Dian Mo explained to Cao Yun what a blood oath really was.

"Just like when a cultivator swears on their Dao Heart, a blood oath is nothing like a seal. It won't prevent her from doing anything. However, if she does, she will suffer a backlash from her own blood. In other words, she might just decided to break her oath anyway. Besides, I'm almost certain she already made an oath with whoever she works for be it Empyrean Asura Theocracy or not."

"I know. No matter what, we can't trust her. General Yun and Patriarch Xue both know that too. But she might have some useful information. Are you absolutely sure that she can destroy her own mind?"

"Well, I can't be sure of that. There are some techniques to do that. Now if you ask me whether she knows them or not, I can't say."

"It's possible to prevent a cultivator from detonating their Dantian by destroying them, is there such a thing I could do against her?"

"Since I don't sense a powerful soul cultivation in her, if she indeed knows such a technique, it should be related to blood. So in theory, a seal in her blood could prevent that. Or you could extract her soul before she could do anything. Once her soul is out of her body, she won't be able to do anything to it, but her soul wouldn't survive very long after all."

"Wait! If she needs to actively use her blood to use her technique, I know what to do."

As the two Spirit Warriors were also discussing what to do through telepathy, Cao Yun acted. Surprised, they couldn't react in time. Cao Yun palm had already struck Cang Yin's chest. His Wei Qi entered her body and in less than a breath, her meridians were ruptured, then her Lower and Middle Dantian collapsed. But Cao Yun controlled the energy within to prevent any lasting damage to her flesh. All that happened so fast that no one was able to comprehend the situation. Cang Yin lost consciousness and fell on the ground, alive.

Then, Cao Yun felt spiritual senses all around him.

"I knew you were a traitor! You were just trying to silence your accomplice!"

"Old man, don't be too rash!"

Although General Yun wanted to defend Cao Yun, it was hard to do so under those circumstances. If Cang Yin was a spy sent by demons, keeping her alive to extract as much as they could from her was essential. And trying to kill her could indeed be considered as an act of treason. On the other hand, it was clear that Cao Yun had not killed her. However, he had completely crippled her. The moment she would wake up, she could still use her blood to destroy her own soul and erase all her memories. The two Spirit Warriors also knew that some strange techniques like that existed. Thankfully they were rare so taking prisoners was still possible, but that was a huge risk to take right now.

"Seniors, this humble one is sorry. I had to act as fast as I could, and if I had tried to warn you, she would also have been warned. I couldn't risk her acting before I knocked her unconscious. We all know that all the blood oaths she could make wouldn't assure us of anything. Most likely, she already made a blood oath with her master anyway. If she accepts to suffer the consequences of breaking her oaths, they mean nothing. But since she needs to control her blood to activate whatever technique she threatened us with, we can simply deal with it while she's unconscious."

"Deal with it?! If it were that easy..."

"Patriarch Xue, you forget that I'm an alchemist and I have Tree of Death's knowledge of poisons. I already came up with something. Unfortunately it won't be perfect, but it will be good enough to wait for an expert to perform a deep Soul Memory Search. With your testimonies, I think it's safe to assume that such a procedure will be not only permeated but encouraged or even ordered."

"Young Sect Master, are you sure your poisons can prevent her from using whatever blood technique she had in mind?"

"Nothing is ever certain, but it will buy us a lot more time to extract her memories."

From his spatial ring, Cao Yun took out two powders and began to mix them. He was very careful with the quantity. At some point, he took Cang Yin's wrist to feel her pulse. Of course, he also used the opportunity to spread a bit of his Qi and intent in her veins. Now that he controlled the Drop of Wrath, his intent and the intent of that drop of blood were one and the same. If his concoction didn't work, he could still make do with some subterfuge that wouldn't reveal everything.

By inspecting her blood, he couldn't detect any seal of any kind. At the very least, that wouldn't be a problem. But if her master had sent her in enemy territory without such a seal, then it was likely that her claim wasn't a bluff. She had some way to prevent others from getting anything out of her mind.

Using the knowledge from the book written by Tree of Death, Cao Yun mixed together some fen of Fading Lila Powder and a tinge of Salt of the White Turtle. Fading Lila Powder was only a 3-star Earth poison that could cause paralysis or sleep depending on the dosage. On the other hand, Salt of the White Turtle was a potent 4-star Human poison that could bind with blood cells to destroy them. Such a poison would cause incredible pain before killing the victim. But like any other poison, the dosage meant everything. In fact, some physician even used this Salt of the White Turtle in a few treatments as it could also stop bleeding and promote coagulation.

Right now, Cao Yun wanted to keep Cang Yin knocked out while preventing her blood from acting up. In an instant, he had already tested many combinations in his mind. But if he failed in his dosage, he could kill her which would be a problem of course. Besides, by destroying her meridians, he had weakened her body a lot. But without that, knocking her unconscious would have been harder. And she would have still been able to threaten them of detonating her Dantian. At least, she was now a mere mortal with a somewhat powerful and strange blood.

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Finally, Cao Yun was confident about his mixture. Using his 'Aureate Grove' he put that powder into a pill. Instead of manipulating medicinal essence, he manipulated the toxins to refine a poison pill. There wasn't really a name to it and Cao Yun didn't care about naming it either. That poison would be considered a 5-star Earth poison. If she had been awake, Cang Yin might have tried to resist it and even activate her suicide technique. But she was out cold and Cao Yun forced the pill in her throat.

With his Qi he monitored her and directed the poison throughout her system. Thanks to his knowledge of blood cultivation, he was able to target the right places in order to weaken her bloodstream. Even if she wanted to activate her technique, she would be unable to do so. In fact, she would be weakened for several months until the poison was completely detoxified by her own body. In that time, he was certain that someone could look through her soul to know everything that she knew. Hopefully, that person would be Xiao Xuefeng. But Cao Yun simply couldn't take Cang Yin directly to her. Right now, he would be forced to give her to the Governor. Thus, the Imperial City would decide on her fate.

At the very least, Cao Yun had proved his innocence for the time being. And he could justify his actions toward Cang Yin as a way to deceive a demonic cultivator, Gu Song. Thankfully, he had been careful around her and had not given her anything that could be used against him now.

"Generals, this Cang Yin will stay unconscious for several more days. After that, I can assure you that she won't be able to use any blood technique at all. We just need to make sure that someone extracts her memories in a reasonable delay."

After that, the three men came back to Qingyun City with their captive. Patriarch Xue quickly went to check on his residence. Even now, the elders were examining the damage to the array formations. There were also public servants from the Governor's residence who were there to note everything as well. Maybe the Governor would be forced to lend some money or some workforce to help them. After all, he couldn't leave the Xue family in such a state.

Now, Cao Yun would have to explain why he had lied to the Governor and by extension to the Imperial City. Unfortunately, he might be forced to rely on the prestige of the Wubei Sect and this could hurt Sect Leader Xuan a little. Now that he knew who Emperor Weide really was, he didn't want to help strengthen him and weaken his opponents. Hopefully he was still injured by the Demon King's attack seventy years ago. But politically, he was still the most influential and powerful man in the Hongchen Kingdom.

-

"Governor, this humble one asks your forgiveness. In order to deceive our enemy, I was forced to deceive my allies."

"Young Sect Master, I already heard everything. Your intentions were good and I understand why you acted in such a manner. However, you did lie on official records and you didn't warn any officials of the matter. Worse, you've even implicated the Myriad Cherry Blossom Hall in your lies as well as your Wubei Sect. Without them, it's obvious that your little stunt wouldn't have worked. Although you did catch a dangerous demonic cultivator, his body and soul were destroyed so we won't be able to get anything at all from him. Besides, the Xue family suffered greatly from that and the reputation of our Qingyun City was tarnished."

For some reason, the three men, even Patriarch Xue, felt as though Governor Jiahe was more upset about the very last part. His main concern was that a demonic cultivator had been right under his nose. Of course, such news would be a problem if the Imperial Inspector knew about it. That alone could be cause enough to take his position from him. In fact, Cao Yun's fake identity would be too. If it was that easy to infiltrate his capital, he couldn't be trusted to lead men into battle.

Worse than that, there was a demon spy who had worked as his servant, Ming Huo. Absolutely no one could know of that outside this room or he was certain that he would be called back to the Imperial City. Thus, Governor Jiahe was acting as though Cao Yun's actions were the worst offense possible. That way he might be able to shift some blame onto others. In fact, he might try to shift some of the blame on Patriarch Xue and General Yun as well. If everyone was to blame, he might keep as much of what had happened as possible secret.

"Governor, someone demands an audience."

Interrupting the discussion, Minister Yong entered the room. If it had been a servant, Governor Jiahe would have been furious. But if his own minister was interrupting then something really serious was happening. Behind Minister Yong, Cao Yun recognized a woman he had worked with, Yong Ke. Her figure was still completely hidden under the veil of her weimao. But just by the way she was moving around, he had recognized her.

Before he could ask anything, Governor Jiahe received a message from Minister Yong. Technically, it was forbidden to use spiritual senses while in an official hearing as everything had to be recorded. But that meeting was quite informal. In fact, there was no one to record anything at all. After hearing what Minister Yong had told him, Governor Jiahe almost knelt. It was very quick but everyone sensed that he stopped himself at the very last moment. Who was really Yong Ke?!

Cao Yun had known that she had some ties with the Imperial City, at least he had guessed it. And the current situation confirmed his guess. Otherwise, Governor Jiahe would have acted in a completely different manner.

Although Yong Ke seemed to be really shy when it came to informal or intimate conversations, she was overbearing when it came to more official discussions. Even with her clothes hiding completely her identity, everyone in the room could feel her presence. When her voice resounded, no one had the idea of cutting her off.

"Governor, I reviewed the way you've handled the government of this province. It is seriously lacking. So much so that General Yun was forced to take the lead during the demonic beasts stampede. Then, there was a series of strange disappearances and you did absolutely nothing. This is why I've come to this province. And this is why I enlisted Chen Guo's help. I am the one who authorized him to lie on official documents. Of course, I forbid him from revealing anything without my permission. So if you have any question about the way he acted, then you should direct them at me!"

"No, of course not, Firs... I mean, Miss. I wouldn't dare question you."

"Good. But I have questions of my own though. And I will demand some explanations from you, 'Governor'. In the meantime, we should resolve the current crisis. Many people are wondering what happened and it is necessary to give them an answer that will preserve the unity of our kingdom. Patriarch Xue!"

Although he didn't know who that woman was, Patriarch Xue was smart enough to know that he was highly outranked right now. Thus, he showed no arrogance and bowed toward the concealed woman.

"The treason and death of your junior is indeed a tragedy for your family. There is no need for anyone to know about it. Xue Rui was assassinated by a demonic cultivator because he had found him out. Then, discovered, he tried to save his life by attacking your residence and you've killed him yourself with General Yun's help. That is what happened in your residence and that is what everyone from your residence will claim whether they've seen otherwise or not."