Chapter 132: Xiao Xuefeng's return

After several days to stabilize his breakthrough and particularly meditate on his session with Chief Instructor Peng, Cao Yun was back in the martial art pavilion. Once more, he was sparring with Guan Mo restraining himself. Cao Yun's speed had greatly increased and he was now fast enough to avoid all the attacks of Guan Mo. Of course, he still wasn't using any martial art while Cao Yun was circulating 'The Moon Grounds the Sun' to its limit. But even Guan Mo was impressed.

Cao Yun finally used the move he had derived from the Room Star, 'Crafty Harassment'. This time, he didn't move all around. In fact, his form appeared as an afterimage in seven places, just like the seven stars of the Azure Dragon's constellation. And the 'Dragon's Twin Horns' he was launching were behaving quite differently. They were moving around as though they were strands of Qi in an array formation or in a network of Meridians.

However, as soon as Guan Mo tried to move, at least one of them came to throw off his rhythm, hitting him in vulnerable places. This wasn't enough to stop a Mortal Warrior, but it annoyed him and hindered all of his actions. Unbeknownst to him, Cao Yun had way more control over this technique now. He could keep it up for a longer period of time. But he could also stop it and activate it again to save energy. Thanks to this 'Crafty Harassment', Cao Yun was able to force Guan Mo to adapt to his rhythm and even, in a small measure, control his moves. He just had to change this makeshift array formation and the 'Dragon's Twin Horns' would move differently to seal some other paths.

Thanks to this technique, Cao Yun could somewhat imitate a Mortal Warrior. It was more or less the same idea behind Sun Liao's technique. As they couldn't neither manifest nor control their Qi outside of their body, they could still set up an array formation to gain some level of control. There was no way to manifest Qi, but controlling it could still be done. Technically, Cao Yun was not controlling the 'Dragon's Twin Horns' as they were literally simple vortexes of wind, but he controlled the flow of Qi in this temporary array formation. In turn, this flow influenced the air currents.

It was even more stable than Sun Liao's array formations as his own Qi was used to feed the array formation. And he could also stop and change it on the go, while Sun Liao still had to get his arrows back and shoot them again in another way.

Guan Mo became quite annoyed by this technique. Even though he was stronger than his opponent, he was harassed over and over again. Could an ant kill an elephant by biting it ten thousand times?

Fed up with this, he decided to finally use a martial art. He would not lift the self-imposed restraints on his cultivation but he would use his main art, 'The Sea Temple Collapses'. 'The Torrent Floods the Earth'. With a huge move from his staff, Guan Mo blew away all the 'Dragon's Twin Horns' moving around in the 'Crafty Harassment'. Cao Yun got worried as Guan Mo appeared right in front of him. His speed had almost doubled. Now, Cao Yun had a small disadvantage.

'The Pillar Shakes the Earth'. Guan Mo's staff went for Cao Yun's left side in a direct stabbing motion. Unable to dodge, he accepted the attack in order to counter. 'The Son of Heaven's Spear and Shield'. The shock from the staff was enough to shatter his bones but Cao Yun had demonstrated to his sparring partner that he could take it thanks to 'Dragon's Chest' several times. Hence, Guan Mo did not hesitate at all. In the worst case scenario, Chief Elder Baishen could call Chief Elder Qinghe and heal him quickly.

The moment Cao Yun felt the impact, he even used the intent from the Drop of Wrath and redirected most of the shock through his body all the way into his hands. This was the perfect moment to test out his maximum strength, further amplified by Guan Mo's own attack. The man thought himself untouchable thanks to his Wei Qi, but was he really?

Cao Yun used all his cards. He even complemented the attack with his 'Slaughtering the Enemy' comprehension. He still felt a part of the attack hitting his bones, but more than two thirds of it had been redirected by his 'The Son of Heaven's Spear and Shield'. Adding all of his strength to it, the strike went right for Guan Mo's chest. Cao Yun didn't know how powerful this strike would be. Nor did he know whether he could control it or not. As such, he chose a non vital area and did not aim for Fuan Mo's heart, just in case.

Guan Mo was surprised as Cao Yun had never used 'The Son of Heaven's Spear and Shield' until now. The counter went straight toward him but he wasn't worried. Even with his cultivation restrained, his Wei Qi was dense enough to protect him. However, this didn't happen the way he had imagined. The tip of the spear pushed against the outer layer of his Wei Qi. In a flash, his Wei Qi got pierced through. Overtaken by surprise, Guan Mo could not react fast enough. The spear had lost almost half of its strength. When it hit him, Guan Mo panicked and used all of his strength to jump backward. He still took most of the attack though.

The moment he landed farther away from Cao Yun, his uniform was torn apart and a big bruise was visible on his chest. Guan Mo was shocked. This attack was not enough to pierce through his muscles but even bruising a Mortal Warrior was incredible for a 7th-grade Mortal. Cao Yun had already broken through a few days ago. If he had more sessions with Chief Instructor Peng and a month or two of training, he could really be able to injure him. And worse, when he would become an 8th-grade Mortal and then a 9th-grade Mortal, he may be able to contend against Mortal Warriors as long as they didn't use Qi Manifestation.

"Good. Excellent!" The first one to praise Cao Yun was of course Chief Elder Baishen. "Thank you, Guan Mo, you may go for now."

"Yes, Chief Elder."

Looking over his shoulder to Cao Yun, the man left the martial art pavilion, anxious at the idea of watching that young man grow further. He finally understood why Chief Elder Baishen was so attached to the boy. He had a terrifying potential.

On the side, Long Huafang had also been watching the sparring session. She had realized that she wasn't Cao Yun's match anymore. The girl had sparred several times with her brother and she knew how powerful a Mortal Warrior was, even without Gi Manifestation. The mere fact that Cao Yun had made one of them retreat was incredible for her. However, she didn't get discouraged. The only way to overcome her doubts was to train even harder. Maybe she had become too complacent recently, especially with her time spent with Sun Liao. However, she didn't want to stop seeing him...

She waited for Chief Elder Baishen to have finished her conversation with Cao Yun before talking with him. After receiving many reprimands from the old woman, Long Huafang had finally learned her lesson.

"Brother Chen! You were great!"

"Thank you, Sister Long. You came to spar with me?"

Long Huafang got taken aback and her face made Cao Yun laugh a little.

"What's so funny?! I'm not as freakish as you. This strike would have killed me for sure!"

"Well, I can only use this amount of strength once or twice..."

"Don't go complaining about it! Once is enough for me! But, no, I didn't come to fight with you! My brother wanted me to give you a message."

"Long Jian? What is it?"

Cao Yun had never met him in person, but he knew that Long Jian was the faction leader of the Purple Northern Cloud Faction.

"It's very shameful, but my brother would like a duel with you. Of course, he will restrain his cultivation and won't use Qi Manifestation. To show how ashamed he is of such a request, he will give you a high spirit stone if you agree, irrespective of the results."

"What?! Isn't your brother second in the fighting ranks?"

"Indeed... Very shameful of him, right? That's what I told him. Even with your performance now, you have no chance of winning at all! He just wants to have some fun with a talented expert and he just can't wait for you to reach his level. If you want my opinion, he knows that you'll wipe the floor with him once you become a Mortal Warrior. That way, he'll be able to claim that he beat you fair and square once in his life. How humiliating to be his sister!"

Long Huafang was clearly trying to frame her brother in a very negative light, but her acting was a bit over the top. She was making huge hand gestures while hiding her head in the crook of her arm as though in shame.

However, Cao Yun understood her brother very well. This wasn't a matter of strength. What he wanted was probably to confront their martial arts. Obviously, Cao Yun had no way of winning, but this wasn't the point. Fighting against such an expert would be extremely beneficial. Without speaking about the high spirit stone, he could maybe further advance his martial arts. After the fourth star, the three other stars from 'Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars' were way more difficult to grasp. In a year, he had understood the first four stars, that was called True Success. He had even derived their moves and variations, except for the variation of the Room Star. However, for each of the three remaining stars, he would probably need a year to both forge them and derive any technique from them, if not more.

That was one of the reason why this art was only considered a 1-star Human rank martial art. Many practitioners gave up after learning the first four stars. But they couldn't see them in their sea of consciousness, so in fact, they weren't even able to discern their true techniques. In the hands of Cao Yun, it was already a 5-star Human rank martial art. And it could maybe reach the Heaven rank if he pushed it all the way to Perfection. Better yet, this only was the first layer. There were two more layers after that, turning the Stars into Constellations and then into Mansions, birthing a true Azure Dragon Spirit.

"Tell your brother that I accept. I'll train until the very last day. But just before the final challenges of the year, I'll fight with him. I hear your brother has a good reputation and is upright, so I'll let him decide on the rules."

"Upright?! Yes, too upright for his own good if you want my opinion. He can't even abduct the woman he loves and who loves him. A complete upright moron!"

Cao Yun didn't know how to respond to that. But before he could speak, he heard a voice in his head.

"Chen Guo, I'm back." This was Xiao Xuefeng's voice. Even though this was a telepathic message, she still decided to use his fake name. This woman was very careful. Cao Yun had found that out when he had read about his fake background, she was very meticulous in her endeavors. "I was successful. Come and see me with your little servant."

Cao Yun's face lit up. He had faith in Xiao Xuefeng's alchemy but he also knew that no one had succeeded in forging such a pill for more than fifteen thousand years.

"Excuse me, Sister Long. An urgent matter just happened. I'll see you later!"

Before she could react, Cao Yun was already using his full speed to sprint out of the building and toward the first-years' residence. During the months that had gone by, he had seen how hard working Huang Cixi had been. Her mind cultivation was already at the Shen character. She had even reached True Success. Of course, she had both Cao Yun's advice and the correct medicine right away, but this was still impressive. For a girl with such a strong mind to develop an inner demon, it meant that her anguish had been extremely deep. As a result, it pained Cao Yun even more. He knew that she was anxious to hear news of Xiao Xuefeng and the pill. And he dreaded the day he would have to tell her a bad news. But this day would never come!

He almost stormed through the door before realizing that she could be cultivating right now. Taking a deep breath, Cao Yun calmly opened the door. And indeed, Huang Cixi was cultivating. She had just taken the Praying Demon pill for her Shen cultivation. Not only was this cultivation beneficial to fight against her inner demon, but it also taught her how to best control medicinal essence within herself. This would prove useful with the Life Boiling Cradle pill. Cao Yun decided not to disturb her and waited for a few minutes.

When she finally came out of her meditative state, she immediately sensed someone's presence. Seeing Cao Yun in the middle of the day was rather rare as he was always training recently. Wait?! Did this mean that... ?!

"Young Master Chen?"

"Mei Yuzhi, Xiao Xuefeng is back! The refinement was a success and she's waiting for us."

The girl stood up in a hurry. Even she had a hard time hiding her excitement. Although she had hope, she knew how difficult this refinement was, not because she knew alchemy but because she knew how long it had been since anyone had succeeded. The Heavens were with her after all. She couldn't stop herself from thinking that it was her decision about vengeance that had influenced fate in her interest. Usually, she wasn't very superstitious, but this truly was a miracle.

-

The two of them quickly went to Xiao Xuefeng's residence. Kang Hai and Kang Cai were waiting for them and they lead them to their master. Xiao Xuefeng had just come back. Despite her cultivation, she was exhausted. Traveling more than a month on a flying sword was not a resting experience. And she had almost traveled for three months in a row as she had left about a week after she arrived at the Golden Flowery Fragrance Institute.

However, she didn't want to let Huang Cixi wait in anguish. The girl had to prepare herself. Even though the refinement was hard already, taking the pill wouldn't be much easier. Apart from Emperor Nuwa, Xiao Xuefeng was unaware of anyone who had survived this pill. Even that story was more a legend or a rumor than a verified fact. But this was Huang Cixi's choice and she was ready to accept the consequences.