Going back in his room, Cao Yun was still pondering over his next course of action. Now that he had something Emperor Weide wanted, he might have a chance to get close to him and maybe see Yong Ke again. Despite all his knowledge, there was nothing he could do against a 9th-grade Spirit Warrior. Killing Gu Song had already required a lot of preparation and some luck. But against a 9th-grade Spirit Warrior, all of those would mean nothing. If he was a Spirit Warrior, he might have a tiny bit of chance with enough preparation and trump cards. For now though, he was simply too weak. Against such a cultivator, he would need several hundreds of Mortal Warriors by his side to win in a fight.
There were other possibilities that came to Cao Yun's mind, but no matter what he imagined, he didn't see any hope in a near future. However, he could still get ready for things to come. And at the very least, he could try to find out who Yong Ke really was and what the connection between the two of them was.
In his mind, Cao Yun made many simulations of what could happen. But in the end, what he was lacking was actual information. Once again, he was in the dark about too many things. Unfortunately, finding anything about the Emperor himself was almost impossible. His only option seemed to enter the tiger's den. Xiao Xuefeng had argued a lot against even that. Instead, she could have asked the Myriad Cherry Blossom Hall to negotiate for him while keeping his real identity secret. With their influence, it would be quite easy to manipulate the information so no one could know Cao Yun had found some of the ingredients. After all, no one knew about the Universe Spanning Frost he had found outside of the Wang Province apart from Jie Yuan.
As he was planning all of that, he was also using his mind cultivation. He knew that he had the bad habit of thinking too much. At some point he had to make a decision! Because of his doubts, he turned toward training for a while in order to clear his mind.
His alchemy was progressing smoothly and he had gotten many more insights. Besides everything Hua Fenfei and Xiao Xuefeng had sent him during the refinement, he had also used the Flying Poison to perceive some things. Of course, he had not seen anything more than what they had told him but seeing them with his own senses was different. His Rune of Fire was also a bit more vibrant. Unfortunately, he still couldn't understand the Dao of Fire through it. In theory, only a Sage could see even the tiniest glint of any Dao. Sect Leader Xuan had found a way to do otherwise though, but it still required to be a 9th-grade Spirit Warrior and to attempt the Greater Tribulation. None of those were possible for Cao Yun.
Instead of his alchemy, Cao Yun wanted to focus on his overall strength. Even his martial arts had been slow to progress recently. He could feel he was on the verge of truly forming the Horn Constellation. Many times already he had been able to see it with his own eyes but it always ended up fading away. At the same time, his Spear Aura was also very close to turning into a Spear Intent. The main difference was one's ability to truly control and even shape it. Spear Aura was instinctive and Spear Intent was bent to the will of the fighter. From time to time, Cao Yun admired his golden Insight Writings to try and perceive new things. But as Chief Elder Baishen had told him, Spear Intent couldn't be forced, it was the culmination of one's efforts that would birth it.
Then there were his three cultivation methods. Cao Yun was cultivating his mind and soul, his blood and his Qi. In a sense, he was almost doing as the Three Jade Saints of the legends he had heard from Dian Mo. If he could meet some deva, he might even be able to obtain a new soul cultivation that would eclipse his 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks'. For now though, he couldn't and unfortunately, Dian Mo had no memory concerning any deva. He simply knew that they existed on other planets and other worlds. Unlike asura and humans, their main cultivation was neither blood nor Qi, it was their souls.
Cao Yun had recently reached the stage of 1st-grade Golden Blood Child. Thus, he began to cultivate that a little. Turning his intent toward his own innards, Cao Yun mobilized his Drop of Wrath to go into his kidneys. There, there was a small golden pellet. For now, there was nothing impressive about it, but Cao Yun could feel a powerful vitality from it. This was a manifestation of his prenatal Jing. Compared with other people, it was a bit small in fact. Dian Mo didn't say much but Cao Yun had probably lost some of it by facing too many perils. In fact, his mortal wound when he was a child had most likely hurt it a lot. The Drop of Wrath had saved him but it had also taken a toll on him. Regenerating prenatal Jing was almost as hard as reaching the heavens. However, by cultivating it, he would improve its quality and he could conserve it longer and longer instead of wasting too much of it.
"Boy, you'll have to practice 'Nourish the Gold'. This first step is rather simple. Some demons can spend somewhere from one to five years on this stage. However, with your Drop of Wrath, it will probably be way faster than that. I suspect than six to eight months will be enough for you, half the time of the most talented demons. Well, to be fair, I think Demon God Da Mo did it in nine months when he was young. Anyway, the main point is to use your own blood to nourish this tiny golden pellet. Slowly, it will condense and become denser and denser, mixing your lacking prenatal Jing with your rich blood. Then, the properties of this gold will slowly diffuse in your entire bloodstream. Finally, it will activate your marrow and produce a new blood, richer and richer.
"Then, you're up for the 'Life Gate Reveals the Treasure'. In your back, you have a Mingmen, it is directly behind your Lower Dantian and it is responsible for the Kidney Fire. This Kidney Fire is what turns Jing into Qi to keep your body alive. Since you've already opened your acupoints and you're familiar with even your Five Prodigious Gates, getting this point tempered and fully opened should be rather easy in fact. By focusing on it and even bringing this golden pellet to it, you will strengthen your vitality and activate your Kidney Fire.
"After that comes 'Treasure Covered in Blood', you'll use this Kidney Fire to finally produce the Golden Blood. The attributes of the golden pellet will spread through your entire blood, merging it with your marrow. All of your blood will then be replaced by the Golden Blood. This is a tedious process as you have to change all your blood. Of course, your blood won't really be golden, but this Golden Blood is essential for the rest of your blood cultivation.
"In fact, the next grade, 'Flows Take the Gold' consists in being able to fully manipulate this Golden Blood. Indeed, it will be way denser than even your current blood. It will be like circulating mercury instead of blood. In this grade, you will solely circulate the Golden Blood in your bloodstream. But then, you will practice 'Ascend the Cliff' and go up your spine, nourishing the marrow there in order to enter your heart.
"After that, it's up to 'Gold Heats Up Heart's Passions' when your Golden Blood will seep into your entire chest, the innermost parts of your rib cage, of your heart. The Golden Blood will fully activate what humans refer to as Middle Dantian. But since you already have a Middle Dantian, it will be interesting to see that. In fact, it's rather similar to what you're going to do soon by gathering Fire Qi in your Middle Dantian. But the point is to indeed awaken your passions. This step is necessary to later form the Demon Soul.
"From your Middle Dantian, your Golden Blood will flood your entire body, reaching the stage of Golden Body. Finally, you will practice 'Overcome the Last Mount' in which your Golden Blood will go through your neck directly into your brain, in other words, your Upper Dantian. That process is highly dangerous since your Golden Blood is so heavy. In fact, this step could be seen as the Lesser Tribulation demons face. But it's not quite as dangerous as the true Lesser Tribulation of humans. However, all those processes can overexcite a demon and cause them to go berserk or to fall prey to their inner demons. This is the real tribulation for demons, rather similar to what demonic cultivators have to go through in fact.
"If you're able to achieve all that though, you will enter 'Celestial Palace Accepts the Offering'. Your mind will be strengthened by this Golden Blood. It will both get you ready to activate your seven Po and to turn them into Turbid Demons, but it will also make your mind strong enough to resist those Turbid Demons. In order to tame the Flying Poison, you were forced to weaken it through someone else. Once this stage completed, you won't need it at all. But to be honest, your mind cultivation might be able to help with that."
As Cao Yun listened to the entire explanation for the Golden Blood Child realm, he made many connections with his other cultivation methods. Cultivating all three treasures at the same time, blood, Qi and soul, seemed to be the best way to progress faster. Within Dian Mo's explanation, there were many things he had already partially performed. And there were other points that would help and support each other from his blood cultivation and his Qi cultivation. For example, gathering Fire Qi in his Middle Dantian would be helpful for circulating his Golden Blood within his chest. And the opposite would have been true as well.
Anyway, Cao Yun didn't spend the entire day on his blood cultivation, he also focused a bit on his mind cultivation. Right now, he was still trying to extract the Unclean Evil from his Po, this was the Po of Qi. Most likely, this aspect of his Po would be helpful for Qi cultivation. After all, the Po of Jing was useful for blood cultivation. The Flying Poison was literally the soul that had remained in the Drop of Wrath. Cao Yun had no real comparison because he had not been cultivating his blood for too long, but now that he had subdued his Po of Jing, his blood cultivation was a bit faster. Saving a few days in the lower stages could mean saving years if not decades in higher realms. The cultivation of demons seemed to take as long as the one of humans.
Finally, Cao Yun had to make a choice. In order to advance his Qi cultivation, he could consume a True Essence Frozen Fire pill. He only had two of them and he might need one to get closer to Emperor Weide. At that moment, he still wasn't sure whether he would give it to him or not. However, he had to keep at least one True Essence pill. The problem was that that True Essence pill might be useful to Hongyu. He had caused the death of her parents, and he felt guilty about it. In fact, this was part of the shame he was using to cultivate his Unclean Evil, that along with his inability to protect his family of course, and many other small things he had failed or done in a poor manner along the way.
So his choice was to either consume one True Essence Frozen Fire pill now and maybe only give the Pure pill to Hongyu if he had to give the other one to the Emperor. But in that case, she might not reap all the benefits that could have taken care of her problems for good. His other option was to let Hongyu consume it first, but then his cultivation would not be as fast as it could have been. And right now, his main concern was that he was too weak. After a lot of reflection, Cao Yun opted to be selfish. His reasoning was that his strength was the most important factor here. With enough strength, he might even be able to refine another True Essence Frozen Fire pill. That decision would feed his guilt a tiny bit which could be used for cultivating his Unclean Evil, even if that wasn't his goal.
Moreover, he still wasn't sure whether or not he was going to give the other True Essence Frozen Fire pill to the Emperor. For now, it was a chess piece on the board. He had to keep it in order to get closer to Emperor Weide and his daughter Yong Ke, but he couldn't be sure what would happen after that move.
Anyway, now that he had come to a decision, Cao Yun was ready to consume his pill. In order to optimize the use of this pill, he had a great idea.
Cao Yun and Feng Yingyue once again dual cultivated. They had at least two days before the competition would resume. The young woman was still working on tempering her Five Prodigious Gates and Cao Yun had them fully open and was gathering Fire Qi in his Middle Dantian. Dual cultivating with his Dao companion was always stimulating the Fire element within him. Thus, it would improve his assimilation of the Frozen Fire pill. On the other hand, the excess of Qi emitted from his body, and his intense heat, would benefit the young woman in her attempt at strengthening her Five Prodigious Gates.
The two alchemists consumed a pill each. Cao Yun gulped down his Frozen Fire pill, Feng Yingyue took a Pure Transparent Celestial Key pill. The medicinal essences of those two pills traveled through their bodies as they melded into one another. Their embrace was extremely tight, putting as much of their bodies in contact with each other. The Qi and the medicinal essence was flowing through their mouths and their intimate organs, deeply connected. Through their sensual dance, they were circulating them and cultivating as they were enjoying each other's warmth.