The next time Cao Yun opened his eyes, he was in a completely different place. Disoriented, he fell forward and found himself prostrated on the ground. Below his hands, the ground was metallic. In fact, it seemed to be an amalgam of thousands of pieces of armor, broken hilts, fragments of swords. Standing up, Cao Yun looked all around the place and only saw remnants of weapons and armors everywhere. But there was no sign of any corpse.
Here and there, there were plates of armor, helmets, both for humans, but also for horses and even demonic beasts of all kinds. As such, there were also many weapons and armors he had never seen before. Apart from the Eighteen Classical Weapons, there existed a myriad of other kinds of weapons. Around Cao Yun, every weapon and every piece of armor, although broken, seemed to have been unique. A mortal would probably not have enough time in his entire life to collect them all.
Moreover, Cao Yun could not tell how deep this pile of metal was. This was so compact it truly felt like a solid ground, but it was not.
The surface was completely flat except for a few rods stabbed into the ground. Just after looking at them, Cao Yun knew. Those were all spears. A large forest of spears was planted all over the place. And from the looks of it, they were intact. In fact, those were the only intact weapons. Each one was also unique. Some were as large as a real tree while others were as short as Cao Yun himself. Their blades were also all different.
But they all were reflecting a deep blue light. Looking up, Cao Yun saw the origin of this blue light. High in the sky, there was no star of any kind, no satellite to admire. But there was one celestial body. Cao Yun had never seen such a thing. The sky was perfectly black but in its center, some kind of whirlwind was rotating at an incredible speed. In complete silence, it was rotating on itself so fast that it almost looked immobile but Cao Yun's eyes were able to see through that. As it was spinning, it was also producing a great source of light that was extremely deep. It was difficult to describe, but this light was a deep blue. Although its color was a bit obscure, it was so powerful that it could lit the entire world.
Considering the place, the test seemed clearly related to his mastering of the spear. However, he wasn't sure in what way exactly.
Before taking his spear out, Cao Yun decided to try and probe this place with his Qi. Now that he was a Mortal Warrior, he could easily send his Qi outside and control it enough to perceive things, even underground. As such, he sent surges of Qi beneath his feet to see how deep this pile of metal was. However, as soon as he did, his Qi got torn away from his control and sucked into the air.
Although he had lost control of it, his sensitivity allowed Cao Yun to sense it as it was swirling upward until it disappeared. His Qi had joined the great vortex above his head. Just to be sure, he tried to send surges of Qi outside of his body again but each one was completely absorbed by the vortex. Even when he tried to use all of his mind cultivation and exert as much control on his Qi as possible, the same thing happened.
It always got sucked into the vortex right away. The only Qi that didn't meet this fate was his own Wei Qi. A bit worried about something, Cao Yun sent a surge of Qi in his spatial ring. Immediately, he could sense what was within and could extract anything he desired without any problem. Thus, he took out his spear. Thankfully, this great vortex did not try to suck this surge of Qi. Unless it was leaving his Wei Qi, Cao Yun could use his energy freely.
In other words, this giant vortex was preventing him from using any form of Qi Manifestation. So whatever test was going to happen had been designed to test his mastery of the spear but not his Qi Manifestation. To be sure, he sent another wave of Qi in his 'Nine Chi Black Dragon Spear' and it did not get affected. However, he was able to feel the scale of the Ebony Snake Dragon within. Like Ren Chao had told him, he could feel both shame and determination in it.
Although his spear was supposed to be a 5-star Earth one, Cao Yun knew that it was closer to a Human grade weapon thanks to this scale and its connection with his 'Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars'. That being said, it had no real awareness or spirit. It was just the remnant of the demonic beast whose bloodline was related to dragons. Cao Yun had understood what the spear was feeling. It was ashamed of being unable to showcase the full might of this martial art, yet Cao Yun had not even formed the seven stars yet. But it was ready to die to try. If it could show the full glory of the Azure Dragon at least once, the Ebony Snake Dragon would be happy to have been slain to forge this weapon.
Soon after Cao yun had taken his spear out, something happened. Right now, he was in an area that was completely flat and formed some kind of circle surrounded by thousands of spears stabbed in the ground. In other words, he was in a ring. And on the other extremity of this ring, the ground began to shake. From the pile of metal, many pieces of metal flew into the air and began to melt.
All of a sudden, there was a tornado of melting metal spiraling above the ground. And inside of it, Cao Yun was able to see a shape. It looked like a man but he knew this was impossible. Rather, this was an empty armor. When the tempest of molten metal stopped, the armor was still red. As it was bathed in the blue light of the vortex, the armor quickly cooled down to show its true form. All kinds of pieces of metal had fused together to create an armor that looked almost like a real human being wearing a war armor. Beneath its helmet, it had a face that was obviously perfectly still as it was made of metal.
The armor raised its right arm and one of the spears that was stabbed into the ground flew directly in its hand. Now it was facing Cao Yun with a spear in hand. Apparently the test would be to beat this armor without using his Qi Manifestation. But was the test that simple?
Before Cao Yun could think further, the armor had already disappeared. In an instant, its spear was right in front of Cao Yun's eyes. There was nothing special about its technique, it was just stabbing straight forward. But not only was its speed beyond Cao Yun's capability, even its technique had him beaten. Although he had looked at it only an instant, this technique appeared to be flawless. Obviously, there had to be tiny flaws but he had had no time to see any.
Thanks to his Chamber of Heavenly Court, time seemed to freeze as the spear was about to pierce through his skull. Thankfully, his Wei Qi had not been dispelled by the giant vortex spiraling above his head. But considering the mere wind pressure of the blade, it would still do a lot of damage. Because the armor was not using any Qi at all, it would be hard pressed to kill a 1st-grade Mortal Warrior. That being said, the fight wouldn't be easy at all.
Analyzing the armor's spear, that was just a mediocre weapon. Although Cao Yun was no blacksmith, it appeared to only be a 2-star Earth spear, nothing compared with his. In fact, the spear had already been full of small cracks even before entering the armor's hands. And under the strain it was putting on its weapon, the armor would soon destroy it. However, there were hundreds, if not thousands, of spears all around them. There would be no shortage of weapons. Besides, some were clearly way beyond the Earth grade. Although all weapons were on the brink of destruction, some were real treasures. Could the test be to fight the armor until it had exhausted all the spears?
If that were the case, this test would have no end. Maybe, it would be easier to destroy the armor first.
With his faster thought process, Cao Yun had mostly analyzed what was going on and had prepared himself for what was to come.
After several days training with Chief Elder Baishen, Cao Yun had gotten the knack of Spear Aura. He was nowhere as good as she was with virtually any kind of aura, but he was slowly getting there. Martial Aura was born from someone's understanding of martial arts. Of course, someone who was already proficient in a weapon could develop another Martial Aura more easily. So it wasn't incredible for Chief Elder Baishen to have several Martial Auras.
That being said, her most powerful remained the Palm Aura. Clearly, she had been a bare-handed fighter first. Only after mastering hand-to-hand combat did she embark on a journey to master all of the Eighteen Classical Weapons, and some more.
Because Spear Aura was the emanation of someone's understanding in the spear arts, it did not require any Qi, or even any cultivation level at all. In theory, even a mortal could use a Martial Aura. But it was dependent on the cultivator's mental fortitude.
As one slowly mastered his martial art, his sea of consciousness would naturally produce Insight Writings depending on his proficiency. In a sense, those were the intuitive understandings of the cultivator. Even if he wasn't aware of it himself, those Insight Writings, no matter how crude or rudimentary they were, would be deep in his sea of consciousness. Spear Aura was developed when the cultivator finally began to sense those intuitions. And to develop the Spear Aura even further, it was necessary to study the Insight Writings which were visible on the surface.
Without the ability to enter one's sea of consciousness, one had to meditate and try to connect with his intuition, producing the same movements again and again, both in reality and in his mind. Hence, most people who had mastered a Martial Aura were either cultivators with a powerful mind cultivation or Spirit Warriors who could visit their own sea of consciousness. Because Cao Yun had this ability, he could also improve his Spear Aura faster.
But at the end of the day, the best way to improve oneself was to fight and gain more and more intuition. Each fighter was different, each martial art was different. Cao Yun had to confront many different opponents to push his Spear Aura to the extreme. Only then could he have hopes to form the next stage, the Spear Intent. According to Chief Elder Baishen, it would happen when he would be able to feel every Insight Writing in his sea of consciousness. But for now, he could only see one while he could vaguely sense the presence of a dozen more.
This test was a great opportunity. Because he could not manifest his Qi in this place, he would have to rely on his pure understanding of the spear and of 'Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars'. Hopefully, he could maybe even forge the final and seventh star of his martial art, the Winnowing Basket Star. That way he would officially have reached Small Success in 'Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars'.
Anyway, for now, he just had to fight the armor and try to improve his technique as much as he could. Unless he had any reason to believe otherwise, this test seemed to be pretty straightforward, and yet very effective. Fighting a powerful opponent was the fastest way to progress as he had been able to experience for himself with Chief Elder Baishen.
Without using any major technique from his art, Cao Yun put his left foot backward. As he got a little bit more of distance with the tip of the armor's spear, he rotated and completely dodged the attack. At the very same time, he unleashed a sweeping attack toward the armor's waist, 'Scales Under the Waterfall'. This was just a lesser technique of his art. But he imbued it with his Spear Aura. With it, the tip of his spear looked like it was the size of the armor itself. Although he was the one responsible, Cao Yun still found this vision weird. He was holding a perfectly normal spear but its tip had become extremely large. Of course, this was just a visual phenomenon and not the actual size of the spear though.
As he didn't want to burn himself out, Cao Yun had not mobilized his Qi or his blood, or anything else other than his physical strength and his mind. As soon as Cao Yun had dodged the armor's attack, it had completely changed its attitude. With his Chamber of Heavenly Court, Cao Yun was able to see clearly every tiny detail as though the time was slowed down. Of course, it didn't mean that his body was able to react fast enough, but he could analyze everything before deciding on the correct action.
Contrary to what he had been expecting, the armor did not try to block the incoming spear directed straight to its waist. Although Cao Yun did not know what metal was composing this armor, he knew that his current attack was enough to cut a late Mortal in half. Yet the armor had done no effort to try to block or even dodge.
Instead, it pushed its own spear forward, only keeping one hand holding the very butt of the spear. And with its other arm, it created some momentum. The armor literally jumped over Cao Yun's 'Scales Under the Waterfall'. In his jump, its spear stayed perfectly still. It was as if the spear was stabbed in a wall and was used by the armor to help him jump. Of course, it was just holding it in place while jumping. That amount of agility for a metallic armor impressed Cao Yun.
But he had no time to be impressed right now, as the armor was not done with its attack. Because of the strength Cao Yun had put into his own spear, it took him a bit too much time to stop it. Even though he was not unbalanced by it, it still delayed him enough to put him in danger. As the armor was coming back toward the ground, it used its momentum to try and slash down toward Cao Yun. Right now, its spear was almost used like a staff.