Although he didn't have all the pieces of the puzzle yet, Cao Yun had a greater understanding of what had happened that fateful night. But he was also seeing his family under a completely new light. Since he had been a child, his father had always been working hard on his cultivation. Even that night, he had attempted to cross over the Lesser Tribulation. Many people in the Cao family had told him to wait. Even for his first attempt, many had pleaded with him to wait. After all, he was already considered a genius and waiting a bit more would not have had too much an impact on his progress. However, he had tried to break through as soon as possible.
Cao Yun was forced to consider that his father knew about his wife's past. It made sense.
His own mother had suffered through the same experience Cao Yun had, seeing her entire family die in front of her while she was forced to flee. She had probably been even younger than he was at the time. And she had never gotten any justice for it. Now, Cao Yun had a new family for which he had to find justice. Indeed, the Shui family was also his. And that boy she had fled with might still be alive.
His mother had suffered in silence all her life. And when she had finally recreated a family for herself, she saw it being destroyed in front of her very eyes. Her children died all around her. Although she had given her life, Cao Sheng and Cao Huiying had both died. If Cao Shui was somehow still alive, captured by that so-called Traitor, she would have no way of knowing whether her children had survived or not, but she would live with that pain. Moreover, she might even blame herself for their deaths. Cao Yun could not be sure whether she was alive or not as he didn't even know if that Traitor wanted her alive or dead. However, this ignited his feelings once more. In his heart, all the feelings from that night were renewed with a vengeance. But now he was powerful enough to do something about it.
Although Cao Yun was not a Spirit Warrior and only an early Mortal Warrior, he had reached a pinnacle most Mortal Warriors would never reach before the Lesser Tribulation. He was not the weak boy he had been back then. Besides, he had ways of protecting himself, his stealth was one, and the Spirit Condensation Barrier was another one.
Then Cao Yun thought about the fact that Xiao Xuefeng believed someone had purposefully let the information about the Shui family be known. Either this had been orchestrated by the culprits, by the Demon King's men, or by this boy who had fled with Cao Shui.
Right now, Cao Yun's plans had not changed. He would first go to Baziyun City, but he had one more thing to do there. The chances were slim but he would try to find out whether the corpses buried under the Cao monument really included his mother. He had to be sure or he would always be tormented by this doubt.
He had already wasted almost a week down there so he was impatient to leave. That being said, he still explored the tunnels. He found nothing worthy of his attention. Almost everything had been either destroyed or stolen. The 5th Imperial Brocade Guards had probably not searched very thoroughly the tunnels. They had just made sure that everyone was dead, ravaged a bit and then left as fast as they could. Most likely, they didn't want anyone to observe what they were doing here so they were a bit careless. But considering their reputation, they had truly been ruthless and no one in those tunnels had survived the assault. Only a few young cultivators had been able to escape at the beginning of the carnage.
Once he was sure that there was nothing more to find, Cao Yun destroyed all the documents he had found. After all, he had memorized them and could literally rewrite them with the exact same handwriting if need be. Then, he also wanted to destroy those tunnels. Unfortunately, he was still a bit too weak for that. Still, he found some important walls in the tunnels and broke them down. The tunnels did not cave in instantly but major parts of them were now buried. With time, the entire land would slowly fill in the tunnels. Later on, it would however be necessary to get rid of the Evil Qi lingering in the area. If left unchecked, it could last several centuries by feeding off of the demonic beasts who came too close to it.
-
On the way to Baziyun City, Dian Mo was very silent at first. But he was unable to control himself. In the end, he decided to talk about the seal inside Lang Shou's soul. Once again, he found himself playing around with Cao Yun. This was a form of training for the young man, but Dian Mo was forced to admit that this was really an entertainment for him. As much as he was taking great pleasure in this game, he was feeling indignant about this. He felt as though he was a pet his master would play with, and the worst part was that he was looking forward to it. But then, it clearly beat being trapped in the Demon Palace...
-
On the way to Baziyun City, Cao Yun kept on training his mind cultivation, his blood cultivation, his martial arts, his Spear Aura, his alchemy and his stealth. The young man had many things to work on recently. However, he did not really work on his Qi cultivation.
Several times, he did try to feel the presence of the world tree within his sea of consciousness to no avail. However, he could feel it distinctly in his Bai Hui. In fact, he was also sensing that this was spreading around his Bai Hui through his other acupoints. At some point, he would have to work on it, but he wasn't feeling any ill will within. For the time being, he was just watching how it was evolving. Nonetheless, he was remaining hesitant to really focus on his Qi cultivation. As a 3rd-grade Mortal Warrior, he had to temper his Five Prodigious Gates so that they could act in harmony. That also meant that they had to be perfectly synchronized. Right now, his Bai Hui was still weaker than the other four. And most importantly, it had a foreign element and a vitality that the other gates had not.
Thus, it would be difficult for Cao Yun to progress, even if he could overcome his worries about his Bai Hui. During a fight he could use it without too much problem. During a cultivation session though, he always felt like he was holding himself back. So, for now, he would just observe. After all, he had already too many things to work on. It was a good thing cultivators could live longer than mere mortals. As a 3rd-grade Mortal Warrior, Cao Yun's lifespan had reached half a millennium. But when he looked at all the things he had to work on and study, it felt like it was still not enough time. Even beings who could live millions of years still felt like this was not enough.
Some mortals claimed that living too long would be boring. But no matter how long one lived, they would always find out that this was too short in the end.
His mind cultivation was going smoothly. Since his time in the Wolf Head Sect though, his Po of Jing was full of memories about his mother. He had a lot of rage now that he knew what she had suffered. Strangely, it helped him focus on it more. He was able to clearly feel the distinction between this part of his Po and the other six Turbid Demons. However, this part of his cultivation would still take at least two years.
His blood cultivation was also progressing fast. After all, he had almost practiced it before with his Drop of Wrath. But it had been all over the place. Although practicing the blood cultivation of asura from the beginning would not increase his strength by much, it would solidify and stabilize his cultivation. After what had happened with his Bai Hui, he was actively searching for stability. Almost half of his organs were full of blood now. There were two steps in his current realm.
The first step consisted in feeding the five Yin organs, the Zang organs. Those were responsible for creating, transforming, regulating and storing the vital substances. Although humans and demons had different bodies, they had the same organs. The main difference was really limited to the quality of their blood and to the presence of meridians and Dantian. Those zang organs were the liver, the heart, the spleen, the lungs and the kidneys. They were reigning over Jing, Qi, blood and many other substances and fluids the body needed to function.
Because they were Yin, they could easily be nourished by the blood that was also partly Yin, in opposition to the Qi that was Yang. However, the step was still delicate because those organs were essential for life.
Then, the second step consisted in nourishing the six Yang organs, the Fu organs. Those organs were responsible for digestion, to turn food into Qi. For a cultivator those would slowly become less and less important. But in theory, a 4th-grade Blood Child had to eat almost as much as a mere mortal. Although this step was more difficult because those organs were Yang and the blood Yin, Cao Yun could easily get it done. He was not in a hurry though and wanted his Zang organs to be perfectly nourished by his blood. In a month or two, he would be done. In fact, when leaving Baziyun City, he should be a 5th-grade Blood Child.
On the other hand, his alchemy was slowly approaching a bottleneck. He needed a quiet place to really work. Some pills could take weeks to be refined to perfection. Just trying one refinement process once in a while was not enough. He had to work on the same process dozens if not hundreds of times in a row to see all the subtle changes and get better. While running around, he could not really master this craft. However, he had mostly mastered his cauldron and his use of Qi to control the flames. In fact, Cao Yun decided to mostly work on his Flame Control and Cauldron Maintenance.
To train his stealth, he was trying to keep it active as much as possible. He was getting very used to it to the point where he could consume less Qi than he was absorbing from his environment. After all, for his mission, he didn't need to be absolutely invisible, he only needed to hide his identity. But each time he crossed path with a demonic beast, he pushed it to the extreme to see how long he was able to hide himself. In fact, he even went as close as possible. 1 or 2-core demonic beasts could only sense his presence if he was directly touching them now. However, stronger or more perceptive demonic beasts could sense him when he was in their vicinity.
Finally, his martial arts and his Spear Aura were stagnating because he had no one to really fight him on his level. In his mind, he was trying to fight against imaginary opponents but this was a far cry from the real thing. At some point Dian Mo tried to play along but he was not much of a fighter so it was useless. In fact, Cao Yun taught him more than Dian Mo could teach him. That being said, Dian Mo found it rather refreshing.
Hence, Cao Yun was mostly confined to watching his stars and his Insight Writings to meditate on them. This wasn't optimal at all.
-
Finally, Cao Yun reached Baziyun City after a month of running through the Hongchen Kingdom. His schedule had been mostly respected.
The first thing he did was to simply walk through the streets to see how well the city had been repaired. Since last time he had come, it was a completely different city. If he had not been there a year ago, he would not have believed that such a disaster had struck Baziyun City. However, he could still see the signs of the catastrophe in the eyes of some people. Here and there, he also found altars that had been placed in memory of the fallen. There was also a great sculpture honoring the names of those who had fought and died against the stampede. Even some mortals were named as they had helped others evacuate. Despite not having any form of cultivation, they had risked and given their life to save others.
If they had not been in the Forsaken Dao Era, more humans could cultivate and that crisis would have been dealt with with more ease. But this showed that humans did not need cultivation to prove their worth. The Hongchen Kingdom, contrary to the demons, did not judge people on their strength alone, their strength of character, their Dao Heart as cultivators said, was more important. Saint Xun Ke had proved that a long time ago. Since then, many had proved it again and again. In the future, mankind would keep proving it. Demonic cultivators wanted to increase the strength of mankind but they were ready to discard what made them humans. If they followed them, men would only become wild beasts, even beneath the demons. Surviving at such a cost was not worth it.
Cao Yun stayed a few moments to admire this monument and see the resilience of mankind. Then, he hesitated but he decided to first go to the cemetery where his family was buried. As a Mortal Warrior, he had no spiritual senses so he would not be able to discern the corpses below. He still wanted to go there anyway. Only the Huang family could help him put his concerns to rest.
Using his 'Ashen Feather Seal', Cao Yun was altering his cultivation and his appearance just enough to not be recognized. For all intents and purposes, he was Guai Mo. He had even changed his clothes. Right now, he was wearing a black Daoist robe with the emblem of a 1-star Human alchemist embroidered in it. Anyone who would see his face would be almost unable to describe it even while looking at it intently. It had not changed, but it was just difficult for people to focus on his traits. The description would always be very vague and different from one person to the next. However, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Guai Mo just had a very forgettable face, extremely banal, nothing strange about it.