"Stupid brat! If you think I'll go down this easily, think again!"
"Old geezer, I already devoured some of your blood essence, I'll just have to devour your very soul now. You thought you could trick me, but despite your old age, you're still too hasty. Apparently the fear of death is too strong even for you and you couldn't resist it. If you had stayed within the Palace of Supreme Wisdom, you would have been safe, moron."
"What?!"
"I had no intention of really crushing it. But I'll definitely crush you!"
"You...!"
Demon King Mo Wang's form changed. From a small of darkness, he turned into a giant bat. He had five black wings covered in red veins. Contrary to bats, his face was absolutely horrible. There were purple and red colors all over it and it had an air of hatred and disgust. From his mouth, this ethereal shape had hundreds of sharp fangs. Most were very small but so sharp that they could sink into the sturdiest metal. A few of them though were so large that they deformed his mouth. A couple of them even reached all the way to his navel.
Flapping his wing, Demon King Mo Wang created powerful gusts of wind. Suddenly, this wind turned into blades going straight for both Axiu Qian, the Palace of Supreme Wisdom and even the Nine Soul Peaks. He truly wanted to thoroughly destroy Cao Yun. While the boy had to face him, he also had to fend off his physical torment and be cautious of the Stinking Lungs. Thankfully, Unclean Evil seemed to be tamed for the time being. But he didn't want to give it enough time to become a problem again.
In the bloody sky, the Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars shined through the red clouds. Their light was a bit altered but two great constellations were clearly visible, the Horn Constellation and the Neck Constellation. From the infinite sky, the image of a large azure dragon descended toward the ocean below. Only its head and horns were fully physical. The rest of its body was made of winds. It crashed toward the thousands of blades, trying to take them down. In this endeavor, it was aided by the golden Insight Writings from Cao Yun's Spear Intent.
Axiu Qian then tried to grab the giant bat. But the fight wouldn't be so easy. Demon King Mo Wang opened his wings while chanting a mantra. Pure darkness spread from his shape all around Cao Yun's sea of consciousness. Even the Azure Dragon and the golden Insight Writings had a hard time shining through this blackness. Pushing his Shen the Fire Spirit further and further, Cao Yun was trying to fight off this obscurity. In it, Demon King Mo Wang had become incredibly fast. On the other hand, Cao Yun could barely follow him as his very mind was being obscured.
From the Palace of Supreme Wisdom, a gong echoed. The green thorns all over it shined brightly. For an instant, Demon King Mo Wang's form was revealed from the darkness. Before Axiu Qian could seize him, he flew away, toward the Palace of Supreme Wisdom. He dodged the fangs of the Azure Dragon and sent his own blades against Cao Yun's Golden Writings. As flames were hurtled toward him, he closed his wings and stayed uninjured.
Finally, he was about to enter into the Palace of Supreme Wisdom once more, ready to tear apart what remained of the weakened Dian Mo. Cao Yun's counterattack against his seals had not only injured Demon King Mo Wang but also the already weakened Dian Mo. As such, it would be even easier for Demon King Mo Wang to kill him. Since he had already abandoned all pretenses, he had no reason to keep him alive. Now, he was decided on taking what he wanted from Cao Yun by force.
Thankfully, Dian Mo was prepared as well. For months, he had suffered under the thrall of this pathetic human who had not even lived two thousand years. There was no way he was going to suffer one more instant. In fact, he would rather kill himself here and there rather than being bested by this stupid brat.
Without any hesitation, Dian Mo used all of his strength. The Palace of Supreme Wisdom turned into a golden palace and literally flew toward the giant bat. Unable to avoid such a projectile, Demon King Mo Wang flapped his wings with all of his strength to create a wall of wind in front of him. Then, he closed his wings and recited many mantras. His wall of wind did nothing but dissipate when the golden palace flew through it. And then, it crashed into his wings, breaking them immediately. The bat was crushed by the base of the palace that suddenly came crashing down toward the ocean below.
When it touched the surface of the ocean, its speed was so high that the water had turned into solid rock upon impact. Demon King Mo Wang's wings were completely destroyed, bending at very weird angles all over the place. From his mouth, there was black blood and some of his fangs were shattered. On the other hand, the Palace of Supreme Wisdom was covered in cracks. Some had appeared before the crash, but they had been made way worse. Even though it had turned to gold, it had been extremely damaged in that attack. In fact, Cao Yun could barely feel any vitality from it.
"Boy, don't waste your time... Crush that bastard for good..."
"Dian Mo?!"
Thankfully, the Palace of Supreme Wisdom endured but a terrifying silence had spread throughout Cao Yun's sea of consciousness. Dian Mo's vitality was so low that Cao Yun wasn't even sure whether he was dead or alive. At least, one thing was for sure, he was freed from Demon King Mo Wang. But he might have really died during this attack and the Palace of Supreme Wisdom might be his corpse. Still unsure, Cao Yun would not have any confirmation before some time.
Determined not to let Dian Mo's efforts go to waste, Axiu Qian's figure grabbed Demon King Mo Wang. The broken bat could barely move. In fact, its only moves were probably just twitches. Without any hesitation, Axiu Qian's five other red arms tore apart each wing at the same time. There wasn't even any scream or moan escaping Demon King Mo Wang's mouth. Instead of completely killing him right now, Cao Yun had an idea.
Since the Stinking Lungs was corruption itself, using a demonic cultivator to both strengthen and subdue it might be a good idea. Axiu Qian used all five wings as blades and hurtled them toward the Stinking Lungs. Under attack, the Turbid Demon tried to wail once more. Once again, it filled Cao Yun's mind with pain and anxiety. However, the wings did go through the wall of wind caused by this wailing. And they pierced through the Stinking Lungs' skin. Although the wounds weren't too severe, it proved something to Cao Yun.
After taking the long shattered fangs of Demon King Mo Wang, Axiu Qian attacked the Stinking Lungs. With one arm, he held Demon King Mo Wang's broken body in front of him and it did shield him from the terrible noises of the Stinking Lungs. Finally, he stabbed the Turbid Demon in several places, completely pinning it down. Ripping some of the wings still in its flesh, Axiu Qian covered the Turbid Demon's throat and chest with it, almost strangulating it. His main goal was to block the lacerations from which the wailing came from. And it did work.
Now, both Turbid Demons were being subdued in their own way. Later on, Cao Yun would need to take care of them independently, but it would be so much easier. In fact, in four or five months, he would have completely subdued his first three Turbid Demons. Would remain Corpse Dog, the Po of Yin associated with fear, Fallen Arrow, the Po of Yang associated with aimlessness, Yin Bird, the Po of Heaven associated with anguish, and Devouring Robber, the Po of Earth associated with envy and resentment.
There was still one thing to deal with before focusing on what was happening to his body, which was somewhat of an emergency as well. He had to get rid of Demon King Mo Wang for good. Cao Yun's Insight Writing lacerated its body while the flames of Shen the Fire Spirit, strengthened by the Rune of Fire, were crawling over Axiu Qian's hand to burn the body to a crisp. At the same time, Axiu Qian was crushing it with all of its strength, using the properties of the Drop of Wrath fully. Flying Poison was busy keeping Unclean Evil down, but the Azure Dragon was free. It bit off its head.
Before long, Demon King Mo Wang's very soul was ripped into pieces. Now, it would only be a matter of time for Cao Yun to completely destroy it. The most efficient way was simply to absorb all of the fragments within the Drop of Wrath. Slowly but surely, the Drop of Wrath would digest them as it had already digested his blood essence. Demon King Mo Wang was thoroughly dead now, he would not even be able to reincarnate in any shape or form.
For the time being, Cao Yun's sea of consciousness had found some semblance of calm. Of course, there was the fact that it had turned completely red with blood because the Blood Abyss was literally devouring his own flesh with each passing moment. Apart from that small detail that was making him go crazy with pain, everything was fine. In fact, Cao Yun sincerely didn't recall everything that had just happened. He had mostly gone with the motion. No matter how strong his mind cultivation was, it couldn't make him forget such a high level of pain.
For several hours, maybe more, Cao Yun's body had been invaded by the Blood Abyss. First of all, he couldn't escape it because his arms and legs were missing large pieces of muscles. Although his bones were mostly protected by his Golden Blood and his meridians by the world tree's vitality, his other tissues were in a terrible condition. Even if there was not the threat of the Sisters of the Abyss above, he would have no way of swimming back up. And he was probably extremely deep into the pit. In fact, he couldn't even see the surface from where he was. Moreover, he was in no condition to use his spiritual senses for the time being. To be honest, they were probably too weak for him to feel the surface anyway.
Through the thick blood he was in, it was difficult to make out how large this pit was. In fact, he didn't even know whether all the pits were connected or separated.
Even after getting rid of the immediate threat of both his Turbid Demons and Demon King Mo Wang, Cao Yun had unfortunately no time to relax. However, his mind was completely exhausted. Apart from the pain, there was almost nothing else. That being said, he had to survive. He had to!
Fighting against his mind trying to shut down, he pushed through by pushing his mind cultivation further and further. Stinking Lungs and Unclean Evil did act up a little, but they were still under some form of control, for now. Of course, if Cao Yun got too weak, they would probably wreak havoc again. It would be wise to quickly subdue at least one of them. With two Turbid Demons to subdue a third one, the task would be easier. Besides, Cao Yun had more or less awakened to the process. Dealing with Turbid Demons was both a question of mind fight but also a journey of self-discovery through one's emotions.
With no time to fully recover, the young man sent his intent throughout his body to see how screwed he was. And he was indeed in a hopeless situation. This would be the perfect moment to develop Corpse Dog and Yin Bird, fear and anguish. But it would also spell his doom. Pushing aside any thought about Turbid Demons or even negative emotions, Cao Yun soon realized another main problem.
The Blood Abyss had already depleted a lot of his own blood. In a matter of days, he would be unable to heal his own injuries. In fact, because he had been losing and using a lot of blood, his own body would need nutrition faster than he thought. Indeed, a cultivator could stave off hunger, thirst and even the need to breathe, as long as they had enough Qi in their physical blood and that their flesh had been tempered to a reasonable level. In other words, Cao Yun should have been able to survive in there for months, but he was going to die in days because the Blood Abyss was depleting his blood.
His only chance would be to absorb said Blood Abyss, at least partially. But of course, this Blood Abyss was devouring his own flesh. Only the Drop of Wrath could subdue the Blood Abyss. But since it was staying far away from it, Cao Yun couldn't move it out of his heart or his heart would end up being consumed. The only alternative was to force the Blood Abyss within his own heart himself.
In fact, this was Cao Yun's current cultivation stage. As a 5th-grade Golden Blood Child, he was practicing 'Ascend the Cliff'. It consisted in sending one's Golden Blood through one's spine into one's chest cavity, and in particular, one's heart. But for that, it was necessary to open Shendao the Heart Gate. This Flood Gate was extremely delicate and damaging it could literally destroy one's heart and cause death.
Moving his Golden Blood through there was already difficult, but if he had to force some of the Blood Abyss in his Shendao the Heart Gate, Cao Yun could imagine both the pain and the difficulty.
For several hours, Cao Yun tried to find any other way. In fact, he literally slipped in and out of coma several times. At first, he didn't even notice, despite his mind cultivation. Thankfully, the Turbid Demons were much calmer now that Demon King Mo Wang was gone and that Cao Yun's mind had gotten used to the situation.
Slowly, his fear turned into despair. He had to find any way he could to get out of this. Then, he had to resort to that single way. He would need to gamble everything...