Chapter 483: Burning one's air

Cao Yun wasn't really in a good state of mind to cultivate. But right now, he had nothing else to do. Ironically, it was his way of copping with what was going on and what he had just learned. Otherwise, he would have been going crazy. Even with his mind cultivation, suppressing his anger without putting something else in his mind was impossible. Thus, he focused all of those emotions into his heart. His blood was almost boiling within his bloodstream. If his heart had not been tempered by his cultivation, it might have exploded. But this heat was also a good thing to develop his current Qi cultivation.

Strong emotions were dangerous during cultivation for that very reason. Thankfully though, Cao Yun had a body that could withstand it and he had almost no risk of forming an inner demon. Of course, there was always a possibility, but now he had control over the Drop of Wrath and over its Flying Poison. No inner demon Cao Yun could produce would be able to resist it. Although Cao Yun's rage was intense, the remnant of wrath and fury from Axiu Qian was still way above that. Cao Yun could barely imagine what he had been feeling when he was still alive...

The Frozen Fire pill's medicinal essence was just like an onion. It was made of several layers alternating between some kind of icy energy and a fiery essence. With his current rage, Cao Yun's blood burned the outermost layer in less than a few breaths. Then, an intense Fire element spread throughout Cao Yun's chest. Using what he had learned in 'Storms in the Crimson Furnace', Cao Yun focused all of his blood and Fire Qi within his chest, pushing everything toward his heart and his Middle Dantian. Once again, the pressure and the heat became extremely intense. The air around him was saturated with heat to the point where the gas even began to become blurry.

Since there was nothing to conduct heat outside of Cao Yun's vicinity, the temperature could only rise and rise and rise. At the moment, Cao Yun was not fully aware of it, but soon he would realize. When the heat became too uncomfortable even for him, Cao Yun looked around. He got afraid for Hongyu. Heat was good for her considering her lineage, but it didn't mean that she could bear just any kind of intense heat. Even a fiery bird could be burned to cinders. Thankfully, what Cao Yun saw was that Hongyu seemed to be regaining her strength. It wasn't just the heat.

By cultivating, Cao Yun was necessarily losing a bit of his own Qi and the medicinal of the Frozen Fire pill was also overflowing a little. No matter how talented he was, this kind of loss was almost impossible to prevent. But to be fair, it was in extremely small amounts. Anyway, it had a good impact on Hongyu herself. At the moment, she was still forming her fifth core. Despite her consumption of a Frozen Fire pill, it was difficult to tell how long it would take her to officially become a 5-core demonic beast. It wouldn't be too long, but it could still take a few days, a few weeks, even a couple of months.

Just as the heat was helping Hongyu, Cao Yun was also quite glad of his current predicament. Ironically being in a place without any space around him, he was in full isolation. Even what he had lost was still trapped around him. It was as though he was in a perfect array formation. Nothing could leave the confines of Sect Leader Xuan's Insight Writings. Indeed, there was no space around it. Right now, the only thing around those golden characters was Demon King Mo Wang. Even this blood was starting to boil around the ball of gas Cao Yun was trapped into.

Since Cao Yun was not a Spirit Warrior, he should not be able to fly. However, he was floating now because there was no planet to attract him. Of course, Cao Yun had not a great comprehension of the Dao of Space or even of gravity. But he could clearly sense that the force pulling him down even when flying on Hongyu's back didn't exist in this place because nothing else but his immediate surroundings existed.

Of course, this was also a terrifying experience. And unfortunately, he could not do a thing. Unless he was a Sage who had understood a bit of the Dao of Space, he was useless. His only hope was indeed Dian Mo. And right now, Dian Mo was still studying all the books Cao Yun had found useful. He had read and read again everything that had a tiny bit of connection with the Dao of Space. He had many ideas to get out of this predicament. Unfortunately, none seemed too feasible. His best guess would be to try and create an opening through space in order to exit back into normal space.

This bleeding space was an anomaly caused by the failed attempt of someone to open a stable doorway. Maybe the space above the Imperial Palace, or the space that was supposed to be bridged to it, were still weak enough for a hole to be made. But the first hole had required a 9th-grade Spirit Warrior's blood. Even though the bleeding space they were in was quite wounded, it was still space. A Mortal Warrior would never be able to cause any injury to space itself. Maybe Cao Yun could use the Flying Poison somehow, but this was far-fetched. Then, Dian Mo found only one solution, Demon King Mo Wang's blood. It was a long shot too, but it had sustained that wound for a few days already.

"Boy, I have a terrible idea..."

"Do you have any good ones?"

"No, only bad and worse... Unless you're ready to try and project your soul out of your body, the next less dangerous thing would be to try and control all of the blood around us. The main concern is that this is the only thing keeping this space relatively stable. As soon as it's gone, your Spirit Condensation Barrier will be attacked like never before. I don't know how long it will last, even with your master's understanding of the Dao of Space. On the other hand, I can't be sure whether there is not something in that blood..."

"Something? Like blood runes? Or like remains of Demon King Mo Wang's soul?"

"Indeed. It could retaliate against you by pure instinct. After all, that so-called Demon King was killed in a terrible way. There is a high chance he gave birth to some kind of ghost or ghastly creature of some kind."

Using the 'Death Verses', Cao Yun tried to perceive traces of Demon King Mo Wang's Death Energy. There was indeed a high concentration of both Death Energy and Ghost Energy. Demon King Mo Wang's soul had been partially consumed by the opening of the bloody rift. That didn't mean that all of his soul had been destroyed. From what Cao Yun could see, his Hun had been mostly consumed but his raw feelings had given birth to a powerful Death Energy from his Po.

"I should be able to handle it to some extent. Anyway, do you have any other solution?"

"Unfortunately, I don't..."

"And if we wait too long, we'll die anyway. If you think your plan of action has even the slightest chance of success, I'm up for it. Tell me more about it."

"Well, it's quite crude, but I don't have anything else. Whoever created this rift has used the blood runes inside Mo Wang's blood. Thus, his blood should be able to open yet another rift. Of course, we can't control where it will lead us at all. We could emerge in the vacuum of space, in orbit around the Piaolu planet, or in the middle of the core of the planet itself... Hopefully though, since space got wounded near the Imperial Palace, we should reemerge there, if we reemerge at all. The blood alone won't be enough though. We'll need something else to act as a catalyst and then we'll need something to hold the rift open long enough for you to go through."

"For me and Hongyu!"

"Of course, of course. But on that point, would you be so inclined as to..."

"I know what you're thinking and the answer is no. I won't use her blood essence!"

There was no doubt in Cao Yun's mind that Dian Mo was going to suggest sacrificing Hongyu. As much as the young man wanted to survive, he thought his companion's family had paid enough for helping him. Even now, Hongyu was in danger because she had tried to save him. There was absolutely no way he would ever sacrifice her life for his own survival.

"I can use the Insight Writings of my master to hold the rift open. I'm pretty sure that if I focus my soul enough, I'll be able to use my spiritual senses to control them to some extent. After all, I just need a bit of time to escape this place. But what would be the catalyst you've talked about?"

"I'm not too sure yet. Right now, Mo Wang's blood is just raw energy. It's as if we have fire without anything to burn, a cannon without black powder. Even if we have a great amount of energy, we can't use it."

"What about the Drop of Wrath? Axiu Qian had reached the level where he could also cross through the veil between the worlds. After all, this drop of his blood did pierce through the veil. By using Flying Poison and the Drop of Wrath, I could be able to put this idea into the blood, maybe even in the ghost of Mo Wang. I mean, wouldn't he want to get his vengeance on whoever tricked and used him? For that, he needs to exit this place. I'm sure his last thoughts were about escaping this bloody hole and wrapping his hands on his killer's heart."

"You want to use his last obsession to try and alter his blood... Well, it could be done. But for that, you'll have to absorb a huge part of his blood and of his ghost in you. This man was a 9th-grade Spirit Warrior, on the verge of becoming a Sage at that. Are you sure you're up to the task? To be honest, I don't think even I could subdue his soul. He's not as terrifying as that Xiao Xuefeng when it comes to mind and soul attacks, but he's incredibly powerful and full of hatred and anger."

"Am I sure?! Of course I'm not! If you have a better idea, I'm listening. But I won't die in this place without doing anything. Dying from suffocation after our air is all gone doesn't seem to be a good either. I can give you a bit of time. But if you don't find anything less dangerous, I'll invite the ghost and the blood of a deranged demonic cultivator who became as powerful as he could in the Hongchen Kingdom right into my heart and my sea of consciousness... So, I truly hope that you'll find a better way. In the meantime, I'll prepare my mind and try to improve my cultivation a tiny bit."

Because he was cultivating, Cao Yun's mind was rather calm. It was as though he was talking about someone else's fate. For Dian Mo, that was a bit eerie. But he had to admit that it was better than panicking. Besides, Cao Yun was unfortunately right. Between dying from suffocation before being crushed into nothingness by space and trying to fight his way out, Dian Mo could understand Cao Yun's choice. But deep down, Dian Mo was terrified. He had to admit that he was feeling for Cao Yun as well. But what he was truly afraid was his own death.

Although he thought he was safe within Cao Yun's sea of consciousness since leaving the Palace of Supreme Wisdom, his previous jail had been infinitely safer. Right now, he regretted ever wishing for freedom. With freedom came danger and he wasn't ready for it. At the same time, he sincerely didn't want to lose Cao Yun. After all, their conversations were quite pleasant. Thus, Dian Mo truly racked his brain to try and find a better solution.

Try as he might though, he only marginally increased their odd of success. He found some manner in which using the blood and Sect Leader's Insight Writings. With his knowledge of array formations, he found some way of arranging them so they would pierce space with more ease and keep it stable a bit longer. Given their current situation, Dian Mo was happy with any small increase of their survival rate.

If they survived, Dian Mo's study of Cleansed Asura's documents might help Cao Yun understand a bit more about his language. Even if Dian Mo didn't understand a word, he was able to see through a handful of Insight Writings here and there. By sharing his understanding, Cao Yun would be able to decipher some more characters. There wouldn't be too much improvement, but anything was good to take at this point.

"Boy, I can improve our chances of success a bit, but I can't promise anything... Do you still want to go ahead with this suicide plan?"

"No, I don't, but we don't have much choice in the matter."

At the moment, the air around Cao Yun was so intense that it had increased the pressure tremendously around the young man and Hongyu. Here and there, Cao Yun could literally see sparks. There was fire around Hongyu. But it wasn't just because of the extreme heat, her own bloodline was acting up as well. Deep within Cao Yun's heart, the Rune of Fire was rejoicing, absorbing more and more heat. In turn, it allowed Cao Yun to absorb much more Fire Qi in his Middle Dantian. In fact, if any other cultivator had absorbed as much Fire Qi, they would have broken through right here and there. However, Cao Yun was like a bottomless pit at this point. His Rune of Fire could absorb almost anything.

In fact, Cao Yun was even reducing its influence because he was afraid that it would suck this entire ball of gas dry. Without air, Cao Yun and Hongyu would both die and Cao Yun wasn't sure how the Rune of Fire's suction would affect said air. For now, it was better to be safe than sorry. On the other hand, the Frozen Fire pill's medicinal essence was almost entirely consumed. Soon, Cao Yun would break through, much sooner than he had first imagined. His blood cultivation had put so much Fire Qi in him, his Qi cultivation was going that much smoother.