While Yun Ping was working on his cultivation so was Cao Yun. Unlike before, he had shifted his focus on Qi cultivation instead of blood cultivation. But he was also working on his mind. Indeed, a huge part of his plan was resting on his mind as he wanted to extract things from Gu Song's memories.
Once again, he was reeling the filaments of his own corporeal soul. With each one, he was facing visions of rage and anger. Most were from his own memories, but there were also images from Axiu Qian's life. As he was working on subduing his own Flying Poison, he was apparently also subduing the Flying Poison within the Drop of Wrath. His idea of completely replacing the Po within the Drop of Wrath seemed to be giving him some results. Of course, it would require some more time. And the Drop of Wrath seemed to be affecting his own mood. Maybe it was its way of trying to resist his influence. But hopefully, Cao Yun would be able to gain the full control of the Drop of Wrath before the Alchemy Conference.
Although he could sense more and more resistance as he was gaining progressively more control, he had a great, albeit risky, idea in mind. After what had happened in the Demon Palace, Cao Yun had decided to be more careful with his cultivation. But that didn't mean he wouldn't take any risk. After all, simply attempting to challenge the Lesser Tribulation was a risk. But there was a difference between being impulsive and preparing for such events. What Cao Yun had in mind would happen in a few months. Until then, he had enough time to get ready.
After taking control of that foreign blood, he would slowly rebuild the Seven Turbid Demons within the Drop of Wrath with his own. The Flying Poison was enough to make the Drop of Wrath completely his instead of a foreign force he had put shackles on. But each additional piece of Po he could reconstruct would probably mean more strength for the Drop of Wrath and thus himself as well.
In fact, Dian Mo had already told him that this mind cultivation was very reminiscent of the Accomplished Demon realm, the equivalent of the Spirit Warrior realm. The similarity between 'Crimson Inferno Road' and 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks' was so strong that this realm was called 'Conquering the Seven Demons'. Once again, this was proof that this mind cultivation had been written by a demon. During this realm, one would turn each part of their Po into a real demon in order to dominate it in order to then produce a Demon Soul. Of course, such a Demon Soul was very dangerous. In a sense, it was like an amalgamation of seven inner demons chained down together.
Instead of turning them into inner demons, Cao Yun was trying to calm down his Seven Turbid Demons. Clearly, this was a way of making this stage of the demon cultivation easier. If the Seven Turbid Demons were already contained, their danger would be greatly reduced when the cultivator would begin the Accomplished Demon realm.
Cao Yun's cultivation was going at a steady pace and he had no obstacle on his path. Right now, this was the cultivation he was the most comfortable with. But he obviously didn't neglect his Qi cultivation either. Even if he had many other things to consider, like improving his alchemy and planning, he didn't slack off in his training.
As a 3rd-grade Mortal Warrior, Cao Yun was working on tempering his Five Prodigious Gates. For that very purpose, he had discovered a very neat way to do things. From what he had read in 'Cultivation of Wrath', his idea was in line with it. By using his blood and the Fire Qi within to attack the Five Prodigious Gates, Cao Yun was putting strain on them and on the world tree's influence inside them. Then, he used his Water Qi to soothe them and make them grow stronger than before. In a way, it was similar to putting tension on one's body before resting to let it grow stronger.
But it wasn't just that. Throughout the process, Cao Yun was also using the intent from the Drop of Wrath that was permeating his blood. As such, the Fire Qi was both straining but also nourishing the Five Prodigious Gates at the same time. In fact, Cao Yun also sensed the impact of the Rune of Fire within his Drop of Wrath. The Fire Qi in his blood had become stronger without becoming unruly. He had almost no effort to make to control it. Indeed, this Fire Qi was under the control of his Drop of Wrath as was his blood. Thus, it was under the control of the Rune of Fire. And this Fire Qi would never dare to rebel against it. Although Cao Yun had not understood any of it, this fragment of a rune was still a piece of the Dao of Fire.
As he was doing that, he could envision a future in which gathering Fire Qi would be much easier for him thanks to this simple tiny fragment of the Dao of Fire. That wouldn't be heaven defying, but instead of spending four to five years gathering Fire Qi in his Middle Dantian, he might be able to get it done in a bit more than three years. In fact, since he was an alchemist, he might even be able to get it down to around three years or less. Better yet, the next two grades before the Lesser Cultivation literally consisted in strengthening and tempering one's meridians and vessels through the use of the Water Qi and the Fire Qi that had been accumulated beforehand. Thus, he might speed up those grades as well.
For now, he wasn't sure how fast he might go without risking going haywire. However, he was seeing a bright future for his Qi cultivation. After the doubt he had suffered from because of the trauma inflicted to his Bai Hui, this was a nice change. Besides, he was also taking control of events instead of reacting to them and it felt great as well. Overall, despite the risks, Cao Yun was probably in his best condition. In fact, the risks themselves might even have been stimulating him.
Yun Ping, Cao Yun and Yong Ke also trained together quite a bit. All of them had very good background in martial arts, although very different. Sadly, Yun Ping was always inferior to either of them. And Cao Yun could tell that his overall strength had fallen down since he had fought him on the duel platform of the Wubei Sect. At the same time, he was clearly improving day by day, albeit slowly. However, he was also getting used to the new acupoints. Instead of using only one, his left Lao Gong, he had to make four of them work together while fighting in order to sustain his Qi Manifestations so they could compare with Cao Yun's and Yong Ke's.
Since Cao Yun couldn't show his spearmanship outside for now, he was quite happy with the possibility to spare with two opponents. Yong Ke's sword had reached the Sword Aura state. Thus Yun Ping was the only one who had not developed a Martial Aura. However, both of his sparring partners could tell that he was getting closer and closer to that. A sword would have been easier to control with only one arm. But the characteristic weapon of the Yun family, because it was heavily used on the battlefields, was the spear. No matter what, Yun Ping couldn't resign himself to using a sword as his primary weapon. Thus, he had relentlessly trained with his spear, so much so in fact that Yun Ping had grow even closer to his weapon.
It was only a 4-star Human weapon so it didn't have a spirit or even any form of instinct. However, Yun Ping's attachment to his weapon had pushed them both closer and closer to each other. Now, it truly was an extension of his body. And he had fully learned how to optimize every part of his body. The lack of an arm wasn't so much a problem of strength, but it had altered all of his technique and the balance of his weapon. Thus, he had been forced to find new ways to perform the same things he could do before. His resilience greatly impressed Cao Yun.
Of course, Cao Yun had not witnessed the months of despair and doubt Yun Ping had crossed. Similarly to Cao Yun with his Qi cultivation, Yun Ping had overcome quite a lot recently. But because he had triumphed, he was now stronger mentally and his potential was clearly there. Even if he had not regained all his strength, Cao Yun knew he could do so.
While they were training, Yong Ke almost never spoke. In fact, Cao Yun found out she was quite shy. Somehow, she felt close to him so she had no problem interacting with him. And she had no problem fighting either. It was only when it came to truly talking with someone else on a personal level that she was a bit shy. Of course, with the scars he had seen on her concealed skin, he could imagine that she didn't like to open up too much.
Even without speaking though, she was getting closer to Yun Ping by sparring with him. Even when Cao Yun was too busy to spar, she would. And the two of them had the same idea about Yun Ping's training. They were pushing him to use more and more Qi Manifestation. Their pretext was to help him develop his compound Labor Palace on his left side. This was true, but the truth was also a bit different. During most sessions, he had almost no Qi to pour out in his techniques at some point and they still pressed on the attack.
This was precisely what they were waiting for. Their goal was to force Yun Ping to use Spear Aura. After fighting him, seeing him fight, and mastering Martial Aura themselves, they were convinced that Yun Ping had the potential to learn it very soon. Sparring with Yun Ping might help him advance his martial art, but above else, they were hoping to improve his Spear Aura by confronting the Martial Aura of someone else.
Although Yun Ping was completely exhausted, he never asked to stop training, he didn't ask for a rest, not once. On his end, Cao Yun was adapting his techniques to him. The goal was not to win a fight but to train each other. If Yun Ping couldn't follow, it would be useless. The benefit for Cao Yun was not marginal either, as he was developing his Horn Constellation, albeit rather slowly. However, Yun Ping saw a great benefit for him. Of course, he knew what Spear Aura was because his own father had mastered the Spear Heart. But he had rarely fought against someone who was using it.
Cao Yun and Yong Ke were targeting any weakness in his technique, quickly improving Yun Ping's 'Thunder Breaking Wall'. Since he couldn't rely on neither strength nor Qi to compensate his bad technique, Yun Ping was beginning to find a better balance. In less than ten days, he would almost regain his past talent and some more.
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During that period, Cao Yun didn't spend all his time training and sparring with his friend. He had a very clear plan in mind. For now, he wasn't sure where Gu Song was hiding, but everything clearly indicated that he was in town. Even the memories he had obtained from the Soul Obsidian Nian Fish were positive about that. Unfortunately, Cao Yun needed more than a vague location. In order to confront a Spirit Warrior, he had to be extremely well prepared. For that, he had to know where the confrontation would take place.
Of course, the best thing would have been to bring Gu Song on his own battlefield, but Gu Song would not expose himself that easily. As such, Cao Yun had decided to give him a false sense of security in order to improve his chances.
Because he had felt Evil Qi in two places, he had to find a reason to inspect them. And because Gu Song might be present there, he decided not to try and sneak in. After all, he had almost been discovered by Yun Po. And he didn't want Gu Song to imagine that anyone was after him until the very end. Otherwise, he was almost certain that he would be powerless against him. In fact, Gu Song could certainly kill him with a thought if he truly wanted to. For that very reason, Cao Yun was always ready to activate his Spirit Condensation Barrier, just in case.
Thankfully, he had good reasons to go both to Governor Jiahe and to the Xue family later.
Indeed, the Subei Province was about to organize an alchemy battle to choose its representative for the Alchemy Conference. As Guai Mo, a 1-star Human alchemist, Cao Yun had every reason to seek out Governor Jiahe in order to ask to be a part of it. But he already knew the answer. That didn't prevent him from asking though. Furthermore, alchemists were held in high regards. With Guai Mo's background, Governor Jiahe even accepted to receive him in person, although he didn't have much time to give to him.
Thus, Cao Yun was invited in Governor Jiahe's residence. Around the residence, there were many array formations. Compared with most cities he had been too, the level of the defenses was crazy. This was mainly due to the proximity with the border. Although the Sunmen Province to the north was the province under the most stress, the Subei Province was also a strategic location that was heavily guarded.
The guards around the residence were either late Mortals or early Mortal Warriors. And inside the residence, Cao Yun even felt the spiritual senses of an early Spirit Warrior. According to Dian Mo, a few of them were hiding here and there, ready to act. Of course, as one got closer to the Governor, the defenses would be stricter and the cultivation of the guards would become higher.
After entering the Governor's residence, Cao Yun immediately felt a tinge of Evil Qi he wasn't sure about. Indeed, he didn't feel anything too ominous about it. However, it was clearly coming from the innermost part of the residence, close to the Governor himself.
Some servant was leading Cao Yun inside. It didn't take too long and finally, Cao Yun came face to face with Governor Jiahe Lan.