Getting back to his residence, Cao Yun felt extremely serene. Although he had not solved all his inner turmoils, his mind was clear. Partly, it was due to his Soul Embryo being fully nourished. But this in itself was due to his state of mind that had changed. While he was walking back home, Cao Yun took all his time and read philosophy and poetry. In his sea of consciousness, the words were echoing and he was enjoying them as much as he was projecting them into the Palace of Supreme Wisdom. Indeed, Cao Yun was still hoping for some miracle. Since he couldn't tell whether Dian Mo's spirit was totally extinguished or not, he would act as though there was yet chance for him.
At last, the young man reached the capital Sidina. Thus, Hongyu couldn't walk freely in. That being said, he had received the permission from Minister Renhai through High Mother Lisha. Walking into the city, the guards let him and Hongyu pass. They didn't even ask for any document. Indeed, they had memorized the faces of everyone they shouldn't be messing with. Obviously, Cao Yun was part of those people. Even if they had tried to stop him, Cao Yun could still enter the city even without not realizing it. Anyway, the soft way was always a better approach if possible. It felt better to enter through the main gate rather than sneak in.
The two of them finally got to Cao Yun's residence. The young man gave orders so that a place would be prepared for Hongyu until the day of their departure. Now, Cao Yun had nothing more to do than to wait for the arrival of the navigator Jing Baiyu. Then, he would simply wait some more until their boat departed and they reached God's Land as the Desolate Sepulcher called the main continent. For humans of the Hongchen Kingdom, the continent didn't even have a name other than Hongchen Continent. Ultimately, the entire planet belonged to the humans as the demons had invaded it long ago.
Obviously, no one imagined that mankind would ever be able to take the entire Piaolu planet back. But no one could accept to concede any portion of the continent to the demons who had enslaved their kind for so many generations. Thus, the continent didn't get a proper name. Even the Desolate Sepulcher had no name on the maps of the Hongchen Kingdom. But to be fair, no one had ever been there since the Great War. The humans weren't even sure whether there were inhabitants there so the need for a name had never occurred.
After Hongyu settled in the inner courtyard, Cao Yun cultivated for a few weeks.
Many things happened throughout the Desolate Sepulcher. Nie Pian was recognized as the acting City Lord of Siqian City. In the shadows, a lot of city lords or other influential cities were intriguing to take over after his time was up. But the Sisters of the Abyss gave him all their support. Besides, a few people tried to form secret alliances with Dan Yao to take down Nie Pian and Siqian City thinking that they were mortal enemies, which they publicly were. This allowed Dan Yao and Nie Pian to completely grasp the nature of their true enemies. Indeed, Nie Pian also received the same kind of propositions.
As a matter of fact, they either stayed ambiguous or simply accepted some of those alliances. For all intents and purposes, they were mortal enemies and they were going to play this part as well as they could. This way, they would be able to protect each other. Of course, it was difficult to know how long such a situation could go on. Moreover, Nie Pian was already rather old and his cultivation could not progress too far. Thus, he was already thinking about a heir. On the other hand, Dan Yao was young, and as an alchemist, he would get access to many pills that would help him cultivate and prolong his lifespan.
The Xinian Confederation also fell into the hands of both men. Together, they controlled the entire thing. But obviously, everyone was convinced that they were at odds. Once again, they would have to keep up the appearances but they could influence the Xinian Confederation to do exactly what they wanted.
The nomadic tribes were also gaining in strength. The Sun Scorpion Clan was getting more and more recruits. With enough time, it might even become a small army that could rival with the Nalupu Kingdom. In the Desolate Dune Desert, at the very least, they would become unbeatable. And they formed strong ties to both Nie Pian and Dan Yao. Some ties were public and others were more secretive. The poison used by the Sun Scorpion Clan to strengthen themselves had been replaced by the pills of Dan Yao. Of course, there was still poison within. But the Sisters of the Abyss could sanction those pills as much transformation had occurred in the refinement process. After all, the Sisters were the arbiter of religion. If they claimed that pills were not poison, they were not. Besides, the recipes themselves were secret so no one really knew how much poison if any was in those pills.
In other words, everything was going pretty well. Cao Yun had truly transformed the Desolate Sepulcher. Although he had not fundamentally changed the institutions, he had changed all of their leaders, except for Lord Wanghuo. And he had also deeply altered their links to one another. Apart from the Nalupu Kingdom itself, everything else was working together. Maybe this Desolate Sepulcher could form a single political entity, like the Hongchen Kingdom did. This would obviously make things easier. But this was now out of Cao Yun's hands. After carefully choosing those he had placed in high positions, he could only hope for the best. In the end, this wasn't his land and he didn't want to force his views on them all. Honestly, he wasn't even sure what his views were on many subjects. And he couldn't be bothered with it.
In seclusion, Cao Yun focused on his Soul Embryo. It was still asleep in his Huang Ting, the Yellow Court. Within his stomach, Cao Yun could feel a great warmth. It was both physical and emotional. From his stomach, it spread throughout his body, slowly transforming his very flesh and meridians. All the way to his Upper Dantian, he could sense this radiant energy. Everywhere in his body, Cao Yun could perceive this silver hue. But it was also accompanied by the intent of his Drop of Wrath. The two of them were mixed together.
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In fact, Cao Yun could see that his Drop of Wrath had tinges of silver in it. On the other hand, his Soul Embryo was not affected by his Drop of Wrath yet. Indeed, Cao Yun was consciously preventing it for the time being. Before trying to merge them together, he wanted to make sure that his Soul Embryo was safe. But this phenomenon proved to him that fusing his Demon Soul and his Soul Embryo could ultimately work. At the very least, they were not clashing with each other. So this was a positive signal.
During the 'Awaken the Embryo' stage, the technique was extremely simple. No matter what he tried to read on the matter, the answer was always the same. One had to focus on their Soul Embryo with enough sincerity to make it wake up. For some, it could take one to two years. For others, it might take decades. There was no absolute. Even talent wasn't much of an indicator. According to some legends, there was a cultivator who had gone through terrible hardships to reach this stage. Everyone had thought that he would never be able to awaken his Soul Embryo. Yet, it had awaken after a single day. Of course, there was no way to make sure whether this story was true or not.
The point of the story remained true nonetheless. It was almost impossible to predict how long one would need to awaken their Soul Embryo. But an average cultivator would take somewhere between five to twenty years. The lucky few would probably only need one to two years. But doing so in less than a year was unheard of outside of stories and legends.
Although there was no trick and no shortcut, there were many techniques. In fact, there were too many techniques. Cao Yun went through all known techniques within the Hongchen Kingdom. Then, he looked through what Cleansed Asura had discovered himself. In 'Cultivation of Wrath' itself, there were dozens of techniques. Each one had notes from Cleansed Asura. As a matter of fact, his conclusion was always the same. The technique didn't really matter as long as it wasn't a poor one. Among the good techniques, there was no superior art. Each technique was simply different and how useful one was depended solely on the individual. Consequently, it was impossible to really decide on any universal technique.
Cao Yun would have to choose the one he found was the best suited for him.
Obviously, he discarded all the techniques that seemed terrible. In order to awaken one's Soul Embryo, one had to focus on it and slowly wake it up. During the process, the Soul Embryo could get frightened or even injured. It was like waking up a small fragile infant. At the same time, the process itself would increase the link between the cultivator and their Soul Embryo. So this stage could help the cultivator's future cultivation if it was done well. Ultimately, the cultivator's soul and Soul Embryo would become one. Thus they had to be extremely intimate with one another.
Among the discarded techniques was 'Starfall on a Frozen Lake'. This was a terribly aggressive method only advised to those who had formed an incomplete or already injured Soul Embryo. As it was impossible to form another one, they would have to make do with it. So this technique was a form of gamble to try and still improve one's Soul Embryo. But it could injure it even further. If the cultivator was not good enough or simply unlucky, they could literally shatter their Soul Embryo. Obviously, Cao Yun didn't consider using it. But he still read it to get a better idea on how it was supposed to work.
Even the failed techniques could help Cao Yun. Understanding what not to do was also a good thing. Some of those techniques seemed almost suicidal. 'Silver Moth Drinks the Dawn' was using a decoction to awaken one's Soul Embryo. But this decoction was a form of poison. It would literally cause the Soul Embryo to reach a critical state to force it to awaken. The success rate was incredibly low. Only a desperate cultivator would ever try such a thing. Besides, it had to be repeated several times as it would jolt the Soul Embryo awake, if it didn't die, but it would fall back into a deep slumber.
Looking through the technique and manuals, Cao Yun tried to imagine what they would feel like. He even tested a few of them on himself. Apart from the crazy techniques, each one was indeed good but none was great. Of course, testing them for several weeks or months would be necessary to really compare them. But that would mean that Cao Yun would simply have awoken his Soul Embryo before choosing a technique.
From everything he read, it was necessary to choose a technique and then trust it. Changing one's technique all the time wasn't a good idea. The main argument that convinced Cao Yun was that one would simply get better at using a technique. Changing after months of practice would necessarily lead to using a technique with less proficiency. Thus, Cao Yun decided to follow Cleansed Asura's written advice. He focused on the techniques of the 'Cultivation of Wrath'. Among them, few were really using the Drop of Wrath. And, as a matter of fact, those were other techniques Cleansed Asura had altered to use the Drop of Wrath's intent instead of one's own intent.
In other words, he had not been able to create a technique that was truly unique to the Drop of Wrath. After all, he had most likely been unable to really test it.
The names of all those techniques were getting blurry in Cao Yun's mind. 'Moonlight Stirs the Depths'. 'Veil of Mist Upon the Mirror'. 'Gentle Rain on Jade Leaves'. 'Silent Bell Beneath the Mountain'. 'Lantern Hung in the Abyss'. 'Soft Thunder in Hollow Bones'. 'Hidden Ember, Patient Flame'. 'Waters Erode the Mountains'. 'Golden Hammer on Silver Rock'.
He read all those techniques and the notes left by Cleansed Asura. Pondering over the matter for a long time, Cao Yun decided to use the last one, 'Golden Hammer on Silver Rock'. But he didn't use it as it was written.
This 'Golden Hammer on Silver Rock' consisted in using one's intent to slowly knock on one's Huang Ting. Some techniques directly knocked on the Soul Embryo but not this one. Instead, it was using both the Middle Dantian and Lower Dantian to produce some vibration within the Huang Ting between them. With enough time, those vibrations would awaken the Soul Embryo. However, Cao Yun altered it with what he had learned from all the techniques he had read.
Using the intent of the Drop of Wrath, he filled both of his Dantian with Qi and knocked as though his intent was a hammer and his Dantian bells. Vibrations erupted. Using his marrow, he made sure to focus this vibration within the Huang Ting. His understanding of 'Dance of Slaughter' helped him control these vibrations.
At first, he was obviously extremely careful and the vibrations were faint. With more and more practice, he would slowly increase them depending on the reaction of his Soul Embryo. After each strike of the hammer, Cao Yun made sure that the Soul Embryo was reacting well. Within his Dantian, he didn't just send Qi, he also poured some of his Golden Blood and even some faint traces of his Turbid Demons along the intent of the Drop of Wrath.
Between each session, Cao Yun focused on the Soul Embryo to feel how it was reacting and to plan for the next small strike. The process was tedious and long. But it was safe.