Once again Cao Yun's soul entered Yao Baiyi's sea of consciousness. Immediately, he sensed that something was very different from the old man or any other demon he had faced in the past. There was something foreign and yet familiar not just in her blood but also in her soul. Soon, he found out that several seals had been placed in her very soul. In fact, those seals were within her bloodstream and they all emanated from her Golden Fate, her very essence. Whoever had crafted this seal was ingenuous. Even with his knowledge of seals, it was difficult for Cao Yun to understand it in a short amount of time. Worse than that, he had failed to notice it before literally entering Yao Baiyi's body with his soul.
And now, those seals were attacking him. Cao Yun realized that his soul couldn't exit her body as long as those seals were present. In her sea of consciousness, the vast shadow of a towering demon began to appear. It was quite literally made of shadow as it had no real form or shape. Each time Cao Yun looked at it, it had changed. Without any hesitation, the young man manifested the large form of Axiu Qian. But that shadow was slippery. No matter how times Axiu Qian tried to attack it, it would just slip away like water.
Each time, the shadow demon would also try to invade Axiu Qian's body. Thankfully, the Black Heart Flame was burning it. However, it couldn't burn the entire shadow itself. As their fight was raging on within Yao Baiyi's very soul, the priestess was suffering immensely. That shadow wasn't a part of her, it was a foreign invader as well. And the poor priestess was now its battlefield. Clearly its goal was to destroy Cao Yun or Yao Baiyi herself should it fail in its first endeavor.
In the physical realm, Cao Yun had kept a large part of his soul outside of Yao Baiyi's body. So he was still aware of what was going on around him. Unfortunately, most of his soul was indeed locked in a fight with this shadowy figure. And he could sense that General Si Hongdi was slowly breaking free of his 'Weeping Demon'. With each passing moment, she was gathering her killing intent to push back against Cao Yun's mental attack. It wouldn't be long before she was completely free. On the other hand, Cao Yun was the one who was weakened at the moment.
Although a 1st-grade Accomplished Demon wouldn't be enough to kill him, she could both injure him, and, more than that, call for reinforcements. If Cao Yun were to be attacked by all the soldiers at this point, he would indeed die without a doubt. So he had to break free of Yao Baiyi's seals. And for that, he couldn't be subtle at all. Maybe he would lose her memories in the process. But learning more about those seals seemed more important. After all, it would help him against other priests in the future. Besides, he wanted to find out what this familiar feeling was.
Cao Yun's Turbid Demons all appeared. They were all chained to Axiu Qian's towering figure. Unfortunately, they failed just as much as Axiu Qian had failed. From his six eyes, beams of golden light emerged, trying to shed light on the shadow. But the light simply disappeared into the darkness each time it got near it. That enemy was like a cloud of pure darkness.
As the fight was raging on, Cao Yun could also feel the pain of Yao Baiyi. Her very soul was a battlefield and the battle was way beyond what she could endure. If it kept on going, her soul would collapse but Cao Yun would still be trapped within her sea of consciousness. In fact, as it collapsed, it would also crush part of Cao Yun's soul with it. Even if he would probably survive it, the damage would not be salvageable. Even in Cleansed Asura's memories, pills to restore one's souls were extremely precious. So it would be almost impossible to find some in the Piaolu planet.
Instead of fighting the shadow monster head-on, Cao Yun tried to delay it as much as possible. He focused on protecting Axiu Qian. As such, Yao Baiyi's sea of consciousness was spared. But Cao Yun's soul received the brunt of the attack. That shadow creature was trying to invade his own soul with each passing moment. Even with his Black Heart Flame, Cao Yun had a hard time dealing with it.
At the same time, the young man decided to focus his efforts on Yao Baiyi's Golden Fate. As it was the source of those seals, he would try to unravel them instead of fighting them head-on like he had been doing. Maybe he would finally understand why they felt so familiar and yet extremely foreign to everything he had faced before.
Yao Baiyi's Golden Fate was extremely weak as she was barely a 4th-grade Golden Blood Child. As such, it was easier to crush it or to engrave a seal in it. Cao Yun focused on the complex seal within it. It wasn't something he could easily destroy without collapsing Yao Baiyi's sea of consciousness with him in it. As such, he had to unravel it in a more subtle fashion. But it would take time. It was much more advanced than what he had seen in the Desolate Sepulcher. This was strange as the demons of God's Land didn't have this knowledge. Indeed, they were even buying Slavery Brands directly from City Lord Sihe.
Maybe it was a knowledge jealously guarded by the theocracy, like the Sisters of the Abyss had kept many secrets for themselves. But it was even more advanced than anything else Cao Yun had seen, apart from Cleansed Asura's memories. In fact, only Dian Mo's seals seemed to be on par with those among every seal he had actually encountered. Even then, they were a bit superior. But maybe it wasn't the seal itself but the substance used to craft it. Indeed, this seal seemed to contain traces of someone else's essence, which explained why it had merged so well with Yao Baiyi's Golden Fate.
As he was trying to unravel the seal, Cao Yun also focused on Yin Bird. Indeed, at the moment, he was both feeling Yao Baiyi's agony and his own. Thus, he decided to focus all of that pain on his Turbid Demon. He could feel that Yin Bird was getting stronger and stronger. The more the shadow was trying to pierce Cao Yun's defenses and enter his soul, the more Yin Bird was growing.
Slowly, the shadow had indeed penetrated Cao Yun's soul. Now the battlefield wasn't just Yao Baiyi's sea of consciousness, but Cao Yun's as well. Above his Nine Soul Peaks, his Five Aspects circulated his 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks'. His Shen the Fire Spirit had created a blanket of flames all around his Nine Soul Peaks, protecting the core of his soul. Along with those flames, the Black Heart Flame, magnified by Cao Yun's Rune of Fire, was also burning with abandon. The shadow had a hard time even getting close to the center of Cao Yun's sea of consciousness. However, he could feel a stabbing pain in his very soul. And Cao Yun was afraid it might affect his Soul Embryo.
As he knew he wouldn't be able to unravel the seal in a short amount of time, Cao Yun decided to shift his focus once more. He had to protect his Soul Embryo at all cost. And for that, he had to destroy this shadow. Although fighting within Yao Baiyi's sea of consciousness was dangerous, his own could stand it. As such, he began to fight the shadow directly. But diverting even more of his soul inward would weaken his 'Weeping Demon' further. He had to very quickly get rid of what shadow had penetrated his soul before General Si Hongdi could break free. At the moment, he couldn't even escape without losing a large portion of his soul to Yao Baiyi's seal.
Cao Yun sensed something break within him. All the pain, both physical and spiritual, had had absorbed imploded. Immediately, knowing what was going on, Cao Yun unleashed chains from his Nine Soul Peaks. The timing wasn't very good. Indeed, he was breaking through in the middle of a crisis. Although breaking through was good, it could also give an opportunity to his enemies. It might be what killed him.
In his sea of consciousness, another great shadow appeared. It was within the clouds, just as a large fish beneath the surface of the ocean, but in the air. From the clouds, bones emerged. There were two large wings made entirely out of bones. In fact, one could notice pieces of skin here and there, but the skin was rotten and even falling apart. Then, the body of the bird appeared fully. It was incredibly large but it was only a skeleton. All over the bones, there were pieces of skin but no actual flesh. However, there were feathers. Each feather was black and broken. With each movement of the large bird, feathers fell down.
Yin Bird had large claws completely disproportionate to its body. But its skull also had strange proportions. Besides it wasn't symmetrical. That skull was elongated with many cracks all over its surface. As the air passed through its skull, it engulfed itself into all the bones of the bird. This created a strange melody as though someone was sighing with regrets and lamentations. The scene felt extremely sad as the Yin Bird was moving slowly through the infinite skies.
Suddenly, golden chains seized Yin Bird. They were trying to bring it down toward the Nine Soul Peaks. Now, Cao Yun knew how to tame his Turbid Demons. But his soul was extremely weakened at the moment. So he acted as quickly as possible. Hopefully Yin Bird wasn't fully formed yet and he could subdue it before it could cause any lasting damage.
It was the moment the shadow suddenly attacked with all its strength, both from Yao Baiyi's sea of consciousness and within Cao Yun's. The assault showed a form of intelligence, or at the very least instinct. Only Cao Yun's Black Heart Flame supported by his Rune of Fire was protecting his very core. But the shadow was able to enter it. And the pain increased Yin Bird's strength even more. This was the hardest part of taming Yin Bird, it would grow along Cao Yun's pain, and simply trying to tame it would induce pain. So the more one tried to tame it, the stronger it became. One had to control one's own suffering to succeed.
Cao Yun was about to act when something he had not expected happened. The Palace of Supreme Wisdom manifested itself. Once again, it had escaped Cao Yun's control. This was yet another sign that Dian Mo might be alive. The shadow that had entered Cao Yun's Nine Soul Peaks got swallowed inside the Palace of Supreme Wisdom. Everything disappeared inside of its own darkness. After that, all the remaining shadow tried to run away.
Without any hesitation, Cao Yun took over the Palace of Supreme Wisdom and moved it around. It followed the shadow creature and swallowed it whole. After that, Cao Yun even sent the Palace of Supreme Wisdom into Yao Baiyi's sea of consciousness. Dian Mo's palace was the bane of the shadow creature. Cao Yun wondered if there was a connection between the seal and Dian Mo. But it could also be with Demon King Mo Wang. Indeed, Cao Yun couldn't be sure whether Demon King Mo Wang was really gone for good. In fact, he could literally be feeding his worst enemy at the moment. But Cao Yun had no choice. It was the most efficient way to protect himself.
Thanks to the sudden relief, Cao Yun was able to chain down Yin Bird without any other problem. It freed a large part of his soul. Thus, he could focus on 'Weeping Demon' once more and keeping General Si Hongdi from breaking free just yet.
Having just bought some time, Cao Yun tried to unravel the seal in Yao Baiyi's Golden Fate. Unfortunately, as he did, something hidden within it activated. Yao Baiyi's sea of consciousness turned entirely black and her very mind was being erased. Cao Yun wouldn't be able to extract any memory at all. However, he was able to break down the part of the seal trapping him. He could finally escape. Without the shadow creature, it had become much easier.
Since he couldn't get anything out of Yao Baiyi, Cao Yun decided to use her soul for his own purposes. He used 'Melting the Shattered Mirror'. Yao Baiyi's mind had already been purged of everything. Thus, Cao Yun broke apart her soul and refined it into Axiu Qian just as he was leaving her sea of consciousness before it could collapse. Once again, her soul was used to nourish his Turbid Demons. They devoured every piece of it. Since the Palace of Supreme Wisdom had already swallowed the shadow creature, Cao Yun wasn't worried about the idea that his Turbid Demons might absorb parts of it.
They all grew slightly stronger. Honestly, it was barely noticeable at this point. That being said, it had an impact on his Soul Embryo. As his soul cultivation was progressing, his Soul Embryo was reacting. An intense silver light flooded his sea of consciousness for an instant. This was a good surprise. At least, it began as such...
Now that his soul was free to act on other matters, Cao Yun turned his attention toward General Si Hongdi. But this time, he became much more cautious. He had not planned for such a seal to be within Yao Baiyi. After all, her cultivation had been rather weak compared to his. And yet, he had almost suffered a terrible fate. Thinking himself superior to every other demon when it came to his soul had been a terrible mistake. Thus, he approached Si Hongdi with utmost care.
Before trying to enter her mind, he analyzed her body over and over again. He looked for any sign of a trap. Then, instead of entering her sea of consciousness, he sent a few seals of his own making into her body. He literally engraved some of her bones, in particular her skull. The process was very painful for the woman, but this time, Cao Yun didn't want to take any risk. He should have done that with Yao Baiyi before. It would have helped him tremendously. At the very least, he could use those seals to support himself if something were to happen.