Buried under the rubbles, Can Mouye's Evil Qi had completely gone out of control. Due to the dust entering his lungs, his entire body was now in chaos. Immediately, he released his Qi Manifestation to save his strength. The collapse itself could not kill him but the invasion of Evil Qi and Death Energy in his already broken body could.
Unlike, Cao Yun, he was a Mortal Warrior and he was able to feel the Qi all around him. Although he wasn't as sensitive to Evil Qi and Death Energy as the Drop of Wrath and 'Death Verses' had allowed Cao Yun to become, he could sense all the particles of energy around him. Thanks to that, he quickly found a pathway through the rubbles to get to safety. Ultimately, he had to go back to the fallen palace. Without his master's help, he had no way of leaving this world. And if this world collapsed on him, he would be annihilated body and soul.
That being said, he wasn't sure what would be the reaction of his master after this new failure. Not only had he failed to kill Cao Yun over the Ocean of Turbid Anguish, but he had even failed right now. Besides, Cao Yun had even thwarted his attempted breakthrough. Right now, he was unable to find any redeeming element to try and defend himself in the eyes of his new master. From the very beginning, he had not trusted this entity. He knew that he would probably get rid of him at some point. But he didn't really have a choice if he wanted to survive and leave this place.
Digging toward this pocket of air he had found, Can Mouye finally reached a small part of the yellow lake that had stayed mostly intact. By falling, the rocks had literally formed a small room. Many of those rocks had probably been dissolved by the Yellow Sorrows Water and that had probably helped forming this cavity.
Beside the yellow lake, Can Mouye noticed the shape of a woman. Huang Liyue was laying down, very close to the yellow water.
Focusing his senses on her, he noticed that her state was slowly improving. Still, she was not in a very good condition. And an idea popped up in his mind. If he killed a Spirit Warrior as renown as a daughter of the Huang family, he might be able to redeem himself in the eyes of his master and maybe even save his life. By offering her True Fiery Fenghuang blood to his master, he could see an opportunity to protect himself. Right now, his master was the only one who could offer him a way out of this world. Without him, he would die very soon.
Focusing all of his senses over Huang Liyue's body, Can Mouye made sure that she was powerless. She had been lucky enough to not get hit by a single rock. Even the egg beside her was perfectly fine. While both he and Cao Yun had met with misfortune, the sleeping beauty had been protected by the heavens.
Her fate was to end here and now though. Despite her cultivation, Can Mouye could tell that she was too weak to even move her own body. He could kill her without even mobilizing his strength. In addition to appeasing his master, killing her would have another purpose. She had a spatial ring on her finger. Hopefully, she had not already consumed all of her pills and treasures. As long as there was the tiniest bit of hope, Can Mouye would hang on to his life. This was his only goal and the only thing keeping him going forward. The decades of training he had suffered at the hands of the demonic cultivators had erased all other thoughts and desires. But he had sworn to never let go of his life, no matter what he had to do to achieve such a purpose. He was ready to commit any atrocity and to degrade himself to any length.
From his own spatial ring, Can Mouye took out a small dagger he was keeping as a beast tamer in order to cut open demonic beasts. Walking closer to Huang Liyue, he would not use his Qi. He would just gut her like an animal.
But as soon as he was within arm's reach, he stopped. All around him, there was an intense spiritual pressure. His body was completely frozen in place. The sensation was terrifying. Within his body, there was a cold and a fear like he had never felt before, the pure instinctive terror of an animal faced with an existence beyond his understanding. But outside, his skin was starting to heat up. Some of his hair even caught on fire and burned up. There was no doubt, he was in the presence of a True Fiery Fenghuang.
Finally, he heard someone speaking in his head and he recognized the voice of Huang Liyue.
"Thank you for bringing this gift to me."
Suddenly, his finger with the spatial ring on it broke by itself. And the ring flew up in the air toward Huang Liyue's immobile body. The woman was still perfectly still as though she was sleeping. Through the bandages, her skin had remained completely burned and yet there was some exceptional vitality radiating from her with each one of her breaths.
The spatial ring was floating over her. A blue light escaped from it and several demonic cores appeared all over the place. Very quickly, they crumbled into dust one after the other. None of the demonic cores were beyond a 4-core. For a 6th-grade Spirit Warrior, they were nothing much. But they shouldn't have been so easily consumed either. All of the Qi that had been extracted from the cores engulfed Huang Liyue. In fact, her body began to levitate in the air.
Can Mouye knew he had hit an iron wall. His life was completely at the mercy of that woman. Even if those demonic cores could not completely restore her health, her soul was powerful enough to obliterate his sea of consciousness with a mere thought. Right now, many possibilities were going through his head. Thankfully, his new master had erased all of his seals. Thus, he could negotiate. With the seals in place, he could never divulge any secret of his former master. But now he could. As a 6th-grade Spirit Warrior, Huang Liyue was probably not that experienced with Soul Memory Search. Furthermore, no matter how much she could recover, she would still need his new master's help to get out of this world. Yes, he still had some room to negotiate.
Can Mouye was beyond surprised when he saw what happened next. Huang Liyue's body in levitation in the air went toward the yellow lake. And all of sudden, she fell into it. Even though the lake wasn't as big or as deep as before, this Yellow Sorrows Water was corrosive enough for a mere drop to be a threat to a Spirit Warrior. And she had literally thrown herself into it.
What truly astonished Can Mouye even more was the fact that her spiritual pressure did not diminish. That meant that she was still alive.
And indeed she was. In her sea of consciousness, the last remnants of Cleansed Asura had been completely consumed. With his very last moments, the God-Monarch had used the Death Energy contained in the drop produced by Cao Yun to restore her Soul Embryo. At that moment, she had also received some of his memories. Among them, she had mainly seen how to use this Yellow Sorrows Water. Apparently, it came from a yellow stone Cleansed Asura had found in a dead world. After studying it for centuries, he had pierced through only a few of its secrets. Among them, Huang Liyue was given instructions on how to restore herself to perfect health and even cross over two stages.
As a 6th-grade Spirit Warrior, Huang Liyue was in the middle of fusing her soul with her Soul Embryo. Thanks to this Yellow Sorrows Water, she had the means to do so in a matter of minutes. Of course, the risks were high, but given her situation, this was acceptable. After replenishing a fraction of her Qi, she was now ready.
Huang Liyue's body was protected by her Wei Qi as she guided the Death Energy contained in the yellow water toward her sea of consciousness. Drop by drop, it came into contact with her Soul Embryo. Each drop created a wave through her entire Soul Embryo. With them, she felt her soul getting more intimate with her Soul Embryo. Both of them were fusing faster than ever before. After all, Death Energy was fundamentally a remnant of souls. This was the perfect energy to temper one's soul and one's Soul Embryo, as long as the cultivator knew what he was doing of course. Because on the other hand, it was also the perfect means to corrupt and destroy one's soul.
Indeed, in the Death Energy, just like in Evil Qi, there could remain thoughts and desires from the dead. Contrary to Evil Qi though, Death Energy was not necessarily full of negative emotions.
What Huang Liyue had been given was a tiny portion of 'Death Verses'. Apparently it was called 'Life Through Death'. In theory it was supposed to allow someone to recreate life after his own death by using Death Energy. Unfortunately, it was way too advanced even for Huang Liyue. But she had been given a watered down version. After all, she had not died. So she didn't need to completely rebuild life, she needed to restore her strength, both the strength of her soul and of her body.
With the very last bits of Cleansed Asura in her Soul Embryo, she was able to guide the yellow water to do exactly that.
Outside, Can Mouye quite literally saw the yellow lake dry up. After the collapse of the cave, this yellow lake was just a tiny portion of what it used to be. Most likely, it had been split into different smaller lakes here and there. But still, drying up such a lake was impressive beyond measures.
As the lake was disappearing, Huang Liyue's body became more and more visible. Even with her Wei Qi, her bandages had been almost devoured by the corrosion. Even her body was more damaged than before. Here and there, her bones were literally visible. Strangely though, she seemed to be even more alive than before. Despite the condition of her flesh, her general state seemed to have improved considerably.
Finally, she opened her eyes.
Inside her pupils, there were now six flames dancing around. Deep in her heart, Huang Liyue had condensed her sixth True Fiery Fenghuang Drop. And she was very close to forming a seventh one. Besides those six flames, her pupils were extremely profound. When those magnificent eyes glanced at Can Mouye, his heart stopped beating.
Because he was very close to reaching the Spirit Warrior realm, Can Mouye was more sensitive than other Mortal Warriors. Even without spiritual senses, he was able to understand that a change had occurred in her cultivation. But she had not just reached the 7th-grade Spirit Warrior grade. No, she had gone even one rank higher. And he could almost feel like she had touched upon the gate of the 9th-grade Spirit Warrior. Of course, she would not reach that incredible level just yet. But not that many people in the Hongchen Kingdom could boast that they had caught a glimpse of this rank.
With the naked eye, Can Mouye could see the skin grow back on her body. But then, he got blinded by a powerful light. Her entire body got engulfed in powerful flames.
Suddenly, her roar made the world shake. Then, an explosion echoed through the rubbles as Huang Liyue launched herself upward. She burned through the rocks and boulders without any problem. In her wake, Can Mouye found himself pulled upward by an invisible force. And so was the egg. In a mere instant, Huang Liyue pierced through the entire mountain and found herself floating beneath purple scars.
Over her head, the sky seemed to have been lacerated by millions of blades. Compared to what she had seen when she had arrived in this dead world, the sky was very close to a full collapse. Through the purple scars, she could feel the void. Space itself was ready to crumble. And when it would, everything within the Yellow Death World would disappear without leaving any trace behind.
With her powerful spiritual senses, she was able to clearly feel everything going on beneath her. The Bone Demons were waging a terrifying war. Maybe they hoped to achieve another breakthrough to escape this world. Even the Bone Kings had left their floating palaces to devour as much of their brethren as they could. Among the eight palaces, two had already fallen to the ground and the other six palaces did not seem to be in a good condition either.
But what Huang Liyue was after was completely different. Her spiritual senses burrowed underground until she found the object of her search.
Another powerful tremor shook the mountains. But this one was very different. It didn't come from the disaster happening to this world. No, it came from Huang Liyue herself. As she had just broken through, she was still full of energy and she had even absorbed more Death Energy than she could use. Right now, she focused all of her energy to achieve a single goal.
Her senses pierced through several li of rocks. Deep within the mountains, she felt the fallen palace and she even saw Cao Yun trying to survive against the black chains hurtled toward him. Facing him was Gui Bei's body. But this wasn't Gui Bei in it, this was the thing using the name of Cleansed Asura.
The tremor intensified until the mountain literally exploded upward. From the bosom of the earth, Huang Liyue used her spiritual senses to pull the fallen palace to the surface. With a brutal jerk, it was now out of the darkness.
Both Cao Yun and Old Demon were shocked when they saw the purple sky above their heads as the ceiling of the palace had been completely ripped apart. And between them and the sky, they saw the figure of a blazing bird.
Slowly, the light diminished and Cao Yun was able to see the figure of Huang Liyue. All her flesh had been regrown. Almost naked, her toned muscles were visible to the eye. She had the body of a true warrior. With a few bandages still fluttering to the wind as they were literally in flames, Huang Liyue appeared like a goddess of war.