Now, Cao Yun had his 'Nine Chi Black Dragon Spear' back in hand. The moment he grabbed the shaft, he felt the Death Energy that had infiltrated it. With the little knowledge he had from 'Death Verses', he was able to extract all of it. But his weapon had suffered a lot of damage. Not only was it visible externally, but inside it was even worse.
Unfortunately, Cao Yun had no time to think about it. As soon as he got the blade out of the ground, Can Mouye was upon him with another palm.
'Surrender to Compassion'.
Holding one of his palm in a strange position, Can Mouye struck with the other one right in front of him. This time, Cao Yun felt that he was completely surrounded by this palm. Not only was he able to see it in front of him, palms as huge as his chest were attacking him from all around. Once again, this was a manifestation of Can Mouye's Palm Aura.
Without flinching, Cao Yun tightened his grip around 'Nine Chi Black Dragon Spear'. This wasn't Qi Manifestation. Only one palm was real while the others were the product of the intimidating aura produced by Can Mouye. Despite his mind cultivation, Cao Yun was unable to completely see through it. But he decided to trust his instinct.
'The Pillar Piercing the Sky'!
Cao Yun stabbed in the direction where he felt the most Evil Qi. And he was right. At the moment of impact, all the other palms disappeared. But now, Cao Yun's spear was colliding with Can Mouye's right palm. It was as huge as Cao Yun's chest and was slowly moving forward. Even the collision with his spear did not stop it, it merely slowed it down. And now, this was a contest of strength between a 9th-grade Mortal and a 7th-grade Mortal Warrior.
Despite his wounds, Can Mouye was able to exert almost the full might of his body. For him, it meant that he was reaching very close to a hundred thousand dan. It was largely enough to reduce a mortal to a pulp without any effort. At first, he only used a fraction of his strength. But soon enough, he realized that Cao Yun was way stronger than he had imagined. Slowly he put more and more strength in his palm. But Cao Yun did not stay idle by either. He had already used 'Dragon's Heart' but pushed it again and again, until finally hitting the limit. In his meridians, his Qi was going eight times faster than usual.
But even that wasn't enough to resist the strength of Can Mouye. His feet were sinking deeper and deeper into the ground while his arms produced cracking sounds. As pain shot through his articulations, Cao Yun mobilized all of his blood. In his sea of consciousness, the Drop of Wrath turned into a giant red demon while the ocean itself was red under the gigantic Heart Star. With the intent of the Drop of Wrath coursing through his veins, his blood became hotter and hotter.
All happened in a matter of a few seconds. Can Mouye and Cao Yun were locked in a contest of pure strength. Both of them were able to rival the raw strength of the other. If either of them let go now, they would receive the full force behind their attack. But none of them could last very long either. Cao Yun had used absolutely all of his cards and his body kept on emitting worrisome noises. But on the other hand, Can Mouye was gravely wounded. That was apparent by the fact that he had not used any Qi Manifestation yet.
The situation was not completely locked though. Despite his weakened state, Can Mouye had still the upper hand. Cao Yun was slowly being pushed back. And he was painfully aware of it. Right now, he was clearly pushing his body beyond its limits. Even though he was able to enhance his strength, it didn't mean that his muscles, bones and articulations were ready for that. Even with all the tempering he had gone through, this was too much for him right now.
But there was a silver lining to it. As he was feeling incredible pain in his arms, he was also feeling his cells slowly opening in full to his Qi. Under the intense pressure, his Qi cultivation was progressing by itself. Thanks to that, it alleviated the pain a little. Still, he would not be able to last very long in the current situation.
Suddenly, a new tremor shook the entire cave. Ironically, because Cao Yun had his feet buried in the ground, he did not flinch at all. On the other hand, Can Mouye was not expecting such a powerful tremor and lost his balance. After all, the tremors had increased in intensity after Cao Yun had sent the drop of Death Energy in Huang Liyue's sea of consciousness. But at the time, Can Mouye was fully absorbed in his failed Lesser Tribulation.
Using this perfect opportunity, Cao Yun pressed on with his attack.
'The Son of Heaven's Cavalry'.
Retracting his spear a tiny bit, he found a new momentum and was able to stab through the palm. The blade tore apart Can Mouye's hand, almost cutting off his thumb. Then, it reached for his throat.
'Everlasting Salvation'!
For an instant, thousands of palms appeared between Can Mouye and the spear. They were all rotating at an incredible speed. Once more, he had used his Palm Aura rather than any form of Qi Manifestation. In Cao Yun's mind, it was clear. He just couldn't manifest his Qi at all. The wounds he had sustained were even worse than he had thought. And indeed, he was right. The Evil Qi within Can Mouye was completely chaotic. If he tried to manifest his Qi, he would definitely lose control of it and he would literally consume his own flesh. After everything he had done to stay alive all those years, he was not going to kill himself right now.
Those thousands of palms did not stop the spear but they redirected its trajectory.
At the last moment, Cao Yun dispersed all of his technique.
'Dragon's Tail Sweeps the Sky'.
Suddenly, he pulled back his spear and swept low, toward Can Mouye's legs. Injecting his Qi in the technique, he became fast enough that not even his opponent was able to react in time. With a powerful and violent noise, Can Mouye's left leg got cleanly broken in half. But Cao Yun's attack had not enough strength to go further. Ignoring the pain, Can Mouye attacked again with his bloody palm.
Both men exchanged hundreds of moves in a few instants. 'Shadow Heart Palm'. 'Scales Under the Waterfall'. 'Mercy From Heaven'. 'Mountain Under Thunder'...
At the end of the exchange, the two men were covered in their own blood. Yet, they kept on attacking, blocking, parrying. Near the end, there was almost no more technique. Can Mouye was just striking with his palms using the full might of his Palm Aura. But the same was true of Cao Yun. All the useless movements in his techniques disappeared as he had no more strength to produce them. For a brief moment, Cao Yun even forgot that he was fighting a mortal enemy. Similarly, Can Mouye also lost himself in the fight. Gradually, he found himself even enjoying the exchange. The pain and the fatigue were producing strange results in their minds. But more than that, they were pushing the boundary of their arts.
Can Mouye was refining his Palm Aura with every move as he was confronting them to Cao Yun. But the same was true for the young man as well. In his sea of consciousness, the Insight Writings at the bottom of the ocean were getting more and more agitated.
When finally, one of those Insight Writings emerged. It began to hover above the surface of the ocean and the character appeared to Cao Yun's mind. Although he had heard about this from Chief Elder Baishen, he had not expected to reach this state so soon. Indeed, he had just reached the state of Spear Aura. This was the first step on the road to achieve Spear Heart.
In the middle of the intense fight of attrition, Can Mouye bore witness to the change in his opponent. His spear that had looked ready to collapse was now without any damage whatsoever. Besides that, the spear itself seemed to be even bigger. Slowly, it even gained in size. By the end, it almost looked to be as wide as Cao Yun's trunk. The vision was very strange as Can Mouye could clearly see the young man holding the spear without any problem and yet it looked like it was way too big for him at the same time. Apart from this optical illusion, Cao Yun's strikes became more and more powerful. But at the same time, both Can Mouye and Cao Yun were losing their strength slowly. It was just that Cao Yun was losing it more slowly now.
With each of Cao Yun's strikes, Can Mouye had the impression that he was wielding a dozen of spears. But of course, just like his palms, only one was real. And unlike Cao Yun, Can Mouye was able to see through the Spear Aura without any problem at all. After all, his cultivation was way higher and he had also more experience with Martial Auras.
-
After several minutes of a destructive and bloody fight, another tremor changed everything. It happened at the worst possible time for Can Mouye. Losing his balance once again, he was able to quickly recover. In the middle of such an intense fight though, even blinking could be lethal. By using this lapse in Can Mouye's concentration, Cao Yun was able to pierce through his chest. Feeling the blade getting dangerously close to his heart, Can Mouye found that he had no choice. He was about to die so he decided to throw caution to the wind. Being killed by a mere Mortal after all the sufferings and sacrifices he had endured was not acceptable. Dying, period, was not acceptable.
'Three Steps to Cross the World'. 'Infinite Wisdom'.
The fleeting image of Tianfomo, the Evil Heavenly Buddha appeared behind Can Mouye. The next moment, he found himself farther behind Cao Yun's back, ready to kill the young man. And Cao Yun was unable to move. There was a powerful force keeping him in place. Underneath his feet, he was able to perceive a giant palm of the Evil Heavenly Buddha. But it was way less corporeal than when Can Mouye had chased Huang Liyue.
'Mercy From Heaven'!
From the ceiling, a black palm with a strange character engraved in its center fell toward Cao Yun.
'The Pillar Piercing the Sky'!
Unable to move around, Cao Yun was still able to stab toward the palm with his spear. For a brief instant, his Spear Aura got altered by the Qi he put inside the attack. Can Mouye saw a giant pillar of light going straight for his palm. And around the pillar, there was the figure of a terrifying azure dragon. it just blinked into existence before being replaced with Cao Yun's giant spear. The spear itself looked like the pillar of an imperial palace.
With everything he had left, Cao Yun put all his strength and a huge deal of Qi in his attack. On the receiving end, Can Mouye felt that pressure on himself. To push through, he was forced to mobilize more and more Qi, and Evil Qi in particular. But because his internal Qi was still so chaotic, it had an effect on his body.
In the middle of the attack, the black palm dissipated and Cao Yun was freed. Can Mouye fell to the ground while spitting blood. There was no doubt to be had, he was dying. At first, he had thought that he would be able to contain the problem. Unfortunately for him, he had to fight against Cao Yun at the same time. And now, he had definitely lost control of his Evil Qi. In his chest, he could feel his lungs being corroded by it as they were slowly getting filled with his own blood. Despite everything he had done to avoid this fate, he would die today. There was nothing to do about it. Sadly, he was knowledgeable enough to understand that point. Not even his new master could save him. Well, he probably wouldn't either since he had failed to bring him Cao Yun and what he had inside of him.
Wait! Maybe he could use what Cao Yun had inside of him! Although he didn't know what it was, he knew that it had saved his life once. And because Cleansed Asura wanted it, it was most likely related to either Evil Qi or Death Energy, or both. Yes, he just had to put his hands on this.
He had no idea what it was or where it was within Cao Yun. So he would need to dissect him thoroughly. Maybe he would even vivisect him. First of all, he had to make sure he could not defend himself. If everything was lost anyway, Can Mouye was ready to use his trump card. First, he would pin him down and get rid of his limbs. Then, he could get to work and find the secret he had in him. And even if he couldn't find anything, at least he would take the boy down with him!
'Reverberation of Peace in the Universe'!
Can Mouye directly used his ultimate technique. Tianfomo, the Evil Heavenly Buddha appeared in full behind him, blossoming with his ten thousand arms. And as one, all of his hands clapped. In front of him, there were now five thousands pairs of clapped hands as though each pair was praying.
Of course, this produced a titanic shockwave throughout the cave, and the entire tunnels as a matter of fact. Cao Yun was hit by the wave. Unable to dodge something that literally covered everything, the young man still had enough acuity to protect Huang Liyue and the egg. They were on the opposite side of the room. Thus, he put himself between the shockwave and them. Because sound was nothing more than moving air, Cao Yun had an idea.
Just like he had done in the Howling Crane Gorges, he used his spear to stab through the wind coming his way. 'The Pillar Piercing the Sky'. In the sound though, there was also Evil Qi. But he also had a way to deal with it thanks to his Drop of Wrath.
As Cao Yun was trying to protect himself, the cave was unable to endure the attack. Many tiny cracks had already crisscrossed the ceiling. And with this powerful shockwave, it could not support its own weight anymore. Muffled by the noise of 'Reverberation of Peace in the Universe', the entire room caved in.