Chapter 348: 2nd-grade Blood Child

In Cao Yun's heart was the physical Drop of Wrath. What he had in his sea of consciousness was the manifestation of the remnant of the corporeal soul in it. To be more accurate, it had been the Flying Poison, the corrupted version of the Po of Jing of Axiu Qian. But with time, Cao Yun had also engraved his Five Agents in it. Currently, he had a full version of his Po character. As such, his connection with the Drop of Wrath was extremely deep. However, it was still only a foreign object in his body.

In a sense, it was another being on which he had imposed a bridle. As long as the Drop of Wrath was not too powerful or too agitated, the bridle would stay on. But if it were to reform its full Po, it would not stay under Cao Yun's control. And even without talking about such an extreme situation, Cao Yun could not use all the powers of the Drop of Wrath. But his plan was sound. Now that he had seen how asura could cultivate their blood, he was even more assured that his plan was going to work.

After hearing Dian Mo's history lesson, he had realized that Axiu Qian and Da Mo were both asura. Knowing that humans, asura and deva were everywhere in countless universes, it made sense. And that also meant that Axiu Qian had practiced this cultivation. Maybe his cultivation method was different, but the concepts would be the same.

Just as Emperor Nuwa had derived the Qi cultivation from the Dao, no species truly invented their cultivation system. Just like medicine, cultivation was based on the body, the soul and their relation to one another as well as with the rest of the cosmos. Thus, many methods and systems would be slightly different but they all had huge similarities. Even the way they were divided in realms and grades seemed to be very similar.

Emperor Nuwa might have been influenced by the blood cultivation of Da Mo to divide her 'Universal Law of Immortality'. And maybe everyone had been influenced by the first cultivators. If the Three Jade Saints had truly existed, even though nothing remained of them, maybe they had left some influence behind them.

While Cao Yun would advance his blood cultivation, he had to be prudent. His mind cultivation should progress as well. Cao Yun was not an idiot. He knew that Dian Mo was counting on an unbalance between his mind and the Drop of Wrath. But Cao Yun had worked too hard to get it under control to let everything be ruined so easily. Even if he had to slow down his blood cultivation, he would always put his mind cultivation first.

According to the 'Crimson Inferno Road', asura would develop a Demon Soul composed of all Seven Turbid Demons. In a sense, they would alter their own corporeal soul to create a new soul similar to the Soul Embryo used by humans. Since their cultivation was based on blood and heavily relied on their bodies, it made sense. Humans used Qi to create their Soul Embryo, asura used their corporeal souls to produce their Demon Soul. But this Demon Soul was way more violent and dangerous.

After creating the Soul Embryo at the end of the second realm, humans had to awaken it and harmonize it with their own soul. Indeed, it was born absolutely blank. On the other hand, asura would spend several realms just to keep their Demon Soul under control. That meant that asura were weaker when it came to soul attacks. Their bodies were way superior to humans, but their souls and their spiritual senses were inferior. However, just like Ren Chao, their will would be resilient beyond measure. Indeed, breaking the Demon Soul was almost impossible for someone who wasn't vastly more powerful. As proof of that, Axiu Qian's Po had survived despite everything it had gone through. Even if most of it had been destroyed, there still remained something in the end.

-

While Cao Yun was cultivating, the year ended. The Wubei Sect was in chaos and a lot of work was necessary. They had just survived a demonic beast stampede followed by a giant mutiny. A large part of the central plaza where many pavilions were had been destroyed. It would take months if not years to repair everything. As such, Sun Liao and Ren Chao were helping like crazy. As a blacksmith, Ren Chao was useful. But he also was useful when it came to moving the rubble.

Every surviving disciple under the debris had been saved. With Spirit Master Xiao there, no sign of life could be missed. Unfortunately, many had already been dead like Guo Lüye, the receptionist of the alchemy pavilion. Usually, inner disciples almost never went into the outer sect. But right now, they were helping as well. The inner sect had been mostly spared. Even though Mo Tian had been able to send more traitors in there, the fights had focused around the Devil's Jail. However, there was still a great tension in the air.

Although many were convinced that all the traitors had been eliminated, there were still suspicions. Maybe some of them had stayed dormant. That way, they would be very well placed. After all, after this large attack, they would be more easily trusted, especially if they were to capture or kill other demonic cultivators. Paranoia was weak but it was still there in the mind of many.

Moreover, the disciplinary pavilion had lost its chief elder. They needed someone to take charge of it in order to make sure that order reigned in the Wubei Sect.

Sect Leader Xuan was busier than he had ever been in his life. Although the rumors about his senility had been wrong, he was still extremely old. Besides, he had used most of his strength during the fight. In fact, he had even pushed beyond thanks to the array formations of the Wubei Sect, the Seal of Authority and Xiao Xuefeng's support. Right now, he was barely in any condition to move around. That was good because he was forced to do a lot of paperwork. Paperwork and administration seemed to be the doom of most cultivators. Chief Elder Luoming had been a great help when it came to those monstrosities. And they could not imagine anyone who could replace him easily.

There was also the problem of Xiao Xuefeng. Now that the demonic cultivators had been found, she had no more reason to stay with the sect. That meant that they would need to find her a replacement as chief elder of the alchemy pavilion. The former one had sadly passed away recently. But for the time being, Xiao Xuefeng would stay to keep an eye on her direct disciple Mei Hua. However, Mei Hua would not stick around after her five years, she would probably join the Golden Flowery Fragrance Institute. But then again, she had her little sister who would join very soon. She was a lover of martial arts so she had no reason to join any other sect than the Wubei Sect.

That way, the Wubei Sect would establish strong ties with the Golden Flowery Fragrance Institute. Mei Hua, one of their future geniuses would have studied under them. Her sister would join the Wubei Sect. And their current genius, Feng Yingyue, was the Dao companion of Cao Yun. As long as they could strengthen their link with Cao Yun, their alliance with the Golden Flowery Fragrance was a done deal.

Sect Leader Xuan was not just the best fighter, he was also a politician. Even if he wasn't as good or as crafty as Matriarch Huang or even Director Ge, he was still good enough to ensure the survival of his own sect.

He would need to receive Cao Yun. But for now, he had too many things on his plate. It could wait until the official end of the year. Hopefully, there would be enough candidates the following year...

-

Cao Yun was meditating in an isolated chamber of the Heavenly Swallow Faction. From time to time, he left to help around. But since he had saved the day and that he had been hurt in his Bai Hui, no one asked him to help more. Even if the story was hidden, it was said that Cao Yun had been essential in getting the third-years out of the Palace of Supreme Wisdom. No one would give him a hard time for resting instead of helping around. Even then, he still helped as much as possible. But despite his higher cultivation, Cao Yun had still not become a Human alchemist or array formation master yet. He would need to work on that.

Mei Hua was a better alchemist and she was helping the physicians refine the required pills for their patients. And Sun Liao was a better array formation master, helping the reconstruction of many array formations. Most of them had just been pushed a bit too far and were just exhausted. But there were also signs of fatigue on the materials themselves.

Putting everything aside, Cao Yun acted as though he had never cultivated before. His cultivation was still there of course, but he faced this blood cultivation as a mere mortal.

The 1st-grade Blood Child realm consisted in gaining control over one's heart to improve both the quantity and quality of blood. With the Drop of Wrath in his heart, Cao Yun could practice this cultivation method just like an asura.

Following 'Crimson Inferno Road', Cao Yun focused on his heart. In his mind, he imagined his heart as a powerful drum. At first, he simply tried to get used to the music and the rhythm of the drum. In his mind, it was even producing some kind of melody. Dian Mo was very attentive because he wanted to know everything about the body that would be his in the end. Even if he couldn't get the whole body, he would at least get the Drop of Wrath for himself. By spending a lot of time around it, he could get the Drop of Wrath used to his presence. Hopefully, he would even influence it enough for it to betray this human one day.

It barely took four days for Cao Yun to be perfectly attuned to his heartbeat and his heart in general. Then, he controlled it to send more and more blood in his bloodstream. The volume was always identical of course, but the density was higher and higher. Each time Cao Yun meditated, he could feel the Drop of Wrath producing a tiny bit more blood though. With it, there was also more Qi in his blood. Despite his impression that his blood had reached a plateau, he realized that he could push it a bit further.

In the end, the difference was very faint because Cao Yun had already improved his blood greatly. The remnant of the blood beasts he had killed and absorbed had probably played a part as well.

Only when Cao Yun felt his blood cultivation extremely solid did he consider breaking through. For that, there was nothing to do really. In fact, Cao Yun had already reached the requirement of a 2nd-grade Blood Child, and even higher, a long time ago. Right now, he was just going back to the fundamentals to make sure that his blood cultivation was solid, like his Qi cultivation. 'Storms in the Crimson Furnace' was just not the best blood cultivation he could use right now, especially with the Drop of Wrath in his possession. Training like a real asura was the way to go.

The next step, the 2nd-grade Blood Child stage was also called 'Nourishing the Heart'. It was very similar to 'Expanding the Master' and 'Reducing the Five Sheng' in the sense that he needed to fill his heart with his blood in order to temper it. In fact, most of the Blood Child realm consisted in using the blood to temper every part of the body, from the muscles to the bones, and even to the deepest organs. The only part that might be challenging for Cao Yun was the part concerning the bones. Otherwise, his blood cultivation was already very good.

-

Before starting the 2nd-grade Blood Child realm, Cao Yun decided to focus a bit of his time on his mind cultivation. He had finally reached the third layer of 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks', 'Subdue the Seven Demons'. It was very similar to the Accomplished Demon realm within the asura cultivation. But Cao Yun could not wait to be an Accomplished Demon to begin cultivating it.

The soul was separated in several parts. Some considered that the soul was one and it was characterized as plural in order to make sense of it while others truly believed there were many souls within one body. Both theses could be defended. After all, all the souls seemed very similar which seemed to indicate they were one. But humans could literally create a Soul Embryo, yet another soul, which could prove there truly were several of them to begin with.

The corporeal soul, Po, was said to be composed of seven souls itself. Collectively, they were called the Seven Turbid Demons. The reason for that was that they were heavily linked to emotions and desires. Each one could easily turn for the worst. For example, the Po of Jing was essential because it was related to the Jing, the essence keeping the cultivator alive. In a sense, the Jing was the lifespan of a cultivator. It was very difficult to replenish but it could more easily be tempered and improved in quality if not in quantity. This Po of Jing was influenced by anger and rage. And if it went too far, it could become what was within the Drop of Wrath, the Flying Poison.

According to 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks', there was absolutely no order in which working on each Turbid Demon. Contrary to the chambers of the Upper Dantian, they could all be worked on at any time. In fact, it was possible to even work on several Turbid Demons at once. However, it would ultimately take more time. It was better to stick to one and work on it. The goal was to submit each Turbid Demon to one's will and intent. That way, they would never turn and the cultivator would stay perfectly balanced and in control.

At the same time Cao Yun would be working on his Seven Turbid Demons, he intended to use it to gain more and more control over the Drop of Wrath. His idea was to rebuild its Po with his own Seven Turbid Demons.