Chapter 442: The Traitor
For an instant, Cao Yun finally looked outside. For the entire fight between the two souls, he had been in his sea of consciousness. Indeed, he had to be prepared at all times. But now that the most difficult part was over, he made sure that everything was going well. When he got aware of the world around him once again, he sensed that all the array formations had been either destroyed or deactivated. And outside the building, he could distinctly sense General Yun's powerful Qi. However, he could also feel something around him. Two spiritual senses were already all over the place. The first one was General Yun's and the second one had to be Patriarch Xue Liu. Despite those, Cao Yun was confident he could escape, but then General Yun would most likely suffer from this decision. Indeed, he would be accused of letting a demonic cultivator escape.
Since it had come to this, Cao Yun had to resort to his last plan. It would have been better to just escape unnoticed. But because it wasn't possible anymore, Cao Yun had still a way out. He simply had to tell the truth about Gu Song. Of course, he couldn't tell everything and he would have to polish the truth a little. But he had just killed a dangerous demonic cultivator. If he was good enough, he might even turn all the scrutiny away from him and onto the Xue family.
That being said, and despite the urgency of the situation, Cao Yun simply couldn't take his mind off Gu Song's memories. With his Chamber of Heavenly Court, he could think faster. In an instant, he could spend several minutes in his own mind. Thus, he could easily access the memories extracted by Dian Mo. Besides, having the memories of those past few months would be useful. After all, if Cao Yun found proof that the Xue family or even members of them were involved with Gu Song, things would be smoother.
"Are you ready, boy?"
"After everything I did and risked to get there, yes, I most certainly am."
"Then, enjoy."
Suddenly, Cao Yun saw visions of Gu Song's life. He saw him as a little boy. Like many others he was an orphan taken in by demonic cultivators. His younger life was incredibly painful but Cao Yun had no mercy for this man. As a boy he would have tried to save him but at some point that boy had died and someone else was born in his stead. Gu Song had experimented on demonic beasts and on humans. He mastered the art of keeping them alive for as long as he needed them.
Slowly, he became more and more interested in the soul, thinking it to be the key to become a Sage. As such, his experiments became less bloody but more painful. But they did reap results here and there. Maybe he had to kill a thousand people just to advance his knowledge. But Mo Tian didn't care about this, he got interested in Gu Song. Eighty years ago, Gu Song was chosen by Mo Tian to become one of the advisers to the Demon King. There was no image of the Demon King in Gu Song's memory though. However, there was a certainty now, Mo Tian was the right-hand man of the Demon King. Thus, Mo Tian had not been the Demon King.
A few years later, Gu Song learned the truth. The demonic cultivators were all under the yoke of the Demon King, but the Demon King himself was serving someone else. Through Gu Song's work and the work of a couple of others like Mo Tian himself, the Demon King was trying to find a way to free himself from that influence. Like all the other demonic cultivators, he had a seal implanted in his very soul. However, he had been powerful enough to protect a small part of his mind, which allowed him to keep planning against his master.
From what Cao Yun could gather, the Demon King had to be at least a late Spirit Warrior on par with Mo Tian. Thus he was either an 8th-grade Spirit Warrior, or worse, a 9th-grade Spirit Warrior. If the latter was true, that meant that the Demon King was on the level of the three powerhouses of the Hongchen Kingdom, Sect Leader Xuan Mu, Matriarch Huang Yufeng and Emperor Weide. Against such an opponent, Cao Yun's tricks would mean nothing at all. Besides, the fight between two 9th-grade Spirit Warriors would cause incredible damage around them. Cao Yun remembered what had happened in the Wubei Sect.
As they were looking for a solution, they discovered the ruins from the time the demons still ruled the humans. They were in fact ruins from the time of Demon God Da Mo. In them, they uncovered many secrets that were now partially Cao Yun's. Dian Mo had also been interested in what they had found, but there was nothing too new for him. However, the way they mixed this knowledge with their own human cultivation was fascinating for the Palace Spirit. For Cao Yun, those memories were a new weapon he could use against them. Now, he knew a lot of their secrets. Gu Song didn't know as much as Mo Tian, but he had been experimenting a lot.
Among this treasure trove of past forbidden knowledge, the Demon King found the key to his salvation. Indeed, he found a way to isolate completely the seal within his soul. And better than that, he was able to send a powerful backlash to the one who had put it there. All that happened around seventy years ago, the same time Emperor Weide appeared in public for the last time. The man Lang Shou had referred to as 'the Traitor' had been struck down by the Demon King's soul attack. All demonic cultivator Spirit Warriors partook in this battle to strengthen the Demon King. A few of them were literally burned alive during the clash. After all, Emperor Weide was a 9th-grade Spirit Warrior.
Yes, now Cao Yun was sure of that. Emperor Weide had been using the demonic cultivators. By controlling the Demon King, he was controlling everyone else. This explained how they had been able to grow in strength. By the past, demonic cultivators almost never reached the Spirit Warrior realm. Indeed, they were found out and killed way before that. But under his protection, they had grown stronger and stronger. And he had put all their efforts on one thing. He wanted to become a Sage. No matter the means, he had to break through and couldn't stay a half-step Sage, he wanted to make this last step. For that, he had even disregarded many massacres the demonic cultivators had perpetrated to get more test subjects.
That day seventy years ago though, Emperor Weide's very soul was heavily injured. The Demon King didn't get out unscathed either. But at the very least, he was mostly freed from the one they called the Traitor. That name was fitting as he had betrayed all of mankind for his ambitions. Unfortunately, Cao Yun had absolutely no proof except for those memories. Trying to convince the people of the Hongchen Kingdom, so close to a war against the demons, would be impossible. Besides, just giving this information to someone was putting them at risk of death. The only ones Cao Yun could tell were his master, Sect Leader Xuan, and Spirit Master Xiao Xuefeng.
Since that day, seventy years ago, the Demon King had still a remnant of the seal stuck in his soul. That was why they had infiltrated the Golden Flowery Fragrance Institute. Cao Yun saw how Gu Song had spent several decades to enter the institute. He had been a perfect alchemist. Thanks to those memories, Cao Yun found quite a few demonic cultivators hidden throughout the institute. If Director Ge Ling had not found them all, this would be very useful. But then, Gu Song had tried to have his latest disciple in, Luo Jiang. That was the moment Cao Yun had met Hua Fenfei in Yinmen City.
During the demonic beasts stampede, Gu Song had plucked a peach from the Heavenly Silver Peach Tree. This was the last ingredient needed to refine a pill used by the Demon King in order to annihilate the seal he had been suppressing all those years. That meant that the Demon King was back at full strength. In other words, there was a 9th-grade Spirit Warrior who was controlling all the demonic cultivators, with a grudge against Emperor Weide and the entire Hongchen Kingdom. This wasn't good news at all...
All that was interesting and very important of course. But what truly interested Cao Yun was something else. Around forty years ago, the news of the massacre of the Shui family reached Gu Song. And he knew what this was about. This slaughter had been pinned on some demonic cultivators as well, even back then. Knowing who was the real culprit, the Demon King was obviously interested in unraveling the truth. By studying the corpses and thanks to the library of Demon God Da Mo, they found the answer.
Within the blood of the Shui family, there was a unique trait. It was extremely rare. Originally, there was only one species who ruled over all of reality, the Three Jade Saints. In their bodies, they had the Three Heavenly Treasures, Jin Xue, the Golden Blood, Tian Qi, the Heaven Qi and Hun Po, the Perfect Soul. But a tragedy befell them. No one was clear on the matter but some claimed that the Heavens themselves became jealous of them and struck them down. Those Three Heavenly Treasures were split and formed three species, the descendants of those Three Jade Saints, the humans with a most profound Qi system, the asura with an incredibly potent blood, and the deva gifted with a flawless soul. But all three of those attributes existed in all three of the species in varying degrees.
The Shui bloodline revealed that they had a tinge of the deva's soul hidden in there. Although it was dormant, it might be able to become active within their Soul Embryo. However, this was only the case for the women of the family. In fact, they found out that even most of the women had too little of this blood. The only one who seemed to have a significant amount of this was Cao Shui, Cao Yun's mother. According to Gu Song who was the expert on the subject of souls, if someone were to devour the Soul Embryo of someone who had awaken this flawless soul, they might finally transcend the 9th-grade Spirit Warrior stage to enter the Sage realm.
When he reached the Shui family to study their corpses, Gu Song found out that all the women had had their souls ripped away from their bodies. But he knew that they had not found what they had been looking for thanks to what he saw in the souls of the men. Just like Emperor Weide, the Demon King kept on searching for survivors to this family, the only two children who had escaped. One was a boy, useless, but the other one was a young girl. She might be the answer.
Finally, they discovered Cao Shui in Baziyun City. Unfortunately, so did the Emperor.
Now Cao Yun knew the truth. His mother had been targeted so that Emperor Weide could make her form a Soul Embryo he could then devour. All of that carnage was in the far-fetched hope that he might become a Sage. Obviously Cao Yun was furious. But another thought crossed his mind. If Emperor Weide had wanted his mother's Soul Embryo, he might have settled for her soul. Until now, he had not even thought about that, but he wasn't sure whether the souls of his family members had not been stolen. During the attack, Cao Beiwen's Soul Embryo had been destroyed, but it was still possible that they had extracted the souls of all the women of his family. After all, this explained why his sister had been taken alive from his arms.
It was likely that they had taken her soul from her before throwing her dead body with the others. If that were true, his family was maybe still suffering untold pain and torment right now. However, his enemy wasn't a demonic cultivator against whom all of mankind could unite. No, his enemy was literally the Emperor. Most people were taking the Emperor as the direct descendant of Emperor Nuwa. Although he had not her blood, there was a long line of succession that had never been broken between all the emperors, all the way to Emperor Nuwa herself.
With that in mind, turning the people against Emperor Weide would be almost impossible. Thankfully, several people had discovered that there was something strange within the Imperial City. However, none of them imagined how corrupted Emperor Weide himself had become. As a lowly 3rd-grade Mortal Warrior, Cao Yun could do nothing. Against a mere 4th-grade Spirit Warrior, he had risked everything and had been victorious because his opponent had not tried to kill him right away. In a fair fight, without tricks, Gu Song would have obliterated Cao Yun. Emperor Weide could reduce him to dust with a single thought. Even as an early Spirit Warrior, fighting such a monster would be almost impossible.
Right now, his only choice would be to have Sect Leader Xuan and Matriarch Huang to unite against him. But they couldn't just attack him like that, the entire Hongchen Kingdom would turn against them. Then, the demons would use the opportunity, mankind would be absolutely annihilated, either slaughtered by fanatics of reduced to slavery once again.
Anyway, Cao Yun's rage was now focused on Emperor Weide. That Alchemy Conference in the Imperial City would be the perfect moment to get closer to him. Even if he could not strike him down now, he could prepare himself for that. If he could find some proof against him, there might still be a way. Otherwise, he would have to grow strong enough to deal with him himself. By combining human and asura cultivation, he was convinced he could become stronger than even a half-step 9th-grade Spirit Warrior. Hell, he might even be able to finally break through to the Sage realm without devouring someone's soul. Or maybe, he would devour Emperor Weide's Soul Embryo like he had meant to do to his own mother!