The last months of the year were extremely peaceful. There was always some competition among the disciples but the Wubei Sect made sure that they never went overboard. The point of this sect was to develop mankind to help the Hongchen Kingdom fend off the demonic threats, either from demons themselves or from demonic cultivators from within. As such, they really wanted to bring forth a sense of belonging and camaraderie. Even the competition between factions was regulated. Cao Yun had been faced with some problems at the beginning because his faction was very weak. But now that he was well established, he had no problem whatsoever.
He was even the official disciple of Chief Elder Baishen and the recent events had proved his strength. No one tried to challenge him. And few were surprised when he issued no challenge considering that he also was an alchemist and an array formation master. Cao Yun didn't need any more point. However, a few weeks before the official day of the challenges, a rumor spread. Long Jian would have a friendly fight with Cao Yun and this fight would be held in public.
Zhi Yin had contacted Long Jian to organize the fight in the same square where the official challenges were held. With Chief Elder Baishen's support, who was dying to see such a fight, they got the approval of the sect. Some members of the Purple Northern Cloud Faction tried to dissuade him, fearing that this would give too much credit to the Heavenly Swallow Faction but Long Jian didn't care. Unfortunately for them, Long Jian was too excited by this fight. And he didn't believe that this would change the dynamic of the factions by much. After all, Cao Yun already had a very good reputation in the Wubei Sect. If the Heavenly Swallow Faction gave better terms to new members, they would get more members quite naturally. Thanks to Cao Yun and Mei Hua, resources weren't a problem at all for them after all.
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While all this was going on, Cao Yun only focused on his training.
His mind cultivation was steadily progressing. The second layer of 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks' called 'Climb the Nine Peaks' consisted in energizing the Upper Dantian's Nine Chambers. Usually, a cultivator would not work on his Upper Dantian before the Spirit Warrior realm, but some occupations put emphasis on it beforehand. There were many techniques, especially for Mortal Warriors, to train the Upper Dantian. Obviously, this Dantian was located in the brain and closely linked with the mind.
As the documents sent by Xiao Xuefeng explained, it was formed by nine chambers, just like the two other Dantian. 'Climb the Nine Peaks' consisted in using the Five Agents formed during the first layer to energize them. It wasn't using Qi to strengthen the Dantian like in Qi cultivation. This was more subtle. Each chamber was related to some quality of the mind. Energizing meant enhancing this quality. The first step was to perfect the harmony between the Five Agents to use them for this purpose.
Right now, Cao Yun was in his sea of consciousness. The Five Agents in the shape of five characters carved in precious stones were rotating in the sky. From Shen the Fire Spirit, a fiery energy encompassed all five characters. Very slowly, as they rotated, their color melted together. Making them rotate again and again was not very taxing for Cao Yun but it was rather boring. This second layer wasn't difficult, but it required a lot of patience.
In a few weeks, the colors all melted in the center of the rotating Five Agents. Gradually, it became more and more concentrated and dense. After almost two months of training, a drop of pure white, similar to a pearl, was formed, the Five Echoes Pearl. It contained in equal parts each one of the Five Agents. Then, this drop solidified more and more. Each day, it would get a little bigger.
A few days before the duel, this drop was finally perfect. Cao Yun had waited until the very last moment. After several days without any noticeable change, he decided to finally use it to energize the first chamber. Now that the pearl was formed, he couldn't waste it or he would need to spend more than two months reforming a new one.
With utmost care, he used the Five Agents to control its descent. Very slowly, he guided the pearl toward the infinite ocean that was forming the basis of his sea of consciousness. In his Upper Dantian, he was focusing all of his mind on a singular point that was the center of the Chamber of Jade. This Chamber of Jade was located right in the back of the skull, just above the spine. Sometimes, this part of the spine was also called the Heavenly Pillar as it was a path for Qi to enter into the mind. There was also an acupoint called the Wind Palace and accordingly, this chamber was also associated with wind. Thus, it was strong with Wood element.
There was no real order in which the chambers had to be activated. But energizing this chamber first had many benefits for Cao Yun. The first was that nourishing Wood element with Water element was easier and the imagery used in his sea of consciousness was related to water. Another one was that his own martial art was based around wind and strong in Wood element. But a final reason was even more practical. The Chamber of Jade was said to increase both wisdom and intuition. These two qualities would be extremely useful both during a fight and while training his martial art. Cao Yun had no idea of what the result of this first energizing was going to be but he was looking forward to it.
While all his mind was focused on this Chamber of Jade, he felt the pearl touch the surface of the ocean. A small ripple spread gently on the water. Cao Yun felt the superficial muscles on the back of his skull pulsating a little. The pearl fully entered the ocean and Cao Yun's mind got sucked in with it. Just like the pearl, his mind dissolved into the ocean and a powerful flash of white light flooded both his sea of consciousness and all of his mind and senses. When it faded, Cao Yun's mind was focused on the Chamber of Jade that he was now able to feel much more clearly. He was able to perfectly sense its location and its boundaries in his Upper Dantian.
And he had a feeling of fullness in it. The effect on his mind wasn't obvious at first. But he turned his senses on the four stars in the sky and realized that they were easier to observe and understand. Just by watching them, new ideas came to him about his martial art. He then decided to read some of the texts he had memorized on alchemy and array formations. In a few hours, he was able to determine that he truly understood it better. And more importantly, it gave him more ideas of things to try out.
In the following days, Cao Yun was really wondering whether he should share this method with his friends. He had shared it with Feng Yingyue whom he was very close to. Then, he shared it with Huang Cixi because he thought she needed it to eliminate her inner demon and improve her chances of surviving the Life Boiling Cradle pill. Finally, he had even given it to Xiao Xuefeng who was his great benefactor. But Cao Yun had also decided to help all of mankind and not just himself. The only reasons he could have to hide the manual now were the fear that a demonic cultivator would use it, the fear of someone coveting it from him, or the need to have a better technique than others and feel superior to them. When he interrogated himself, he realized that his friends had risked their lives for each other against demonic cultivators. They were already in danger. And he clearly didn't feel the need to be special or superior to anyone. He was just another human, a simple boy. In the end, he resolved to gift them the complete method.
As he had finished the first layer, he could easily copy the characters and he now had the translation from Xiao Xuefeng with even more details from her personal knowledge. Cao Yun gifted Sun Liao, Ren Chao and Mei Hua this method. The only condition he gave them was to only share it with people whom they trusted with their very lives. He also wrote down all the pointers he could think of about this cultivation and even the sensations he had when entering his sea of consciousness.
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Finally, after almost three months truly peaceful, for once, it was time for Cao Yun and Long Jian's duel.
As this wasn't an official challenge, the elders weren't in charge of the duel. However, Chief Elder Baishen proposed herself to monitor and be the referee. Both Long Jian and Cao Yun obviously agreed. With a Spirit Warrior in charge, and a chief elder at that, they were quite sure that nothing could go wrong. Even in a friendly fight, accidents could happen. Both men wanted to test out each other's martial arts, they had no desire to kill or maim their opponent. Chief Elder Baishen could react way faster than them and stop all of their attacks without any problem. With her monitoring the fight, they could really go all-out without any worry.
Many people had already gathered around the platform where the fight would happen. Among them was Chan Weifeng. His faction had had many idiots find problems with Cao Yun, even Luduo Bu was one of them at the beginning of the year. For this, Chan Weifeng felt kinda bad. Deep down, he wondered if his faction could have attracted Cao Yun if he had taken care of these idiots before. But the past was gone. And today, he was very interested in seeing this fight.
In fact, he had in mind that he could maybe ask to fight Cao Yun as well. The circumstances of this fight would tell whether this was a good idea or not. However, just like his rival Long Jian, he was looking forward to see Cao Yun pushed to his limit. Both Chan Weifeng and Long Jian were convinced that no Mortal cultivator could really force Cao Yun to show everything he was capable of and he wouldn't challenge a Mortal Warrior either. Against a Mortal Warrior, the inability to use Qi Manifestation was almost an insurmountable obstacle.
The people around Chan Weifeng were of course all members of his Red Cliff Faction, including Jiang Yifan who would take over next year. They were not as passionate about this fight, fearing that Cao Yun would gain even more popularity if this went too well for him.
Finally, Long Jian arrived with Mu Hue and Long Huafang. He was a tall man with a darker skin than most, eyebrows like sword, and short hair as black as obsidian. Like his little sister, his eyes were silver. His pupils almost looked like two moons. Long Jian was still wearing the uniform of the Wubei Sect but under it, he was wearing a black armor. It was difficult to discern it, but the emblem of his family was visible under the clothing. This emblem was very stylized and showed a wolf head trying to bite off the full moon.
This armor beneath his clothing gave him the aura of a true general on the battlefield. People were even wondering what was going on. Long Jian was a 1st-grade Mortal Warrior, there was no way he was afraid of being harmed by Cao Yun. Chan Wiefeng recognized this armor and got even more surprised. This was the 'Nightly Wolf Hide', a 4-star Human armor. On a battlefield, it could take one hit from a 6th-grade Mortal Warrior before breaking. Even he would need several attacks to penetrate it. Was he really that worried about being hurt?! This wasn't like Long Jian at all.
On his waist was the scabbard of a sword. Just like his sister, his main martial art was 'The Dragon Howling at the Moons', the characteristic martial art of their Long family. Chan Weifeng also recognized this sword, it was 'Dragon Wolf Fang' a 4-star Human weapon. Cao Yun's weapon was only 5-star Earth. The main difference between a Human rank and an Earth rank weapon was the ability to canalize Qi. As Long Jian was going to restrain his cultivation, it wouldn't matter that much. Thankfully, 'Nine Chi Black Dragon Spear' was one of the most robust Earth rank weapons from the armory pavilion. It wouldn't break easily as long as Long Jian didn't put any Qi in his own weapon.
But this clearly showed that Long Jian was not treating this fight as a joke at all. He was dead serious in his desire to push Cao Yun to his utmost limit and get the best out of him.
Long Jian climbed onto the platform and waited for his opponent.
He didn't have to wait very long. Less than ten breaths after his arrival, Cao Yun came as well. By seeing his face, Chan Wiefeng knew instantly that he was in the exact same state of mind. Cao Yun wasn't wearing a powerful armor, but his clothes were a bit different. He was wearing an azure robe with white linings and an emblem with an azure dragon formed of seven polygons put together. In its claw, it was holding a spear. This robe had been ordered by Chief Elder Baishen, for this very fight. Wearing the sect uniform was not an absolute rule, but it was encouraged. For this fight, that new robe would be his armor. It had been made with Sleepless Moth Larva's Eternal Silk intertwined with threads of metal, such as Silk Gold, a very flexible metal. There were even some threads of Dragon Tendon, a red metal able to conduct waves without any loss. It could even amplify them in some instances. This metal was perfect to send vibrations through a weapon or divert them inside an armor.
Chan Weifeng had a very keen eye, and so had Long Jian. They were not able to clearly rank this robe, but it was a powerful armor meant to divert all blows. With this, piercing through Cao Yun would be difficult even for a 3rd-grade Mortal Warrior with a 1-star Human weapon, unless he injected Qi in it of course. The manifestation of Qi, and its manipulation in a broader sense, was really a game changer in many aspects.
According to Chief Elder Baishen, this robe was a 5-star Human armor, even superior to the 'Nightly Wolf Hide'. The rules stated that armors wouldn't count in the results, it was only here to avoid injuries. And Chief Elder Baishen could judge the fighters' performance impartially.
Both men were now facing each other on the platform.