower as he couldn't find satisfying answers to these existential dilemma. In the end, he found nothing of interest in the Hongchen Kingdom for him except for Feng Yingyue, and the people themselves. But that wasn't a goal for his existence. He had decided that he couldn't just live for others. And the only thing that seemed to captivate him seemed almost impossible. Since the beginning of the Forsaken Dao Era, no one had ever crossed to the Sage realm.
Thus, Cao Yun was trying to focus his mind on other tasks. Chief Elder Baishen was extremely useful in this endeavor. With her training, he had no time to think at all. She sent him to several array formations and made him fight many Mortal Warriors, always restraining themselves. But fighting them was still almost impossible for Cao Yun. The biggest difference between Mortals and Mortal Warriors was Qi Manifestation. A Mortal Warrior was able to voluntarily send his Qi outside of his body and, above all, control it. This meant that their martial arts were able to literally materialize around them. That was exactly what he had seen from Chief Elder Bian and Chief Elder Baishen in the Coiling Silk Faction residence.
But there was something else. Every living being was surrounded by a thin layer of Qi, called Wei Qi or Guardian Qi. It protected the body from exterior influences to a degree. When someone finally reached the Mortal Warrior realm, their Wei Qi would naturally expand way beyond what even a late Mortal cultivator was able of. Despite their attempt to contain it, this Wei Qi would always be denser. As such, unless Cao Yun used everything he had, he couldn't penetrate their natural protection. If he had another breakthrough, his strength would increase by quite a large margin and he would have a small chance.
In fact, the 6th-grade Mortal stage insisted on accumulating Qi. But once he reached the 7th-grade Mortal stage, he would need to put it in motion within his own body. In itself, it would naturally increase both his strength but also his Wei Qi. Then, the 8th-grade and 9th-grade Mortal stage were both focused on opening various points on the body to both absorb and project Qi. Once again, it would increase his Wei Qi and his overall strength. Only when his body was entirely open to absorb and project Qi was a cultivator able to reach the Mortal Warrior realm and control the Qi outside of his body.
Even though his 'Crafty Harassment' had finally reached a level that Chief Elder Baishen deemed acceptable, there were still too many useless moves. To limit them and to cultivate faster too, Cao Yun was also working on array formations.
Under the harsh lessons of Sun Liao, who was always bickering with Long Huafang, Cao Yun had been able to set up a Tidal Gathering Mist array formation with 96% efficiency. In other words, Cao Yun had set up a Pristine 5-star Earth array formation. He was now officially a 5-star Earth array formation master. Now, it was his alchemy that was lagging behind. It was mainly due to his own schedule but also to the fact that Instructor Meng was way too busy. To be honest, he was busier trying to avoid his work than actually working, but this prevented Cao Yun from taking many lessons with him. Nevertheless, he had not neglected his teacher's duties and had given some assignments to Cao Yun. However, Cao Yun was more immersed in other matters.
Even though he was a 5-star Earth array formation master, Cao Yun was nowhere near Sun Liao in his understanding. In fact, Sun Liao was probably closer to a 2 or 3-star Human array formation master. The only thing he was lacking was his cultivation. Every star after the Earth stage was increasingly more difficult to get. It was easy to progress in the lesser grades. But then to advance further, you had to understand very obscure theories and take insignificant small details into consideration. This really wasn't enticing to Cao Yun. He was using the array formations to achieve other goals. And even though he quite liked learning about all these theories, trying to master them all to such a degree seemed like a pain in the neck, even for him.
With this Pristine Tidal Gathering Mist array formation, Cao Yun was able to fully use his high spirit stone. He hadn't used it until now because he didn't want to waste this rare resource. Now was the time.
The moment he stepped into the array formation, he immediately felt the difference of pressure. The Qi within the array formation was really like being hit by a powerful tide. In fact, it almost felt like he was forcing his way through a wall of water. The Water element was also more present, without being in excess. All things, even Qi itself, had aspects of the five elements. This was a teaching he had found in alchemy, in array formations, in his mind cultivation and even in his martial arts. They were not necessarily linked to the elements in nature, but rather to their intrinsic qualities and to philosophy. For example, Fire was the element linked to expansion and excitement while Water was the element of calm and serenity.
The Five Elements were always generating, regulating, weakening each other in very complex and intricate cycles. Qi itself, like almost everything, was containing all five of the Five Elements. Any unbalance could cause health problems. For example a Qi too rich in Fire element would cause swelling in the organs. But a Qi too rich in Water element could cause the metabolism to slow down and even reduce the ability of the heart to send blood everywhere. The Lower Dantian was considered like a cauldron that was able to take Prenatal Jing from the kidneys and use the fire of the body to transform it into Qi. It also converted the Jing that was absorbed through eating or even breathing to turn it into Qi that the body could then use. Thus, the Lower Dantian was very rich in Fire element. To compensate it, it was necessary to refine the Qi with a slightly superior Water element.
Then, this Water Qi would later be used in the last stages of the Mortal Warrior realm. Right now, Cao Yun wasn't worrying himself with the details of the other realms, but he knew the general outline. Thus, he knew the importance of refining this Qi. If he did a good job now, he would gain a lot of time later. Refining his Qi further in the later stages would be more difficult. It was easier to just refine it before absorbing it in his current stage.
Thus, Cao Yun used his understanding of both array formations and alchemy to refine the Qi he absorbed and maintain a good balance in his Lower Dantian. When he felt that the Water element was taking over, he left the Tidal Gathering Mist array formation to absorb Qi outside of it. As it was filtering the Water element within, right outside of the array formation, this element was lacking and it helped Cao Yun to keep a balance.
He also realized that focusing on different aspects of his mind had an impact on this Qi as well. It was more complicated than just using Zhi the Water Will to promote the Water element though. For example, his Hun the Wood Ethereal Soul was able to promote the Fire element while being promoted itself by the Water element. Thanks to his alchemy, his cultivation became way faster than it should have been. That was when he understood that alchemists had better cultivation, not only because of their pills, but also because they understood these principles better than anyone else. Sadly, their fighting ability was usually rather weak as they focused on their craft. Even cultivation was usually seen as just a way to improve their alchemy.
After several weeks of work, Cao Yun finally felt strands of Qi leaving his Lower Dantian naturally. No matter how much he tried to keep them in, his Lower Dantian was completely full and his Qi had to leave. Cao Yun really wanted to condense his Qi to its maximum. By activating his Hun, he was able to still retract a bit of this fleeing Qi within. However, it only worked for a few more days before even his entire mind cultivation was not enough to stop his Qi from leaving. Cao Yun felt that if he tried to force it, he would damage his own Lower Dantian. Thus, he let it happen.