Chapter 372: Red Feather

Finally, Huang Liyue and Cao Yun reached the stables of the Huang family. They were rather vast but there were not that many demonic beasts. Although the Huang estate had been rather preserved by the stampede, they had used a lot of their forces to protect the city. As such, many of the demonic beasts had been used to fight off the assault of the enraged beasts. Unfortunately, more than half of them had died.

As beast taming was not a very popular occupation, the Huang family could not replace the few beast tamers who had also died on the battlefield. Thankfully, the family still had somewhat of an heritage when it came to beast taming, albeit not very profound. Before giving the documents of Can Mouye to Cao Yun, they had also copied everything that could be useful as he was a beast tamer himself. And apparently, they had gotten a few more documents during the hunt against the other demonic cultivators.

From Xiong Nixie, they had found many things that pertained to beast taming as well as other disgusting things. Although the means by which that knowledge had been obtained was horrendous and immoral, they could use that knowledge for better purposes now. Once evil had been done, it would be stupid to throw away knowledge that could help. Everything that required torture and slaughter was useless. But Xiong Nixie had been able to discover many interesting things about various demonic beasts and their behavior. He had also intensely studied their blood which could be useful to the Huang family for their blood cultivation.

Thanks to that, they would probably be able to restore their supremacy in the domain of beast taming in a few years instead of a few decades. With the war with the demons on the horizon, this was great news.

When Cao Yun got close to the stables, he finally felt it. He had not felt it when entering the city but he could sense that his own Qi was within this place. And after tracing it back to its owner, he saw a magnificent bird lying down on the dirt.

The demonic beast was rather small, not bigger than a horse, and a small one at that. It was clearly related to the fenghuang family because it had a peacock tail behind it. However, it was rather different from the Mountain Fanghuang Cao Yun remembered. In fact, he couldn't make out what kind of demonic beast she was. Now that he was looking more closely, the bird was indeed a female. As his intent was becoming more and more focused, Cao Yun sensed many things.

She had indeed four demonic cores in her. But the fourth one was almost made entirely out of Evil Qi with tiny traces of Death Energy within. And what no one had sensed but him was the thing that was keeping this core from destroying her from within. He could feel the same sensation as the Drop of Wrath. In fact, Cao Yun was able to feel it in all her blood. When they had been in the Yellow Death World, Cao Yun had kept the egg within his Wei Qi as much as possible while using the Drop of Wrath to try and fend off Evil Qi.

Evidently, he had not entirely succeeded. However, the Drop of Wrath had had an influence on the egg. Cao Yun's own Qi had probably entered the egg and because he had been using the Drop of Wrath so much, it had altered her very essence. If it had only affected her blood, it would have passed. But her very essence had been changed. Indeed, the Drop of Wrath was a degenerated version of Axiu Qian's Po of Jing. So of course, it could have an impact on Jing, the essence. This was the energy from which everything in the body originated. Since her prenatal Jing had been altered, this would stay with her forever. But this wasn't such a bad thing given that it had saved her life. However, Cao Yun wondered if it had also altered her character, made her more violent.

From what Huang Liyue had told him, she had only developed a stronger will. She had not shown any sign of great aggressiveness.

While looking at her, Cao Yun remembered her parents who had died for her. No matter what would happen, Cao Yun had to protect this demonic beast. They were now forever linked through Qi and blood.

The bird was very elegant, even in the dirt. Her feathers were red and all shades of red. At certain points, they looked like flames that were coming out her body. While at other parts, those feathers seemed to be covered in fresh blood. She was truly magnificent. Her beak was black with shining reflections. In general, her face gave off an air of nobility and showed her strong will, even as she was lying down.

On the other hand, her peacock tail was rather dark for a fenghuang. It was small even considering her own size, and the colors lacked the brightness of Mountain Fenghuang. Their tails were often thought of as ways to showcase their vitality, attract mates and sometimes intimidate enemies. Just by looking at her tail, Cao Yun felt as though this bird was sickly. But when he looked at her face, he saw a firm determination to stay alive.

"We named her Hongyu."

"Hongyu*? The Red Feather?" Cao Yun looked back at Hongyu. "That's a fitting name I think."

As they were getting closer to Hongyu, a gust of wind stopped them in their tracks. Above them was Elder Ying, the Blue Mane Falcon. He was the most powerful and the fastest demonic beast of the Huang family. Apparently, he had taken a liking to this Hongyu and was being very protective, as though she was his own child. If Elder Ying had not recognized Huang Liyue, he would have probably blown Cao Yun away when he was getting too close to her.

"Elder Ying, calm down. This is the boy that Hongyu requested."

Elder Ying landed before the two humans and examined Cao Yun. At first, it was perplexed. This human was nothing particular. Hongyu had no reason to want to see him. Then, Huang Liyue got closer to Elder Ying. Because he was smart enough, Huang Liyue could also send mental images to the Blue Mane Falcon. She explained to him that Cao Yun was concealing himself. Elder Ying had no understanding of martial arts but he knew that Huang Liyue had the strange ability to hide her scent and even her Qi and presence.

When he looked back at Cao Yun, he saw it in him. This was faint but he had the same kind of aura Huang Liyue had when hiding. Now that he was more receptive, Huang Liyue told him Cao Yun had risked his life to save the egg of Hongyu. Thus, he accepted to move out of the way. However, he kept on staring at Cao Yun. If he didn't like anything he was doing, the young man would be thrown into the air.

Sensing this intense stare on his back, Cao Yun got closer to Hongyu.

Finally, Hongyu seemed to react. A few hours ago, she had been very lively. But as usual, she was often tired several times a month. Since she had four demonic cores, she should be full of strength and vigor. Her cultivation was the equal of Cao Yun. So she should be able to fly around for weeks without need for sleep or even pause. However, she was completely exhausted. And Cao Yun knew why. There were two things happening at the same time.

First of all, she had to constantly use the intent of the Drop of Wrath in her veins to keep the Evil Qi condensed into a core. Without this intent, the core would dissolve and would corrode her own body.

But then, she also had to replenish the intent of the Drop of Wrath in her blood. For Cao Yun, this wasn't a problem because he had literally the Drop of Wrath in his heart. But for Hongyu, this was a dire challenge. Her prenatal Jing had been imbued with it. So her only hope to make more of this intent was to consume this prenatal Jing. The problem was that prenatal Jing was literally the foundation of one's lifespan. Just to stay alive, Hongyu was burning her own lifespan and vitality away. As time would pass, she would be more and more tired until one day, she would not wake up at all.

There were two kinds of essence, prenatal Jing and postnatal Jing. The first kind came from the parents and was extremely difficult to replenish, but it could be refined. Its properties could change. As it became purer and purer, less of it was necessary to keep the body alive and so lifespan could be stabilized or even expanded. The other kind was obtained by absorbing it through food, air, the environment, just like Qi. It was in fewer quantities though. Prenatal Jing was stored in the kidneys in humans. It was used to create Qi from postnatal Jing in the Lower Dantian. In a sense, it was used as a fuel for that cauldron of life.

Even now that Cao Yun had understood the problem, the solution was not easy to find. Cao Yun could not give the Drop of Wrath to Hongyu. Perhaps, he could give her a bit of his blood but it would only be very temporary. First, he tried out his theory, just to be sure. Extending his arm, Cao Yun touched the forehead of Hongyu. Elder Ying was incredibly tense as he was waiting to see what would happen.

From Cao Yun's Labor Palaces, Qi containing a huge amount of intent from the Drop of Wrath left and entered Hongyu's body. For a split second, Hongyu's Wei Qi opposed this external force. But as though it had recognized a dear friend or even a family member, it subsided. Then, Cao Yun's Qi made its way toward the Evil Qi core. When he finally got to it, it was beyond everything he had ever felt before. The Evil Qi had become so compact that even Cao Yun could not pierce it completely. And all around this evil core, there was a complex web of Hongyu's own blood around it. Demonic beasts had no meridians and Dantian contrary to humans. As such, their Qi was entirely contained in their blood.

Hongyu was using her very blood essence to keep the evil core under control. Slowly, Cao Yun used his own Qi to send the intent of the Drop of Wrath within.

From the outside, Hongyu's complexion changed rather quickly. Her vitality came back to her as her body was shaking uncontrollably. Elder Ying's hostility toward Cao Yun disappeared immediately. With their senses, Huang Liyue and Elder Ying could clearly sense that Hongyu was getting better under Cao Yun's care.

In the end, Cao Yun was forced to stop as it was using a lot of concentration to do so. He had to channel the Drop of Wrath, inject its intent in his Qi and then in Hongyu's blood. What took a lot of effort was to send this intent in the right place. Indeed, what Hongyu had created instinctively was very similar to the seals Cao Yun had worked on. Seals could be made from very different things. There, Hongyu had made one with blood essence as well as the Qi, the Jing and intent within.

Cao Yun had mostly worked on unraveling seals but he could also make them. Besides, this one was not directly related to souls, it was made of things Cao Yun was familiar with, blood, Qi, Jing and the intent of the Drop of Wrath. But that seal was way more complex that what he had worked with. Moreover, it was always assaulted by Evil Qi. If even a surge of it was leaving, it could injure Hongyu severely. It was more difficult to work on this seal without damaging it than to unravel a seal without damaging what was around.

The only way to really solve the problem would be to slowly get rid of the Evil Qi within to replace it with pure Qi. However, this would be a very lengthy process. Until that happened, only Cao Yun could alleviate Hongyu's fatigue. Sadly though, it would only be temporary.

That being said, the effects were prodigious.

As soon as Cao Yun was done, Hongyu woke up and stood up straight. Standing, her head was at the level of Cao Yun's head. Now he could see her legs. They were thin and rather long with powerful claws at the end. Entirely black, the claws were tainted with the color of blood. With her full vitality, Hongyu was intimidating. Several weaker demonic beasts around cowered in deference. In Hongyu's eyes, Cao Yun saw a glint of gratitude and of excitement. Hongyu bowed toward the young man. Then, she unceremoniously stroked her head against his chest and shoulder.

Even Elder Ying had never seen Hongyu being so affectionate.

Just as Matriarch Huang had told him, the egg had sensed his Qi. Young birds could sometimes be imprinted by the person they saw at birth. But fenghuang were sensitive to Qi before anything else. As such, this chick, even while it was inside her egg, had felt Cao Yun's Qi. Now, she considered him a part of her family. And in a sense, she was right. Her blood was containing traces of Cao Yun's own blood thanks to the intent of the Drop of Wrath. Besides, Cao Yun had fought to save the egg by risking his life till the end.

For long minutes, Hongyu showed its affection toward her parent. Cao Yun let it happen as it felt very warm. After what had happened in his head, it was soothing. The idea that his mother had been tortured for years and was being tortured right now finally left his mind. Whether this was true or not, he could do nothing about it. And maybe he was just creating fantastical scenarios while the truth was simpler. Maybe she was merely dead like everyone else.

While in Hongyu's embrace, Cao Yun forgot about all that. Elder Ying and Huang Liyue left them in peace. Both of them needed to get a few happy moments. Hongyu's life until now had been mostly pain. With their senses, they could see through Hongyu's facade. No matter how much she was trying to hide it, she was almost always in pain and exhausted. But now, finally, she was calm and full of life.

As she was playing around with Cao Yun, Hongyu took the young man on her back. Flapping her beautiful wings, she took off while blowing away the dirt around her. She was faster than Cao Yun thought. Even Elder Ying was surprised as she was faster than most 5-core demonic beasts and as fast as a few 6-core demonic beasts. Of course, she wasn't as fast as he was. But she was probably not giving it her all.

* Hongyu (红羽) = Red Feather