Chapter 308: Uncontrolled bloodlust

Unarmed and naked, Cao Yun was now completely submerged by a powerful rage. All those thoughts about who he truly was had been very frustrating and now he could completely let it all out. Knee deep in blood, he was surrounded by feral beasts with blood injected eyes. Around him, there was only fur, scales, claws, fangs, screams, flesh, bones, guts...

Every thought and every doubt in Cao Yun's mind was gone. The 'Cultivation of Wrath' was the only thing on his mind. And now he fully understood where the name 'Dance of Slaughter' came from. With each strike, Cao Yun literally went through the bodies of the beasts around him. His hands, arms, knees, feet, even his head could be used to break the bones, tear the flesh and massacre his enemies.

Of course, Cao Yun would have never fought with such a bloody style in the Hongchen Kingdom. But the blood in the air had woken up something in him. Maybe it was the same thing for those beasts. Everything in this place was permeated with blood and it had a strong effect on minds. It was sending everyone into a killing frenzy. And Cao Yun could feel it. Even his sea of consciousness had begun to turn red. He could have stopped it all by focusing on his mind cultivation, but he didn't want to.

First of all, he did not want to give away that his mind was that powerful to the Palace Spirit. As a spirit, his main attacks were probably targeted toward the mind and soul. But if he knew those kinds of attacks would be pointless against Cao Yun, he might decide to strike him in a different manner. And Cao Yun was almost certain that at some point, the Palace Spirit would attack him, whether he believed his story or not.

But there was something else. Amidst this killing frenzy, Cao Yun was able to perceive something within his own mind. Paradoxically, his mind was clear. As everything in him was focused on a singular purpose, to kill, there was no interference from anything else. And he wished to bathe in that feeling. Moreover, the blood around him already proved useful.

At the same time as he was using 'Dance of Slaughter' to massacre the hellish beasts all around him, it acted as a cultivation method as well. Indeed, this wasn't a martial art but a punching routine to begin with. It was meant to help the cultivator absorb blood inside his body to advance his cultivation through the use of the intent from the Drop of Wrath. However, there was something very different with Cao Yun now. The Drop of Wrath had slowly changed his own blood to the point that its intent was diluted in every cell of Cao Yun.

As such, 'Dance of Slaughter' was incredibly more efficient. With his body fully transparent to Qi, most of the blood that was running all over his skin seeped through his most profound tissues. With each passing moment, Cao Yun could feel his strength grow again and again. Mortal Warriors often neglected to train their physical body, but Cao Yun had not. And now he was pushing it even further. Recently, he had reached some kind of plateau with his blood cultivation, but in this situation, he knew he would push through it without any problem.

Looking at himself from within, Cao Yun almost saw the image of Axiu Qian. Just like him, Axiu Qian could go into killing frenzies. His rage was out of control and he could paint the entire world red with blood. The difference was that Cao Yun knew he could stop it at any moment. No matter what was in the air, he knew he could fight it off in an instant. But he didn't know exactly what it was. In a way, it reminded him of the aphrodisiac Lu Meihan had tried to use on him during their first encounter.

-

The Palace Spirit Dian Mo was constantly watching over Cao Yun. His story about being a demon sent under cover among humans was not impossible, but he couldn't understand how a demon would fake the existence of meridians and Dantian within him. Anyway, whether he was a human, a demon, or something else, the Palace Spirit really didn't care. But he had seen something in him. And hopefully, putting him in a world saturated with killing intent would force him to reveal all his cards.

Thus, Dian Mo was observing how he was fighting. And even he got cold shivers down his nonexistent spine. The young demon was covered in blood from head to toe. In fact, this wasn't just blood. He had some fragments of bones piercing his flesh here and there. During the fights, he also took some damage. But as he was absorbing the blood, his gaping wounds were rapidly healing as well. At some point, Cao Yun even jumped through the skull of a giant eagle who had flown too close to the ground. Many pieces of brain were now stuck to him. And they washed away with even more blood.

Usually a bodiless spirit would not be afraid of such a scene, because he did not even know what it was like to be made of flesh and blood. But this time, Dian Mo could feel fear in him. Of course, it wasn't to the level of what Demon God Da Mo had inspired in him. However, the mere fact that this young demon could cause such a stir in his emotions was worthy of note.

Watching this god of destruction, this pure incarnation of wrath, Dian Mo knew that he had made the right decision. Manipulating the Palace of Supreme Wisdom to bring even a single person in here had almost drained him of all energy. It would take him hundreds if not thousands of years to recover from that loss. But with this scene in front of his eyes, he knew he had made the right call. This young demon, or young human, or whatever, was exactly what he had been looking for.

-

After several days lost in the entrails of the beasts, Cao Yun also began to eat their flesh and drink their blood. As an early Mortal Warrior, he could go longer without eating or drinking, but the fight was exhausting and he had to take everything he could when there was tiny moments of calm. But no matter how many beasts he killed, they kept on coming. There was not a single moment when there wasn't any danger around him. Thus, each time he could take a bite, he did. And he kept on fighting.

Within his own sea of consciousness, Cao Yun could feel the Drop of Wrath react to all this slaughter as well. It was now within his control. Now, he had to discover all it could do and push it even further. At the same time as the Drop of Wrath was brimming with joy and his body overtaken by rage, Cao Yun strangely felt peaceful. He had nothing to think about at all. And he could solely focus on himself.

With his experience in the first test and his recent display of cruelty against his enemy, Cao Yun was a bit confused about himself. He didn't want to be a saint or a monk. But he wanted to do the right thing. Trying to find the virtuous path was not the same thing as being virtuous though. At first, the reason why he had wanted to eradicate the demonic cultivators was purely for revenge. Then he had realized that this was a goal that could help all of mankind, not just satisfy him. Later he even learned that the demonic cultivators were maybe not behind the massacre of his family. Yet, he had kept this goal. Yes, he truly wanted to help mankind. But that didn't mean he had no desire to avenge his dead family.

Since he was inside the Palace of Supreme Wisdom, he had nothing to investigate. But once he would get out, he would find out the truth. As a Mortal Warrior, he had way more options now. And thanks to the tests he was now faced with, he would become even stronger than before. Besides, his mind cultivation could protect his mind and soul against attacks from Spirit Warriors. Still, he would probably have to ask Xiao Xuefeng to test that theory, just in case.

Cao Yun's mind was floating in his own sea of consciousness. He was aware of what his body was doing, but for him it was as though another man was doing those things. That played even more on his interrogations on what was his true identity, his real self. For now, he had no answer to that. His thoughts were just waves on the ocean that was his mind. His actions were mere consequences of those thoughts. But why were some thoughts turn into action while others were discarded? Slowly, Cao Yun was beginning to realize that trying to define who he was was an fool's errand. There was nothing to define to begin with. His notion of being had been wrong from the start.

Instead of trying to define something that would always elude him, he should just experience it. Everything was not some kind of problem to be solved. Some things just had to be felt deep down. Although he could not explain or define who he was, he had still this feeling of being. And now, it became even stronger. Strangely, the rage and heat that was coursing through his entire body made him feel even more alive than ever.

And he remembered something. To learn the Dao, one had to feel it first, it wasn't something that could be reasoned or explained. It had always been the same thing with cultivation. No matter how much someone could explain it to you, you had to do it yourself to understand. If someone were to explain to you how each of your muscle fibers had to move in order to perform a movement, it wouldn't be useful at all. You just had to perform the movement and be corrected until you got it right. Then, you had to do it again and again until it was within you and you could perform it without thinking.

Thinking was good, but overthinking was the door to self-doubt. Cao Yun realized that he had to find a balance. And at this moment, he was almost convinced he had found one. Maybe it wouldn't last very long. But for now, he had found an answer that could satisfy his interrogations.

Now that that was out of the way, Cao Yun decided to go back to his cultivation.

With all the blood he had absorbed, his own blood had become between ten to fifteen percent richer. The Drop of Wrath had already improved his blood so much, it was difficult to go beyond. But now, Cao Yun had 'Storms in the Crimson Furnace'. By performing 'Reducing the Five Sheng', Cao Yun was condensing some of his blood inside his heart. It could allow him to both extract blood essence and diffuse the properties of his Drop of Wrath to all of his blood.

The goal was to condense all of his blood at the same time within his heart. But as he was absorbing more and more blood, Cao Yun's blood was becoming denser and richer. As such, condensing it was even more difficult. But the benefits were obvious. His entire body was brimming with life. His Wei Qi had increased in density and size as well. And his meridians and vessels were overflowing with Qi.

As he was working on his blood cultivation, Cao Yun did not forget about his Qi cultivation. Because the Palace Spirit was probably watching him, he tried to be as covert as possible though. Right now, he had to open his Bai Hui. With all this blood around him, he could probably strengthen his four lower gates, but then it would cause too much of a disparity between the Five Prodigious Gates. Thus, he decided to focus on first becoming a 3rd-grade Mortal Warrior.

For an instant, Cao Yun thought his cultivation was progressing a bit too fast. And he was right in the fact that it was indeed faster than anyone before. But on the other hand, his cultivation was very firm and stable. There was no real reason to delay it any longer. Besides, as he had energized his Upper Dantian, Cao Yun had been able to feel his Bai Hui even more. Indeed, it was the acupoint at the summit of the skull. This point was a vital gate to give the Soul Embryo access to the outside world during the Spirit Warrior realm.

This was a very important point, but also a very subtle one. As it turned out, this was the most Yang point in the human body and many of the meridians were connected to it, hence its name, the Gate of the Hundred Convergences. Opening it fully was not that easy in theory because it was hard to get a very good sensation for it. But with his Upper Dantian almost completely energized, Cao Yun was able to feel it deeply. He was already connected to it. As such, the most difficult part of the work was already done. But that didn't mean he could open it with a single thought. Even two months would probably not be enough.

If his energizing of the Upper Dantian had helped him, then he could maybe energize it completely to amplify the sensation even more. Cao Yun was convinced that if he were able to energize the ninth and final chamber of his Upper Dantian, opening the Bai Hui would become incredibly easy. That being said, he still needed some time to fully form the ninth and final Five Echoes Pearl.

That wouldn't prevent him from trying to open the Bai Hui point from the outside however. While he was continuing to push his blood cultivation forward, Cao Yun was diverting some of his Qi, blood and intent toward the Bai Hui to begin its tempering.

The Palace Spirit had given two months to Cao Yun. But as he was thinking of many different things, the young man failed to realize that the number of beasts was slowly declining. In less than two weeks, he had already turned this world into a giant graveyard. Although the beasts had already been killing each other, now more than half of the corpses had been made by Cao Yun himself. And he still wasn't done. His body, which was acting on instinct alone, was still slaughtering all the beasts around him without any hesitation or mercy.

For the Palace Spirit, the show was incredible and reinforced that he had been right. Now that he was certain of his decision, he had to prepare the young demon accordingly. After blood would come fire. After fire would come death. And after death would finally come a new life baptized in blood and fire!