Chapter 76: Preparation for the challenge

There was less than two weeks before the day of the challenge and Cao Yun kept doing his little routine. Unfortunately, he would not be able to master 'Locking the Seven and Stopping the Waves' before that. Thus the only decision was to wait after the challenge to sneak into the Coiling Silk Faction residence.

In the evening, Cao Yun also kept on playing with Mei Ying. She was always excited to learn new spear moves and Cao Yun felt like he was playing with his little sister. She was way more energetic and less shy, but the light in her eyes was the same. And she was curious about everything Cao Yun had to teach. Mei Hua was always watching from the corner of her eyes while she studied alchemy. She did not have much more to learn. In fact, she was waiting to become a Mortal Warrior in order to pass the 1-star Human grade evaluation.

Cao Yun sometimes used this opportunity to ask her some questions about the problems he was facing in his alchemy. And even by teaching someone like Mei Ying who was very young, he could deepen his understanding of the spear. Having to explain the concepts he felt intuitively made them more concrete in his mind.

This was really the time of the day he was waiting for the more. Since he would be able to leave the sect the following year, he wouldn't have as much time with this little sister, so he tried to enjoy it now.

However, something came do disturb this peaceful time.

A man with the uniform of the sect but no emblem on his chest entered the first-years residence. As soon as the man got near Cao Yun, even before seeing his face, he felt something ominous. Deep in his sea of consciousness, the Drop of Wrath became restless. Quickly, he had to use his mind cultivation to suppress it. This time, it was more violent than ever. It was as if it resonated with something else, something evil.

"Chen Guo!" Hearing the voice, Cao Yun knew who was here, Luduo Bu. He had his halberd in hand with a huge sinister smile on his face. "I'm really looking forward to our duel. I hope you won't disappoint me."

Cao Yun was still a Mortal and had no spiritual senses, but he could feel something different. There was something in his blood, something new and evil.

As soon as she heard the voice, Mei Ying froze. She let go of her makeshift spear and went to hide behind the young man. Instinctively, Cao Yun put his spear before her as a shield.

"Oh? If it isn't the little brat... I heard you completely recovered from our 'sparring session'. Do not worry, when I'm done with your big brother here, he won't die." He was crouching down to speak with Mei Ying while looking directly in her eyes. "But I'm not sure whether he'll ever be able to hold even a twig in his hand."

Mei Hua turned red from anger. "Luduo Bu! Did you forget who my master is?! If you dare threaten Chen Guo in my presence..."

"Calm down, little Mei. I did not threaten anyone. There's always the possibility of an accident during a fight. I'm not saying that I'll hurt your precious friend." He stood up and looked very sorry. "But given my strength, I'm not sure he could even withstand one of my moves."

Luduo Bu slashed with his halberd and the ground right in front of Cao Yun got deeply cut. He was amazed. This Luduo Bu was totally different from the one he had fought. As he was still a Mortal cultivator, Luduo Bu could not manifest his Qi, but just the pressure from his martial art had caused such a cut. Cao Yun had not even felt the movement of the air before the cut appeared. If this attack had been directed to him, he would have sensed it only at the very last moment.

He had hugely miscalculated. Even in the Devil's Jail, Luduo Bu had become way stronger. What was going on here?! There was also an evil atmosphere in his newfound strength. No one else felt it. But with his Drop of Wrath, it was perfectly clear to Cao Yun.

"You have nothing to retort? Not so arrogant, are you?"

"Luduo Bu...! No matter how strong you are, I'll destroy you!"

Luduo Bu only laughed. "Not very convincing, little boy. I just hope you don't give up too early. What if I was to crush your throat?" He looked back at Mei Ying. "It worked really well last time."

"Luduo Bu! If you dare violate the rules during the challenge, don't think that the elders won't intervene!" Her older sister retorted as soon as he spoke.

After letting out a small laugh, he looked her straight in the eyes. "But I won't violate any rule. I have the clear intention of beating your friend up as much as the rules allow me. Trust me, I wouldn't want our fun to be interrupted."

Mei Ying was shaking and crying in silence. Cao Yun's anger only increased while he was trying to control the Drop of Wrath. He felt his Po character activate more strongly and it helped him to keep his rage under control. From the very faint Po character, a powerful white light flooded his sea of consciousness. The white light was fighting against the red glow of the Drop of Wrath. Using his Shen to coordinate Yi and Zhi, he took control of this white light and subdued the wrath of this blood.

"Luduo Bu! Mark my words. I will beat you, no matter what!"

"I'm really looking forward to that!" Luduo Bu left while laughing. "Do not worry. I won't be in the sect until the day of the challenge. I have to train a bit more. With my strength, you won't even be able to survive one move."

The three of them watched as Luduo Bu's back disappeared in the distance.

"Brother Chen! There's something strange with him. Be careful!" Mei Hua got closer to Cao Yun. Then, she squatted down to hug her little sister.

Cao Yun also squatted down and put his hand on her head. "Ying'er, do not be afraid. Your older brother won't let this animal do anything to you."

Mei Ying was crying a lot. "But... I don't want older brother to get hurt..."

"Do not worry about me! If I thought I couldn't win, I would just give up the fight."

Mei Hua was pensive. "Maybe, you could forfeit the duel..."

"No! I will beat him! Trust me!" In his eyes, there was a new conviction! For the days he had left, Cao Yun would stop everything and would only focus on his fighting strength and Qi cultivation.

After taking a bit of time to calm down Mei Ying, the little girl fell asleep. All this emotion had truly exhausted her. Cao Yun was watching her sleep with her sister.

"Are you sure?" Mei Hua was sincerely worried about Cao Yun. Just a few minutes ago, she had no doubt about his victory, but even without the Drop of Wrath, she had felt something ominous about Luduo Bu, but nothing particularly evil. After all, she was one of the greatest alchemists of her generation, so her senses and mind were sharper than almost everyone else. The only ones with sharper minds in her generation were Cao Yun and Feng Yingyue thanks to 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks'.

"I also felt it. Something happened to him." Suddenly, Cao Yun had an idea. Lu Meihan had some evil intentions regarding him and now this Luduo Bu had an evil aura around him. The fact that Lu Meihan was using a demonic dual cultivation was just a deduction from Cao Yun. But now that Luduo Bu also seemed to use a demonic art, he was truly convinced of his deduction.

But were the demonic cultivators targeting him, or were these just coincidences? What if they had figured out who he was and wanted to finally extinguish the Cao family? Or maybe it was linked to the demonic cultivators he had killed while entering the Wubei Sect? No matter what was really going on, right now, Cao Yun had to focus all his mind on becoming stronger.

-

When he returned home, his face was gloomy. So gloomy that Huang Cixi got worried. Seeing his face, a genuine worry welled up inside her. She immediately asked.

"Young Master, what's going on? Did something bad happen?"

He was jolted back to reality.

"Luduo Bu is way more powerful than he was before. I'm not sure whether I can defeat him."

Huang Cixi should feel happy as she wanted to hate Cao Yun for the death of her brother. But after all the time she had spent with him, she felt sympathy for him.

"Young Master Chen! I know you can do it!"

"Thank you, little Yuzhi. I'll go train immediately, please do not disturb me."

"Of course. I'll prepare dinner. Just eat whenever you want."

Cao Yun sat cross-legged. The first thing he did was remembering the fight he had with Luduo Bu as well as the move he just performed. His martial art was 'Bloody Cavalry'. Cao Yun had seen it in the library. As soon as he could, he would go read it.

Right now, he focused on this one move he had not been able to react to. He used his 'Shen Visualization' to imagine how he would deal with it.

After mentally training, he cultivated a bit. By depleting another small spirit stone, he finally opened his eighth meridian, the Gall Bladder Meridian. A new surge of energy swept over his body. He also trained his Po cultivation to try and increase his perception even more.

The rest of the week, he read the 'Bloody Cavalry' and trained with Chief Elder Baishen. He also went back once to Howling Crane Gorge. He was really getting closer and closer to understanding 'stillness within movement'.

-

As a second-year, Luduo Bu was able to come and go from the Wubei Sect as much as he wanted. Hence, he had decided to go toward a small wood nearby. It was known to be populated by 1-core and 2-core demonic beasts. He was knee deep in blood with at least eleven corpses of Feral Lunar Rabbits. When they were alive, their fur was silver and shined under the full moon. Unlike rabbits, they were the size of humans with fangs and claws. Their eyes were bloodshot and they always attack in packs.

Luduo Bu had found one of their holes and slaughtered every single one of them. And now, he was cultivating in their blood, surrounded by their demonic cores. They were shining the same color as blood. All around him, the red blood gathered, coming closer to him. Finally, it condensed around the demonic cores. As if they were attracted by a mysterious force, the cores collided and the blood splattered all around. It started to float into the air and form into a strange symbol.

After almost an hour, a new rune was formed. Luduo Bu had his third blood rune. But he had needed eleven kills to do so. Right now, he felt like even killing twice as many 1-core demonic beasts would not cut it.

He decided to hunt some 2-core demonic beasts.

It took him four days but he slaughtered seven 2-core demonic beasts. As he was above the last corpse, an incomplete blood rune leapt from his arm. It whirled in the air and sucked in the blood of the corpse. Finally, the fourth blood rune was complete. His Qi cultivation had not changed and he was still a mid 7th-grade Mortal. But his strength was comparable to a 9th-grade Mortal at the very least. His blood cultivation, 'Blood Rune', consisted of seven layers. Each one had more runes than the previous one. The second layer was composed of four runes. But the third one had a total of eight runes.

Given the time he had, Luduo Bu had no chance to reach it just by killing weak demonic beasts. This blood cultivation worked best with human cultivators after all.

Just when he was thinking of that, Luduo Bu heard some noises coming from afar. He tried to approach in silence. Stealth was not his forte, so he was more careful than usual.

Not too far from him, a group of three cultivators was fighting against a 2-core demonic beast. It was an Alpine Golden-Fur Macaque. It looked like a simple macaque but twice as big and with a golden mane around his neck. The cultivators were two women and a man. They were not even in their twenties. Absorbed in their fight, none of them sensed Luduo Bu, including the Alpine Golden-Fur Macaque. The beast was completely worn out. Finally, he fell down in a puddle of his own blood.

The group was exhausted as well and panting deeply. With their weapons covered in blood, they supported themselves.

"Sister Xian, Sister Yun. Are you okay?"

"It was harder than I thought, but I'm fine."

"What a great catch, Brother Chen!"

Luduo Bu heard the name of the boy and an evil smile disfigured him. He leapt from his hiding place.

"What strong cooperation!"

All three of them got alert. It wasn't a rare thing for cultivators to have their bounty stolen from them. As such, they were ready. The strongest of them was a 5th-grade Mortal, but all three together could fight off against a 7th-grade or even a low 8th-grade Mortal. However, they were exhausted and Luduo Bu had a sinister look on his face.

They saw his uniform and got a little bit reassured. The Wubei Sect was known to be virtuous. It did not mean that all its disciples were as well, but maybe they could leave with a part of their bounty.

"Senior, may I know your name?" The young man was ready to run if need be, but he tried to be cordial first.

"You're called Chen, right?" On Luduo Bu's face, his desire to kill became more and more pronounced.

"Yes, Senior." As a primal fear was growing inside the young man's stomach, he decided to give up the fruit of his labor. "If you want this beast, take it. Take whatever you want."

"Oh?! Thank you. But you see... The problem is that I don't want this beast at all."

Just as Luduo Bu's halberd hit the ground, the man knew he was going to get killed. He didn't know why, but he was experienced enough to know it. All three of them were vagrant cultivators, so they were used to bloody battles. But usually, their opponents just wanted to steal from them, not slaughter them for no reason.

"Run!" The moment the man called Chen screamed, his head rolled to the ground. And the last thing he saw were the bodies of his two sisters cut in half. Blood erupted everywhere and gathered up in the air.

The blood from all three of them condensed into a small ball as Luduo Bu was meditating. Slowly, this ball changed shape. And in a matter of minutes, Luduo Bu had formed his fifth rune. It was even brighter than the runes he had formed before.

"Using human blood sure beats these useless beasts!"