First of all, Cao Yun focused on the Antique Sixian characters. After all, learning about this language was very important to him. Unfortunately, the documents he had from Cleansed Asura were all corrupted. When he had sent them to his disciple's mind, Cleansed Asura had tried to translate them. But because he had been too weak, only a handful of them had been effectively translated. And apart from 'Cultivation of Wrath', none was useful for his cultivation.

On the other hand, the rest of the documents had become a mix of Antique Sixian and Nuhua. Some were combining the two writing systems while others were using only one of them but were phonetic. There were some texts in pure Nuhua but they didn't make any sense at all. And the only explanation was that the characters had been used phonetically to transcribe the original Antique Sixian without any translation. It was also possible that the opposite had happened. In other words, some text in Antique Sixian might just be a phonetic transcription of Nuhua. But since Cao Yun could not read the Antique Sixian script, he couldn't be sure.

To put it simply, these documents were a complete mess. Even learning the Antique Sixian would not allow Cao Yun to read everything. But it was a necessary step nonetheless. Thankfully, he had a bit of Cleansed Asura's memories so he at least knew how the language sounded like. But he had not enough control over those memories to go through them as he pleased. Otherwise, learning the language would be easier. Besides, they were also fragments of his true memories. In some of them, he didn't even speak Antique Sixian.

Looking at the Antique Sixian characters, Cao Yun then tried to find any occurrence of those in the documents in his sea of consciousness. Thankfully, they were not rare at all. In fact, one of them seemed very common. It had been greatly stylized in the calligraphy and Cao Yun had also failed to recognize it at first. By cross-referencing everything and thanks to the context of the calligraphy, he was able to deduce their meaning. Finally, he was even able to get their reading. Hopefully, the Antique Sixian simply had one reading per character, or few variations. Otherwise, things would get even harder.

For several hours, Cao Yun tried to deduce the meaning of other characters, either because they had similar parts from those he already knew, or because they were often associated together. Of course, he wasn't able to decipher the entire script, but he certainly made a lot of progress. In the following days, he would keep working on it when he would have some time.

Since those characters were referring to one's soul, they were even a bit helpful in reading the 'Death Verses'. Cao Yun was also able to read of handful of poems and small texts. In the end, he was very satisfied. However, he had not abandoned the idea that there was something more in that calligraphy. Surely, if the Sisters of the Abyss had wanted it so bad, there had to be something else. Furthermore, it had clearly been written by the same demon who had written his 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks'.

Using his Flying Poison and even his partially subdued Unclean Evil, the young human tried to follow the writing directly within the ink. Just as if he was manipulating his Qi, he controlled those aspects of his very soul outside of his body and traced the characters. Unfortunately, it didn't help him at all. Maybe the Sisters of the Abyss had just been after the ink because of the blood within. If that was the case, Cao Yun could definitely extract the blood and use it for himself. But somehow it felt like such a loss.

Using his logic, Cao Yun tried to analyze the calligraphy once more. Then, it hit him. He even wondered why he had not thought of it any sooner. The calligraphy had been done of silk paper made out of Saint Wallowing Moth's silk threads. To begin with, this choice of paper was highly unusual among demons. Moreover, the Saint Wallowing Moth was also known to be heavily affected by the emotions around it. It could literally feed off the remnants of souls either in the air or in blood. Hence, their silk was a very good conductor of spiritual senses.

But this wasn't all, the ink had been a mix of the writer's blood and Deafening Thunderous Liger's blood essence. Although the blood essence of this legendary Immortal Beast was incredibly precious, this wasn't what attracted the young cultivator. Indeed, this blood was also extremely yang and would naturally clash with the silk of the Saint Wallowing Moth. Considering the craftsmanship of the calligraphy, this choice didn't seem intelligent at all. And looking at it more closely, the blood had not penetrated deep into the paper. Without the blood from the writer, the calligraphy would have probably not endured so long in fact.

The ink was precious because of the blood within. But what truly mattered was the paper itself, neither the ink nor the calligraphy.

Once he had reached such a conclusion, Cao Yun thought about jade slips. Jade slips were made by carving out the interior of some jade. In order to read them, one had to send either their Qi or their spiritual senses into them. Then, they would retrace the engravings and be able to read the contents. Maybe there was something similar.

With a lot of caution, Cao Yun sent his Qi with the intent of the Drop of Wrath into the silk paper first. He would not use his spiritual senses from the beginning. And he finally saw it, well he sensed it. The way the paper had been made was extremely complicated and convoluted. There was no reason to assemble the fibers like that. In other words, it was the paper itself that contained a deep meaning. The characters were just some superficial thing to lose the unknowing reader.

Following those fibers, Cao Yun was able to see great similarities with some of the Insight Writings in the 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks' manual. Any doubt that was still impairing Cao Yun disappeared.

Finally, he used his spiritual senses to try and decipher the meaning behind this silk paper. His Flying Poison entered it and immediately, the young man sensed a powerful pull on his soul. It was as though something was trying to lead it on a specific path. Although his first instinct was to resist, he decided otherwise. He let a large part of his Flying Poison follow this pull. Then, he focused on the trajectory within the silk paper.

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Before long, he clearly felt that his Flying Poison was tracing a specific character. In fact, it traced several characters forming an entire sentence. It was not written in any language known to Cao Yun, but it was mixing both Antique Sixian, Nuhua, Insight Writings and other scripts he had never seen before. He even suspected that some characters had been invented. Indeed, what mattered wasn't the shape of the characters or the sentence. What truly mattered was the path followed by his Flying Poison.

Now that he had no more reason to fear anything, he sent his entire Flying Poison within the silk paper. At last, he understood the meaning of this path. On a superficial level, it was simply explaining the concepts behind the Flying Poison which Cao Yun already knew. The Flying Poison was really the Po of Jing, the Earth aspect of the Po. In its Turbid Demon form, the Flying Poison was related to anger and wrath.

Once again, what truly mattered was more subtle. Along the path, the silk of the paper itself added something to Cao Yun's Flying Poison. He could tell that it was tempering it somehow. However, since he had already achieved a complete form of his Flying Poison, it was a bit useless. That being said, it might be very efficient when used with his Unclean Evil. Thus, that was exactly what Cao Yun did. Taking the Flying Poison back in his sea of consciousness, he send then his Unclean Evil in the paper.

Considering that he was working on his Unclean Evil, using this silk paper proved useful. He could feel that there were traces of someone's spiritual senses along the silk. Those remnants were attacking his Unclean Evil without causing too much damage. After only two circulations though, Cao Yun was forced to stop. Indeed, his soul was starting to truly hurt. Although each small attack was not that impressive, their cumulative nature was a real problem. In some sense, it was like working on his muscles. Hurting them was good as long as it wasn't too much. A bit of pain was necessary but too much pain would cause lasting damage.

Of course, when it came to his soul, Cao Yun was not ready to have it injured in any way. Besides, Dian Mo's doubts about his personality being changed by his mind cultivation were still affecting him a little. As much as he claimed that he was the same man, he was still fearful of the possibility. After all, one's personality was defined by the constant interaction between their souls. Thus, working on his souls could indeed change him. Changing wasn't too frightening to him because he had understood that what he perceived as his ego was truly different from those. However, he had no intention of becoming something he didn't want to become.

Taking his Unclean Evil back in his sea of consciousness, Cao Yun felt how much powerful it had become. In less than a few minutes, he had advanced this aspect of his Po as though he had trained for two to three days. Even though he would need some rest before doing it again, this would obviously improve his mind cultivation's speed. Although he thought about attempting to work on another one of his Po, he stopped himself. First, he would analyze the effects on his Unclean Evil. Later, he could try other ways to use this calligraphy. Very carefully, he put it in his spatial ring.

-

After his session, Cao Yun took some rest. He received reports from his hunters that the heads of the assassins had been sent to Weiji Nian. And as he had expected, she didn't cause any problem. In the Hongchen Kingdom, Cao Yun would have had problems with the authorities of the city. But in Duma City, Weiji Nian had no reason to show her weakness. As long as it stayed between them, she would not reveal it publicly. Face and reputation seemed much more important in the Desolate Sepulcher. After all, the administration of the Nalupu Kingdom wasn't as strong as the Hongchen Kingdom.

Of course, Weiji Nian had a lot of hostility toward Cao Yun. But he also knew she would not go overboard. At least, she would probably ask her uncle's permission to do anything, or maybe her husband. Indeed, her husband was working for City Lord Sihe. No matter who she would ask, it would take a lot of time for her to get a reply. Alone, she would not do anything against Cao Yun, especially if he allied himself with Boss Gui. What truly worried Cao Yun was the Sisters of the Abyss.

While he was resting, Cao Yun received the visit of both Xixue and Meiyue. The two girls kowtowed in front of him. Looking at them, there was no doubt that they shared a common ancestry as daughters of the Lotus Tribe.

"Lord Mo, thank you for your generosity."

Meiyue's face had completely changed. There was a new light in her eyes, as well as deep rage and hatred. Just like Xixue, she wanted the blood of those who had tormented her.

"Miss Meiyue, I am sorry for what happened to you. But could you tell it to me in more details?"

There was pain in her eyes but she forced herself to remember as much as she could. By her side, Xixue put her hand on her shoulder. For the first time, Cao Yun was seeing a warm aspect of Xixue's personality. Clearly, he had never seen her true face yet. Or, to be more precise, he had simply seen superficial facets of her true self.

"I was taken by some slave hunters, just like Yinlü."

As she pronounced that name, Meiyue stopped to look at her cousin. Seeing the hurt in her eyes, Cao Yun didn't have to ask who this Yinlü was.

"But they separated us before we reached Duma City. Because they had taken a lot of women, they decided to have some fun before selling us. Yinlü was among the best fighters and her bloodline was higher than most so she was kept safe. For the rest of us, we were first sold to different brothels. Then, I was bought by an influential man. When our dual cultivation became too slow for him, he sold me again. And finally, you bought... I mean, you freed me."

"Then, you never actually were sold to Boss Gui?"

"No."

"Did you hear anything about her, besides the common rumors?"

"Very little... Some slaves confirmed that she could be insanely cruel, but that she was also extremely fair. To be honest, it's hard to know exactly who this Boss Gui is. I fear that you'll need to form your own opinion. I cannot help you on that matter."

"I understand. Thank you. What do you intend to do now?"

Although he was speaking to Meiyue, his words also concerned Xixue.

"Lord Mo, I don't want to stay in this damned city longer than necessary. If it pleases you, I would like to leave in order to join other tribes in the desert. Although our Lotus Tribe is gone, there are parent tribes still roaming through the desert."

"I understand. I will give you what's necessary. I will also send word to Ruohe so your travel is safe. And I will have a message for the tribes you meet."

Although he had not planned for it, this could be a good opportunity for Cao Yun to improve his reputation among the nomad tribes. And they would clearly be useful allies in his plans. While in Ruohe, he had heard that some had decided to call him Tie Po. To be honest, he wasn't entirely sure of the translation of this name. But since they had chosen this name for him, he would keep it while interacting with the tribes.

On the other hand, Xixue had no intention of leaving.