For weeks, the Wubei Sect got ready for what would be the ultimate battle of the war. Either they would kill Empyrean Asura, or he would get Demon God Da Mo's body and would rule over the Piaolu planet.
Sun Liao was leading a group of array formation masters to strengthen all the array formations of the Wubei Sect. Everything revolved around two poles: the Palace of Supreme Wisdom and the Devil's Jail. Ironically, those were the places where Chief Elder Suxian and Mo Tian respectively rested. Of course, Sun Liao hated Mo Tian with a passion. Cao Yun had spent a long time with his brother talking about his plans.
It was extremely obvious that Sun Liao hated Cao Yun's plans, but he still followed them. Even if they were to win, his master would still be trapped in the Palace of Supreme Wisdom. Moreover, he would now be trapped with the man who had pretended to be his friend for centuries before betraying him in the most horrendous fashion. In fact, Sun Liao even thought about sabotaging his own array formations in order to make Mo Tian pay. However, he had to accept that he couldn't endanger the Hongchen Kingdom. That being said, he had absolutely no trust in Mo Tian at all.
As it turned out, that was also Cao Yun's position. At least, on this point, they saw eye to eye. Thus, Cao Yun asked Sun Liao to put fail-safe measures in place. Of course, Cao Yun had already prepared several things, but this was so important that it was better to plan for redundancy. Cao Yun also had Dian Mo help out with the blueprints of the array formations. Once again, Dian Mo was astonished by Sun Liao's genius. The young man was able to quickly adapt and incorporate new ideas into his overall understanding of array formations. If Sun Liao ever became a Sage, he would most likely be far superior to Dian Mo.
Slowly, Dian Mo felt more and more inadequate. Unlike all the humans around him, he seemed unable to truly progress. All the progress he was making was marginal. In a way, he was gaining information but not real knowledge, let alone wisdom. As a spirit, it was much more difficult for him because he couldn't improve his mind with the same cultivation methods. To be fair, the real reason behind this stagnation could mostly, if not completely, be attributed to his attitude. Even now, Dian Mo was experiencing the world through Cao Yun, vicariously.
Since his long existence in the Palace of Supreme Wisdom, Dian Mo was afraid of the outside world. It had always held him back, and it would keep holding him back. Although he was absolutely aware of his limitations and despite all his internal desires to change himself, he couldn't. In a sense, he was similar to Lord Wanghuo. He didn't like his current state, knew what to do to change, but hated what it would take, more than his current state. However, Dian Mo was pushed to change more than Lord Wanghuo. Indeed, he was feeling more and more like a hindrance to Cao Yun.
By this time, Dian Mo fully considered Cao Yun as his friend, a very close friend. So he wanted to be of use to him. Considering that he was a spirit, he could only help through his mind and knowledge. Soon, he was certain that Cao Yun's competence would exceed his own in all domains. It might take a few decades or centuries, but it was absolutely certain. Right now, Dian Mo exceeded Cao Yun in only a handful of domains. Even in those, Dian Mo wasn't immensely better, just slightly more experienced. After millennia of life, Dian Mo wondered what he truly had to show for it. He had lived as a frog in a well, happy to just look at the shadows on the wall. Now that he had seen the actual world, he had a hard time leaving the comfort of the shadows.
Anyway, Dian Mo knew that it wasn't the right time to annoy his friend with his problems. Instead of focusing on those, Dian Mo helped Sun Liao as much as he could. Unfortunately for Dian Mo, Sun Liao was in a foul mood, and his arrogance was unbearable. Honestly, this wasn't pleasant for anyone.
Seeing that he couldn't make Sun Liao accept the situation, Cao Yun left him in peace. Cao Yun understood his brother because he, too, had to work with a man he hated, Emperor Weide. The traitor had arrived in the Wubei Sect and was preparing battle plans with the Chief Elders, Sect Leader Xuan Mu, as well as Matriarch Huang Yufeng. The three most powerful cultivators of the Hongchen Kingdom were gathered in the same place. This also meant that the rest of the Hongchen Kingdom was weakened and fragile. However, no demon attacked the human kingdom.
There were some conflicts all over the border, but they were from small groups, not an actual army. In fact, those were mostly civilians raiding human cities. In most cases, the humans had enough strength to push them back or even kill them. The Huang family was helping as much as they could. Hopefully, if the war were won, they could get help from some demon kingdoms to quell those raids. But it was clear that they would keep happening until new defenses were set up. The Huang family was counting on Cao Yun to help others break through so they could have powerful array formation masters restore some of the array formations. As long as the demons were unable to become Exalted Demons, they didn't need defenses as powerful as before. In fact, if they could sign peace treaties, defenses just powerful enough to push back Golden Blood Children would be sufficient, as they wouldn't need to fear large armies, just bandits and small bands.
While Sun Liao was kept busy with more work than he had ever imagined in his life, Ren Chao was also working. For a few days, he had helped evacuate the Wubei Sect. This had been terrible. For Ren Chao, this place truly was his home, he had his wife and kids here. Of course, Wang Mei helped her husband. With her mastery of the arts, she was very good at calming crowds and making them follow instructions. Ren Chao helped build up temporary housing for the people, while knowing full well that they might actually be more permanent than they hoped. After all, they had no idea in what state the Wubei Sect would be in after the battle. For all Ren Chao knew, it might be completely razed. It had been very long since anyone had witnessed a battle involving a Sage and an Exalted Demon. Besides, Ren Chao also knew about the Reborn Demon under the Devil's Jail and even about Demon God Da Mo within Empyrean Asura's body. Indeed, Cao Yun didn't hide it from his brothers.
For some time, Ren Chao was busy and didn't think about how useless he was to his brothers. But then, he had to face the truth once more. Thus, he dived into his work. Ren Chao knew that Empyrean Asura wouldn't come alone, so he worked on weapons and projectiles. The Wubei Sect had more siege weapons than ever. Ren Chao made sure that they were all working as best as they could. He did everything to arm the Wubei Sect, working the other blacksmiths to exhaustion under the authority of Chief Elder Tingyu. Wang Mei helped him with her art. Thanks to her, his talent could fully manifest itself.
Unlike other martial artists, blacksmiths could only rely on their preparation before the battle. Once the fight had started, they couldn't reforge their weapons or armor. But martial artists could adapt their technique even after spending decades, centuries, or millennia working on it. All the blacksmiths worked like crazy. Wang Mei had many other performers help them recover and stay as sharp as possible despite the intense fatigue. Several blacksmiths literally collapsed from exhaustion. However, Ren Chao endured much more than anyone else.
Ren Chao was almost naked in his forge, covered in drops of Celestial Ivory Dew. It was the coldest liquid known in the Piaolu planet as it was able to stay liquid at temperatures where water and most other liquids were frozen solid, but also at incredibly high temperatures. This layer of Celestial Ivory Dew was protecting Ren Chao from the intense heat of his forge. Although it didn't completely get rid of the heat, it made it much more tolerable. Of course, Ren Chao's body was resistant enough to take it, but heat would also affect his mind, and he needed to be fully focused.
As he was forging, Ren Chao entered a deep meditative state. For more than two weeks, he forged without even being conscious. His mind entered his sea of consciousness. Everything was a haze, but he felt that his Lower Dantian was full of Water Qi and his Middle Dantian was overflowing with Fire Qi. In fact, Ren Chao was cultivating both Water and Fire without realizing it. In a sudden burst of enlightenment, Ren Chao let go of his tools and sat cross-legged on the floor.
All the other blacksmiths were shocked by this sight, as Ren Chao had been working harder than everyone else. The very first one who realized what was going on was obviously his wife, Wang Mei. She took out a zither and played a completely different tune. Then, Chief Elder Tingyu understood and sent his Qi around Ren Chao and his forge. He didn't isolate Ren Chao from the intense heat of his forge. However, he poured more Celestial Ivory Dew on him. Ren Chao's body quivered, and some of the Celestial Ivory Dew began to evaporate.
The other blacksmiths were incredulous. It was Ren Chao's heat that had evaporated the Celestial Ivory Dew, not his forge. So they all realized what was going on. Although they were fascinated, they decided that they couldn't let Ren Chao down. They kept on working harder and harder. Mountains of weapons were getting higher and higher, bolts for gigantic crossbows, long spears, enormous swords, and armor for big beasts.
The two inferior Dantian of Ren Chao were fully crystallized. Ren Chao put more and more pressure on them. As a blacksmith, he knew how to handle dense materials and make them denser. So Ren Chao made them as dense and compact as possible. In fact, they were probably denser than anyone else in the history of the Hongchen Kingdom. Although it was a good thing if it succeeded, it was usually a terrible idea in practice. Indeed, if the crystals were too dense, they would be hard to break. Worse, if they broke, the explosion could damage the cultivator's body or even kill the cultivator. Honestly, Ren Chao didn't worry about it at all, considering his constitution.
Once he was satisfied, Ren Chao used all of his mental strength and even contracted the muscles in his lower abdomen and chest. There was a powerful shock wave. His two crystallized Dantian collided like two small planets. Upon impact, they completely exploded. It was cataclysmic. Ren Chao's muscles shook, the very ground Ren Chao was sitting on cracked under his body. Since they were in a forge, the ground was incredibly sturdy, but it still cracked.
Apart from very few cultivators, any Mortal Warrior's body would have been shattered by such a shock wave. However, Ren Chao's flesh was so resistant and his bones so strong that it didn't maim him. That being said, he was definitely damaged. He was no more damaged than after a really tough workout, though. In fact, it allowed more Qi to enter his muscles and bones, even his marrow. Although he would be in pain for a few weeks, it would make him stronger than ever in the long run.
Up until this point, Ren Chao had an almost perfect Lesser Tribulation. Unfortunately, the very last part, the 9th-grade Mortal Warrior stage, was clearly the part where he would fare the worst. Wang Mei could tell that Ren Chao had entered this stage, so she used all her art and talent. To her zither, she added her poetry and singing. Wang Mei was playing on Ren Chao's state of mind to help him as best as she could, knowing that mind cultivation was his overall weakest point.
Besides the great benefits of Wang Mei's art, Ren Chao could hear the sound of his wife's voice. He could hear the love and care in it. Focusing on his family, on his wife, on his kids, on his brothers, on everyone he didn't want to let down, Ren Chao tried as much as he could. Both of his crystallized Dantian had exploded into a surreal energy. His Huang Ting was overflowing with the raw energy necessary for his Soul Embryo. Ren Chao poured all of his willpower, thoughts, and raw emotions into it.
Ren Chao was mostly acting out of instinct, but the words of his brothers were still echoing in his mind. As such, he wasn't trying to hinder the process, just guide it. In a matter of hours, it was a success. His Soul Embryo was formed. An intense light spread throughout his body and entered his sea of consciousness. Ren Chao felt new sensations as his soul was partly able to leave his body. He was now officially a 1st-grade Spirit Warrior.
When Ren Chao opened his eyes, he was levitating above the cracked ground. He could barely believe what had happened, as he had always been slow in his cultivation. Wang Mei's face was brimming with joy. All the blacksmiths suddenly yelled their support while they kept on working. Chief Elder Tingyu also congratulated Ren Chao and gave him a pill to recover faster.
"Elder Ren Chao, no matter what you say, take ten hours off. You need this... well, you need much more, but you won't take more. So I order you to take a ten-hour rest, at the very least. And I won't suffer any objection."
Ren Chao heard the stern tone of his master, but also his care. Unfortunately, he was right, Ren Chao did need to rest or he would mess things up in the forge. Suddenly, he realized how his master had called him. With a simple word, Ren Chao was now officially an elder. Honestly, Chief Elder Tingyu had just waited for Ren Chao to break through to give him the title. Wang Mei hugged her husband and took him away, as if she was afraid he wouldn't leave if she didn't remove him.