Still enraged, Luduo Bu had only one desire: to go find Cao Yun in order to slaughter him. However, he saved a bit of his sanity and knew that trying to do so within the sect would be his last mistake. Not only would he be punished by the sect, but Xiao Xuefeng also dotted on the boy heavily, so she would probably kill him or destroy his spirit. Moreover, his benefactor needed the boy as well, so if Luduo Bu tried to kill him, he would die without knowing who murdered him.
Reasoning in such a way, he decided to leave the sect and train his 'Blood Runes'. If he had reached the third layer, 8 Blood Runes, he would have won without problem. No matter how agile Cao Yun was, he couldn't have fended off Blood Runes attacking from all eight directions. And worse, if he was able to manifest his Qi, he could control them at convenience and his martial arts would be even more formidable.
For now, he decided to focus on getting stronger and when the time came, he would torture Cao Yun to death out in the wild.
But deep within his mind, an eternal grudge had festered and given life to an inner demon. Such a thing was a disfigured echo of a cultivator's obsession. In normal cultivator, it could lead to death or insanity. But for demonic cultivators who used evil methods, the end result could literally turn them into killing machines. Evil methods could be strengthened by an inner demon but they also strengthened the inner demon as well. And if a demonic cultivator failed to keep it in check, his own mind could be devoured and replaced.
-
Other people were also thinking about Cao Yun.
In the Red Cliff Faction residence, Chan Weifeng was talking with Jiang Yifan. Next year, the current faction leader intended to join the army and Jiang Yifan would take his place. Even if he wouldn't be in the sect, Chan Weifeng wanted his faction to thrive. He had a great relationship with the faction leader before him and he did not want this faction to disappear. On the other hand, Jiang Yifan was going to lead the faction so he obviously wanted it to stay as powerful as it was, and maybe become even more influential.
"Faction Leader, aren't we going to do anything against Chen Guo?"
After a long pause, Chan Weifeng finally talked. "No. That would be a mistake. The Heavenly Swallow Faction survived all our suppression last year and now they can become stronger faster than before. And they even found an ally such as Chen Guo. What more could we do to them? We have to accept that they are here to stay."
"But, next year..."
"I know! Zhi Yin and her subordinates will be in the Ancient Ruins but Chen Guo and Mei Hua will stay. Do you think they won't attract newcomers? Hell, they may even attract some of our own very soon. Instead of thinking about how to suppress them, you should think about how to attract new members next year."
Jiang Yifan became silent. His faction leader was not wrong. Eliminating the Heavenly Swallow Faction was now impossible. The only thing to do was to convince people that joining his Red Cliff Faction was more beneficial. The fact was that it wasn't so clear. Yes their faction was bigger and had more resources. But with an alchemy genius such as Mei Hua, the Heavenly Swallow Faction could easily get more resources and their treasury was indeed growing very fast.
On the other hand, their faction was specialized in fighting. And Cao Yun was on his way to destroy all the records. After beating Luduo Bu, he was now ranked 195th on the fighting scroll. Even his faction leader did not soar that fast during his first year. And Jiang Yifan himself had to wait until the end of his first year to reach the 204th rank.
Then, there was the matter of the conditions. His faction had harsh conditions to leave whereas their Heavenly Swallow was very easy to leave. It was harder to get back in of course, but leaving was fairly easy. Obviously, Jiang Yifan did not know that Cao Yun had gotten a special condition. No matter whether he left or not, he could not join any other faction during his second year.
Although Jiang Yifan wanted to fight to uphold the reputation of the Red Cliff Faction, he had to admit his faction leader was right. There was no way to suppress the Heavenly Swallow Faction efficiently. As such, he decided to obstruct them just as much as the other factions. They would compete in the wild for resources, without going overboard. And they would compete in the fighting scroll. Sadly, he knew that no one under Cao Yun could beat him right now. In fact, Luduo Bu had gotten way stronger than his rank and Cao Yun had still beaten him.
In truth, Cao Yun could have aimed higher. If he had chosen Luduo Bu, it was because of his grudge.
-
In the Purple Northern Cloud Faction, the atmosphere was completely different. Long Jian did not really care about the future of his faction. What he loved was fighting. And after seeing Cao Yun's fight, he got fired up. But then, he got a bit gloomy. Cao Yun would not grow strong enough to contend with him in just a year. So to fight Cao Yun, he would have to wait at least five years, when he would leave the sect. And maybe even then, he may not be able to fight him either.
Long Jian had gone from excitement to depression. Fortunately, his sister was by his side. She was a second-year, Long Huafang. Just like her brother, she loved fighting and would love to fight against Cao Yun. In the ranking, she was just under Zhi Yin, so she could not challenge Cao Yun yet. Right now, she was above him. However, she felt confident that she would fight him this year, before she would go to the Ancient Ruins for her third year.
"Brother, do not be so depressed! You'll be able to see my duel with Chen Guo this year, I'm sure of it. And one day, all great fighters must fight each other. As long as Chen Guo keeps up, you will be able to test yourself against him!"
The young girl was really trying to cheer her tall brother up.
"Thank you, Huafang. You're right. What would be the point in fighting below the Mortal Warrior realm anyway?! Unless he's able to manifest his Qi, such a duel would be a letdown!"
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
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Finally, in the Coiling Silk Faction, something else was happening. Wang Mei went to report to her faction leader, but what she found surprised her beyond all reason. Lu Meihan was performing her martial art routine in the courtyard.
"Faction Leader!" Wang Mei sprinted toward her faction leader and just could not believe her eyes. Then a thought popped in her head and she got anxious. "Did you use some pills? What about the backlash?"
Lu Meihan kept moving while talking with Wang Mei. "Do not worry over that. I finally found a way to treat my problem. Everything's going to be fine!"
"But, Faction Leader?! Is it permanent?"
A sinister smile shined on Lu Meihan's face. "It will be!" When she was finally over, she went to her subordinate. "Wang Mei, talk to me about Chen Guo and your 'friend' Ren Chao."
Wang Mei felt something a bit off in Lu Meihan's eyes but she thought it was only her excitement. After all, she had been forced to stay in her bed for several months. She could not even bathe or relieve herself without any help. This had been truly humiliating and her future seemed terribly bleak.
Anyway, Wang Mei got her mind together and began to chitchat with her faction leader. They used to talk very often before her backlash and Wang Mei was elated to be able to go back to these times.
-
The man everyone was talking about was cultivating in his room. Today was the day of the resources distribution. He had already consumed all his small spirit stones and was waiting for the next batch. As his rank had soared, so did his points. Right now, he was over 2,500 points. It was getting higher and higher and gave him more and more resources and time in the array formations.
Early in the morning, some servants knocked on his door. Huang Cixi was the one to answer. After carefully checking the resources, she thanked the servant and closed the door.
"Young Master, you received two medium spirit stones and six small ones."
"Medium stones? Aren't they worth at least twenty small spirit stones each?" He took the stones and examined the medium ones. They were four times bigger but their color was much darker.
"Well, it depends on each stone. But it should be around twenty times richer in Qi. Both the size and the density are higher."
Just by touching the medium spirit stones, he felt a surge of Qi through his palms. He was already absorbing Qi at almost his fastest speed. But with these stones and his new knowledge of array formations, he could maybe increase his speed a little. It would not be a huge improvement but everything was good to take.
Right now, he had two main objectives. He needed to find out the truth about the demonic cultivators and he also had to get as strong as possible. Indeed, if he were to fight against Luduo Bu in the wild, he would most likely die. As long as he was within the sect, he wasn't too worried, but Chief Elder Bian's attitude was a bit suspicious. Anyway, he had to focus on what he could control. The main tool that gave him all these benefits was his mind cultivation.
For now, his Po cultivation was progressing smoothly. However he had to be careful as his Drop of Wrath always got excited and threatened to burn Po the Metal Corporeal Soul. As such, he advanced by only one repetition each day. But this wasn't a huge problem as it was really smooth. Maybe he could find ways to speed things up but he was more concerned about strengthening his Qi cultivation and his martial arts.
And for now, what he needed the most was sufficient knowledge of array formations to sneak inside the Coiling Silk Faction. Moreover, he could also use array formations to speed up his Qi cultivation without danger. Unlike pills, using an array formation had no negative impact as it did not affect the body directly but rather the environment around the cultivator. Of course, it was faster to increase your cultivation with high-ranked pills, but many alchemists who did so had very poor fighting strength. There were even cases of early Spirit Warriors being defeated by late Mortal Warriors.
Before getting down to it, he first entered his sea of consciousness. The two stars shining in his sky were brighter than ever and they even reflected a tiny bit in the clear sea below. Cao Yun put his focus on the orange one, the Neck Star. This star was deeply connected with stances and, even more, with movements. Even his understanding of the 'Raging Storm in Still Rock' treatise and of the 'stillness within movement' and 'movement within stillness' was engraved inside this star. Moreover, he had put a bit of 'Stopping the Waves' within.
He had almost perfected the 'Locking the Seven' part of the stealth manual. In a week or two, he would be able to erase his presence so completely that only a late Mortal Warrior or Spirit Warrior would be able to detect him. His movement comprehension had been lagging behind a little, until he broke through in his 'Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars'. While focusing on the two stars, the head of a dragon began to appear. Strangely, it was a blue dragon even though the Neck Star was orange and way bigger and brighter, the blue of the Horn Star was dominant. Only the head and a part of its neck was visible. It was still very faint but with his sharp senses, Cao Yun could see it vaguely.
As he looked at the movement of the stars, he saw how the Azure Dragon was moving and it deepened his understanding. He was pretty sure that his 'Stopping the Waves' would be perfected in a matter of days if he kept on training and studying the stars as a reference.
In Cao Yun's mind, his stealth was assured in a matter of two weeks, tops. His other problem was then to set an array formation allowing him to cultivate more quickly and efficiently. And of course, he also needed to be able to detect array formations in order to sneak into the Coiling Silk Faction residence. Each time he got new knowledge, he used his 'Shen Visualization' to figure out where in this residence array formations could be set up. In his mind, he had a perfect replica of the residence, at least the courtyards. In the inside, apart from the building he had gotten into, he was blind.
So, he needed to sharpen his skills to guess the array formations beforehand. But he also needed to be able to identify them when he would be there in person. The best course of action would be to avoid them, but maybe he would also have to break through them. And then, that was the hard part as he would have to neither activate nor destroy them so as to not alert anyone he had broken into the residence.
Anyway, the only person who could help him achieve such a result was Sun Liao. He was the genius of the outer sect and close to Chief Elder Suxian, the chief elder in charge of the array formation pavilion.
Once again, Cao Yun decided to go visit his friend with all the questions he had in mind. In fact, his questions always pertained to array formations able to increase the cultivation speed and array formations susceptible to be set in the courtyards of the Coiling Silk Faction residence. Memorizing many books on array formations, he had discovered very bizarre array formations with effects he would never have suspected were even possible.
Just as he got really immersed in alchemy once he started to learn it, array formations were another rabbit hole. But he had a clear goal in mind. It was always good to learn more about other occupations, but his time was limited and the new strength of Luduo Bu was worrying Cao Yun. He needed to gather as much information in as little time as possible.
Hence, he set out to go toward the array formation pavilion in order to find his friend. Once he got there, he learned from the reception desk that Sun Liao was training with Chief Elder Suxian. Cao Yun did not want to insist and was even ready to leave. But the receptionist stopped him.
"Wait, Master Chen. Chief Elder Suxian told me to report your presence as soon as you arrived. Please, wait a moment."
As soon as she had spoken, the receptionist ran through a corridor.