Chapter 495: Shame and torture

Unfortunately, to be sure that Golden Blood Children were truly incapacitated, Cao Yun had to be incredibly brutal. Even then, he didn't hesitate for one instant. By then, all the demons were agonizing on the ground. Behind Cao Yun, Yaxue was still struggling to survive like the others. Even though he knew that it was over for him, he was desperately trying to crawl away. Some other demon only had one half of his body left, while another one had the Black Heart Flame still burning through his flesh and soul. The reason why Cao Yun had not yet killed them all wasn't cruelty.

With his limited spiritual senses, he had detected an identical seal in all of them. Although he couldn't tell what it was with certainty, it didn't appear to be a seal like the one he had seen in demonic cultivators. As such, he was a bit worried of what it could do. Thus, he had used poison in his attacks to contaminate the blood of the demons. It was way more difficult to control their blood now. But he knew that this was only a temporary solution as their vitality would end up purifying their blood of this poison.

Cao Yun stayed near the last woman he had reduced to paste. Her body was still convulsing but she wasn't completely dead. Without hesitation, he injected his Qi in her. Using his spiritual senses, he was able to detect the seal deep in her soul. Thus, he immediately surrounded it with his 'Ashen Feather Seal' technique. Thanks to that, it was completely isolated from the outside world. As he was doing so, Cao Yun felt that the seal instinctively tried to latch on to his own soul. At that moment, he understood what it was. He had been right to be cautious. This seal could mark one's killer.

Since he had studied it beforehand, it really wasn't difficult for Cao Yun to get rid of the seal. Then, he thoroughly killed the woman and all the other demons except for Yaxue. Retrieving his Black Heart Flame from its first victim, Cao Yun controlled it to burn away the corporeal souls of all those demons. He would be merciful enough by leaving their ethereal souls alone. But their corporeal souls would even nourish his flame, not by much, but it was still something. Just as he was doing that, he observed how their Po was slowly turning into Death Energy.

Because he still wasn't a Sage, it was almost impossible to observe the Dao. However, he focused on 'Death Verses'. In particular, he focused on the third verse 'Living Death'. From what he had understood, this verse consisted in turning one's own Po into Death Energy while still alive. If Cao Yun was able to fully understand it, he could turn part of his own soul to create Death Energy. His very soul would become a source of death in his body that he could then manipulate. Of course, the risks were extreme. But Death Energy coming from one's own soul was much more powerful and easier to control than someone else's Death Energy like what he was using right now.

As he was feeding those demons' Po to his Black Heart Flame, Cao Yun was also using 'Death Verses' to try and sense everything that was going on. At that moment, he was using his understanding of 'See Through the Mud' to see how the Po was being turned into Death Energy. This was the mystery behind 'Living Death'. But more than that, he was also trying to understand the cycle of the Po. At birth, it was forming the body, helping it grow and mature. Then, it was maintaining it alive. Those were the easiest parts to understand. Indeed, even now, Cao Yun's Po was keeping him alive and helping him grow and mature even though he had reached adulthood.

Finally, at the end of one's life, Po would turn into a bringer of death. It was helping the body to die and rot. That was a part that was very difficult to understand for many. And it was impossible to experience for oneself. Besides, without a small understanding of the Dao of Death, it was hard to even sense the Po and the Death Energy in someone else's body. Right now, Cao Yun was doing exactly that.

Unfortunately, it wasn't very fruitful. He was able to see the Po turn into Death Energy. Somehow though, he was unable to clearly see it. It was as if the Po had suddenly changed. In fact, he was able to see that there had been a moment during which that energy within their bodies was neither Po nor Death Energy. But he simply couldn't comprehend what had happened. Piercing the secret of a Dao was truly something only a Sage could do. Anyway, he thought that having the 'Death Verses' with him would help him. It had to some extent, but it was insufficient.

Unfortunately, he didn't have a lot of time because he was preoccupied with Yaxue. Indeed, he couldn't kill him like the others because he needed to get information out of him. For an instant, he also hesitated to steal their Golden Fates to improve his own through 'Fate Devouring Gate'. But that technique required blood essence from a much more powerful cultivator. Those demons' cultivation wasn't high enough for it to make a big difference. On the other hand, merging their blood essence with his might leave some trace. Since he had no idea what ways the demons could use to track someone, he decided against it. The risks far outweighed the few benefits.

While Cao Yun was busy, Yaxue was still spilling all over the ground, desperately crawling away. Due to the poison, Yaxue was unable to really use his blood. However, he was slowly regaining his strength. Before he could do so, Hongyu acted. Her talons pierced his back and nailed him to the ground. At that moment, he felt his flesh melt under her touch. In her flames, there were traces of Evil Qi. Of course, she had understood that her brother didn't want to kill that man yet. As his fat was burning, Yaxue let out a moan of pain. This torment made the poison spread faster in what remained of his body.

Hearing his screams, Cao Yun finished his deadly task. Then, he calmly walked toward the tortured demon. Although he was a slaver who took pleasure in the pain he inflicted on others, Cao Yun couldn't enjoy his agony. He could have ended his sufferings immediately. But unfortunately for him, the young human needed him alive to spill not his blood but everything he knew about this continent. Because he could not ask Dian Mo for help with a Soul Memory Search, he would need to do things in another way. Obviously, that way was pain. Although he had little empathy for a demon who made a living by enslaving his fellow demons and who clearly enjoyed humiliating and torturing them, Cao Yun wasn't deriving any pleasure from the situation either.

No matter how he looked at the situation, his methods were a bit too similar to what the demonic cultivators were used to doing. As much as he was trying to rationalize his actions, he knew that demonic cultivators were doing the exact same thing. That was for different purposes of course. However, Emperor Weide had probably rationalized his actions in the same manner Cao Yun was doing right now.

There was a line Cao Yun was unwilling to cross though. The problem was that he didn't know exactly where that line was. In his mind, he was only preoccupied about gaining information so he could get to his sister as fast as possible. But he also needed to grow stronger. Mercy would not award him any of those benefits.

Luckily, Xixue had calmed the slaves. Even the men who were pulling the caravan did not react during the massacre. They simply watched as Cao Yun slaughtered all their tormentors. Unlike Cao Yun, they were quite elated when they saw how horrible their deaths were. At the same time, they were increasingly more afraid of Cao Yun. As they were living in the desert, they were familiar with horrendous scenes like this one. It wasn't that rare for demonic beasts of other demons to kill in such ways. Unfortunately, because demons had a great vitality, and were thus hard to kill, it often required a lot of brutality to kill someone of equivalent strength.

There was something that truly marked them though. Cao Yun didn't take their blood. Blood was truly considered as sacred, especially blood essence. Not only had Cao Yun disregarded it, he had even burned it to nothingness. In Cao Yun's mind, letting their ethereal soul endure to hopefully reincarnate someday was mercy. But for the demons, the fact that he had completely annihilated their blood essence was worse than destroying their potential reincarnation. Unlike humans, demons put more emphasis on blood than on souls. Dian Mo could have told him so, but at the moment Cao Yun had not yet realized that. In the slaves' eyes, Cao Yun was an absolute heresy. But at the same time, he was their savior...

All Cao Yun's actions were improving his Po of Qi, the clean version of Unclean Evil. While Flying Poison was related to rage and anger, Unclean Evil was related to shame. Seeing himself act as the demonic cultivators he had been condemning, Cao Yun did feel some shame well up in him. But there was also fear, the fear that one day he would not feel any shame at all. Thus, Cao Yun clung to this shame in order to retain what he deemed was his moral although it seemed to become blurry.

When he got to Yaxue, Cao Yun set up some array formation all around the caravan and another one all around himself and his victim. The two array formations were the strongest illusion array formations Cao Yun could muster in a short amount of time. The slaves could exit it of course but Xixue told them not to do so. While Co Yun was busy, she instructed the men to help her free everyone from their chains. They were all worried because their lives were intertwined with Yaxue's fate. Thankfully, Xixue had told Cao Yun about the Slavery Brand so she was confident enough that he would be cautious.

The Slavery Brand was a kind of seal that had two purposes. The first one was to inflict pain whenever their master wanted to. Unlike physical pain, this was a pain targeted at one's very soul. Obviously, this was worse than anything one could imagine before receiving it themselves. And the second purpose was to simply kill the slave if their master were to die. As soon as Yaxue died, the seal he had in him would activate and cause all the seals in his slaves to activate as well. And they would stop only through death. In other words, their souls would be tortured until the pain caused was enough to kill them. Obviously, they were terrorized by that prospect.

If Cao Yun wanted to kill Yaxue, there was nothing they could do. Even now that they were freed from their bonds, their lives were still in someone else's hands. Since they had been captured a few months ago, they were still not too used to such a sensation. Yaxue's slavers had not been able to break their spirit yet.

Because he knew that, Cao Yun took care of Yaxue's seals first. Later he could get rid of the Slavery Brand in all of the slaves. But for now, he simply made sure that Yaxue's seals would never activate. Once again, he used his 'Ashen Feather Seal' to isolate them and unraveled them. Cao Yun had worked on seals with Dian Mo. He was the one with the most experience on the entire Piaolu planet. After all, he was the oldest sentient being right now, and the only one who had actually met Demon God Da Mo when he was alive.

Although Dian Mo could not help Cao Yun at all, the young man didn't need him at the moment. His training had been sufficient enough.

Once the seals were all taken care of, Cao Yun did something else. Instead of unraveling them, he used one of his own. With Dian Mo, he had not only learned how to unravel but also how to craft seals. Thus, he did so. In fact, he mimicked the Slavery Brand while adding a little twist of his own to it. Now, he could inflict untold pain onto Yaxue without even touching him. Just a thought was enough to torture the fat man.

Then, he completely cut off his nerves. His entire body was paralyzed apart from his head. Injecting his own Qi through his body, Cao Yun was keeping him alive. Like that, Yaxue had absolutely no way to die. And since the pain would come from his very soul, his body would not be affected. Thus, the young man could keep him alive indefinitely.

"You will tell me everything I wish to know. No matter what happens, the sweet mercy of death will never come to you."

"Boss Gui will grind your bones. She will flay you alive and make your skin grow back over and over again. Your blood will be fed to Sanguine Barren Leechers. Your very soul will suffer the Seven Punishments of the Weaver of Souls."

"Those are very good ideas, but I'll stick to my plans if you do not mind. However, you're right, let's speak about your leader first. Tell me everything you know about this woman, Boss Gui."

Before Yaxue could speak again, a jolt of pure pain coursed through his sea of consciousness. In there, the infinite ocean had turned into blood while the sky was full of dark clouds. Yaxue's entire sea of consciousness was crisscrossed with black and crimson lightning while the howling of various monsters could be heard. While he couldn't enter this place unlike Cao Yun, there was now a creature with green hair all over its body. This was a tiny part of Cao Yun's chained Flying Poison.

For several hours, Cao Yun tortured Yaxue in order to get all the answers he needed. Although demons had great willpower, breaking Yaxue didn't take too long. After all, his current situation was just hopeless. He could only hope for death at that point. And he knew that it would only come when Cao Yun would be satisfied with his answers. A few times he tried to lie, even on some insignificant matters. But each time, Cao Yun had seen through him. So he only had one choice. He told him everything.