For a period of time, the crew had been more relaxed than usual. After all, it was extremely rare to be attacked right after a Blood Storm. Indeed, the demonic beasts would either run away or be destroyed by it. With hindsight, Cao Yun knew that the demonic beasts killed by the Blood Storm would probably make it last longer and be even more violent. Thus, a Blood Storm could easily degenerate and become an incredibly vicious phenomenon.
Now that the ship was moving again, the crew became increasingly more tensed. After enough rest, Cao Yun was finally allowed back among them. It wasn't that they had not wanted him. But they had realized that if another threat came their way, having Cao Yun at his best was the right idea. Even Captain Jing Baiyu had not realized how important Cao Yun could be for his ship. Now that he had came to this realization, he obviously wanted him to be ready for what could come next. That being said, Cao Yun did work as much as anyone else.
Instead of reducing the workload of Cao Yun, the entire crew tried to work harder and harder. Cao Yun's mere presence was galvanizing them. Jing Baiyu wasn't too sure he liked it as he didn't want his crew to overwork themselves. Thankfully, they still were reasonable enough. After all, working to exhaustion and then making mistakes was extremely stupid and they were aware of that. None of them were novices.
Although the crew, Cao Yun and Hongyu had a better relation, the atmosphere was even more tense than before. After all, everyone was waiting for another disaster to happen. WIth each passing day, the disaster seemed to draw closer and closer. The fact that it wasn't happening just made the crew mad. Not a single one of them could believe that they would cross the rest of the Divine Blood Ocean without any other incident, no matter how small or big.
While Cao Yun was carefully working, he was also developing his cultivation. With each breath he was taking, Cao Yun was practicing 'Golden Hammer on Silver Rock'. Now, it was almost instinctive. But simply doing it out of habit wasn't as effective as focusing on his Soul Embryo at the same time. Thus, Cao Yun was diverting a large part of his mind and intent to do just that. He imagined golden melodies being produced by the shock on his Middle Dantian and Lower Dantian. Slowly, those melodies were filling his Huang Ting and reaching his Soul Embryo. The silver embryo was being engulfed in those melodies.
They weren't just random vibrations. With his intent, Cao Yun kept sending parts of his mind and soul in them. In fact, he even recognized notes that belonged to his newly formed Spear Heart. With such a practice, this would make his Soul Embryo more familiar with his own soul. Thus, this would speed up the next stages of his cultivation. In fact, when his Soul Embryo would awaken, it would immediately be a bit more powerful.
This wasn't all Cao Yun was doing. He was also using his Drop of Wrath that acted as his Demon Soul. Indeed, his goal was, in time, to fuse the two souls together, along with his of course. He might not be able to produce the kind of soul the legendary Three Jade Saints had, but he was excited to see if he could succeed and what would happen. Since he was feeling that both souls were compatible with each other, he wasn't worried. Besides, he could change his mind if things were to change. Cao Yun wouldn't risk his very soul without any insurance beforehand. But this seemed like a good idea at the moment. When the time came, he would make his final judgment. However, this might be a way to finally break the curse of the Forsaken Dao Era.
Cultivating the two systems had made Cao Yun realize how well they worked together. In fact, he was a bit disappointed that he couldn't cultivate the deva system. He had never even met a deva. In the documents left by Cleansed Asura, he barely read anything about them. Either Cleansed Asura had not meant any of them, or, more likely, the documents talking about them were not among those deciphered yet. The only thing Cao Yun knew for certain was that the deva system focused on the soul itself.
Humans had Qi and meridians, but their bodies were inferior to the asura who cultivated their blood. Humans had souls that were a bit weaker in will but much more stable when it came to emotions. This allowed humans to form better masters when it came to the arts of the soul and the mind. On the other hand, asura had much stronger wills, but their emotions could more easily lead them astray. However, they had fewer risks of forming inner demons thanks to their will. And asura had no meridians, their Qi was fully contained within their blood. In the Piaolu planet, the asura and humans had birthed the demons, but they were almost identical to actual asura. It was just the way Demon God Da Mo had named them to distinguish them from himself.
It was said that the Three Jade Saints had Three Heavenly Treasures: Jin Xue, the Golden Blood, Tian Qi, the Heaven Qi and Hun Po, the Perfect Soul. While humans had inherited the Tian Qi and asura the Jin Xue, it was logical that the deva had inherited the Hun Po, the Perfect Soul. From what Cao Yun read, deva had no meridian but their Qi wasn't in their blood. Immediately, it became confusing but he couldn't find much more information on that. He read something about the Five Winds but couldn't make much sense out of it. Maybe it was just a different name for something humans and asura had, or it was something else entirely. After all, humans had meridians and demons hadn't. It stood to reason that the deva might have something neither humans or demons had.
Anyway, there was nothing very useful on the deva. Moreover, Cao Yun was much more interested in deciphering other books and manuals, such as 'Death Verses'.
-
For weeks, Fading Fang sailed without any issue. Several times, demonic beasts came dangerously close but they were detected in time and Jing Baiyu was able to navigate around them. He even avoided another smaller Blood Storm. At some point, Cao Yun saw a large part of the Divine Blood Ocean in the distance fall into darkness suddenly. It was as though an isolated area had fallen into the night for no apparent reason. Even the clouds had not shown any sign of this. In a way, it was as if light have ceased to exist for a very long time.
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Jing Baiyu had felt it or something like that because he had altered the course of Fading Fang before the phenomenon happened. Having never read anything about such an event, Cao Yun was quite shocked. This Divine Blood Ocean was indeed extremely strange and dangerous. To be honest, he didn't want to experiment that area of darkness for himself. Out of curiosity, he did try to get some info from the captain.
The White Whale didn't answer much. In fact, he had absolutely no idea what it was himself. But he had lost a few ships in such a tragedy. The sailors had called it the Orb of Decay because it seemed to be a spherical phenomenon. It wasn't just light that was extinguished, Qi itself ceased to exist in this space. After such an event, the crew would find the unfortunate ships caught in this Orb of Decay. Everyone on board had turned into dry bodies. Not a single drop of blood or ounce of Qi remained in them, hence the associated name.
They had even had a case when a sailor just lost an arm and a part of his leg because they had been caught in an Orb of Decay. The pain had been so terrible, he had cut off his limbs himself to escape. Most likely, this had saved his life, but he had lost a huge part of his vitality and had died a few months later anyway.
All that being said, Jing Baiyu himself had no actual idea how he had been able to sense it. Indeed, this was the most important question for Cao Yun. He wanted to be able to detect those before they happened. Unfortunately, Jing Baiyu had just acted on instinct alone. After many decades on the Divine Blood Ocean, he had learned to trust his instincts, and he was mostly right.
-
According to Jing Baiyu, they would reach God's Land in a month or less. Unfortunately, the Desolate Sepulcher didn't have a detailed map of God's Land. And Cao Yun only had a detailed map of the Hongchen Kingdom and what was around it. The Empyrean Asura Theocracy was mostly a mystery to the Hongchen Kingdom. And it was also the case to the Desolate Sepulcher. After all, they only traded with them through the Divine Blood Ocean so the crew had never been able to draw a map except for the shores they were visiting. That being said, it allowed Cao Yun to choose the most suitable port. This was a very small port where he could easily disappear toward nearby villages. But it was still close enough to other large cities to allow him to get there if he could.
Cao Yun's first goal was to find his way back to the Hongchen Kingdom of course. But he also wanted to use this opportunity to learn more about their enemies. If he could, Cao Yun might even be able to deal them heavy blows. Although this wasn't his first priority, Cao Yun didn't want to get rid of Emperor Weide just to see the Hongchen Kingdom eradicated by the Empyrea Asura Theocracy. If he saved his sister just so she could die in other horrendous ways, this would be useless.
After his time among the demons of the Desolate Sepulcher, Cao Yun had become more familiar with their ways. Obviously, the demons in the Empyrean Asura Theocracy had a different culture. They even had a different religion entirely, and were persecuting everyone who didn't share it. But his time among the demons still made Cao Yun feel like he could get to know them better. Indeed, the Desolate Sepulcher was at least able to have a trading relationship with them. Of course, if they had been on the same continent, the Empyrean Asura Theocracy would have destroyed the Sisters of the Abyss to force their beliefs on all. And in time, they might just do that after killing every single human.
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Fading Fang was sailing in a quite turbulent sea, but nothing too bad. It was night and the rain was falling heavily on the ship. Since no one could use spiritual senses, either because they simply physically couldn't or because Jing Baiyu had forbidden it so as to not attract demonic beasts, they were covered in rain. The water within the rain was a bit acid but nothing that could really injure a powerful demon cultivator. It didn't affect Cao Yun at all while it was just slightly uncomfortable for the rest of the crew.
Suddenly, they heard thunder, but they didn't see any lightning. It happened again, closer this time, but still no lightning. Before anyone could find it strange, Jing Baiyu screamed orders all over the place. The crew and Cao Yun didn't think for one second and obeyed his every words. This was the very first time Jing Baiyu was forced to scream with such panic in his voice. Usually, his crew knew exactly what to do. But this time, he assumed full control of his crew, giving them direct orders.
At first, he tried to alter the course of Fading Fang. But the thunder still came closer. When it was clear, they couldn't be faster than whatever this was, he tried to move in yet another direction but slower as to not cause any ruckus. Unfortunately, the sound still followed them. No matter where they were going, the sound was clearly following them. The crew became terrified as they could tell something was chasing them. But they didn't panic and kept obeying their captain. Cao Yun did the same.
In the lower decks though, Hongyu was panicking indeed. She could tell that a powerful demonic beast was chasing them. There was no doubt at all. And it was much more powerful than even the Crimson Dune Lord that could have killed her easily without Cao Yun's intervention. In fact, she was worried that it had even exceeded the realm of mere demonic beasts. Could it have been an Immortal Beast?!
If the crew had heard Hongyu's thoughts, they would have lost their will. Against a 9-core demonic beast, they had almost no chance, but against an Immortal Beast, they were already all dead. Cao Yun couldn't feel what Hongyu was experiencing but he could still perceive her terror even though she was in the lower decks. Moreover, he could tell that Jing Baiyu was also terrified of something. At the same time, he was controlling himself so as to not discourage his crew. Clearly though, Jing Baiyu was already thinking on how to survive, not on how to fight or escape.
Jing Baiyu was cursing in his heart. This had already happened to him. Touching his chest, he felt a deep scar that was still there. During their first encounter, he had almost lost his life as he had literally been cut apart. The wound had miraculously spared his heart. Considering how important he was seen by the Nalupu Kingdom, they had used all their medicine on him to save his life. Evidently, it had worked out. But this time, he didn't think he could survive at all. However, Cao Yun might be able to.
At the moment, Jing Baiyu was hesitating between asking Cao Yun for help, which he knew Cao Yun would gladly give, or asking the young man to escape with Hongyu. With the knowledge he had imparted to the boy, he could most likely survive the rest of the way to the shore.
Unfortunately, this dilemma was solved when a large shadow appeared beneath Fading Fang. All around the ship, columns of water rose into the air. In an instant, there was a huge cage formed of water and whirlwinds in a perfect circle surrounding Fading Fang. Then, they heard a scream that almost killed the entire crew. A fourth of the men fainted just after hearing this guttural scream. They were right above a 9-core demonic beasts and they were its prey.