Within Xin Zhe's sea of consciousness, the fight was raging. From the outside, it was completely different though. While she was still sitting cross-legged in the air, Xin Zhe was perfectly immobile. On the other hand, her soldiers were actively using the white bones from her spatial ring as well as her disks. Those were weapons much superior to theirs. Besides, they still retained some of her Qi and blood. With them, they were targeting the exact target Xin Zhe had attacked before entering her sea of consciousness. Although they weren't as powerful as she was, they were about to break down the 'Golden Cicada Sheds Its Skin' array formation. It was only a matter of minutes now.
In the air, Cao Yun was sitting on the back of Hongyu. She was alert in order to keep him safe. After all, there was a large battle on the ground. Everyone was much too busy to spare any attention toward Cao Yun. In fact, only Xixue cared about him. Indeed, she was in the mix despite being rather weak. To be fair, the Sand Wolves Tribe had been forced to mobilize absolutely everyone who could fight in order to have a chance. Even with everything on their side, they barely had the advantage.
Unfortunately, the sandstorm caused by Cao Yun was calming down. Once it mostly dissipated, it showed utter chaos. Some demons had turned into monsters with pure red skin and golden lines over their bloodied skin. Qi Manifestations were also everywhere. A man with a morning star was wielding it around. With each move, hymns echoed throughout the battlefield as drops of fuming blood spattered everyone around. Those drops were corrosive and could sink into one's flesh.
The sand had literally turned red from all the blood spilled. Blood was extremely important in a fight between demons. There were many customs around blood throughout the Desolate Sepulcher and also in any kingdom where demons lived anyway. Some customs seemed to clash with each other as different traditions and belief systems were coexisting. However, during a fight, spilling the enemy's blood was probably a universal practice that shaped the weapons of the demons. After all, blood was equivalent to Qi for humans. While humans could replenish their Qi easily from the environment, demons were forced to store it in their blood, instinctively. With less blood, they could wield less Qi. It was rather simple. Besides, stealing the blood of the enemy was also often seen as absorbing their strength.
In some tribes, it was customary to drink some of the blood of the battle. But even among demons, cannibalism wasn't considered as a good thing. In fact, it was a forbidden taboo. Drinking blood was almost always a practice in which a few drops of blood were put in wine and it was really wine that was drunk. However, there were techniques to steal the blood essence of demons and it wasn't considered as cannibalism because the goal wasn't to absorb the blood or the flesh, but the essence of the other demon. Once again, different tribes could have different views on all of those. Unlike humans, demons were much more diverse. After all the humans had developed their culture under the perpetual threat of slavery and annihilation so they were much more cohesive. And this was their strength as the demons had a hard time agreeing on most subjects. Even the Desolate Sepulcher was much more cohesive than the main land.
On the battlefield, General Sha Lang Hu was using large claws that were also as long as his forearms and could slice a mere mortal in half quite easily. As he was wielding his weapons, the manifestation of a massive and terrifying black bear was slaughtering many mercenaries.
Thankfully, many slaves had joined the Sand Wolves Tribe in the battle. The tribe had prepared enough weapons for all of them. And they were happy to get their revenge on the soldiers. At the same time, some other slaves were still under the threat of the Slavery Brand. But as it turned out, those who were in control of those seals were all under the last layer of the 'Golden Cicada Sheds Its Skin' array formation including Xin Zhe of course. Still, it was a problem. If those soldiers were to die, the slaves under their command would have their Slavery Brands activated and they would die in the worst torments they could imagine. However, some decided that it was worth it.
In fact, many of the slaves still inflicted with the Slavery Brand decided to disobey their direct orders. As long as their masters were trapped and isolated from them, their Slavery Brands didn't seem to be affecting them at all. But they knew it would change as soon as the array formation fell apart. Unfortunately, Cao Yun was too busy with something else to do anything about them. Xixue was looking at him in the sky, worried. In this battle, she was mainly taking care of the resources, be it the weapons or the pills. Indeed, many pills had been refined to heal and even strengthen the Sand Wolves Tribe.
While the battle was pure chaos, the same could have been said about the fight within Xin Zhe's sea of consciousness.
Cao Yun's Flying Poison had carved the Unclean Evil and the Stinking Lungs characters up in the sky. As soon as the Death Energy connected with them, they began to siphon it. Loud explosions echoed in the sky as the two characters became like two black holes sucking in all of the Death Energy getting close to them. Cao Yun had imbued them with his knowledge of 'Death Reeling'. So Death Energy was just like Qi. But because this Death Energy was also mixed with Xin Zhe's essence and intent, the characters themselves were starting to crumble. As they were literally falling apart, the absorbed Death Energy was immediately used to restore them. Thus they were in a perpetual state of death and rebirth. And this was driving the associated Turbid Demons mad.
Xin Zhe was faring too well either. Sensing that Cao Yun was stronger than her in the arts of the mind and soul, she was forced to admit that she was in a tight spot. Ironically, if she had fought him in the physical realm, Cao Yun would have been almost powerless against her. But she had been under the impression that he was stronger physically and weaker spiritually. In other words, she had been overconfident about her own mind cultivation. If she had known all this, she would have never allowed Cao Yun's soul to enter her sea of consciousness. Considering her strength, she could clearly have been able to block him beforehand.
As she was starting to panic, Xin Zhe completely let go of the chains reining in her Flying Poison. Now free, he screamed as loudly as he could. Many more pikes appeared all over his bloody and green haired body. He launched himself toward Cao Yun. Now, he didn't care about anything else than to kill the intruder. After that, he would probably turn his rage either against Xin Zhe or even against himself, it was common.
Because it went straight for Cao Yun, the Flying Poison literally broke apart most of the bones emerging from Xin Zhe's sea of consciousness. With his tails he took some of the fragments to hurl them toward his target. At the same time, he was creating weapons with the sturdiest bones. Reacting swiftly, Cao Yun flew as close to the hidden ocean as possible. That way, the Flying Poison had more bones to go through and it was slowing him down. Because he was pure rage, the Flying Poison was not thinking at all. Otherwise, he would have realized that they were not limited to the laws of the physical world. He could have gone much faster. In fact, he would probably have been able to directly appear in front of Cao Yun. After all, it was Xin Zhe's sea of consciousness so her soul was ruling this place. She could do things Cao Yun couldn't.
Thankfully, the Flying Poison had gained in raw strength but had lost any strategic mind he might have had. However, he was a real threat as he could inflict true damage to Cao Yun's soul. As much as he could easily repair his flesh, Cao Yun wasn't too sure about his soul. Moreover, injuring his Flying Poison would make the Unclean Evil and the Stinking Lungs too powerful in comparison. So it would be dangerous for his very mind and soul.
Hidden behind some of the bones in Xin Zhe's ocean, Cao Yun's Flying Poison literally put his hand through his abdomen. It was as if he was trying to rip out his own heart. But what he got out of it was a ball of black flames, the Black Heart Flame. Immediately, he crashed it into the bones surrounding him. The bones were burned to nothingness in mere instants. The Black Heart Flame was growing as it was devouring more of those bones.
Finally, Xin Zhe's Flying Poison had found Cao Yun. He flew straight toward his target. But at that moment, he found himself in an ocean of pitch-black flames. In an instant, he stopped moving and yelled in pain. Forgetting about his enemy, the Flying Poison tried to escape in the air. At that moment, Cao Yun used his tails to grab him and throw him down below. The Flying Poison went through the ocean of flames once more and collided with some of the bones still hidden beneath the true infinite ocean of Xin Zhe. Under the shock, those bones shattered and the Flying Poison found himself in the water. However, it didn't do anything against the Black Heart Flame. It was still devouring the Flying Poison.
Taken over by pure madness, the Flying Poison only cared about soaring high in the sky. If he had been able to think clearly, he would have simply swum away to emerge farther. But he had lost all reason and the pain wasn't helping with that.
Sensing the critical situation, Xin Zhe tried to intervene. The bones that were forming a kind of barrier over her ocean sunk down at the bottom of the infinite water. Seeing this change, even the irrational Flying Poison was not stupid enough not to seize this opportunity. He swam away from Cao Yun and then flew high in the sky. As he was doing so, Cao Yun manifested a golden spear in his hands. It was literally formed from some of his Spear Aura. In reality, Cao Yun had almost reached the realm of the Spear Intent. He really just needed a small push in the right direction to complete it. Even now, as he was manifesting this golden spear, the Insight Writings in his own sea of consciousness were soaring in the sky and forming hymns by dancing with each other. Those hymns were also echoing in his mind at the same time.
Within those Insight Writings, there were also fragments of what he had been able to extract from the Demon King's essence. In those Insight Writing, there were few pointers related to the Dao of Death, but also even the Dao of Space. Of course, Cao Yun couldn't understand them at all and even if he had been able to, they were not that great anyway. However, they were there without a doubt, thus this improved Cao Yun's understanding of 'Death Verses' marginally. As a consequence, even his Black Heart Flame was improved a little.
Cao Yun threw this golden spear toward the Flying Poison. Without any hesitation, Xin Zhe took a swift decision. Her deformed Unclean Evil suddenly appeared on the trajectory of the golden spear and was impaled in her Flying Poison's stead. She had preferred risking a Turbid Demon that wasn't formed rather than her fully formed Flying Poison. But the pain to her soul was immense. In fact, at that moment, she completely lost control of the Flying Poison.
Now that he had done enough damage, Cao Yun focused on the two characters in the sky. From those black holes, four large columns of white lightning emerged. They struck Xin Zhe's sea of consciousness in the four cardinal directions. Just after that, Cao Yun's Flying Poison escaped from her chaotic sea of consciousness. Understanding what he had done, Xin Zhe tried to keep him trapped within her.
Because she couldn't rely on her Flying Poison, Xin Zhe resorted to her seals. That was her greatest strength after all. As he was flying away, Cao Yun was stopped by a very complex seal that appeared before him. It was a form of character with thousands of strokes. Merely analyzing it would take too long, but Cao Yun could tell that it was difficult to go through it without injuring his soul. Once again, he used his two black holes in the sky. Xin Zhe was also trying to stop those, but she was unable to do a thing as her focus was split on too many problems at the same time.
From the black holes, white lightning struck the complex character. Right after that, Flying Poison performed several signs and six seals appeared around him. He tried to fly through the complex seal. His own seals acted as shields. They all crumbled and exploded but Xin Zhe's seal had been weakened enough for Cao Yun's Flying Poison to go through it.
Finally, he reached one of the four columns of white lightning. As soon as the Flying Poison was on the other side of that column, he struck it with a palm. All four columns vibrated with the same harmony and a loud sound echoed throughout Xin Zhe's sea of consciousness. She had realized what Cao Yun was trying to do but it was too late. He had formed a seal to trap her within her own sea of consciousness. As soon as he had sent those two characters in the sky, this had been his goal. The Flying Poison was just a distraction to cause more chaos. Unfortunately, he had succeeded as Xin Zhe had lost all control over her own Flying Poison.
Soon, her soul would be endangered. Worse than that, even if she broke the seals trapping her, her Flying Poison could very well take over her body. But before it could do so, her physical body would be powerless to defend itself. Thus, she could very well die while still trapped in her own head...