As soon as he entered the young demon's sea of consciousness, Dian Mo realized he had been successful. There was a thick odor of death. His Evil Qi had consumed everything. Now, he just had to fuse himself with this sea of consciousness and he would completely control his body. But he had to be quick because others were clearly on their way. He did not know who they were. But he could feel that some of them were using Evil Qi as well. Perhaps they were just like this young demon. It was possible they were allies of this Cao Yun.
Anyway, as long as he could take over this body, he could kill them without any problem. Although their cultivation seemed to be stronger at first glance, they were all very exhausted. And this young demon's body was just incredible. His bloodline was almost as pure as Da Mo's and his physique had almost exceeded what a Golden Blood Child could do. At the same time, he had been able to mimic the cultivation of a human. Dian Mo was really curious as to how he had done so and where he had found this bloodline. Because, for sure, it had not appeared out of nowhere.
If he had kept the boy's soul to extract all of those, it would have been easier. But since he had many weird things in him, Dian Mo had preferred to be extremely cautious. Losing a bit of time was not a problem, but falling into a trap would be.
After killing the intruders with this new body, Dian Mo could stay cooped up in his Demon Palace. For another seven years, it would be inaccessible. And in that time, he would be able to train. There were a few other realms created by Da Mo and his servants in the Demon Palace. And he knew exactly how to get the best out of each one of them. In a mere seven years, he would reach the Accomplished Demon realm. In fact, because he was a spirit and this realm consisted in training one's soul, he would easily get through it and would reach the Exalted Demon realm. Even with all his treasures, he would probably be unable to get all the way through to the last grade, but he would at least become a middle Exalted Demon. With such a cultivation, this Piaolu planet would tremble in front of him. At least, it would be the case if what this young boy had told him was true.
Just to be sure, he could stay in seclusion for several cycles of seven years. As he was thinking about that, he realized that even after finding a way out of his prison, he was just going to stay inside of it for decades. But then, how powerful should he get before he would feel alright leaving this prison? It really was a safe haven, but it undoubtedly was a prison as well.
At last, Dian Mo felt he had found the center of the destroyed sea of consciousness. He just had to spread his soul all around and take over. Rebuilding it would take some time but it was no problem at all.
When he tried to take over though, something completely outside of his expectations happened. The aura of death all over the place completely disappeared. He saw that the world around him had been covered in thick layers of ashes. They also started to dissolve. Dian Mo was a large ball of light. Above him appeared the Drop of Wrath and around it the Five Agents. Before the seven stars could appear in the sky, Dian Mo tried to run away.
Although he was confident in destroying a junior's soul, this sudden change had startled him. If Cao Yun had been able to hide his entire soul to his senses, he was not a normal demon at all. Demons were usually rather weak when it came to soul and mind. They could have terrifying wills yes, but they were usually unable to use their souls as well as humans did. Demons excelled in physical traits while humans were average in terms of both physique and soul.
It dawned on Dian Mo that this boy had been able to imitate a human cultivation. Maybe he had also trained his soul with some unique technique.
Before he could escape though, Dian Mo collided with some strange invisible wall. Looking around, he saw several needle-like peaks. They had emerged from the water down below. And they were raised toward the sky as pillars or as fingers. Yes, it seemed to be a strange hand with nine fingers made of black rock. Each one was a different size. And they also had particular engravings in them.
Dian Mo tried to read them but he was unable to do so. Those were Insight Writings but even Dian Mo could not decipher because they were not yet complete. And even then, they were referring to Cao Yun's own soul. Apart from him, no one on the Piaolu planet would be able to read those strange engravings. For most people, they would just look like random furrows in the rock. For soul experts, they would indeed look like very bizarre characters. But Cao Yun could change their aspect at will. No one, not even after invading his sea of consciousness, could read them without his permission.
Those were the results of his 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks' cultivation. The second layer, 'Climb the Nine Peaks', consisted in energizing the nine chambers of the Upper Dantian to then seal the Seven Turbid Demons in them. As soon as Cao Yun had energized his Chamber of Mysterious Elixir, his entire Upper Dantian had materialized in his own sea of consciousness in the form of those pillars. As such, each one was a representation of a part of his psyche. His mind and his soul had been through a lot recently. Maybe it would be time for him to slow down a little. After all, the next phase of his mind cultivation would take between two to three years by Turbid Demon. He would need to subdue the seven of them, so it would take anywhere between ten to twenty years to finally accomplish the third layer, 'Subdue the Seven Demons'.
For now though, Cao Yun was going to try this new mind cultivation on Dian Mo. As a last resort, he could always use the Drop of Wrath. If he did, Dian Mo would be crushed in an instant. But Cao Yun wanted to see how far he could go without using it. Because he wanted to keep Dian Mo alive to get information, he would rather not show all his cards right now.
"You...! You dare try and trap me?!"
"Since you dared invade my soul to destroy it so that you could take over my body... yes, I dare."
"Little boy, you don't know who you're dealing with. I tried to give you a painless death, but you're forcing my hand!"
"A painless death?! Being devoured by Evil Qi from within one's soul doesn't strike me as being painless... But be my guest since you've invited yourself without my permission. Try your worst!"
"You...!"
The ball of light changed. It took on the form of the Demon Palace itself. It grew and grew and grew again. In Dian Mo's eyes, he was as big as a real palace. However, in Cao Yun's eyes, he was still just as small, forever trapped inside his Nine Soul Peaks. Finally, Dian Mo realized that himself. No matter how large he thought he was becoming, it was as though the world around him was increasing in size as well, just to match him. Of course, they were in a world of soul, so all of that was mere perception. However, that meant that Cao Yun's soul, or rather his mind cultivation, was powerful enough to suppress Dian Mo.
As a pure spirit, the idea of being subdued by a junior who had not even formed his Demon Soul seemed ridiculous. He could sense an ominous power from the drop of blood towering above him. Yet, the boy had not used it and he was still being suppressed. That wasn't something he could easily accept.
From his entrance, thousands of weapons leapt out. Each one was stranger than the next. Even Cao Yun saw weapons he had never even thought could exist. Many did not seem practical at all. Most likely, they were either ceremonial weapons, or just mental representations. All of them went toward a singular pillar. When they collided with it, Cao Yun felt a sharp pain in his head. It was as though someone had stabbed him right in the back of his skull. It came from his Chamber of Jade. Indeed, the pillar struck by Dian Mo was linked to his Chamber of Jade.
Activating his mind cultivation, his Zhi the Water Will in particular, Cao Yun tried to resist. The flames from his Shen turned Zhi into liquid metal that went around the pillar under attack. However, it didn't really slow down the attack. It only slightly reduced the pain. But it was propagating, albeit with less intensity.
"Boy, you're no match for a pure spirit. I have to admit your mind is indeed impressive for a youngling. But you just tried to reach higher than you could. In front of me, all your tricks are meaningless. If you submit to me right now, I can find it in me to let you live. I'll keep you as a pet once I've devoured your sea of consciousness. And maybe I won't torture you too often. What say you?"
"It pains me to admit that you are indeed right..."
"What?!"
Even Dian Mo was surprised. Was this going to be this easy?
Suddenly, he understood that this momentary naiveté would be crushed. The Drop of Wrath woke up. Cao Yun had kept some ashes in it to hide some of its most terrifying powers. But clearly, his mind cultivation was still too weak to fight against an invading spirit. For Cao Yun, it was hard to say for sure, but Dian Mo's spirit seemed to be on par with Xiao Xuefeng's Soul Embryo. Because she knew more techniques and had been practicing in real life for a long time, she was probably better. But Dian Mo had more raw power. If he had had more practice instead of being trapped in this array formation, he would have exceeded her by a large margin. But even then, against the Drop of Wrath, he had no chance.
From the Drop of Wrath, a giant red arm appeared. It descended toward Dian Mo. This was Axiu Qian's arm. From Dian Mo's point of view, it looked as though the sky was crashing down on him. He was still trapped within the Nine Soul Peaks and this red hand was falling down from above, covering the entire surface of his new prison. Down below, the water was also reflecting this giant hand. For Dian Mo there was nowhere to run. At first, he tried to direct his weapons toward the hand but they were all burned to cinders before they could even touch the red skin.
Then, Dian Mo focused on trying to destroy the peaks. If he could, he still had a chance of escaping. Although he could not fight that thing, he could run away. The boy's mind was not powerful enough to trap him. Only this thing had this kind of strength. And it was likely that the boy would be unable to let that thing out of his own body. As long as Dian Mo could escape from his sea of consciousness, he could attack Cao Yun's soul again. This time, he would risk damaging his body some more. He had several ways to heal the injuries even on a corpse. There would be some risks for him later on, but fewer than right now.
At worst, he could let go of this body and try to possess one of the intruders. There was no way they were as dangerous as the boy. But they wouldn't be as interesting to possess either. Hopefully, those who were using Evil Qi were really demons in disguise like Cao Yun. Dian Mo had still not discovered that the young demon was in fact a young human using this drop of blood to pass off as a demon, and not the other way around.
It became a race against time.
The Drop of Wrath had evolved since Cao Yun had gotten it and it was almost totally under his control. Soon, it would really be. But for now, this level of control was enough for his purposes. The hand closed itself around Dian Mo and squeezed. The Demon Palace started to catch on fire. Screeches of pain echoed throughout Cao Yun's sea of consciousness. In a matter of seconds, Dian Mo reverted to a ball of light. Then, Axiu Qian's hand slammed it against one of the pillars, the one representing the Chamber of Heavenly Court. This chamber had amplified Cao Yun's will and it would do so once again.
The liquid metal from Zhi the Water Will slowly encircled both the dot of light and the pillar of rock. It turned into chains. From Axiu Qian's hand, flames and blood erupted and reinforced the iron of the chain. For Dian Mo, this was incredibly painful. This new prison would not be as enjoyable as the last one. And there was no doubt about this, this was his new prison. Against the boy's will, he could do something, but with the strange drop of blood added into the mix, he was unable to get out of this.
This blood belonged to someone who had at least become an Immortal Demon. Besides, the chain that was keeping him captive was akin to the chains used to trap a Demon Soul. However, this boy had probably not the slightest idea what those were since his cultivation was so weak. That being said, now Dian Mo understood where his bloodline was coming from. Even Da Mo had not reached the stage of Immortal Demon. If this boy had found the legacy of such a character, even a tiny fraction of his blood would have been incredible for him.
Even trapped under those conditions, Dian Mo was salivating. If only he could get some of that blood, with time, he might even be able to create his own body. But he could not win in a direct confrontation. His only hope was that Cao Yun was not fully in control of that blood and that he would be naive enough to trust him. Dian Mo had a lot of information that could be useful. And he was still the master of the Demon Palace.
Although the situation was delicate, he could still try and finesse his way out. But he would need to think about the long term. After trying to break free for some time, Dian Mo fully realized this new idea was the way to go and he stopped moving around, wasting his efforts. Instead, he used his efforts on something else.