Chapter 250: The paper boats

This very tiny white hue in the distance began to take shape as it got closer. Seeing its true form, Cao Yun was completely stunned.

On the horizon, a couple of white boats were slowly coming his way. What was really surprising about them was the fact that they were made of paper. Indeed, those two boats were small paper boats. With the distance it was hard to make them out perfectly but they seemed to be just large enough for one man to board them. And although they were made of perfectly white paper, they floated on the surface of the black water without being affected by its corrosion in the least.

Even the Wei Qi resulting of Huang Liyue's sacrifice was currently being slowly corroded by the Ocean of Turbid Anguish. But those paper boats were completely fine. Of course this sight stunned and amazed Cao Yun. They appeared to be the kind of boats children would play with, just a bit bigger.

And on top of those paper boats, there was something else. Shining right in the middle of each boat, there was a little lantern. The moment Cao Yun laid eyes on one of those lanterns, he immediately thought of the Yellow Sorrows Water. Indeed, those lanterns shined a strange yellow light, very dim and yet hypnotic. After watching that lantern for a mere instant, Cao Yun realized that his ship had drifted away quite a lot and that the paper boats were way closer. Although it had felt like a single breath, he had been admiring the lantern's light for several minutes. Even with his powerful mind cultivation, he had been somewhat hypnotized by this strange light.

Thus, the first thing he did was to steel his will. Thanks to the Chamber of Government, his Zhi the Water Will had become way stronger than before. Just to be safe, Cao Yun decided not to look directly at those paper boats. Apparently they were just drifting along the current but they still seemed quite ominous and thus dangerous.

Using his Drop of Wrath, the young man tried to feel them. But the moment the intent of the Drop of Wrath came in contact with the paper boats, it completely disappeared. No matter what Cao Yun did, his Drop of Wrath was unable to pierce through the mystery of those boats. Yet, they kept on floating seemingly aimlessly. Still, Cao Yun had a terrible feeling about those. Although they did not appear to target the ship, he felt like they were a threat to him, and specifically to his soul.

When he had been dazed for several minutes earlier, he had felt some pull on his Po character. It had been very faint but he was absolutely sure that it had been there. Thus, he had become extremely wary of those simple looking paper boats.

Since he couldn't feel them with his Drop of Wrath and that he didn't want to look at them directly, Cao Yun used the current of Evil Qi to sense their trajectory. Through the intent of the Drop of Wrath, he was able to get a perfect map of those currents and could know the trajectory of those boats with this indirect information. The young man stayed tense and alert as the paper boats slowly drifting behind the ship. Then, they remained on their way and seemed to completely ignore the ship while they were disappearing on the other side of the horizon.

For a short instant, Cao Yun felt relieved. But it did not last very long as he perceived strange currents in the black water.

Suddenly, and yet very calmly, several similar paper boats emerged from the black water. There were four of them and they were absolutely identical. Not only had they the perfect same shape and size, they even had the same lantern and the same light shining from it. Each one had appeared on a side of the 'Feng Soaring Junk' which was now completely surrounded.

Seeing them appear before him, the young man immediately closed his eyes and even sealed his senses. He went to the extreme of using 'Ashen Feather Seal'. But instead of using the ashes to seal his presence, he tried to protect the seven apertures of his head, mixing 'Ashen Feather Seal' with 'Locking the Seven'. However, as soon as he closed his eyes, the scenery around him changed.

He was now in his sea of consciousness!

And the four paper boats were there as well. Instead of floating on the black water of the Ocean of Turbid Anguish, they were peacefully drifting on the clear waters of Cao Yun's sea of consciousness. Each one came from a cardinal direction. And all were going toward the center of his sea of consciousness where both the Drop of Wrath and the Five Agents were located, floating above the water. Instinctively, Cao Yun circulated his mind cultivation as much as he could. And he especially focused on his will.

The Shen character began to float higher as its fires spread all around the Five Agents and the Drop of Wrath in the center of them. Zhi began to turn into a liquid metal flowing according to the shape of the character itself, as though the heat from the fire had melted it. Yi shined a golden light all around itself. From it, several rays of pure gold went straight for Cao Yun's other characters, protecting them and focusing his attention on them. For example, Hun which was a jade sculpture reverberated this light with a green hue added to it.

Finally, the Po character resonated with the other one embedded inside the Drop of Wrath. Both of them turned from ivory characters to bones. In that instant, they both truly looked like perfect bone sculptures, nothing like the sordid bones of the Bone Demons. Most likely, this was due to the purified Death Energy in them.

But at the same time, Cao Yun could feel a pull on those two Po characters. The yellow light from the paper boat was slowly getting focused on the Po character outside of the Drop of Wrath. And Cao Yun could feel a strong force trying to pull it apart. Those boats were literally trying to extract his very soul, albeit his corporeal one. And no matter how resistant his mind was, the pull was getting stronger and stronger with no way to stop the slow progress of the boats.

Cao Yun had worked on his mind cultivation, but unlike Mei Hua, he knew of no technique to protect his mind. The young alchemist had learned 'Otherworldly White Crane' from her direct master, Xiao Xuefeng. But even through all the books he had read, Cao Yun had not come across any technique or martial art that could protect his mind. If his 'Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars' reached Perfection, he would literally have the soul of an Azure Dragon in his own mind. But he was a tremendous way away from getting there.

Without fighting off those boats though, Cao Yun would not resist eternally. At some point, they would be close enough to destroy his corporeal soul and consume it.

But the fact that he had no technique to fight in his own mind did not worry Cao Yun in the slightest. Although he had no specific art for that, he had the Drop of Wrath. This drop of blood had already protected his mind several times. And now, he had some more control over it. It was thus the perfect moment to try it out.

The Five Agents changed their very configuration. The Shen character stayed above to spread his fires around the characters below. But the Yi changed and only shined its golden light on the Po and the Shen. Resulting from this, the fires from Shen intensified and became golden as well. Those fires attacked Zhi and this will turned completely liquid, floating around the Drop of Wrath in myriad of droplets, each one looking similar to the complete character. On the other hand, Hun ascended even higher than Shen. The light from the stars above shined on it and were then spread across the entire sea of consciousness.

Finally, the Po character got so close to the Drop of Wrath that they almost touched. As a result, the Po inside the Drop of Wrath got more and more agitated. From inside the drop, some blood droplets fell into the clear water below.

Very soon, the entire water had turned as red as blood.

The fires from Shen increased in heat and brightness, the red light from the Heart Star also intensified. In a matter of seconds, the entire sea of consciousness of Cao Yun had turned completely red. Even the golden light from Yi had also turned golden red. Slowly, from within the Drop of Wrath, a figure started to emerge.

It was the figure of Axiu Qian in his dying form. That man was of course entirely red with golden lines here and there. On his head, there were three faces exuding pure rage. But instead of having three pairs of arms, he only had one pair. Moreover, he was way smaller than what Cao Yun had already witnessed in his own sea of consciousness. But there was an even bigger difference, Cao Yun was controlling this figure.

In fact, it felt as though he was this very figure.

Despite all this chaos, the paper bloat had kept on drifting as though nothing in any world could deter them. No matter what could happen around them, they simply floated peacefully. But they had clearly a nefarious purpose.

The first face of this giant demon opened its eyes. Immediately, golden rays of light went straight for the first boat. As soon as the light shone on it, the yellow lantern began to dim down even more. For the first time, Cao Yun felt what this was. This yellow light seemed to be made of Death Energy. Thus, he understood, those boats were trying to extract his Po to turn it into more Death Energy. Cao Yun's current sensitivity toward both Po and Death Energy allowed him to feel that those lanterns had been made by an amalgamation of many souls.

For now, Cao Yun felt that he could not yet open the eyes of the other two faces. But this was enough.

With his giant clawed hand, the red demon grabbed the boat whose lantern had dimmed down because of his sight. In an instant, he crushed it without any resistance. In his hand, this boat truly felt like paper. And as soon as it got crushed, it began to burn with a yellow flame. In fact, this small flame tried to also burn away the hand of the red manifestation of the Drop of Wrath. But it completely failed. Just by laying his eyes on his hand, the golden light from earlier put out the fire. From the boat, nothing remained though.

Despite what had happened to the first boat, the other three were still going straight from Cao Yun's Po, which happened to be exactly where the red giant was.

With a single move, he grabbed both boats on his sides with one hand each. Once more, he completely crushed them and watched them burn away. Of course, the last boat had no more luck. Very soon, all four of the paper boats had turned into white ashes. Then, those white ashes flew and stuck to the red demon's skin. Slowly, they sank deep into his body. As they got deeper and deeper, the heat from both the red demon himself and the fires from the Shen character purified them. They were changed in the same way the Death Energy absorbed by Cao Yun had been purified by the Drop of Wrath.

In the end, those white ashes also became pure Death Energy and fused with both Po characters, inside and outside of the Drop of Wrath. And once more, this caused the link between Cao Yun and the Drop of Wrath to strengthen.

When he finally opened his eyes, Cao Yun saw that the paper boats were being consumed by the black water as their yellow lanterns had all been taken out. Since they were literally made of paper, the boats did not last a mere second. All of them were devoured by the corrosive black water.

Those boats had scared Cao Yun but faced with even a fraction of the power from the Drop of Wrath, they had been useless. Without it however, Cao Yun would have probably lost his soul, which was not a good prospect. Besides, those boats had very dim lanterns and were small. In the young man's head, he could not stop himself from thinking of what would happen if he encountered paper boats as large as the 'Feng Soaring Junk'. If such boats existed and had several powerful lanterns, wouldn't both his soul and the Drop of Wrath itself be absorbed and turned into more yellow light?

And another thing crossed his mind. If that yellow light was Death Energy produced by absorbing souls, that meant that the Yellow Sorrows Water was most likely also made up of corporeal souls. And there was an obvious relation between those boats, this yellow water and the Bone Demons. All of those things were not only in the same Yellow Death World, but they were all related to Death Energy in some way.

Anyway, Cao Yun kept on rowing. The pagoda he had caught a glimpse of was now revealing itself more and more.

-

It took Cao Yun several hours, but he finally reached this black pagoda, except that it wasn't really black. That pagoda seemed to have been corroded by either flames or most likely by the black water below. Beneath this corrosion, it was clear that the pagoda had been red and golden. It had nine stories and was absolutely majestic. But like the Merciful Deity Temples in the Plagued Plains, the architecture of this pagoda was completely different from what Cao Yun knew. Of course, it was similar enough so that Cao Yun recognized what it was, but it seemed to come from a completely different civilization.

Although most of the Legendary Era was unknown, Cao Yun was convinced that it didn't come from that period. Most likely, it was from another world.

And the moment Cao Yun laid eyes on the full pagoda, he had a feeling of familiarity. This building was closely related to Cleansed Asura. As though confirming it, the Drop of Wrath seemed to recognize this as its former master. But if it was related to Cleansed Asura, could it also be dangerous? After all, Can Mouye's new master had claimed to be Cleansed Asura...