As soon as Cao Yun was done, the tree where the Hellish Dragon Fruit had grown began to take on a new shade. Until now, it had been completely darkened by burns. But slowly, there was a new life that was being infused into it. Along the burnt bark, cracks appeared. Within those fissures, there was a red hue that looked both like blood and fire. It was very faint and yet, it gave off an impression of life despite the fact that the tree itself appeared to have been dead for some time.
Like Cao Yun, the hunters were Mortal Warriors, albeit less powerful. All of them immediately had the sensation that the Five Bloods Pheasant was back to life. If they had not been present to see Cao Yun work on this array formation, they would have been convinced that the demonic beast had been able to reform himself. Of course, it was impossible since Cao Yun had used pieces of his corpse while Hongyu was now chewing on everything he had discarded.
Apart from the hunters, all the demonic beasts around the nest were also able to feel it. The Five Bloods Pheasant's presence was faint but it was there. He had survived the fight and was weakened. But he was alive. In the distance, his two rivals had been full of hesitation. Now, they were faced with the fact that he had endured. As such, they began to wait to see whether the other one would act or not. Neither of them wanted a conflict right now as they were years or even decades from forming a seventh core. What they wanted was stability.
If either one of them were to attack though, they all had to react. Thankfully, the Five Bloods Pheasant would not attack for a very long time. In fact, he might never get the opportunity in the future. Thus, the Golden Plumed Jackal and the Flame-Tailed Wolf were now the main demonic beasts in the Yunling Forest.
Cao Yun waited for some time as Hongyu was restoring herself. Like the hunters, he was observing the situation. Without spiritual senses, he was forced to analyze the flow of Qi around them. Apparently, the two other 6-core demonic beasts retreated deeper into their own territory. There would be no crisis. After taking many risks, Cao Yun had triumphed. However, he was still a bit sour about Huang Si. By now, he was almost certain that she had adapted her plans for him knowing full well that he was Chen Guo. Most likely, she had counted on him to get rid of the triple threat of those beasts. Yes, he had obtained the Hellish Dragon Fruit, but he still felt used and wronged.
In fact, this feeling came from watching Hongyu. She had suffered very serious injuries. And to be honest, it was his fault. In the fight, he had miscalculated the rage and the strength of the Five Bloods Pheasant. If he had known that he would be ready to kill himself to destroy his enemies and that he had a fragment of the Dao of Fire, he would have rather risked exposing his martial arts. After all, he could use Huang Si's influence to silence the hunters to a degree. But what was done was done. Now he could only try and make it up to her. Thankfully, he had the Hellish Dragon Fruit with him.
"City Lord, tell Miss Huang that I will come back shortly. But for now my mount needs some rest. I'll take her away in some cave."
In the distance, the Deep Cloud Ridge was visible as large walls enclosing the Yunling Forest. At first, Zeng Bei was about to protest as Huang Si had asked her to bring Guai Mo back. But she saw that there was no room to negotiate with him. Huang Si would have to wait.
"Of course, Alchemist Guai. I would recommend going to the northwest. This is the most peaceful area in my opinion."
"Thank you."
Cao Yun went to Hongyu. She was still weak but she had regained enough strength to stand up and even fly a little. The young man touched her neck and stroked her feathers with affection. And she raised her head to let him get access to her neck while showing her pleasure with quiet noises.
"I'm sorry, but we have to travel a little. Then I'll help you get better."
There was no hesitation in Hongyu's response, she lowered herself to let him on her back. And immediately, she flew in the direction he had chosen, to the northwest of the Deep Cloud Ridge.
-
Cao Yun and Hongyu were both exhausted and hurt. Her feathers had mostly gone back to red but they were still darker than usual. Also, her pupils were injected with dark blood. Overall, she was fine, but her condition was not ideal. For now, the most important thing was to recover. Hongyu was clearly not in any condition to fly around so Cao Yun had chosen a very nearby spot he had already identified on some maps. By his analysis, this had to be a great place to recover. In fact, this Deep Cloud Ridge seemed very interesting as it was almost isolated from everything else.
Dian Mo had also discovered something that Cao Yun had found interesting. The subsoil was extremely rich in Qi, way more than what anyone could suspect. Most likely there was something very special right under their feet and no one had ever imagined it. Of course, Cao Yun had immediately thought that this was the reason why the Huang family had began to show interest in this place. And he was right.
Once Cao Yun found the right spot within the mountains of the Deep Cloud Ridge, he took out another spear he had in his spatial ring and began to alter the cave. Not only did he expand it a little, carving two rooms in the back, he also engraved a few array formations.
Most of them were very simple ones to make sure that the cave was stable and that the flow of Qi was harmonious within. Indeed, he wanted to both improve their recovery and work on his cultivation. In the entrance of the cave, he also set up four array formations in order to hide it, filter the flow of Qi from the outside while preventing the Qi inside from leaking out, and detect any intruder. Along with those, he also added an array formation to kill any intruder as well. It was not permanently activated but he just had to send a surge of Qi to do so, just in case. Any demonic beast with fewer than four cores and any human within the Mortal realm would be killed for sure by this. The others would be weakened and would become easy pickings.
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Now that all the preparations were done, Cao Yun had several things he wanted to do. The first and most important action was to take care of Hongyu. Right now, she was digesting the few remains of the Five Bloods Pheasant. But that was barely enough to heal her from her internal injuries.
Of course, Cao Yun felt guilty. If he had known that the Five Bloods Pheasant would go so crazy after losing the Hellish Dragon Fruit, he might have reconsidered. He had not imagined that the Hellish Dragon Fruit had obtained a fragment of the Dao of Fire. It was no wonder the Five Bloods Pheasant had flown into such a rage. Now that he was calm, Cao Yun realized that his actions had been too rash. He was still a bit too weak and should have prepared even more. This was mistake he would not repeat. When he would take down Gu Song, there wouldn't be any way for him to escape his fate!
Revisiting what had happened, Cao Yun had many ideas but he would explore them later. This would teach him a lot indeed.
Right now though, Cao Yun took one pill from his spatial ring. He had already prepared some pills for Hongyu by using his own blood with the intent of the Drop of Wrath. Each one could help provide her with enough energy to keep the Evil Qi under control. As she was digesting the pill, Cao Yun helped her guide the medicinal essence through her body. Using this as an opportunity, he also helped her strengthen the seal around the evil core. At some point, she might be able to use it freely, but for now, this evil core was more damaging to her than her enemies.
Once she was finally in a better condition, Cao Yun lead her into one of the rooms he had carved. With the Hellish Dragon Fruit in mind, Cao Yun had set up an array formation within. From the fruit, he took yet another scale off and used it as a foundation for the room. Slowly, the room became richer and richer in Fire Qi. The properties of the scale were slowly getting extracted. Although it would be a bit much for Cao Yun, this level of Fire Qi was good for Hongyu. After all, she had the bloodline of the True Fiery Fenghuang.
Under the effect of the Hellish Dragon Fruit's Fire Qi, Hongyu immediately felt comfortable. She felt as though she was back in her warm egg. The sensation was heavenly after the cold touch of the Evil Qi. Visible to the naked eyes, her feathers regained their red color from which her name had originated.
After making sure that Hongyu was fine, Cao Yun went into the other room.
There were two things he needed to do and others he would like to ponder over.
His first order of business was to take care of his Bai Hui and his Five Prodigious Gates in general. He had had enough! Cao Yun was now confident that his Bai Hui was healed but each time he tried to use it, he recoiled in fear. Although he could fight this fright off with his mind cultivation, he wanted a more permanent and stable solution. After what had happened to him in the Demon Palace, Cao Yun would put more emphasis on stability. But he didn't want to slow down too much either.
This weakness had cost him several months without much progress in his Qi cultivation. Although his blood cultivation was advancing, it wasn't very useful to him for now. Indeed, he had already reached a strength equivalent to a Golden Blood Child. Currently, he was just going through the proper path of the demon cultivation in order to stabilize his blood cultivation and ensure his future progress. As such, it wasn't very useful in the present but would help him a lot in the future.
Considering that tempering the Five Prodigious Gates could take two to three years to average cultivators, Cao Yun didn't want to slack off. The best thing for him would be to have reached 4th-grade Mortal Warrior before the Alchemy Conference in less than two years. In fact, he could even start to work on Fire Qi before reaching this stage. Now that he had such a source of Fire Qi, he really wanted to use it. Besides, Fire Qi was very useful for alchemists.
Of course, Cao Yun would not try to gather Fire Qi within his Middle Dantian before officially becoming a 4th-grade Mortal Warrior. That meant that he had to get to it as soon as possible.
After what had happened, Cao Yun had realized that he had a good way to temper his Five Prodigious Gates. Since his Bai Hui had been repaired by the seed of the world tree, his Five Prodigious Gates seemed to have become richer in Wood element. Wood was nourished by Water and was fuel for Fire. As an alchemist, Cao Yun knew how to balance those elements out. In fact, this would also be a very good test of his abilities as an alchemist.
In the room he had made for himself, Cao Yun was ready to set up an array formation.
"Are you sure you don't want my help?"
"I appreciate your concerns, although I'm surprised by your eagerness to help him..."
"Don't take it the wrong way! If you're too weak and you die, I'll die too."
"I understand. And I am grateful for your help, no matter how selfish your goals might have been. That being said, I already have my own ideas on the array formation I'm going to use. I am thinking about using the Center of All Things."
"Oh? It isn't a bad idea... That wouldn't have been my first choice, but it's not too difficult to set it up."
Despite the name that could seem grand, the Center of All Things was only a 5-star Human array formation. Its goal was to neutralize any variation of the elements and create a perfectly balanced environment. As such, Cao Yun would be completely isolated from the turbulence of the outside world. He would be especially protected from the Fire Qi concentrated in Hongyu's room. Indeed, there was some leakage, albeit very little of it.
Contrary to his previous work in the Five Bloods Pheasant's nest, Cao Yun did not get precise instructions from Dian Mo. However, he asked some advice on certain points. Cao Yun didn't want to become reliant on Dian Mo. As much as the spirit was useful, Cao Yun still didn't trust him fully, to the point where Dian Mo was still trapped in his Nine Soul Peaks. Working with him was very useful for his understanding of array formations though. Furthermore, it could also be a tremendous help to turn the Horn Star into a constellation.
Sitting cross-legged, Cao Yun focused his intent and all of his mind in his Five Prodigious Gates. It didn't take him long to feel like his entire body was a single dot surrounded by five wells of energy. Those wells were made of wood. And from them, there were roots intertwining among each other. When he followed them, they were all leading inwards, completely surrounding the dot of light that was his body.
Those wells seemed to be both within and without his body at the same time. Indeed, those were the Five Prodigious Gates, linking the human body to the outside world.
By now, all of his Five Prodigious Gates had been affected by the seed of the world tree. Cao Yun observed as the process was still going. And he focused on it, nourishing the wells with the Water Qi he had gathered in his Lower Dantian when he had been a 6th-grade Mortal. Replenishing it was now easy for him. As such, he could use it without too much care.
And it worked exactly as he had thought. The wells became more and more resplendent as the Wood element within was fed by Water Qi. However, as his Bai Hui was getting more vibrant, a sudden terror entered Cao Yun's mind. His psyche faltered and he almost lost his focus. The image of the pool of lava in which he had almost lost his cultivation for good surfaced in Cao Yun's mind. Even his sea of consciousness began to turn into lava while Dian Mo was spectating.