Obviously, Cao Yun was worried whether or not what he had done was working. Thus, he threw a glance at Huang Liyue on the ground. The poor woman was still covered in bandages but her face was more or less apparent because the drop of Yellow Sorrows Water had burned off some of the tissue. And the rest had come undone as a result. So Cao Yun was able to see her face completely covered with scar tissues. It was impossible to see whether she was getting better. However, he was able to see her muscles twitch a little. And it didn't feel like it was due to pain but rather, it looked like someone waking up from a long slumber.
Still, she stayed immobile. Consequently, Cao Yun could not be sure if that had worked but he chose to believe that it had. After all, he had no real other choice. Right now, he was faced with the skeleton of Huang'er and Can Mouye behind it. Thus, he could not try again to condense another drop of Death Energy for her. While the demonic cultivator remained perfectly still, surrounded by array formations to protect him, the skeleton was raising in the air.
The array formations on the ground could not cover the entire height of the cave. By rising high enough, the skeleton could avoid them and go directly toward Cao Yun.
Although the young man did not want to cause any commotion, it was too late for that. He could not allow the creature to hurt Huang Liyue. And even if he did not cause a ruckus, the skeleton would anyway. Thus, he grabbed his 'Nine Chi Black Dragon Spear' and activated his 'Dragon's Heart'. For an opponent like this one, he only needed a tiny proportion of this technique.
'The Pillar Piercing the Sky'!
Cao Yun stabbed toward the ceiling in order to strike down Huang'er. The former demonic beast had no more semblance of its past life. Right now it was a white skeleton covered in engravings and runes. When he was looking at it, Cao Yun could only feel sorrow and anger. No matter what, he would allow Huang'er to rest in peace. For that, he needed to destroy this mockery Can Mouye had made of her corpse.
Now that Huang'er was dead however, her corpse was able to channel the Evil Qi of this place. The undead creature was now at least as strong as a 4-core demonic beast and it was probably faster than a 5 or even 6-core flying demonic beast. Thankfully it was nowhere near the speed of a Blue Mane Falcon. But Huang'er was able to dodge Cao Yun's attack without much problem. The cone of wind generated by his spear collided with the ceiling and made the entire cave shake. Dust fell, bringing with it even more Evil Qi.
After that, Huang'er dived down toward the young man. And he used the same strategy he had used against the Bone Demons. With his spear, he created a shockwave at the surface of the yellow lake. Then, he used the last technique he had learned. But this time, he used more of his 'Dragon's Heart'.
'Dragon's Tail Sweeps the Sky'!
Sweeping the air in front of him, Cao Yun did not inject an ounce of Qi in his attack. Indeed, his goal was to project the yellow water, not his own Qi. And it worked. A wall of yellow water rose toward the diving Huang'er. And just like the Bone Demons, the skeleton did everything to avoid it. It changed its trajectory and even went straight against a wall as it was unable to control its own momentum. Once more the cave shook. And just after that, another tremor shook the entire world.
This time, the tremor was incredibly more powerful. Apparently, the world had lost even more of its stability. Some rocks fell from the ceiling. A few dropped into the yellow lake and were completely corroded by the Yellow Sorrows Water, while others landed on the ground. A few array formations collapsed as their foundations were crushed by those rocks. However, all of the array formations around Can Mouye sustained the shock. A few rocks fell on him but there was like a dome of Evil Qi protecting him.
Cao Yun took Huang Liyue and avoided a few other rocks. While he had her in his arms, he felt that her vitality was coming back to her. For an instant, joy spread through his mind. But he quickly pushed it aside. Right now, he had to stay focused. Any distraction could lead to catastrophe. Still, a thought crossed his mind. If the disaggregation of this world had sped up just now, could it have a link with what he had just done to Huang Liyue? Maybe Cleansed Asura's soul had still endured in her until this very moment... The idea saddened the young disciple, but like his joy, he pushed it aside for now.
Although it had no flesh of any kind, the skeleton of Huang'er produced a powerful shriek of rage toward Cao Yun. Evil Qi coalesced around its wings and black feathers appeared before flying straight for him. Most of the array formations were now gone so both Cao Yun and the skeleton could fight more freely.
'Imperial Throne'.
A wall of wind rose all around Cao Yun as he swept his spear. In this wind, Cao Yun had injected his Qi. Although he was still unable to control it outside of his body, he could inject it in his attacks. Thanks to the wind produced by his technique, the Qi was forced to follow the same path. Besides, the same thing that had happened under the ocean occurred again.
In the wall of wind, Cao Yun was able to see some scales of the Azure Dragon. And he realized he was getting closer and closer to actual Qi Manifestation. it wasn't because he had controlled over Evil Qi, but because his Qi cultivation was now extremely close to the Mortal Warrior realm.
Through this wall of winds, no feather was able to pass. Some were purely destroyed while others were just sent away by the rotation of the wind. However, Cao Yun could still feel Huang'er's presence even through this wall. Indeed, he was now very sensible to Evil Qi. Thus, he activated his Drop of Wrath and used 'Dragon's Heart' to the maximum. His blood flowed like crazy in his veins. More and more Qi was coursing through his meridians, eight times faster than before. And even his blood which had been transformed by the Drop of Wrath was bringing more and more Qi.
'Dragon's Twin Horns'!
Cao Yun stabbed thirty times. Each time, a powerful gust of wind was sent in the shape of a cone toward his enemy. The first ones were just made up of wind. But as he was pouring more and more Qi while using the intent of the Drop of Wrath, they started to change.
The very last of his strikes even surprised him. From his spear, a literal dragon horn appeared. It was not completely corporeal but it was visible to the naked eye. As weak as it was, this was still Qi Manifestation for sure. No matter how powerful he was, Cao Yun should not have been able to perform such an attack for now. Of course, he wanted to understand it to reproduce this attack, but he was still in a complicated situation.
Huang'er was able to avoid almost all of the 'Dragon's Twin Horns'. However, the last one was way faster than the other ones. And worse than its speed, it literally changed its course to strike the skeleton in its skull. The attack pierced through the skull and made it explode into thousands of fragments.
But that thing was not alive to begin with. Destroying its skull would be useless. Thankfully, this wasn't Cao Yun's goal. And now that he had seen how effective his attacks could be if he poured everything he had in them, he had to begin his assault.
Before he could though, the skeleton rose higher and higher and gathered more and more momentum. As it was circling the room, the skeleton threw black feathers now and then. Added with its own speed, the speed of those feathers was lethal for Cao Yun. But he just had to make sure not to be hit by them. The only problem was Huang Liyue. Thankfully, Huang'er's skeleton lacked intelligence. Thus, it only aimed at Cao Yun. If it had had intelligence, it could have used Huang Liyue to distract him.
'The Moon Grounds the Sun'.
Cao Yun assumed his posture and his speed increased immediately. With his mind cultivation and his senses, further improved by 'Ashen Feather Seal', he was able to dodge every single feather. Then, he simply waited for the right opportunity that came rather quickly. When Huang'er was close enough for him to achieve what he wanted to do, Cao Yun went to work.
'Crafty Harassment'.
Suddenly, he moved all over the place with incredible speed while sending 'Dragon's Twin Horns' toward Huang'er. In theory, this technique was meant to seal an opponent's movements. But right now, Cao Yun had a better idea. Instead of aiming toward the articulations of his enemy, or rather its wings right now, he was aiming at particular engravings on the bones. Thanks to 'Death Verses', he had been able to understand some of those runes. There were too many to destroy them all though. That would have come down to breaking every single bone several times.
Thankfully, he had a fairly good idea of the most important runes. Although he wasn't absolutely sure of their functions, he knew that they were necessary to control the skeleton itself. Thus, by destroying them, he could impede its movements, or even put an end to the artificial life infused in the bones.
In his attacks, Cao Yun was unable to reproduce the same level of Qi Manifestation, but he still saw strange phenomena appear. All over the place, there were scales in suspension in the air along the trajectory of his own movements. And in his cones of wind, parts of dragon horns were visible here and there. Even if only a fraction of his attacks connected, his targets were all hit.
With each new rune destroyed, the skeleton was flying slower and even lower. Thus, even more attacks connected. And before long, the skeleton fell to the ground. It was still moving around but Cao Yun was able to feel that most of the Evil Qi had now gone out of control within the bones themselves. Without the runes to control its flow, the Evil Qi was even corroding the very bones it had allowed to bring back to life.
Finally, Cao Yun was ready to give the coup de grace. But he was stopped by a powerful boom echoing throughout the cave. Turning around, the young man realized that this boom had originated from Can Mouye's body. It was the result of his Lesser Tribulation. Then, another boom, even more brutal, erupted from his Huang Ting, the Yellow Court, an acupoint near his stomach. That boom was so brutal that the room itself began to cave in. There were array formations to protect the surroundings from Can Mouye's Lesser Tribulation, but they had all collapsed earlier because of the tremor.
That boom also sent everyone in the room flying away. Cao Yun was the only one who was conscious enough to protect himself. He stabbed his spear in the rock below and stood his ground. After all, he was used to resisting against powerful gusts of wind. On the other hand, Huang Liyue and Huang'er were both sent flying toward the walls of the cave. Cao Yun was only worried about his bodyguard. The woman was clearly in the process of recovering, so she was still rather weak. And she struck the wall with full force.
On another side of the room, Huang'er's skeleton broke into thousands of pieces. Now that the most important runes had been destroyed, it was unable to even maintain its form. But Cao Yun could still feel some activities from it. He still needed to give the finishing blow.
Once again though, he had a far more pressing problem. Can Mouye could destroy the cave and kill everyone by accident. But worse than that, he might be able to pull off his breakthrough. In which case, Cao Yun would be faced with a Spirit Warrior. Against such an opponent, there was absolutely nothing he could do. Even against a powerful Mortal Warrior, he was convinced he had at least a chance to run away. But a Spirit Warrior was on another level entirely.
All of that was predicated on the fact that Can Mouye would not die before his breakthrough though. And it happened to be that a cultivator was at his weakest when he tried to cross over a tribulation. In particular, the Lesser Tribulation was famous for being incredibly dangerous. If Cao Yun was able to strike him with enough strength at the right moment, he might not be able to kill him straight away, but he would at least injure him. The injury could be so deep that Can Mouye would lose his cultivation, or even his life in the best case scenarios.
Although Cao Yun had not specifically studied this part of the Qi cultivation, he was familiar with the Lesser Tribulation thanks to his father. He had failed once before finally succeeding. But just after his success, he had been killed by the demonic cultivators. Right now, Cao Yun intended to finally begin his real vengeance. Both to avenge his family, but also to get humanity rid of this thorn in its side, Cao Yun would eradicate all the demonic cultivators. And he would start by the one right in front of him. In the past few months, this man had killed some of his allies in the woods between Yinmen city and Baziyun City. He had of course tried to kill him several times. In the process, he had killed Feng'er and Huang'er. And he even went as far as desecrating Huang'er's corpse to create this skeleton servant.
Once in this dead world, he had allied himself with someone soiling the name of his master. And he had almost killed Huang Liyue who had tried to protect Cao Yun.
Toward this man, Cao Yun's rage was as profound as the rage he was feeling against the one who had murdered his family, his parents, his little sister. Although it wasn't the man he wanted to kill the most, Can Mouye would be the one he would really begin his revenge with. With this rage and determination, Cao Yun fed the Drop of Wrath and prepared himself.