Xin Zhe's army was thoroughly exhausted. It wasn't physical of course. But mentally, they were tired of their constant wariness. Not only were they forced to be cautious about their surroundings, but they also had to walk on eggshells in front of Xin Zhe herself. After suffering from a few seals left by Cao Yun in the seas of consciousness of the few prisoners they had taken, she was as upset as she could be. Usually, she was in control of everything. Apart from City Lord Sihe, no one was better than her when it came to seals. In fact, she prided herself with her ability when it came to manipulate minds. On that specific point, she thought herself superior to even City Lord Sihe. After all, even he couldn't break someone's will as easily as she could.
On the long way toward the Sand Wolves Tribe though, she had realized that this Tie Po was better than her. At first, it wasn't obvious as she could still pin her mistake on overconfidence. But even after using as much care as she could, she had still failed repeatedly. Clearly, this man had surpassed her. In fact, she even begun to wonder whether the rumors were really baseless. She had obviously guessed that this Mo Yun was also this Tie Po thanks to the first slaves she had captured. It wasn't that hard to piece things together. But there was no real proof and no one would care about an Accomplished Demon killing a few slavers. Besides, he was now working with Boss Gui, so he was even more difficult to approach.
What truly gave her pause was his ability when it came to seals. Thus, she truly wondered whether he had indeed worked with or for City Lord Sihe. Maybe even she was unaware of something. After all, she was privy to every single detail of his organization. At first, she was certain that it was impossible. But now...
Anyway, no matter who that Mo Yun really was, he would soon be a problem of the past. Most likely, he was helping the Sand Wolves Tribe right now. Although she wasn't sure of his purpose, Xin Zhe could guess that he was trying to impede City Lord Sihe's business in order to promote Boss Gui. Whatever his reason was, Xin Zhe intended to take him down and bring him as prisoner to City Lord Sihe. Such a man had to be used, she couldn't simply kill him. Unfortunately, he was also a 2nd-grade Accomplished Demon. Of course, like her, he probably wasn't a fighter. Thus she was hopeful she could deal with him and the tribe at the same time. In fact, the tribe might have already escaped. That would mean even longer days spent looking for them. She was really sick of this desert!
As Xin Zhe was pondering over her frustration, something new happened. Without giving any order, her palanquin stopped. For some time now, she had relinquished her spiritual senses because of her fatigue. Immediately, she expanded them once more and heard her generals just as she observed the situation.
"Lady, we've noticed several of our men walking toward us in the distance."
"Did you identify them?"
"Yes, Lady. Those are members of the vanguard parties. The wounds on their bodies and the dryness of their faces and lips show that they've been held captive a long time and have been released in the burning sand several days ago."
"I see... But why would they free them?! This might be a trap, General. Send a small party to recover them while I keep an eye on things. Also make sure our defenses are strong. The sun is setting soon so we'll establish a camp here. Hopefully this will be the last one before we get to those rats."
"Understood, Lady."
Just as the general sent his orders, Xin Zhe did as she had said. Her spiritual senses spread forward. Even now, the prisoners were a bit too far for her. Thus, she decided to get closer. Leaving her palanquin, Xin Zhe slowly rose in the air. When she thought she was at a safe enough altitude, she flew toward the prisoners, almost acting as vanguard to her own men. Xin Zhe hated doing this kind of thing as she preferred to stay inside and give orders rather than to dirty herself. Under the scorching sun, she circulated her Golden Blood to protect her fair skin. After seeing several nomad tribesmen, she didn't want their skin. Of course, there was almost no risk considering her cultivation and the little time spent under the sun. But she was very careful anyway.
From up above, she was still able to send her spiritual senses deep into the sand below. All around her own men, there was no trace of any kind of trap or ambush. Even for her, this was painful to leave parts of her soul in this sand saturated with Fire Qi. But she was now used to this pain.
When her men reached the prisoners, a few of them simply collapsed in their arms. Although they were Golden Blood Children, they had been deprived of water for too long. The couple who could still talk were not coherent at all. Still, Xin Zhe was careful and focused herself all around the spot they had met with her own men. After she was certain that everything was safe, she wondered whether there was any trap within the prisoners themselves.
Just as her army was setting up camp, a few of them were still guarding their surroundings. The generals weren't too convinced by Xin Zhe's idea. If it were up to them, they would have preferred to go back or even simply move in another direction before setting up the camp. It really felt as though the Sand Wolves Tribe wanted them precisely there. To be honest, it wouldn't have changed anything.
Indeed, Xin Zhe had failed to notice an observer. Cao Yun was above them all on the back of Hongyu. A few days ago, he had already tested his 'Ashen Feather Seal' against Xin Zhe. Maybe she could have noticed something unusual if she had been paying attention, but her spiritual senses were completely focused on the sand after all those ambushes. This was exactly what Cao Yun had been hoping for. In fact, everything was going extremely well.
He had not thought that Xin Zhe herself would get close to the prisoners. That was both good and sub-optimal. To tell the truth, it would have been better if the prisoners had been brought to her within her army. But she was still doing precisely what Cao Yun was expecting. After having to deal with all those seals, she knew that Cao Yun was a master in that domain. Obviously, she would look for seals within those prisoners. And that was exactly what he was counting on.
Floating before Cao Yun's hands were his compass and a few flags with various characters on them. There were also a lot of high spirit stones. Apparently, there weren't many spirit stones in the Desolate Sepulcher so he didn't want to waste those he had in his spatial ring. But they would probably be necessary to activate his 'Golden Cicada Sheds Its Skin' array formation. And now, he was waiting for the perfect moment. If he timed it just right, he would have to use much fewer spirit stones and the effects would even be better while also injuring Xin Zhe in the process.
As she was examining the prisoners, Xin Zhe detected several seals in their seas of consciousness. Trying to probe their minds would be a problem. But then, she noticed something else. Someone had tried to hide it with blood runes, but there were engravings within one of the prisoners' bones. When she tried to look at it more closely, she remembered something else she had worked on with City Lord Sihe. Almost a year ago, they had engraved seals in the bones of Xixue, a girl who had been in the caravan destroyed by Mo Yun. And if she remembered right, those seals could...
Suddenly, Xin Zhe flew away, back toward the army. Her own men down below didn't understand her abrupt flight. However, it became clear when the prisoner she had been examining literally exploded. His flesh ruptured and all his bones turned into shrapnel piercing through their bodies. Those bones were full of Qi and covered in blood and blood runes. Those men were only Golden Blood Children so they died on the spot as such an attack could even injure an Accomplished Demon. But this didn't stop there, all the blood of this poor prisoner was vaporized instantly, causing a vast shockwave full of Evil Qi and even Death Energy. Cao Yun had also added his own note as there were faint traces of his Black Heart Flame.
Despite her speed, Xin Zhe was caught in the aftermath of the explosion. This was almost the same kind of suicide attacked they had planned against Boss Gui. Xixue's seals, engraved in her bones, were supposed to activate some day when she was close to Boss Gui. If even an early Accomplished Demon stood next to her at that moment, they would be killed unless they acted right away. And no one would have been able to suspect such a thing, so Boss Gui herself would not have been able to survive. And even if she could, she would still be so weakened that taking care of her after that would be easy enough.
Never had Xin Zhe imagined that she would be on the receiving end of a trap she had helped to create. But the truth was right in front of her, her rather just behind her. However, she also realized that this explosion was a bit different from what she had prepared. There was something more in it, there was a powerful corrosive force. Even at a distance, her very soul was injured and a large part of her skin was burned away. As an Accomplished Demon, she would be able to heal it very fast but it was still painful and caused her much distress.
When she finally recovered her wits, she realized that the scenery had completely changed. She wasn't in the desert anymore. Right now, she was in a strange place she couldn't identify. All around her, there were walls made of golden sheets she could somehow see through. There was also a strange light as she wasn't able to discern its source because it seemed to come from all around her at once. Maybe the golden sheets themselves were producing this light. Besides, those sheets also had small capillaries running through them, almost as if those were pieces of living membranes.
Immediately, she expanded her spiritual senses but didn't discover anything at all. Beyond the golden sheets around her, her spiritual senses would simply not expand. She could analyze the narrow space she was in but nothing more.
What was currently happening to Xin Zhe was also happening to everyone in her army. Small groups of mercenaries, soldiers and slaves were trapped between golden membranes, unable to detect anything beyond those, even though they seemed almost transparent. Obviously, this was the 'Golden Cicada Sheds Its Skin' array formation.
Outside, as soon as the explosion had been caused by Xin Zhe's probing, Cao Yun had sent his flags and some high spirit stones all over the place. The shockwave of the explosion itself helped kick-start the array formation so he had been able to keep more high spirit stones in his spatial ring. For now, everyone was trapped in the array formation. From above, it really looked like the shedding of a giant cicada sending golden light all over the place.
The point of that array formation was to trap and separate forces on the battlefield. The main problem was that it also prevented anyone from attacking from the outside. However, it was possible to break it apart layer by layer. Of course, with each layer broken, the array formation would become more unstable, increasing the risk for the rest of the cultivators to break free. But Cao Yun was confident that they would have a very hard time with it even though his array formation wasn't that powerful.
Anyway, right now, there was still someone who could attack from without, Cao Yun himself. Not only did he know perfectly the layout of this array formation, he also knew how to spread his spiritual senses within. In order to physically enter a layer, it was necessary to break it open, unleashing the people within. But one could send their spiritual senses inside of the layers if only they knew which path to take.
Because he had set up this array formation himself, Cao Yun knew exactly what to do. Besides, he already had a rough idea where all the slaves were. Thus, he hurried up and sent his spiritual senses at the precise location of those slaves. Like all the other cultivators, they were all over the place. But because most of the slaves had been surrounding the army, they were mostly trapped with other slaves.
In the distance, the small army mainly composed of the Sand Wolves Tribe with some reinforcements from the tribes of the Crimson Ashes Basin saw the golden hue. This was their cue to move toward the battleground. Unlike the army of Xin Zhe, they were not impaired by the Desolate Dune Desert at all. So they were able to get there very fast.
When they arrived, Cao Yun was floating above the giant corpse of a dried golden cicada. Obviously, he wasn't flying, he was still sitting on Hongyu's back. She was the one hovering above the array formation. With the golden light from the 'Golden Cicada Sheds Its Skin' and the majesty of Hongyu, Cao Yun appeared like a god to the tribesmen. Many believed that he had in his veins the Blood of Tie Po. Although demons believed in reincarnation of the soul like humans, they also believed that one's will and spirit survived through their Blood.
Then, they saw some turbid air exit Cao Yun's Upper Dantian and enter the array formation. At the moment, he had focused his spiritual senses so much that they were almost visible to a Golden Blood Child. Some were a bit afraid at that sight as they felt the anger of the Flying Poison course through them.