Still captive inside the world of blood and savagery, Cao Yun was now surrounded by corpses. At first, he had been completely overrun by feral beasts. There had been so many that he had not even been able to correctly see them. But now, all around him, they were dead. Finally he would get some peace. Even if his mind was rather peaceful, his body was completely exhausted. As much as he could heal himself with his blood cultivation, it didn't prevent him from getting tired.

Everything in his body was screaming in agony. Strangely enough though, this instant of quiet threw him into chaos. Indeed, during the fight, he was completely immersed in his own savagery and his mind was tranquil because of it. But now every signal in his body was sent into his mind. All of a sudden he felt all the pain and fatigue he had accumulated for almost a month.

Thankfully, his mind cultivation was still powerful enough to keep it quiet. Despite the feelings, his body was in an incredible condition. Right now, Cao Yun knew he was as strong, if not stronger than a late Mortal Warrior. And it wasn't just physical strength. Considering that his blood was extremely rich in Qi now, his own reserves were three times superior to what they would be if he only had his Qi cultivation. And even his Qi cultivation was more stable and firm than for most cultivators, thanks to the training of Chief Instructor Peng.

Now, Cao Yun could finally try to stabilize what he had gained. The first thing he wanted to do was to try and condense all of his blood into his heart for longer periods of time. That way he could harmonize all of his blood. Indeed, he had absorbed more and more blood from every part of his body so it was still a bit chaotic inside of him. Now that he wasn't using his body, this would maybe cause a backlash. During the fight, it wasn't a problem because he was burning most of what he absorbed. Because it was circulating so fast, it couldn't cause too much of an unbalance in him.

Soon the young man heard some noises that were not very reassuring. This was a disgusting sound of liquid being sucked into something.

All around him, Cao Yun watched in disbelief. The corpses were sucking up the blood as their wounds were rapidly healing, just like him. If he could heal his wounds with blood, there was no reason for creatures bathing in a constant pool of blood to not be able to.

Unlike the other realms he had been to, this place was not really a test created by the Palace of Supreme Wisdom. There was no test at all in fact. This was a hell manufactured by the Palace Spirit Dian Mo. Cao Yun knew exactly what he was. This palace had been created by humans before the Demon God Da Mo enslaved the planet. Even the demons could not control this place and ended up using it just like the Wubei Sect to train their young ones. But that had not prevented them from trying to control this place. And Dian Mo was an attempt to control the Palace of Supreme Wisdom.

If what he had said was true, Dian Mo had been created by Da Mo himself. Even he could not fully control the Palace of Supreme Wisdom. Most likely, he had just been able to change it enough for it to be beneficial to demons instead of humans. In fact, this realm was probably one of the training grounds crafted for the demons. But Cao Yun was unable to determine how far the influence of Dian Mo could reach. As a matter of fact, it was certain that he could not kill everyone in the realms otherwise he would have done so already after all those years. But maybe there were terrible things he could still do that would require such a sacrifice that he had never done it before.

As such, it was prudent to play it safe. Although Cao Yun knew that his lies were not necessarily very convincing, they could instill enough doubts to buy him some time. But apparently, the Palace Spirit had decided to treat him as a real demon. And he had to go through the same kind of training they had several millenniums ago.

Pushing aside the idea of resting or cultivating, Cao Yun was forced to fight again. As long as there would be blood in this world, the corpses would rise again and again. But Cao Yun could not just absorb everything in his own body.

Once more, the young man circulated the intent of the Drop of Wrath in his entire body. Now it was literally part of every fiber of his being as the blood had gained the attributes of the Drop of Wrath. And it had spread it throughout his entire system.

'Dance of Slaughter'.

Cao Yun mixed his punching routine with several other martial arts he knew to keep on fighting. As he went back into the melee, Cao Yun forgot both the pain and the fatigue. They just vanished as though they had never existed. Before the beasts could fully regenerate, Cao Yun struck them with all his might, trying to destroy their bodies as much as he could. Hopefully, by tearing them apart limb by limb, he would be able to either prevent them from rising back or at least slow it down. He himself was not convinced he could recover from a severed limb. But those things were not human at all. And they were neither demonic beasts nor demons. They were completely different.

As such, Cao Yun had no idea what rules would apply to them in this realm. But since the spirit had asked him to survive two months, the assault of the beasts was probably never ending.

That didn't prevent him from trying something anyway.

-

Mo Zi was sitting cross-legged with more than three hundred blood runes levitating all around him. On both his sides, Neng Lue and Wang Jinhua were standing guard. Although this world was devoid of threat right now, there could still be dangers due to what he was attempting right now.

Mo Zi had planted strange flags all over the place. Those were made from bones. It was difficult to tell for sure, but some were clearly from demonic beasts while others could come from humans. Each one had many engravings and they were perfectly well preserved, just as well as Can Mouye had done with Huang'er's bones. Between each flag, there were occasional surges of energies of various colors. Some particular flags were even shining a strange color that almost seemed alive. Everything was under Mo Zi's control. Among the Mortal Warriors, he was clearly the strongest array formation master.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

In fact, he could probably kill an early Spirit Warrior if he could prepare the right array formation beforehand. But even in an actual fight, he was still rather good. Of course, in a fair fight, he was not a match for Neng Lue, and not even for Wang Jinhua. But he had no fear of them attacking or even slightly disobeying him. If they entertained that thought, his master's seal would torture them right away and eventually kill them. Even if he were to ask them to lay down their life for him, they would have almost no choice. The seal would not just kill their flesh, but their soul as well.

Finally, Mo Zi was done. In front of him were the remaining pieces of the Absolute Haven Lotus array formation plate. Lightning bolts pierced them and turned them into dust. Then a delicate wind scattered them in a very particular manner. The preparation was done.

"Get ready! I'll try to break down all the boundaries between the realms. As soon as I do, all kinds of worlds will bleed into one another. To be absolutely honest, I have no clear idea of what will happen exactly. But within this array formation we'll be protected by the remnants of Master Mo Tian's masterpiece. No matter what happens around us, if you value your lives, you will not leave my sides."

Mo Zi did not wait for any confirmation. Those two women were not stupid. They knew he knew his craft.

Suddenly, the flags began to glow. Powerful bursts of light erupted from them in all directions. With the naked eye it was difficult to make out but these pillars of light were made of lotus petals. Each one was so incandescent that they all appeared to meld together in one coherent beam of light. All around the realm they were in, the demonic cultivators saw those beams strike something that wasn't there. It was as though there were invisible walls around them.

Neng Lue and Wang Jinhua were surprised and Mo Zi sensed it.

"My master studied this Palace of Supreme Wisdom for a very long time. Although the space we're in appears as vast as our world, it is not. In fact, the Palace of Supreme Wisdom uses a mixture of space control and illusions. We're really inside a closed dimension, but we're also under several illusions to make us perceive it way larger than it actually is. After all, even this complex mosaic of array formations could not handle the creation of hundreds of realms every year. Thus, whoever built it got very imaginative to save as much energy as possible. Only what is necessary is created, everything else is an illusion. This is the reason why there is a need for a complex spirit to manage everything."

"And do you believe this Palace Spirit will see our mission with a good eye?"

"It's hard to tell. On one hand, it will rise his master from the dead. On the other, it will enslave him to our will."

Both women were quite shocked when they heard him. Indeed, they knew how important this mission was but they had no real detail. Were they going to bring some demon back from the dead? Were they just going to get one of his weapons? But they knew better than to ask. However, there was still one question that bothered Wang Jinhua.

"Couldn't this spirit destroy us if we're inside the array formation he controls?"

"Ha ha ha. No. From what we discovered, this Palace Spirit was created to replace the former spirit that was loyal to the humans. And it succeeded, that spirit is gone. However, the new one was unable to gain any substantial control over the array formation, no matter how long he tried. To perform even simple tasks, it requires great amounts of energy from him and he could even destroy himself. In a way, he's still fighting the ghost of the previous owner. Not only couldn't he hurt us, but I am fairly confident he will welcome us. After all, we can offer him freedom from this place. Still, a spirit created by demons should never be trus..."

Suddenly, Mo Zi shut up. And both women followed suit. Seeing a frown on his face, they knew something had happened.

Looking in the distance, they were able to see various sceneries in the void of space. Each pillar of light had opened what appeared to be windows toward other realms. Some were giant architectures, others were great sceneries of nature, desert, jungle, strange places they could not even start to describe. There was no mistake, Mo Zi had unlocked all the other realms. Now he just had to break the veil between them.

"Get ready! Do not move!"

All the blood runes he had around him began to scatter. They went inside the pillars of light. As projectiles, they were shot toward each window at the same time. More and more cracks appeared in the fabric of reality itself. It was as though the void of space was a giant dome of glass that was being destroyed from the inside.

-

Similar scenes were happening everywhere at once.

For example, Sun Liao who was still thinking about what had happened to him was now seeing the void of space high in the blue sky he was under. Although his understanding of the laws of space was limited, he knew enough to get what this was. Someone was trying to breach into this world. But he couldn't be sure of their goal. Maybe the demonic cultivators were after him because he had seen them. That didn't make sense though. Indeed, he could not navigate those realms as he wished so he was trapped and not a threat to them. Clearly, they were after something else. Something he had?

Looking more intently through this window made of cracks in the veil between realms, Sun Liao saw other such windows. And he understood. They were collapsing all the realms into one. Although he had no idea of what would happen, Sun Liao decided to be pro-active. Just in case, he gripped his Supreme emblem. Hopefully, it would protect him of whatever was going to happen. There were protective array formations within the Palace of Supreme Wisdom. Sun Liao was hoping they would still help him.

And he was not alone with this hope. All the Wubei disciples who were still alive gripped their Supreme emblem even if they were in the middle of something. Others did as well, demonic cultivators. They had all been scattered into different realms. They had emerged in small groups and had killed whoever was with them. Thankfully for them, they had remembered what their masters had told them. Before killing any Wubei disciple, they had taken their Supreme emblem to ensure that they would not be transported elsewhere.

Thus, they all had Supreme emblems and they gripped them as well. Some accepted to share while others decided that it was a good opportunity to slaughter their allies. They were not certain whether several people could be protected by one Supreme emblem. So they had to be sure...

-

Finally, the veils completely collapsed. As much as the cracks had been spreading gradually, the collapse happened in an instant. As soon as the damage was too much to bear, every boundary exploded into tiny pieces. Then, everyone was blinded by a powerful light. And all the Supreme emblems emitted heat that spread all around them. Everyone that was holding one of those felt as though they were inside a warm cocoon. Some demonic cultivators realized that they had no reason to kill their allies because the emblem was acting on an area large enough for several people.

Deep in the Palace of Supreme Wisdom, someone was shocked by the events, Dian Mo.