Chapter 494: Traitorous attack
As the group was getting closer and closer to Yixin City, Cao Yun could tell that there were new emotions among both slaves and slavers. The slaves were getting more and more anxious as their fates would soon be decided. At the same time though, their fear and anguish was limited by Xixue. Although she didn't reveal exactly what Cao Yun had told her, she reassured them. That showed Cao Yun that he had made the right choice with her. He didn't want panic to spread through the slaves when he acted.
On the other hand, the slavers were anticipating a good payday while also being anxious. For Cao Yun's senses, their intention was absolutely transparent. They were planning something sinister for him. Most likely, they intended to either pressure him into joining them or even downright enslave him. Although he was an Accomplished Demon in their eyes, they had other Accomplished Demons in their company. Besides, they worked for Boss Gui. Since Cao Yun was not affiliated with any other group, she would probably try to recruit him.
The only person who was perfectly calm was Cao Yun himself. Thanks to his mind cultivation, he was able to perfectly control his emotions. Right now, he needed to plan. There were seven middle to late Golden Blood Children. Individually, they were theoretically no threat to Cao Yun. But his current situation made it so he couldn't overtly use his Qi cultivation. Although he didn't intend to let anyone survive, body and soul, he would still try to fight without revealing he was a human. After all, in the future, he would need to be able to do so. Thus, he would need to use every method he could think of to kill them all before they could unite against him.
As soon as he would strike, his real blood cultivation would be revealed since he didn't even have formed his Golden Blood yet. That was a real priority. For the time being, Cao Yun could somewhat use his Flying Poison to pass as an Accomplished Demon but his blood was still lacking the mark of a middle Golden Blood Child. The more he planned, the more ashamed he felt. Indeed, he would have to resort to some means that were clearly part of the demonic cultivators' arsenal. In fact, he surprised himself thinking more and more like a demonic cultivator. While he was planning the deaths of those slavers, he was also pondering over the best use for them. Because he was still studying the corporeal soul and Death Energy, he sincerely thought about observing their dying moments.
He could kill them right away though. First of all, he would need information from them. Since Dian Mo was still eerily silent, he would have to use more conventional and brutal methods. Given that he could easily tell whether they were lying or not, torture would be effective. In fact, he had some ideas on the matter by using his understanding of seals developed thanks to Dian Mo.
Speaking of seals, this was his second worry. In this land, he had no idea what kind of seals could be used. Thus, he was worried that some seal might help their master discover what had happened to them. For Cao Yun's plans, the best option was for them to look like they had died in the Desolate Dune Desert. From everything he had heard, this wasn't very rare at all. In fact, this was why many small tribes were scattered across the land. They knew that the cities of the Xinian Confederation all had to cross the Desolate Dune Desert to get to them. Since they were all trading in slaves in some capacity, this was a good way for the small tribes to protect themselves from subjugation.
The Desolate Dune Desert was a place of both death, worship and adventure. Yaxue's group had risked their lives to cross it in order to find some demons to enslave. No one would be surprised if they were to simply die in the desert. After all, without Cao Yun's intervention, this was exactly what would have happened. Besides, they were all Golden Blood Children. No one would make a fuss if they were to disappear in the dunes. After getting what he needed from them, Cao Yun just had to make sure to get rid of any trace of his involvement. Thankfully, he had his spatial ring to do so.
At last, he decided to act. The more he waited, the closer they were getting to Yixin City. If they were too close, they might be discovered by someone one. According to what he had heard, they were still a few weeks away from the city. With Hongyu, they would be able to get there in less than a week. But with the caravan, it would at least take a couple of weeks if not three of them. Traveling through the Desolate Dune Desert was indeed very difficult and thus took a lot of time unless someone knew how to fly and could account for all the spatial distortions.
The young man still had a lot of rage in him after learning the truth about his mother's soul being used as a Domain and his sister being raised by that butcher Weide as a pig for slaughter. Focusing on those, Cao Yun was once again filled with anger. He pushed his Flying Poison to the limit without losing control of it. Then, he immediately attacked without any warning and without any mercy at all. Even if his enemies had been humans, he would have been just as merciless. Thankfully though, they were demons.
All of a sudden, an Azure Dragon leaped from beneath the sand. It tore apart the entire left side of Yaxue. He had no time to react as it bit through his Wei Qi like it was paper. Cao Yun was strong enough to kill any Mortal Warrior and Golden Blood Children were just as powerful as Mortal Warriors. During the travel, Yaxue had finally broken through to 7th-grade Golden Blood Child. However, he had not been ready for threats coming from below. Yaxue was clearly the biggest threat so Cao Yun took care of him first. Seeing their leader's left side explode like that, all the demons were shocked. They suddenly saw Cao Yun's shape.
Before they could get ready, the weaker demons saw only two shining red eyes. In their mind, they were watching a dragon covered in blood. Around them, the entire desert had turned into a mountain of mangled bodies and they were stuck in them. In fact, the weakest demon of the group stopped breathing altogether, terror had completely seized him. This was 'Weeping Demon', Cao Yun's mental attack.
On the other hand, the stronger demons were able to resist Cao Yun's mental pressure. However, they would not resist his spear for very long. Before they could organize themselves, Cao Yun had used 'The Dragon's Belly is Contorted'. Moving all over the place, he sent a few cones of wind with his spear. There was now a temporary array formation all around his enemies. For them, it felt as though they were being constricted by the Azure Dragon. There was an oppressing force keeping them from moving.
Of course, a few of them were still strong enough to go past that. One of the women sent a knife toward Cao Yun. Even he was surprised by its speed, but he dodged it at the last moment. Immediately, that woman became his next target. In such a fight, he had to deal with the strongest cultivators first. That way, he would prevent the demons from unifying around a powerful fighter. The other ones would be easy pickings after that.
While the fight was going on, Yaxue was trying to stay alive. He was quite literally spilling all over the sand. In theory, as a 7th-grade Golden Blood Child, he should be able to stop the bleeding easily but he realized that he simply couldn't. His blood had been corrupted by something, some kind of poison he didn't know. Even for a slaver, this was a coward tactic. Slavery was considered normal in the Nalupu Kingdom. On the other hand, poison was deemed immoral. The reason was simple enough. Blood was a gift from the brutal gods. Anything that would corrupt blood was an insult to those gods and deserved the most agonizing death. Of course, Cao Yun did not know about that at the moment. Even if he had known, poison was a very good way for him to make sure to win this fight.
Cao Yun showed no mercy toward his opponents. Above him, the Horn Constellation finally appeared. The Horn Star was shining directly above his head at all times. The demons had also taken out their Qi Manifestations. At the same time, they had pushed their blood cultivation to the limit as well. Their skin had turned more or less red because of the blood beneath. Other than that, they looked exactly like humans. In fact, they were looking like humans who were exerting a great effort and had turned red. A few also had golden lines here and there, materialization of their Golden Blood. Because Cao Yun was pushing his blood cultivation as well, he had turned a bit red on some parts of his body. However, there was no sign of gold. Thus, the demons realized that they had been duped.
The remaining demons now knew that Cao Yun was way weaker than them. However, they couldn't seem to easily win the fight. They weren't even as strong as a 6th-grade Mortal Warrior, while Cao Yun could easily kill a half-step Spirit Warrior with his current strength. Of course, Cao Yun was not using his Qi cultivation, but his body had still been improved a lot, his blood had the property of the Drop of Wrath, he had developed his Spear Aura. In other words, he had many advantages apart from his raw cultivation. As long as his enemies were not working together, they were no threat at all.
Despite the fight, Cao Yun could sense that Yaxue was still trying to regenerate her flesh. He had known that demons were resistant, but not to this extent. After all, that man was a 7th-grade Golden Blood Child. In Cao Yun's earlier attack, he had been able to preserve both his heart and his brain. So long as he could control his blood, he might be able to survive by circulating it in his remaining organs himself. But he would never be able to recreate his missing organs though. In the end, he would die nonetheless. However, he was clinging to life with all his will. In itself, this was truly impressive. Just like Ren Chao, demons had indeed much more willpower than humans. On the other hand, their mind cultivation wasn't as good.
His array formation was still trapping them with him so none could escape. His 'Weeping Demon' mental attack was still active. Thus, the weaker demons were faltering. Before any of them could attack, he unleashed his Black Heart Flame. This flame made out of burning souls went toward the demon closest to Cao Yun. The fool tried to block it. As soon as it touched his weapon, it spread like wildfire. Being a bit too late, the demon dropped his weapon just after the flame had reached his hands. In an instant, it spread within his body. Although his blood was resistant, it barely inconvenienced the Black Heart Flame that went straight for his soul.
While that demon was being burned from within, Cao Yun unleashed his 'Dragon's Twin Horns' on all the demons at once. A few of them were severely injured, but some were able to defend and prepare a counter-attack. As a demon was throwing a knife toward Cao Yun, it turned into the stinger of a scorpion. Evading it with no problem, Cao Yun quickly jumped upward. A pincer had leapt from the sand down below, trying to cut him in half. With his meager spiritual senses, Cao Yun was able to see everything directly around him. He had no blind spot. Still, he couldn't see to this extent in a large radius, but his perception of Qi was also very good. However, he had just realized during his travel that the sand was somehow interfering with that. The Fire element was so rich it was able to conceal the Qi moving within the sand. But it wasn't too hard for him to perceive big changes anyway. After all, he was a very talented alchemist and had a great perception.
For once, Cao Yun was truly surprised, a golden chain pierced through his left shoulder. It had come out of nowhere. Following the trail, he realized that the chain had appeared from a blood rune hidden in the sand. After further consideration, Cao Yun would have to be more careful about this sand than he initially thought. Dozens of other chains came from several spots all over the place. Without any hesitation, Cao Yun took out the first golden chain by violently twisting his body, ripping apart a bit of his shoulder. Then, he quickly moved all over the place with 'Crafty Harassment'. Striking down with 'Cracking the World', Cao Yun caused a big vibration to go through the sand. Finally, he unleashed his 'The Pillar Piercing the Sky'.
Great winds went along his spear and a powerful Azure Dragon was sent toward the strongest demon still able to fight. But because of Cao Yun's previous strike against the ground, the winds sent a lot of sand all over the place. This wasn't as bad as the hellish sandstorm he had been thrown into, but it was still a problem for the demons to perceive what was going on. That was a good opportunity for Cao Yun to dispatch more than half of them. Since they had no Dantian, Cao Yun decided to target both the heart and the head, just to be sure. Once they were all on the ground, he could make sure that they were thoroughly dealt with.
'Dragon's Tail Sweeps the Sky'!
Before the other demons could recover, the body of the Azure Dragon whipped them. A couple of demons were simply cut in half. There was only one woman still standing. On her bloodied skin, she had a few golden chains as well as several blood runes floating behind her. There was no doubt that she was the one who had unleashed the golden chain that had pierced Cao Yun's shoulder. As the sand flying around was settling down, Cao Yun used 'Ashen Feather Seal'. He quickly went behind the woman. Before she could notice anything unusual, she saw the tip of 'Tainted Heavenly Spear' going through her chest. Then, the full might of the spear fell on her head. After stabbing her, Cao Yun rotated the spear and used its butt to crush her skull. 'The Dragon's Body Hits the Earth'! Her body exploded in blood as it was reduced to paste.