The sudden change in High Mother Qin Xue, along the crushing of her Qi Manifestation caused severe damage to her body. One moment she was full of strength and vitality and ready to strike down the enemy of her god in all of her righteousness. The next instant, she was palish and coughing up some black blood. Within her body, the Black Heart Flame was still acting up as she had not have enough time to deal with it properly and the stench from the Blood Abyss was burning her nostrils. Her entire body was in pain but she could bear it until the devil was slain.
Profiting from her weakness, Axiu Qian's assault intensified. He threw his lance toward the three-eyed eagle. As it whistled through their seas of consciousness, the vastness was filled with the scream of a dragon. As it was trying to avoid the spear, the eagle got struck by the sound. Stunned, it couldn't recover fast enough and the spear pierced through its right wing. Before it could register what had happened, the stench from Axiu Qian's gourd engulfed the creature.
Suddenly, the eagle turned into many feathers trying to fly away. All of them were touched by the stain of the Unclean Evil. Unable to go very far, the feathers were soon engulfed into Axiu Qian's hands. Three of his hands were now free and they grabbed as many feathers as they could, crushing a few of them in the process. As they were quite literally representing High Mother Qin Xue's soul, her torment was intense.
Instead of using the situation to his advantage, Cao Yun was still chanting. If he went after High Mother Qin Xue right away, the Sisters would go back to their formation and he would be in a pinch. Fortunately, he had other ways to get out of his current predicament.
"You dare accuse me of usurping your god's blood?! This blood was given to me in earnest. I am the only one legitimate enough to wield it. Did you think your crimes would go unpunished?! Did you think so little of your god that you thought he would not know or would not care?!"
"Blaspheme...!"
"Silence!"
Cao Yun's voice wasn't loud but there was a powerful sense of authority in it. Indeed, he was summoning all of the intent from the Weaver of Souls he had extracted from the Blood Abyss. The very place he was in gave him a tremendous advantage. Moreover, the Sisters all had some of the Blood Abyss in them. Within 'Abyssal Blood Veil Art', the 'Crimson Pact of Subjugation' path consisted precisely in harnessing the Blood Abyss' power to improve one's blood cultivation. As such, it was as if their progenitor was talking to them. Worse, it was as if their very god was admonishing them.
Even High Mother Qin Xue was affected by Cao Yun's aura. Besides, she was extremely weak at the moment. Her best option would be to let him talk to regain some of her strength. But she was somewhat afraid of letting him talk. She felt like if she let him have his say, she would never be able to utter a world, ever again.
"You..."
Her voice had weakened even more than before. It was so feeble that even the Sisters didn't hear it. At the moment she spoke though, all of the Weaver of Souls' intent congealed on her. As Axiu Qian was strengthening his grip on the feathers, she could feel her soul being utterly crushed. This wasn't the right time to fight back. Here Cao Yun was too powerful. But she was certain that most of this power came from the Blood Abyss itself. If only she could fight him elsewhere, she would kill him in a matter of seconds. To be fair, she was mostly right on that account. But this was also why Cao Yun would never give her this opportunity.
High Mother Qin Xue's fate was sealed. It had been sealed for a long time, even before she targeted Cao Yun.
On the other hand, Cao Yun didn't intend to kill everyone. Maybe he would have done so some time ago. He would have tried to wash the crimes committed by the Sisters of the Abyss with their blood. However, he had changed and he was convinced this was a good thing. Many of the Sisters had not taken part in the sacrifices directly. They had simply stood by, either willfully ignorant or complicit by their inaction. Sister Lisha was the greatest example of that. Although she knew those sacrifices were wrong, she did nothing to stop them. Deep down, she still thought she might be able to profit from them if they did succeed.
Cao Yun had images of Axiu Qian's life in mind. The asura had killed countless people. At first, he did so for his vengeance, but slowly, he lost himself in his own rage. He killed the guilty, the ones who abetted them. Then, he also killed those who stood by doing nothing. By the end, he simply turned into a killing machine. He slaughtered entire worlds. Thousands of planets were engulfed in the flames of his war. Alone, he eradicated so many people that it would take several mortal lifetime to count them all.
Thanks to his mind cultivation, Cao Yun was fairly confident that this wouldn't happen to him. Even now, he was still in control of his Flying Poison. But the threat was still there. Nothing and no one was perfect. The best cultivator could fall prey to their inner demons.
Besides, Cao Yun couldn't very well judge the Sisters. He had stood by Boss Gui doing nothing while she was torturing her slaves. Of course, he had done so with good intentions. He told himself it was for the greater good. At the end, he would be able to help more people by letting a few suffer right now. Even now, he still wasn't sure whether he was right or wrong, whether he was just trying to justify and console himself or he had been sincere to himself. But it didn't matter now, his plans had failed.
With the Blood Abyss at his command, he was probably stronger than all the Sisters of the Abyss. He could level down the Monastery of Bliss and Repose and send them all into the Blood Abyss where they had thrown so many victims. But it wouldn't help anyone and it wouldn't change anything.
It would just make him feel better. Corruption, as he now understood, could assume several faces. It could be someone doing slightly reprehensible acts. Slowly, they would find themselves doing worse and worse until their very view of morality itself would be wrapped. Morality was much more a matter of emotions than a matter of reason. Now, Cao Yun was realizing that. People felt that something was right or wrong and then, they tried to come up with reasons to justify why it was so. This wasn't inherently bad, but this allowed some to turn to completely heinous fiends while still justifying themselves. Cao Yun was certain that, even now, High Mother Qin Xue felt as though she had been right all along. And he would never be able to convince her otherwise.
The worst thing was that, in a sense, she had accomplished her goal. A small part of the Weaver of Souls had been saved thanks to her throwing Cao Yun down into the Blood Abyss. Without her actions, his intent would have slowly died down. Even though she had corrupted it, she had simply sped up the natural process. Without Cao Yun's presence, nothing could have even saved a tiny fraction of his intent.
There was another way to be corrupted though, it was by doing good. Doing what was seen as the right thing could also be a form of corruption. Wanting to be so pure as to disregard the consequences of one's actions just because it was the right thing to do was just as corrupt as doing evil itself. Right now, if Cao Yun killed all the Sisters, he would feel righteous. He would only please himself by doing so though. Yes, he would feel like a great hero, but in the end, he would have helped no one.
Simply avenging the victims wasn't enough. He wanted to do something for the living too. At the moment, he quite literally had the largest and most powerful religious leader of the Desolate Sepulcher in the palm of his hand. He could crush the Monastery of Bliss and Repose and feel good about it. Or he could make use of it. It wouldn't be as satisfying, but it would do much more good in the end. Cao Yun had always told himself he didn't want to be a hero or a saint. And he did believe in that. There was too much pain and injustice in the world for anyone to take it all upon themselves. Besides, he didn't think there was a single person who was wise enough to know what was right for everyone in every situation.
Seeing Xixue's death had shocked him a lot of course. But in the Blood Abyss, he had thought of what should be done. He had altered his plans, but not to the point of throwing them away completely. His main goal was to leave the Desolate Sepulcher and to go back to the main land so he could save his sister. Right now, he was closer than ever. Indeed, he had finally entered the third realm of blood cultivation and soon, he would attempt the Lesser Tribulation. He would probably not be strong enough to fight Emperor Weide on an equal footing, but he would not be powerless either.
Besides this goal, he still wanted to alleviate some of the injustice in the Desolate Sepulcher. At the very least, he would do what he could. He wouldn't go out of his way to change the world around him, but he couldn't turn a blind eye to what was happening right in front of him.
"Qin Xue, you've sacrificed thousands upon thousands of young innocent girls and women to the Blood Abyss. You even killed your political rivals. The Blood Abyss took in all of their resentment, their fear, their pain, their anguish. Now, it is time for you to feel them too. Let's reveal all your crimes!"
Cao Yun spoke in Antique Sixian and the Blood Abyss reacted. Just like humans could discern someone's Qi, demons could easily recognize someone just by their blood. Sister Lisha did recognize some of the blood below. There were women she had known about, but others as well. She even recognized some of her friends who had presumably died in missions. She had always had suspicions but now they turned out to be absolutely true. Even the blood of the former High Mother was mixed in the Blood Abyss.
"In the name of the Weaver of Souls, you've shed the blood of your fellow demons. You claimed that it was for the greater good as it would allow for your god to come back. But you could clearly feel that it was false. You can delude yourself as much as you want but you can't lie to your senses. And you can't lie to your Sisters any longer either. You can all feel it, right? The Blood Abyss is almost only made of the blood of the victims. There remains nearly nothing of the Weaver of Souls, and it is all within me now. Qin Xue, you knew, but you couldn't accept the truth and went on your killing frenzy. How many innocent girls died to your madness?!"
"Not enough! I would have killed everyone just to preserve an ounce of the Weaver of Souls. And your mere existence proves that I was right. Now, give it to me!"
High Mother Qin Xue lost it when Cao Yun confirmed that he had the last figment of the Weaver of Souls in him. If she could take it, she would control the Blood Abyss instead of him. Even if she couldn't bring her god back to life, she could become her god. High Mother Qin Xue would become Demon God Qin Xue. After taking over the Desolate Sepulcher, she could kill Lord Wanghuo and lead a campaign toward God's Land. She would crush the Empyrean Asura Theocracy. Then, just to get her revenge for this day's humiliation, she would kill every human in the Hongchen Kingdom. In fact, she could keep Cao Yun alive long enough to witness it.
She wouldn't enslave the humans, she would torture them all to death in front of Cao Yun. She would make him drink their blood and eat their flesh. Visions of horrors appeared in her mind. And as Cao Yun was connected to her, he also showed her thoughts to all the other Sisters. Even they were appalled by those. Clearly, High Mother Qin Xue had completely lost it. Her thirst for power had led her astray and they finally realized it.
Besides those images, Cao Yun kept chanting the words of the Weaver of Souls. He was the one asura who had turned against Demon God Da Mo because of his cruelty. He had even given his life to protect Emperor Nuwa and had helped save the humans. And now, a human had saved the last figment of his intent while a demon had almost consumed it because of her ambitions.
Indeed, Cao Yun had done nothing to hide that he was a human. Only High Mother Qin Xue and Sister Lisha knew about it. But now, all the Accomplished Demon Sisters had felt it. There was absolutely no doubt about it. But there was no doubt either that Cao Yun had cultivated his blood just like a demon. A human who could cultivate both the human way and the asura way was unheard of. Moreover, he did have part of the Weaver of Souls within him. No one could deny it. Then, should the Sisters keep following High Mother Qin Xue or him?
Doubts entered their minds. To be honest, Cao Yun had used all of his soul and mind cultivation to influence them. If he had been stronger, he could have converted them all to his beliefs in an instant. This was a bit terrifying. At the same time, he had not altered their minds, he had just pushed them in the right direction, fanning the doubts they had already in them. At the same time, he had used the Stinking Lungs to also push High Mother Qin Xue in the right direction.
All the Sisters were using arts created or inspired by the Weaver of Souls who had crafted Cao Yun's mind cultivation method. Of course, he could easily sway them, especially under the current circumstances. But although, he wanted to redeem the Sisters, he had no such hope for their frenzied leader. The old woman was rushing toward him, ready to claw his heart out of his chest with her bare hands if need be.