As a last attempt to prolong the fight, Cao Yun tried to break away from Lord Wanghuo. But it was to no avail. Lord Wanghuo was completely immersed in the fight. While Cao Yun was mostly on the defense, parrying and blocking his attacks with his spear and his sword, the king was using his larger body to assault him. Lord Wanghuo almost only relied on his fists, but he was putting all of his weight behind each strike. Moreover, he was also using as much of his Turbid Demons as. Although he was engrossed in the fight, he had not broken his promise yet. He was on the absolute threshold of the 5th-grade Accomplished Demon stage but he was still within its confines.
Besides, Cao Yun was himself reaching the threshold of his current cultivation. Performing a breakthrough during a fight was rarely a good idea. Indeed, the risks were extremely high. Of course, a friendly fight was something else. But Cao Yun wasn't even sure whether Lord Wanghuo was still lucid enough to let him do so. After all, he would be happy to fight a better opponent, so he should, but he might simply not even realize what was going on.
'Crimson Reign of Blood' was still sapping Cao Yun's strength while strengthening Lord Wanghuo. It was as though he was absorbing some of his Golden Blood's properties. Against a weaker opponent, Lord Wanghuo might have drained them of any vitality in a few seconds. Such a technique was indeed tyrannic. On a battlefield, superior numbers could fell even a much stronger cultivator. Of course, the number had to be high if the difference was colossal. But if one could literally kill anyone who was too weak, it was a problem. Some cultivators could do so with spiritual senses, but it wasn't easy. Lord Wanghuo's technique was almost as dangerous as a Domain. That being said, it wasn't as potent or powerful. And he wasn't near the strength of an actual Monarch or Reborn Demon.
What Cao Yun could feel was that it wasn't his blood per se that was behind drained, it was his very essence. At first, his blood was most affected, but then the effects spread to his Lower Dantian and he could feel his Golden Fate being drained away bit by bit. Even the Drop of Wrath felt this attempt. Immediately, the Drop of Wrath reacted by instinct alone. All of his Turbid Demons were in uproar as they were connected to his Drop of Wrath and his essence.
At the same time, the young man felt that his silver Soul Embryo was reacting as well. This terrified Cao Yun. If his Soul Embryo was damaged, there was little he could do to heal it. From Cleansed Asura's texts, he knew of pills to heal a Soul Embryo, but they required legendary ingredients and even the best alchemist in the universe might not be able to refine it. Obviously, Cao Yun wouldn't be able to do so. After all, such a pill would be a treasure even for a late Monarch. For Cleansed Asura himself, this was a very precious pill as well, although a God-Monarch had no need for it himself.
His Soul Embryo was sending waves and waves of energy to try and compensate the loss of Cao Yun's essence. For the time being, he was able to protect his essence, but his strength was diminishing just defending it. The pressure exerted on his Soul Embryo was becoming a real issue. On one hand, it was good for his cultivation, but it was clearly pushing the Soul Embryo too far too fast. In a sense, it was like a human trying too hard during a training. At some point, his Soul Embryo would hit a breaking point. Even if it didn't break, it would need more time to rest and this would slow down Cao Yun's Qi cultivation, while his blood cultivation was sped up by the fight.
'Cracking the World'!
With his 'Tainted Heavenly Pillar', Cao Yun struck Lord Wanghuo as hard as he could directly on his punching right fist. The spear turned into a dark blue scale. Throughout the area, the sound of bones breaking echoed. Lord Wanghuo's fist had indeed been broken, but so had the Qi manifested scale. Before Cao Yun could move away though, Lord Wanghuo had caught the extremity of the spear with his broken hand. Despite the pain, he grabbed it as firmly as he could and unleashed another strike with his left punch.
This time, Cao Yun summoned all the swords he had between the incoming punch and his chest. He even used 'The Son of Heaven's Spear and Shield' with everything he had. An armor made of scales, wind and lightning appeared all around him while shards of broken swords orbited him. The flying swords exploded before Lord Wanghuo's 'Crimson Sunder Strike'. Since he only struck with one hand, he wasn't as powerful as he could have been. But this single punch still sent shock waves everywhere. The ground below was completely destroyed. Even Cao Yun's array formation nearly broke. But it did endure, which probably saved the fight for Cao Yun. Thankfully, his array formation was sturdy enough and the swords acting as flags were protected by the very Wandering Qi they were manipulating.
Finally, the punch struck Cao Yun's chest, but it barely injured him. Still, realizing that he was still hurt a little sent cold shivers down his spine. Considering the defense he had mounted, without those flying swords, Cao Yun could imagine that his chest would have been caved in and his heart crushed.
All around Cao Yun, the force behind that strike was channeled through the wind, lightning and event the shards of swords. Suddenly, he released everything as a powerful tornado all over the place. Although Lord Wanghuo was holding on his spear as much as he could, he did get blown away.
This allowed Cao Yun to get a bit of distance between them. Unfortunately, Lord Wanghuo had other ideas. Using his Fist Aura, he simply raised his broken hand in the air and sent a gust of killing intent all around himself. The strength generated by Cao Yun's attack was engulfed and snuffed out. Lord Wanghuo's fist looked as though it was covered in fresh blood. The size of his fist was also incredible. It was larger than the entire battlefield. Although it was clearly an effect of his Fist Aura, the sensation was still there.
Cao Yun was seeing Lord Wanghuo with his normal size, which was already impressive, and his gigantic fist. And yet, both things seemed perfectly natural and nothing looked weird. After all, this was a form of illusion in a sense.
'Hell Elephants Trample the Heaven and Earth'!
At last, Lord Wanghuo unleashed a technique even High Mother Lisha was unaware of. Until now, she had known every attack and was thus more at ease. Still, she had been anxious for the longest time, fearing for Cao Yun's death and ready to act at any moment. But now, she was faced with something she didn't even know and thus couldn't prepare for. She wouldn't know when Cao Yun really was in danger. Moreover, she wasn't sure whether she could do anything at all in that situation. Honestly, Cao Yun was much stronger than she had initially thought.
The only time she had seen him fight was when he was using the Blood Abyss. Today, she was seeing his strength. Besides, she also knew that this wasn't even all of his strength as he was still hiding his Qi cultivation.
Out of Lord Wanghuo's fist, five large mammoths appeared. They were all different from one another. The first one was covered in green hair soiled by old blood sticking to it. It had five tusks and a few others that were broken, all coming out of its face. That first mammoth was the biggest one with gigantic muscles still visible under its heavy fur. Then, the second one looked quite big as well but its fur was covered in black mud with a terrible stench coming out of it. And it had no tusk at all. After this one, the third mammoth had yellowish fur, even white here and there. Only two tusks were on its face, but from its spine, large spikes were protruding from its back. The fourth beast almost looked like it was merely fur on a pile of bones. Although it had no tusk, its very ribs were coming out of its fur.
Finally, the fifth mammoth was covered in gray and white hair. Its fur was much longer although it wasn't as heavy. Four tusks were visible. Cao Yun was immediately sensing something intense from this fifth beast. Indeed, it was resonating with his Fallen Arrow. After all, all of those five mammoths were physical manifestations of Lord Wanghuo's Turbid Demons. And this one was his Fallen Arrow, the Turbid Demon Cao Yun was trying to temper in order to break through.
As soon as they appeared, those five large beasts stampeded. They leapt toward Cao Yun without any hesitation. While they were running through the air, the world turned darker and the stench of blood assaulted everyone's nose. Although it was still daytime, the storm manifested by Cao Yun and the various techniques used by Lord Wanghuo had turned this place into a small hell. Everything was dark and bloody.
Seeing this, Cao Yun didn't even know what to do at first. He quickly realized that this technique was affecting his very morale. Immediately, he circulated his mind and soul cultivation. Then, he analyzed the situation and was forced to use his last trump card. On the battlefield, he still had one array formation left. Immediately, he activated it. Although it had been weakened by the fight, it was still intact. This array formation was a very simplified version of the 'Golden Cicada Sheds Its Skin' he had used. As such, it wouldn't last long, but he could set it up fairly easily even without knowing the terrain too much.
A golden hue spread and formed a small layer of barrier all around Lord Wanghuo and his five mammoths. Still, their steps alone were enough to make it shake. Besides, they were upon the barrier in an instant and it wouldn't last very long. Cao Yun had to find something soon. And he did!
'Weeping Demon'!
Since Lord Wanghuo was using his Turbid Demons, Cao Yun could do the same. Thus he used the mental attack gifted to him by Chief Elder Lümian of the Wubei Sect. Now, he could fully use it. In fact, he had even altered it a little to better work in synergy with his own cultivation and his own mind and soul. Maybe, a better name would be 'Weeping Asura' as it was now quite different from the actual 'Weeping Demon'.
With his current understanding of the technique, Cao Yun didn't need to even look at someone directly in the eyes for it to work. In fact, he didn't even need to look at the person. As long as his target could perceive Cao Yun in any capacity, the technique could be used. But it was indeed most effective by direct eye contact. As it happened, Lord Wanghuo was indeed looking at Cao Yun directly. Thus, the technique was incredibly powerful.
In an instant, the two men found themselves locked in a mental battle. The pull was so strong that they completely left the physical realm. As a consequence, the five mammoths disappeared there. However, they did appear in their mental battlefield. This was a form of amalgamation of Cao Yun and Lord Wanghuo's seas of consciousness.
Lord Wanghuo was unfazed and kept on attacking. Large peaks were coming out of the sky as though a mountain had been turned upside down and thrown into the skies. From this large mountain range, many golden chains were keeping other large beasts trapped. Some of those chains were coming down and keeping the five mammoths on a leash. This wasn't difficult to understand that those were similar to Cao Yun's Nine Soul Peaks in some way. And those beasts were Lord Wanghuo's Turbid Demons.
Just like Cao Yun when he had only mastered Spear Aura, there were golden Insight Writings floating around in Lord Wanghuo's sea of consciousness.
While Lord Wanghuo was visible, Cao Yun's body was gone. His awareness had merged with the gigantic body of Axiu Qian and he was perceiving this mental battlefield from his viewpoint. Thus, he saw the mammoths rush toward him. His golden eyes pierced through them. The hymns and sutras of his Spear Intent coalesced into a large golden javelin. It wasn't yet a real spear, but it was getting incredibly close to one. Still, getting there would be difficult beyond measure. For now, Cao Yun was still trying to acquire his Spear Heart.
Axiu Qian threw the golden javelin toward the Flying Poison mammoth, completely skewering him. The poor beast got impaled onto one of the upside down peaks. The Corpse Dog mammoth was grabbed by Axiu Qian's hand as it was faster than its brothers, so closer to Axiu Qian. Although its body was covered in sharp bones, in fact it was mostly sharp bones, Axiu Qian grabbed it without any problem. Then, the mammoth caught on fire and began to melt in Axiu Qian's hand.
In this space, Cao Yun's mind was much stronger thanks to the Drop of Wrath. But Lord Wanghuo was no pushover. His body became as large as Axiu Qian's form. After all, nothing was truly physical there so their size had no actual limitation apart from their will. As a demon, Lord Wanghuo was supposed to have a stronger will. That being said, Cao Yun was quite confident in this new battlefield.
Lord Wanghuo charged toward Axiu Qian. But with its three other arms, the giant asura grabbed the Unclean Evil mammoth, the Stinking Lungs mammoth and the Fallen Arrow mammoth. Axiu Qian squeezed as much as he could while the beasts were being burned by his very touch. Such an assault on his Turbid Demons inflicted incredible pain to Lord Wanghuo's mind. Still, he rushed forward. However, the distance seemed to stretch more each time he was going forward. The notion of space didn't really exist in this place but Lord Wanghuo was too stubborn to stop. The harder it was for him, the more enraged he became. His killing intent was permeating the entire battlefield.