While he was feeling full of vigor, Cao Yun didn't let this excitement make him careless. In order to exit the city, he pushed his 'Ashen Feather Seal' to the limit. It was as though he was afraid a late Accomplished Demon might spy on him. A few weeks ago, he had indeed felt the gaze of someone on him. It had been very furtive, to the point where he wasn't even sure whether someone had truly been observing him. However, Cao Yun decided to be cautious. Since nothing had happened since then, he was a bit more confident but nor over-confident.
The reason why taking care of this city was so easy was because they were all weak compared with him and thought him even stronger than he was. Besides, their political structure wasn't too good, full of deceits and veiled ambitions. Maybe overtaking Lord Wanghuo would be easier than he had first thought. But then again, his sheer strength was a problem. With his current cultivation, even with many tricks, Cao Yun wasn't sure whether he could kill him or even injure him. Thankfully though, his cultivation was progressing fast. Because his Qi cultivation and blood cultivation were almost on par, Cao Yun could display a great deal of his actual strength without revealing he was human. However, he wouldn't be able to hide that he wasn't an Accomplished Demon.
Thus, Cao Yun had decided to hone his skills in the desert for a few days. Thanks to Xixue and the other Moshu tribesmen, he had a very good understanding of the Desolate Dune Desert. Taking Hongyu with him, Cao Yun discreetly left Ruohe before flying away with her. Once again, he enjoyed the sensation of flying while being snuggled into Hongyu's fiery feathers.
On his way, he encountered several demonic beasts, but not a single one had more than six demonic cores. By using both his spiritual senses and his compass, it was rather easy for Cao Yun to avoid those demonic beasts. In fact, he even played around with them by letting go of his 'Ashen Feather Seal' until the very last moment. Using stealth in a fight was such a big advantage, he also wanted to improve his ability to use it. Unfortunately, it wasn't possible to strike with a lot of force while using this technique. But it could be used to surprise someone during a fight. Even an instant of disorientation could prove fatal.
Of course, against someone with real spiritual senses, it would be difficult. After all, during a fight, their focus would be on Cao Yun. His mastery of this stealth art would need to be incredible in order to really trick him. The best he could hope for was just an instant of doubt to give him an edge.
After killing a few demonic beasts with his spear and some with his bare hands, Cao Yun had finally purged most of his excitement. He had never felt so alive in his entire life. Moreover, the next levels of his cultivation would be even more exhilarating. Cultivation was truly addictive in a sense. Although the time between each stage was becoming longer and longer, the rewards were well worth it.
Now that Cao Yun had formed his Horn Constellation, he was obviously working on his Neck Constellation. At the same time, he was also developing his Spear Intent. While his conscious mind was not focusing too much of it, a part of his intent was always watching the Insight Writings in his sea of consciousness during his training. As he was doing so, he slowly realized some kind of transformation. It wasn't too obvious at first as the Insight Writings seemed to fly all over the place without much coherence or pattern. But the more he was understanding them, the more he could see reoccurring patterns. It was as though those Insight Writings were forming some kind of time crystal. Instead of having a repetitive structure in space, it was forming one in time.
Deciphering the meanings behind those patterns was almost impossible. But thinking about them was still useful. It was an impossible riddle, but simply pondering about it was helpful in itself even if the answer was probably non-existent. Cao Yun had heard of those strange philosophical or even esoteric questions when he had read about the School of Ren Dao. Finding an answer wasn't the point, training the mind to think about it was the point. And indeed, now that he was seeing them in this new light, his Insight Writings were much more useful. They could help a little, but it was his own understanding of the spear that would shape them, not the other way around.
Maybe he could use the same kind of logic to translate more of Cleansed Asura's texts. Right now, he was still focusing on 'Death Verses' since it was the text he understood the most.
As he had decided to go back, Cao Yun still wanted to test something out. It had been a long time since he had truly been able to use it, but he was looking forward to it. From his spatial ring, he took out a sword. Although it wasn't very good compared with 'Tainted Heavenly Pillar', it was still a 5-star Human sword. Cao Yun had gotten it from the slavers he had killed when he had first appeared on this continent. That man had named it 'Unrivaled Above the Sand'. While ludicrous, Cao Yun didn't change the name as he would probably not use that sword very long. It had tasted so much blood and had inflicted so much torment, Cao Yun could almost feel it. Instead of a weapon of death, it had been used as a tool of torture. Somehow, he could feel the sword protesting about it, as though it didn't want to be used for such tasks that were beneath its quality.
Well, today, this 'Unrivaled Above the Sand' would get what it wanted. Hopefully, it would be able to resist. What Cao Yun was in mind was his family's martial art. Now that he was isolated from the Hongchen Kingdom, he had no reason not to use it. Because he had grown very accustomed to the spear, it would probably remain his main weapon. But maintaining his proficiency in other weapons would also be good. In fact, it might even help him, just like cultivating blood was helping him with Qi cultivation. The problem was always the same though, time. In order not to become a jack of all trades, master of none, Cao Yun would have to make a choice. And he had already chosen. Spear would remain his weapon of choice.
That being said, he had to maintain his 'Three Storms'. As the martial art literally invented by his great-grandfather Cao Beiwen, he was obviously emotionally attached to it. And he intended to use it when he would come back to the Hongchen Kingdom to cut down the traitor. Fortunately, this art was close to his 'Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars' as both were related to Wind. But 'Three Storms' was also using both Water and Thunder too. According to what Cao Beiwen had counted, he had felt some enlightenment while he was being thrown around by a powerful storm. At that time, he admitted that he had almost died. It was as though the storm was alive and wanted him dead. A few lightning bolts caused severe injuries that had slowed down his cultivation a bit.
In the end though, Cao Beiwen had endured by letting his Qi follow the fury of the storm. Riding the storm out, he felt like a dead log, powerlessly thrown around by this tumultuous hurricane. And this was the point of this martial art. One had to create such a storm within and let its fury express itself without trying to control it. A phrase Cao Beiwen often used was 'control without control'. Obviously, it had annoyed many members of the younger generation since it was unintelligible. Somehow though, Cao Yun felt like he had understood it a lit. Trying to control everything in the storm was pointless, what he needed to control was only himself and the storm would be naturally responding to him in a way as it was an extension of his sword and of himself.
Thinking about that, the young man remembered his childhood. For a moment, he was a little by again and he heard the voice of his great-grandfather. He could even sense his loving gaze on his back while he was training under his mother's supervision. Although he believed in the Heavenly Court, where one's ethereal soul would await reincarnation, he didn't know for sure that it was real. Still, he hoped that his family was watching him from that Heavenly Court. A bit of shame coursed through his spine. After all, he had failed to protect his little sister and he had decided to devote a huge part of his life to revenge. In a sense, he had disobeyed both commands his parents had given him with their last words. But he had no intention to fail in any endeavor. In the end, he would make them proud and they could accept a new life in peace, forgetting the torments of this one.
'The Wind rises in the East.'
While brandishing his sword, powerful gusts of wind scattered the burning sand all around Cao Yun. His moves were very precise and they flowed perfectly from one to another. After all, as a child, he had practiced this routine for hundreds, if not thousands, of hours. As much as spear and sword were different, there were still common principles, just like was the case with unarmed martial arts as well. Thus, by improving his spear and almost reaching Spear Intent, Cao Yun had developed his swordsmanship too, albeit indirectly. Here and there, he could sense that his moves were a bit awkward.
From the outside, it looked extremely good, but Cao Yun could feel small mistakes just as well as Chief Elder Bian would have spotted them. Indeed, some of his moves were too close to his spearmanship and seemed a bit clumsy while wielding a sword. He would need to get rid of them. In fact, for at least four hours, Cao Yun repeated the same two-minute long routine with his sword.
After more than a hundred repetitions, Cao Yun was still not tired of this routine. In fact, he was used to repeating the very same move again and again. Most cultivators would have been sick of it by that point, wanting a bit of change, but not Cao Yun. With each and every move, he was able to find small subtleties both in his movement, his muscles, his breathing, even his attitude. Focusing on those tiny variations, each move felt different in some way. By analyzing those differences, he was honing his skills.
'The Thunder rumbles in the West.'
Finally going to his next routine, the young man's body emitted thunderous sounds. His tendons and his muscles were being stretched and contracted like crazy. It was as though his tissues were whips. And their sudden changes caused the sound of thunder to resound around Cao Yun. Thunder wasn't too uncommon in the desert, especially not the Desolate Dune Desert. Many weaker demonic beasts and almost all animals left the area where Cao Yun was training.
Before long, there was actual thunder around Cao Yun. His very sword was crackling with electricity. Of course, this was his Qi Manifestation. But he had not consciously used it. Instead, this Qi Manifestation had been caused by his very Golden Blood. Demons and asura could indeed perform Qi Manifestation unconsciously, just like demonic beasts. Since he was going to stay among demons for a few years, the young human had to get rid of his habit of using Qi Manifestation in any other way.
'The Ice hails in the South.'
After almost an entire day focused on those two routines, the swordsman began to work on the third and final aspect of 'Three Storms'. This was an element that was the least familiar to him. Indeed, both Thunder and Wind were aspects of the Wood element. From the five elements, two of them were quite unique, Fire and Water. The other three elements all gave birth to two aspects. Metal gave birth to Heaven and Lake, Earth to Mountain and Field, and Wood to Thunder and Wind.
When it came to the first two stances of 'Three Storms', there was no problem at all. But for the third stance that contained the Water element, it was a bit more difficult for the young cultivator. Thankfully, his Lower Dantian was full of Water Qi so he did have some experience with this element. And he had already thought people specialized in that element like Zhi Yin. Hopefully this would help him at least a little.
Then, he spent almost two days straight executing the very same movements. Besides, since he was in the Desolate Dune Desert that was so rich in Fire element, performing 'The Ice hails in the South.' became very difficult. But it was a good exercise for him. In fact, he even surmised that it would help his Lesser Tribulation. After all, the point of the Lesser Tribulation was to make Water Qi and Fire Qi clash with each other to give birth to one's Soul Embryo. Right now, Cao Yun was trying to allow Water to live under Fire. It was also helping his two inferior Dantian work together by sending his Qi through specific pathways.
Finally, Cao Yun was rather happy with his swordsmanship. 'Unrivaled Above the Sand' also seemed overjoyed to be finally used for real martial arts. But it was also missing the taste of blood somehow. Of course, the weapon had no consciousness of any kind. But those were the sensations Cao Yun was getting from it. Maybe he had been too influence with 'Nine Chi Black Dragon Spear'. Even now, he had kept the Ebony Snake Dragon's scale in his spatial ring. He wanted to use it for a future weapon and he knew exactly which blacksmith would help him with that. But it would take some time for him to reach his brother again.
After being lost in the first three stances for so long, Cao Yun decided to perform the fourth stances before going back. Maybe he would also fight for real before returning to Ruohe. Within the city, he couldn't practice his art to his heart's content and he knew that his plans wouldn't require too much fighting, at least for now. That was too bad, so he enjoyed his martial arts while he could...