Cao Yun asked Huang Cixi to send a message to the Dragon's Fire Faction requesting the materials needed for the Small Moon Closing pill. He was ready to exchange up to two True Essence Low-Level Qi Gathering pills for them, but would rather do so for only one. The more he could hide his real abilities, the better, especially with potential demonic cultivators going after him.
In the evening, he kept playing with Mei Ying before focusing on his mind cultivation. Once again, he had to balance his progress with agitating the Drop of Wrath. Every repetition, the Drop of Wrath tried to attack the Po character as though fire trying to melt down metal. Every one of his attempts gave Cao Yun the opportunity to strengthen his mental defense against the Drop of Wrath. Paradoxically, it was allowing him to better control it by being so violent. But the Drop of Wrath had no intelligence, it seemingly acted on instinct alone. So even though it was very dangerous and powerful, it wasn't that much of a threat to Cao Yun, as long as his mind stayed clear.
He also advanced his Qi cultivation and was happy to notice that he was absorbing even more Qi from the small spirit stones. Very soon, he would even be able to consume the entirety of a small spirit stone in a couple of days. All this Qi was sent toward his Lower Dantian. Then he circulated it according to the 'Cultivation of Wrath' to open up his last five meridians.
After all that, he kept some time to train on 'Locking the Seven'. He discovered that the Po character was very useful as it made his Qi control a bit easier. The goal of the technique was to slow the heart down to one or two beats by minute. This was the Small Success, and the practitioner's heart would be around fifty times slower than normal. The True Success was one or two beats by hour. As it turned out, slowing the heart with this technique was very easy. The problem was keeping your body functioning thanks to your Qi. You had to control the flow of Qi to all your organs, and even move the blood yourself.
Right now, Cao Yun was able to slow down to twenty beats by minute without any problem. He stayed in this state for more than three hours while circulating his Qi accordingly.
-
In the Coiling Silk Faction residence, Lu Meihan was talking with the man in black and purple.
"Chen Guo resisted your array formation. But he doesn't seem to have noticed anything at all."
The man in black and purple had his face entirely masked so his expression could not be seen but he still seemed pensive. He finally spoke.
"We should be more careful about him. Maybe he did notice but hid it very well. I'll personally set up other array formations in your residence. Now on the matter of your health..."
Lu Meihan looked utterly defeated. "What is there to discuss about it? If I can't dual cultivate with Chen Guo, there's nothing to do. I can't very well try to go after other geniuses as they're all Mortal Warriors by now. Chen Guo is the only viable option but his mind is strong enough to resist my means."
The little hope she had received was now an even deeper despair than before. If she stayed crippled, she would have no choice but to return to her family. She was the youngest daughter of a small noble family. Without her cultivation, she would just become a political pawn married off to someone else. Cultivators were proud. Their whole life was about going against fate and nature itself to reach godhood and immortality. Resigning oneself to a fate such as this was impossible.
"But there are other ways to act. For now, do not worry too much. I have plans in motion to weaken Chen Guo. If he's wounded, getting to him will be that much easier."
Startled, Lu Meihan finally realized what she had signed up for. "You're going to physically harm a disciple of our sect?!"
"Well, you should know that there are ways to do so while respecting the rules." The man was almost laughing when he said that. "For the time being, you still need to recover some of your strength."
As soon as she heard him, a thought suddenly popped into Lu Meihan's mind. Instinctively, she tried to stand up but immediately fell back with a moan of pain. "Do you have a way?"
"Calm down, Miss Lu. Of course I have a way. But there's a reason why I never talked to you about it." The man had seen the deep despair in her eyes and decided it was the best opportunity for him. He took out a small and round metallic box. "This is called the Life Essence Phoenix Balm. I also have a manual with it. This balm, if applied to specific acupoints, can help you. It will seep through your meridians and coat them from inside with medicinal essence."
Meridians and vessels were not material constructs, at least not inside a Mortal's body, so only other energies could alter them.
The man gave the balm to Lu Meihan. As soon as she got it in hand, she opened it. A powerful blood stench flooded her nostrils. At first, it smelled like the blood of demonic beasts, but behind that was another kind of smell. Lu Meihan was a fifth-year so she had enough battle experience to recognize this smell. There was also human blood in this balm. She was deeply shocked. The 'Reversing Two Universes Dance' dual cultivation manual was at the limit of being a demonic cultivation. After all, it was possible to still perform it with a consensual partner as long as he agreed to giving part of his energy.
On the other hand, this balm truly was demonic. It wasn't just blood but blood essence. You had to kill someone to take that from them. She pondered for a while and then closed the box to examine the manual.
With her experience, she rapidly found that what the man in black and purple had said was most likely correct. She was no physician but she had consulted a few experts and had quite an understanding of her own condition. But besides the evil way from which the balm had been created, there was another toll to pay.
The medicinal essence would dissipate in her meridians faster and faster with each use of the balm. And once she would become immune to its effect, she would suffer a terrifying backlash. It would probably be powerful enough to kill her on the spot.
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"You finally understand why I waited to give you this opportunity. I estimate that once you use this Life Essence Phoenix Balm, you'll have five to six months to live. If you cannot get Chen Guo by then, it's over. I suggest you wait until the end of the month to start using it." He paused seeing the hesitation on Lu Miehan's face. "If you want to use it, of course..."
It had been several weeks that Lu Meihan was this weak. She wasn't even able to relieve or bathe herself. Every act, as simple as it seemed, required a servant to help her. It had been particularly humiliating for her. A few days ago, she would have refused the offer and probably denounced the man to the elders of the sect.
However, despair and shame were now thriving in Lu Meihan. The man in black and purple waited for a very long time. He was very patient because he already knew what the woman would choose.
"I'll only use it next month. I hope your plan succeeds so I can get my hands on Chen Guo."
"Good, good." Even with his face masked, a smile could be heard in his answer.
-
The next day, after several other trainings, Cao Yun decided to use some of his time to go talk to Sun Liao. He first asked him through his servant to know whether he had some time to help him. When Sun Liao learned that Cao Yun wanted him to teach the basics of array formations, he got excited. His servant was surprised because Sun Liao always seemed very composed and calm.
In fact, Sun Liao felt like he owed much to Cao Yun. He had tried to humiliate him during the entrance examination and had made some outrageous bet with him. But in the end, not only did he drop both matters, he even befriended him. When entering the sect, Sun Liao was very arrogant and had only scorn for commoners. This ordeal had shown him his errors.
Later, he even learned that his future master, Chief Elder Suxian, also was a commoner before entering the sect. All this served to humble him. And he had realized that he was learning and improving faster now that he wasn't blinded by so much arrogance. Oh, he was still arrogant, but his ego was now in his work. He had faith in his own abilities. What had changed was that he did not see people through their status at birth now. Also, he tried to avoid unnecessary conflicts, even though that was very hard for him to do.
In a sense, Cao Yun had broaden his mind and he discovered new ways to form array formations.
Sun Liao set an appointment with Cao Yun in the array formations pavilion. The place was not particularly big. Compared to the alchemy pavilion, it was almost the same size. Array formations could be of all sizes, so Cao Yun figured that they did not need to build huge ones while training. For example, the formation that protected the Cao residence was as large as the residence itself. Around the Wubei Sect, there should also be array formations as large as the Heidai Peak. But array formations could also fit on a weapon.
Cao Yun walked into the array formations pavilion and went to the front desk. There, a young man was reading a book while mumbling some things.
"Excuse me, I'm here to meet with Sun Liao."
The boy wasn't interested until he heard the name. "Sun Liao?!" He quickly raised his head and first saw the Heavenly Swallow emblem, then the 1-star Earth alchemist badge. Even before seeing his face, the boy knew who was before him. "Mister Chen. Of course, of course. Hui Mingyi!"
As she was called, a tall and elegant woman came out from behind a curtain and walked toward the counter.
"Please, take Mister Chen to see Young Master Sun."
The woman had a moment of surprise before showing the way to Cao Yun. He arrived in a big room filled with bookshelves. In the middle of the room was a giant compass embedded in the ground. Around the compass were several tables with some tools on them.
Sitting at one of the tables, sifting through documents, was Sun Liao.
"Young Master Sun, Mister Chen is here to see you."
"Oh?!" Sun Liao was taken out of his mind by the sweet voice. "Thank you, Hui Mingyi."
She gently bowed and left the room with the two young men.
"Brother Chen, nice to see you. I really got surprised when I received your letter. Why did you suddenly want to learn about array formations? I imagine your alchemy should already be plenty for you. Especially considering you don't want it to become your main occupation."
"Indeed, Brother Sun. But I ran into a problem and my lack of knowledge was very perilous. What I need the most is the ability to detect array formations. And in the worst case, escape from them or destroy them if possible. I don't want to delay your training, but I'd be grateful if you were able to teach me a bit about that. I'm sorry if I'm being too naive, but I really don't know much about array formations."
"No need to worry about that. I'm always glad to share my knowledge with a talented man. And I have plenty of time. I'm still a bit stuck to achieve my Pristine 5-star Earth array formation. Some going back to the basics is always a good thing. So, what do you know?"
Cao Yun had used some of his time to browse through 'Guarding the Ten Thousand Directions'. It was a good overview of array formations.
Array formations were constructs made with almost anything. They could be formed by engraving a certain shape, or just drawing it. But could also be formed through the use of flags stabbed into the ground, or even buildings or nature itself. Some masters could engrave an array formation on a plate for it to be used almost anywhere. Some masters had also created array formations by planting trees at certain locations. By arranging these in a specific alignment with nature, you could force the Qi circulating through all things, including the earth and the air, to follow a certain pathway. Then, this pathway could create mystical effects.
Some of the array formations were: attack formations, defense formations, illusory formations, sealing formations, cultivation formations, and many more. The book did not really have many examples and only talked about the basic principles.
For example, array formations were classified the same way as the pills. Earth array formations could only use a source of Qi provided to it and needed a lot of maintenance to keep working properly. On the other hand, a Human array formation contained a bit of Qi from its creator, which meant you had to be a Mortal Warrior to make them. This way, the array formation could be used a number of times without resupply. Some could even use a small part of the Qi around them, but only to strengthen them, not to activate them. A Heaven array formation could recharge and activate solely on the Qi in the environment, but sometimes it could be too long, so it was also possible to recharge it.
The main principles of array formations were the Eight Directions. But as the name of the manual suggested, these were only the main principles, and each one had many interpretations and variations. They were Qi Circulation, Yin-Yang Alternation, Five Transformations, Sixty Rotations, Eight Trigrams, Nine Halls, Twenty-Four Mountains and finally Twelve Earthly Branches and Ten Heavenly Stems.
The first principle was obvious and consisted in optimizing the flow of Qi in the array formation. The second and third one permeated to interactions between the Yin and the Yang for Yin-Yang Alternation and the five elements for Five Transformations. For an alchemist, it was pretty simple as well. Even though the application was different, the principles were the same.
Then, the other principles all had connections to the environment, either the stars, the planets, the cycle of nature, time itself. These were more difficult to put into practice. One tool that was used by array formation masters was the Luopan, a great compass.