Chapter 366: Path to desolation

Cao Yun's meager understanding of 'Death Verses' made him way more sensitive to death itself. Right now, he could feel it around him. It was still faint but it was there. From what he had heard, the Wolf Sect Head had been completely wiped out by the Imperial City. They had sent their most elite force, the 5th Imperial Brocade Guards. According to their reputation, even the soil died after they had walked upon it.

They were rarely seen as they mostly served as guards to the Emperor. But they could be mobilized to exterminate any threat to the Hongchen Kingdom. In theory, exterminating demonic cultivators would be in their prerogative indeed. However, this did seem a bit extreme, especially considering that the Huang family was very close and could intervene faster than them.

Anyway, Cao Yun was able to already feel the death and desolation they had left behind them. Since their intervention three years ago, almost no one had come to this place apart from a very few prominent cultivators looking for clues. As such, this land was still plagued with death. There was surely a lot of Evil Qi lingering around and maybe even ghosts. Ghosts were rather rare in the Hongchen Kingdom, so was Death Energy. Indeed, orthodox cultivators took care of it fairly fast. However, there had been many problems recently and this place had kept on accumulating Evil Qi for some time now.

Thankfully, this wasn't a problem for Cao Yun at all. While working on seals as well as on his mind cultivation, he had gotten way more proficient when it came to unraveling the strands of negative emotions around Qi. Even without his Drop of Wrath, he was confident in being able to handle large amounts of Evil Qi as though it was mere Qi.

Now that he was close to the Wolf Head Sect, Cao Yun decided to activate his 'Ashen Feather Seal'. He had worked on it intermittently during his travel. For example, he had worked on quickly activating and dissolving it. Getting rid of it was easier than putting it up. Indeed, he had to manifest his Qi within his own body while injecting the intent of the Drop of Wrath inside his Qi. Then, this mixture would turn into pure ashes that could be used to coat his body and even his sea of consciousness. By doing so, he could completely hide his cultivation and even his very presence.

For now, he was still visible if someone was to look directly at him. But otherwise, no one would detect his presence at all. And even when they could see him, they would barely notice him, as though he was just an insignificant passerby. Of course, if he was right in front of them or too remarkable, this wouldn't work. But he was still able to lightly alter his features. As such, no one would be able to see his real face. It was not very different, but unless he met someone who knew his face perfectly, they would have a hard time recognizing him. Even his brothers and sister had told him that they were forced to focus to recognize him. But no one could put their finger on what was different.

Cao Yun walked with more caution now, despite his stealth technique. This was useful against humans and even demonic beasts, but he was not sure what could await him in the Wolf Head Sect. He had never seen a ghost but he knew they were real because he had heard other disciples talk about them. Of course, after fighting Bone Demons, he was not too afraid of ghosts, but still, he would be cautious. Bone Demons were made from corrupted Po while ghosts were born from corrupted Hun.

When a human died, his Po would take care of decomposing his body and would slowly go back into the ground. Sometimes it was stuck in the rotting body and would become Death Energy. On the other hand, Hun was the ethereal soul, the part of the soul believed to go through the cycle of reincarnation. According to the beliefs of the Hongchen Kingdom, the Hun would linger on Earth some time. Some believed a burial, a cremation, or even any form of funeral ceremony was necessary to appease the soul.

Then, it was supposed to stay in the Heavenly Court, awaiting for its next reincarnation. All memories would slowly fade away and the Hun would revert back to a purer form of soul before coming back into the physical world to live a new life.

There were various versions of the same beliefs. For example, the Sutra Faith believed that men could become free of the cycle of reincarnation through the wisdom and virtue of Buddha Cangjing. But this faith was just one among many other beliefs accepted in the Hongchen Kingdom. Despite the different religious views, they could all coexist as they all believed more or less the same thing. Most of all, they were unified in their protection of mankind against the demons all around them as well as in their praise of Emperor Nuwa. Some had even gone to the point of believing her to be a real goddess from birth.

All those religious debates were not very interesting for Cao Yun in general. And right now, he absolutely didn't care about them at all.

As he was getting closer and closer to the Wolf Head Sect, Cao Yun could feel more and more death. The very air was being saturated with Evil Qi. This wasn't as bad as during his stay in the Yellow Death World because there was still a lot of pure Qi around. But this pure Qi was being corroded and engulfed by the Evil Qi in permanence. It would take several centuries for all the Evil Qi to be dissipated if no expert came before that.

Despite all this Evil Qi, there was no trace of Death Energy. After all, this was extremely rare in the Hongchen Kingdom. Most likely, the 5th Imperial Brocade Guards had completely destroyed the bodies so their corporeal souls had already returned to the earth.

Instead of a day, Cao Yun spent two days before getting to the lair of the Wolf Head Sect because he was trying to be cautious. On the way, he encountered only a handful of demonic beasts. All of them were deformed, partially corroded by the Evil Qi in the air. Unlike humans, demonic beasts were cultivating by instinct, absorbing the Qi around them and devouring it from their victims without thinking. Then, it would naturally integrate with their demonic cores to form new ones.

Contrary to humans, they had almost no control over their cultivation apart from what they decided to eat or not. As such, those demonic beasts had absorbed too much Evil Qi and their very flesh was being corrupted by it. Now, they could no longer go back in the wild as they would be slaughtered by other demonic beasts so that they would not pollute their own cores.

Seeing them in such sorry states, Cao Yun was merciful. They would probably suffer for months or even years for the strongest of them. Thus, he put an end to their misery. Each time, it took him only one strike to kill the demonic beast he had encountered. Thankfully, they were few and they were isolated. Then, he took their demonic cores. Those that had no trace of Evil Qi went immediately in his spatial ring. The others, he would have to work on them to try and get rid of the Evil Qi. However, he did keep them. They might become a good way to exercise his ability to unravel seals. For now, he had only trained within his own sea of consciousness.

If he was right, Cao Yun could do the same with just the intent of the Drop of Wrath mixed with his Qi. Of course, he wouldn't have as much control as within his own mind. And he couldn't use all his mind cultivation. But to get rid of a seal within someone else's sea of consciousness, he would need to be at least able to purify Evil Qi within a demonic core.

One of the demonic beasts turned out to be more dangerous. When Cao Yun was close to the Wolf Head Sect, he discovered a Crystal-Horned Goat. Despite its name, that demonic beast was not as inoffensive as it seemed. A quick look at it would have convinced anyone. Its fur was covered in dirt and dried blood. That goat's head had a huge gaping mouth with terrifying razor teeth all around. In fact, there were several rows of teeth in its mouth. Its hooves and its horns were made of a dark red crystal which looked like coagulated blood. When the light passed through those crystals, they shined with a bloody glint.

A Crystal-Horned Goat was a 6-core demonic beast. As such, it was as strong as a late Mortal Warrior. In fact, it was as strong or even stronger than a Mortal Warrior ready to break through into the Spirit Warrior realm. However, that didn't impress Cao Yun very much. With his current strength, apart from an actual Spirit Warrior, he was afraid of no enemy alone. If he were to fight several powerful enemies, he would not be arrogant enough to think he could take them all on though.

Moreover, this Crystal-Horned Goat was in a very terrible state. One of its eyes had rotten in its skull and the infection was spreading through its entire face. Even its mouth was now somewhere between white and yellow. Since it was so close to the Wolf Head Sect, the Crystal-Horned Goat had been infected by the Evil Qi way more than the other demonic beasts.

From the various wounds Cao Yun could see on it, it had probably attacked some humans during the stampede but it had been forced to flee. Most likely, he had fought against other demonic beasts and maybe a few cultivators. In its retreat, it reached this place but it had just exchanged a direct threat for a more insidious one. Now, it was doomed to die. All over its fur, Cao Yun could smell the odor of death. Its wounds had not been healed properly and Evil Qi had seeped through it.

Cao Yun could feel that five out of six of his cores were corrupted. This Crystal-Horned Goat was already dead. Although that creature was brutal and had slaughtered many humans, Cao Yun knew it wasn't evil. There was no reason to let it suffer for no reason. A year ago, he would have run away because he was too weak. But now, he was finally powerful enough to act on his thoughts.

Contrary to the other times, Cao Yun did not attack right away. Such a demonic beast, no matter how weakened it was, was still dangerous. Despite his stealth, he was not sure at which point the Crystal-Horned Goat would be able to detect him. When killing a Thundering Bear earlier, which was only a 4-core demonic beast, it had smelled Cao Yun's scent just before the attack. At the last moment, it had tried to dodge. Luckily, Cao Yun had been able to adapt his trajectory and had killed it in one blow. Faced with a 6-core demonic beast, it might be able to detect him as soon as he would begin his attack.

Thinking about this, Cao Yun decided to slightly release his stealth, just enough for the Crystal-Horned Goat to smell his presence. Immediately, it turned toward the young human. It didn't feel any strength from the human. It was a weak prey who had walked all the way here just to die. Blinded by its pain and despair, the Crystal-Horned Goat rushed toward Cao Yun.

At the very last moment, a blue light emerged from his finger. Unable to control its momentum, the Crystal-Horned Goat literally ran into the 'Tainted Heavenly Pillar'.

'The Pillar Piercing the Sky'!

Cao Yun's spear turned into a giant horn still slick with blood. He had used only a tiny bit of Qi Manifestation and mostly relied on his Spear Aura. With great accuracy, Cao Yun pierced through the main organs of the Crystal-Horned Goat. Its body exploded all over the place. It had barely been able to understand what had happened and it was now dead. Quickly, Cao Yun collected the six cores and proceeded to explore the area, just in case.

His Qi spread far and there was nothing alive around here.

He was now at the entrance of the Wolf Head Sect. According to his information, the sect was buried underground. Now, he was in a prairie where all the grass was dead and covered in fresh blood. The soil was already redder than usual. From all around him, Cao Yun could smell the odor of dried blood. There had been so much carnage here that the very soil had been gorged with blood.

Here and there, Cao Yun could see traces of very old fires as well as some ashes scattered all over the place. Those were clearly human ashes. The 5th Imperial Brocade Guards had burned all the bodies they had retrieved in order to prevent any form of Death Energy to infect this place, just in case. Unfortunately, it didn't work like that with Evil Qi, but no one had come back to get rid of it. After all, it wasn't such an easy process for anyone. Even Cao Yun, without the Drop of Wrath, could not do so when there was so much Evil Qi all over the place.

Since there was nothing on the surface, Cao Yun decided to go underground. For that, he had to find an entrance first. The 5th Imperial Brocade Guards had been thorough and they had completely destroyed every known entrance. With his current cultivation, Cao Yun could send his Qi with the intent of the Drop of Wrath, using it as a form of sonar, despite not having spiritual senses. With his 'Shen Visualization', he was able to form some kind of image of what was underground. He couldn't usually do so, but the presence of Evil Qi helped him. This was almost the same thing he had done under the mountain of the Yellow Death World. Indeed, his Drop of Wrath was responding to Evil Qi.

Finally, he was able to find some tunnels that were not too deep and did not seem to be easy to collapse. With some care, he took his spear and began to strike the ground beneath his feet. Using the butt of the spear so as to not damage the blade, he executed a controlled 'Cracking the World'. With a blow, he could have probably destroyed the tunnel but he didn't want to, he wanted to create an opening in the ground.