It would take several weeks or even months for everyone to get into the Oasis of Life. However, the ceremony would only start after Lord Wanghuo's arrival. After all, he was the undisputed king of the Nalupu Kingdom. Although he wasn't a great politician, he was an incredible warrior. From what Cao Yun had read, even in his now indolent life, he was probably the strongest demon in the entire kingdom, and even the whole continent. On the other hand, he was a lousy politician and king. As such, the real political power in the hands of the Sisters of the Abyss and the Xinian Confederation. Right now, Cao Yun ruled the Sisters which were also the religious power of the continent.
Soon, he would also rule the Xinian Confederation. For the time being, City Lord Sihan had gained in favor and was the dominant leader of the confederation, while Boss Gui was almost excluded from everything. Before Cao Yun's disappearance, she had already little influence, but she was still privy too many things. Now, the Xinian Confederation acted as though she was plagued, avoiding her and ignoring them as much as possible without expelling her outright. After all, she was still a city lord. Going too far against her would piss off Lord Wanghuo. And they still needed his permission to go that far.
Despite almost never taking any decision, Lord Wanghuo always made sure that everyone knew who had the real power, the power to kill and destroy. This was how he had kept his throne all this time.
If Cao Yun's plans succeeded, City Lord Sihan would be dealt with and Boss Gui would lead the Xinian Confederation. Just like High Mother Lisha, Cao Yun would then control her. With those two institutions under his command, he would effectively rule the Desolate Sepulcher. But political power was a fragile thing. Even he wouldn't be able to do everything he desired. After all, not even Lord Wanghuo could do so. The nomadic tribes were always a small thorn in his side, and the beliefs of the demons couldn't be easily changed. Even a powerful king had to take his subjects' beliefs and desires into consideration to avoid an uprising. No matter how powerful he was, Lord Wanghuo was still only an Accomplished Demon. He couldn't kill everyone, and lesser demons could team up to take him down. Besides, he also had to make sure that his army stayed loyal to him.
The more Cao Yun thought about the complexities of political power, the less he wanted it. There was no way he would actually take an official position. No, he would just manipulate those already in power, or even place those he wanted in positions of power. Then, he could keep the freedom he wanted. If Lord Wanghuo heard Cao Yun's thoughts, he would wholeheartedly agree with him on that point. Being king had not brought him much more than what he already had as the strongest warrior in the entire Desolate Sepulcher.
Even after Lord Wanghuo's arrival, the ceremony would last quite some time. They first had to hold a memorial service for High Mother Qin Xue. Since Cao Yun had taken her body and given it to Hongyu, they would not be able to show it. To be fair, even if he had given it to them, the body had traces of the fight and this would prove that she had been killed. Instead, the Sisters of the Abyss would have to claim that some ritual had to be performed quickly. High Mother Lisha had already found the texts to justify all that. And there were many witnesses to High Mother Qin Xue's death to attest that it had been of natural causes. Of course, all those witnesses bore the seal made by Cao Yun.
After this service that would last a few weeks, there would be other religious rituals to celebrate High Mother Lisha's new status. According to their texts, she would need to be purified by blood. Cao Yun had read everything about those rituals, they were very complex, long and incredibly detailed. Sometimes, even the movements of High Mother Lisha's fingers were codified. This was honestly a nightmare and Cao Yun couldn't possibly imagine anyone would have the patience of either performing or observing the rituals. But the truth was that tens of thousands of demons would be there to admire those rituals. And many more would try to do so without being able to.
During this huge waste of time, Cao Yun had other plans. From his spatial ring, he took out the calligraphy of the Weaver of Souls. For several days, he admired every single detail of it while circulating his mind cultivation. In his sea of consciousness, he had created a copy of the calligraphy but it was lacking. Now, he tried to improve it as much as he could. With the genuine article in front of him, it was easier. But easier didn't mean easy. It would still take him a lot of effort, but the result was worth it. This calligraphy was able to improve his mind cultivation.
Right now, Cao Yun was cultivating his fourth Turbid Demon, Corpse Dog. But his efforts were about to be focused on something else. Indeed, he was on the verge of attempting the Lesser Tribulation. This was why he immersed himself into the calligraphy, he was preparing his mind. During the Lesser Tribulation, he couldn't be interrupted or distracted by anything. His own father had failed his own attempt and Cao Yun was younger than he had been. The first time Cao Guang had tried to break through into the Embryo Realm, he was in his forties. At the moment, Cao Yun was no older than twenty-five. Less than ten years had passed since his family had been slaughtered.
Because he was a child at the moment, Cao Yun kept a vivid memory of his father's failure. It was the very first time he realized that his father wasn't all-powerful. Until then, he had always had a pristine image of both his parents. This image had begun to crack after this failure. And his world had collapsed when even his great-grandfather had been killed in his own residence.
Thus, Cao Yun wanted to stack all the odds in his favor. Once his mind was ready, he set up a few array formations. Most were meant to isolate him from the outside world. No sound, no smell, no light, nothing from the outside world could enter his Void Island array formation, a 5-star Heaven one. With his current knowledge, he had even been able to set up several Pristine Heaven array formations and a few Seamless 1-star Heaven ones as well. He added an Universe Engulfing Sparrow array formation on top of the Void Island one, no spiritual senses could enter it either. But he also set up a few illusory array formations. For all intents and purposes, the Blood Abyss chambers were empty. If someone tried to sense what was happening in there, they would see nothing strange. The Universe Engulfing Sparrow could be a problem because it created an empty hole in one's perception, with illusions around it, it disappeared too.
But the most important array formations were those hidden within. All of them were set up around Cao Yun's main array formation he had found in the Cultivation of Wrath, the Raging Blood God. Although it was perfect for Cao Yun's cultivation, it was only a 2-star Heaven array formation. As such, Cao Yun was able to almost reach the Seamless state, but only reach a 98% retention of the Wandering Qi. Still, it was impressive, especially for his age.
This Raging Blood God array formation was able to increase both Fire and Water aspects of the Drop of Wrath while harmonizing them. This was the greatest challenge of the Lesser Tribulation. One had to use both their Water Qi and Fire Qi. In fact, both Qi had to clash against each other without hurting the cultivator. Since the Drop of Wrath was literally made of blood, it contained some Water element, but it also contained a lot of Fire element as well. Most things contained all five elements, it was the ratio between them that changed and gave the properties of the thing itself.
Hongyu was hidden within the first layer of array formations but she stayed away from Cao Yun as she could tell he was in need of focus and silence. Besides, she was digesting what she had eaten. Like Cao Yun, she was attempting a breakthrough, but it would be much easier for her. At the very least, she didn't risk her life at all. The worst thing that could happen to her was to fail and to have to absorb more Qi to form her sixth core.
On the other hand, Cao Yun could really die during his breakthrough. He could also be maimed. Even if his flesh could regenerate, his Dantian didn't have that chance. Maybe he could form a Pure Golden Dantian like his former servant. Although he thought he might be able to pull off the forging of the Life Boiling Cradle pill, he had no certitude as to whether the pill would work anyway. After all, it wasn't a miracle pill that would work all the time. Thus, he didn't want to risk injuring himself. Moreover, he could also succeed in breaking through but not to the extent he wanted. One the Soul Embryo was formed, there was no reforming it. It was sometimes preferable to fail than to succeed with a weak or deformed Soul Embryo.
After doing everything he could to increase his chances and reading all the documents he could within Cleansed Asura's library, the young man felt ready. Worrying too much or over-preparing would lead to opposite results. Thus, he sat cross-legged on the ground and focused all of his senses, physical and spiritual, into his own body.
The last three stages of the Forge Realm consisted in the Lesser Tribulation itself. Those three stages had to be broken through one after the other. It was impossible to pause or to rest or one would go back to the doors of the 7th-grade Mortal Warrior.
The 7th-grade Mortal Warrior stage precisely was called Crystallization of the Dantian. The name was clear enough as to its contents. The cultivator had to crystallize their Middle and Lower Dantian. This was probably the easiest part of the Lesser Tribulation. However, once both Dantian had been crystallized, it was impossible to use the Qi within. And this stage depended heavily on how much Qi each crystallized Dantian had. But more importantly, the ratio between the two Dantian. In the ideal situation, each Dantian had to have exactly the same amount of Qi with inverse ratios of Water and Fire Qi. In fact, the purer each Dantian was the better. But even then, there was a limit. There had to remain some Water Qi within the Fire Qi and vice versa. There was always Yin in Yang and Yang in Yin.
The main problem was that if the "impure" Qi was too small, it was hard to perfectly match it between the two Dantian. A very small difference would become a huge ratio in the end. On the other hand, it was best to have as little "impure" Qi as possible. Thus, Cao Yun tried to have exactly that.
He had a harder time controlling the Water Qi. Indeed, the Rune of Fire he had in him made controlling the Fire Qi quite easy. Thus, he was able to purge the excess of Fire Qi in his Middle Dantian, reaching a point where both his Middle and Lower Dantian had exactly the same amount of Qi. He simply had to balance the Water and the Fire within now.
Cao Yun stayed sitting for several days without moving a muscle. In fact, several times, Hongyu wondered whether he was dead or alive as his chest barely moved at all. Sometimes, it simply stopped moving altogether, but Cao Yun's blood was so full of vitality, he didn't need to breathe for rather long periods of time. Besides, his heart didn't even need to beat for his blood to nourish his flesh. Even though he was still technically considered a mortal, he was already so much more.
Lost in his thoughts, the young man was able to strike the perfect balance. At least, it was perfect with his abilities. Only a handful of Mortal Warriors could have reached such a state. There only remained a glint of Water Qi in his Middle Dantian and almost the same amount in his Lower Dantian. Once again, the Rune of Fire came in handy. Even if he had a hard time controlling the Water Qi, he could sense the small amount of Fire Qi in his Lower Dantian. The difference between his two Dantian had to be negligible.
Now came the moment to crystallize his two Dantian. Once it was done, there was no coming back. The only way to improve a crystallized Dantian was to break it apart and begin anew. Nothing could be added or subtracted, so Cao Yun would have to start from scratch. Besides, breaking apart the crystal would consume a lot of effort and energy while being risky. Almost all of Cao Yun's Qi was contained in his Dantian, but there was still largely enough to sustain his body for a few weeks, even some months.
Using also his spiritual senses, Cao Yun focused all of his strength inward. The pressure upon both his Dantian increased tenfold, a hundredfold, until it was so high that the Qi itself turned solid. It was similar to what demonic beasts did naturally by forming their demonic cores. Soon, Cao Yun had two small crystals within his Dantian. Each one exuded vitality and energy. Now, he had to work on the 8th-grade of the Forge Realm before too much energy was dispersed.
Clearly, this was the most dangerous part of the Lesser Tribulation. In fact, it was the Lesser Tribulation in itself. This was the moment when one failed or succeeded. Of course, it depended greatly on how well the crystals had been formed, which itself depended on the cultivation before that. Cultivation was always being built on what the cultivator had achieved before, so each stage was important and couldn't be disregarded. That was the main reason why some never reached a high level.
This stage also relied on the sturdiness of one's Extraordinary Vessels. Thankfully, Cao Yun's were incredibly resistant. But he would unleash much more strength than other Mortal Warriors, so even he was a bit worried about it.