For several hours that turned into days, Cao Yun admired his Soul Embryo. Calm and warm into his Huang Ting, the Yellow Court, there was now what looked like a plump little baby in a fetal position. Looking closely, this baby had no face and no apparent feature. In fact, it looked more like a statue of a baby than an actual human being. It wasn't moving either, nor breathing for that matter. After all, it was a soul, not flesh and blood. Try as he might though, Cao Yun's senses couldn't pierce the surface of this Soul Embryo.
On the other hand, there was a constant stream of vitality leaving this Soul Embryo and entering Cao Yun's sea of consciousness. With each passing moment, his own soul was being energized by the mere presence of this Soul Embryo. The way he was seeing and feeling the world around him had completely changed. And if he had not been able to fly before, he would have gained this ability here and now. However, he still got many benefits from this Soul Embryo.
First of all, his spiritual senses were much stronger and much sharper than before. Asura cultivation created a Demon Soul that could unleash a lot of power but was difficult to accurately control. Even though Cao Yun had not really developed a Demon Soul per se, his Turbid Demons were having the same effect. In fact, the Drop of Wrath could somehow be considered his Demon Soul as he had forged his own Turbid Demons in it.
Since his spiritual senses were more developed, all of his mind and his very soul were now stronger and sharper too. His ability to understand, to feel, to perceive, everything in his mind had grown stronger. And it would keep on growing stronger, at a very slow rate of course, but still.
At the moment, it was difficult to gauge his strength, but he should be able to take on a middle Spirit Warrior or a middle Accomplished Demon, skipping almost two grades. Indeed, besides being a 1st-grade Spirit Warrior, Cao Yun was also a 4th-grade Accomplished Demon. Within each realm, the differences between the grades grew larger and larger. In other words, for an early Mortal to fight a middle Mortal and win wasn't too surprising, although it was laudable. But for an early Spirit Warrior to fight and beat a middle Spirit Warrior was much more impressive. After all, less than a decade separated the two Mortals but several decades, sometimes even centuries, separated the two Spirit Warriors.
Thanks to his double cultivation, even triple cultivation considering his mind and soul, Cao Yun could fight someone of a higher grade than him. Of course, he had killed High Mother Qin Xue, but he had been forced to use the Blood Abyss to succeed. Alone, against an Accomplished Demon who actually knew how to fight, he wouldn't be able to accomplish such an exploit again. However he was confident in his ability to fly away.
Now that he was a Spirit Warrior, he would need to develop his Soul Embryo. Almost everything in this realm was related to the Soul Embryo. First of all, Nourish the Embryo consisted in filling back the somewhat depleted Dantian and to send more and more Water Qi and Fire Qi around the Soul Embryo. Since eh couldn't directly turn them into its same substance, one had to use their very soul to nourish the Soul Embryo and then use this mixture of Water and Fire to slowly regenerate what they had given away.
After the Soul Embryo was nourished, Awaken the Embryo consisted in focusing one intent to awaken the Soul Embryo. This step was delicate as it was necessary to knock on the Soul Embryo like a door without jolting it. Indeed, if it was disturbed too much, it would be dangerous for the Soul Embryo. On the other hand, being too delicate wouldn't allow it to be awaken. Thus, repetition was key there. Some people could spend decades slowly trying to awaken their Soul Embryo. But for the average Spirit Warrior, this step took around a decade, no more. Once awaken, the Soul Embryo would allow the cultivator to live for one and a half thousand year. Only in the late grades one would reach a life expectancy of two thousand years.
Then, the cultivator had to strengthen their Upper Dantian so it got used to the presence of the Soul Embryo. Indeed, in the 4th-grade Spirit Warrior stage, the cultivator would subsequently try to send their Soul Embryo into their Upper Dantian where it would stay as long as it existed. The goal was then to slowly impregnate one's soul into the empty Soul Embryo. In fact, it was very similar to what Cao Yun was already doing with the Drop of Wrath, pouring his own Turbid Demons into it.
Finally, the actual soul of the cultivator would merge with the Soul Embryo, increasing the cultivator's longevity and vitality for the lest stages. During those, both souls had to be perfectly harmonized to be really one before opening the Third Eye. This was an acupoint on the body but also a point on the Soul Embryo itself. Once this point was open, the Soul Embryo could see the world directly without using spiritual senses. And the last step was to form a connection with the world itself, the Dao. The Soul Embryo could commune with the Dao through the Bai Hui, the Gate of the Hundred Convergences. Once this final step was done, the cultivator could finally be able to see and sense the Dao.
Only then one could hope to comprehend even the lowest Dao. This was the key to understanding the Dao of Death for Cao Yun. Even with the 'Death Verses', he couldn't progress far as a Dao had to be felt, not intellectually understood. It was like developing a sense or an intuition. Intellect was useful and necessary but it wasn't sufficient at all!
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As Cao Yun had broken through, a wave of energy had erupted from his body during the collision between the two crystallized Dantian. Thanks to his array formations, this energy had stayed trapped within the chambers. Thus, he could absorb it anew to begin to fill his two Dantian back up. Besides, the excess of Fire Qi in his body was almost a solved problem. If he simply absorbed Water Qi now, he would be able to balance the two kinds of Qi with no issue.
Within the array formations was another person, Hongyu. And she had been bathing in Cao Yun's energy for quite some time now. Besides, her own cores were very familiar with Cao Yun and the Drop of Wrath. As such, she was also able to absorb a large part of this wild energy. In fact, it had given her the last push she needed to finally condense her sixth core. So she was doing precisely that. But even Cao Yun didn't notice as he was still stabilizing himself. His breakthrough had been optimal so he didn't want to waste it by going out of seclusion too fast. The more energy he could absorb back in, the faster he would be able to break through again. Moreover, the wild energy could still be used to nourish the Soul Embryo a little.
When Cao Yun finally opened his eyes anew, he saw a new demonic beast. Hongyu had turned into a 6-core demonic beast, a Sky Tyrant Fenghuang.
Her size hadn't changed by much, but she had a completely different aura. Her feathers were black as night and red as blood with piercing bright eyes full of intelligence. Her beak was also jet black. Here and there, some feathers looked like flames. But besides those feathers, there were actual flames on the fenghuang. Indeed, behind her, there were three thin but long tails formed of small round feathers. Looking closely though, those feathers were really flames in the shape of round feathers flailing around.
As soon as she saw her brother looking at her, she expanding her wings proudly. Fire engulfed her entire body and merged with her. With his Rune of Fire, Cao Yun felt an even greater affinity with Hongyu. He stood up and walked toward her.
At first, she was worried that her brother would be injured by her flames, but nothing happened. Cao Yun put his hand in the flames. Instead of a burning fire, he felt a gentle warmth. Of course, he was helped by his Rune of Fire, but it was also done by Hongyu instinctively. As a Sky Tyrant Fenghuang, she could control the temperature of her flames and even decide what she wanted to burn or not. If she had so desired, she could have produced flames hot enough to even make Cao Yun wince. However, she probably never would have been able to actually burn him, especially with his current cultivation.
At the moment, Cao Yun could kill an 8-core demonic beast without fearing for his life. A 9-core demonic beast was another matter. But by using array formations and martial arts, he might be able to succeed. Despite their strength and intelligence, demonic beasts remained beasts. Cultivators had many more weapons demonic beasts couldn't imitate at all. Otherwise, demonic beasts might have dominated the entire Piaolu planet.
The first thing Cao Yun and Hongyu wanted to do was to fly in the air and test out their new strength. Unfortunately, it wasn't possible at the moment. Indeed, every major player in the Desolate Sepulcher was attending the induction ceremony of High Mother Lisha. Soon, Cao Yun would learn that half a year had passed while he was secluded in his chambers. This surprised him a little, but not much. Some cultivators could spend decades in seclusion without realizing it at all. But thankfully, he had come out before everyone had left. After all, this was a golden opportunity for him to act upon his plan.
The ceremony was still going on so he had to wait a little to see those he wanted to meet. But fortunately, they had all come, either on their own, or prompted by invitations from the Sisters of the Abyss. Still, he asked to be given a report on what had happened during his seclusion. Almost nothing worth noting had happened. The situation had barely evolved in fact, but it was going in the direction of City Lord Sihe, putting more and more pressure on Boss Gui. In other words, it was going exactly in the opposite direction Cao Yun desired. This wasn't an issue though as he was confident in his plans.
He would probably have to wait a few days only before he could finally meet with anyone. Thus, Cao Yun decided to do something else in the meantime. Although he had beaten Mo Wang's spirit, he hadn't absorbed all of his memories yet and he wanted to. Getting more information was always a good thing, but one had to be able to analyze them and prioritize what was really important within. Otherwise, one could be drown in memories and lose sight of what actually mattered.
With his Soul Embryo formed, Cao Yun's mind was sharper than ever so he felt that it was the perfect moment to sift through all those memories. Thinking like that, he remembered Dian Mo and tried to see whether he was alive or dead. Unfortunately, there was no trace of his spirit at all. Contrary to a normal death, there was no body left behind to confirm if he had really died. When a spirit died, there was nothing left. Thus, Cao Yun still wasn't sure whether he was dead or simply in a deep sleep. But the Palace of Supreme Wisdom was still in his sea of consciousness.
Finally, Cao Yun entered Demon King Mo Wang's memories to find out if anything could be useful. And he had been right. The first thing he found was the library of Demon God Da Mo. Demon King Mo Wang had stumbled upon this library by pure chance. In fact, it appeared quite suspicious to Cao Yun. It felt as though someone had led him to it. In the same time, the Empyrean Asura Theocracy had risen. So the young human was starting to wonder whether the Empyrean Asura had helped out Demon King Mo Wang in order to upset the balance of power within the Hongchen Kingdom. Demon King Mo Wang himself had apparently been suspicious but had found nothing unusual so he brushed it off.
In the library, Cao Yun found many things interesting about the past. It strengthened his desire to know more. Most likely, he wouldn't find much more in the Desolate Pillar, but it was worth a try. Apparently, Demon God Da Mo was often secluded for months before leaving. But it wasn't long enough for a cultivator of his level while being too long for simple meditations.
Cao Yun also learned more about Emperor Weide. He had been controlling the demonic cultivators for centuries now. Thanks to this library, Demon King Mo Wang had broken free from his control but had been severely injured. That was why he had attacked the Golden Flowery Fragrance Institute. With the Heavenly Silver Peach, he had healed himself and had definitely erased any seal left behind by his former master. Emperor Weide had protected the demonic cultivators, helping them to gain more and more power, because he was using them for his own ambitions.
The more he learned about him, the more Cao Yun wanted to separate his head from the rest of his body. But he wouldn't stop there. Although he didn't want to turn into some kind of enraged monster, he had no problem shedding rivers of blood and creating mountains of severed heads if need be. That being said, he didn't want the Hongchen Kingdom to fall. Since he couldn't turn the entire kingdom against him, he would have to prove his crimes first while maintaining the cohesion of Emperor Nuwa's kingdom.
The memories of Mo Wang wouldn't convince a lot of people. After all he could have created him themselves. And if they found out that he had the cultivation of a demon, the people wouldn't trust anything coming from Cao Yun. Thankfully, he had several great cultivators among his friends. And technically, he was still the Young Master of the Wubei Sect.
Anyway, for now, he had to deal with the Desolate Sepulcher. And so he did!