Once again, Cao Yun felt the familiar and yet strange sensation he had when dealing with the priestess Yao Baiyi. In all of those Accomplished Demon priests, there were similar seals. But this time Cao Yun had been ready. Instead of trying to get rid of them within their seas of consciousness, Cao Yun had literally taken their souls out of their bodies. Now, he was fighting in his own sea of consciousness. Using his mind cultivation time slowed down for him.
Twenty dark red orbs were floating between the ocean and the skies. Suddenly, they all tried to penetrate the Nine Soul Peaks of Cao Yun. Clearly, the priests weren't dead but they knew that they were doomed. Separated from their bodies, they would indeed die. As long as someone kept some of their soul inside their body, they could go back. But Cao Yun had completely rooted them out. In other words, they were similar to ghosts at the moment, discarnate souls. Thus, they were furious and wanted to take Cao Yun with them.
Unfortunately for them, they had absolutely no chance of winning. First of all, Cao Yun had been able to easily take their souls from them so they knew that he was much more powerful than they were, and that they were severely injured. More than that, Cao Yun had an incredible mind and soul cultivation. And he didn't even use it at the moment.
The Palace of Supreme Wisdom appeared in the center of his Nine Soul Peaks. From the palace, golden chains emerged and went straight toward the blood orbs. They all tried to fly away and dodge the chains but space itself conspired against them. After all, everything in Cao Yun's sea of consciousness was under his control. The blood orbs were all skewered on various golden chains. Then, they saw their wish come true, they were brought toward the Nine Soul Peaks. Obviously, they wanted to either destroy or corrupt them. But now they were taken as prisoners.
Cao Yun circulated his 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks'. The young man also summoned his Black Heart Flame magnified by his Rune of Fire. Wasting no time at all, he began to work on the weakest soul. It didn't take him too long to get rid of the seals within. Indeed, the seals were powerful, but Cao Yun had dealt with them within Yao Baiyi. And thankfully, they were exactly the same. Since he had met Yao Baiyi, Cao Yun had worked on those seals for many hours. Thus, it wasn't as difficult to unravel them once more. Besides, he now had the upper hand.
Finally, Cao Yun got to the priest's memories. Unfortunately, this priest didn't know much. In fact, he didn't even know he had gotten those seals. Most likely someone else had put them in him without him realizing it. Or maybe it was something else... Maybe those seals were directly linked to this strange sensation Cao Yun kept having. So he looked further through his memories.
This priest had just recently reached the 1st-grade Accomplished Demon stage. And just after achieving this success, he was called by the Temple of Grace and Submission. Of course, he had not been received by Holy Cardinal Ling Weisheng in person. But he was brought in front of a cardinal nonetheless. This young priest had gone through the Baptism of Heavenly Blood. Then, Cao Yun got an answer to his suspicions. He still didn't have the full picture but he realized that he had been right.
First of all, this sensation was similar to both the Weaver of Souls and even Axiu Qian in a different way. But more than that, it had reminded Cao Yun of what he had felt under the Wubei Sect, deep in the Devil's Jail when he had used the Empyrean Human Emperor Seal to trap the resurrected body of Demon God Da Mo possessed by Luoming Tian's Soul Embryo. And now there was no doubt at all, this young priest had received blood that was connected to Demon God Da Mo.
Immediately Cao Yun wondered whether it was similar to the way the Sisters of the Abyss were also keeping the blood of the Weaver of Souls. Besides, it could also explain why they had killed more and more demons in the name of fighting heresy. Maybe they were somehow using them in order to keep the blood of Demon God Da Mo intact, just like the Sisters. But it seemed to be different. After all, the heretics were mostly tortured and burned alive to be purified. Still, there might be some connection. Not all heretics were killed in the open. Some were taken to temples to be sacrificed. A certain number of slaves had also been sacrificed in such a way.
Looking through the young priest's memories, Cao Yun didn't get much more. So he turned toward the other priests. It didn't take him very long to have all their memories exposed before his eyes. So he explored them. The more he saw, the more furious and enraged he became.
Cao Yun saw some of them acting on the battlefield. They had tortured to death many humans. Even in humans, they were trying to extract what little asura blood they had in their veins. The processes used were absolutely terrifying. Cao Yun lived those scenes through the eyes of the tormentors. If he had not learned to control his emotions, Cao Yun would have been overwhelmed by his rage. Those priests barely considered humans to be superior to cattle. And they extracted every drop of asura blood they could, by any means necessary, even inflicting more pain than necessary. Some even found it funny and played around with their victims.
Appalled, Cao Yun had to contain himself not to destroy the souls of the priests as he needed them later. But he went through everything. The priests also tortured other demons. Even their own kind wasn't spared from their obscenity. Cao Yun saw how they bred the spies sent into Hongchen Kingdom. For centuries the priests had selected demons to breed in order to give birth to children who could pass as humans. Then, they had indoctrinated those children through terrible ways. In the end, the children were tasked with killing their own parents to prove their loyalty. Those who failed were used to breed other spies.
Cao Yun saw how the Empyrean Asura Theocracy had plagued this demon continent. It had spread like a disease and had caused only harm and torment. As much as Cao Yun hated Traitor Weide, he now had a deeper hatred toward the Empyrean Asura Theocracy. After all, he could believe that Emperor Weide sincerely cared about mankind. But those priests and that entire theocracy didn't seem to care about anyone else. They were blindly following the Empyrean Asura and their Heavenly Demon God. Worse than that, many of them had come to enjoy the pain and torment inflicted on others.
This time, Cao Yun had found worse than the slavers of the Desolate Sepulcher. Speaking of slaves, Cao Yun also saw how the slaves bought from the Desolate Sepulcher were used. Those who could fight were sent on the front lines as cannon fodder. The others were sacrificed by the priests as well, just like the humans and those deemed heretics. After all, those slaves believed in the Weaver of Souls, not in Demon God Da Mo. So they were heretics. Once the war was over, the slave warriors would also be sacrificed like any other heretics.
In the mind of those priests, everything was done so that their Heavenly Demon God, Demon God Da Mo could rise once more. They had to purge all of human blood from the Piaolu planet so that he would come back. Indeed, they needed to create a pure asura blood so his body could form back. This gave Cao Yun a hint. Whatever the source of the blood the priests had, it wasn't essence blood. They couldn't grow a new body for Demon God Da Mo. So it was inferior to what had been under the Devil's Jail. If the priests were to learn that their god had been grown a new body, Cao Yun wondered how they would react. Besides, it was being trapped by humans, and a human's Soul Embryo was possessing it. They would probably foam at the mouth...
Anyway, at this very moment, it was Cao Yun who was pissed and furious like never before. Opening his eyes, he saw the other priests all around him. Any semblance of pity he could have had for them was gone. To be perfectly honest, he was somehow pleased deep inside. He didn't need to consider any moral dilemma. The priests before him were as close to pure evil as anyone could be.
From the Moon Sheltering Adansonia, many branches fell down toward Cao Yun once more. They looked like spears and blades. Using his spiritual senses and his Spear Heart, Cao Yun sent them forward. They surged through the Temple of the Lesser Blood King, killing every single one of the priests. A few slaves from the Desolate Sepulcher were being used for menial tasks and labor so Cao Yun spared them. But not a single priest survived Cao Yun's wrath. Besides, not even their blood touched the ground. The lighting around the flying branches burned them to a crisp. Since their blood and souls were too weak to help Cao Yun's cultivation, he simply annihilated them all.
At the same time, he freed all the slaves. The seals within them were still the Slavery Brand of City Lord Sihe. As such, it was extremely easy for Cao Yun to free them. His voice echoed in the corridors.
"I will raze this temple to the ground. If you value your life, take what you can and run away. No harm will come to you so leave this place."
Honestly Cao Yun didn't know how the slaves would be treated outside but he couldn't take them with him. Hopefully they could join other groups who wanted to tear down the Empyrean Asura Theocracy. In fact, Cao Yun thought about his outer disciple Lan Duoyan. Now that this boy had learned his lesson, he might be of assistance toward those slaves. Thus, Cao Yun gave them the general direction to join him.
At first, the slaves didn't comprehend what had just happened. But as soon as Cao Yun's voice brought them back to reality, they began to take any valuable object they could carry with them. Then, they fled the Temple of the Lesser Blood King. There were burns and ashes all over the place. Each trace was from a priest Cao Yun had killed. Soon the temple was absolutely silent and still covered by the Moon Sheltering Adansonia.
Finally alone, Cao Yun kept on working on the souls he had captured. Now that he had extracted their memories, he planned to see if they could be useful for the Palace of Supreme Wisdom. Cao Yun wanted to see if he could wake up Dian Mo.
First of all, Cao Yun calmed himself. Even with all the slaughter his rage had not diminished. If he had been strong enough, Cao Yun would already be going straight for the Saint Citadel Sidi. But his recent successes had not made him delusional. Although he felt incredibly powerful at the moment, he knew that he wasn't on Empyrean Asura's level. After all, the Hongchen Kingdom had three incredible 9th-grade Spirit Warriors, his master Sect Leader Xuan Mu, Matriarch Huang Yufeng and Emperor Weide. If they had not been able to kill Empyrean Asura, Cao Yun was almost certain he couldn't either. Besides, he would have to fight his way through the Saint Citadel.
For now, Cao Yun had fought in the Yanbei region where the Empyrean Asura had not mobilized many troops. But the Saint Citadel would be a completely different story...
Anyway, Cao Yun didn't plan to stay here very long. After attacking a temple, he knew that the theocracy would act more severely than before. Killing soldiers was one thing, but killing priests would make them furious. And it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, Cao Yun counted on it. But he didn't want to be here when they would arrive. So he decided to quickly deal with the souls he had captured.
One by one, Cao Yun refined the blood orbs with all of his mind cultivation and Black Heart Flame. His knowledge of alchemy also helped. Within his own sea of consciousness, he was almost refining pills in order to help Dian Mo. And one by one, he fed the souls to the Palace of Supreme Wisdom. To his surprise, it was much easier than he had thought. The palace swallowed the souls without any problem.
Soon, all souls had been taken, they had disappeared into the darkness of the Palace of Supreme Wisdom. And then, Cao Yun waited. Finally, he felt a tremor. There was no doubt at all. Within this tremor, Cao Yun felt the aura of Dian Mo and no trace of Demon King Mo Wang. As Cao Yun was getting his hopes high, he heard a very faint voice. He almost could have missed it as it only echoed for an instant.
"Boy... thanks..."
Undoubtedly, this was Dian Mo's voice. Those simple words caused a large emotion within the young boy. If there was a way for Dian Mo to wake up fully, Cao Yun would do it. Since this blood from Demon God Da Mo seemed to be effective, Cao Yun had to get more of it. And for that, the nearest source was the Temple of Grace and Submission. But he had to plan carefully before attacking them. Moreover, destroying this larger temple would clearly mobilize the entire Empyrean Asura Theocracy. After such an attack, they would take forces from the front lines for sure. Thus, it would help Cao Yun's goals even further.
As he was ready to leave the Temple of the Lesser Blood King, Cao Yun felt a sudden surge of energy within his Huang Ting, his Yellow Court. All those emotions had impacted his Turbid Demons. Cao Yun's resentment had also strengthened his Devouring Robber. It was indeed linked to envy but also resentment. And Cao Yun had lots of this.
At that moment though, the energy didn't come from his Turbid Demons, it was coming from his Soul Embryo. His Turbid Demons had influenced it and Cao Yun could feel it. But the timing was really poor.