Chapter 391: The burning cave

Cao Yun would have been able to completely eradicate this illusion by using his Five Agents but this wasn't his goal. During this session, what he wanted to do was both to really start his 3rd-grade Mortal Warrior cultivation and to get rid of his trauma for good. In order to do so, he had planned for a strategy. And even though getting his mind excited wasn't part of it, he could deal with that.

Deep within his very soul, he could feel an instinctive fear of fire. In fact, it was more frustrating than anything else. Intellectually he knew that there was no danger and he didn't want to be afraid but his body and even his mind were not listening. His only way to get them under control was to force them by applying his Five Agents. But this wasn't a long term solution. For that, he had to make them feel that this was over.

Cao Yun waited a few minutes to get his mind in the right state. In order to put this trauma behind him, Cao Yun had thought about a good solution that would be rather brutal though.

From his spatial ring, he took out the Hellish Dragon Fruit. Just like before, he carefully took out one of the scales. He was careful not to touch the scale that was engraved with the Rune of Fire. However, he also chose a scale that seemed to be even hotter than others. From the scale he was hoping to extract as much heat and Fire as possible.

Then, he activated a smaller array formation within the Center of All Things. He had prepared it using array formations he had studied with Sun Liao, the Sun Blazing Cannon. In a matter of minutes, every ounce of Fire energy he could extract from the scale gathered at the very center of the array formation. The very scale turned to dust and crumbled as it got completelt sucked dry.

Now, above Cao Yun, was a drop of liquid fire. Around it the air was turbid and the heat scorching. Below it, Cao Yun's body was reacting as he was beginning to sweat a lot. The heat was almost as intense as what he had suffered through in the Demon Palace. Of course, it was way more concentrated but this caused his mind to respond.

Cao Yun focused on his Po. By following 'Subdue the Seven Demons', Cao Yun had become way more sensitive to his own corporeal soul. Now he was going to use it to calm down his soul. Instead of working on his anger and his Flying Poison, he began to work on his Corpse Dog. This Turbid Demon was the Po of Yin and it was related to fear and self-depreciation. Within it, there was the feeling of never being good enough, the fear of being inferior. And it was rich in Water element.

Right now, Cao Yun wasn't trying to work on his Corpse Dog, he was just trying to soothe his mind and soul in order to resolve his trauma. Even with his mind cultivation, he might suffer from an inner demon if he was too impetuous and careless. Before it could fester, Cao Yun would kill it in the bud.

He was literally using fire to fight fire. Since his trauma had come by putting too much Fire Qi through his Bai Hui, he was about to do the same thing again, but in a controlled environment.

The Five Prodigious Gates were all related to one element. His Lao Gong, the Labor Palaces in his palms, were related to Water and Fire while his Yong Quan, the Earthly Springs in his soles, were related to Metal and Earth. Finally, his Bai Hui, at the summit of his head, was related to Wood. Of course, each gate had the five elements, but the balance was slightly different for each one.

Thanks to his alchemy study, Cao Yun was very familiar with those five elements. This would be very useful for his cultivation.

For a time, he observed and felt the changes within hits five gates. The seed of the world tree had completely turned all five of them. There was a powerful Wood element in all of them. Wood was weakened by both Fire and Metal and could be strengthened by both Water and Earth. By using the liquid fire, Cao Yun would cause trouble for the Wood. In order to balance it, he would have to use his own Water Qi.

Thus, Cao Yun finally began to work. From his Lower Dantian, he mobilized as much Water Qi as he deemed necessary. Then, he sent it directly in his Bai Hui where the Wood was the strongest. From above, he used his Qi to lower the liquid fire. He decided to use the entirety of the Fire element extracted from that one scale.

Once again, he felt a terrifying sensation as the flames were entering his Bai Hui. They were sucked in within the vortex of energy that was his Bai Hui. Before long, all of the Fire energy was attacking the roots of the world tree. Despite its vitality, it was burning and black smoke was rising. But it soon got stopped by Cao Yun's Water Qi. Of course, this black smoke and those roots were all in Cao Yun's visualization.

In reality, it was just a transformation of energy. But as Cao Yun's visualization was getting stronger and stronger, those images started to be manifested through Qi.

The Water Qi caused the black smoke to be condensed back into a heavy rain. Cao Yun felt his Bai Hui being soothed by the Water Qi at the same time it was being attacked by the Fire energy. Finally, the heavy rain nourished it once more. The roots of the world tree that were surrounding the well spread far. They went to all of Cao Yun's Five Prodigious Gates.

It took around a double hour, but Cao Yun's Five Prodigious Gates, which were all facing toward the sky, were reached. Both within and without, there was no a strong connection between all five of them. As a result, his Wei Qi became even denser and more vibrant. This was what being a 3rd-grade Mortal Warrior supposed to feel like. Cao Yun felt invincible as though he was within a cocoon of pure energy. Now, a Mortal would be hard-pressed to get within 10 chi of him without his agreement.

And now, Cao Yun could truly start to temper his Five Prodigious Gates. This was the real star of his 3rd-grade Mortal Warrior cultivation. From what he had read and heard, Cao Yun knew that reaching the 4th-grade Mortal Warrior could take up to 5 years to an average cultivator. For an alchemist, it would be around 2 to 3 years. And to Cao Yun, it would probably take less than 2 years. In fact, he might reach 4th-grade Mortal Warrior by the time of the Alchemy Conference. And he would probably have become a Golden Blood Child by then too.

As long as he wasn't a 4th-grade Mortal Warrior, Cao Yun would not try to gather Fire Qi in his Middle Dantian. But he could still absorb it in his blood. Indeed, his blood had the properties of the Drop of Wrath so it could deal with it without any problem. Not only would it be beneficial to his blood cultivation, it would also help him both with his alchemy and even his Qi cultivation. By using Fire Qi and Water Qi together, he could speed up the process of tempering his Five Prodigious Gates.

After cultivating through the 'Crimson Inferno Road', Cao Yun had done as though his blood cultivation was starting from scratch but it wasn't. As a 5th-grade Blood Child, he had to learn how to send his blood everywhere to nourish all his tissues and to obtain what was called a Body of Blood. This was similar to the so-called Transparent Body. But the truth was that Cao Yun had already achieved this thanks to his blood cultivation. However, he had yet to do the same thing with his new and improved blood. Although he could do so at any given time, he had been patient in order to forge a strong foundation.

As the fire was melting his blood even more, it became richer and richer but also much more fluid. Even without thinking too much about it, his bloodstream flew all across his body. In fact, the only places his blood didn't get to were his very bones. And that was indeed the point of the 6th-grade Blood Child, which Cao Yun had just reached. In the last grades of the Blood Child realm, Cao Yun would have to send his blood within his very bones, all the way into his marrow. When he thought about this, it reminded him of what Ren Chao had gone through. As a matter of fact, this cultivation was very reminiscent of what his Golden Silk Body was. After all, his physique was probably due to some of the demon bloodline still in him. Every human in the Hongchen Kingdom had traces of Da Mo's bloodline because of his long rule over them.

Maybe Cao Yun would literally develop a Golden Silk Body himself through this cultivation. The next stage, Golden Blood Child, was precisely about cultivating one's marrow.

By the time Cao Yun had absorbed all of the Fire energy from the scale, he had become a true 6th-grade Blood Child. The next part of his training would be to work on his rigid bones. But for now, he had other plans. His blood cultivation wasn't the most urgent matter after all. Instead, he decided to work on the Rune of Fire.

Once again, he took out the Hellish Dragon Fruit and stared at the Rune of Fire. This was literally a part of the Dao, or rather of a smaller Dao. The Dao of Fire was one of the most important Dao for human cultivators, and even more so for alchemists. In nature, all Dao were equal, but they were not as important for sentient beings.

Now that he was still feeling the Fire energy around him, Cao Yun decided to focus on the Rune of Fire. Since he had never really studied a Dao, he didn't know what to do. But he decided to follow his instincts.

At first, he tried to trace the rune in his own mind. Try as he might, he was unable to get it right. This wasn't like tracing the characters of the Five Agents. But this didn't discourage Cao Yun. Studying a Dao was impossible under the Sage realm so he knew he wasn't going to achieve much right away.

Contrary to other cultivators, Cao Yun had something that belonged to a God-Monarch, the Drop of Wrath. Then, instead of trying to trace it himself, Cao Yun activated his Po. As a consequence, it put the Po within the Drop of Wrath in motion. Along his own Po, the Flying Poison began to really trace the Rune of Fire. Both Cleansed Asura and Axiu Qian had probably understood a lot from the Dao of Fire.

Without much effort, the Flying Poison within the Drop of Wrath traced the Rune of Fire. Outside, Cao Yun's Po character was tracing the Rune of Fire as well, but it was way more approximate. However, something happened.

In the Hellish Dragon Fruit, the Rune of Fire rose in the air and suddenly went straight for Cao Yun's glabella. In an instant, it was inside his sea of consciousness. The Rune of Fire pierced through Cao Yun's soul and he could feel the painful heat from it. If he hadn't worked on his soul, Cao Yun could have lost consciousness here and there.

Thankfully, it didn't last long as the Rune of Fire dived into the Drop of Wrath. As soon as it entered it, it became tame and stopped moving. The Drop of Wrath did not react at all to this intrusion. For it, it was as though it had welcome back an old friend. Like Cao Yun had surmised, the Drop of Wrath was used to the Dao of Fire both through Axiu Qian and Cleansed Asura.

Unfortunately, Cao Yun had gained almost no knowledge of the Dao of Fire, but he had now a tiny part of this Dao within his very soul. Surely, this would be a good thing to develop his alchemy, and later on, his understanding of the Dao.

-

While Cao Yun was cultivating, Hongyu was also working. She had absorbed all of the Fire energy within the scale Cao Yun had given to her. Within her body, she had started to develop her fifth core. It would take a few years to fully form this fifth core but it was very stable.

By devouring some of the Five Bloods Pheasant's blood, her own bloodline had been purified a bit. And this had also helped her purify her prenatal essence. In turn, this had replenished her vitality. It wasn't enough to fight off the Evil Qi without using the properties of the Drop of Wrath. But it was still alleviating the pain and strain.

Contrary to humans, demonic beasts cultivated by pure instinct. As such, they had no control over how their cores were formed. However, this changed when Cao Yun decided to butt in.

Now that he was done with what he had planned, he helped Hongyu out. His idea was simple. She need the Drop of Wrath to balance the Evil Qi. But she couldn't replenish it since she didn't have the Drop of Wrath and he couldn't give it to her.

What he decided to do was to use his mastery over Qi and over the Fire energy to try and create some form of seal within this fifth core as well as within the evil core. After working a very long time with Dian Mo, Cao Yun had become quite good at creating seals. Besides, Hongyu was letting him do without trying to impede his energy within her own body.

It wasn't perfect, but with this seal, the Evil Qi within her core would stay condensed in its center.

From it, Cao Yun extracted a tiny strand of it and even started to work on separating the Qi and the lingering emotions. Within someone else's body, it wasn't too easy, but he had worked on it in order to get rid of demonic cultivators' seals. It would probably take Cao Yun several years to get rid of all the Evil Qi. And he would need to refine a powerful pill to make sure that Hongyu's evil core wouldn't collapse in the process.

After working several hours in the cave, Cao Yun had used a few scales from the Hellish Dragon Fruit. His cultivation had progressed and Hongyu's state was now stable.

Finally, it was time for him to leave. He had to talk to Huang Si. After his time in the cave, he had felt something beneath him. He understood why Huang Si had used him instead of asking the help of a Spirit Warrior. She didn't want an outsider to get too close to the Deep Cloud Ridge for now. That meant that Cao Yun would get a fair compensation for the way he had been used.