In a universe of darkness and cold where every sensation was dull, a consciousness was drifting away. Taken by invisible hands, it was subjecting to a forceful slumber. None of its senses could get into contact with reality anymore. Even its own interior life was lost to its experience. Not even the darkness and the cold of that infinite expanse could reach this consciousness. It was lost in an eternity without any form of experience. Time itself had been rendered obsolete in the absence of thoughts and sensations.
Through the darkness and the cold, an exterior force started to manifest itself. Gradually, without any star, a light began to shine. At first, a mere hue, through countless eons, it pierced through the veil of this infinite world. At last, beyond space and time, there was now a red star shining for all eternity. And like wildfire, this red star spread throughout all of space. Although it was infinite, space got overtaken by the crimson light.
Then, time began to move again as the star and the light itself started to beat to the rhythm of a heart.
All of those changes jolted the consciousness back to its most fundamental state. It was now able to experience things. Time and space regained their meaning. And slowly, above those experiences, thoughts arose. Then, it was only a matter of time for conscious thoughts to emerge as well.
After what felt like another eternity, the consciousness remembered something. It remembered that it used to be human. It used to be a powerful woman in the Hongchen Kingdom. But she had fallen into a world of darkness and death. In that world, she had lost her life to protect a boy she would have many reasons to hate otherwise. Yet, here she was. Was it the end of existence? Was she on her way to the Heavenly Court where she would await her next incarnation? Had her soul endured?
She had thought that her soul would disappear. But there she was. And gradually, she recovered more and more of her consciousness. All her memories came back to her. All of her thought processes were back as well. Thanks to those, she realized that she was not dead, not yet. Very faintly, she could still feel the Soul Embryo around her very soul. It was so weak that it felt as though it didn't exist. But it was there.
And what shocked Huang Liyue was the fact that it was slowly reforming itself. There was no other explanation other than this red light all around that space. Indeed, she was still in that infinite vastness. Time had come back but it was very strange. Some of her thoughts felt like they took a mere instant to form while others seemed to last for millenniums. From this mere fact, she knew that her soul and her mind had both been damaged beyond repair. Although her Soul Embryo was reforming, it would never allow her to come back to consciousness. And even then, she would never regain all of it. Even if she came back to the real world, her life would soon be over anyway.
"Is that so?"
From the red light, a voice shook her depressed beliefs. Full of hesitation, she decided to try and respond. Although she had no body and her thoughts were chaotic, she still tried to speak. No sound could be heard, not even by herself, but the voice heard her question. She had asked "Who are you?".
"I am known as Cleansed Asura. Though my name won't tell you much, know that I am Chen Guo's master."
"Why are you inside my soul?"
"Isn't it obvious? I am trying to save you."
"Even if you were a Sage, there would be nothing to do for me. And although I can't sense anything about your cultivation, I can feel that you are not that better off than me. If you try to help me, we'll just die together. Instead, go and protect Chen Guo. You should be able to endure some decades in his sea of consciousness, right?"
"No matter what happens, my death is certain, but yours is not. Yes, I am now even weaker than a Sage. But you should trust my disciple, as I do. I gave him all the cards to allow your soul to recover. Better yet, if he is successful, your Soul Embryo will completely fuse with your soul. It turns out that your Soul Embryo and your soul were already very close to merging. You were probably near a breakthrough to 7th-grade Spirit Warrior. And a hundred years or so down the line, you would have reached 8th-grade Spirit Warrior without too much problem. Thus, I instructed my disciple to give a form of catalyst to your Soul Embryo.
"But that alone won't save you. However, if you follow the process I will impart to you, not only will you be able to use this catalyst to recover your consciousness, you will soar all the way to 8th-grade Spirit Warrior in a matter of hours. The only question seems to be whether you want to live or not. In my eyes, you seem to only be awaiting your death..."
Hearing this, hope got reignited in Huang Liyue. For a long while, parts of her life flashed before her eyes. She saw her brother again. Huang Lüfeng was laying in a pool of his own blood. Even his white hair were covered with his thick blood. Riddled with wounds, Huang Lüfeng had endured many torments to protect his younger sister from demonic beasts. Although he had been a late Mortal Warrior, the only thing he had been able to do in order to protect his sister had been to die. By his side, holding his hand, Huang Liyue was bawling, her sweet face deformed by pain and sadness. Everything had been her fault. If only she had not been that stupid... If only she had listened to her mother...
Then, she saw the figure of a woman floating in the sky. The very sky turned into a sea of fires as the earth below was crackling under the heat. All around the two siblings, the carcasses of the demonic beasts caught on fire and got reduced to ashes in a mere instant. Her mother had come as fast as she could, but she had been too late...
With this memory in mind, Huang Liyue remembered what it was that she had to say. She had still things in her heart she had to convey. Time was not ripe for her to die, not yet.
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Besides, she had promised to protect Huang Cixi and to support her as the next matriarch. And she had promised her to also protect 'Chen Guo', at least for a time. No matter what pain he had inflicted on the Huang family, he had also risked his life to save her and he had saved Huang Cixi as well. Could she really blame him for his actions in Yinmen City? She would have probably done the same. Suddenly she realized that she had seen herself and her own plights in Huang Cixi's story. This was why she had been interested in her. And this was why she was irrationally angry at Cao Yun. Through his actions, he was clearly an orthodox cultivator of the highest standard.
"Venerable Cleansed Asura, I am ready to listen to your words."
"Good. I won't ask you to recognize me as your master. But as I'm going to be your teacher, I only ask for one thing. Help my disciple get out of this world. And protect him. Although he needs some adversity to grow, he is the only one who can make my legacy endure, I do not want him to meet the same fate as I did. I already destroyed everything I cared about with my bare hands. This is not the legacy I want to leave behind..."
"Venerable Cleansed Asura, I already promised to him, and I already promised to my young mistress to protect him for some time. With you today, I can promise to protect him until he does not need my help anymore."
"This is enough. Then listen close. Even now, I am near the end. Soon, a drop of pure Death Energy will penetrate your soul. I will ultimately be the one to guide it within. Once it is inside your sea of consciousness, you will need to take charge of it. The slightest mistake will destroy your soul as the Death Energy will corrode everything. At the precise moment that drop will touch upon your Soul Embryo, it will jolt back your soul within your body. You won't even have an instant to think. Any delay will spell annihilation, do you hear me?"
"I do, Venerable Cleansed Asura. And I am ready to be imparted with this knowledge. I have reasons to stay alive. I swear that I won't waste your sacrifice!"
"Good."
Then, Cleansed Asura proceeded to give Huang Liyue all the instructions. Most of them had been somewhat derived from 'Death Verses'. Of course, Huang Liyue knew nothing about this text. Cleansed Asura had kept just enough strength to bring back consciousness within Huang Liyue's sleeping soul and give her this knowledge. That was the reason why he had even been unable to talk with Cao Yun. Even then, he had still wasted a bit too much energy giving visions to his disciple.
In the end, he was unable to give her every single detail of the process. Hopefully, she would be able to understand enough so that she could survive or his sacrifice would be too tragic. Back in his life he had been able to shake his entire universe. And now he was trying to conserve every tiny bit of strength to prolong his life long enough so that he could save a Spirit Warrior and a Mortal. How the mighty had fallen...
The red light converged on Huang Liyue. From it, golden characters formed. Each one was an Insight Writing. Now, Huang Liyue had to use the last stretches of her consciousness to study those. Indeed, if she were to die anyway after all the efforts and sacrifice of Cleansed Asura, his last moments would have really been tragic.
-
The notion of time for such a weak consciousness had almost dissolved. In a sense, it had become insignificant. As such, Huang Liyue felt like several centuries had gone by. But every moment, she focused on her will to get ready. She knew that at any moment, she would feel a pull. Then, if she did not act fast enough, the darkness would claim her once more.
And precisely, a force pulled her soul from this formless darkness.
As soon as she was back in her sea of consciousness, she saw the Soul Embryo around her soul. It had been pieced back together with red strings. Clearly, it had been the work of Cleansed Asura.
At the very surface of her Soul Embryo, a yellow hue was spreading, dissolving everything on its way. It was the moment of truth. Whether she would die or survive was unknown. But she was ready for it. No matter what the outcome would be, she would fight until the bitter end. She would live!
From her soul, myriads of characters flew out toward the yellow hue. They crossed the boundary of the Soul Embryo and surrounded this intruder. Within those characters, the yellow hue took on a corporeal form. It was a skull with many eye sockets, horns and fangs. There were even a few vertebrae below the skull itself. Everything was perfectly white with a yellow glint inside the eye sockets. It felt as though this yellow light was the soul of that creature. Huang Liyue knew that this was just Death Energy. But then again, Death Energy was also a form of soul. Deep down, she was convinced that what she was seeing was the real form of some ancient species that had eventually become this yellow water. But this was beyond every living thing she had ever encountered, not a demon, not a beast and certainly not a human, something else entirely.
However, she could not contemplate, she had to act fast!
Enraged, the skull tried to break the encirclement of the golden characters to no avail. Bit by bit, its very essence was extracted from it. Each character acted like some sort of magnet, pulling the skull apart. Then, each tiny particle from it was sent toward Huang Liyue's Soul Embryo.
With each one of those, a yellow light spread through her entire Soul Embryo. She even felt it through her soul as well. And she was able to feel that the connection between her soul and her Soul Embryo was getting stronger and stronger. Putting in practice what Cleansed Asura had showed her, everything made sense. Yes, if she was able to control it, she would clearly be able to break through at least twice. Then, she would not only regain her full consciousness, but she would recover from all her wounds as well.
However, she had to stay in control until the very end. And no matter what happened, she could not be distracted. The problem was that she had absolutely no idea of what was going on outside right now. Maybe everything was fine, but maybe it wasn't.
Anyway, since she had no real choice, her best option was to try and act as fast as possible while being cautious nonetheless. Hopefully, once she came back to reality, she could make sure that everything was fine.
-
In the outside world, precisely, Cao Yun had just let go of the Yellow Sorrows Water. The tiny drop had fallen exactly between Huang Liyue's eyebrows. It had fallen on her bandages and had corroded them. But the moment it had touched Huang Liyue's burnt skin, it had not corroded it at all. Instead, the drop had gently penetrated her skin, and most likely her sea of consciousness as well. Even though it only lasted for an instant, Cao Yun had been able to see one of the characters from 'Death Verses' flash between her eyebrows. His master had still protected Huang Liyue once more.
However, what Cao Yun had been fearing had happened. Not only had he let out too much Qi when he was solely focused on manipulating the drop of Death Energy, but the drop itself had caused some stirs. And Cao Yun had nowhere near enough mastery of 'Ashen Feather Seal' to hide any of this. Now, from the other side of the cave, the skeleton of Huang'er had risen. Although it had no eyes, Cao Yun could tell with certainty that it was looking right at him.
The young man was its next prey!