Cao Yun paid his homage to the burial monument where the names of his entire family were engraved. Looking at each name, he thought back about every member of his family. The Cao family was not huge, especially compared with the Huang family. After all, Cao Beiwen, the patriarch, was the man who had built this family. He came from a poor household but had been able to enter into a martial sect and had proven his worth. As he had been 213 years old, his own parents were both dead. They had stayed mortals until the very end and even he could not find the resources to help them progress in their cultivation. Both his mother and his father's body had been just too exhausted to even survive taking in powerful pills.
On the other hand, they had no other child. Thus, Cao Beiwen was alone. But his talent made him relatively famous in his area. At around ninety, Cao Beiwen had become a Spirit Warrior. Slowly, he built up his reputation and founded the Cao family. His son, Cao Wen died rather young, but he was also an impressive cultivator. Thankfully, he had gotten one grandchild, Cao Guang, Cao Yun's father. He too was a genius. The Cao family had birthed many great men but all have had tragic lives. Apparently, the more talented they were the younger they were fated to die and the more they would suffer.
Cao Yun had almost suffered the same curse, but he would not let such a tragedy decide his future. He was hell-bent on finding out what had happened to his family and have justice for them.
When he saw the name of Cao Shui, his mother, Cao Yun's heart skipped a beat. He hoped that his mother was still alive. She too had had a terrible life. And she had finally found happiness, it had been taken from her in the most horrendous way. If she was dead, maybe she at least believed that her children were safe. But she knew better. Cao Guang and Cao Shui had bought almost no time at all when faced with a late Spirit Warrior who had killed Cao Beiwen. And if she was still alive, she was probably tormented by those thoughts.
Although he knew this was a far shot, Cao Yun tried to inject his Qi into the earth. Through his two Earthly Springs, Qi mixed with the intent of the Drop of Wrath seeped into the ground below. The bodies of his entire family had been buried there. Some had been partially devoured by wild beasts while others had been burned to a crisp. Just retrieving the corpses had been difficult. So Cao Yun hoped that the identification had been sloppy. As long as he couldn't see by himself, he would not be serene. He had to know whether his mother was alive or not.
Strangely, he surprised himself hoping she was dead. Otherwise, that meant that she had suffered for more than three years while he was doing his own thing. That would be a terrible blow to his confidence.
Unfortunately, happened what had to happen. Although Cao Yun could expand his Qi, he had no spiritual senses. With his Qi, he could feel the Qi and other energies in the air but that was it. Only through spiritual senses could he get a clear picture of what was going on underground. He was only able to detect several holes below his feet. But as the bodies had died a long time ago, he wasn't able to detect anything else. Thankfully, there was no form of neither Death Energy nor Evil Qi.
Considering how they had died, they had probably produced a lot of Evil Qi but the Huang family had purified their remains before burying them. In fact, holding any form of funeral ceremony was already a first step in getting rid of Evil Qi or other morbid lingering energies. Since they were related to human souls and to emotions, ceremonies that had an importance for those humans could appease them in some way. It wasn't sufficient, but this was a good start most of the times.
As he was concentrating above the remains of his kind, Cao Yun felt a presence that was familiar. Huang Liyue had covered him in her spiritual senses. Considering her stealth technique, she could easily have done so without him noticing. This was a way to greet him without disturbing him too much. And indeed, she let him finish whatever he had to finish. Since he couldn't sense what was down below with clarity, he decided to perform the usual rites in front of the memorial tablets. When doing so, he realized that the tablets had been cleaned recently. However, the tablet of his mother seemed to have been handled with even more care than the other ones. This was subtle, but Cao Yun could feel something around it.
Maybe because he was working on souls so much recently, he had picked up on something others would have failed to notice. This seemed to be the opposite of Evil Qi in a sense. Although very vague and fleeting, Cao Yun was certain that he had felt this sensation.
Finally, Cao Yun was done. Then he heard the voice of Huang Liyue resonate in his mind.
"Cao Yun, your mastery of 'Ashen Feather Seal' is really impressive. I did not even feel your return in Baziyun City. But we can't talk here. Come back to the Huang residence. There will be someone waiting for you. Keep using the name Guai Mo until I tell you otherwise."
Then, the presence disappeared and Cao Yun was intrigued. If Huang Liyue herself had not felt his return, was it Matriarch Huang who had? Although he had no answer, he was happy that Huang Liyue had not sensed him. Of course, he had not gone close to the Huang family. But without his stealth, she would have probably sensed his Qi right away, especially with her new cultivation and her improved Soul Embryo. That didn't mean that she wouldn't be able to recognize him if he was literally in front of her. Not only was she powerful, 'Ashen Feather Seal' was literally her own creation.
After he was completely done, Cao Yun left the cemetery and walked around for some time before going to the Huang family.
No one in the cemetery seemed to mind him. No one except one old man. He was the caretaker. And as soon as Cao Yun left, he activated some kind of pendant.
"Hall Master, someone just visited the Cao family's tomb. He was a very banal young man, or maybe a middle-aged man. Honestly his appearance was absolutely banal. However, he had one remarkable thing, he had a 1-star Human alchemist emblem on his chest."
The old man was speaking alone as though he was reporting to someone who wasn't here. As much as he tried to describe Cao Yun, his words were always technically right but too vague to pinpoint how he really looked like.
-
Finally, Cao Yun went toward the Huang residence.
With his emblem, people knew right away that he was an alchemist. The sentence for wearing a fake alchemist emblem was extremely harsh. In some cases, it could even be death if that person had actively tried to impersonate an alchemist and had defamed the occupation. After all, alchemists were favored by the Hongchen Kingdom. Even blacksmiths and array formation masters were not to be impersonated but the punishment would almost never be death. On the other hand, impersonating a physician could also mean death but only because it was dangerous to patients, not just to uphold the name of the physicians.
The man who welcomed Cao Yun was Bao Zhong. Since Huang Cixi was still in seclusion at the Gate of Heaven and Hell, he had no one to serve. Thus, he was now helping the Huang family for various tasks under the supervision of Huang Liyue. She trusted him because he was loyal to Huang Cixi to a fault.
"Alchemist Guai Mo, please follow me. Mistress Huang Liyue is waiting for you in her chambers."
Cao Yun followed the middle-aged man toward Huang Liyue's door. It opened even before Bao Zhong could knock. Thus, he politely took his leave as Cao Yun was entering the room. As soon as he was inside, the door closed. The room was almost the same as Huang Cixi's room. That meant that the center of the room, where the study was, was isolated.
Beckoned by Huang Liyue, he entered the study. The small room closed itself immediately and she spread her senses all over the place to make sure that no one could eavesdrop.
"Your new persona is very impressive. When an alchemist enters a city, we are immediately alarmed. Even after checking with the Myriad Cherry Blossom Hall, no one found anything suspicious about this Guai Mo. If I had not seen you face to face, I would have not recognized you at all."
"Miss Huang Liyue, this is a pleasure to see you well. But, I'm curious. How did you know who I was before I contacted you?"
"Well, let me first tell you that it is also a pleasure to see you. I knew that the Wubei Sect had those strange Ancient Ruins that could help someone gain power in a year. But you've exceeded all my expectations. You're almost half-way through to the Spirit Warrior realm already!"
The Mortal Warrior realm had nine grades like all other realm, but the last three were in fact the Lesser Tribulation. They had to be broken through one after the other without any pause. That meant that in practice, the Mortal Warrior realm really only had six grades. Of course, they would take longer than just a couple of years to cross each. An average cultivator usually became a Spirit Warrior by the time they were 60, around thirty years after breaking through the Mortal Warrior realm in the first place. Although Cao Yun was confident in his talent, he would not claim he could become a Spirit Warrior before twenty years.
His own father had broken through at 45, Cao Yun could probably break through somewhere between 35 and 40. That was if his cultivation was going smoothly, which wasn't really the case after what had happened to his Bai Hui.
"Anyway, you've asked about how we've detected you... Well, we didn't. Someone else did..."
Of course, Cao Yun was intrigued and a bit worried. If his cover had been blown already, he would have a hard time investigating the demonic cultivators elsewhere.
"Earlier today, one of our demonic beasts got very agitated. This is how I've come to know you were probably in town."
Could a demonic beast really detect him? And why him specifically?
Suddenly, Cao Yun realized something and Huang Liyue nodded.
"Indeed, this was the Mountain Fenghuang whose egg you've protected."
"It hatched?! Is it fine?"
Huang Liyue was a bit embarrassed about the question.
"It's a bit complicated. Let me explain while we walk toward the stables."
And so they began to walk. Huang Liyue explained what had happened with the egg. From time to time, she sent words directly into Cao Yun's mind to be sure that no one else could listen to them. He didn't have to answer, just to listen.
-
A few months after Cao Yun's departure back to the Wubei Sect, the egg had hatched. However, the chick had been incredibly sickly. Despite all of Cao Yun's efforts, it had absorbed the Evil Qi and the Death Energy of the Yellow Death World. Even its appearance had been strange. It had been way too small for such a demonic beast and its skin had been dark with strange patterns that looked like bleeding wounds.
But despite the Evil Qi within, that small bird demonstrated a great vitality. It was trying to survive more than anyone else. With such a will, the Evil Qi was pushed back. In the end, it literally condensed into a demonic core. Demonic beasts were always born with only one demonic core, no matter the number of cores of their parents. There were even some species in which the young children would devour one or several cores from their parents to increase their cultivation quickly.
This core made of Evil Qi made the chick break through even though it wasn't even a month old. But signs of this Evil Qi within kept showing on its body. Although it was gaining in strength quickly, it was also sick and tired all the time. Only its powerful will was keeping it alive. All the other demonic beasts were hating his presence as they could feel the Evil Qi in it. However, Elder Ying, the Blue Mane Falcon, took a liking to the chick as it was struggling to survive every single day.
Huang Liyue was not sure what had happened to this egg in the Yellow Death World, maybe it was due to the presence of Cao Yun and the legacy he had received from Cleansed Asura. Maybe, the word tree had also given something to the egg when Huang Liyue had received the help of Cleansed Asura's soul. Or maybe it was Cao Yun's will to see this demonic beast survive after its parents' death that had seeped into the egg.
Whatever the reason was, Huang Liyue could not just let it die without doing anything. Thus, she was even ready to give it one of her True Fiery Drops. As it had the dormant bloodline of a fenghuang, it would have probably been very helpful. However, Matriarch Huang forbade it. In exchange, she gave one of her own pills. During her birthday celebration, she had received three great pills from Huang Si. Thus, she gave one of them to the young bird, one Golden Blood Essence pill.
Those pills could awaken bloodlines and help generate blood essence as well. It was very helpful to cultivate 'Nine Chambers of Life Fire'. Instead of using it to produce another True Fiery Drop that was very uncertain, she used it to awaken the young bird's bloodline.
In the year Cao Yun had been away, the young bird had thus developed two more demonic cores. It now had three demonic cores and another one made of almost pure Evil Qi. Although it was still there, the Evil Qi had been calmed down by the sheer strength of the bird's blood.
-
Hearing all of that, Cao Yun was surprised, thankful to Matriarch Huang and also happy for Huang'er and Feng'er.