"You're quite lucky, boy."
"This isn't just luck. But you're right. I had other ideas, but it seems that everything worked out just fine. Hopefully, the array formations of the Xue family can endure long enough for me to be done with this one. At worst, General Yun should already be there."
"Now you just have to watch the two of them fight each other. But as I said, if Gu Song's soul is too damaged, I won't be able to extract anything out of it. This will just be another Lang Shou. Besides, that Flying Poison could also become too strong if it devours his Soul Embryo."
"I'm aware of that. I always knew that there were risks. I have to wait for the perfect moment when the two of them are too weak to resist me. Otherwise, I'll be in danger."
As he said that, Cao Yun had another idea in mind. Right now, he could barely use the Drop of Wrath because of the Flying Poison's fury. First of all, the Flying Poison's connection with the Drop of Wrath was almost as strong as Cao Yun's. But more than that, if he used it, he was convinced that all of its rage and hatred would shift again. Thanks to the Death Energy he had absorbed, the Flying Poison had been affected and truly wanted to annihilate Gu Song. But it could change just as fast. Thus, Cao Yun was trying to be as discreet as possible.
While Gu Song's Soul Embryo and the Flying Poison were fighting within his own sea of consciousness, he didn't want to attract their attention. He would just need to ride the storm. At the same time, he had to be perfectly prepared to act as soon as the opportunity was there. But that meant he had to recognize the opportunity.
At his side was another threat though. Since he had to be as discreet as possible and couldn't use his strongest weapon right now, Dian Mo could take advantage of the situation. But then, he would have the same problems. After all, he had been unable to resist in front of the Drop of Wrath. He certainly wouldn't want to fight its enraged version. That being said, he could also wait the perfect opportunity when Cao Yun would be busy attacking the two behemoths.
From the beginning Cao Yun had accepted the risk. Despite his trauma in the Demon Palace's lava, he knew that risks were unavoidable. What he had promised himself was that he wouldn't act rashly without any preparation. This was true for his actions and for his cultivation. For months, he had prepared that. If he succeeded, his soul cultivation would improve, he would control the Drop of Wrath and he would gain the information from Gu Song's mind. Apparently, Gu Song even knew about the 'Traitor' and he seemed to have at least known about the massacre of the Cao family. Soon, he might finally find out why his mother had been targeted and why two entire families had been eradicated.
"Boy, you're worried about me, right now, aren't you?"
"Well, you do want my body, don't want? In addition, if I'm successful, it will be almost impossible for you to obtain the Drop of Wrath."
"Strangely I suspect that even if I tried to take your body, you would have some card up your sleeve. Even if I was successful, I fear that I might not enjoy my success long enough to brag about it..."
During his preparations, Cao Yun did block out Dian Mo's perception of the outside world several times. Of course, Dian Mo couldn't know whether he had used those moments to plot against him or not. But somehow, he had a feeling it was better to not upset the young man. Moreover, Dian Mo had started to changed his mind about Cao Yun. If even a 4th-grade Spirit Warrior couldn't face him and survive, he had no intention of doing the same thing. Unless he was absolutely certain of himself, he wouldn't betray the young man. Furthermore, he had no real reason to do so in fact. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that his current situation wasn't so bad. And with all the books he had now access to, Dian Mo was quite happy in his golden cage.
Still, there existed some tension between the two of them. As much as they seemed to get along just fine, they were still suspicious of the other's real intentions. For now though, Dian Mo and Cao Yun focused on watching the fight. Besides waiting for the right opportunity, they were also admiring the fight. Maybe Cao Yun could even get new ideas about soul and mind attacks. Since Flying Poison was mostly made of Death Energy, the corrupted version of the Po of Jing, watching it fight might also improve his understanding of 'Death Verses'.
Currently, Cao Yun was only able to read the two first verses. Even if he had been able to develop the first martial technique, most of what he could read were general principles. For now, he simply knew the name of the third principle exposed in the next verse, 'Living Death'. Cao Yun was barely able to read the Antique Sixian but he had a harder time reading the Insight Writings. Apparently, it had to do with some way to produce Death Energy while still alive. Hopefully, it had nothing to do with using someone else because Cao Yun would not practice this kind of technique. Using another's soul to fuel one's art was the demonic way. As long as he couldn't be sure of what that technique truly was though, he would keep an open mind. Cao Yun couldn't believe that Cleansed Asura would have given him such a technique.
-
Flying Poison was still struggling with the giant skeleton covered in blue sinister flames. Each time Flying Poison touched it, its green hair and red skin were being burned, even its bony spikes and claws were being eroded by the fire. However, completely blinded by rage, it kept on attacking. With its razor-sharp teeth, Flying Poison bit off a part of the skeleton's arm. Then, it completely ripped it apart. Suddenly, Flying Poison threw the arm toward Gu Song's Soul Embryo. The alchemist had taken a familiar form, his form.
Seeing the arm going for him, Gu Song avoided it. At that moment, Flying Poison had reverted to a smaller form and came straight for Gu Song. Before he could understand what was going on, Gu Song sensed two hands whose claws had sunk into his Soul Embryo. As his soul was within, his Soul Embryo was very sensitive. From his forehead, a strange rune appeared.
'Torrential Flow of Life'!
A large river appeared beneath Gu Song, it even pushed Cao Yun's calm sea as it manifested itself. The one who suffered from this wasn't the Flying Poison but Cao Yun himself. He felt as though someone was stabbing his head. Along with this physical pain, he had also a vast feeling of nothingness, as though his existence was devoid of meaning. Although he was a spectator, the fight was taking place in his sea of consciousness, the manifestation of everything that was going on in his mind. Obviously, he would suffer if that place was altered.
From the river, a powerful torrent rose in the air, washing over the Flying Poison. Surprised by the pressure, it was sent flying away from Gu Song. The attack didn't stop there as the water kept on chasing after Flying Poison. Before it could come back to its senses, it was attacked from behind by the skeleton. All around the Flying Poison, there were blue flames, in front of him, there was the water with the same kind of hue around it, and behind it, there was the skeleton.
Its three tails whipped the air around it to fan out some of the flames. It seemed to completely ignore the threats around it, the Flying Poison solely wanted to rip apart Gu Song. The pure hatred and rage from the Death Energy gathered by Cao Yun had overtaken its instincts. As another yell escaped its terrifying maw, black flames erupted from it. They began to fight off the blue flames of the skeleton.
Without any hesitation, Flying Poison literally flew through the torrential waters sent against it. As it was flying in a straight line, its green hair were being washed away, but they were growing just as fast. Its bones were being eroded but they were reforming even faster. And its very skin was being turned back to liquid blood, but it was coagulating just as fast. Even through the flow of life and death, the Flying Poison was mostly unaffected.
'Depths of Oblivion'!
The water suddenly turned gray. Above them, the sky also began to turn grayish and Cao Yun's mind was full of confusion and uncertainties. His very mind was in a deep fog. His Shen's fire burned brighter and brighter. The green vines around the Nine Soul Peaks also shined with a bright green full of vitality. Hidden at the center of those nine pillars, Cao Yun's consciousness was safe, but he could still feel this despair in the back of his mind. By distracting himself by watching the fight, he could forget those thoughts, but they were there. They were thoughts about the uselessness of life itself. Maybe it was best to just let himself be killed...
Another cultivator faced with those attacks would have simply lost the will to live and their mind would have been obliterated by Gu Song. But he had still failed to understand that he wasn't fighting Cao Yun, he was fighting the inner demon of a past demon who had transcended everything anyone on the Piaolu planet knew. Even if it was a mere fragment of his wrath, it was still too powerful for Gu Song.
Within the torrent of gray water, the Flying Poison opened its wings in full. The flow got interrupted. In an instant, the bloody demon was on Gu Song's Soul Embryo. With a single bite, it ripped apart a huge chunk of Gu Song. Since it was just a shape his Soul Embryo had taken, there was no blood. However, Gu Song felt that his very soul was now exposed. Terrified, he condensed the giant skeleton into a single weapon. All its bones were deformed as if a powerful force was pressing on them. They got crushed by this immense force. At the end, there was just a blue scythe. Its bony structure had many small cavities, as though they were eye sockets. In them, the blue flames were bright. The very blade of the scythe was made of this blue flame.
A part of Gu Song's Soul Embryo had already been devoured by the Flying Poison. And the two parts that had been separated by it joined back together. Immediately, he went to grab the scythe that was also coming directly for him. Before the Flying Poison could attack again, Gu Song had his scythe in hand. The blue flames within it engulfed his entire Soul Embryo and formed many runes in the air. Those were clearly Insight Writings.
"Boy, you're way more dangerous than I thought! But now, that game is over! I will annihilate everything that you are!"
'Sufferings of Life Flow With Despair of Death'!
The water down below turned into giant whirlwinds. Most of it was now a strange mix between sinister blue and dead gray. As the sea was becoming more and more violent, the water was splashing against the Nine Soul Peaks. As they were the manifestation of the nine chambers of Cao Yun's Upper Dantian, he could feel an incredible anguish and a deep despair within his own mind. Cao Yun was forced to push his Chamber of Mysterious Elixir to the limit so it could energize everything else and fight off this wave of negativity. Some of his darkest memories also surfaced in his mind. He could see himself being killed before he could do anything. He saw the entire Hongchen Kingdom turned into a giant graveyard. Then, he even saw the Piaolu planet crumble into dust as time was destroying all.
From the whirlwinds, giant towers of water emerged and from the sky, powerful hurricanes descended.
The Flying Poison was unaffected by all of this. All around it, there was a thick smell of blood and now sparks of black fire were also present. Without any hesitation, it flew right into one of those pillars of water and wind. It exploded and both water and wind turned into blood. As the bloody water fell back, the sea below began to turn red. In the sky, the red light from above was trying to pierce through the gray of Gu Song's technique.
Realizing that even his greatest technique could not deal with that beast right away, Gu Song was ready to use all of his strength against that abomination. He sliced with his scythe. All sounds got muted for an instant. It was as though the world had stopped. Then, suddenly, a large slash appeared across the entire space. Although it was infinite, there was now a black scar along the trajectory of Gu Song's scythe. And that black scar had completely sliced the Flying Poison in two. However, it didn't stop it at all.
Pushing its claws into the black scar, the beast made it explode into a myriad of fragments. Some fell to the water below, others rose into the sky while some stayed in levitation in Cao Yun's sea of consciousness. Moving his scythe around, Gu Song controlled some of those fragments. Like thousands of pieces of glass, they went toward the Flying Poison. But it didn't faze the creature at all. With its tails and its wings as well as the arms on its back, it was blocking the largest fragments, but the beast itself kept on going for Gu Song.
Before reaching the alchemist, the Flying Poison once again spew out some black fire. Already traumatized by the Black Heart Flame, Gu Song tried to avoid it. As soon as he did, several bones came hurtling toward him. The Flying Poison had sent its very claws in the air. As he had done so, they were already growing back on its fingers, emerging from the blood that was its body.
Trying to stop them with his scythe, the claws stabbed into the weapon and cracks appeared everywhere around it, the blue flames even faltered a bit. Then, before Gu Song could understand what was going on, the Flying Poison had stabbed its claws in his back. In front of Gu Song's face, there was the gaping maw of the inner demon.