Unfortunately, the memories Cao Yun just obtained didn't contain much concerning the Solar-Orchid Flame. However, they contained everything about the battle formation used to unleash it. Of course, this information was among the greatest secrets of the Orchid's Ashes. As such, there were seals all over the place to protect them. Even with Cao Yun's 'Melting the Shattered Mirror', he wasn't able to retrieve everything. A huge amount of information had simply been destroyed. Besides, Cao Yun didn't really have a lot of time to parse through all the bits and pieces. Maybe, by using the memories of the archers together, he might have been able to get an almost complete version of their battle formation.
Within Cao Yun's sea of consciousness, the large figure of Axiu Qian was still being burned by the orchid trying to fully bloom. The heat was so intense that the infinite bloody ocean was starting to sizzle. Each time Cao Yun was using the seed to burn anything, it became fuel for the flames. Thus, he had increased the danger of the seed right in front of his palm. Most of his forearm was now burned to a crisp and the damage was spreading further and further. On the surface it was worse than within as Cao Yun was doing everything he could to stop it from spreading toward his heart. If his skin and muscles were burned, it wasn't that much of a problem. After all, he could rather easily heal from superficial injuries.
Thankfully, Cao Yun's Wei Qi and spiritual senses were strong enough to preserve his meridians and a large portion of his deep tissues. That being said, Cao Yun could tell that this insane flame might actually be able to annihilate his arm beyond repair. Not only that, but the pressure that had built around and within the seed was now clearly enough to kill him. If he released the seed, even in an attempt to fly away, he would undoubtedly die. Maybe he might survive the explosion itself. But his injuries would be so terrible that he wouldn't survive very long anyway.
Desperate, Cao Yun tried to mobilize his Rune of Fire but it barely responded to him. It was completely terrified...
With no alternative, Cao Yun decided to bet everything on Dian Mo. Instead of fighting the Solar-Orchid Flame seed, the young man sent all the intent and soul he could spare directly inside the very seed that was causing his demise.
The next moment, a terrifying heat spread throughout his soul, even slightly affecting his Soul Embryo. Cao Yun's body was sweating profusely. Right now, his mind was partly within the remains of Yan Huoling's sea of consciousness. There, he was able to see the Palace of Supreme Wisdom expanding further and further. All around the fiery place, his blood runes were halting a literal ocean of flames.
"Boy?!"
Cao Yun didn't even try to talk with Dian Mo. In an instant, he sent him everything he had gotten from the memories of the cultivators. Then, he used his own soul to support the blood runes, pushing the ocean of flames with more and more strength, in order to give Dian Mo enough time. All around the Palace of Supreme Wisdom, cracks were appearing, but there were thousands of golden characters vibrating everywhere. With each vibration, words echoed throughout the sea of consciousness. They were forming incoherent sentences. But their tone belonged to Emperor Nuwa. There was so much authority in them that even Cao Yun was faltering. With the larger part of his soul focused on containing the seed, he couldn't deal with those characters directly.
With Cao Yun here to help him, Dian Mo's morale increased. The bits and pieces of memories he had just received from the young man weren't very useful. Moreover, he had no time to really sift through them. Anyway, he glanced quickly at them. Ironically, what caught his attention wasn't the memories themselves. Within what Cao Yun had given him, Dian Mo saw traces of some seals he was able to recognize. Those weren't exactly like Yan Huoling's as they were weaker, but they had very similar principles.
Since there was no time to research that more thoroughly, Dian Mo immediately tried to alter his ways. As its own shadow was spreading outward, a small tendril went toward the figure of Cao Yun who was floating in this mess, supporting the blood runes. Obeying Dian Mo's command with no hesitation or delay, the young man's soul materialized a golden spear in his hand and threw it toward a very specific character. Instead of destroying the character, it altered it. It was only one stroke, but it changed the meaning of this ancient character from 'Crumble' to 'Dust'. As it did, the character began to vibrate and then exploded. Each stroke flew in every direction. With this first try as proof, Dian Mo knew how to deal with several of the golden characters, the seals within Yan Huoling's sea of consciousness.
Although he couldn't get rid of them all, he was fairly certain he could eradicate enough of them so that he could deal with all the remaining seals himself. Assisted by Cao Yun, the two of them broke many seals. Alas, they could also feel that their strength was slowly diminishing. It was a question of will and endurance. But the Solar-Orchid Flame was assaulting the two of them at the same time. This flame was absolutely wild, nothing seemed to be able to contain it. It was trying to spread further and further. As it was stopped, it became even more frustrated and pushed with ever increasing rage. Cao Yun was trying to contain the expansion of life itself. It had to devour and spread everywhere. Within this flame was unbridled life, even death couldn't restrain it, it would spread until it crumbled under its own weight, and then some more.
Finally, Dian Mo was able to make a breakthrough. A seal he destroyed collapsed and all the seals around it dimmed. As they weakened, Dian Mo didn't hesitate at all and spread his shadows as far as he could. The faint golden characters were completely consumed by his shadow. Instantly, several memories of Yan Huoling emerged in Dian Mo's mind. Hopefully he could find something useful. In a mere instant, he received a few decades' worth of her life.
Yan Huoling was born and brought up in a rather noble family. They weren't exceptionally wealthy or influential, but they were extremely important locally. Nothing in her childhood was out of the ordinary. She had a nice life, her marriage was handled by her parents for political and financial reasons, but she didn't dislike the man. In fact, she even grew quite fond of him. Although she wouldn't have described it at love, she didn't care much. Instead, she focused on her studies. Alchemy was her favorite subject when she was young. However, she soon discovered that she didn't like most of alchemy, she only really loved playing with fire. It was alive in her hand and she absolutely loved this sensation.
Her parents had enough wealth for her to become very good at Flame Control since she only focused on that and it didn't require many expensive materials. Of course, it wasn't enough. As such, she started incorporating this Flame Control in her martial arts and even her cultivation. She became fond of cultivation methods revolving around fire, no matter its nature. Thanks to this pursuit, she cultivated rather fast and even had hopes of joining the Wubei Sect. Sadly, she failed too many times and became too old to join. At her very last try, she was almost taken in but failed at the very last moment. Bitter, she was still accepted into a great sect that had deep ties with the military.
With her talent, she was soon nurtured by the sect and courted by the army. As she felt a great connection and gratitude toward the Hongchen Kingdom, she was glad to serve it as a soldier and then an officer. Thanks to her, her family's social status rose as well. Her husband wasn't as impressive as she was in cultivation or martial arts, but he was a very good businessman. As years passed by, she had two daughters with her husband. Here and there, she had some affairs and so did he, but nothing serious. Honestly, it was very common in the military as they were on missions for very long periods of time. Besides, cultivators could control whether they were becoming pregnant or not so there was no problem on that front.
Her status had risen very high. One day, her battalion was faced with demons outside of the array formations of the Hongchen Kingdom. Unfortunately, she wasn't in charge of the mission. Her commanding officer made stupid decisions and even panicked when they all backfired on him and several soldiers were slaughtered. Seeing that he was useless, she took over. The other soldiers obeyed her without any hesitation because she simply seemed to know what she was doing and panic was spreading like wildfire. Thankfully, she did know what she was doing. However, the commanding officer tried to pin the disaster on her disrupting the chain of command.
For some time, she was afraid of being reprimanded. But her fellow soldiers stood up for her. A thorough investigation condemned their incompetent superior and she literally took his place. Before she was fifty, she was about to become a Spirit Warrior. As she went through the Lesser Tribulation, both her Lower and Middle Dantian exploded and she died, blowing up the secluded room she was in.
In truth, it had been a cover for her to join the 5th Imperial Guards. When Emperor Weide himself asked her to join his personal guards, she had no hesitation at all. She didn't even think about her family or kids. Sadly, she had no strong attachment to them as she had devoted herself to her career and her cultivation. Besides, she knew that her husband was capable enough to take care of them properly. Moreover, the Hongchen Kingdom would give them anything they required. By serving Emperor Weide, she was directly serving the Hongchen Kingdom.
From this day onward, she never questioned any order, she killed whoever needed killing. And, she had killed many innocent people. Of that, she was absolutely certain. That being said, she was able to rationalize everything as being for a greater good that she couldn't define, or even imagine. With her flames, she had burned down entire families, even children. Honestly, had Emperor Weide asked her to burn alive her own daughters, she would have accepted with barely a moment of thought. As the Emperor, he knew better what was good for the Hongchen Kingdom.
With such loyalty, she was awarded the Solar-Orchid Flame. Finally, Dian Mo reached what he wanted to see. Honestly, the life of that poor woman didn't matter to him. It might have some emotional effect on Cao Yun, and even that was doubtful, but Dian Mo felt no compassion or empathy at all. She had chosen this life and was happy with it, despite several missions that had been a bit unpleasant, unpalatable so to speak.
Just as he got to the good part, he realized that almost everything was missing. Of course, any information on the Solar-Orchid Flame was protected even more heavily than anything else. After all, Dian Mo knew what this flame was.
Dian Mo had heard about it from Demon God Da Mo. Although Dian Mo had never seen the actual Solar-Orchid Flame, Demon God Da Mo had always claimed that Emperor Nuwa had stolen it from him with her perfidy. To be honest, Dian Mo wasn't sure he trusted his words. But one thing seemed clear, Emperor Nuwa had gotten this flame and Demon God Da Mo coveted it. To be fair, it wasn't the biggest reason why he despised Emperor Nuwa and wanted her dead, but it added to the list.
Thanks to her memories though, Dian Mo understood her own cultivation and the methods she used to improve her Flame Control better. Although it wasn't as crucial, it was still very important to gain an edge he so severely needed. Just as Cao Yun had sent everything to Dian Mo, the spirit gave the young man everything he now knew. As an alchemist, this information was even more useful to Cao Yun. He found several cultivation methods in Yan Huoling's past, he had already read most of them except for a few. Among them all, one caught his interest as he was convinced he could use it right now, 'Garden of the Nine-Nine Carnations'.
Within Cao Yun's arm and all around his charred flesh, small sparks of his Black Heart Flame coalesced. They slowly formed tiny petals which began to drift toward one another. Soon, they formed small flowers. Finally, those flowers bloomed. Their stalks were going through Cao Yun's meridians and were quite literally merging with them and spreading further toward Cao Yun's heart while the flowers were all directed toward the Solar-Orchid Flame seed.
With Cao Yun's current understanding of alchemy and Flame Control, taking in this 'Garden of the Nine-Nine Carnations' was extremely easy. As his flames had been transformed, the seed reacted strangely, as though it was facing a familiar presence. It probably wouldn't last long, but Cao Yun had been able to calm the intense flames spreading in his arm. In fact, Cao Yun had a great idea, but he wasn't sure at all whether it would work or not. Those small flowers might be able to help him succeed. If only he could use the Rune of Fire, he might be able to ensure his success. For the moment, it was still a very dangerous idea that could literally backfire on him. Hopefully, Dian Mo would find something else.
Indeed, Dian Mo was looking for more memories, hoping he could find something to either subdue the violence of the seed or even take over the seed. After all, Yan Huoling had been able to control it to some degree, so she had to know about methods to put it under control, hopefully...