Chapter 346: After the battle
Once Mo Tian was sealed within Da Mo's body, the chief elders could finally go fight all the traitors who were attacking the Wubei Sect. They did not allow themselves to rest.
This was a bloody day indeed. Although they had been greatly weakened, Spirit Warriors were vastly superior to Mortals and even Mortal Warriors. No traitor stood a chance against their combined efforts. Besides, each time they slaughtered a group of traitors, they freed more forces to fight by their side. Elders and instructors quickly formed a true battalion.
Some traitors tried to hide or even run away. Unfortunately, the array formations of the Wubei Sect had fallen. Those who were far enough were able to disappear in the woods. For several days, expeditions were sent into the woods all over the mountains. A few demonic cultivators were found. Most died upon being captured. The seals in them got activated as soon as they tried to plead. Others fought till the bitter end. In fact, a couple of disciples were even killed in the process.
Alas, many traitors had disappeared from the Heidai Peak. It took more than three weeks to get their names. Identifying all the corpses had been difficult. Some were in terrible conditions. Some cultivators had been crushed by buildings, burned, dismembered, or even corroded by Evil Qi. Even the demonic beasts had not done so much damage in Baziyun City.
Once more, Cao Yun was met with a vision of horror. Although they had ultimately won, they had paid an incredibly large tribute. And their victory had only been obtained thanks to chance. Without Dian Mo, Cao Yun would have never been able to even imagine that the Devil's Jail could be used in such a way. And without Chief Elder Suxian's ultimate sacrifice, even his own death might not have activated it fully. Worse, no one would have been able to use it to seal Da Mo's body.
Sect Leader Xuan decided to hide the truth of many matters. Xiao Xuefeng agreed with all of it, except one thing but he was able to convince her. First of all, Cao Yun's involvement was completely hidden, as well as his ability to somehow control Evil Qi as well, and even better than demonic cultivators. The total number of casualties was greatly reduced in the official reports to the Imperial City.
More than that, the very nature of the attack was altered. The demonic cultivators had attacked after the sect had identified the leader of the traitors. They all tried to free him, resulting in the damage around the Devil's Jail. At least, that was what the reports claimed. Indeed, thanks to the array formations, no one outside of the Wubei Sect had been able to see or even perceive anything. Even oracles would not be able to divine anything that had transpired during the attack. The giant red arm was deemed a Qi Manifestation from a half-step Sage, a 9th-grade Spirit Warrior who had already attempted to cross the Greater Tribulation.
There were many holes in the reports but the goal was to make sure that no one in the Imperial City could discover that the body of an Exalted Demon with the Soul Embryo of a 9th-grade Spirit Warrior was sealed beneath the Wubei Sect. As it turned out, Sect Leader Xuan did not trust the Imperial City and neither did Xiao Xuefeng. At least, she did not anymore, not after talking with Director Ge recently. There were too many strange things happening in the Hongchen Kingdom and around it. The mere fact that no one had seen the Emperor for a very long time was worrisome in itself. But there were rumors of disappearance within the Imperial City. It was possible that paranoia about the demonic cultivators had spread that far. Or maybe it was some form of political cleansing before the war.
It seemed inevitable that a huge war between humans and demons would soon break out. All the major powers of the Hongchen Kingdom had been made aware of various incursions of demons on the border provinces. Obtaining intel on what was happening on the other side of the border was hard. But apparently, a new demon had been uniting various kingdoms. One of the biggest advantages of humans was the chaos and disorder among demons. Without Demon God Da Mo, they were all fighting each other, vying for power. There were way more internal wars than attempted assaults on the humans. But if they were to get united, they would become a huge problem. After all, the Hongchen Kingdom was literally surrounded on all sides.
Some demon nations had honored their pact with the humans since the day of the Seven Treaties Era. It was a testimony to Saint Xun Ke's efforts who had worked until his last breath to try and make that peace last as long as possible. Since that period, no war had truly happened, only skirmishes and raids. But the Forsaken Dao Era had everyone on edge. Humans and demons had been weakened. Without one supreme powerhouse to deter the enemies, stopping wars had become more difficult. Thankfully, the demons had kept their words and honored their treaties. However, this new demon had no respect for those, just dried ink on paper. After all, they had been passed by other nations than his own. He had no such treaty to adhere to.
Among all those reports, there was one lie Xiao Xuefeng was not comfortable with. The names of the first two victims were Chief Elder Suxian who had died a hero, and Chief Elder Luoming who was killed in a sneak attack on the disciplinary pavilion in order to free the leader imprisoned in the Devil's Jail. The leader was the treacherous Mo Tian. Indeed, Sect Leader had been friends with Luoming Ran and he did not want his friend's name to be soiled by the actions of his only son. It took a lot of convincing, but Xiao Xuefeng accepted to keep quiet about this. They made it so that Chief Elder Luoming had not died a hero. He had died almost immediately, killed by a treacherous attack. He had no time to either distinguish himself or dishonor himself.
It took the last weeks of the year to get the Wubei Sect in order. The Imperial City also sent delegates to witness the damage. Obviously, they would also try to spy. Even in times of peace, the Imperial City was always trying to balance all the different influences within the Hongchen Kingdom. Cordiality and smiles were not to be confused for true friendship. The Imperial City would always remain the strongest force. Although it wanted powerful sects and families to support the human race, they could never be outpowered.
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In that period, Cao Yun mostly kept to himself in his room of the Heavenly Swallow Faction. Zhi Yin was back and, thankfully, no member of the faction had died. Zhao Fei and Zhao Lin had been greatly hurt though. Even Ling Hui was not in the mood to be a little brat. Cao Yun was not sure whether she had calmed down recently or if the events had just caused this temporary respite. At least, she still seemed to idolize Zhi Yin but she was not that vocal about it anymore. Maybe she was finally growing up.
"What are you looking at?! You're not the Faction Leader anymore, Fairy Zhi is! So stop putting on airs!"
Or maybe she had not... That little girl was very annoying, but she was loyal and, at the very least, Cao Yun knew how to deal with her. You simply had to ignore almost everything she said about Zhi Yin. That was almost everything she talked about in fact. So you had to ignore almost every single word coming out of her mouth. Then, she was very manageable...
Mei Ying was safe. Both her sister and Liu Ang were staying at her side. Liu Ang and Mei Ying had developed a very deep relationship apparently. Mei Hua did not seem to mind at all. After all, Liu Ang was a very fine young man. He was around two years older than Mei Ying. But for now, their relationship did not seem to be romantic in nature. They were both very young still. Liu Ang had not even reached sixteen yet.
Sun Liao had left the Heavenly Swallow Faction to give all his support to the array formation pavilion. There was a lot of work to do, both to repair the pavilion but also to help rebuild all the array formations. They had been used almost to the point of rupture. Also, he finally went over his pride and asked Mei Hua for some pill in order to quickly become a Mortal Warrior. Within four months tops, he would be one.
Finally, Ren Chao was spending his time in the Coiling Silk Faction with Wang Mei. The following year would be her fifth one. After that, she would cease to be the faction leader of the Coiling Silk Faction. That meant that she could then engage in physical relationships with a man, namely Ren Chao. Strangely, he did not seem to be particularly looking forward to it. He had little to no experience with ladies and was afraid that someone like Wang Mei would find him dull. Although he was able to hide it very well, he had confided his fears in Cao Yun. After all, Cao Yun had a Dao companion. Of course, Cao Yun had not that much experience either, but he still tried to comfort his brother without becoming too personal.
During these weeks, Sect Leader Xuan and Spirit Master Xiao were obviously extremely busy. And they had asked Cao Yun to take care of himself and to be forgotten. The delegates from the Imperial City were present. They didn't want them to snoop around the young boy.
Incidentally, this was exactly what Cao Yun desired too. He had to absorb everything he had learned in the Palace of Supreme Wisdom. He had to make sure his Bai Hui had healed nicely. And he also had to talk with Dian Mo.
The physicians were busy but Chief Elder Qinghe looked at Cao Yun's wound himself. Even he was not sure how his Bai Hui had been repaired. Some exterior force had used a powerful vitality to revive the acupoint. However, it had also changed a bit. It was very difficult to be sure how it would affect Cao Yun though. At the same time, his Bai Hui had more vitality but it was also more fragile. In a sense, it was still convalescent. Until the acupoint had fully healed, it was best not to use it. That also meant that Cao Yun was stuck in his Qi cultivation. Indeed, as a 3rd-grade Mortal Warrior, he had to temper his Five Prodigious Gates together.
According to both the 'Cultivation of Wrath', the 'Universal Law of Immortality', and even the 'Coiling Turtle', all Five Prodigious Gates had to be tempered in harmony. Until his Bai Hui was safe to cultivate, Cao Yun could not begin tempering his other four Prodigious Gates. Otherwise, he would create a lot of unbalance. After what had already happened, that was the last thing he wanted to do.
Thankfully, he had many other domains he could cultivate, his martial arts and Spear Aura, his mind, his blood and even his body. Moreover, he had gained another weapon. He had to grow accustomed to it, it was way larger and heavier than 'Nine Chi Black Dragon Spear'. In his spatial ring, as a keepsake, Cao Yun had kept a part of the Ebony Snake Dragon's scale used to make his former spear.
Right now, the first thing he wanted to work on was his mind cultivation, but it would take a lot of time to advance. He had reached a very high level already. However, with Dian Mo inside his sea of consciousness, this seemed even more urgent than before. Now that he had most of the control over the Drop of Wrath, he had another dangerous and volatile element inside of his mind to worry about.
Very close to this priority, Cao Yun wanted to improve his blood cultivation. It happened to be that Dian Mo also agreed with that. Of course, his goal was to improve the body he was certain he would inherit. But that worked out for both of them. That period of calm after the storm was the perfect moment to talk things out with the intruder. For now, Dian Mo was still chained down to one of the Nine Soul Peaks. So they had to talk about their agreement.
"Dian Mo, you've helped me deal with Mo Tian and Da Mo's body. You have thus fully fulfilled your end of the bargain. As such, I will also keep my word. No one will ever know that you reside within my sea of consciousness, and I will never willingly hurt you. In fact, I will actively hide you. However, if you show any sign of betraying me, I will expose you. If I'm too weak to search your memories myself, I will ask Spirit Master Xiao to do so. But if I am strong enough, I will inflict that torture on you myself. Are we clear?"
"Of course, young boy. I gave you my word. If in one hundred years you didn't find me a suitable body, then we'll have to review our terms. But until then, I will not try to overtake your body."
Cao Yun was obviously not credulous enough to trust Dian Mo. But he had gained a bit of understanding about the spirit. As much as he claimed he wanted to be free, he also seemed incredibly afraid of the prospect of freedom. In fact, Cao Yun had been able to perceive a tinge of his emotions thanks to his proximity with the Nine Soul Peaks. Dian Mo felt safe when he was trapped. And freedom was a great unknown. Although he fantasized about it, it was scaring the hell out of him. In fact, it wasn't that different from Ren Chao and the idea of becoming intimate with Wang Mei.
Although both parties were going to keep their words, that would not stop them from planning against each other. Cao Yun could not break his word without risking the creation of an inner demon. In fact, he would damage his Dao Heart by doing so. Even if that didn't create an inner demon thanks to his mind cultivation, it would always leave a mark in his mind. His cultivation would always be in danger because of it as this would stay within his very soul.
In that situation, Cao Yun could still try to make the best out of things. Dian Mo had a lot of knowledge about demons. Thus, he had to know an awful lot about demonic cultivators as well. And he also had to know a lot about blood cultivation. Since he wanted this body and he wanted it to be as demon-like as possible, helping Cao Yun cultivate his blood would go according to his plans. Cao Yun just had to be cautious not to take everything he said at face value.