Still floating in the sky, Cao Yun saw the gate to the outside world explode before his eyes. Not only that, but Old Demon had fled in the body of Gui Bei. And now, he was stuck in this dying world with Huang Liyue. His first thought was not for himself but for the woman who had once again saved her life. Without him, she would have probably been able to flee. But because she had to take care of him, she had not been able to. He had to find another way out!
Before he could come up with any kind of solution, a voice resounded in his mind.
"Cao Yun, do not worry. That door was not our exit."
Once again, hearing his real name was jarring and he hated that feeling. It was the name he had inherited from his parents and yet it had become estranged. However, the fact finally settled down in his conscious mind. Huang Liyue knew everything about him. At least, she knew who he was and that he had obtained the legacy of a dying God-Monarch. That being said, he did not feel threatened by her in the least.
First of all, they were now both in a huge crisis. And more than that, she could literally crush him like an insect and take whatever she wanted from him. Yet, she was still helping him now that she knew the whole truth.
The young man looked up at her. She was both beautiful and terrifying. While he was admiring her, she felt like a weapon that was both an impressive craftsmanship and yet also a tool of death and destruction. There was that same kind of feeling. Her body had been tempered and toned by hundreds of years of fighting and killing both demonic beasts, demons and humans alike. Now that her scar had healed, her face looked a bit less stern, but there was an immense pride in her eyes. It was as though she was completely indifferent to the chaos and destruction all around her, as though it did not concern her in the slightest.
But even with her strength, she could not survive this disaster. If space were to crumble down, nothing would survive. Cao Yun did not even know whether the Drop of Wrath itself could survive. After all, it had been able to endure the death of its owner, but now it was way weaker than Axiu Qian had been.
"Senior, I'm sorry. This is my fault! If my master had not given me his legacy, he would have kept this Old Demon at bay..."
"He made his choice. If it had been someone else than you, he would not have even spoken with him. Do not feel guilty for the actions of your master. Instead, make sure to make him proud. This Old Demon will soil the name of Cleansed Asura if he is left to his own devices. Besides, your family will never be avenged and the demonic cultivators will remain an existential threat. You are the key to most of our problems. Not only were you the one who helped Spirit Master Xiao find out about their infiltration, you even hindered some of their plans even though you're still just a Mortal. And the tragedy of your family may contain clues that could be essential to understanding what is really going on in this kingdom.
"So, unless you want to give up, we should get out of here soon."
Her last words made Cao Yun realize that there was still hope. If Cleansed Asura had been able to convey some of his memories to her, then she might indeed have a way out.
Without dispelling her Qi Manifestation, Huang Liyue looked behind her in the direction of the celestial palaces. As of now, only five were still floating in the sky while all the others had fallen down to the ground. From the purple sky, literal pieces of the firmament plummeted toward the ground. Suddenly, the destruction sped up. The departure of Old Demon had been the last straw. Because he had still some connection with both Cleansed Asura and this inner world, his presence had been all that had kept enough balance. Now that he was gone, a chain reaction was caused. The very sky began to crack up.
The new cracks were not purple, they were a window into nothingness. Just by looking at it, Cao Yun felt a powerful sensation of despair. This was not the void of space. Even in the void, there were energies and light moving around. What was beyond the cracks was just the total absence of existence itself. Thus, a metaphysical terror overtook him. Such a thing was impossible to comprehend. In his eyes, this nothingness was just pitch black but in his Dao Heart, it was the end of all things. Cao Yun was even forced to circulate his mind cultivation just to protect his sanity.
On the other hand, Huang Liyue was sending her spiritual senses all over the celestial palaces. She was looking for one particular thing.
Down below, the earth split open and the black ocean began to boil. Gigantic hurricanes began to form while powerful winds were generated by the collapsing sky. Even the Yellow Sorrows Water here and there reacted strangely. Columns of pure yellow rose in the sky, as though the water was sucked into pure nothingness. Unraveling under the two humans' eyes, this was the end of a world. Space would soon crumble completely and all traces that this world had ever existed would be gone forever. And right now, they were still within the world.
"There!"
Suddenly, Cao Yun was pulled by Huang Liyue's energy. Just like the True Fiery Fenghuang she had manifested, she soared through the sky at an incredible speed. As she broke through the sound barrier several times, the air pressure caused even more chaos down below and even up in the sky. But the destruction of this world was now certain and imminent. Many Bone Demons were crushed by the sonic boom itself while they were all running away from the disaster that was all over the place.
Huang Liyue had finally found what she had been looking for and went straight for one of the celestial palaces.
It was one of those that had crashed to the ground. It had been completely destroyed by its violent fall. A piece of the literal sky had torn it apart. In this gutted palace, it was difficult to find anything. But thanks to her spiritual senses, Huang Liyue had discovered what Cleansed Asura had shown to her. In the ruins, there was a door of some kind. This door was made of red cinnabar. Even though the building was completely destroyed, that simple gate had endured. With a wave of her hand, Huang Liyue got rid of all the rubbles covering it up.
When Cao Yun could see the gate in its entirety, he understood why Huang Liyue had been looking for it. In the middle of the cinnabar gate, there was a strange fluctuation of black energy. All his senses told him that this wasn't Evil Qi or Death Energy. No, this was something way more subtle, something he couldn't comprehend. However, that resembled in nature both the darkness Cao Yun had dived into to enter this world and even the golden light from the coffin. Clearly, this was related to space.
After getting rid of the rubbles, Huang Liyue made the gate levitate in the air. All her spiritual senses were now focused on the gate. She just kept enough of it on Cao Yun and the egg so they wouldn't fall down from the air. Thanks to Cleansed Asura's soul, she had a rough idea on how to use this gate. Apparently, it was the tool he had used to understand how to cross through the veil between universes. Thus, she could use it to go back to the Hongchen Kingdom. But she had absolutely no idea how space worked. Unfortunately, this was part of the knowledge that had mostly disappeared.
Only a handful of experts had still some ideas about this mystery. And even them were just able to barely scratch the surface. So she was forced to let her instincts take over. In her Soul Embryo, there were still a few pieces of memories from Cleansed Asura. Even when he had been completely consumed, he had tried to keep them intact for this very purpose. But even they were slowly fading away.
Because Huang Liyue could not control the gate itself, she had to be attentive to find the right time to cross over. Indeed, the fluctuations of space were completely chaotic. Although the gate would bring them back to their world, if they went in at the wrong time, they would simply get crushed and reduced to nothing.
Cao Yun was also focused on the gate when he felt some Evil Qi he recognized getting closer and closer. In the sky, he saw one of the fiery birds with someone in its claws. This was Can Mouye. Although he was quite literally surrounded by flames, he wasn't burning at all. Most likely, Huang Liyue had sent this Qi Manifestation to retrieve him. That meant that she had reached such a mastery that her Qi Manifestation was able to act upon her wishes without a direct intervention.
Can Mouye was in a terrible condition. Even though Cao Yun could not use any spiritual senses or even sense the Qi within his body, the intent from the Drop of Wrath and his meager knowledge of 'Death Verses' had improved his sensitivity to Evil Qi and Death Energy. As such, he was still able to feel that there was something really wrong in his body. Well, even without those, that was pretty obvious.
First of all, he wasn't moving at all and his eyes were not responsive either. From Cao Yun's point of view, he was completely catatonic. But from what he could feel inside him, this was an entirely different story. Within his body, a war was being waged. Cao Yun could only feel the Evil Qi so he wasn't sure what was really going on. But many strands of Evil Qi were running amok in him. Most of his body was infested with it, but not his vital organs. Each time the Evil Qi tried to go in them, it was extinguished by an unknown force. One thing was certain, this wasn't Can Mouye's doing. Indeed, Cao Yun had been able to detect that the Evil Qi had completely destroyed his meridians and even his Lower Dantian. Right now, only his Middle Dantian and his Upper Dantian were intact. Most likely, it was because they contained the heart and the brain.
It was just a guess, but Cao Yun was convinced that Huang Liyue had put something in him to block the Evil Qi and keep him alive. After all, he was a great source of information. Capturing a demonic cultivator who had no seal risking to blow him up if he talked was great. In addition, she had broken through all the way to 8th-grade Spirit Warrior. Even if she wasn't as proficient as Xiao Xuefeng, she could probably perform a Soul Memory Search on him.
Right now wasn't the time to do such a thing though. And maybe she had a better suited person in mind to do so. Anyway, for the time being Cao Yun decided to help keep Can Mouye alive. Huang Liyue was clearly busy with finding a way to get out of this doomed world. It was best not to disturb her in any way. As such, the young man used his Drop of Wrath to try and extract some of the Evil Qi from Can Mouye.
As he was himself exhausted, he stayed very cautious. After all, he didn't care about the well-being of Can Mouye. He just wanted to keep him from dying right away. As soon as he had the information in his mind, he would gladly put an end to his miserable existence. Besides, his cultivation days were now over. Without his Lower Dantian and most of his meridians, he would not be able to ever reach the Spirit Warrior realm. In fact, his cultivation was probably mostly gone by now. And without functional meridians, even his life expectancy would plummet down. In the best case scenario, he would live to reach fifty, maybe sixty. And his health would slowly deteriorate. Not only would he become a mortal, but a very weak and sickly one at that.
Well, he wasn't going to live that long anyway...
For a few minutes, Cao Yun kept his focus on maintaining Can Mouye alive while Huang Liyue was absorbed by the fluctuations of the dark energy of the gate. All around them, the world was literally falling apart. Pieces of land even went hurtling toward the sky. At some point, a peak of the mountain got ripped from the ground and got sucked into the sky. It even broke apart the firmament as it went into pure nothingness. Thanks to Huang Liyue's flames, the only place that was preserved was this particular fallen palace. But nothing else was safe from harm. And even the Qi Manifestation of Huang Liyue was starting to falter. Against a storm of that magnitude, not even a Sage could have resisted, let alone a late Spirit Warrior.
She had just been pushing back the inevitable in the hope of finding a solution. And the solution was right in front of her, staring her in the face. But she had to be patient. If she were to choose the wrong moment, they would all get crushed by the gate itself. They had to cross when the fluctuations were not too violent. If she had some understanding of the laws of space, she could have forced the gate open, but she hadn't. As such, she was forced to bid her time while being fully aware of the catastrophic situation.
After almost half an hour trapped in this hellish storm, Huang Liyue felt something familiar. From the gate, she was able to sense some Qi from the Hongchen Kingdom. This was it! If the passage was stable enough for her to feel that, she was almost certain she could pass through.
Without any warning, her Qi Manifestation disappeared almost completely. Cao Yun and Can Mouye were pushed toward her and enveloped in her Wei Qi. Then, she flew inside the gate with the both of them, and the egg as well of course.
Just like what had happened when Cao Yun had entered this world, space became nonsensical. The group was maneuvered by Huang Liyue but all notions of space seemed to have disappeared. Around her Wei Qi, Cao Yun could clearly feel extreme forces trying to tear them apart. Even with her Wei Qi, the influence of these forces was high enough for him to feel them. Without this layer of protection, they would have died instantly.