As the 'Feng Soaring Junk' was getting closer to the black pagoda, Cao Yun could clearly see similarities with the Merciful Deity Temples. Apparently, they all shared the same architectural style.
And just like those temples, the black pagoda was in a pitiful state. First of all, it had been blackened by corrosion. Here and there, Cao Yun could see vestiges of its past glory, but even the few parts that still shined through were in horrendous condition. But more apparent was the fact that the entire pagoda was slightly slanted. There were also many holes in the structure itself. Some doors or windows had been completely destroyed. And as the ship got close enough, Cao Yun could see that the black water had almost submerged the first floor.
On this first floor, Cao Yun tied the ship with what he could.
After an instant of hesitation, Cao Yun decided to leave Huang Liyue and the egg on board while he would explore the black pagoda alone. But before leaving, he once again changed Huang Liyue's bandages and made sure that she was still stable. Each time he attended to her, he was deeply hurt to see how weak she had become. Even now, she had not regained any bit of consciousness. If that black pagoda was related to Cleansed Asura as he was convinced it was, there may be ways to either leave this place or save Huang Liyue. After all, Cleansed Asura had been able to save his life as he had been almost sliced in two.
Of course, he had given him the Drop of Wrath for that, but there could be other ways. For a God-Monarch, saving someone's Soul Embryo could even be possible. No one was known to have reached such a realm in the entire history of the Hongchen Kingdom. Indeed, every cultivator had left this world when they had reached either the Monarch or Immortal realm. That was referred to as a cultivator ascending. And once they had ascended, none of them ever came back.
For example, Emperor Nuwa had waited until she had become a full-fledged Immortal. Even then, she stayed on the Piaolu planet a few more centuries before finally leaving. Many people were convinced that she had risen even higher than the Immortal realm. Maybe she had become a God, or even a God-Monarch. Some even believed that she had transcended all the realms of cultivation. But there was no way of knowing any of that.
Right now, Cao Yun walked into the first floor of the black pagoda. Once he entered, he was surprised. The black water from outside had turned into normal water inside. Just like with the Merciful Deity Temples, Evil Qi, and probably Death Energy as well, were unable to penetrate this tower. Spreading the intent of his Drop of Wrath all around, Cao Yun felt that there was indeed no trace of either of them. And even outside, the black water had way less concentration of Evil Qi within it.
This was a good sign. Can Mouye's new master seemed like the type who would use Evil Qi. If this black pagoda which appeared related to Cleansed Asura prevented Evil Qi from entering it, it could mean that this master was really not Cleansed Asura.
Still, Cao Yun was full of doubts concerning this matter. After all, he knew close to nothing about Cleansed Asura apart from the fact that he had saved his life and he had accepted him as his master. The idea that he would have the same master as that despicable Can Mouye was quite irritating. Maybe it was the reason why he was so against the possibility that this was in fact true and that Cleansed Asura had allied himself with a demonic cultivator. Remembering the case of Lu Meihan, there was indeed a possibility that upon facing death, he had chosen such a path...
For now, the young man pushed all those ideas aside. As long as he had no clue at all, thinking about it would only confuse him more. And this black pagoda may contain some clues.
On the first floor, there was nothing of note. Even if the water inside did not contain any trace of Evil Qi, it had still damaged the inside of the pagoda. But it didn't seem like there had ever been anything of importance on this first floor. Thus, Cao Yun climbed the stairs partially destroyed and reached the second floor. On this floor, everything changed. It was as though he had entered another world.
The floor spread as far the eye could see. There was a luscious grassland. And in the middle of it, a gigantic tree whose branches all reached toward the sky and disappeared into the clouds. Unable to believe what he was seeing, Cao Yun looked down and confirmed that the stairs toward the first floor were still there.
For an instant, Cao Yun wondered if he had crossed into yet another dimension, just like he had done by coming into this Yellow Death World. But he had not. Indeed, there had been no strange sensation and he could still go back down the stairs.
With utmost caution, Cao Yun decided to explore this green floor. It brought a lot of solace to his mind. Since he had come into this dead world, he had never seen any other color than gray, black and dim yellow from this place. Right now, he was in a paradise of greenery. But as he explored, he realized more and more how strange this floor was. First of all, there was natural light inside while there was no sun or heavenly bodies of any kind. But even stranger was the complete absence of any body of water. The entire floor was covered in soft grass, full of life and water, but there was no stream, no river, nothing.
Thus, even the presence of clouds was strange. Besides, there was no wind either. And obviously, there was no animal. Thus, there was no sound of any kind except from Cao Yun's own steps.
The only real thing of interest in this floor was the gigantic tree right in the middle of it. Of course, the notion of middle was difficult to grasp because this world seemed to spread as far as the eye could see. But this tree truly looked like it was in the middle of this floor. In a way, this entire world revolved around that tree.
Walking further inside that world, Cao Yun slowly felt more and more Qi around him. He had almost not reacted at first, but he suddenly realized it. For the first time ever since entering this world, there was pure Qi. During his time in this world, he had been so used to absorbing Evil Qi and purifying it through the Drop of Wrath and his own mind cultivation, he had almost forgotten the sensation of absorbing Qi without any pain. Unfortunately, it wasn't as dense as within the Hongchen Kingdom, but there was undoubtedly Qi in here.
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Immediately, Cao Yun thought about bringing Huang Liyue and the egg in here. Such an environment would be great for both of them. Even though the egg had a 6-demonic core from which it could absorb Qi, it wasn't able to extract it as well as just breathing in the Qi in the air. And Huang Liyue may even be able to alleviate her wounds. There was no way for her to be completely healed, but this was better than nothing.
Still, the young man hesitated for some time. Just to be safe, he explored that floor some more. When he was finally satisfied that there was no threat, he decided to act on his idea.
Quickly, he went back to the ship and brought Huang Liyue, the egg and even the 6-demonic core used by it up to the second floor. When he was outside of the pagoda, he also tried to look at that second floor. Although there were some holes in the black pagoda and even several windows on that floor, he could see nothing at all. It was as though the world inside was isolated. After all, it was way bigger than the actual size of the pagoda itself. The central tree itself was slightly taller than the entire pagoda it was in. Such a manipulation of space was extremely advanced.
Cao Yun had read about legends concerning such abilities. In a way, this was similar to what spatial rings were. But spatial rings could not take in anything that was alive. If someone tried to forcefully pull a living being inside a spatial ring, that living being would just die. But its corpse would then be preserved in the spatial ring. Since Cao Yun knew almost nothing of the laws of space, he did not know the reasons behind it.
Because he could not answer any of those questions, the young man ignored them but still made sure to remember every single thing. Later in his cultivation or when he would learn new things, everything he had lived here would be useful.
-
Finally, Cao Yun brought Huang Liyue and the egg in the second floor of the black pagoda. And as soon as he entered with them, he felt more life coming into the egg. It seemed to be quite excited.
As he had felt that there was more Qi the closer he was to the central tree, Cao Yun brought them very close to it.
Its trunk was so big that it would have required more than ten men to hug such a tree. Moreover, it appeared to be as tall as the entire black pagoda. But it was probably even taller because its branches were lost in the clouds themselves. Strangely, it looked as though the branches were giving birth to the clouds. But since everything was unknown, maybe it was possible.
After looking after Huang Liyue and the egg for a few hours, the 9th-grade Mortal decided to cultivate a little. It had been so long since he had been in such a welcoming environment. He just couldn't stop himself from wanting to try out his cultivation.
Right now, he needed to make every single cell in his body transparent to Qi. Obviously, it would be easier to do so in an environment rich in Qi. And Evil Qi, no matter how much control Cao Yun could get over it, was always a dangerous thing to manipulate. Even the demonic cultivators themselves were not at ease while using it. They were always standing on the edge. Just like Luduo Bu, any demonic cultivator could get consumed by his own demonic arts at any moment. Thus, even if he had the Drop of Wrath, Cao Yun did not feel comfortable using Evil Qi. Besides, it was literally made up of the resentment from the dead. To Cao Yun, it always felt as though he was using the very pain and suffering of others for his own benefits. In a way, he was putting it to good use, but it still didn't feel right. Of course, if it was necessary he would use it, but he didn't have to like it one bit.
For the first time ever, the young man felt what it was like to be a 9th-grade Mortal. In such an environment, his acupoints were all absorbing tiny strands of Qi. And he felt as though his skin almost disappeared. Any barrier between him and the outside world was nearly gone. He could experience the world around him directly. The sensation was absolutely magical. It felt so good that he lost himself in it for several more hours before actually trying to cultivate.
All the fatigue he had suffered from simply vanished.
Then, Cao Yun used his mind cultivation to focus on his cells. Just like for his acupoints, he had realized that the first step was to perfectly feel those cells in his body and how they interacted with one another. He could then identify which ones were ready to be tempered. Unfortunately, Cao Yun did not know all the techniques from 'Coiling Turtle'. But he would follow the same logic Chief Instructor Peng had taught him. First, he would try to temper the cells that were the most difficult to work with. The easier cells could be used to try out his ideas when he would get stuck. In such a way, he could avoid a bottleneck.
The number of cells was just beyond imagination. There were even more cells in the human body than there were demonic beasts, humans and demons on the Piaolu planet. Such a notion was just impossible to imagine. Yet, Cao Yun was currently experiencing it. Right now, he was able to feel each one of his cells and how they all interacted with one another. Then, he focused on how Qi could flow through them.
Beside his meridians, there were tiny streams of Qi everywhere in his body. When he would finally reach the Mortal Warrior realm, all of those streams would be as powerful as torrents. And his body would be completely transparent to Qi. Not only would he be able to absorb Qi from his acupoints, he would be able to do so through every cell in his body. Right now, he was just unable to imagine what that sensation would feel like. Even though he had opened many cells to the full flow of Qi, he could not imagine how that would be when all of them would reach such a state.
Just like when he had opened his acupoints, only after opening the very last one, did he feel how extraordinary this was.
Although Cao Yun felt so good during his cultivation, he knew that he couldn't stay there forever. It was urgent to save Huang Liyue and bring news to the outside world. If Can Mouye was able to exit this world, the Bone Demons might also and his new master as well. Each one was dangerous in itself, so all of them together...
Right now, Cao Yun could only see one way to get out of this place. He had to try and explore the black pagoda some more. If there could be such a fantastical place as this green scenery, there could be a way to get out of this world in the pagoda. But for that, he had to reach the next floor, the third one. And the only way he could imagine to do so was to climb up that gigantic tree.
After all, the first floor was really below this green world and the stairs were visible. As such, there was probably an opening to get to the third floor. And it made sense for it to be up in the air. No matter how much Cao Yun had looked, there was nothing on the ground, so it had to be higher than the clouds, where he could not see.
Since he couldn't fly, Cao Yun had to climb the tree and see what was up there. Hopefully, he would find the exit he was looking for and a way to leave this world so that he could save Huang Liyue.