Several times already Cao Yun had been faced with imminent death. Obviously when his family got massacred, he had been near death. But when the Spirit Warrior had slashed him open, Cao Yun had been way so weak that that butcher had not even used any kind of technique. In fact, Cao Yun had not even been able to feel anything at the moment. Even when he was faced with Luduo Bu or the Soul Weaving Cyrtophoras, he had felt his enemy's hatred but not the pressure he was feeling right now. All around him, several dozens of giant bone abominations were looking at him.
There was no hatred in their stare since they had no eyes to begin with. However, Cao Yun could feel a cold sensation in his entire body. It was as though he had been plunged into an icy lake. Right now, death itself was looking down upon him. For the first time ever, he was physically feeling death. His heart stopped for an entire second. Then, Cao Yun used the Drop of Wrath to dispel this deathly intent focused onto him.
He had thought about what would happen if he were to fight one of those creatures. In theory, he could put up a fight or even win depending on their respective strengths. However, he had no intention of trying out his hypothesis. At first glance, they had no Qi Manifestation but they could have strange abilities he knew nothing about. After all, this entire world was strange and unknown to Cao Yun. Avoiding any fight was the sane thing to do.
Once more, Cao Yun focused absolutely everything in his legs. This time, he completely got rid of any stealth. Even earlier, he had still been using a bit of it just to be safe. Now was not the time for safety though, it was the time to run as though all the souls of hell were after him.
'The Son of Heaven's Cavalry'.
Using his most powerful attack, Cao Yun stabbed toward the outside of this graveyard. The black sand under his foot turned into glass under the pressure and the heat. In an instant, Cao Yun broke the wall of sound and found himself almost where he wanted to. He may have been able to go farther but he didn't want to accidentally fall into that yellow water. And despite his recovery, his legs were really in a poor state after all this running away.
Half confident that the bone creatures would avoid that area full of yellow streams, Cao Yun still ran as fast as he could. And he was right to do so. Initially, the bone giants were staying pretty far from that area, but that was until one of theirs had been attacked. For them, the small fry was just there to be crushed and absorbed by them. Never did a skeleton had tried to resist them. And they would not let it go. Never!
Despite their perpetual fights, the giant abominations were very respectful toward one another and seemed to disdain everyone else. Now their disdain had turned into rage and they wanted to destroy Cao Yun. The young man did not even know if they had realized he wasn't a skeleton. In fact, he didn't even know if they had any notion of that at all since he had no idea how they were both perceiving the world and thinking about it.
Pushed by their rage and their will to kill, the bone giants went way closer to the yellow water than usual. The small giants were not as fast as Cao Yun, but one that had six arms with a seventh on the way and was as tall as 80 chi, had been able to catch up with the young man. Thankfully, it was the biggest of the crowd. The even bigger ones were too far away to have noticed what had transpired. From what Cao Yun could guess, that thing should have been as powerful as a 4th-grade or even 5th-grade Mortal Warrior. In theory, he should be as strong as Cao Yun with his new blood if he used everything he had. Cumulating everything, it should have a strength between seventy to eighty thousand dan.
Without any martial art, that creature attacked Cao Yun with a trident. Well, Cao Yun did not even know if those things had any idea what martial arts were. However, the trident itself was almost as large as Cao Yun was. The force of the strike added to the weight of the weapon was devastating. No defense of his could block this weapon. Furthermore, its speed was also incredible and Cao Yun had just stopped. Unfortunately, he could not move fast enough after everything he had put into his attack. The only way was to deflect the blow.
Thankfully Cao Yun had worked a lot on his sweeping motions. He had done so because it was the point of his next star, the Tail Star. But he had also worked on it because it was more efficient against large number of enemies. In the end, whether it was to attack or to deflect, a sweeping motion would always be the same kind of movement. 'Scales Under the Waterfall'.
Although it was a lesser move, Cao Yun had more or less refined it to perfection. When his 'Nine Chi Black Dragon Spear' collided with the trident from his enemy, Cao Yun heard first a crack and then a howling sound. He could feel the scale of the dragon within the shaft roaring. It was probably thanks to the stars of the Azure Dragon in his sea of consciousness. Instinctively, he sent a surge of Qi through his palm. Incredulous, Cao Yun felt the scale inside his own spear absorb the Qi and reinforce itself.
He had been told that his spear was bordering on 1-star Human rank. And right now, it was clearly a feat only a Human weapon was capable of. A Mortal Warrior could imbue Qi in almost any weapon, but a Human weapon was a better receptacle of it. Although it had no spirit, it was able to conduct Qi way better. As such, even though Cao Yun could not control his own Qi, just by sending it into his weapon, almost none of it got wasted.
Using the shock of the impact against the trident, Cao Yun jumped in the air. He found himself at the level of the bone abomination's head.
'The Son of Heaven's Cavalry'.
Unfortunately, the creature was only holding the trident with two hands. Four more fully formed hands were ready. All at once, a serrated saber, a sword a mace and a club came right in front of the creature's skull. Cao Yun's attack pushed against the giant and its mace exploded into tiny fragments. However, most of his force had been absorbed already and his spear just pierced the saber before it halted. As the giant was staggering, Cao Yun used his feet against the blade made of bone to jump backward. As a reaction, the giant fell to the ground. And Cao Yun found himself on the other side of a yellow stream.
Turning back an instant, Cao Yun was now able to see the temples. They were in a pitiful state but they appeared to be perfectly empty. His first idea was to hide inside while looking for any kind of clue. But now he was targeted specifically by those creatures. As such, he did not know whether they would smash the temples to get to him or not. Hopefully, the yellow streams and his own strength would deter some of the giants. And indeed, Cao Yun saw some of the weaker giants stop chasing him. On the other hand, there was still a dozen of pursuers and all were at least as powerful as a 3rd-grade Mortal Warrior.
The giant who was on the ground let go of his destroyed mace and put his hand on the black sand. Rapidly, some black dust swirled into the air. It was very similar to what those things were doing with the bone dust. But instead of building more bone for the giant, it solidified into a javelin. Spinning in the air, it flew toward Cao Yun with incredible speed. No, they had no Qi Manifestation but they had some kind of control over this sand full of Evil Qi and Death Energy. It wasn't very strange since they had literally been buried in it not too long ago. And apparently, they were using it to absorb the black rain in some manner.
Dodging the attack, Cao Yun almost fell into a yellow stream. And before he could heave a sigh of relief, he heard a splashing sound. The javelin was not aimed directly at him, it was aimed toward the yellow river behind him. Yellow water splashed all over the place. Knowing how dangerous it could be, the young man put even more strain on his poor legs to move away. Only one drop fell on him. The drop had reached his sleeve and his robe got dissolved almost immediately. Without waiting a single breath, Cao Yun tore his own sleeve with all his strength. As it had been ordered by Chief Elder Baishen to protect him, it was very durable. Paradoxically, the drop had weakened it and it became easier for its wearer to tear it.
If that was how the giant wanted to play it, Cao Yun could also get some fun.
After all his training on sweeping motions, and thanks to his Chamber of Jade, Cao Yun had now a great feel for the Tail Star. Just like the Heart Star, he had been able to almost understand its first move before even forging the star itself. Energizing that chamber first had been the right decision for sure.
'Scales Under the Waterfall'. With a lesser move, Cao Yun struck the black sand in front of him. Right before him was a somewhat large yellow stream. Under the impact, the black sand created a whiplash into the water. A wall of yellow water rose into the air. After a small jump, Cao Yun had taken some distance just to be safe.
'Dragon's Tail Sweeps the Sky'.
Injecting his Qi both in his spear and in his technique, Cao Yun swept the air in front of him with a powerful move. Striking the air, the spear created a shockwave so intense that it broke the wall of sound. And following Zhi Yin's example, this shockwave was also full of Cao Yun's own Qi. For an instant, Cao Yun even caught a glimpse of a few scales over his spear. He was getting increasingly closer to a real Qi Manifestation. In less than two years, he would probably be able to do so.
The shockwave obviously struck the reversed waterfall on its way. Thus, it turned into a horizontal wall of yellow water aimed at the giants pursuing Cao Yun. All of them stopped at once as the dreaded water was coming their way.
Those who were farther only stopped in their track, while the closer ones tried to backpedal. The only one who had no time to react since he was on the ground was the giant who had attacked Cao Yun. He had wanted to play with water, he was going to get burned by it.
And indeed, as soon as the yellow water touched his body, a terrible sizzling sound resounded. His bones started to melt away where the yellow drops had fallen. And at the same time, he had to suffer from the shock of 'Dragon's Tail Sweeps the Sky'. Some of his ribs had been broken and the yellow water immediately infiltrated his innards.
Although he had no organs and no mandible, he was able to produce a powerful screeching sound. Writhing in agony, he crawled back into the black sand as fast as he could. To Cao Yun, he looked like some giant mole skeleton. Under the pain, he had even abandoned all of his weapons on the surface. Some other giants were just barely touched by the yellow water. One of them got touched on his shoulder. Grabbing some black sand, he put it on the burning spot and it seemed to stop very quickly.
Thankfully, the commotion did not attract the bone giants who had not pursued Cao Yun to begin with. For a while, Cao Yun stood his ground and felt the piercing gazes of the giants in front of him. But after what felt like an eternity, they probably decided that that tiny thing was not worth the effort. Hence, they all turned back and went back in the center of the graveyard. They were most likely hoping to get some nice bones.
Instead of being relieved, Cao Yun focused all his senses around and made sure that nothing was following him anymore. He turned his gaze toward the yellow water. If he could get some of it at one point, it would be very useful. As always, he made sure that the Mountain Fenghuang egg was fine. Fortunately, it was.
Finally, he kept on running toward the temples.
Just like the eight temples in the sky, they were in total ruins. But right now, they seemed very welcoming to the running Cao Yun. He put all of his focus on his hearing. Once he was satisfied that no one was inside, he finally got in.
The architecture of the temples was completely different from what he knew. They were way more modest and their walls were almost perfectly round. Yet, they had an intriguing atmosphere. Although they were simple and in ruins, they were keeping some solemnity. Time, or something else, had destroyed a great portion of those temples. Even the plank in front of the main entrance of the temple Cao Yun walked into was ready to fall.
Looking at it, Cao Yun was able to notice some writings he was strangely familiar with. Right now was not the time for some architectural or calligraphic study though. Still keeping note of every detail, Cao Yun quickly got inside to try and hide away for the time being.
Outside, the fights were still raging. Fortunately, Cao Yun's guess had been right. Not even the humanoid skeletons were getting close to the yellow water. Although they were trying to run away from the giants, they still avoided the area where the yellow water was. And this was precisely where the temples were as well.
Instead, they tried to run around it to find some refuge elsewhere. Moreover, most of the giants remained in the center of the graveyard. Destroying and absorbing the small fry should not provide as much nourishment as the bones they could win during their duels. As such, only those who were very weak ever tried to devour the humanoid skeletons. And even then, they did not really get out of their way to chase after them. They just grabbed those who got too close to them.
At last, Cao Yun was able to sit down under a roof. Yes, the roof had a lot of holes, but still, it was a roof nonetheless. The presence of a building meant that at least at some point there had been intelligent life here. Maybe those temples were related to Cleansed Asura.