For several days, Cao Yun kept on climbing the world-tree. As he ascended, the young boy focused on many things.
His mind cultivation was still slowly condensing the next Five Echoes Pearl. However, it was way slower than usual as Cao Yun had already opened more than half of the chambers of his Upper Dantian. With each chamber he had energized, condensing those pearls had been harder and harder. But since his mind evolved as well, the time did not increase by much. But now, he could feel that extracting the essence from the Five Agents would require at least four months. Of course, if he decided to focus entirely on that without doing anything else, it would go way faster. But that really wasn't an option.
Through the Qi brimming with life that surrounded him, Cao Yun also tried to get a better sensation of all of his cells. Now that he had caught a glimpse of what this tree's progenitor was feeling, the young cultivator realized that he could also use this ascension to develop his own sensation. This would not directly increase his cultivation, but he would get better results later on, and way faster.
Finally, he dedicated a great part of his mind to studying the language of Cleansed Asura. He wasn't entirely sure, but he thought that he had been able to identify its name. If he tried to pronounce it in his own tongue, that language would be called Antique Sixian. As of now, he still wasn't sure how it should be written for sure, but he was rather certain that this was Cleansed Asura's mother tongue.
Within the incredible treasure trove of knowledge the God-Monarch had given to the boy, he had found several documents with other languages. Most likely, they were dictionaries of some kind. It wasn't surprising that such a master who had traveled for so long had also gained knowledge of other languages. Of course, Cao Yun was unable to understand any of those other languages. But the fact that he had several new sources to compare was a good thing. From everything that he had gathered right now, he was a bit closer to understanding very rudimentary Antique Sixian. Unfortunately, it would still require a very long time. Besides, even after understanding the fundamental of this language, he still wouldn't get all of the cultural references.
So just being able to read did not mean he would be able to understand the contents of all the books he had deep in his mind. Yes, this was the first step and it was necessary. But this was nowhere near being sufficient.
Although he was performing those tasks, Cao Yun was still slowly climbing the tree. He was putting in a lot of efforts but he was still rather slow. However, it did not dishearten him in the slightest. Here and there, he was able to get other visions of the world-tree that Cleansed Asura had visited. Each time, he was able to get new sensations. But it also messed up with his sensation of time. In each vision, he was able to live several millenniums. But in reality merely hours had passed. This was very disturbing. Yet, Cao Yun was always looking for more visions. With each one, his body became more and more transparent to his own intent.
By the time he finally reached the clouds, the young man could vividly feel each cell in his entire body. Of course, he wasn't yet able to completely open them to Qi, but this would be way easier. Now, it was certain that Cao Yun would become a Mortal Warrior before coming out of the Ancient Ruins next year. In fact, he could maybe even reach 2nd-grade Mortal Warrior by then. That was under the assumption that he was able to get out of this place alive of course.
At last, Cao Yun saw the clouds up close. They were like he had imagined. Those clouds looked like leaves on the giant branches of the world-tree.
Even though Cao Yun had still some water, he took the gourd with the Clouds in the Lake array formation he had carried on his waist. Then he simply put it on some branch, right in the midst of the clouds. Slowly, it would condense the water from those clouds into the gourd. Even if this floor had some water in suspension in the air, those clouds were clearly different. Just like that black water had been infused with Evil Qi, those clouds were almost pure Qi. And this was the kind of Qi that was everywhere in this room, full of life and vigor.
Without knowing exactly what kind of water this was, the alchemist in Cao Yun could tell with a glance that it was a precious treasure. Maybe he could use this water to try and help soothe Huang Liyue's injuries. He wasn't too hopeful about waking her up, but just attending to her wounds was still good enough.
While the gourd was slowly condensing the water from those clouds, Cao Yun decided to keep on climbing. He would retrieve his gourd later on.
-
After finally going through the white clouds, the young man saw the branches forming some kind of intertwined sculpture. It was rather difficult to describe, but through the lens of an alchemist, Cao Yun had the impression that this was the ovary of a flower. Considering the size of the tree, obviously this ovary was gigantic. Several elephants could have fitted in there. And from this wooden ovary, a familiar sensation could be felt. From deep within his heart, Cao Yun sensed the Drop of Wrath getting agitated in a good way.
This was what the Drop of Wrath had been looking for since even before going into this world. It had reacted to it when it had brought Cao Yun in front of the veil of darkness that was in the woods between Baziyun City and Yinmen City.
But the Drop of Wrath was not the only one who sensed a familiar presence. The young man himself was able to feel it, even without the Drop of Wrath in his heart. Indeed, he had already felt this presence when he had been sliced in half. There was no mistaking it. Right there in front of him, this was the same presence he had felt within his own soul when Cleansed Asura had sifted through his memories. In the middle of this ovary, Cleansed Asura was in a deep slumber. Maybe, Cao Yun could finally get some answers.
But just like Huang Liyue down below, Cleansed Asura's soul was probably in a state in which it was impossible to communicate with him. Anyway, the young cultivator had to try and get in touch with him. Any piece of information was crucial. This entire world seemed to be related to this master he had only met a few minutes.
Cao Yun was a bit ashamed. Cleansed Asura had almost given his life to save his. And yet, before even repaying his debts, Cao Yun was back for more help. What Cleansed Asura had asked him was just to give him a proper burial. Still, he had failed. Of course, even an early to middle Spirit Warrior would have probably been unable to honor such a request. So Cao Yun didn't feel like he had betrayed his trust. However, that didn't mean that he wasn't feeling shameless right now. But he had no other choice.
He couldn't just wait for death simply because he did not want to be shameless. Besides, he had two lives to take care of right now. And he also had his friends he needed to warn and the demonic cultivators to take care of. Right now, Cao Yun could not just think about himself. Even if he had to be shameless, he would. After all, it wasn't as though he didn't want to honor Cleansed Asura's request. And if he died in this world, he would never be able to do so anyway.
After successfully convincing himself, the young man decided to throw away his face for once. He would just need to make up for it later. This was like going to ask for more money to someone who had already lent him some and that he hadn't repaid back yet. This was not a nice feeling for someone like Cao Yun. There were probably very shameless persons who would not mind though...
The fact that he had made his mind did not mean that this was a done deal. First of all, he needed to get inside this wooden ovary. Then, he wasn't sure in which state Cleansed Asura's soul would be, or if it could help him at all.
Pushing all those negative thoughts aside, the young cultivator knew that he had no other clue right now. If it failed, he would try to think of something else. If he could translate enough documents from Cleansed Asura's memories, maybe he would find other leads. Maybe there were even ways to help Huang Liyue and to get out of this place. However, he would need an incredible amount of time to translate all the documents. And if he just tried to make a shot in the dark and choose some documents at random, he would not find anything useful. There were just too many things in those memories. After all, Cleansed Asura had most likely lived at least a millennium, and maybe much longer than that. Right now, Cao Yun was unsure of how long a God-Monarch could live, or how long it could take to reach such a realm.
-
Now that he was above the clouds, Cao Yun realized that space had changed once more. This was now almost the same space he had known all of his life. As such, it only took him a few minutes to get close to the wooden ovary. Up close, this was a giant pod with almost no opening in it. He circled it several times and tried to use all of his knowledge of alchemy to try and find anything useful. Unfortunately, what he could piece together was not really helpful in this situation.
He could tell that this was truly similar to the ovary of a flower in its function. It had a slightly different structure because it was made of several branches intertwined together. But it probably contained some kind of ovule and seeds. By knocking on it several times, the young 5-star Earth alchemist had been able to hear how it was structured inside. He wasn't absolutely sure but it looked like there was one single seed in there. This was probably the same size as the seed Cleansed Asura had received in his visions.
But there was something slightly different. However, from the outside, Cao Yun had no way to be clear on what this difference really was. And he did not seem to be able to get inside either.
After a long time of failing to find a solution, the martial artist in him decided to try force as an option. He had no desire to harm the world-tree, but he sincerely wished to get inside this wooden ovary and to see the seed for himself. The familiar sensation of Cleansed Asura was coming right from this seed.
At first, Cao Yun only used a tiny fraction of his strength. It was both to test whether or not this tree had any defense mechanisms, and to judge its durability. Although it was hollow, contrary to the rest of the tree, the pod made of those branches was almost as resistant as the trunk of the world-tree. Even without trying any more powerful attacks, Cao Yun knew there was nothing he could do to force his entry within.
But then, he tried to remember what Cleansed Asura had done.
Back then, in those visions, Cleansed Asura had probably had enough strength to destroy an entire planet. No matter how powerful that world-tree had been, the God-Monarch should have been able to at least take a seed by force. Yet, he had chosen another way. Although he had no spiritual senses of any kind, maybe Cao Yun could try and connect with this tree in a similar way. After all, he had been able to send the intent from the Drop of Wrath outside of his body. Instead of using force, he could try and establish some kind of communication with this gigantic tree.
With that goal in mind, Cao Yun kowtowed in front of the pod.
"Great Lord, this lowly one apologizes if he disrespected you. I can assure you that my intent here is not ill."
Whether the tree could even hear him, Cao Yun did not know. But he wanted to show his sincerity. And he was sincere. he had absolutely no ill will against the world-tree. As an alchemist, getting some materials from it would have been fine of course, but it wasn't on his mind. And even then, he would try to do so without endangering the tree itself. Alchemists knew how to gather ingredients without harming the environment around them. Otherwise, they would have already annihilated many species. Apart from a few demonic cultivators, alchemists knew how to be proper. They would never take more than what nature could reproduce.
After showing his sincerity, Cao Yun imitated what he had seen Cleansed Asura do. His hand slowly touched upon the surface of the wooden pod. For a while, he stayed there without doing anything. He was just trying to feel the world-tree. Thanks to all the visions he had seen, he had a good understanding of how the tree itself was feeling. But now, he was trying to establish some kind of bond between them. At first, he let the Wei Qi surrounding the plant flow through him. With this warm flow of life within himself, the young man tried to harmonize his own breathing with it. He even tried to harmonize his own flow of Qi and his own thoughts with it.
Only after he felt as though he was almost one with the plant, did Cao Yun try to instill bits of the intent of the Drop of Wrath inside. And with this intent, he was attempting to convey a simple thought.
"I wish to see the seed within yourself."
In total, it took him almost an entire day. But he finally felt some movements. With extreme delicacy, the branch he was touching started to shift a little. And to the left of Cao Yun, a tiny gap was now opened between two branches, just big enough for him to pass through.
Before going inside though, Cao Yun stayed a couple of hours there to thank the tree that had replied to his request in such a manner.
Then, he got inside the ovary, passing through the small gaps between the branches.