Cao Yun thought that he had no other choice but to jump into the unknown rather than to face a threat he knew he had no way of defending against. Besides, this unknown was not completely unknown either. Very distinctly, he could feel the same sensation he had felt when Cleansed Asura's soul had touched his mind. The God-Monarch had been able to sift through his memories without any problem and without any damage. Even Xiao Xuefeng was not capable of such a feat. The most talented of the spiritual senses users could not see every memory of even the most banal of mortals, unless she completely invaded his mind and soul. At most, she could only see flashes and get a vague idea of who the person was.
But watching someone's memories as though they were reliving their entire life to the point that Cleansed Asura had learned his language without leaving a trace, that was an entirely different level. As a God-Monarch, it was probably even as simple as thinking it for him. However, Cao Yun knew that someone as powerful as Cleansed Asura had been bested and mortally wounded. Imagining such an enemy was inconceivable. But something else was now in Cao Yun's mind.
If Cleansed Asura's soul had really died, would the death of someone like him cause trouble for the Hongchen Kingdom? After all, even weak cultivators could produce Evil Qi, and in some rare cases, ghosts. If all the energy contained within Cleansed Asura's corpse were to be contaminated by his regret, wouldn't that create a massive ocean of Evil Qi? Maybe that was the reason why Cleansed Asura wanted to be buried properly. Many rituals were recognized for reducing or even neutralizing the deceased's regrets and resentment.
Anyway, soon Cao Yun would probably get his answer one way or another.
As soon as he passed through the veil of darkness of the ravine, the outside world disappeared completely. And very soon, all notions of space also dissolved around him. He could not even feel like he was falling. He could feel nothing at all. Thankfully, there was still breathable air, but that was it. There was no Qi at all, of any kind. Besides, the absence of light, of sound and of direction was maddening.
Cao Yun could only hear the sound of his own body through his own bones. Even when he tried to produce any sound, he realized that he was not hearing it through the air around him, but through his own skull. Yet, there was air he could breathe.
At first, he was still able to orientate himself, still retaining a sense of where up and down were. But in his fall, his body moved around and after a few minutes, he was completely lost. Even time seemed to disappear. In such a dark place and without any exterior stimuli, Cao Yun was unable to retain his sense of time. Maybe it had been minutes, maybe it had been hours. But Cao Yun did not know how long he had been falling for. The only certitude he had was that he had been falling way longer than he had when he had been thrown into this exact same ravine. Yet he had encountered no solid obstacle.
Thanks to his mind cultivation, Cao Yun did not let this situation get to him. There was nothing he could do right now. Thus, his priority was to get his mind focused, and to calm down as much as possible. Moreover, he could feel his legs on fire. With the exertion he had forced them through, his tissues, both his muscles, his tendons, even his bones, got almost torn apart. Naturally, he stopped all effort in his legs, dispersing both his Qi, his intent and even the excess of blood. Everything returned to a normal circulation. After all, he didn't really need his legs right now.
The Drop of Wrath had tried to absorb the last 'Shadow Heart Palm' of Can Mouye. But this Evil Qi had been firmly under the demonic cultivator's control. And since he had been so close to the attack, even the Drop of Wrath had not been able to wrestle this control away from him. Ironically, it had prevented Cao Yun from suffering a grievous injury. Although he had contained the inner threat of the Drop of Wrath, it was still dangerous by its actions on the outside world. Its ability to absorb Evil Qi was good in theory, but the fact that it was trying to suck it in through Cao Yun's body was a looming threat. Unlike the drop itself, his body was not equipped to resist the corrosion of Evil Qi. Because the drop had not been able to control all the Evil Qi at once, it had not absorbed too much in one go and Cao Yun's heart had survived.
Even demonic cultivators were wary of Evil Qi. Even Can Mouye who had a good grasp on it was handling it with extreme caution. Thankfully, Cao Yun had begun to get some ideas on how to take care of the problem. Since he had known what the Drop of Wrath was, he had been thinking of ways to handle it. He did not just want to keep it calm, he wanted to take control of it. Just by absorbing the blood runes from Luduo Bu, the drop had changed his blood. Even now, Cao Yun was feeling that the Drop of Wrath was slowly releasing faint traces of blood in his own heart. Fortunately, he did not fall into a coma like last time.
There was a strain on his body, but he had not been as injured as during his fight against Luduo Bu. Hence, this did not affect him negatively. However, the changes to his blood were minimal.
In his sea of consciousness, Cao Yun calmed down his Five Agents and observed the Drop of Wrath. It was almost lethargic, just as someone who had eaten a tasty meal and was digesting it. Yet, there was a dim light coming out of it. The reflections from the Five Agents could be seen on the surface of the Drop of Wrath. But only one seemed to be brighter than the others, Po the Metal Corporeal Soul. For months now, Cao Yun had tried to literally engrave this character into the drop itself. This process was extremely difficult.
He could not send his own mind into the Drop of Wrath, neither his Qi. And even controlling the intent of the drop itself was difficult within its confines. Outside of the drop, he was able to use 'Cultivation of Wrath' to control the intent with no problem at all though. Still, no matter how faint it was, Cao Yun had clearly felt that his connection with the Drop of Wrath had become stronger and stronger as he was trying to use his Po on it.
For an instant, Cao Yun even hesitated to cultivate his mind, and he decided to hold on for now. At any moment, something unexpected could happen. Now was the time to rest and recover as much as possible. As such, Cao Yun took out a gourd he had been holding on his waist. As he had no spatial tool, Cao Yun had not brought many things. And all his pills had been used to try and help Huang'er, which had turned out the way it had...
However, he had still a gourd with some water in it. There was a small array formation meant to condense the water in the air over time. Thus, the gourd could last him a very long time. As a late Mortal, Cao Yun could live three or four months without eating anything, but he could not go more than a week without drinking. As cultivation progressed, these needs became fewer and fewer. For example, former Chief Elder Bian was able to survive nine years without any sustenance. And he wasn't even a 6th-grade Spirit Warrior. According to the legends, a Sage could live several decades without any food or water. But only a late Immortal was totally impervious to both thirst and hunger.
As he didn't know how long he would fall down, Cao Yun drank just what he needed. As much as he could, he would conserve his water.
Closing the gourd, the unexpected thing Cao Yun was fearing happened. He felt an intense force stop him in midair. It jerked him back to reality. Since he had jumped down here, this was the first sensation he felt. Then, space around him became completely chaotic. He was thrown in all manners of directions, suddenly halting violently to be pushed in another random direction. The violence was such that even his body was beginning to suffer from it. Cao Yun's body was as strong and resilient as an early Mortal Warrior's body though.
Slowly, his sense of orientation came back. He was able to feel an up and a down. Unfortunately, gravity was still working just fine and he was going down.
A faint light appeared in Cao Yun's field of vision. Such a faint light would have probably been invisible even at night. But after being in this darkness for so long, even this tiny ray of light blinded Cao Yun for an instant. What first appeared to Cao Yun was that this light was not natural, not in an artificial sense, but it felt as though it was against nature. As he fell, this purple light intensified. Although the light was purple, the world around Cao Yun appeared gray and black. All bright colors had been extinguished from it. Even his own clothes looked more gray than they should have.
Now that his eyes got accustomed to the light, he quickly focused on the ground which was the immediate threat. He had appeared in midair and was now falling at an alarming speed. Thankfully, Cao Yun had already reached his terminal velocity and could not fall any faster. In fact, he even felt like he had slowed down a little since the air seemed a bit denser than in the darkness.
Still, that speed was a problem. For a mortal, such a speed meant certain death of course. For a late Mortal, it could mean some broken bones. However, what worried Cao Yun was both his legs that had been strained a lot, and where he would land, or rather, crash.
Looking down, Cao Yun saw a vast expanse of black sand. It was a great plain with no vegetation he could see... Wait! There was vegetation. Here and there, with his keen eyes, Cao Yun saw patches of rotten, seemingly dead, grass. Then, there were some tiny streams of water, either black water almost indistinguishable from the black sand around it, or dim yellow. All around this black plain, there were bones here and there. Some were almost reduced to powder. Others were protruding from the black sand, just like giant rib cages.
Anyway, landing in sand was probably not a bad thing. However, Cao Yun had no idea what this place was or what kind of threat could be down there. The only thing he felt was that this place was tightly related to Cleansed Asura himself. A God-Monarch was an existence absolutely incomprehensible for Cao Yun. Although he had heard of the several realms of Qi cultivation, the young man had not all the details. And most of the details were not taught anymore since there was no point to it. Still, Cao Yun had been curious but all the elders and chief elders of the Wubei Sect had told him that it was a bad idea to read the full 'Universal Law of Cultivation' before he became a Spirit Warrior.
After trying to read the 'Cultivation of Wrath', Cao Yun realized that everything beyond Mortal Warrior was impossible to understand. Like almost all the texts he had received from Cleansed Asura, they were unintelligible. In a way, they felt like someone had tried to write another language with the Nuhua characters. And since Cleansed Asura had been incredibly weak when he had transferred those memories, it was a clear possibility.
Putting his curiosity aside for now, Cao Yun braced for impact. Falling into the sand would probably lessen the shock and his weakened legs should be able to resist it. Anyhow, Cao Yun had no real alternative. He wasn't going to try and land on his head or his back. Breaking a bone in his leg was fine, but breaking a vertebra or his skull was another story. He could survive from a few broken bones and even heal faster than a mortal, but he was in an unknown environment. And Can Mouye could still be after him despite the risk.
Shifting his body in the air, Cao Yun was able to prepare for the collision. As soon as his feet touched the ground, his hands did too as well, spreading the impact. Then he rolled away and diffused most of the force while taking care of protecting the egg nestled against his chest. Some black dust got blown away and Cao Yun's back was covered in black sand. Breathing in the dust, he quickly realized that this wasn't just black sand. There was Evil Qi in it, and even something else that reacted strongly to the Drop of Wrath.
His throat and his lungs burned. Just as soon as he felt the pain, the Drop of Wrath attracted the black dust in the air toward his heart. For a short time, the pain intensified and then subsided when the drop finally absorbed it. That pain was extremely strange. It felt both hot and yet cold as death. To be more precise, the physical pain was hot, like an acid burning his organs. But then, he could feel some kind of emotional anguish that sent a cold sensation throughout his body and mind.
Of course, his mind cultivation took over and calmed down both sensations of pain. Thankfully, Cao Yun had only absorbed a small quantity of this black dust in the air. And the Drop of Wrath had not tried to attract the entirety of the black sand itself. A vision of the entire plain rushing into his lungs and then his heart terrified Cao Yun for an instant.
Apparently, unless he was in a very close contact with the Evil Qi, the Drop of Wrath would not react. And Cao Yun did not plan on burying himself into a sand full of Evil Qi and some even darker energy.
Now that everything had settled down, Cao Yun looked around. The first thing he noticed was that there were indeed bones everywhere around him. This place looked like an ancient battlefield that time would have covered up with sand. This could explain the presence of Evil Qi in the very sand. Maybe it had come from the dead lying all around. Those bones created a stark contrast. The sand and even the tiny streams were completely black. Yet, the bones were pure white, even under the gray light of this place.
The only other color came from the yellow streams Cao Yun had seen from up there. However, there was none in his field of vision right now.
What really surprised Cao Yun was the complete absence of Qi in the air. There was not even the slightest hint of Qi, or of life for that matter. Then, he looked up to see what was above his head.