Chapter 235: The cave of the dragon and the phoenix

The shock was so brutal that Cao Yun's spine almost broke. Even with his superior body, he was still only an 8th-grade Mortal. If he had been a 7th-grade Mortal, he would have died right then, or be thoroughly crippled. At first, he tried to sense his enemy when he realized the truth of the matter. Huang Liyue had opened her eyes.

Still agitated, upon waking up, the beautiful woman had felt someone's touch on both her belly and back. Without even thinking, she had used her Wei Qi to get rid of the one responsible. Only after doing so did she begin to think and assess the situation. However, her entire body and soul were in pain. Despite Cao Yun's efforts, she still had a lot of Evil Qi and Death Energy in her system. Besides, they had already damaged both her Soul Embryo and her meridians. Thankfully her soul was protected inside her Soul Embryo.

But she could barely move her own Qi within her meridians without pain. And she could also feel that her Soul Embryo was even too damaged to use her spiritual senses at all. If she tried to force her Soul Embryo out of her body in her condition, she was not sure of what could happen to it. It had taken centuries to form and develop it and she was not ready to let go of her cultivation. There was one case in history, Saint Xun Ke. He had sacrificed his Soul Embryo to save Emperor Nuwa. Even back then, no one had been able to help him go back to the road of cultivation and he had died a mere mortal.

If Huang Liyue were to lose her Soul Embryo, she would end her life as a mortal as well. Without those spiritual senses, she only had the strength of a Mortal Warrior. By taking into account the damage to her meridians, unless she was ready to completely destroy them, she could not muster much Qi. As such, she was barely to the level of a 3rd-grade Mortal Warrior for now. By throwing caution to the wind and almost killing herself, she could still exert all of her strength. But even with the fog in her mind, she felt that this would be her last action.

Barely able to move around, Huang Liyue tried to look in the direction of the one who had been touching her. What she saw was a young man literally embedded into the wall of the cave. And because the rocks were incredibly sharp, he was even bleeding here and there. Thankfully, his robe had protected most of his body, but he had still suffered from the shock. Cao Yun was bleeding a little but those were just scraps. And his robe was completely covered in dust. It was a good thing he had not wasted too much water on cleaning himself...

Slowly, he got himself out of the wall. But the cave was just too dark for Huang Liyue to see him. With spiritual senses, she would have been able to recognize him straight away, but right now, she could not. Moreover, she had never heard his voice. So when Cao Yun started to speak, she did not recognize him either.

"Senior, please, calm down. I'm not your enemy."

Hearing this, Huang Liyue remembered what she had just felt. Yes, that boy had been slowly extracting the Evil Qi and Death Energy from her system. Since he had been completely repelled by her mere Wei Qi, the boy should only be a Mortal. Yet, he was able to extract Evil Qi, the first thought of Huang Liyue was that the boy was a demonic cultivator. But then, he would have no reason to try and help her.

Finally, Cao Yun was able to get out of the wall, but Huang Liyue still had her Wei Qi all around her. In fact, she was suffering just from keeping it up. However, she was still in a state of confusion and pain. Thankfully, some feelings came to her. By sending his Qi through her body and by the presence of the intent of the Drop of Wrath in her sea of consciousness, Cao Yun had established some link with the woman. And right now, she was able to feel that he had sincerely tried to help her. She could vividly feel his intentions from earlier.

Slowly, as the pain was deepening the fog and confusion of her mind, Huang Liyue receded her defenses. Her Wei Qi was now only at the surface of her body.

With a very slow pace, Cao Yun walked toward the laying woman. He was acting as though he was faced with a ferocious animal. To be fair, in a way he was. If he had been just a bit weaker, she would have killed him by pure instinct. Thankfully, she was weakened to the point she could not kill a mere Mortal.

But now that she was awake, he could maybe help her even faster. Until now, her body and mind had reacted instinctively. If she could regain some consciousness, it would be for the better. Moreover, she probably had a few pills in her spatial ring. Thinking about it, Cao Yun would have liked to receive some pill to help him as well. His mind had been strained a lot and he had lost much of his Qi. Thankfully, the Drop of Wrath had filled his blood with Qi, but his meridians were almost out of energy. Right now, he had to extract some Qi from his own blood to keep on going. This was not ideal.

At one moment or another, he would have to replenish his reserves. But this place was devoid of pure Qi. So his only hope for that would be a pill. Despite being an alchemist, Cao Yun had no way of refining one because he had no ingredient and no tool. Owning and being able to manipulate a spatial ring was really essential to a cultivator.

Finally getting close to her, Cao Yun could feel the Wei Qi all around Huang Liyue. Unless she relaxed, he had now no way to send anything into her body. Since he was only a Mortal, he had no way but either touching her body directly or dual cultivate. Thinking back to it, he was truly happy he had not entertained that ridiculous idea. Otherwise, he would be thoroughly dead by now.

"Senior, forgive my rudeness. But I need to touch your Qi Hai and your Ming Men. If you keep your Wei Qi active around those acupoints, I can't help you at all. I swear that I have no indecent thought and no ill intent toward you."

Huang Liyue's eyes had closed themselves up again. With much effort, she tried to open them but they were just twitching uncontrollably. In her mind, she laughed at herself. She was even too weak to open up her eyes. But then, there was no sense in keeping up her defenses. If a truly malicious person came around, she would have no chance to defend herself. Just maintaining her Wei Qi was causing her intense pain. Thus, she decided to completely recede her defenses.

As he was very close to her, Cao Yun was able to feel her Wei Qi disappear back into her skin.

"Thank you for trusting me, Senior. Then, pardon my rudeness."

Cao Yun put his hands back on Huang Liyue's belly and back. As she was now partially awake, the close contact felt even more intimate. But Cao Yun had sincerely gotten rid of any indecent thought. Besides, he was not really worried that she could perceive the nature of the Drop of Wrath. Indeed, even Xiao Xuefeng had never been able to sense it at all. Of course, she could probably feel the intent of the Drop of Wrath since it was pulling on the Evil Qi and Death Energy. But for her, it would only be some special technique. Cao Yun had even thought of it. Since he was a 5-star Earth alchemist who had progressed quickly and had close ties with Xiao Xuefeng, he could explain it through a powerful mind cultivation.

It was a bit far-fetched, but after witnessing it firsthand, Huang Liyue should at least believe there was some credence to it. Hopefully, as a noble member of the Huang family, she would not try to snatch the secret technique of a renown alchemist such as Xiao Xuefeng, let alone from the hands of a junior who had saved her life.

This was a risk, but Cao Yun had no real alternative. Without Huang Liyue's help, he had very little hope of surviving. As such, he had decided to trust in the reputation of the Huang family he had heard from his own great-grandfather. He put the incident with the side branch from Yinmen City aside.

Still, now that Huang Liyue was conscious, he decided to be more careful. At first, he sent very little Qi and intent.

Now that she was consciously feeling it, Huang Liyue was able to clearly sense everything. And she got a shock. Cao Yun's Qi was very very weak. It was barely to the level of a 3rd-grade Mortal who had just started to work on his Lower Dantian. Immediately, she understood he had been using a lot of his Qi to help her already. Besides, they were in an environment where he wouldn't be able to replenish his reserves easily. That young man had truly gone all out and she had thanked him by hurting him some more.

But within this weak Qi, she felt a powerful intent. As a Spirit Warrior, she had a good grasp on both mind and soul. Of course, she was not to the level of someone like Xiao Xuefeng. Directly confronted with this intent, she may have been able to understand some things, but for Huang Liyue, it simply looked like a powerful intent. From what she could tell, it just meant that Cao Yun had an incredible mind cultivation.

Then she witnessed everything happening in her sea of consciousness. Now that she was aware of it all, she could control it consciously. And the speed of extraction of Evil Qi and Death Energy increased. The wounded woman was completely baffled. Even a demonic cultivator who had reached the Mortal Warrior realm, and maybe higher, would not have been able to control it as well. Of course, Cao Yun was not controlling it per se, the Drop of Wrath was. And even then, it was just gathering it to consume and digest it.

As she was witnessing all of that, Huang Liyue could also feel Cao Yun's intentions. He had been truthful. The young man had no ill will at all. For that matter, she even perceived that he had no indecent thought toward her, he was fully focused on helping her. That made her feel even more guilty about her outburst. Gradually, she relaxed.

Considering that she was a bodyguard, she had to always be wary. An instant of inattention could kill someone. But now, she completely let go. Feeling that Huang Liyue was more trusting, Cao Yun slowly increased his intent. To strengthen the young man's actions, Huang Liyue even used her own Qi to replenish his. Within his body, the young man felt those surges.

Despite her weakness, Huang Liyue could still control her Qi outside of her body. From her Five Prodigious Gates, she sent tiny surges of Qi into Cao Yun's own Qi Hai. It felt just like Chief Instructor Peng's training sessions. The difference between a Spirit Warrior and a Mortal was so huge that what seemed insignificant to Huang Liyue was a lot to Cao Yun.

Thanks to her, he was now able to send more and more Qi and intensify the treatment. In a way, they were performing a form of dual cultivation, albeit they had no indecent physical contact. If Cao Yun had been a Mortal Warrior, he could have even done so without touching the woman at all. However, it still felt very intimate. Both their intentions and emotions could be felt by one another. And they were in a dark cave literally touching each other. Apart from their Qi, they could feel each other's warmth and even their every breath as well.

Through the process, Cao Yun realized fully that he had reached a plateau, or even a bottleneck, in both his Drop of Wrath and his blood. Of course, he had not tried to cultivate his own blood, it had happened as a side effect of his attempts to tame the Drop of Wrath. He had read a bit about this, but blood cultivation was not a widespread knowledge. Most of the times, a blood cultivation method was related to a specific bloodline. For example, the 'Nine Chambers of Life Fire' could only be practiced by the Huang family.

Blood cultivation was mostly related to demonic beasts in the Hongchen Kingdom. Since they had no meridians, their blood was the vessel of their Qi.

On that note, the egg, still in Cao Yun's clothes, reacted to the close presence of Huang Liyue and the True Fiery Fenghuang's blood in her veins. Thankfully, Cao Yun had been sent into the wall back first. So the egg had not suffered at all, even from Huang Liyue's Wei Qi. And now that the woman was sending her Qi into Cao Yun's body, she was also able to feel the egg in front of his chest.

Immediately she recognized that this was the egg of some kind of Fenghuang. Fenghuang was an entire family of demonic beasts. Among them, the True Fiery Fenghuang was known as the all-powerful ruler. Of course, the egg of an inferior Fenghuang would react fiercely in front of such a bloodline. In fact, it would probably be positive for it.

As such, Huang Liyue also decided to gift some Qi to the egg. In her mind, this was both a way to atone for her initial reaction, but also a way to reward some fateful encounter. No matter their strength, Fenghuang were very rare and revered, especially by the Huang family, for obvious reasons. And because of their bloodline, they had even more difficulties when it came to producing any offspring. As such, encountering an egg in this dead world was truly a sign of fate.

Even by sending her Qi in both the egg and Cao Yun and despite her weakness, Huang Liyue still had some left.

The process lasted several days. Once or twice, Cao Yun stopped to drink some water. The second time, it downed on him and he bowed.

"Senior, forgive me, I completely forgot. Do you want some water?"

Even though she was a Spirit Warrior, drinking some water may be good for her in her condition. However, she gently waved her hand to show that it was not necessary. Along with the passing days, she had regained a lot of strength. But she was keeping most of it. Deep in her body, she could feel some Evil Qi that had nested in her meridians.

Even with the intent from the young man, it would be very hard to get rid of it all. Despite that, in a couple of days, she would be in a good enough state to fully wake up. For now, she still stayed in some sleeping state to let Cao Yun do his work without any obstruction.