Chapter 352: The origin of 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks'

Cao Yun began to unravel the filaments of his Po character. At first, it looked like a real statue carved into a single bone. But just like bones, it was in fact made of a myriad of filaments intertwined with each other. Those filaments were all part of the representation of Cao Yun's corporeal soul. They were not directly his soul, but they were some kind of gateway to it.

Their organization was rather chaotic. All around the Po character was also a cloud of bone particles. This cloud was entirely comprised of Death Energy Cao Yun had absorbed. But it didn't stop there. Even inside the Po character, there were traces of Death Energy. This Death Energy was purified. In a sense, it was to raw Death Energy what pure Qi was to Evil Qi. Indeed, Evil Qi was infested with negative emotions, and in the wild, Death Energy was also often corrupted with either Evil Qi or remnants of negative emotions as well. After all, death seldom was a joyous occasion.

Cao Yun's Drop of Wrath had already purified this Death Energy. As such, this was a great way for Cao Yun to test another one of his cultivation methods, the 'Death Verses'. Even now, he could only understand the first two verses, 'See Through the Mud' and 'Death Reeling'. The first one consisted in sensing Death Energy while the other one was about controlling it as easily as Qi.

Since there was almost no Death Energy in the Hongchen Kingdom, it would be difficult for Cao Yun to work on this. But his master had given him the opportunity to study it. As such, he was certain that this was extremely powerful and profound. Even if Cleansed Asura had only given it to him in order for him to save Huang Liyue's life, Cao Yun wanted to cultivate it to a higher level. No matter how useful it would be to him, in the end it would also help him decipher the other pieces of knowledge left behind by Cleansed Asura. They were a strange mixture of Antique Sixian written in Nuhua characters. Sometimes the characters were real translation, sometimes they just looked similar, and some other times, they were purely phonetic.

Even for a great scholar, piecing everything together would take a lot of time, longer than a mortal's life. And Cao Yun did not even know the Antique Sixian language. He could use some Insight Writings to help him but that wouldn't bring him very far since Cleansed Asura's comprehension of the world was way beyond Cao Yun's. Besides, Death Energy was related to the Po. And right now he was working on his own Po. Furthermore, the Drop of Wrath was also a corrupted form of Po. All things considered, being more knowledgeable about Death Energy would probably be useful. Anyway, he was forced to work with it now that his Po character was partly made of it.

Just as Cao Yun was working with his Po, he was also activating the one in the Drop of Wrath. Both of them appeared identical at first glance, but internally, they were very different indeed.

Cao Yun's idea was to try and create a perfect copy of his own Seven Turbid Demons inside the Drop of Wrath. With them, he was convinced that he could alter the Drop of Wrath so that it would fuse with him, body and soul. But to be honest, he wasn't absolutely certain what he should do. As a first attempt, Cao Yun tried to map out both Po characters. But he soon realized that this was doomed to fail. They were always changing. After all, he was alive so there was no reason for his corporeal soul to be static. Even in death, the corporeal soul would change in order to decompose the body. As long as the body was changing, so was the corporeal soul.

The seven souls were all related to various emotions. Thus, Cao Yun got an idea. He used his mind cultivation to shut down most of his emotions. In a few minutes, Cao Yun was perfectly calm with no thought and no emotion in his mind. Then, he tried again. The Po characters were still changing but it was incredibly slow now.

According to the 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks' manual, Cao Yun had to focus on specific images and specific emotions to bring out the parts of each Po to the surface. Then, he would slowly extract them as though reeling silk. Of course, he immediately thought of 'Reeling Death'. The idea behind was also very similar.

Despite his absence of emotions, Cao Yun focused on memories full of rage. It wasn't that difficult at all. Until now, he had a lot of rage and anger in him. Although his mind cultivation and his recent experiences in the Palace of Supreme Wisdom had made him wiser than a boy his age, this wrath was still in him. Cao Yun was still a human being. But he didn't just focus on anger. His mind also focused on his kidneys. This was where prenatal Jing was stored in the human body. Since the corporeal soul was responsible for the growth of the body, it was deeply connected with it.

What Cao Yun was trying to work on was the Flying Poison. This Turbid Demon was also known as the Po of Jing in its healthy version. Of course, Cao Yun's Po of Jing was not corrupted but the Drop of Wrath's had already turned into a Flying Poison. However, only a part of it had survived Axiu Qian's death.

Finally, Cao Yun tried to imagine a physical form for this Flying Poison. As he was working on it, the Drop of Wrath got agitated. It had been some time since it had happened. But the Flying Poison within seemed to answer to Cao Yun's call and it wasn't happy about it in the slightest.

Below the Drop of Wrath, Dian Mo was fascinated. Cao Yun had committed a mistake when making a deal with him. Every day, he could hide the outside world to his senses for two double hours. For example, he had hidden the entire conversation with Sect Leader Xuan and Spirit Master Xiao. he was also hiding out when he worked on techniques he wanted kept secret. However, he could not hide what was going on in his sea of consciousness. Maybe he could have used the 'Ashen Feather Seal' but that would take part of his concentration and he had no certainty on the result. But as much as Dian Mo could see, he could not feel what Cao Yun was feeling.

That being said, he was completely transfixed by what he was seeing. The Drop of Wrath was being slightly deformed. It surface also changed and became as smooth as a mirror. Soon, images began to appear on the surface of the Drop of Wrath. It was relatively peaceful but completely random. At first, Dian Mo saw scenes he could not understand. They belonged to Axiu Qian's past. But there were also other images.

In the beginning, those images were blurry, but they were slowly becoming clearer. It didn't take long for Dian Mo to recognize Cao Yun's face. Everything else was a bit too obscure, but it was obvious that there was a massacre. One image appeared vividly. A young girl was bawling her eyes out while trying to cling to Cao Yun. At the same time, a man whose face he couldn't really see was taking her away. Then, a red flash ended the scene. Dian Mo didn't know what he was seeing but he memorized everything.

As Cao Yun was working on both the Po characters, he was getting memories from the Drop of Wrath, memories related to Axiu Qian's rage. He saw him kill his friends as a slave. He saw him watch civilians, children, women, elders, being put to the sword. Most of the times, his masters were ordering him to commit atrocities beyond imagination. Even Cao Yun had not imagined how depraved those masters of his had been. No defilement was too abhorrent for them. They could turn any disgusting act into a spectacle they would enjoy.

Then, he saw how Axiu Qian had slaughtered them all. But he also saw how rage had overtaken him. Entire galaxies were set ablaze by his rage. In the end, most of his allies turned against him. His masters had made him a monster. Even freed, he had learned their lessons well. Although his cause seemed just each and every time, his methods were so brutal that only a madman would have sided with him. As such, he made more and more enemies, even of his own allies.

With this mind cultivation, Cao Yun's memories and emotions were affecting the Drop of Wrath and the Drop of Wrath was affecting Cao Yun. He could clearly feel the Flying Poison trying to insinuate itself into his very soul. It was doing so out of instinct. If he was not careful, Cao Yun's personality would be subverted by this Flying Poison. He had to take over and impose his own soul on it, not the other way around.

This process was thus rather dangerous. But it was also a proof that it was working as intended. With this method, Cao Yun could finally overwrite the Flying Poison in the Drop of Wrath and turn it into an extension of his own soul instead. Then, he could rebuild the entire Po inside of it. Each time, the Drop of Wrath would become both more powerful and more intimate with him. When the entire Po would be rebuilt, Cao Yun and the Drop of Wrath would be one. The young man simply had to be careful that his personality remained at the end. His soul had to fend off the corruption of the Flying Poison.

Thankfully, his mind cultivation was strong. In fact, Cao Yun could sense his Chamber of Mysterious Elixir. It seemed to be protecting him. A warm and bright light was emanating from it. In his sea of consciousness, it manifested as a reflection on the surface of the ocean. The water had almost turned white, as though it was reflecting a sun that was nonexistent. And the light was all over the Drop of Wrath, as though it was trying to appease it.

With each strand Cao Yun was taking out of the Po character, he was reliving his past memories and his rage. Against it, his mind cultivation could do nothing. He had to go through this process to make sense of his own soul. He couldn't remain an unperturbed observer of his life. Those feelings were amplified by the Drop of Wrath as well. It would be incredibly easy for Cao Yun to give in to rage and anger.

After the cultivation of the second layer that had been quite easy, this new mind cultivation layer was very intense. Without any assistance, he had to fight his own emotions. But he couldn't fight them head-on. Indeed, the goal was not to beat an enemy but to understand the truth of oneself behind those emotions without being overtaken by the emotions. His experience in the Palace of Supreme Wisdom was helpful beyond imagination. Cao Yun had already realized that he was not defined by his own thoughts. And he was not defined by his emotions either, no matter how deep or powerful. They were a part of him but they were not him.

After several hours, Cao Yun stopped. When he woke up from his trance, the young man was covered in sweat. Now that he was a Mortal Warrior, Cao Yun could control his Wei Qi. He changed the Qi around him to increase the temperature. In a matter of minutes, all the sweat evaporated and his clothes were dry. He could have simply taken a bath of course. But this small exercise allowed him to work on his Qi control and also to transition peacefully from an intense mind cultivation to everyday life.

When he was finally done, Dian Mo talked to him. He had respected his practice and had not disturbed him at all. However, he could not keep his curiosity for himself any longer.

"What was that technique? Who made it? Where did you get it?"

Dian Mo's voice was way faster than usual. He was always a bit too talkative, probably because of his time spent in the Demon Palace, alone for entire millenniums. This curiosity also made Cao yun curious. Demons were not very interested in mind or soul cultivation. Yet, Dian Mo seemed to crave knowledge. In itself, this was interesting.

"This is just a small manual I found, nothing important. Why would a great spirit created by Demon God Da Mo be interested in the meager mind cultivation of a junior such as me?"

"I have no interest in your mind cultivation! But maybe you might be interested in what I know about it..."

"Are you trying to bait me into giving you knowledge that is beyond your understanding?"

"Nothing is beyond my understanding! But you seem to be ignorant of its real origin, when I am not."

"Well, if you know so much, then there is no reason for me to tell you anything, right? So, please, teach me, great spirit!"

"You...!"

"Well, if you don't want to talk..."

"Wait! This mind cultivation has probably been created by a demon. And not any demon! If I had to bet, I would say that it was an Accomplished Demon bordering on the Exalted Demon realm."

This was a suspicion that Cao Yun had but could never confirm. If a human had created this method, there was no reason for them to hide it. Besides, the text had been entirely written in Insight Writings. Maybe this was a way to hide that whoever had written it knew only the Moshenhua and not the Nuhua. But then, it was hard to know why he would leave the manual to humans. Well, all demons had not been faithful to Demon God Da Mo to the end. Some had negotiated with the humans, even before Demon God Da Mo's death at the hands of Emperor Nuwa.

"You see, this mind cultivation is very similar to what the Accomplished Demon realm looks like. My guess is that this demon was trying to find another way to cultivate his soul that would allow for the Demon Soul to be more docile. In fact, he might even have looked for a way to create a blank soul just like the Soul Embryo of humans. If demons could practice such an art, they might become as proficient in the mastery of soul as humans. Do you imagine? Demons already have way more powerful bodies than humans. What they lack is spiritual strength. Although they have strong wills, they can't really perform any form of soul or mind attack."

Cao Yun realized that his mind cultivation might be even more dangerous than he had initially thought. In the hands of humans, it would help them become stronger way faster. But in the hands of demons, it could become a plague on humans.