For an instant, Cao Yun was destabilized. He had been successively sent into the current sea of consciousness of Cleansed Asura's soul. Then, he had seen various visions of how it had evolved over centuries. And now, out of the blue, he had been pulled away back into the ovary of the world-tree. Thus, it took him a little while to get his bearings. But with his mind cultivation, it wasn't that long either.
Once he was fully back to reality though, he felt that the seed had lost almost all of the presence he had felt from Cleansed Asura's soul. Both vines that were supporting the seed were also way thinner than before. And all around Cao Yun, the flowers were all starting to wither. Panicked, Cao Yun tried to get in contact with Cleansed Asura's soul by touching the seed. The first thing that came to his mind was that his master had used too much strength and that his soul's condition had further deteriorated. Maybe he could once again use the Drop of Wrath to try and bring him back.
As he touched the seed, the vine connecting it to the summit of the wooden style ruptured. Immediately, the seed fell back unto the ground. Before it could touch the ground, Cao Yun caught it. Ready to try and infuse the intent from the Drop of Wrath within, Cao Yun had to stop himself.
Indeed, after the vine, it was the turn of the branches forming the pod around this place to wither. Crackling noises spread throughout the structure. Watching intently, the young alchemist saw the first signs of cracks in the branches. Even with all of his strength, Cao Yun had been unable to merely scratch the bark from the tree. Yet, entire branches were now full of cracks everywhere. As soon as small cracks appeared, they spread like wildfire. In a very short amount of time, all the branches were ready to fall down.
Without thinking, the young boy grabbed the seed and ran toward the nearest exit, exactly where he had come from. In his run, Cao Yun was almost crushed by a piece of a branch that had fallen from above. Thankfully, he was able to dodge. And even though the branches were incredibly tough, they were still falling down at a reasonable speed. As such, even if he got crushed under one, he would probably be perfectly fine. However, he wasn't very eager to try it out.
As chaos was taking over this previously serene place, Cao Yun was still holding the seed and making a break for the spot through which he had gone inside this ovary. With his speed, it didn't take long at all. And once he was out, he took some more distance. Then, he examined the branches he was on. Fortunately, only the wooden pod was falling apart, not the entire tree. Thus, the most probable cause was the complete lethargy of Cleansed Asura's soul.
After making sure that he was safe, Cao Yun tried once more to get in contact with the soul of his master inside the seed. But this time it was worse. Now, there was no more sign of it at all. Just a few instants ago, he was able to somewhat feel a vague trace of his master within. However, everything had disappeared. No matter how much he was trying to circulate his mind cultivation or to use the Drop of Wrath. There was no reaction at all. The only thing he could feel was the life force of the tree still within the seed.
-
Determined to try and communicate with his master, Cao Yun stayed several hours meditating on those branches. He was literally in the midst of clouds. But try as he might, the seed stayed without any response.
Looking around himself, the young man searched for any sign of anything. Right now, he was rather depressed and desperate. Thankfully, his mind cultivation was able to keep him rather level-headed. Since this pagoda was related to Cleansed Asura's cultivation, there could be something helpful either in this floor or on upper floors as well. However, what he saw was even more disheartening. Above the clouds, there were hundreds of thousands of branches and no trace at all of any opening. The sky was literally made of wood. Since he was unable to break through even the bark of a single branch, he had no way to go higher. Besides, there really was no gap at all.
As he was processing all that had just happened and was trying to figure out his next move, Cao Yun felt something. Then he heard a very faint noise coming from the ground.
Because he was right above the clouds, the young man just had to lower his head to see what was going on below. Although space was strange when he had climbed at the tree, his field of vision seemed to not be affected at all. And with his senses, he was able to clearly see what was going on even on the ground.
Beside the world-tree, the grass was growing and slowly binding down Huang Liyue's body. It did not seem aggressive at all, but it still worried Cao Yun. Quickly, he took the gourd he had left on the branches. Now it was completely full of whatever water was present in those clouds. Then, he simply jumped down toward the trunk of the tree. And unlike what had happened during his climb, the fall was as fast as it should have been. Apparently space only got altered when someone tried to get up, not down. In other words, it took way longer to climb up than to fall down. Thankfully, Cao Yun had never fallen during his previous climb.
Considering the distance between the clouds and the ground, Cao Yun still preferred to be safe and reached the lowest branch first before jumping all the way down.
When he finally arrived, Huang Liyue's body was almost entirely covered in thick grass. But when Cao Yun went to try and get her out, he felt that something was off. In those blades of grass, he could feel the presence of his master. Could he have simply left the seed? By why?
Anyway, if that really were Cleansed Asura, the young disciple was mostly convinced that nothing bad would happen to his temporary bodyguard. Still, the idea that maybe his master was trying to regain some strength by draining her, considering she was dying anyway, crossed his mind. However, it didn't feel like it. In fact, it even started to feel the opposite. Indeed, although Cao Yun could not feel souls since he was not a Spirit Warrior, he was able to feel his master's presence. It was mostly due to the Drop of Wrath in his heart.
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What he could feel was that the last remnants of Cleansed Asura's soul were slowly being sent into Huang Liyue's body. And as they were slowly imbuing her body, Cao Yun was able to sense her regaining more and more vitality. Under the grass, it was hard to make it out but her breathing got better and better.
It dawned on him. Cleansed Asura was once more sacrificing himself. After gifting his Drop of Wrath to his disciple, he was now using his very soul as fuel to wake up Huang Liyue. Clearly, he had completely given up any hope of surviving. Before doing that though, he had tried to give his disciple all the cards he could think of to survive. Of course, Cao Yun was torn.
On one side, he didn't want his master to die. He had never even had a proper conversation with him. The only time he actually talked with him was when he had almost gotten killed. And he knew nearly nothing of his master. However, he was thoroughly convinced that he was a good man. His renewed sacrifice was a new proof of that. Seeing him give his very soul away for someone else, his disciple's rage against whoever would dare sully his name grew. Cleansed Asura had asked him to bury him and to preserve his legacy. Nothing would ever prevent Cao Yun from doing both of those things. And that meant killing the fraud who had become the demonic cultivator's new master. Anyway, he already wanted to kill that demonic cultivator with everything he had.
On the other side, Cao Yun did not want to see Huang Liyue die as well. She too had sacrificed her life to protect him. Maybe it had only been a sense of obligation due to him saving her. But that didn't matter. Because she had risked her life for his, he didn't want to let her die. Even though he still believed that protecting Feng Yingyue and killing Huang Lixin and Huang Longwei was the right thing to do, he still did feel bad. The moment he had killed Huang Lixin, what he had in mind was not altruistic, he was thinking of protecting himself. And all the rage, sadness and fear he had kept repressed had surged forth through the Drop of Wrath. Even without this, he would have probably killed the young boy anyway to protect the innocent girl.
But the way he had felt on the moment seemed relevant to him. He had attacked Huang Lixin for the right reasons. But at the moment of killing him, it was for the wrong ones. And no matter how much he could claim that the Drop of Wrath had controlled him, deep down he knew that this was not absolutely accurate. It had merely enhanced his existing feelings at the time.
With those conflicting views in him, Cao Yun did not know how to react, whether to stop what was going on or not. Cleansed Asura had already lived a very long life. In addition, his body was already dead. There was sadly almost nothing to do for him. But Huang Liyue on the other hand was still young. The concept of being young or old was really dependent on one's cultivation. For Cao Yun, Huang Liyue was indeed old, but for Cleansed Asura, even her entire lifespan was nothing impressive. He had indeed lived for almost two million years.
Sincerely, Cao Yun's master would have liked to live even longer. Even in his long life, there were still many mysteries he had been unable to solve. But he had known for a long time now that he was at the end of the line. That was the reason that pushed him to gift the Drop of Wrath to Cao Yun. But it had sped up his decline even more so than he had initially thought. Unfortunately, there were many things he wished to pass on his only disciple. However, right now he was unable to even send images in his mind.
Until the end, he had consumed every ounce of stamina he had left. In fact, he had kept just enough to be sure that what he was attempting would work.
Even with the strength he had had left when Cao Yun received his Drop of Wrath, he would not have been strong enough to fully heal Huang Liyue. How the mighty had fallen. Fifty thousand years ago, healing a Soul Embryo would have been child's play for him. But now, he could not even fully restore Huang Liyue's. It was not completely destroyed thankfully. But it had been thoroughly damaged. It had even been pierced through and torn apart. However, the Soul Embryo had managed to maintain most of its structure.
Although Cleansed Asura could not restore it completely, he could heal those injuries. As such, Huang Liyue's condition would stay stable long enough for his disciple to find a way. If he could extract enough Yellow Sorrows Water from the lake formed under the Yellow Sorrows Stone, that Soul Embryo would be fully restored. For that, he theoretically needed to master the first levels of 'Death Verses', but with the help of the Drop of Wrath, it should be easy enough to perform this simple task even without a full mastery of this concept. The Drop of Wrath could do most of the heavy lifting in a sense.
The real problem was that this yellow lake was precisely under the Yellow Sorrows Stone. And it was exactly where the fake Cleansed Asura was, right in the center of the main palace that had fallen from the sky.
If Cao Yun was discovered, he would have no hope of surviving. Cleansed Asura did not know about the Mortal Warrior demonic cultivator. But even without him, the impostor would be powerful enough to kill the boy. Unfortunately, there was no other way. If he did not attempt it, Huang Liyue would die and then Cao Yun would really be lost. Without her, he had no chance of ever getting out of this place. And once his soul would be gone, the Inner World would not be long either.
Finally, all of Cleansed Asura's soul had entered Huang Liyue's sea of consciousness. A myriad of tiny red dots spread throughout the dark sky, like fireflies. As though guided by an invisible hand, they all landed on the poor woman's Soul Embryo. Then, they shined as much as they could and light somewhat returned to the sea of consciousness. At the same time, the wounds around the Soul Embryo began to slowly mend themselves. It was as though filaments of light were sewing it back together.
While all of that was going on, Cao Yun felt the tree shake a little. And outside, it was worse. The entire Yellow Death World was shaken by a terrifying tremor.
-
In the fallen palace, deep under the mountains, Can Mouye was meditating when he felt the tremor. For an instant, he thought that the mountain was going to collapse, but it did not.
At the exact same time, in the center of the fallen palace behind Can Mouye, his master was woken up. Under the rubbles of the palace, there was only one room that had stayed rather intact. In the middle of that room was a giant black metallic coffin, big enough for at least ten men. Above that open casket, the body of Gui Bei was suspended through metallic chains imbued with Death Energy and Evil Qi.
Just like the ravine which both Cao Yun and Can Mouye had jumped into, the coffin was completely filled with an impenetrable darkness. However, within this deep void, something was sleeping. An instant before the tremor though, it had woken up. And now he was able to clearly feel it.
Cleansed Asura's soul had finally died. But with his death, this entire Inner World would slowly collapse. It was now a matter of months, if not weeks, for the Yellow Death World to crumble. And with it, the fake Cleansed Asura would fall into oblivion as well. He had to speed up all of his plans.
Not an instant later, Can Mouye heard the voice of his new master echoing in his head.
"Come, quickly!"