In the Demon Palace, all hell broke loose. When Mo Zi sent his blood needle away, it pierced through the roof and even through the void around it. Once he was done, he could finally join the battle. All the blood runes returned to the demonic cultivators.
Mo Zi was both the most powerful and the most vigorous right now. From his spatial ring, he took out another array formation plate. Sun Liao did not see right away what this was but he knew that this was bad news. As such, he immediately directed all of his arrows toward Mo Zi. Unfortunately, his blood runes were now operating under his control again. Since he didn't need to control the blood needle, he could use all his blood runes to stop any incoming attack.
Several birds of fire exploded against his defense without any effect at all. Even their light was devoured by the red blood.
From the plate, a powerful energy erupted. Then, Sun Liao recognized what this array formation was. This wasn't as bad as he had thought because it was a 2-star Human array formation. But it was still rather bad. Indeed, it was the Eightfold Torrents array formation. Anyone within this array formation who wasn't chosen by its maker would be tormented by increasingly more devastating waves of energy.
It was not considered too powerful because it needed time to gain momentum. But once it had, it could kill anyone under Spirit Warrior. Right now, not even Ren Chao or Cao Yun would be able to survive this. And Sun Liao was not sure he could break it once fully activated. Thus, he had to break it before it came down to that.
Luckily, the activation of an array formation plate did take some time. However, disturbing it enough to destroy the array formation was anything but easy. Without any time to use a compass, Sun Liao used his mind cultivation to imagine many scenarios in his sea of consciousness. Unfortunately, he had not energized the Chamber of Heavenly Court and he could not think as fast as Cao Yun. But he remained a genius of array formations, trained by Chief Elder Suxian himself.
Now that his pride as an array formation master was on the line, as well as the lives of his friends of course, he was fired up.
Several arrows went toward specific locations as the array formation was spreading around Mo Zi. In theory, an array formation consisted in placing peculiar objects, often flags, to control the flow of what was often referred to as Wandering Qi. But a plate was a bit different. It contained the pattern of the array and was trying to force it on the world around. As such, it was less stable, but almost anyone could activate it without too much knowledge.
And Sun Liao had just targeted every weakness he had identified. Even with his degree of mastery, he had not identified them all but he knew this Eightfold Torrents enough to make its activation a challenge.
Indeed, Mo Zi immediately felt that someone was messing with his array formation. Unfortunately, he was also a master, and he was a Mortal Warrior. So he felt how the Qi around him was reacting. Thus he began to alter the plate as he was still attempting to activate it. This was incredibly difficult but he was doing it. And worse than that, he was succeeding. But he was now fully focused on this task.
In fact, Mo Zi and Sun Liao got locked into a fight of array formations. The world around them turned into a Go board. And they were now putting their stones at the same time to try and block their opponent. Each move of Sun Liao was countered by Mo Zi. But by the time he countered it, other areas had been destabilized.
Amidst this violent but invisible battle of wits, Ren Chao was still fighting Neng Lue. Now that she had recovered her blood runes, she had regained some of her stamina. The two of them were evenly matched in terms of strength. But this infuriated the burly woman. Indeed, she was a Mortal Warrior while the boy in front of her was barely a late Mortal. He had only reached the 7th-grade Mortal stage very recently. Still, this was impressive considering that he had been a 5th-grade Mortal before entering the Palace of Supreme Wisdom. On the other hand, Neng Lue was convinced she could become a Spirit Warrior in less than ten years.
Despite this disparity in cultivation, Ren Chao had an insane amount of pure physical strength. In fact, he had even beaten Cao Yun before he had become a Mortal Warrior, even while he was using 'Dragon's Heart'. His physique was really showing all its potential.
Their respective martial arts were very rudimentary. In fact, they were literally wrestling right now. Ren Chao's hammer was stuck in the ground after a powerful attack. And Neng Lue was currently trying to strangulate him with her large arms. Since she was behind him, he struck her with his elbows again and again. Neng Lue was trying to control her Qi but each strike was so powerful they went right through her Wei Qi and disturbed the flow of Qi within her. She could barely circulate the blood runes within to increase her strength.
While those two duos were stuck in battle, Mei Hua had been able to fully help Cao Yun heal. It was time because the last demonic cultivator and Wang Jinhua were now free to act since Sun Liao was focusing his arrows on Mo Zi's array formation and they had gotten their blood runes back. To be honest, Wang Jinhua was not a threat at all for Cao Yun because she was still extremely weak. However, he would never underestimate a demonic cultivator. She could have strange techniques or she could dabble in poisons. Even though he was an alchemist and he had the talented Mei Hua on his side, he would not be reckless with his enemies.
Cao Yun had just recovered. And as soon as he tried to use his senses, he felt an intense pain in his very soul. His Bai Hui was acting up. No matter what his Drop of Wrath had done to it, it had not fully recovered. Besides, Dian Mo had also gone through it to invade his sea of consciousness. As such, it had been damaged even further. But Cao Yun could not dwell on his worries right now. Whether his Bai Hui would be healed or not, he had to fight and survive to find out later.
Thanks to the time he had spent inside the tests, Cao Yun had developed his martial arts and his Martial Aura. Even without taking his spear out, an oppressive atmosphere surrounded him. He had toned it down a little but this was the killing intent he had acquired while slaughtering all those blood beasts. Even if he had pushed it to the maximum, it would not have been as powerful and oppressive as in that realm. After all, it had been born by the fury and blood-thirst of billions of never-ending blood beasts massacring each other for eons. But Cao Yun had been able to duplicate a small part of it by plunging into the massacres himself.
Before, he was a martial artist, now he was truly a killer. In less than two months, he had killed more than even all the demonic cultivators in front of him during all their life. Of course the beasts he had killed always came back to life just for him to kill them again and again. So he had an advantage on them. Also, he didn't torture them for unholy purposes. He had learned to kill with the necessary violence and brutality, nothing more.
With the intent of the Drop of Wrath added to the mix, his aura was indeed terrifying for his enemies. Wang Jinhua who was still rather weak literally fell to the ground, her knees giving way below her. The other man though used his blood runes to strengthen his resolve. A few of them entered his body and protected some acupoints to seal his perception. In a sense, he was making himself blind to this killing aura. Hopefully, it wouldn't help him against Cao Yun's improved Spear Aura. Thus, Cao Yun got his weapon out and took his stance. It appeared as though he was holding a giant spear made of dragon scales.
From his spatial ring, that pale man took out a spear. It was completely dark, as though it was charred. But it remained incredibly sturdy and vibrant. There were also red lines forming ominous patterns all over the shaft. They went all the way to the spearhead. There, those lines looked like fresh blood. It was as though this spear was always covered in the blood of those it had killed. Also, that spear was even a bit taller than Cao Yun's 'Nine Chi Black Dragon Spear'. It had to be between ten to eleven chi tall.
More than all that, Cao Yun felt his own spear react. To be more accurate, the scale of the Ebony Snake Dragon was reacting to this spear. It was both fearful and hateful toward it. As he felt his spear starting to shake, Cao Yun circulated all his seven stars. He had finally formed them all and only needed a tiny bit of push to perform the very last move of the Winnowing Basket Star. Once he had done that, he would officially enter the second layer of his martial art, turning each star into its own constellation.
With the stars activated, the shape of a blurry Azure Dragon appeared in the sky within Cao Yun's sea of consciousness. Below it, Dian Mo was still chained down to one of the Nine Soul Peaks. And he was admiring the show. Contrary to Cao Yun, he had understood what was going on with his spear and why it had reacted that way to the enemy's weapon. But he had no reason to say anything for now. Dian Mo had been able to resist millenniums of isolation that would have driven many insane. Right now, he was biding his time. After seeing Mo Zi send the drop of Demon God Da Mo's blood away, he had almost understood what was going on. And if he was right, this Cao Yun would be forced to make a pact with him or everyone he knew would die in agony.
For now though, he wanted Cao Yun to suffer a little. A bit of pain and anguish would serve him right. As long as Cao Yun did not die, Dian Mo didn't really care for him. Strangely though, he didn't hate him, because in a sense, without Cao Yun, Dian Mo would have had no chance of leaving his prison. The other demonic cultivators were clearly only humans. Their blood runes were a modified version of a more powerful blood cultivation used by demons. Although it wasn't great, Dian Mo was still impressed that a human had been able to adapt this method for other humans to use. But it was still paling in comparison with the real method. And those humans were barely able to use those blood runes. If they had known what they were doing, Cao Yun's friends would have been dead already. That was really pathetic...
Cao Yun was now fully prepared. Although he had reached the 3rd-grade Mortal Warrior stage, he had just sealed his own Bai Hui with 'Ashen Feather Seal'. Right now, it was too fragile for him to use in battle. Only if he had no other choice would he do it. Besides, it could give an opportunity to Dian Mo. He couldn't wait for Xiao Xuefeng to rip him away from his soul and get all of his secrets out.
In the current situation however, Cao Yun was forced to focus most of his attention on the man in front of him. He was pale with dark green eyes. Despite his disheveled clothes, he had no visible muscle to speak of. That man seemed so frail a strong wind could have pushed him down. However, with his spear in hand, he gave off a completely different impression. And considering Cao Yun's current mastery, he could tell that this man had almost reached the level of Spear Intent, but wasn't quite there yet.
'Mingshe Sings in the Mine'.
All of a sudden, his spear moved. It slithered toward Cao Yun as a snake. And behind the pale man, four wings made of scales appeared. Each scale was made of precious ores, there was gold, copper, bronze, platinum, silver, even jade. Despite the wings behind him, the pale man could not fly yet as he was not a Spirit Warrior. But right now, Cao Yun realized that he was a 6th-grade Mortal Warrior. Because his Bai Hui was damaged, he had not been able to correctly identify his cultivation. He was three grades above him. And although he was tired, the man was not as wounded as Cao Yun was. This fight would not go in his favor.
From the very movement of the spear, a strong whistle echoed. The moment Cao Yun heard it, his body began to shake uncontrollably. Before he could try to regain his ability to move, another melody cut through this whistle. Mei Hua was still helping Cao Yun.
Just as he had regained the ability to move freely, Cao Yun saw the spear in front of his throat. The spearhead now looked like the head of a giant snake that was covered in both fresh and coagulated blood, both from recent and past victims.
'The Son of Heaven's Spear and Shield'!
His Wei Qi gathered at the point of impact. It turned into a dragon scale. All the force of the impact went through it. And as the scale was vibrating, Cao Yun span around. The pale man's spear grazed his neck. Then, the Azure Dragon's scale went toward Cao Yun's spear. Using both his own momentum and the force of his opponent's attack, Cao Yun struck toward him.
The scale went toward 'Nine Chi Black Dragon Spear''s spearhead. With Cao Yun's Spear Aura, the spear also looked like it was as long as the entire Demon Palace. The pale man felt as though it had already stabbed through his heart.
'Coiled in Gold'.
One of his four wings folded. Despite all the strength behind Cao Yun's attack who had even used 'Dragon's Heart' at the last moment, it got completely blocked by the golden scales of this wing. His attack only cracked a few scales on this precious wing.
Behind him, Cao Yun felt the bloody spear come back for more. It was exactly as though it was a snake. In reality, the spear itself was not contorting but the mix of Qi Manifestation and Spear Aura was producing very strange phenomena. As such, although the shaft of the spear was still next to Cao Yun, the spearhead was going straight for the back of his head.