Cao Yun was now technically a 7th-grade Accomplished Demon as he had completely formed his Yin Bird and had even subdued it. Since the moment he had tamed his Fallen Arrow when he was in the Divine Blood Ocean, it had been less than a year. Honestly, even Cao Yun was surprised by this speed. Although his mind cultivation was exceptional, he didn't think it could help him cultivate the asura system that fast.
Absorbing the soul of someone else was indeed helping him cultivate faster. And with his current mind cultivation, the risks were limited. However, even that couldn't explain how fast it had been. The young man was looking for an explanation. Maybe it was simply the interaction of the asura system and the human system. After all, he could feel his Soul Embryo react to his soul cultivation as well. That was a possibility, but although it was a factor, it wasn't the only one. The soul he had just absorbed had something special to it, a sense of familiarity and yet strangeness.
In fact, it was also possible that the Palace of Supreme Wisdom had helped Cao Yun a little.
What truly stunned Cao Yun was the idea that he would probably become an 8th-grade Accomplished Demon before another year had passed. Indeed, this seventh and last Turbid Demon was the Devouring Robber, the corrupt version of his Po of Death. But as it turned out, Cao Yun was somewhat familiar with the Dao of Death. At least, he was as familiar as someone who couldn't directly observe any Dao could be. It was obviously thanks to Cleansed Asura's 'Death Verses'. In fact, forming and taming his Devouring Robber might even help Cao Yun get a better understanding of 'Death Verses'.
At the moment, he could feel that he was on the verge of understanding 'Soul Chains', besides even 'Living Death' was becoming clearer to him. After all, 'Soul Chains' consisted in manifesting chains made out of Death Energy. Right now, Cao Yun could probably do so with Death Energy that wasn't his. But the goal of 'Soul Chains' was to use one's own Po to form this Death Energy. And for that, one needed to master 'Living Death', the ability to turn one's Po into Death Energy and back. Considering that the Po of Death was precisely the part of the Po that was overseeing the processes of death, including the transformation of one's soul into Death Energy, mastering it would obviously be helpful.
Even if Cao Yun couldn't perceive the Dao of Death, the techniques derived by Cleansed Asura could be used to some extent. For the later parts of 'Death Verses', it would probably be much more complex. After all, the very next technique was 'Macabre Dance' and Cao Yun could barely understand what it was even supposed to do. The only thing he could understand was that it would somehow reanimate corpses. But he wasn't sure what it meant exactly, whether they would be mere puppets, Bone Demons, something else. He couldn't imagine that he would be able to resuscitate the dead. After all, manipulating the Po would not bring back one's Hun. So even if he could truly bring a body back to life, the person's mind would be completely gone. Anyway, he would worry about that when he got there.
For now, Cao Yun was already extremely happy with his progress. But honestly, he was a bit fearful. Progressing too fast wasn't necessarily a good thing. It entirely depended on why one was progressing that fast. He certainly didn't want to risk any injury, or even a bottleneck in the near future. As such, he would spend some time stabilizing his cultivation once he was done here. He simply had to focus on his Yin Bird to get closer to it. All things considered, it should only take him a few weeks, unless there was something wrong. In fact, he could probably do so on Hongyu's back while they were flying to their next destination.
Satisfied that General Si Hongdi had no seal similar to those in Yao Baiyi, Cao Yun probed her sea of consciousness. As he was being extremely cautious, he only sent his Flying Poison in her mind. It was clearly his most robust Turbid Demon considering it was both the first one he had refined, but also the one who was the closest to his Drop of Wrath. His Flying Poison was a powerful link between the Drop of Wrath and Cao Yun's own soul.
Inside General Si Hongdi, Cao Yun was surprised to find nine peaks. Quickly he realized they were nothing like his Nine Soul Peaks though. They were coming out of the sky and were reflected in the infinite sea below. On their surface, there were many runes as well as golden chains connecting them with one another. Such peaks were beautiful sculptures. As he had mastered Spear Heart, Cao Yun recognized those runes. Those nine celestial peaks contained General Si Hongdi's Guandao Aura. She wasn't quite to the stage of Guandao Intent yet, but she was still relatively close to it compared with any other martial artist.
Although her cultivation wasn't too impressive to the current Cao Yun, she was probably a fierce fighter indeed. Unfortunately for her, her soul cultivation was too weak to face Cao Yun. That being said, the young man could literally feel her will. As a demon, her will was much stronger than the will of any human. It was always harder to use mental and soul attacks on demons than humans. And Cao Yun could imagine that devas would be even harder to deal with as their souls were supposedly a gift from the Three Jade Saints. Humans were neither those with the strongest wills nor with the strongest souls.
The difference of strength between Cao Yun and General Si Hongdi was just too strong for the woman to do anything against him. However, it didn't stop her from trying. From the nine celestial peaks, thousands of golden fragments flew toward Cao Yun's Flying Poison. With a large movement of its bony tails, the Turbid Demon crushed most of them while the rest was sent flying away. Like a flock of birds, they flew around the large beast.
All those golden fragments formed the shape of a large halberd and struck toward their enemy. Flying Poison moved out of the way but the halberd followed its movement with impressive speed. Thus, Flying Poison simply stayed immobile and caught the halberd. As it grabbed the golden weapon, it collapsed into thousands of fragments once again. They all went through Flying Poison. A majority of them were blocked by many bones on its body. The rest was swallowed into Flying Poison's bloody body.
From within though, the fragments wouldn't be suppressed. They tried to cut through the Turbid Demon. Flying Poison was doing everything to keep them contain within its own blood. But they were raging all over the place, trying to tear through the demon. Cao Yun could feel them within his own Po but he endured. Honestly, he had to admit that General Si Hongdi's will was impressive. Unfortunately, she really couldn't do much against Cao Yun. And she finally accepted it. Soon, the golden fragments stopped moving around and got completely dissolved and absorbed by Flying Poison.
At last, the large demon extended its arm into the void and closed its fist. As it did, General Si Hongdi's sea of consciousness shattered like glass. The sea was still and the nine celestial peaks began to crumble. As pieces of those peaks fell, the broken space between sky and sea broke even further as glass being shattered by rocks. When those pieces of the nine peaks reached the sea, they also broke it apart as though it was ice. Only Flying Poison was protected as the entire sea of consciousness of General Si Hongdi collapsed around it. Soon, nothing remained but an empty space full of floating pieces of glass that had been the sea, the sky and the space between them.
After his problems within Yao Baiyi's sea of consciousness, Cao Yun had decided to be ruthless with General Si Hongdi, just in case. After all, her cultivation was superior. But apparently, the seals that had put Cao Yun in danger were related to Yao Baiyi's priesthood somehow. As a war general, Si Hongdi didn't seem to have anything of the sort. Even the seals Cao Yun had put into her had been useless. Still, he was glad he had used them in order to protect himself. Breaking her sea of consciousness had become much easier.
Now that it was broken apart, Cao Yun began to sift through General Si Hongdi's soul. It was still intact despite the chaos all around it. At the moment, it was a glowing orb caught in Flying Poison's claws. Once again, Cao Yun decided to train his Soul Memory Search and tried to absorb General Si Hongdi without damaging her soul one bit.
Immediately, he found powerful memories. They invaded his mind as though they were scenes he had lived through. General Si Hongdi wasn't ranked too high but she was still a renowned general in the Empyrean Asura Theocracy.
At first, she had not been a follower of Demon God Da Mo. In fact, she had literally fought against the Empyrean Asura Theocracy as she was still a 9th-grade Golden Blood Child. Unfortunately, she couldn't face the armies of the Theocracy. Many of her fellow soldiers either deserted or outright betrayed their army as it became clear that they would never triumph. However, General Si Hongdi fought until the very end, until her king surrendered.
When it became obvious that her king was going to sacrifice his own people to save his authority, she cut off his head. In exchange for her king's head, she asked the invading army for leniency against her people. And to her own surprise, not only did her people receive it, but she also received it. In fact, she was given enough to live peacefully for decades. The general who had been so merciful was Marshal Shanyin Guan.
He was a towering man with silver and golden armor. He had lustrous black hair cascading over his large shoulders. Within the army of the Empyrean Asura Theocracy, he was the most powerful cultivator. Only the Empyrean Asura himself was said to be more powerful than Marshal Shanyin Guan. He was known as the Silver Wolf Marshal. Obviously, this surprised Cao Yun as the Hongchen Kingdom had a Silver Wolf General, Long Cheng. The characters were different of course, but the meaning was exactly the same. And honestly, Cao Yun could tell that it made sense.
Marshal Shanyin Guan was truly an impressive man. And although he was under the banner of the Empyrean Asura Theocracy, his kingdom was independent. They had made a deal with Empyrean Asura. Unlike the theocracy, Marshal Shanyin Guan wasn't a religious zealot. And he was probably the only man who could discuss the priests' orders. Just as the priests had asked him to slaughter Si Hongdi and most of her people, he refused. Marshal Shanyin Guan claimed that this would a waste of his efforts. Despite his offer, Si Hongdi refused his generosity. Instead, she kowtowed and begged to become his subordinate.
After some hesitation, Marshal Shanyin Guan had accepted.
Marshal Shanyin Guan was on the front line. At that very moment, he was probably still fighting at the border of the Subei Province. As he was the most powerful warrior of the Empyrean Asura Theocracy apart from their actual leader, he was leading the war. However, he had never been able to pierce the defenses of the Hongchen Kingdom. Cao Yun had flashes of the battlefield. It had become an attrition war. Marshal Shanyin Guan had fought against the Silver Wolf General, General Yun Po and even Emperor Weide himself.
In Cao Yun's mind, there were scenes of large battles. Although the demons were outnumbering the humans by many, their powerhouses weren't as numerous. As a consequence, there was a form of balance between them all and the war barely progressed. There were many assaults by the demons or by the humans but they never took much territory. From time to time, some powerful cultivator tried to pierce through but they were stopped by other powerhouses on the other side. This was a bloody was with many corpses all over the place. Even in General Si Hongdi's memories, Cao Yun could feel the Evil Qi and the Death Energy all over the place.
In the Piaolu planet, it was rare that so much Death Energy got formed, but this proved how bloody and terrifying this war really was. Besides, those memories had already a few years. What Cao Yun saw had happened two to three years ago. He was glad that the Hongchen Kingdom was still intact, but General Si Hongdi also knew about small forces that had indeed breached the defenses and were causing chaos within the borders. She didn't know too much about them though. And Cao Yun still didn't know anything about the people he cared about. Through her memories, he only saw the figures of Yun Ping, Long Jian and Chan Weifeng. Those were the only faces he recognized among the younger generation.
Of course, he was glad that they were still alive, but he couldn't be sure that they had also survived those last two to three years since General Si Hongdi was pulled from the front lines to eradicate rebels and heretics.
As much as General Si Hongdi hated killing other demons, especially for heresy, Cao Yun also saw how efficient she was at it. She always claimed to avoid torturing people without any reason, but she did burn them alive as Yao Baiyi was ordering. In her mind, she was simply following the orders and couldn't do anything about it. Cao Yun received all of her feelings as well. She sincerely believed she was being merciful by not torturing them before burning them alive. Honestly, this infuriated Cao Yun.
Even he couldn't lie to himself that much when he compromised. He could understand being in a difficult situation, but not to that degree... Without much hesitation, he performed 'Melting the Shattered Mirror'.