With everything prepared, Cao Yun was ready to attempt the complete breakthrough. It would take him several hours or even days. Although he was in a hurry not to die in this place, he was trying to be as careful as possible. To reach the 3rd-grade Mortal Warrior stage, he needed this small lotus to fully bloom without a single tear on any of the petals.
This image of a hundred petaled lotus was entirely in his mind. But in the physical world, it was perfectly linked to his real Bai Hui. The Bai Hui was called the Gate of the Hundred Convergences because many meridians and vessels were joined there. It also had many purposes during Qi cultivation. But the number hundred was a figure of speech. In fact, there were probably fewer meridians even if one counted every single little meridians joining with the Bai Hui.
Considering how delicate it was, damaging this Bai Hui was unfortunately very easy. Thankfully, Cao Yun had a very firm basis for his cultivation. He had an incredible sensation in all of his acupoints and his every cells. However, success was everything but assured. And even then, he wouldn't be out of the woods yet. After breaking through, he would need to start absorbing Fire Qi even if just to keep up appearances with Dian Mo. For now, he was certain that the Palace Spirit maybe didn't think of him as a demon but at least had doubts. And he could also explain any similarity with human cultivation because he had been disguised as one. That wasn't very convincing to be honest. But now Cao Yun was confident Dian Mo had something nefarious in mind for him.
For the time being, Cao Yun was just trying to stall in order to find out the treasure the demonic cultivators were after. Thanks to his mind cultivation, Cao Yun was hoping he could surprise Dian Mo when he would do whatever it was he had in mind. All of those thoughts were in the back of his mind. But right now, Cao Yun was not even aware of them. As a matter of fact, he did not even remember Dian Mo. He did not even remember his own name.
In order to increase his chances of success, his entire mind was focused on this singular task. There was room for nothing else. Thanks to his recent enlightenments about the nature of one's self, his mind had become stronger. Without his mind cultivation, he could have suffered a terrible blow. And to be honest, he was still processing what it meant to be his own self. But for now, it had only been positive. Anyway, he had not the luxury of pondering about this for now. He was trying not to burn off his Upper Dantian while trying to dupe a several millenniums old array formation spirit created by Demon God Da Mo, the one who had enslaved mankind. It was nothing much...
Slowly, the petals were opening up. Each one had been imbued with blood. More than half of Cao Yun's blood had been condensed at the summit of his skull. The rest of his blood was protecting him from the heat with his Qi accelerated by 'Dragon's Heart'.
As the process was happening, Cao Yun could feel that his very soul was scared. It was cowering away from the intense heat. Because his mind was so sensitive, he was able to feel it and tried to slow down as much as possible while keeping the balance of Water and Fire Qi. If his soul was afraid, it was clearly a bad sign. Each time a petal was shaking, Cao Yun had the feeling it was about to tear. Even while doing alchemy, he had never had anything so delicate between his hands.
This Bai Hui was not so delicate, but the method used to open it was incredibly forceful. Sadly, Cao Yun had no time to think of a better solution. Thus, he tried to make it as easy as possible on his own Bai Hui. In that moment, he was even disconnected from the feeling that this was his. It was as though he was forging a pill. Otherwise, he would have become too worried. And he had completely pushed all those feelings aside to stay perfectly focused. Usually he wouldn't have but it was an emergency.
For now, only seven petals had been opened. The process was excruciatingly painful. If he hadn't taken all those precautions, Cao Yun would have had no chance of completing it. He had broken through around three months ago. For an average cultivator, finally opening the Bai Hui could take from two to three years. Even for an alchemist, it was generally around a year or two. Maybe Mei Hua could do so in less than ten months thanks to pills and to her master's help. But doing so in three months was very reckless. The Bai Hui was extremely sensitive and absolutely essential for the rest of one's journey through cultivation.
-
Sun Liao was also attempting something very delicate. He had set up flags all around himself to increase his martial arts. It was a new form of the Sun Blazing Cannon array formation he had already used. Even with his new 'Heavenly Mirror Longbow', he could not create array formations of the Human rank yet. However, he had almost reached this grade by improving his Sun Blazing Cannon. After using it in the Lunar Marsh, he had gotten enough experience to make it more powerful. Right now, he was trying to focus the entirety of this power in a single arrow. His goal was just to create a hole in the storm wall in front of him. Considering his speed, he really only needed a second or two to cross through the complete storm.
As he was setting everything up, he thought back to those Mortal Warriors. Even with their injuries, they had probably been able to go through this wall without too much problem. Now, they had certainly regrouped with their comrades and his own friends were in danger. In fact, Cao Yun was mostly worried about Ren Chao. And it wasn't because he thought he was the weakest of the group. Yes his cultivation was weak but his physique was just out of this world. If he had improved even a tiny bit, he was probably able to rip apart Qi Manifestation with his bare hands. Thinking about his brother, he remembered how he had fought in Yinmen City. Ren Chao would fight until every bone in his body was broken, and some more.
Thankfully, his bones were now way sturdier. However, it wouldn't amount too much against several Mortal Warriors at the same time. Besides, they were using Evil Qi that could corrode his flesh, his Qi and even his soul. No matter how resistant his will was, his body would give in. In fact, Sun Liao was convinced his friend would keep fighting even if his body had fallen apart. But he didn't want to see it happen.
Finally, the array formation was done. Sun Liao waited for a moment of weakness in the storm wall. As soon as it occurred, he shot his arrow without any hesitation. Once again it took the form of a Longma carrying a cart. But it was way more vivid now. Someone who didn't know what it was would have not guessed right away, but it did look like a burly horse pulling something.
This time, the Qi Manifestation did not collapse upon colliding with the storm wall. From the flags all around Sun Liao, lightning bolts emerged. Slowly, a small ball of fire was created above the vague cart. The Longma was desperately trying to go through the storm wall. His ethereal muscles were literally tearing apart. Then, Cao Yun fired a second arrow. It collided with the first one and the storm wall gave way.
For an instant, Sun Liao saw the outside of the storm wall. Immediately, he activated his movement technique.
"Seven points passed".
Although he could only manifest Qi with the first three verses, he could use all nine verses from the 'Houyi's Nine Suns'. There was also a tenth verse, contrary to the name of the martial art. But he still hadn't mastered it yet.
Sun Liao disappeared from where he was, leaving the flags behind him. His figure went through the storm wall. Just as he was about to emerge from the other side, the storm wall closed up once more. As it did, Sun Liao's right leg was crushed under an intense pressure. The wind almost tore his limb apart. Then, he felt lightning course through his muscles and nerves. Sun Liao was almost swallowed up by the storm. Pushing his cultivation to the limit, he tried shooting at the wall behind him as he was being dragged all over the place.
"Three Lights in Its Claws"!
Three arrows exploded upon contact with the wall. The shockwave barely produced any vibration on this wall of wind and thunder. On the other hand, Sun Liao was projected way beyond the distance he would have been comfortable with.
His body fell down to the ground. As much as he tried, several of his articulations were broken. Thankfully, he had the presence of mind of retracting his bow within his own sea of consciousness. Thus it wasn't broken. Although a spiritual weapon was a powerful tool, it was also incredibly difficult to repair. It was like repairing one's soul in fact.
Ignoring the pain, Sun Liao sat up. Searching through his robe, he found with pleasure that his compass had not been broken. He needed it to locate his friends. For that, he had two trump cards. The first one was that he remembered their Qi. Each individual had a unique Qi signature. Although he wasn't very sensitive to Qi because he wasn't a Mortal Warrior yet, Sun Liao was an array formation master. As such, he was very attuned to all the subtleties of Qi, even though his perception was limited in scope. The other tool was the Supreme emblem.
Just like Mo Zi who was using the blood runes to find the other demonic cultivators, Sun Liao was using his memories of his friends as well as the Supreme emblem to find Ren Chao, Mei Hua and Cao Yun. The Supreme emblem could help him take it toward anyone who had one, but with the particular Qi signatures he had in mind, he would be able to get a rough idea of whether the person found was one of his friends or not. It wouldn't be one hundred percent accurate, but he had no other choice right now.
-
In the lava pool, Cao Yun had finally opened ninety-eight petals. He was exhausted but he couldn't stop now. If he did, he would have to start all over again. Because he had forced the opening of the petals, this wouldn't be very stable. Along the process he had realized that all of his efforts would be fruitless if he were to stop before the end. But as long as he could fully open it, it would stay open. In a sense, it was like a door pushed by an intense pressure. If he stopped trying to open it before it was fully open, the pressure would close it completely again.
On the outside, his skin had begun to burn. The pain would have killed a mere mortal. Even a late Mortal would have had a hard time resisting it. he wouldn't have died right away but he would have been unable to focus on anything else. As a 2nd-grade Mortal Warrior, Cao Yun was way more resistant, especially with his special blood and his physique cultivation. But that didn't mean he was invulnerable.
The heat and the pain were really starting to weigh him down. But he was still able to slowly open the ninety-ninth petal. Right now, there was still one petal standing toward the sky. All the others had been delicately opened. The hundred-petaled lotus was almost complete. It was now imbued with blood and flames. In each petal one could see the flow of the blood with tiny fires here and there. If Cao Yun were to lose control over the Fire Qi, the lotus could completely burn away.
Thankfully, he was still in control. But his breathing was now rugged. The Qi and blood protecting him were concentrated around his vitals organs and in his limbs. He was instinctively protecting everything he couldn't heal. Losing a limb was not something even a Spirit Warrior could heal easily. However, repairing skin and even a bit of muscles or bones were all feasible. They were not easy or painless, but Cao Yun had realized himself that the Drop of Wrath had also impressive regenerative powers. After all, it had preserved even the degraded Po of Axiu Qian and was now trying to reform it. If it could regrow a corporeal soul, it could certainly help regrow a body. But Cao Yun was not in a hurry to try and see whether it could regrow limbs...
It was the last bit of effort before his breakthrough. Slowly, Cao yun tried to bend this last petal. At first it went well. But at the moment where he was the most vulnerable, the current of the lava suddenly shifted. It was the worst timing possible. In the physical world, it was as though the lava was lashing out toward Cao Yun. Within the lava pool itself, there were tongues of fires licking his burned flesh.
With his body in turmoil, his mind also got weakened. Suddenly, the last petal was ripped in two. And immediately after, flames started to grow from this petal. They were going to spread to all the other petals if Cao yun did not take actions right away.
The only solution he found out was probably the worst but he had no time to philosophize about this. Inaction would mean death. Thus, he completely extinguished the fire by ripping away the last petal. The feeling was like tearing apart one's own limb. Although he should have been full of regret, Cao Yun had pushed all his emotions aside for this breakthrough.
Unfortunately, all his efforts were now fruitless. Worse than that, he had damaged his physical body beyond repair. The Bai Hui had suffered great damage. Now, his cultivation would be slowed down. In fact, he could even be blocked at the Mortal Warrior realm if it was worse than what he was seeing right now. Thankfully, because his emotions were in check, he kept calm and the damage did not spread. The fire was under control and all the ninety-nine other petals were safe. However, missing even one petal meant total failure.