Dian Mo was trapped within his Demon Palace. Since Da Mo had tried to eradicate the true spirit of the Palace of Supreme Wisdom, Dian Mo had been there. The attempt had failed but the spirit had lost any form of consciousness. Thus, Dian Mo was the only one who could really be called a spirit. However, he had almost no control over what was going on inside the Palace of Supreme Wisdom. The same could not be said about his own Demon Palace. After tricking the young demon he thought Cao Yun was into getting inside, he had been able to send him into tests created by Dian Mo himself.
Those tests were not just meant to train young demons, Dian Mo had found innovative ways of using them. And soon he would finally test his hypothesis. Cao Yun had fared way better than he had thought against the blood beasts but this was a good thing. After all, it showed him that he was indeed a demon although he had used some strange method to imitate the cultivation of humans. No human would have survived the bloodline of a true demon coursing through their veins. In fact, seeing that Cao Yun had what looked like a perfect imitation of the Qi system of a human was a nice surprise as well. This body was great! And after seeing him deal with the beasts, Dian Mo realized he had not even needed to try and purify his bloodline.
The realm of the beasts was supposed to help a young demon develop the purity of his blood rather than advance his cultivation. But Cao Yun already had an impressive bloodline. Dian Mo himself was in awe. It pained him to admit that it was almost as pure as Da Mo's bloodline. At least, the Palace Spirit had never seen any other demon with such a powerful bloodline. This was good news for him but it could also be a complication.
Thankfully, the pool of lava was there to make sure this wouldn't be a problem. Dian Mo didn't want to kill Cao Yun just yet. And he certainly did not want to incinerate him whole. After all, he really desired his body. Besides, he clearly had several treasures on him.
Just as he had not really trusted Cao Yun, Dian Mo knew the young demon would not trust him. In fact, it was obvious that he was hiding things from him. And Dian Mo would not let go of his greatest treasure even for someone who could go through all the tests. Thankfully, those tests specially created by Da Mo were completely under his control. As such, he could even intensify the heat from the lava at a crucial moment. Although he could not see through Cao Yun's body and soul, Dian Mo had been able to find the perfect moment to strike.
Then, he could see Cao Yun slowly losing consciousness as the lava was burning his body layer by layer.
Just before Cao Yun was about to die, Dian Mo decided to transport him elsewhere. In fact, he brought him back into the Demon Palace.
Right now, Cao Yun's charred body was in suspension in the air. After his experience in the lava pool, Dian Mo was convinced that this boy was on the verge of death and had lost consciousness. But he was still not ready to take any risk, not when he was so close to his goal. There would never be a second chance like this one.
"Boy, I do not know if you can hear me. But I assure you I have no enmity against you. You see, the problem is that I was trapped in here since I was born. You can imagine how frustrating it is. Besides I have almost no power. And since the demons stopped using this facility, I am truly alone and forgotten. If you could just put yourself in my place, you would realize that you would have done the same thing as I'm about to do. It is a pity that it happened to such a nice young demon, but I can't really use a human body...
"However, I swear that when I take over your body and destroy your soul, I will make your dreams come true. The humans will bow down before the might of the demons once more. But this time they will not beg Demon God Da Mo but Demon Spirit Dian Mo. And I'll learn from the mistakes of my creator. I won't show any bit of leniency to the humans. Only the Mortals and mere mortals will survive my cleansing. Then I'll just need to destroy the Five Prodigious Gates of any newborn. Mankind will be our slaves for all eternity. So you see, at least your dream will come true. And in a sense, it will really be thanks to you. You should feel honored."
Dian Mo was mostly talking to himself, perhaps because of the time he had spent in isolation.
"I'd really like to keep your soul intact, but I don't think that that's such a good idea. Firstly you would suffer the same fate I did. But more importantly, I do not wish to have an enemy within myself. Once again, I am very sorry it had to come down to this. Well... I'm not really sorry, but... well, you can't hear me anyway. So let's get started.
"If by any chance you can understand what's going on around you however, I'm about to purge your soul from your body. No hard feeling, right?"
Then, several torches began to burn all over the Demon Palace. Now that Dian Mo was not hiding anything, the architecture had reverted to one that was closer to what humans knew. Like many things in the current human culture, architecture had also been inspired by what demons had done and not the other way around. So it wasn't a surprise that this palace resembled the palaces of humans.
Apart from torches and Cao Yun, the palace was completely empty. However, a shadow was moving around between the flames. It was clearly unnatural. But it wasn't the Palace Spirit just yet. Dian Mo was so paranoid that he was still staying hidden. Using 'Ashen Feather Seal', Cao Yun had been able to hide that he was perfectly fine. Although his skin and some of his tissues had been burned to an alarming degree, those were wounds he knew he could heal thanks to his new blood and some alchemy. At least, he was now certain of Dian Mo's plan. From the very start, he had been going after his body. As a spirit he was bound to this place and could not leave, no matter what. But if he were to possess a body, he could.
The main problem was that as he had been created by a demon, Dian Mo was unable to possess a human body for long. Thankfully for Cao Yun, he was now utterly convinced he was a demon. Otherwise, he would have probably killed him earlier. To be honest, Cao Yun did not know whether Dian Mo could survive inside his body or not. He was not a demon but his blood was now very close to the blood of a demon. In fact, Cao Yun was wondering whether Da Mo and Axiu Qian were maybe from the same species. Unfortunately he didn't know enough about demons to be definitive. Maybe their bloodlines were just similar.
Suddenly, the shadow that was dancing around the flames started to go toward Cao Yun. Using his recently opened Bai Hui, it got inside his Upper Dantian.
Within Cao Yun's sea of consciousness, the shadow parasite was spreading. A huge cloud of black dust rose on the horizon, all around his sea of consciousness. His very mind was being besieged. That being said, this was really not a problem for Cao Yun. However, he wanted to make Dian Mo believe his soul had truly been destroyed. Only if Dian Mo entered his sea of consciousness himself could he truly vanquish him. If he were to see through Cao Yun's deception, he could probably do much worse. For now, he didn't want to hurt him too much because he was hoping to possess his body. But he could probably try and kill him before taking over. That would be dangerous in itself as well though. So as long as everything seemed to go according to plan, Dian Mo would probably not do that.
Toward this black cloud, Cao Yun had no fear. With his Drop of Wrath, he could get rid of it without any problem. But if he did that, Dian Mo would feel it. Thankfully, this black cloud was made of pure Evil Qi. And Cao Yun had learned to control it to a great extent. Now that he was a Mortal Warrior, he was confident that apart from a very powerful Spirit Warrior, no demonic cultivator could control Evil Qi as well as he could. The trick would be to control this black cloud in such a way as to make Dian Mo believe everything had been going well.
For that, he would also need to use 'Ashen Feather Seal' on his own mind and soul. This was something he had never done before. In theory, before becoming a Spirit Warrior, it was almost impossible to enter one's own sea of consciousness. But because he had, maybe Cao Yun could manifest those ashes within his own mind. In fact, he was now faced with a great amount of Evil Qi. Maybe he could use it to create some of those ashes and hide the fact that his soul had not been destroyed.
This would be very delicate. And to be honest, Cao Yun was still hurt by his previous botched breakthrough. Right now, he really wanted to take some time to investigate his own body. He would need a few weeks, or even months, to make sure that no damage remained before going forward. Although he didn't like using pills to advance his cultivation, Cao Yun would really like to take some right now. Because he was not entirely sure what had happened to his Bai Hui, he was worried about it.
That being said, he had no time to do any of it right now. For the time being, he needed to dupe a several millenniums old spirit that had been created by the Demon God Da Mo, nothing difficult...
The moment the Evil Qi entered his sea of consciousness, Cao Yun had felt his Drop of Wrath. It wanted to devour it whole. But he couldn't let it do so or he would be exposed. Right now, he needed to make a spectacle out of it. If his soul got destroyed without any resistance, it might appear suspect. Instead, he would make it look like he had fought to the bitter end with everything he had and then died.
As soon as the Evil Qi reached a certain distance, Cao Yun used the intent from the Drop of Wrath to take control over it. Because Dian Mo had refrained from getting into Cao Yun's mind, he was not able to fully sense what was going on. He had probably a very vague impression that his Evil Qi had weakened a bit, but nothing major.
Some of the Evil Qi got immediately turned into strange ashes that flew all over the place. They formed some kind of rotating dome around the Five Agents and the Drop of Wrath. It wasn't perfect but hopefully it would deceive Dian Mo long enough to make him enter Cao Yun's mind. Once he did, this would be over. Cao Yun could not imagine anything that could rival his Drop of Wrath. In fact, he was convinced that if Xiao Xuefeng herself tried to impede into his mind, she would get hurt.
As Cao Yun was focusing on this trap, he realized that his final Five Echoes Drop had been completed. Because he had almost died inside the lava, he had not really noticed. But it was floating at the center of his Five Agents. Maybe some of the Fire Qi absorbed by the Drop of Wrath had helped it form a bit faster. Or maybe it was due to his breakthrough although it had been difficult.
Seeing it floating with majesty above the ocean below, Cao Yun got an idea.
Firstly, he focused on the ashes to form an opaque dome around his Five Agents. He also used the Drop of Wrath to slow down the Evil Qi. It was now slowly spinning. His sea of consciousness was a giant black ball of rotating ashes surrounded by a storm of Evil Qi caught in its momentum.
Cao Yun could not even see the seven stars above right now. For any other cultivator, they would have been writhing in agony as of now. Thankfully, Evil Qi's corrosion had almost no hold on Cao Yun anymore. There was almost no difference for him between Qi and Evil Qi. Of course, that didn't mean that he was comfortable dealing with Evil Qi. As long as it wasn't necessary he would stay as far away as possible. He was always feeling like he was exploiting the pain and misery of his fellow cultivators. Indeed, this Evil Qi had probably come from humans, mostly, humans who had been exploited and tortured both in life and then, even in death.
Pushing those feelings aside for now, Cao Yun slowly lowered the last Five Echoes Pearl. He would have preferred to do it under other circumstances. This was supposed to be a great moment for him as he was about to finally complete the second layer of 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks'. But there was no reason to wait. This was a great way for him to deceive the Palace Spirit and it was going to make his mind and soul stronger.
The last chamber to energize was the Chamber of Mysterious Elixir. It was a chamber that was present in every Dantian as it was the name given to the core chamber of a Dantian. The Dantian were called Fields of Cinnabar because this was where the elixir of immortality was believed to be created. Each one was essential for the cultivation of immortality. Usually, the Upper Dantian would not be cultivated before the Spirit Warrior realm. In the Mortal Warrior realm, it was the Middle Dantian that was mainly used. But there was no reason not to train one's Upper Dantian, it was just too difficult to do so for young cultivators.
With his powerful mind cultivation though, this was not a problem anymore. And Cao Yun was about to energize the last chamber of his Upper Dantian. In theory, all of his nine chambers would then vibrate in harmony. And his entire Upper Dantian would become way more powerful. As such, his sea of consciousness might also evolve in some way.
Right now, Cao Yun was going into the unknown but he had prepared for it for a long time. Although some peace and quiet would have been lovely, they were not necessary for him right now.
At last, a powerful white light spread through his entire sea of consciousness. Even the Evil Qi was pierced by that light. If he had wanted to, he could have vaporized it right then. But he had to make Dian Mo fall into his trap.