The Six Fangs Generals were all around their Marshal. He had fainted so Lu Xiaoya and Zhai Tiesheng were taking care of him. With her great perception, she could obviously deal with injuries. As a matter of fact, so could Xu Lieren since he was specialized in hunting. However, Xu Lieren was busy looking at Cao Yun. His mind was in turmoil. For now, Cao Yun still hadn't found his 'Blood-Scented Hunt' seal. But considering his strength, he would obviously find it as soon as he had recovered enough. In other words, if they let Cao Yun go now, they would never find him again unless he came to them.
Xun Lieren knew that their Marshal had specifically told them not to pursue Cao Yun. His orders had been crystal clear. Since the Empyrean Asura's orders were for the Silver Wolf Marshal to kill the young man, he would challenge him in a duel. And if the Marshal lost, they had to let him go. Their Marshal hadn't really lost, it was more of a tie. But Xun Lieren didn't want to play on a mere technicality to disregard his Marshal's orders. That being said, he could imagine that the Empyrean Asura wouldn't be too pleased since Silver Wolf Marshal Shanyin Guan had literally done so himself.
If his Marshal had come to such a point where he would play on a technicality to disregard an order, it truly meant that he was desperate. And indeed, the Six Fangs could all tell that he had never wanted to serve the Empyrean Asura. Now, they knew the reason why he had bent the knee. The Empyrean Asura was literally Demon God Da Mo. Obviously, this shook them all. Although none of them were part of the Heavenly Demon God Faith, they regarded Demon God Da Mo as their progenitor. And he was.
Jin Bao, who was the fastest of the six, was also looking at the young man. But she was focused on Hongyu. She had never seen a demonic beast as fast as this Heaven-Searing Fenghuang. Not only was she beautiful and royal, she was unfathomably fast. Even Jin Bao couldn't catch up with her. If they didn't do anything right now, they had no hope of dealing with the young man.
Among the Six Fangs, there were many doubts. So they were all waiting for He Wushuang to issue his orders. However, he wasn't the one who spoke first, Mo Qingsong was.
"Marshal Shanyin's orders were clear, both in words and in intent. He challenged this Cao Yun and Cao Yun survived. Even if our Marshal had died, it would have been disrespectful to him to try and kill his opponent. Right now, we can only support him in his recovery. Let this Cao Yun leave in peace."
He Wushuang was upset, not against Mo Qingsong, but against himself. This was the right course of action, but he had been too slow and too indecisive to say it first. He Wushuang and Mo Qingsong were now both resolute. They were ready to face the Empyrean Asura if need be. In fact, they were even ready to face their own Marshal. They would help and support him even if they had to go against him. Deep down, they knew what he was aspiring and they also knew that he had been coerced into making this deal. The most important thing was to protect his people, and they would not fail him!
-
Cao Yun had been slightly worried. Even with Hongyu's speed, if the Six Fangs Generals attacked him all at once, especially with their battle formation, they might have both been killed. Thankfully, they didn't even attempt anything. They obeyed their Marshal and even dissolved their battle formation entrapping Cao Yun and Hongyu.
Contrary to Silver Wolf Marshal Shanyin Guan, Cao Yun was still conscious. He was circulating his mind cultivation and was focusing on both his Demon Soul and his Soul Embryo in order to stay conscious. At the moment, his biggest concern was to control his flow of blood so he wouldn't bleed too much. Of course, with his entire right flank destroyed, he was bleeding a little. But the wound was too abnormal since it wasn't bleeding profusely, there were merely a few drops of blood here and there. It gave a very eerie sensation, as though Cao Yun's body were unreal.
Even after so little time, Cao Yun could already feel his flesh rebuilding itself. Of course, it was very slow and no one could see it with the naked eye, but Cao Yun could definitely sense it. That being said, it was a very serious injury. Even with his vitality, it would take a few weeks to a month for him to fully recover. Thankfully, this was exactly how long his trip back to the Hongchen Kingdom would take.
Cao Yun's only problem was his stealth. During the fight, the blood of Demon God Da Mo had hidden deeper into the young man. But it was still connected to the actual Demon God Da Mo. In other words, it was only a matter of time before his killing intent would assault Cao Yun. In his current condition, it might really prove fatal. Thus, Cao Yun was forced to circulate his 'Ashen Feather Seal' while he was actively trying to recover from his injury. Obviously, it required a lot of willpower. As a 9th-grade Accomplished Demon and 5th-grade Spirit Warrior, it wasn't too difficult, but it was still exhausting, especially after such a fight.
Knowing all of that, Dian Mo immediately tried to help Cao Yun.
"Boy, you're insane... But you did it! I hope we won't have to deal with anything before we reach the Hongchen Kingdom..."
"Don't... As soon as you say that, we'll have to deal with something incredible once again. Honestly, I just want to rest. I'll focus all of my will and intent within, could you keep watch on the outside?"
"Of course, boy. Rest well!"
"Thanks."
Indeed, Cao Yun brought most of his will and intent within his sea of consciousness, as well as his own flesh and blood. However, he didn't disregard the outside completely, he kept just enough awareness of it so Dian Mo could use his senses as a way of keeping watch. Moreover, Hongyu was also very alert to her surroundings.
In his sea of consciousness, Cao Yun observed the results of his cultivation and his fight. A few things had changed. First of all, he had finally formed his fifth constellation, the Heart Constellation. So only two constellations remained. After that, he would have to turn every constellation into a Mansion. Then, his 'Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars' would have reached true Perfection. Besides, clashing with Silver Wolf Marshal's burgeoning Spear Spirit had also sharpened his own Spear Heart.
In terms of cultivation, his Drop of Wrath had perfectly turned into a Demon Soul. Although it had formed golden chains to trap the Seven Turbid Demons, Cao Yun couldn't use it to form physical chains of blood and to break through. The Forsaken Dao Era affected humans and demons alike. So forging those blood chains was as difficult as ascending to the firmament for one's Soul Embryo. Maybe his 'Death Verses' could help him, as the next verse Cao Yun had to understand was about creating physical chains of Death Energy.
Thankfully, Cao Yun had a better understanding of his 'Death Verses' through 'Living Death' that he was able to use freely. This fight had helped him deepen his understanding by experiencing it himself, in his flesh and soul. Cao Yun could quite easily turn his own soul into Death Energy and back. Each time, Cao Yun felt as though he was genuinely dying. He could feel his emotions go in very strange places as well. Of course, he wasn't dead, but it was exactly the kind of emotions one would genuinely feel as they were dying. The sensations through his body and his soul were not pleasant at all. But he couldn't tell that they were unpleasant either. They were just strange considering that Cao Yun was full of vitality through his asura cultivation and was still feeling like he was one step away from the grave.
This was probably the closest Cao Yun had ever come to perceiving a Dao. Besides, it was a very profound Dao. By experiencing it directly into his soul, it could allow him to understand a small fraction of it without breaking through into the fourth realm of cultivation. But it was still very limited.
Finally, Cao Yun also looked at his Soul Embryo. His own emotions were nourishing it every single moment. Slowly, his Soul Embryo was turning into Cao Yun's own Hun. As it turned out, using his Demon Soul as a Po was also affecting the process. In fact, it was making it faster. In a sense, it was as if Cao Yun's own Hun was seeking some kind of balance with his Po. The fastest and easiest way to achieve true balance was for Cao Yun's Soul Embryo to become his Hun itself. Still, it was a slow process. Even if it was faster than for any other human, it would still take years of persistent work. Each day Cao Yun would neglect his Qi cultivation, he would be set back by at least ten days. Fortunately, Cao Yun could almost always divert a small part of his intent to keep working on his Soul Embryo. Apart from a big fight like the one he had just gone through, Cao Yun had no reason to stop cultivating his Hun.
-
It took Hongyu three weeks to reach the Hongchen Kingdom. But here they were now. In front of Hongyu was the border of the Subei Province. This was where Cao Yun had fought and killed Gu Song. It was from him that Cao Yun had gotten the Black Heart Flame. The Subei Province was heavily militarized and its most prominent family was the Yun family, led by General Yun Po. Cao Yun knew his son, Yun Ping who had lost his left arm defending Yinmen City during the demonic beasts stampede. Obviously, Cao Yun trusted him. Besides, he had a good history with the province, so he had chosen it in order to come back.
There were other reasons. For example, he knew that the demons were assaulting it more than any other province. Indeed, this was where Cao Yun had also met Cang Yin, the infiltrated demon. She had served the same purpose as all the other spies, she had tried to open a portal for the demons who had a very hard time going through the defenses laid by Saint Duan Huang and Emperor Nuwa.
Unfortunately, Cao Yun hadn't been aware of the full scope of this infiltration. After all, he had been sucked into that space disturbance before he got news of what was going on. But through the memories of the high-ranked demons he had absorbed, he now knew. In fact, he also knew of ways to find out if a human was in fact sent by the Empyrean Asura Theocracy. First of all, they only had been able to give birth to a limited number of such humans. But even then, there were subtle ways to tell them apart thanks to their bloodline and traces of the arts practiced by the priests of the Heavenly Demon God.
Cao Yun was almost convinced that it was useless though. Indeed, Xiao Xuefeng had surely found a similar way of telling them apart. Moreover, simply being more careful of everyone's movement could also deal with the issue. Until now, the humans had never thought demons could hide as humans. If they could, then humans had to be a bit more careful. It wouldn't be easy for the demons to duplicate their sneak attack. In fact, it would be almost impossible. Still, Cao Yun was worried because humanity's unity was its strongest point. Hopefully, this looming threat had not turned into mistrust and division...
Among the reasons the demons, and Cao Yun, were targeting this province were the underground tunnels. The Huang family had found them first, but the demons had too. Those tunnels were not only brimming with spirit stones, they were also under the array formations on the surface. That didn't mean that the defenses wouldn't work, but they wouldn't work as well. Thus, demons could more easily enter the Hongchen Kingdom without facing the array formations of Emperor Nuwa. Of course, it was still difficult and they couldn't send an entire army all at once.
Since the array formations around the Hongchen Kingdom were responding to demon blood, they would become stronger and stronger if a large number of demons or a very powerful demon tried to get inside. Moreover, the humans were obviously guarding the tunnels. Most likely, the Huang family had extensive maps of the entire thing since they had planned to exploit the spirit stones. Unfortunately, Cao Yun had only intel from the demons, and none of those whose memories he had devoured knew much about the front lines. A few of them had been there, but they didn't have any rank. As such, Cao Yun almost knew nothing about the situation.
With all that in mind, Cao Yun had to get intel first before entering. Besides, he was worried about the defenses. Indeed, he had demon blood now too. So the array formations might even work against him. Honestly, he wasn't absolutely sure that he could completely conceal it. Since humans and demons both shared blood from Demon God Da Mo, the array formations would activate at a specific concentration of that bloodline. Even Dian Mo wasn't too sure. After all, those array formations were above what even he could make.
The defenses around the Hongchen Kingdom had been established over several centuries by the greatest minds of the human race, including Saint Duan Huang. He was often thought of as the father of array formations. He had created the current system after studying everything he could, even documents from the humans of the past, before the invasion of Demon God Da Mo. In order to create this array formation, they had quite literally built mountains, planted forests, diverted rivers. They had used all the principles of the array formations to use nature itself in order to strengthen the defenses and make them last as long as possible. Twenty thousand years later, they were still up. Of course, they weren't as powerful as before, but thankfully, the demons were also plagued by the Forsaken Dao Era.