Just as he was about to leave the stables, Cao Yun felt a tremor in the ground. The stables were on the outskirts of the Imperial City. To Cao Yun's best knowledge, there was absolutely no risk of earthquake. In fact, there had never been a single natural disaster in the Imperial City. However, looking toward the Imperial Palace, Cao Yun saw a column of black smoke. His first instinct was that the demonic cultivators had attacked. Almost immediately he was ready to jump on Hongyu to go there. Feng Yingyue and Mei Hua were there. Of course, they were protected by Hua Fenfei and Xiao Xuefeng.
The attack was so sudden, it felt unreal. And before Cao Yun could think more about it, he smelled a strange aroma. Without thinking, he closed off his seven apertures. Those were all the openings of the face. From his previous stealth technique 'Locking the Seven and Stopping the Waves', Cao Yun had learned it. But he had also merged it with what he had understood in Tree of Death's book. In his mind, there was absolutely no doubt. The fragrance he had just smelled was poison. And it was spreading all around him.
Without any hesitation, he used his Flying Poison to send a feeling into Hongyu's mind. At the same time, he screamed for her to fly up. Speaking while there was poison around him was foolish. Yet, he did so even though he could send a telepathic message to his mount. Indeed, he knew that he wasn't alone.
All around him, the fragrance was replaced by a thick black fog. He had recognized the poison and now he also identified that black gas. The poison was Purple Leafed Belladonna. According to Cao Yun's knowledge, it could instantaneously kill an early Mortal Warrior if he consumed it directly. By breathing it, the effects were a bit slower. Considering Cao Yun's current cultivation and the fact that alchemists were more resistant to poison since they could control their essence in their body, he wouldn't die immediately. However, he would be almost paralyzed, ready for someone else to kill him.
On the other hand, that black smoke was Blind Serpent Dust. There was no poison within. However, it was used to conceal something from anyone's senses. In fact, it was often considered a 4-star Heaven substance. Even a middle Spirit Warrior would have a hard time sensing anything within that dust. Inside the cloud of dust though, excepting the sight, physical senses were not altered too much. In other words, this Blind Serpent Dust was meant to prevent outsiders from seeing or sensing what was going on within the cloud. However, it was possible to hear everything.
Listening to Cao Yun, Hongyu flapped her wings and found herself high in the sky in an instant. Despite her quick reaction, a bit of Purple Leafed Belladonna had entered her system. It would take her several minutes to get rid of it. In the meantime, she couldn't land or she would be thoroughly poisoned. In fact, on the ground, Cao Yun had collapsed.
His breathing was rugged and there were a few spasms across his body. Clearly, the poison had worked and the young man was defenseless. That was precisely the moment when the assassin decided to strike. Entirely clad in black, a silhouette appeared at the outskirts of the cloud of dust. She was rather far from Cao Yun. Even if he seemed to be dying, the assassin took every precaution. That assassin was Sha Diyi, the one hired by Xue Gulin.
There was no hesitation in her strike. Linked to a chain, she sent a knife toward Cao Yun's throat and another toward Cao Yun's heart from his back. The chains were obviously there to retrieve her weapons so as to leave no clue at all.
Unfortunately for the assassin, Cao Yun had been faking it. Even by speaking, he had absorbed almost no poison at all and the little he had absorbed had been burned away by his Black Heart Flame. Thanks to his knowledge from Tree of Death's book, he had identified the poison in an instant and had known what to do right away. Thus, he was ready for the two knives.
The one coming for his throat was completely stopped by his Wei Qi. It was as though it had hit a solid wall. Despite Sha Diyi's strength, the knife had no way of penetrating Cao Yun's defenses. Just to be sure he had used Dragon's Chest. On the other hand, he dodged the knife coming for his back.
Just as he moved, the trajectory of the knife changed. Sha Diyi still tried to kill him in one last attempt. However, she was too slow. Even though she had reacted quickly, she had still been surprised by Cao Yun's reaction. On the other hand, Cao Yun had already prepared his move. Thus Sha Diyi had a small disadvantage. And this was enough for Cao Yun to be faster than her. He grabbed the knife and pulled on the chain. At the same time, he grabbed the chain linked to the second knife.
Using all of his physical strength, he tried to pull Sha Diyi toward him. Without any hesitation, she broke the chains. However, she had been a bit too slow even then. Some of the force applied by Cao Yun pushed her forward before she could completely break off the chains. She was now in range of his spear. After all 'Tainted Heavenly Pillar' was rather tall.
From Cao Yun's spatial ring, the weapon appeared and immediately went for Sha Diyi's chest. He was trying to pierce her heart just as she tried to pierce his. The moment the weapon hit her chest, a loud sound of metal against metal echoed through the Blind Serpent Dust. Because of the thick fog, the sound was a bit distorted, but Cao Yun and Sha Diyi were so close they heard it perfectly well.
Beneath Sha Diyi's black clothes, Cao Yun saw thick chains all around her body. Here and there, he also saw many knives, some were connected to the chains, some were not. Now that he was close enough, he could smell many different poisons on all those knives. The two knives she had sent against him was obviously covered in poisons as well.
In fact, Cao Yun realized that the knife he had stopped with his Wei Qi had contaminated his Wei Qi. Indeed, there was so kind of corrosive force. Before he could even identify the poison, Cao Yun ejected some Qi in the distance in order to get rid of this corruption.
Sha Diyi had suffered almost no injury as she had been able to rotate her body at the last moment. What remained of the shock was mostly absorbed by her armor made out of chains.
For a split second, Sha Diyi had hesitated. But in the end, she decided to run away. From what she knew about the young man, a direct fight was impossible. Now that she could see how inefficient even her best poisons were, she had to run away. Accomplishing her mission was important but surviving was essential. Dying to accomplish her mission might be acceptable, but dying for nothing was not.
Unfortunately for her, her trap had turned against her. Now that they were both concealed from the outside world and with the confusion, Cao Yun could unleash everything. However, he had to make sure that the Blind Serpent Dust remained around them. So he could use his spear to the fullest right now. The winds unleashed by his 'Tainted Heavenly Pillar' would tear it apart. In fact, this would be his final move. Thankfully, 'Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars' had other moves.
For example, Cao Yun could use 'The Dragon's Belly is Contorted'. With this technique, he moved all around Sha Diyi and set up some kind of array formation using his own spear. Everything in the area was stuck in place for some time. Several ethereal spears looking like the teeth of the Azure Dragon flew all other the place. As they reached the distance Cao Yun wanted, they turned into scales. The two of them were now trapped by those scales, and even the Blind Serpent Dust was unable to pass through them.
From Sha Diyi's clothes, several dozens blades flew in the air. Some were connected to her physical chains, but others were connected to chains made out of her Qi Manifestation. They went in every direction. The chains were intertwined with each other in order to make predicting their trajectories almost impossible. However, Cao Yun didn't care at all about their trajectories. What he cared about was where Sha Diyi was.
From his palms, a terrifying black flame appeared and covered his entire spear. When Sha Diyi looked at it, the spear seemed to be made of thousands of damned souls. She could even hear their screams and imagine their agony. As that moment, she felt as though she was knee deep in a pool of blood. All around her she could see mangled bodies and beheaded corpses. Behind Cao Yun, she even saw a mountain of severed heads. And Cao Yun's eyes were full of blood.
Cao Yun had used his 'Sea of Blood' from 'Weeping Demon'. This was the evolved version of 'Bleeding Eyes'. Similarly to Long Huafang's 'The Moon in the Eye', his new technique didn't required his opponent to look into his eyes. His very killing intent was enough to cause hallucinations. In fact, if Sha Diyi had directly looked into Cao Yun's eyes, her legs would have given way. Even as an assassin, the scene she had in front of her was almost unbearable.
Since she was distracted, Cao Yun directly appeared in front of her and stabbed her with the most natural move, as though it was nothing. But he didn't stop there. Because she had isolated him from prying eyes, he could now attack her soul without anyone questioning him. Indeed, he simply had to destroy her body afterward so there would be no clue left. In fact, he could even use his Black Heart Flame and accuse her of being a demonic cultivator whose seal had been activated. Since she was clearly an assassin, he didn't mind at all.
The firs thing he did was to send his Black Heart Flame throughout her body. Cao Yun destroyed both her Lower and Middle Dantian. After that, he consumed her meridians and her vessels, going toward her Upper Dantian. Finally, Flying Poison left his sea of consciousness and entered Sha Diyi's soul, extracting it from her Upper Dantian. Claws covered in strange rotting green fur perforated her soul and took it out toward Cao Yun's sea of consciousness.
Now that she was trapped in his own mind, Sha Diyi had nothing to do. Indeed, she was only a middle Mortal Warrior, not a Spirit Warrior.
For now, Cao Yun still couldn't perform a full Soul Memory Search. Thus, he asked Dian Mo's help and he accepted without any problem. Sha Diyi's trapped soul was sucked into the darkness of the Demon Palace floating in Cao Yun's sea of consciousness. Dian Mo didn't take more than a few seconds to completely break her soul and extract her memories. They then all flew into his mind. He simply had to send what was interesting to Cao Yun.
Sha Diyi was indeed an assassin. But what truly amazed Cao Yun was something else entirely. Indeed, that woman wasn't just a criminal. She wasn't even a demonic cultivator like the threats he had faced until now. Instead, she was affiliated with Cang Yin. During the fight he had not really noticed it. But now that he paid closer attention, her blood was indeed extremely rich in demon blood, just like Cang Yin's. That woman had been birthed by a human and a demon. In her memories, Cao Yun saw that she had been born in the Empyrean Asura Theocracy, not in the Hongchen Kingdom.
In theory, demons couldn't pass the borders of the Hongchen Kingdom without being detected. Even if humans had demon blood, they could pass through the defenses and this would raise no alarm at all. But there was no human left outside of the Hongchen Kingdom. Unfortunately, the demons found two ways to take care of this problem. The first one was the simplest but also the most difficult to use, they could simply capture humans and bring them back. Considering the defenses of the Hongchen Kingdom, it was almost impossible.
The other way consisted in merging bloodlines. Indeed, just like humans had demon blood, demons had human blood. Indeed, both humans and demons had had the two blood mixed inside of them since Demon God Da Mo's era. The real difference was in the quality of each blood and their ratio. Demons had only ever captured a handful of humans. In the end though, they achieved their goal. They produced children that were very close to being demons while still remaining humans.
After those experiments, the demons had been able to produce several dozen humans. Obviously, they had indoctrinated them into their religion. Those humans were absolutely loyal to the demons. And they were here for a very specific mission, weakening the Hongchen Kingdom from within. Unfortunately, Sha Diyi didn't know much. Every one of them had a different mission. The information was strictly on a need-to-know basis. Empyrean Asura had made sure to keep everything well compartmentalized.
With everything in Sha Diyi's mind, Cao Yun knew that the demons had planned to use the distraction caused by the demonic cultivators. And indeed, the demonic cultivators had attacked the Imperial City. But now, he knew that many attacks by demons were probably going on right now. Even though he was worried for Feng Yingyue who was still within the Imperial Palace, closer to the place attacked by the demons, Cao Yun's goal shifted. He had to find Xiao Xuefeng as soon as possible to tell her everything he had just learned.
For the time being, he would have to push everything else aside for the greater good of the Hongchen Kingdom. Xiao Xuefeng had connections within the Myriad Cherry Blossom Hall and her reputation was high enough that Emperor Weide would listen to her. Besides, she wouldn't have to explain how she had gotten this information. Since Cao Yun had no idea of the scale of the attack, he had to act as soon as possible so they could prepare a riposte.