Chapter 223: Bone crows

'Subdue the Seven Demons' was meant to take control of the seven souls that composed the Po, the corporeal soul. Depending on which author Cao Yun referred to, the Po was either one soul with seven parts or seven souls linked together. All the questions related to souls were always very complicated and subjective.

Those seven Po souls were sometimes called the Seven Turbid Demons. In fact, those Seven Turbid Demons were born from the Po when some kind of unbalance plagued the corresponding Po. But, by extension, it was also a way to call the seven Po themselves. And the third layer of 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks' was related to taking control of those Seven Turbid Demons to prevent them from becoming inner demons.

This would elevate the corporeal soul, the hardest to elevate because it was close to the earth. The greatest benefit of this layer was to prevent the formation of inner demons. Even if Cao Yun was not afraid of this at all, this third layer was very interesting for him. It was obviously composed of seven steps. In each step, Cao Yun would have to materialize the corresponding Po and form some connection between it and his conscious mind. And as he would work on Po, his control over his own Qi, and most of all, his Jing would increase. Even that was secondary for him. The most important thing was the ability to finally control the Drop of Wrath and refine it as a part of himself.

No matter how much control he had on it right now, it was still a wild animal on which he had put a leash. Although the leash could be tight and short, this was still something that could act out. But if Cao Yun was able to literally reform the seven Po inside the Drop of Wrath, it would finally be his.

Obviously, forming a connection between a corporeal soul and his conscious mind was easier said than done. According to the manual, it could take somewhere from two to five years to form a single manifestation of one of the Seven Turbid Demons.

Although Cao Yun didn't want to rush things, he still decided to try something out. The more experience he had with manipulating Po and the Drop of Wrath, the better it would be. Since he wanted to manifest those Po inside the Drop of Wrath, he had to be able to get his intent inside. Right now, he had been able to draw a second Po character into the drop.

Thus, he focused his mind on it. By circulating his Po character both in his sea of consciousness and in the Drop of Wrath, Cao Yun was trying to get a better feeling of what was going on inside. He was using his intent to draw the Po character again and again. In his first Po, he had to slow down so that it would match his speed inside the Drop of Wrath. It took him several hours but drawing the Po character was not a problem now that he was very accustomed to using the Five Agents. After all, he had already formed four Five Echoes Pearl.

When he circulated his Po into the Drop of Wrath, he saw various scenes he had already seen before. They were from Axiu Qian's memories. Most were violent. And they were all from his time as a slave. But they were not just memories. Cao Yun was literally reliving them. He was living the pain and the anguish. The first time Axiu Qian had killed a man. The first time Axiu Qian had killed a friend in training. Many other occurrences of physical pain or psychological torment.

Cao Yun still did not understand the language used around Axiu Qian, but he didn't need to in order to tell what was going on. Thankfully, Cao Yun had energized both the Chamber of Moving Pearls and the Chamber of Medicine Field. As such, his emotions remained stable. And he was able to more or less gain control of his intent inside the Drop of Wrath. He was now able to draw the Po character faster and faster.

It would still take a long time to have the same ease than with the original one though. Still, it was a great accomplishment. And Cao Yun was ready to try out his next step. Death Energy was related to Po. Thus, several strands of refined Death Energy had agglutinated around the Po character inside the Drop of Wrath. Cao Yun was convinced that by controlling this Death Energy, his mind cultivation would become faster and way more efficient.

But he had absolutely no experience with manipulating Death Energy. Right now, he could only count on the intent of the Drop of Wrath to try and move it around. So he had decided to try it out. The more experience he would get, the more control he would obtain. When he would finally start the third layer for real, if he could manipulate Death Energy, it would be a great help.

And indeed, he clearly felt a powerful connection between both the Drop of Wrath, the Po characters and the refined Death Energy. Within the Evil Qi the Drop of Wrath had absorbed, there was not that much Death Energy. But it was slowly building up. Contrary to the Evil Qi that turned into more blood, the Death Energy stayed within the Drop of Wrath. And with the new Po character, it was attracted to it and stayed there.

At first, it was very frustrating. Cao Yun had such ease when it came to manipulate his Qi, that trying to control something which he had almost no feeling for was difficult. It was just like trying to control a new limb he had no sensation in. The hardest part was not the mental strength to concentrate on it, but the frustration pushing him to give up.

He could concentrate for several hours in a row without seeing any result. Even when there was a bit of result, either the Death Energy would not move the way he wanted, or it would move only a tiny bit. But Cao Yun had not much to do except for that.

The formation of a new Five Echoes Pearl would take at least a couple of months and as of now, it was mostly autonomous. Extracting energies from the Five Agents was getting harder, but Cao Yun's proficiency in it was also improving. Thus, it was always taking around the same amount of time. But he had not even to think about it anymore.

Apart from his mind cultivation, Cao Yun also tried to focus on his stars. The sixth star, the Tail Star, was beginning to appear in the sky. It was related to powerful sweeping attacks, and also to a few throwing attacks. Right now, the only throwing attacks Cao Yun knew was from Feng Yingyue, 'Bladeless Eternity'. Maybe it could help him in getting a feel for this star. His 'Shen Visualization' was even more clear than before. He could completely immersed himself in various imaginary scenarios and try his martial art.

Finally, he took some time to try and open more and more acupoints. He was getting closer and closer to the 9th-grade Mortal realm and at last the Mortal Warrior realm. By reaching this realm, not only could he manifest his Qi, but he could also control it outside of his body. It would completely change everything. For one, it would finally allow him to use a spatial ring.

Even with a tiny spatial ring, Cao Yun could have brought months of food supplies with him. Although he could survive several weeks, if not months, without food, he was still missing the taste. Damn, he could have brought wine as well. Besides, he could have helped the egg. Right now, he was able to protect it from the Evil Qi by absorbing most of it. But he could not nourish it with his own Qi.

The only thing he could have done would have been to send surges of Qi in the air around him. But without any control, it would have mixed with the Evil Qi in a matter of seconds. Moreover, he could not focus it specifically on the egg either. So in the end, the benefits would be minimal while Cao Yun would lose a lot of stamina.

-

After what felt like nine days of uninterrupted rain, it suddenly stopped. Knowing how much time had passed was difficult in a world without stars. Even the eight decrepit palaces in the sky were immobile. But Cao Yun's guess was rather good. It probably wouldn't stay that way after several weeks in this place.

Just as it had appeared out of nowhere, the rain simply stopped. It did not calm down, it just vanished all of a sudden.

The air was now saturated with Evil Qi. Thankfully, it had never become higher than three times the density of Qi from the Hongchen Kingdom. In fact, now that he thought about it, that was strange. Since the rain had never stopped falling down, the density should have slowly increased overtime. Of course, he was absorbing some of it, but it was very low compared to the amount all around him.

It did not take more than a few seconds for strange screeches to resound. Suddenly, Cao Yun became way more alert. Those noises could either be a good omen or a disaster. If there was life, it meant that Cao Yun may be able to find some food. But more than that, it could allow him to make sense of this world. His priority right now was to find a way out. Even if this place was related to Cleansed Asura, it would not do him any good if he were to die.

Moreover, he knew that Zeng Minghe was a traitor. His friends were protecting Yinmen City with his help. Not only would he get a good look at their defenses, he could also give commands to some demonic beasts within the upcoming stampede. Indeed, just like Can Mouye, he was a beast tamer. He only needed to control a couple of key demonic beasts to manipulate the entire crowd.

But the presence of life also meant that there was danger. Maybe Can Mouye was also around those parts. And Cao Yun had no idea how powerful or dangerous those creatures he had heard were. After all, beasts that could survive in such a dead world would probably be either very sinister or very ferocious. With fewer resources, only the most dangerous demonic beasts could survive.

The screeches were coming from the black plain full of rotten grass. Maybe those beasts were feeding on it... This rotten black grass was probably very poor in nutrients. Besides, it was probably full of Evil Qi. Most demonic beasts in the Hongchen Kingdom would die by ingesting it. But it wasn't strange for such a place to harbor unknown species.

Even with his senses, Cao Yun could not see that far away. As such, he decided to climb on the white rib protruding from the black sand. Because it was curved, he began to climb from the inside. Once he reached the middle of the rib, he climbed on the outside of it and finally stood on its summit.

Now, he could finally see far away. Of course, he did not just want to watch the strange beasts, he also wanted to figure out what was around. When he had fallen from the sky, he had only been able to see the black pains. But he was close to the boundary he hadn't been able to see beyond.

In the distance, it was vague, but he saw some roofs. It was very difficult to distinguish them, but they looked an awful lot like the palaces in the sky. At least they seemed to have the same kind of architecture. And this architecture was completely foreign to the current Hongchen Kingdom. But it was also foreign to everything Cao Yun knew about, in all the books he had read.

However, this was a good sign. Temples meant that he could find some clues. Hopefully, he would be able to get a better understanding of this place. Damn, he could maybe even find documents pertaining to Cleansed Asura. But then, he probably wouldn't be able to understand the language... Still, getting closer to those temples, while being cautious, was paramount to his survival.

Finally, when Cao Yun looked in the direction of the screeches, he saw something that froze his blood. In the distance, there were birds flying all around. But those birds had no skin and no flesh. In the gray sky, thousands of skeletons were flying around, without any feathers. Even their wings were made of bones and yet they were able to fly in the air.

Those birds looked like crows the size of a human infant. Their bones were rather peculiar. All over the bone structure, the birds had black tendrils. When Cao Yun tried to clearly see what it was, he had some trouble. But after looking at the ground, he understood. Those black tendrils were the black and rotten grass he had seen when he had walked through the plain.

Right now, there were thousands of small holes everywhere on the ground where the grass used to be. This black grass seemed to grow on the skeletons of those bone crows. Despite their absence of organs or living tissues, the creatures were still able to fly around and screech. In fact, they also seemed to be able to see their surroundings. Most likely, they were able to sense what was around them through some strange power. And unlike living creatures, they seemed to love being in an atmosphere dense in Evil Qi, which wasn't very surprising considering their appearance.

Some crows went to the ground to sift through small pieces of bones. Cao Yun was completely transfixed by that surreal scene. Once more, he was wondering whether he had died and had gone to the world of the dead. Never, in any book he had been able to read, did he ever hear about those kinds of creatures. The only things he had heard about concerning the dead were ghosts. Obviously, those things were not ghosts, they were material.

When one of the crows dug up a neat piece of bone, it tried to fly away to keep its prize. But a murder of crows swooped down on it. All of them fought for this piece of bone. The poor crow let go of the bone but it was not enough for the murder. They kept on attacking with their beaks, breaking its own bones. Finally, the broken skeleton fell to the ground and many other crows went to tear it into pieces. Some even crushed it and reduced it to dust. But most of them took some tiny pieces of it.

As Cao Yun was trying to make sense of what he was seeing, some crows began to get closer to the graveyard where he was. Looking around him, he realized that they were probably coming to pick up more bones. The problem was that he had a lot of those in him. And he wasn't going to just wait around to see whether they would attack him to steal his bones or not.