The rocks of this ebony mountain were as sharp as razor blades. Even with his current body, Cao Yun had to be extremely careful not to cut himself. Moreover, he was constantly battered by the powerful wind throwing tiny particles of black sand against him.
With 'Nine Chi Black Dragon Spear' in front of him, he was walking forward. His weapon was aimed against the direction of the wind. As such, it created some kind of cone around Cao Yun. But it was very limited in scope. Clearly, he felt exactly like he had felt in the Howling Crane Gorges. As a matter of fact, it was even a tiny bit more violent than the eighth and final li of the array formation. But it had the same kind of effect.
Every so often, Cao Yun had to redirect his spear against the changing wind or because of conflicting currents in the air. Slowly and gradually, he was getting a better understanding of the concept of wind. In his sea of consciousness, this could be seen by two phenomena. The first one was clear for Cao Yun, he was seeing the Tail Star become more and more vivid. Up in the sky, the first of the two stars forming the binary Tail Star had been fully manifested. And Cao Yun had now a very good grasp on 'Dragon's Tail Sweeps the Sky'. He sincerely wanted to try it out, he had the urge to, but he forced himself not to.
Although it was frustrating, he did not want to alarm any potential threat. The black plains had been plagued with skeleton monsters, the celestial palaces had harbored even more terrifying monsters in them. Thus, Cao Yun had no idea what kind of abominations could dwell in those mountains. As much as possible, he wanted to be discreet and unnoticed. Maybe he was careful for nothing, but that was better than to be rash and fall victim to powerful monsters.
However, the second star was slower to appear fully. Right now, it was still hidden by the shadow of the first star. And Cao Yun knew that the variation of this move was to be found not just in the second star, but in its relation with the first one. Right now though, he had no time to thoroughly examine the relative movement of the two stars.
And the other thing that happened in Cao Yun's sea of consciousness was the formation of the Insight Writings deep in the ocean below. A few of them had been completed thanks to Cao Yun's mastery over his spear. But they were still way too deep to be felt by the young man himself. However, they were now shining with more and more vigor. One of them even started to slowly float upward. Even with his mind cultivation, Cao Yun had no way to know that they were down there. That did not prevent them from having a positive impact on Cao Yun's way of the spear.
Indeed, without him even realizing it, his way of the spear was fueling those Insight Writings while his Insight Writings were fueling his way of the spear. Right now, his stars had way more effect on the Insight Writings than the other way around. But with time, when Cao Yun would become aware of them, they would be essential to him. For now though, he was just feeling the Tail Star that was slowly reaching its perfect form. With his Chamber of Jade energized, it was even easier to understand than before. The last stars should take a lot of time but Cao Yun was now confident that he would be able to have formed the seven of them before two years.
After forming the seven stars, he still had to turn them into constellations and later into mansions. Only then could he honestly say that he had reached Perfection. Others claimed that Perfection was the formation of the seven stars, but this was only Small Success in reality. This misunderstanding was due to the fact that most people gave up on this art because forming the stars was just too hard. Sadly, they did not have Cao Yun's ability to go inside his own sea of consciousness. And Spirit Warriors usually already had many martial arts so they would rather study a more powerful one. After all, 'Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars' was considered a mere 1-star Human art. But once again, it was due to people only limiting themselves to the formation of the seven stars.
In Cao Yun's hands, it was at least a 1-star Spirit art.
-
After a couple more days of walking and climbing through this dangerous mountain, Cao Yun finally felt something. For some time now, he had been focusing a small part of his intent on the egg that was still held against his chest. The Fenghuang bloodline in it seemed to become more joyous. This was the cue Cao Yun had been waiting for. It meant that Huang Liyue was very close, or at the very least that she had left maybe some blood here. Either it was a lead to follow or the end of Cao Yun's quest.
Cao Yun tried to get some protection from the wind by sticking his body as close to the rock as possible. Since the mountains was covered with sharp fangs of rocks, he simply found several of them to act as a wall against the violent winds.
Then, despite the deafening noise of the storm around him, he focused on his ears and nose. He was trying to find anything out of the ordinary. If the egg was able to feel something, maybe Huang Liyue was very close by. Unfortunately, neither did he hear or smell anything special at all. Thus, he diverted his focus unto the egg itself and felt its subtle movement. In a way, it behaved like an excited child. Cao Yun was thankful for it because it allowed him to find the lead he was looking for.
Proceeding to go in that direction, Cao Yun once again used his spear to protect himself and progressed forward.
Every so often, Cao Yun stopped to try and hear any sound or smell, anything that may help him determine where Huang Liyue was.
And after a few hours, he finally smelled something interesting. Amidst the winds it was difficult to make out, but Cao Yun was certain that this was the subtle smell of blood. As such, he followed the trail until he was able to hear a faint sound. Although it was mostly covered by the sound of the winds, the young man was sure of himself. Someone was breathing very close to him. Moreover, the sound was muffled and rugged.
Obviously, this breathing came from someone in a lot of pain. Furthermore, it seemed to come from below Cao Yun. Thus, he crouched down and put his ear on the ground. Yes, this was extremely close but below him. Anyway, he quickly walked forward and saw several sharp peaks that had been blown to smithereens. Naturally, the difficult breathing was coming from below the rubbles. Considering that those peaks were rocks that had been permeated with Evil Qi and Death Energy, the dust they produced was poisonous.
But this did not stop Cao Yun at all. He had to act fast to try and help Huang Liyue. Because it could be no one else down there but the woman he had seen crashing down around here. Immediately, Cao Yun began to dig. Spread in the air, countless particles of dust got into his lungs. Thankfully his body was tough enough to resist and the Evil Qi and Death Energy that came out of those particles got attracted by the Drop of Wrath.
The density of both energies was too low to worry Cao Yun. Just by letting his Drop of Wrath act on its own, it was able to eliminate everything even faster than it was getting into Cao Yun's system. After that, he just had to cough and eject the dust particles in his lungs now and then. Although there was almost no risk for him, this was a very painful process.
Not only were his lungs burning from the contact with this dust, but his bare hands were also in a lot of pain. Indeed, he couldn't just try and strike the ground with his spear because the woman was down below. He had no idea how weak she was but striking her by accident would not be a very good thing. As such, he had to dig with his bare hands, which was more efficient than to use a spear to do so. If he had a spatial ring, he could have brought in several tools. In fact, he could have literally tried to pull some of the rocks and dust into his spatial ring to clear a way.
During the process, Cao Yun also tried to consolidate his mastery over the Drop of Wrath and his ability to purify Evil Qi himself. The Death Energy was too little to matter but it was still getting accumulated around the Po character inside the Drop of Wrath. While he was digging, he was thus training all his new mind techniques. For example, he drew the Po character inside the Drop of Wrath coordinated with the other Po character and his speed was getting faster and faster. It wasn't just to progress, but also, and mainly, to take his mind off of the pain.
Digging into those rubbles was akin to a mortal digging into incandescent blazes. The only difference was that Cao Yun would not damage his hands. Just like the Evil Qi and Death Energy getting into his lungs, what went through his skin was quickly trapped by the Drop of Wrath and neutralized. But as he dug, he was covered in dust himself because of the powerful winds. Thankfully some peaks were still protecting him but the wind still blew the dust he had already dud up. This was a very tedious process.
Finally, after long minutes of digging that almost turned into hours, Cao Yun saw the body of Huang Liyue. She was laying down in the rubbles, covered in dust. All around her, there was some kind of energy field protecting her body. It was her Wei Qi. However, it was so weak that Cao Yun was able to go through it without much effort. It had probably helped her survive the crash but it was not able to help her anymore. She had most likely inhaled a lot of tiny particles of dust already. And she was thoroughly unconscious.
Cao Yun took her in his arms and left the giant hole. Then, to find some cover from the winds, he took out his spear. He chose a peak larger than the others and stabbed with all of his strength. 'The Pillar Piercing the Sky'. In an instant, he had made some kind of cave to go into.
Since he was covered in dust, he was happy to have two full gourds of water. If he could get that woman conscious, she should be able to access her spatial ring. Cao Yun refused to believe that a Spirit Warrior would not think about taking some water with him, and probably some food as well. Even if they did not need to drink and eat as often as Mortals, Spirit Warriors were still humans. Drinking and eating was both a necessity and a pleasure. Unless they were monks, cultivators would often take water, wine and various foods with them.
Right now though, the woman was the priority. He could stand the burn of the dust on his skin, but she was in a pitiful state compared with him. After witnessing her fight against the Bone Kings, it was not surprising at all. Even then, she seemed even weaker than what Cao Yun had been expecting. This was probably due to the Evil Qi and Death Energy within her own body. Unlike him, she could only use her own strength to fend off against those corrosive forces.
The first thing Cao Yun did was to use as little water as possible to try and wash the dust off. For a very short instant he got flustered, but he calmed himself with the Chamber of Moving Pearls. He had to take her clothes off, but this was not for indecent purposes. In fact, it couldn't be further from the truth. Even when he undressed her, he only thought about helping her. As such, he only removed her outer robe that was covered in dust. Under it, she obviously had other clothes, but much more revealing. Huang Liyue had a very well-defined musculature under those clothes that astonished even Cao Yun.
After washing her entire body, he realized that he had used almost half of the gourd he had found in the temples. Thankfully, he still had the other gourd with the Clouds in the Lake array formation. And it was full for now.
Now that the woman was clean, he could see her complexion. And she was as pale as a corpse. But she was burning hot, and her cheeks and forehead were the only parts of her that were red. As she was faintly spasming, the young man could tell that she was still fighting off the intruders. On her fare skin, there were many small cuts but no bleeding. She had completely cauterized all of her wounds. The pain should have been unbearable, and it probably did not help her resist against the Evil Qi and Death Energy combined.
Although Cao Yun was not a physician, he was a good alchemist and had a deeper knowledge of Evil Qi and Death Energy than others. Besides, he also had a very profound mind cultivation. As such, matters of mind and soul were easier for him to grasp than for other Mortals. But he still wasn't on par with someone like Xiao Xuefeng or Physician Qinghe. However, there was no one else to help her now.
Seeing that poor woman in so much pain, Cao Yun first proceeded to wash himself. But he did a very quick job, and not as thorough as he had done with her. Mostly, he took care of his hands because he would have to touch Huang Liyue's skin.
As a Mortal, he had no control over Qi outside of his own body. And what he needed to do right now was to extract the Evil Qi and Death Energy from Huang Liyue's body. Given her current state, she would probably not be able to survive from their corrosion alone. Even though Cao Yun could not control his Qi outside of his body, he could still send surges of Qi out. It was just that he could not control it beyond the confines of his own flesh.
However, he had had an idea. As much as he could not extract the Evil Qi himself, he had something in him that could, the Drop of Wrath. But it could only react if it was able to feel the Evil Qi directly. Now that he had some more control over the Drop of Wrath, Cao Yun was convinced that he could use this property to help Huang Liyue.
But right now, faced with the shaking body of that beautiful woman, Cao Yun was hesitant. He had many ways he could go about it. And in his mind, he was trying to decide which way he should use to maximize her recovery.