Chapter 312: On the brink of collapse

Dian Mo had been created to overtake the Palace of Supreme Wisdom as Mo Zi had told his comrades. But even Demon God Da Mo was not powerful enough to completely take over this ancient array formation. As such, Dian Mo only got a very light control over it. In fact, he was more akin to a prisoner than a guard. But he was able to vaguely feel what was happening within the different realms. That was thanks to that that he had been able to detect the intent from the Drop of Wrath when Cao Yun pushed it far enough.

Right now, he was observing Cao Yun who was slaughtering the blood beasts in the realm he had sent him. Thanks to the Palace of Supreme Wisdom, the demons had built several specific realms to train themselves. The humans had never discovered how to access them though. And Dian Mo could only force someone in them if they physically entered the true palace, where he was at his strongest. The stairs leading to his Demon Palace only opened every seven years.

The carnage unleashed by Cao Yun was very impressive. Because he had been mostly isolated and unable to see the various tests around him, Dian Mo was bored beyond measure. Watching such a show was incredible. Even back in the days, he did not remember any demon being that powerful at this age. Because Dian Mo had not much confidence in Cao Yun, he had chosen a two months period, but this was both too long and too short for him right now. Cao Yun had almost reached a stage in which this battle was not interesting anymore. But Dian Mo wanted to see more.

Maybe he was simply going to advance his plans and activate the end of the test right now. There was no way this boy would not survive. And he needed him to survive and become stronger and stronger. Even though he wasn't sure about his story, Dian Mo had great plans for the young demon.

His thoughts were interrupted when he felt a powerful commotion within the array formations holding this place together. Immediately, he tried to assess the situation because his life was directly bound to this place. If something were to happen, he could simply cease to be. And he was so close to his goal... There was no way he was going to let himself die just as he could finally see the object of his desires in front of him. Until a few weeks ago, he had abandoned all hope. But fate seemed to be on his side now. This young demon had appeared just as he had come out of his cycle of slumber.

Every seven years, his own palace was opened, the Demon Palace. This was precisely where he had taken Cao Yun. The tests created by the demons were all stored there. Because of the Palace of Supreme Wisdom, even Da Mo had been unable to make them accessible all the time. They had been forced to settle for one year every seven years.

Dian Mo would not be robbed of this fateful encounter. No matter what!

He could feel the array formations literally unravel before him. Someone had messed up with the veils between the realms and had caused all of them to bleed into one another. Right now the Palace of Supreme Wisdom was desperately trying to prevent his inhabitants from dying. Thankfully Cao Yun was in a realm that was isolated from the others because it was confined within the Demon Palace. But this chaos would ineluctably spread to the entire structure. Indeed, it was a complex tapestry of meticulously woven formations. Although it had many protections within, if the wrong array formations were damaged, the entire structure could collapse with them.

With despair, Dian Mo tried to think of many ways to prevent the complete collapse. But in the end, he only had one way. He was going to have to use his own spiritual energy to try and keep it together. After millenniums without a single demon to replenish him, Dian Mo was already reaching his limit and yet here he was forced to consume his own strength just to survive. But it was worth it. A few weeks ago, he might even have welcomed death as this place had become his prison. But after meeting Cao Yun, he had found hope again. And he was ready to do whatever was necessary to live long enough to see his dream come true.

-

Outside of the Palace of Supreme Wisdom, this was Xiao Xuefeng's turn to watch over the place.

Although she wasn't very well versed in array formations, she clearly felt something unusual happening within. For an instant, she felt as though the entire thing was about to explode. Then, more Qi got sucked into it and it stabilized. This Palace of Supreme Wisdom had been built in an area where Qi was naturally abundant. Some called such a place a Dragon Vein. Directly beneath this area, there was a natural reservoir of Qi that could accumulate over time. As such, it was almost impossible to completely drain it, even with the consumption of all those array formations. In fact, the Wubei Sect was even able to use some of it for themselves as well.

Sometimes Dragon Veins ended up crystallized and formed mines for spirit stones. But the ancient humans had found a way to preserve it and avoid any form of crystallization. The Qi was able to roam free all around and was essentially channeled into their construction.

As she was about to investigate further, another man appeared, Chief Elder Suxian.

"Brother Suxian?"

"I've felt something ominous..."

Holding a hand out, he signaled Xiao Xuefeng to stay quiet. Although it wasn't very courteous, Xiao Xuefeng was an alchemist and she knew when a master needed to think without any distraction. Chief Elder Suxian was the greatest array formation master she knew, and probably the greatest in the current Hongchen Kingdom. As such, she did not find his behavior rude. Moreover, his own disciple was within the Palace of Supreme Wisdom. He had to be as worried as she was.

Chief Elder Suxian took out several compasses and compared all of them. Nothing escaped his scrutiny and his face became more and more somber.

"This can't be..."

"Brother?"

"Excuse me, Sister Xiao. Someone was able to get inside the Palace of Supreme Wisdom."

"What? How many people?"

"I don't know. I don't even know how they did it. But the structure is slowly collapsing. Someone was able to stabilize it, probably the spirit managing the array formation."

"I thought there was no spirit in it anymore..."

"So did I. But... I don't see any other explanation. We need to bring everyone here. This place could crumble at any time. And if that happens... Apart from Sect Leader Xuan, I don't see who could save our disciples. Warn everyone, I'll try to stabilize it further."

Chief Elder Suxian was the one who had studied this place the most. As such, Xiao Xuefeng trusted him completely with this task. Using her spiritual senses, she was able to contact all the chief elders and even the Sect Leader. The situation was critical.

-

Finally Sun Liao was able to see again. This time, the teleportation had lasted at least ten times longer. As Chief Elder Suxian's direct disciple, he could not ignore what it meant.

But first, he looked around him. He was now in a frozen desert with tall frozen cliffs all around him. Without losing any time, he jumped and reached the top of those cliffs fairly easily. The temperature was so cold that a mortal would have died in less than a minute. For Sun Liao, this was painful but bearable. He had no way to warm himself anyway. And right now his mind was on something else.

Looking from this height, he was able to see that the world had gone insane. It wasn't a single coherent realm any longer. All around him were various pieces of very different lands patched together. It didn't make any sense at all. And their environments were clearly clashing with each other. For example, Sun Liao was able to see a terrible tempest slowly forming all around the place he was currently in. Indeed, this extreme cold was clashing with the normal temperature around it.

But more than that, Sun Liao was able to see tears in the sky. It was like a piece of tissue that had been stretched too far and was about to break apart. This Palace of Supreme Wisdom was not made to harbor such a large realm. Because his master had studied this place extensively, Sun Liao also knew many things. Each realm was rather small contrary to what one could perceive. And there was a reason for it. The strain put on the array formations depended not only on the volume but also on the surface of the realms that were created. As such, the ones who had built this place had found clever ruses. Sun Liao did not understand everything but apparently, each realm was folded into itself in a very specific matter to reduce the strain.

But right now, someone had put all the realms together. And apparently all the folds had been straightened out. In other words, the array formation could not resist this pressure for very long.

If Mo Zi was really the one who had done so, he was either stupid, suicidal or desperate. And Sun Liao was right, Mo Zi had been desperate to accomplish his mission, just like Mo Tian.

For now though, Sun Liao could not think about that. He would first find his brothers and sister. Since he didn't know how many demonic cultivators were within and what they were after, he would need all the strength he could get. Once that would be secure, he could maybe try to think of a way to stop this madness or at least survive it. He had no way of reverting the realms back to what they used to be, but he was certain that his master would be working on it from the outside.

-

While all this chaos was unraveling, Cao Yun was still deep in blood and flesh. To stop the feral beasts all around him from regenerating and attacking again, Cao Yun had been breaking their limbs apart. And because it was still not enough, he had resorted to an even more violent and brutal way. He was tearing them into pieces, throwing their organs in different directions as well. Although it was way bloodier, it had proven very effective.

The blood entering their dead flesh was able to restore even their organs but it was taking more and more time.

In this mess, Cao Yun's skin had began to turn reddish. It wasn't to the level of Axiu Qian's skin, but he was now looking a bit like Yun Ping. People living near the border usually had a bit of demon blood in them and their skin were naturally tainted by it. Although Cao Yun had never seen a demon, he knew some had crimson blood skins while others had skin very similar to humans. But if they went all out, their skins turned back to the color of blood, because unlike humans, they had no meridian, they could only control the Qi in their blood, like demonic beasts. In fact, that was why they had been called demonic beasts, because they were similar to demons on that point.

But Cao Yun was mostly oblivious to all that. First of all, he was always covered in blood so he couldn't see a difference, especially in a world tainted by the red color of blood everywhere. But more importantly, Cao Yun was fully focused on tearing the beasts apart. He wasn't just mindlessly leaving his savagery out. In fact, he was conscientiously training.

Sadly, he could not begin to activate his Fire Qi right now. Otherwise he would completely unbalance his Qi cultivation. The system used by humans was important because it prepared the body, the soul and the mind step by step for what was to come next. As such, it was always a bad idea to try and cultivate a stage too soon. And Cao Yun was not ready to accumulate Fire Qi yet. First he had to fully open his Five Prodigious Gates and temper them completely. Otherwise, he could damage them by accumulating Fire Qi in his body. But that also meant that his blood cultivation was stuck for now. Although he could condense his blood, he could not use his own fire on it. Still, just putting his blood in contact with the Drop of Wrath had been very beneficial.

There was no doubt in his mind that this test was not a danger for him anymore. But it wasn't helping him progress any longer either...

With his blood cultivation at a bottleneck and without his spear, Cao Yun could either work on his mind cultivation or on his Qi cultivation. Although he could feel his Bai Hui ready to be fully opened, he was not completely there yet.

Thus, Cao Yun decided to focus on his mind cultivation. In fact, he decided to focus on the Drop of Wrath and the Po character in it. There was now a powerful connection between his Po character and this one. Thanks to 'Death Verses', Cao Yun could feel the Death Energy still present in the Po within the drop of blood. And he could try to move it around.

When his mind cultivation would finally break into the third layer, Cao Yun could fully focus on the Seven Turbid Demons emerging from the Po. At that stage, he had several ideas on how he wanted to proceed to try and both improve the Drop of Wrath and fully integrate it into his own body. With time, he was confident that he could erase its last master and become its new one.

Besides, this day was not that far because Cao Yun could clearly see the last Five Echoes Pearl ready to be completed. Apparently, his rage and his use of the Drop of Wrath had helped him squeeze even more energy from his Five Agents. Very soon, he could finally energize his last chamber and enter the third layer he was impatient to test.

As he had the situation under control, something disturbed Cao Yun. From above came a voice. This was Dian Mo's voice but it was a bit dim.

"Young demon, I think you're just too good. There is no need to wait two whole months. Just prove to me how good your control of blood is right now and you pass."