Chapter 303: Extracting a seal
Both demonic cultivators did not stay idle by while Cao Yun was getting out of their trap. Immediately, the monk's spade went for his head. There were metallic rings at the base of the spade shaped blade. The weapon truly looked like a mix between a real monk's spade and a pewter staff. As it was whistling through the air, the sound from the metallic rings was creating an enticing melody. Closing his senses with 'Ashen Feather Seal', the young man escaped from most of its effects. But the world around him was still being bent in strange ways.
The sword breaker seemed to be far from him but he had a very bad feeling about this. When he tried to move, he realized that he had lost his sense of orientation. It wasn't too difficult for him to overcome it, but it would still take some precious instants.
'Dragon's Chest'!
Even though the weapons seemed far from him, Cao Yun focused on his defense while he was dealing with his degraded senses. It was a good thing that he had had that presence of mind. Indeed, the two weapons were not as far as he had thought. In fact, both of them struck him with full force. The monk's spade went straight for his neck, trying to behead him, while the sword breaker had been stabbed toward his sternum, ready to crush his heart.
Both weapons were completely surrounded by Evil Qi. It was corrosive enough to go through the Wei Qi of an early Mortal Warrior. But the moment they struck Cao Yun's Wei Qi, it turned into an armor of dragon scales. Small cracks appeared on its surface and both attackers tried to force their way through as Cao Yun was still disorientated. Although he could not trust his senses right now, Cao Yun had something he could trust against Evil Qi. Without any hesitation, he unleashed the intent of the Drop of Wrath.
Suddenly, both demonic cultivators felt a pull on their very Evil Qi. A force coming from Cao Yun was trying to wrestle control over it. That was at that moment they finally remembered why their senior had tried to negotiate. They had indeed heard that Cao Yun had already fought against blood runes and had somehow gotten rid of them. Although this was crucial, they had completely neglected this information. In their minds, they were just way above a pathetic little orthodox Mortal. And yet, here they were, in a very precarious situation against a powerful early Mortal Warrior.
The two of them circulated their blood runes as much as they could within their own body, too afraid to let them out for now. But slowly, they were clearly feeling that they were losing against the force pulling on their Evil Qi. If they remained stubborn, their energy would be sucked away and their attacks would fail anyway. Thus, they retracted their weapons, just in time for Cao Yun to fully recover. He had been subjugated by the melody of this monk's spade once, not twice.
Using the confusion of the two, Cao Yun rushed toward the one with the monk's spade. He was clearly the most dangerous after the archer. The man stabbed his weapon in the ground and a temple bell formed around him.
'The Dragon's Body Hits the Earth'!
Once more, the Winnowing Basket Star served Cao Yun. it was related to blunt attacks with the butt of the spear. 'Nine Chi Black Dragon Spear' collided with the bell. Immediately, it began to resonate. The vibrations got spread through Cao Yun's own weapon and he used his understanding of 'Dance of Slaughter' to counter it while pouring his Qi in his technique. Another shock caused the bell to crack.
Finally, the third strike made it collapse entirely. When it dissipated, the young man inside was kneeling on the ground. His own melody had made him dizzy inside his Qi Manifestation.
As Cao Yun was ready to give him the coup de grace, the sword breaker struck him from behind.
'The Son of Heaven's Spear and Shield'!
Of course, Cao Yun had noticed him. The archer could not escape his senses, this young man had no hope of doing so. When the sword breaker struck Cao Yun's nape, a shield made out of scales formed in front of the weapon. As Cao Yun was using the butt of his spear to attack in front of him, the tip was directed behind him. In an instant, the shield collapsed and turned into a spear made of scales around Cao Yun's real spear. Without even looking behind him, he struck toward his opponent. Part of the demonic cultivator's Qi was within the attack itself. It was so powerful that it ripped through his Wei Qi without any problem.
For the first time, the man tried to use his blood runes outside. But he was too slow and the spear plunged into his shoulder. His right arm was completely severed in the most brutal way. And before the man could try to move away, Cao Yun made his spear vibrate. The shaft bent and hit the man right in the face, sending him rolling away.
At that moment, the spear he had thrown away in the beginning came back in his hand. Without any hesitation, he stabbed the man with the monk's spade on the ground. His spear went through his Wei Qi and pierced his Lower Dantian through and through, pinning him down to the ground. Like that, he could not detonate his Lower Dantian. Middle Mortal Warriors could also detonate their Middle Dantian, but thankfully, this man was only a 2nd-grade Mortal Warrior. Destroying the Middle Dantian without killing someone was rather difficult and could not be done with brute force alone. But as an alchemist, Cao Yun could probably do so as well.
For the time being though, that man was not a threat anymore. Still, Cao Yun decided to be cautious. From his spatial ring, he took out a Purple Fragrant Door pill. This 5-star Earth pill was supposed to be used by physicians to put their patients to sleep. But Cao Yun had thought of other ways to use it. The main ingredient was the 5-star Earth Fading Lila Powder, that was often considered as a poison. Indeed, it could cause paralysis and even stop the breathing or the heart of a mere mortal. Those effects were usually less dangerous in Mortals, but at high dosage it could still kill.
Since Cao Yun had mastered the Minor Principle of Silver that was toxins minimization, he could in theory create a pill with a very tiny bit of this poison. But instead, he had tried to create a pill with as much toxin as possible without reducing the quality of the product. As such, his Purple Fragrant Door pills did not just put the patient to sleep, it completely paralyzed his muscles as well.
The pill flew from Cao Yun's palm and forced itself through the man's mouth. Cao Yun only controlled the pill long enough for its medicinal essence to spread by itself. In a few breaths, the man would be totally unconscious and paralyzed.
Finally, the sword breaker man had lost his weapon that had been ripped away with his arm. Now, he was crawling away as his arm was bleeding profusely. Thankfully, Cao Yun had a furnace to cauterize the wound if need be and pills to replenish parts of his blood if he were to become too weak.
Even a single year back, Cao Yun would have been hesitant to inflict such pain on his enemies, even demonic cultivators. Maybe they had been coerced, threatened or manipulated to join those savages. But Cao Yun was not so soft anymore. Besides, they all had blood runes in their bodies. From what he had read, blood runes could only be used by the one who had created them. And they could only be created by killing people in the most horrible ways possible. During the demonic beast stampede, many small villages had fallen victim to slaughters. It seemed difficult to imagine that only beasts had been responsible.
Those demonic cultivators had probably used the chaos to massacre as much as they desired. There was no mercy for those criminals.
Now that he was in such a terrible state, the sword breaker man could not resist Cao Yun at all. But he had to be sure.
'The Dragon's Body Hits the Earth'!
The butt of his spear went for his pelvis. In an instant, it got crushed and reduced into powder. As the young man screamed to death, Cao Yun felt something underground and leapt away. An instant after his reaction, a bone came out of the ground, impaling the screaming demonic cultivator. As his entrails were scattered on the ground, he died in agony.
Cao Yun had recognized this bone, it looked exactly like the arrows used by the last demonic cultivator. In the jungle, the young man had stabbed the ground with one of the halves of his broken bow. The other half was in his other hand, ready to be used as a dagger.
'The Son of Heaven's Cavalry'!
Knowing that his opponent could take the abuse, Cao Yun did not hesitate on using one of his most powerful techniques. When using his 'Fish in the Galaxy', he had tried not to pour everything in it, but now he was. The ground below him was pulverized and a sonic boom made many trees collapse. Cao Yun and his spear looked like a strange animal between a dragon and a horse with eight legs. Two radiant eyes were shining at the tip of his spear. At the last moment, the archer tried to use his broken bow to protect himself. This time, hundreds of ribs appeared all around him and intertwined in front of him.
Cao Yun's spear pierced through them and stopped right in front of the man's throat. Just then, Cao Yun kicked him in the abdomen, sending a vibration through his Lower Dantian and meridians. Finally, he struck his legs with the shaft of the spear and crushed him to the ground before forcing the same pill in his throat.
-
One of the three was dead but the other two were only unconscious. Now Cao Yun could finally try out his idea. The main problem with demonic cultivators was that they had seals on them placed by their masters. If they disobeyed, the seals would activate and either kill them or even destroy their souls. Of course, one of the orders was always to never reveal anything. Sometimes, the mere fact that they were discovered could trigger the seals. Since the mission of those three was to get inside the Palace of Supreme Wisdom, they had to be discovered at some point. But Cao Yun was convinced that if they tried to speak, they would die. And he wanted some answers.
Since the archer was the smartest and oldest, he had probably more information than the other one still alive. As such, Cao Yun would try out his theory with the first guy. His idea was rather simple. Seals were made of Evil Qi in most cases. And he had the means to extract Evil Qi from someone. Thus, he might be able to extract the seals from a demonic cultivator by using the Drop of Wrath. That wouldn't be easy, but he had no alternative. The only other way would be for Xiao Xuefeng to do it herself, but Cao Yun had no way to keep those two captive and alive.
If he took them in his spatial ring, they would die instantly as spatial rings could not harbor life. And the next time he would be transported by the Supreme emblem, he would most likely lose them both. Thus, he had to try to do what he could right now.
The demonic cultivator with a spear through his abdomen was still unconscious. Cao Yun did not even try to stop the bleeding. The man would stay alive long enough for him to try his ideas and play around with the seals.
Slowly, he injected his Qi within the guy. The first thing he did was to absorb all the blood runes to nourish the Drop of Wrath. But even the 108 of them were not nearly enough for it. It had already absorbed so much Evil Qi and Death Energy that they were meaningless to it. However, this woke it up.
Then, using his mind cultivation, Cao Yun poured the intent of the Drop of wrath within his own Qi. It then spread through the demonic cultivator's body. Without any problem, Cao Yun was able to detect the seals now that that man's Wei Qi was almost gone. He had twelve of them everywhere in his body. Cao Yun realized that he had even seals in his sea of consciousness. Getting them out would be way more challenging than he had thought. Only a Spirit Warrior could enter someone else's soul.
The very first thing was to make sure that they wouldn't get triggered by him tampering with them. For that, he also had an idea. But he was not sure at all about this one. He decided to use the ashes from 'Ash Feather Seal'. If they could completely isolate him and conceal his Qi and even his soul, maybe they could also isolate the seals within this demonic cultivator to make them blind to what was going on around them.
With the greatest care possible, Cao Yun manifested ashes with his Qi infused with the intent of the Drop of Wrath. For the first seal, he chose one that was in the heart of the demonic cultivator. The one in his sea of consciousness would be the most difficult to extract, if not impossible to. But in his flesh, it would be easier.
After successfully isolating the seal, Cao Yun used the Drop of Wrath to slowly attract it outside of the young man's body. The process was very exhausting for him because he was trying to keep the young man alive through it all. As such, he was forced to also control the appetite of the Drop Wrath. Because the blood runes had not satisfied it, it was frustrated and Cao Yun could feel it as though he was the one being frustrated. Thankfully, his control over the Drop of Wrath was very good now. And keeping it from going berserk was a piece of cake. Performing a very minute procedure was not on the other hand. After all, Cao Yun was not a physician.
In the end though, he finally took the seal out and was even able to give it to the Drop of Wrath. Alas, just like the blood runes before, the seal was nowhere near enough to satiate the Drop of Wrath now.
Still, this one success filled Cao Yun with excitement. If he could really erase the seals within demonic cultivators, not only could he interrogate them, he would also never be threatened by a seal that could be forced on him.