Cao Yun knew just enough to have a vague understanding of what was going on inside Can Mouye's body right now. The Lesser Tribulation consisted in crossing over the last three grades of the Mortal Warrior realm. Someone who had achieved the goal of the 6th-grade stage without attempting the breakthrough yet was sometimes called a 7th-grade Mortal Warrior. But technically, a cultivator really became one only after beginning the Lesser Tribulation.
The 7th-grade Mortal Warrior stage was also known as the Crystallization of the Dantian. During this stage, the cultivator would completely turn the Qi within both his Lower Dantian and his Middle Dantian into solid crystals. The Lower Dantian was supposed to be rich in Water Qi while the Middle Dantian was rich in Fire Qi. Thus it would create two opposed crystals. And in this stage, it was completely impossible to use Qi because everything had turned solid.
During this stage, even the Wei Qi around someone would slowly disappear. And in that state, almost anything could kill the cultivator. Thus, one would usually either use array formations or bodyguards, or both at the same time. For example, his father had been in seclusion within the family residence, where he should have been perfectly fine.
Then, there was the 8th-grade Mortal Warrior stage. In that stage, the cultivator would need to literally collide both of those crystals in the area exactly between the two Dantian. This area, containing the stomach for example, was known as Huang Ting, the Yellow Court. This was the place where both crystals would collide to then form the Soul Embryo. As such, this stage was referred to as the Qi Impact. By colliding the two crystals, one had to be careful. If they were collided with too low of a force, they would not be able to perform whatever it was they were supposed to do. But if they collided with too much strength, they could literally rupture the organs of the cultivator and kill him.
Although Cao Yun did not know and understand all the details, he knew enough to craft a strategy. It was clear that Can Mouye was in the middle of this stage. In fact, the booms echoing from his body were proof of that. Right now, he was colliding his two crystallized ball of Qi from both Dantian. If he were to succeed, he would immediately reach the 9th-grade Mortal Warrior which was the complete fusion of the two Qi to finally form the Soul Embryo. From what Cao Yun understood, this stage was in fact the easiest as the cultivator just had to let the Qi do its own thing. It solely depended on the 8th-grade stage.
Even though there was no danger associated with the 9th-grade, it was the moment of truth. If the cultivator had been able to collide his two crystals of Qi in the proper way, the Soul Embryo would be created. Otherwise, the breakthrough would be a failure. According to Cao Guang, that was what had happened to him. He had had no problem during the Lesser Tribulation but in the end his Soul Embryo had not been formed because he had been too afraid to produce the right kind of collision.
From everything he knew, Cao Yun had devised a perfect plan. He had to strike Can Mouye at the very moment of a boom, or just after. It was in this moment that his body was hurt from the inside. If he were also struck from the outside, the shock would be far greater. The best thing would have been to strike him just before the collision to distract him, but Cao Yun could neither see nor feel what was going on inside his body. However, considering the violence of the booms, he was convinced that his plan would leave Can Mouye in a very precarious situation.
Taking his spear in hand, the young man pushed everything to the limit. In his sea of consciousness, he even used the Drop of Wrath to the point where it turned back into the giant red demon looking like Axiu Qian with fewer limbs.
'Dragon's Heart' was used to its upper limit of an eightfold increase in speed. Now, he was just waiting for the right moment.
And it came. As soon as he heard the slightest noise coming from within Can Mouye's abdomen, Cao Yun disappeared.
'The Son of Heaven's Cavalry'!
The ground around him turned into a small fuming crater. The next moment, his spear was almost touching Can Mouye. Around Cao Yun, the vague image of a dragon had began to form. Now, even a mortal would be able to see some scales around the young man and his spear. But right before the moment of impact, Cao Yun's spear collided with an invisible wall. Then, all of his strength was completely dispersed in every direction. One of which was Cao Yun himself.
Receiving around a tenth of his own attack as a backlash, the young man was sent flying toward a wall of the cave. He literally flew over the yellow lake. And at the very last moment, he was able to shift his weight around. Instead of colliding against the wall, he stabbed his spear in the ground. A great force was exerted on his arms as he was trying to stop his momentum. Thankfully, he had only received a small portion of 'The Son of Heaven's Cavalry'. If he had received everything, his arms would have at best been hurt, or even ripped apart.
Even this attack of his was not powerful enough to pierce through the array formations around Can Mouye. And he was sadly not knowledgeable enough to know how to break this formation. In fact, he was just competent enough to know that there was an array formation before triggering it. However, he had not expected such a powerful protection.
Apart from 'The Son of Heaven's Cavalry', Cao Yun had no attack that was stronger. Should he just keep going at it until the array formation was done for? That wouldn't be very effective. From what he could see, the array formation had deflected his attack. According to his limited knowledge, that most likely meant that it would be able to sustain many attacks as long as none of them were powerful enough. If he kept on attacking with 'The Son of Heaven's Cavalry', he would maybe need to strike hundreds if not thousands of time. The attack was just not powerful enough to go through the barrier. So it would just be deflected again and again. Only a tiny portion of the attack would truly damage the structure of the array formation.
His only hope was to use an attack that was powerful enough to break through the array formation with just one strike. Since it was a 5-star Human array formation, it probably wasn't that resistant after all. Most likely, he wasn't missing much. But crossing that boundary would be extremely difficult. But then, maybe he had another choice.
He could use the Yellow Sorrows Water. Such a water was able to corrode almost anything. Why couldn't it corrode the array formation itself?
He couldn't just simply launch himself in the middle of the yellow water. And just sending some of it on the array formation would not work either. Indeed, during his fight against the skeleton, a large amount of yellow water had been splashed unto the barrier without doing anything. Cao Yun's best bet was to strike the barrier with the yellow water. Hopefully, some of it would be able to get inside the barrier and corrode it enough for the attack to pierce through.
Of course, 'Dragon's Tail Sweeps the Sky' was a great candidate. But it wasn't powerful enough. In fact, the technique itself was a bit more powerful than 'The Son of Heaven's Cavalry'. But its strength was completely diffuse by its very nature. Indeed, it was a sweeping attack.
Thinking about the problem, Cao Yun got an illumination. He would have to combine both techniques. That was when his Tail Star shined brightly in his inner sky. And the name of a new technique emerged in his mind.
Then, he assumed the same position as 'The Son of Heaven's Cavalry'. But in his body, his Qi was circulating as though he was about to use 'Dragon's Tail Sweeps the Sky'.
Just before performing his attack, the young man swept the surface of the yellow lake. A small wall of yellow water rose in the air. Just then, Cao Yun ran forward to gain some momentum. The very ground under his feet was ripped apart. And as his right foot was almost touching the yellow lake, it sank deep in the ground. At the exact same moment, Cao Yun threw his spear with as much strength as he could. And this time, he also infused it with as much Qi as possible. This was the variation of the Tail Star.
'Fish in the Galaxy'!
With incredible speed, the spear broke the sound barrier at least twice. Just before Can Mouye's boom could reverberate through the cave, it was completely shaken by the sound induced by the 'Nine Chi Black Dragon Spear'.
As it passed through the yellow water, Cao Yun had the impression that he was seeing a giant dragon swimming like a fish in the celestial water. At first, the yellow water was pushed by the shock. But then it created some kind of void behind it and as the air was filling it, it attracted a lot of the yellow water. Behind the spear, there was literally a small tornado of Yellow Sorrows Water.
And suddenly, it struck the barrier around Can Mouye. Although the cave was rather large, the speed of the spear was such that everything happened in the blink of an eye. One moment the spear was in Cao Yun's hand, the next one, it was against the barrier around Can Mouye. The spear itself was spinning.
Because it had been stopped by the barrier, the yellow tornado behind it caught up with it. And a torrent of Yellow Sorrows Water collided with both the spear and the barrier. Cao Yun had been worried for his spear. If the yellow water was able to corrode almost everything, it obviously meant it was able to corrode the spear itself. However, he had seen no other option. If he were to wait too long, Can Mouye might have a chance of becoming a Spirit Warrior. In that case, he would die instantly. Clearly, Can Mouye was not playing around when it came to killing his targets.
Thankfully, just as Cao Yun had planned, the Yellow Sorrows Water was finally affecting the barrier. As his spear was slightly hurting it, the yellow water was able to infiltrate the barrier itself. Then, it spread quickly because of the impact of 'Fish in the Galaxy' against the barrier. In a matter of mere instants, the barrier collapsed and the last bits of momentum from the 'Nine Chi Black Dragon Spear' sent it flying forward in the direction of Can Mouye.
At this very moment, within his body, the two crystallized Qi from his Dantian had collided. And it was the final collision. At last, both his Water Qi and his Fire Qi had been able to merge perfectly. It was now only a matter of hours, if not minutes, before his Soul Embryo was formed. But that impact had also been the most brutal one. And his organs were in turmoil. This was the perfect moment to inflict incredible pain and damage to his body.
And that was precisely at this very moment that Cao Yun's spear stabbed him right in the Huang Ting.
As a powerful Mortal Warrior, even without Wei Qi, his body was resistant enough that not even this attack could pierce his skin. After all, most of the attack had been stopped by the barrier anyway. However, there was still some Qi within the spear. And although the shock was not lethal, it was enough to hurt him. Just as the spear collided with his back, surges of Qi and Evil Qi went deep within his Huang Ting. And at the same moment, some Yellow Sorrows Water fell down on him. Some splashed him from behind with the spear, but some also fell from above.
The very moment he was celebrating his success, he found himself in incredible pain. His skin began to burn. But what was happening inside was even worse. The Qi from Cao Yun penetrated his body and disrupted his Water Qi and Fire Qi which were finally fusing with one another to produce his Soul Embryo. Combined with the pain that completely distracted him, this turned into a nightmare for him. Although he was able to ignore pain fast, it was too late. Too much damage had already been caused. Both of his Qi refused to mix with each other again. And after causing much more havoc in his Huang Ting, Can Mouye was forced to take over and send them back in his Lower Dantian and Middle Dantian.
He had been so close to finally reach Spirit Warrior. But in an instant everything had been shattered in front of his very eyes. Moreover, his body had already suffered a lot of damage. Most likely, he would not be able to attempt such a breakthrough before a few years. Not only that, he had used the environment of this place to help his breakthrough. That was why he was so close to this yellow lake. Some of the array formations around him were literally using the Death Energy from it. Since this world was about to collapse, he would never get this chance again.
Now that there was no hope for a breakthrough, Can Mouye quickly turned his mind to the pain. Soon, he was able to cleanse himself from the yellow water still attacking his flesh. Both in his back and on his face, he had terrible scars, similar to the ones Huang Liyue had on all her body.
Then, he saw the black spear on the ground and he understood everything in a split second.
Suddenly, he turned his gaze toward Cao Yun. All around him, the air turned black and viscous. Apparently, he had still enough strength to manifest his Qi. In his body, there was internal chaos. But luckily for him, he had been able to keep most of his calm. Otherwise, this would have been much worse. Right now, he was still unsure of how strong he was. And, he was unsure of how much of his strength he could exert without worsening his wounds. But there was no doubt in his mind. His first action had to be to kill Cao Yun.