Chapter 630: Fighting in the dirt

Through will alone, Lord Wanghuo destroyed the space between him and the giant figure of Axiu Qian that Cao Yun had manifested. The two titans fought against each other. Since none of this was actually physical, what truly mattered was their will and their understanding. In fact, it was even fairer than Lord Wanghuo suppressing his cultivation. All of the Turbid Demons he had manifested disappeared. They turned into long locks of hair that went back into the manifestation of Lord Wanghuo.

The two giant red demons had merged with five Turbid Demons and they were fighting with abandon. The infinite blood sea all around them was shaking with every movement they made. The sky also suffered from their fight. While hours and days passed in their mental battlefield, almost no time seemed to flow in the physical realm. Indeed, the concept of time and space had lost any and all meaning in their minds. It wasn't that time was different, but that their perception of it was. Every move they could imagine became reality.

Soon, there were even variations of the fight happening. Thousands of Lord Wanghuo and Axiu Qian were fighting in different realms. It was almost impossible to distinguish what was the actual fight and what was just the imagination of one of the fighters. Anyway, they kept on pummeling on each other with everything they had.

Cao Yun's golden Insight Writings formed partial spears and small javelins that Axiu Qian used to fight. On the other hand, golden runes were flying around Lord Wanghuo as he was using his Fist Aura. With his four arms, Axiu Qian had a small advantage but it didn't mean much.

High Mother Lisha was able to feel that their fight had changed. They were fighting with their minds and souls. But she couldn't see or perceive anything of said fight. Thus, she became even more nervous. Indeed, she couldn't do anything to stop it if things went out of hand. As such, she was in doubts as to what to do. Hopefully, this part of the fight would end soon and they would come back to a physical battle.

Lord Wanghuo was using his bare fists, his elbows, even his shoulders and head. On the other hand, Cao Yun could fight with a spear, a sword and his bare hands all at the same time. Even then, Lord Wanghuo was not easy to beat. Both fighter was evenly matched. On Lord Wanghuo's face, Cao Yun could see complete elation. This was the most fun he had had in a very long time. Sincerely, that terrified Cao Yun. Although he was having fun too, he was worried that Lord Wanghuo would try to renege on his promise just to keep him around.

After what felt like several days of a very brutal hand-to-hand combat, the two men were mentally exhausted. This wasn't something one could easily recover from. Indeed, their very wills were weakened. Even with pills, it was hard to recover fast from such a state. However, Lord Wanghuo had almost formed his Fist Intent. Under the greatest fatigue of his entire life, he was forced to focus his Fist Aura so much that he had unlocked the sensation needed to understand his Fist Intent. On the other side, Cao Yun was getting closer to his Spear Heart. All of his Insight Writings were slowly coalescing. From many small sutras and hymns, Cao Yun had formed a handful of long sutras. Soon, he would finally form an entire scripture, this was Spear Heart.

Besides his Spear Heart, Cao Yun had developed golden Insight Writings of both his Fist Aura and Sword Aura. In each case, he was getting extremely close to forming an actual Martial Aura. Obviously, mastering an advanced Martial State with his spear art made unlocking lesser Martial States of other arts easier. Still, it wasn't too easy either. Besides, Cao Yun wasn't interested in acquiring many Martial States. Instead, he wanted to absolutely master at the very least his spear art. The sword and the fist were also acceptable, but they were still less valuable. As long as he didn't have to divert too much of his time, he had obviously no qualm getting better at them. Unfortunately, everyone was a slave to time itself. Otherwise, Cao Yun would have loved to master absolutely everything.

Moreover, Cao Yun who wasn't suppressing his cultivation also gained a lot on that front.

At last, the two fighters were too exhausted to keep on going. Their seas of consciousness naturally separated and they woke up in their bodies. Technically, they had not really left their bodies of course. But a very small part of them had formed this mental battlefield. Stronger cultivators would have been able to fight with all their strength both in their mind and in the physical realm. Unfortunately, neither Cao Yun nor Lord Wanghuo had minds powerful enough yet.

As they were completely exhausted, the fight was mostly over. That being said, Lord Wanghuo had no intent to end it there. However, just like Cao Yun, he could not even maintain his flight. Indeed, the two men slowly fell to the ground. Although they had still some strength left, they were lacking will and motivation. Their very souls had been weakened. Nonetheless, Lord Wanghuo would not stop.

All of the Qi Manifestation and Blood Incarnation slowly dissipated. There were now only two men facing each other in a cloud of burning dust. Considering their constitution, they were still incredibly dangerous of course.

Lord Wanghuo attacked first. He charged at Cao Yun and sent a powerful punch toward his face. When Cao Yun tried to block it with both forearms in front of him, his opponent sent his other fist like a hammer to strike the summit of the young man's head. Rapidly moving his two arms apart, Cao Yun swept the two strikes at the same time. Since he couldn't block all the strength behind Lord Wanghuo's strikes, he redirected them. Immediately, he felt that his opponent was too strong. As soon as the surprise was gone, Lord Wanghuo's fists would not be hindered by Cao Yun's hands. Thus, the young man leapt forward and sent an elbow directly into Lord Wanghuo's sternum that cracked a little.

Then, Cao Yun lowered himself and struck the legs supporting the big king. Both of their legs screamed in agony. Despite the pain, Cao Yun kept on going, using all of his strength even if he had to break his leg against his opponent's. And he did. Lord Wanghuo's leg broke in two, just as Cao Yun's tibia ruptured. Soon, the fight ended up on the ground. The two men were wrestling in the dust, covered in their blood and sweat. From high above, High Mother Lisha still didn't know what to do. Her indecisiveness had not changed since she watched helplessly as High Mother Qin Xue sacrificed innocent girls.

That last part of the fight was extremely brutal and messy. On the ground, Lord Wanghuo's bigger body wasn't much of an advantage since Cao Yun stayed so close to him all the time. Still, the two of them were completely engrossed in the fight. Although it seemed chaotic, each fighter was able to analyze the movements of the other one. Thus, their battle turned even more interesting. Lord Wanghuo who wasn't used to being pushed this far was ecstatic. As it turned out, Cao Yun was also quite happy with this fight. He was sincerely enjoying himself while he was improving both his overall cultivation and his martial arts. Besides, he was also getting everything he wanted out of Lord Wanghuo. After all, he wouldn't be able to deny his enjoyment.

In other words, Cao Yun had won everything. Even if his plans didn't work as well as he imagined and hoped, he would still be able to leave the Desolate Sepulcher and find his sister. Besides, he knew that he was getting closer and closer to the day when he would be able to fight Emperor Weide himself. But he wouldn't be alone. Hopefully, his friends were still well and alive in the Hongchen Kingdom.

While their fight was still intense, it clearly wasn't as violent as it was before. Both fighters had exhausted themselves mentally. As such, they could barely control their blood or Qi for Cao Yun. Consequently, their fight looked like a battle between two mortals. Of course, their bodies were considerably more powerful and they could crush any mortal to dust with their bare hands. Still, their was barely anything that a cultivator would use.

After several more minutes of this bloody battle going nowhere, High Mother Lisha finally decided to intervene. In truth, it hadn't even been her decision. Cao Yun took it from her. It had been extremely arduous but he mustered enough will to send her a telepathic message. This was enough!

At last, High Mother Lisha fell from the sky and reached the two men. With a single gesture, she separated them. It was a though a gust of wind had taken their bodies and pushed them away from each other.

"Noble Lord, pardon my intervention, but this fight is over in my opinion. I don't see any point in pursuing it any further. Of course, if your opinion is different..."

For a few seconds, Lord Wanghuo didn't even understand what had just happened. In his mind, he was still in the fight. Realizing that his opponent was gone and that High Mother Lisha was now facing him, he finally came back to his senses. High Mother Lisha had been worried that Lord Wanghuo would not be pleased. But he was. It was clear in his eyes that this fight had filled him with glee.

As was customary, he bowed toward his opponent and Cao Yun did the same. The two of them were completely covered in sweat, blood and burning dust. With a surge of Qi or spiritual senses, it would be easy to get rid of it, but they were too exhausted even for that...

"This fight was to my liking indeed. It's too bad that you're leaving so soon. Unlike some of my other opponents, I'm sure that you'll grow even stronger, and much faster than I could."

Looking at his own body, Lord Wanghuo sighed in regret.

"Apparently, I've let myself go."

Cao Yun knew the truth though. This wasn't Lord Wanghuo's body that was a problem. For a cultivator, the most important thing was indeed their Dao Heart. Lord Wanghuo had tasted comfort and abundance. Unfortunately, it had affected his very will. Now, he couldn't go back to the way he was before becoming king. He wasn't a warrior or a fighter anymore. After all, if he really wanted to fight powerful opponents, he could have crossed the Divine Blood Ocean to fight Empyrean Asura. But for that, he would need to abandon his harem and his chefs. Besides, he might actually die against such an opponent.

Somehow, Cao Yun was convinced that Lord Wanghuo had been able to risk his life at some point. Nowadays though, he would not endanger himself. If he had wanted him as an opponent, it was because he knew for a fact that Cao Yun could not really put him in any serious danger. He wanted the thrill of the fight without the risk. Most likely, Lord Wanghuo would never recover from his own victory.

Defeat was hard to overcome, but victory might be impossible to survive. After becoming king, the previous Wanghuo had died and Lord Wanghuo would never bring him back to life. Although Cao Yun was certain of his analysis, he wouldn't dare to utter a single word of it to his opponent. After all, he did want his navigator and his boats to go back to his land. Besides, his plans weren't over. But now that Lord Wanghuo liked him, it was a done deal.

Indeed, Lord Wanghuo liked Cao Yun very much after this fight. For days, he would propose him to visit his harem. He would even offer him many women. But Cao Yun refused. Although he did miss the touch of Feng Yingyue, it wasn't the main reason of his refusal. The main reason was simply that he found it distasteful. Using others as mere commodities didn't feel right to him. That being said, he couldn't insult Lord Wanghuo. So he did accept the company of several women in his chambers. However, he stayed chaste. To be honest, it was a bit difficult at first since his will had been weakened by his fight.

Cao Yun claimed that he needed to seclude himself to meditate, which was true by the way. Thus, he stayed alone in a private room for several days. When he finally left, he was reinvigorated and saw that there was a dozen beautiful women in his chambers, wearing little to no clothing. That was a gift of Lord Wanghuo... High Mother Lisha had accepted and now Cao Yun had to deal with it. Clearly, the old woman had wanted to make his life a bit difficult by teasing him.

Anyway, the women were talented in art as well so this was how he enjoyed them.

In a few months, he would meet Jing Baiyu the White Whale. In the meantime, he was waiting for a specific event. If he wasn't mistaken, what he was waiting for had happened while he was fighting Lord Wanghuo. Now, he had to wait for the king to receive the news.

It didn't take long. Only a couple days later, Lord Wanghuo was informed that a terrible slaughter had happened. Everyone in the Weiji residence had been killed. Even the guards who were watching the residence had died in agony. The Bloodfire Vermilion Haze poison had been used once more. It was the same poison that had killed Weiji Nian, the same poison she had used against the nomadic tribes. Apparently, this poison was the bane of the Weiji family. Although no one had any clue, Lord Wanghuo knew immediately who the culprit was. Besides, they had found a letter from him to Weiji Fen.

In fact, they had found two letters from City Lord Sihe to Weiji Fen. Minister Renhai made sure that they both came from the city lord. The first one was obviously there to hide his real purposes. If City Lord Sihe had been there, he would have protested that he had only sent this one though. He would have no knowledge of the second one while recognizing his handwriting nonetheless.