Cao Yun was also impressed by the tremor that had shaken the entire world. But more than shock, there was fear in his eyes. Did this mean what he thought it did? This world was intrinsically linked with his master. So if it reacted in such a way, could it mean that Cleansed Asura was finally dead?
Using all of his mind cultivation, Cao Yun tried to activate the Drop of Wrath to its fullest and even sent its intent through Huang Liyue's body. But he felt nothing at all. However, he could clearly see that her condition was improving by leaps and bounds. Although her body stayed covered in burned tissues, her face seemed to regain a bit of colors. Also, her breathing was getting more and more powerful. Before long, she really sounded like someone who was peacefully sleeping. Obviously, the burns all over her gave away that her condition was not that great. Still, the improvement was incredible.
In Huang Liyue's sea of consciousness that Cao Yun could not see, her Soul Embryo had been completely restored. But the light was still mostly absent from her mind. After the wounds she had suffered from, Huang Liyue stayed in a lethargic state. Death Energy and Evil Qi had been completely purged from her system by Cao Yun and now, even the spiritual wounds they had caused had been eradicated. However, her physical wounds were still very well present. Cao Yun could only perceive what his physical senses told him. And with the little pieces of knowledge he had about medicine, he knew she was in a terrible state. But considering her high cultivation, if she could regain enough strength, she would be able to heal almost all of it with enough time and the right pills.
The problem was to wake up her soul. Indeed, even though her Soul Embryo had been healed by Cleansed Asura, the shock had been so intense, her soul was in a deep slumber. It could not wake up by itself.
Unfortunately, Cao Yun did not know much about souls. And even if he had, he could not use spiritual senses to understand her soul's condition.
Thus, he decided to trust in his master. Cleansed Asura had literally used his very soul to try and save Huang Liyue. Of course, he would have not done so if there was no way for Cao Yun to wake her up. Then came the Yellow Sorrows Water. From the visions he had had, Cao Yun knew what he had to do. Although he did not know how it would work, he knew that he would have to control that yellow water and to infuse it into Huang Liyue's sea of consciousness.
In a way, it would be similar to how he had absorbed and purified the Death Energy to strengthen his Po character and his Drop of Wrath.
However, even with the Drop of Wrath, Cao Yun was not confident enough to control this yellow water. And he was even less so when it came to infusing it into Huang Liyue's sea of consciousness. When he had fought against the Bone Demons, he had seen what the yellow water could do to their bones. Thus, he had a very good idea of what it would do to flesh. If he were to lose control for just an instant, he could end up killing the poor woman.
-
Cao Yun sat down and meditated for a while. He had to clear his head. For now, he was still hung up on the sacrifice of his master. No matter how many times he resolved himself to try and protect the people close to him, they always seemed to risk and even give away their lives for his own survival. Of course, Cleansed Asura had been lethally wounded a long time ago so ultimately his death was not the fault of Cao Yun. But still, he felt guilty. Like Xiao Xuefeng had told him, he should not bear the guilt of the entire world on his shoulder. Although he wanted to be a virtuous man, he really didn't want to become a saint. Helping humanity would not mean helping every single person. No matter how profound his mind cultivation was, that would be a way too heavy burden on his shoulders. He was not cut out for this kind of heroic duty.
That said, he truly wanted to save Huang Liyue. Irrespective of the past history between the Huang family and him, or between the Huang family and his great-grandfather, he sincerely wished to help that woman. Although she had probably done so due to a sense of obligation, she had given her life for him, fully prepared to die, expecting it even. Besides, she was related to Huang Cixi. He had killed her brothers and he did not wish to kill her bodyguard now.
Disregarding the moral reasons, saving Huang Liyue was also good for him. It was a first step to mend his relation with the Huang family. Obviously, Cao Yun did not know that he had already done so by saving Huang Cixi's Lower Dantian. Besides, she had even ordered her bodyguard to protect him. And that had played a great part in the reason why she had risked her life for him. That wasn't the only one, or the most important one either though.
In his mind, Cao Yun tried to piece together all the visions he had had about this inner world. He was unsure of what this was exactly but it seemed to be an advanced form of sea of consciousness. Moreover, this Yellow Death World as Huang Liyue had baptized it seemed to have been none other than Cleansed Asura's sea of consciousness. As such, Cao Yun was not entirely sure of the consequences of his death on the world. However, considering the tremor that had even shaken this strange floor where space was altered, the consequences were going to be dire. Hopefully, all the Evil Qi and Death Energy would not spill out into the Hongchen Kingdom. If all of those, including the Bone Kings high in the celestial palaces, were to spread through the human world, humanity would be in a desperate scenario.
Not only would they have to fight off the demons at their borders, the demonic cultivators among their ranks, but also an invasion from the very bosom of their kingdom by creatures able to rival a late Spirit Warrior.
For now though, Cao Yun had no way to either know anything about what would happen, or even act on it in any way.
Thus, he focused on his next plan. Right now, the only clue he had and the only thing he could do was to try and wake up Huang Liyue. For that, he recreated an entire map of this Inner World within his own mind. Using his advanced visualization technique, there literally was a small planet floating in his thoughts. Thanks to the visions from Cleansed Asura, he had a very good understanding of the geography of this place. As such, he would be able to travel way faster. Apparently, they had almost chosen the longest way possible between the Plagued Plains and this black pagoda.
With the new map he had in mind, Cao Yun could take another path and cut the time in more than half. Besides, he would be able to reach the land in a very remote place, hidden by the mountains and some steep rocky cliffs. From there, he would probably be able to reach the yellow lake he had seen in less than a week. All things considered, his travel was almost entirely planned already. Once there, he would just have to actualize his understanding of the tunnels under the mountains. Indeed, they would probably be slightly different from those in Cleansed Asura's visions. Thanks to his Drop of Wrath though, he would probably be able to use its intent to explore it, like he had explored the bottom of the ocean.
On that note, Cao Yun needed to get better at controlling his Drop of Wrath for what he had to master. For the success of his plan, Cao Yun needed to master two things, stealth and Death Energy.
As for the matter of stealth, thankfully Huang Liyue had provided him with a great technique, 'Ashen Feather Seal'. Cao Yun had already reached a pretty good level in it. Moreover, in this dead world, his Drop of Wrath would grant him a perception as large as a Spirit Warrior's, even larger yet. Unfortunately, this wouldn't work as well in the outside world. But still, he would be able to detect demonic cultivators with way more ease by focusing on his Drop of Wrath. Unlike real spiritual senses though, he could only sense what was around him, not really interact with it in any substantial way. And it required more concentration and energy. True spiritual senses were quite literally the ability of Spirit Warriors to spread not only their Qi but their very soul or Soul Embryo out of their body.
Thanks to this ability, they could even see through material objects, interact with the minds and souls of others, or with said material objects as well. Moreover, the formation of a Soul Embryo gave the ability to float and even fly in the sky.
With a few days of practice and thanks to his past experience in stealth, Cao Yun was convinced that he could reach at least True Success with this 'Ashen Feather Seal'. And ironically, the terrible condition of Huang Liyue would be helpful. Since she was in that very state, she would be harder to perceive. Although she was now stabilized, her bodily functions were slowed down to an extreme and her soul was in a deep slumber. Unless someone was very attentive, she would be difficult to spot. And Cao Yun could make sure that they always kept their distance with the enemy.
On the subject of Death Energy, Cao Yun needed to understand the first verses of the text he had dubbed as 'Death Verses'. The first two levels were the ones he really needed to practice for what he had to do. In order to extract some of the yellow water and use it to help Huang Liyue, he had to be able to perceive Death Energy and control it freely.
Until now, he had mostly used his Drop of Wrath to control Evil Qi. And it so happened to be that some Death Energy was sometimes intertwined with this Evil Qi. But thankfully, recently he had absorbed pure Death Energy after his Drop of Wrath had destroyed the paper boats. And this pure Death Energy was still in his sea of consciousness. It had strengthened his Po character.
Thanks to that, he should be able to train.
Unfortunately, the so-called 'Death Verses' were extremely incomplete. Well, they were probably very thorough and complete, but Cao Yun was unable to translate them. In the entire text, he was able to understand only four Antique Sixian characters. The only reason why he could get the general sense of the text was because of the Insight Writings.
The first verse was called something like 'See Through the Mud'. From the young disciple's understanding, 'Mud' referred to the body and maybe the physical world in general. This first verse was supposed to explain how to improve one's perception of Death Energy. The first part seemed to refer to one's Po and Cao Yun could get most of it because of his own mind cultivation. Apparently, he had to first increase his sensation of his own Po to then find it in the world around him. After all, Death Energy was a form of Po as well.
However, the other parts of this first verse were way more cryptic. Indeed, the young man could not understand a fourth of them. So of course, everything seemed cryptic.
Then the second verse could have been translated as something like 'Death Reeling'. At one point, it seemed to compare Death Energy with silk. Strangely enough, Cao Yun understood what it meant. When he had used his Drop of Wrath, he had perceived that both Evil Qi and Death Energy were made of myriads of filaments intertwined around each other. From what the young man could understand, he probably had to be able to separate each strand consciously without breaking them, just like reeling the silk from a silk worm's cocoon.
For now though, everything was still pretty obscure in Cao Yun's head. But since those two verses were essential to what he had to do, he would need to start working on them as soon as possible.
-
In the fallen palace, Can Mouye was kneeling in front of the giant metallic coffin. The voice of his new master was resounding from the pits of the coffin. It almost felt like he was way deeper underground and this coffin was just a well leading to the surface. But Can Mouye knew for a fact that it was not so because he had seen what was directly under this room.
"As I suspected this world is about to crumble. Once that happens, everything in it will be completely crushed into oblivion. In a way, this is exactly what happens to a spatial ring that gets destroyed, all that it contained is destroyed and lost in the nooks of space."
Can Mouye had indeed thought about this possibility after sensing the tremor earlier. After all, he had already heard about this from his new master. That was the reason why he had Gui Bei trapped and suspended in chains above his coffin.
"Since time is of the essence, I'll have to trust you. For the foreseeable future, I will be completely focused on possessing this boy's body. Remember, I am the only way for you to leave this world. So if anything happens to me, we will all die together. But if we do get out of this world, the benefits I will give you are way beyond your imagination. Not only will the demonic cultivators bow to you, the entire Piaolu planet will be yours. I don't need such a small place after all."
"I understand, Master. As inept as I may be, I will protect you with my life."
"To protect me efficiently, you should reach the Spirit Warrior realm fast. If you use the Yellow Sorrows Water, you should be able to get there in less than a month."
Deep down, Can Mouye recognized his former master in those words. Xiong Nixie loved to perform experiments on his disciples. And this new master of his seemed to possess such a tendency as well. No matter how well he tried to hide it, this Cleansed Asura was clearly trying to use Can Mouye as a guinea pig. Maybe he wanted to make him pay his inability to bring back Cao Yun's body as well.
But it didn't matter to Can Mouye. As always, he would do everything to survive. After all, he had no more desire and aspirations apart from this one.