Chapter 639: Enlightenment in the storm

The young man was being thrown all over the place while still chained to the main mast of the boat. Despite his mind cultivation, his mind was in disarray. He couldn't even tell when he was under water or in the air. Indeed, because of the violence of the Blood Storm, air and water were always mixing with one another as giant waves kept on crushing Fading Fang. Luckily, the crew was safe. The boat had crossed the part where most of the lightning strikes were concentrated. However, that didn't mean that the Blood Storm was less dangerous. That meant that the lower decks were safer though.

Now that he was thrown into this great chaos, Cao Yun finally understood the origin of the Blood Storm. At the very least, he had his suspicions. The legends attributed this phenomenon to the blood of the gods that had turned the ocean red during the Great War. Maybe it had indeed changed the ocean and the demonic beasts within. But Cao Yun could not feel anything related to the Weaver of Souls in the red water.

What he could feel though was a senseless killing intent. There was no elaborate mind behind it. After being directly in the Blood Storm, Cao Yun was now convinced that this was the killing intent of demonic beasts. Most likely, the Blood Storm was caused by the remaining killing intent of the slain demonic beasts. The only thing Cao Yun knew was that the Divine Blood Ocean was much more savage than the continents. Beneath those waters, there was a perpetual war between countless demonic beasts. This was the reason why the Divine Blood Ocean was so dangerous in the first place.

As much as the natural disasters were dangerous, the boats could avoid most of them. Even the Blood Storms were excessively rare. That being said, they weren't entirely natural apparently...

No, the real threat was lurking beneath the water. Many boats had been destroyed by demonic beasts. The intense war between them all made the demonic beasts of the depth much more dangerous and powerful than those on the continents. Moreover, there was no culling by humans or demons. As such, there were probably many 9-core demonic beasts. In fact, there might even be half-step Immortal Beasts. After all, no one knew whether the demonic beasts were afflicted in the same way demons and humans were. It might be possible for them to cross the threshold no one else could since the beginning of the Forsaken Dao Era.

Honestly, Cao Yun wasn't in any hurry to find that one out, unless it was because Hongyu broke through of course. Anyway, if demonic beasts on the level of late Spirit Warriors and late Accomplished Demons, one could imagine the intensity of their killing intent. It was rare for demonic beasts to leave Evil Qi in huge amount. Many theorized that this was a difference in the nature of their souls. Although they could be extremely intelligent, they were still beasts and lacked the complexity of human emotions. They did sometimes produce Evil Qi, but it was rare and in small amount so this Evil Qi was short-lived. Maybe there would be more of it in the depths as they were incredibly Yin since no light from the sun could reach down there.

Anyway, this mostly explained the phenomenon to Cao Yun. But he wasn't interested in it. Instead, he was much more interested in feeling the storm itself. And he did. His Root Constellation was slowly forming itself. Both the Horn Star and the Root Star were binary stars with main stars of similar sizes and secondary stars twice or even four times smaller. On the other hand, the Neck Star was solitary and as big as those four stars together.

In his sea of consciousness, the hymns and sutras of his Spear Intent were making the water shine with gold. The blue and white stars in the sky began to vibrate along the rhythm of those melodies. Slowly, the golden Insight Writings rose toward them. From the water, two sets of different Insight Writings also emerged. Those were Cao Yun's Fist Aura and Sword Aura. While his Fist Aura didn't change much, his Sword Aura began to dance along his Spear Intent. The characters seemed to try and form another text.

All those characters rose into the air toward the binary stars. They were dancing around one another but the Spear Intent was much more developed and coherent while small characters from his Sword Aura were trying to mix with the large hymns and sutras of his Spear Intent. In the end, they didn't merge, but they looked exactly like the two binary stars. Because the Sword Aura was moving around the Spear Intent, the various hymns and sutras were forced to get closer together, and closer together, and closer together, ...

A bright golden light erupted!

Finally, Cao Yun had reached the state of Spear Heart. The golden Insight Writings had formed a complete scripture. It contained all of the profundities Cao Yun had been exposed too. It would be a treasure of knowledge and understanding for his own way of the spear. In the physical world, Cao Yun's demeanor also changed. Although he was still being thrown around by the Blood Storm, there was something more to him. It was hard to tell at the moment, but any sentient being would be able to feel that he was more dangerous. In a sense, he was akin to a living weapon. Even without a spear, he could produce similar martial arts. Of course, he still needed a physical weapon to showcase his full potential. But any spear would show its utmost potential while being wielded by Cao Yun and his Spear Heart.

The next state was known as Spear Spirit. No one on the Piaolu planet had reached this state for dozens of millenniums. In this state, one would form a Spirit Weapon. Although the name was similar, it wasn't a spiritual weapon. However, the main difference was the origin of the weapon and its power. A spiritual weapon or a Spirit Weapon would both be bonded with their owner's soul. But the main difference was that a Spirit Weapon also came from the owner's soul and understanding of the way of that weapon while a spiritual weapon was built outside. Thus, both weapons would grow with the owner's understanding of the weapon. But the Spirit Weapon's growth would also improve this understanding at the same time, so the growth would be much faster, with even more benefits. In a sense, spiritual weapons had been invented to try and mimic Spirit Weapons. But they were still very good nonetheless.

This sudden enlightenment delighted Cao Yun. As his Spear Heart formed, his Root Constellation also appeared in full. Forming a Constellation could take him somewhere from two to three years. And now, he had three of them, out of the seven Constellations. Besides, they were simply the second stage. In the third stage of 'Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars', he would have to turn them into Mansions. But for the moment, he wouldn't spoil his pleasure by thinking of the road ahead. Instead, he focused on the road he had already traveled. This was a huge accomplishment indeed.

In the stars above, he could also see signs of the 'Three Storms'. Truly, he had merged 'Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars' with 'Three Storms'. His 'Azure Dragon Through the Seven Storms' was on its way to becoming a true martial art, even more powerful and profound than both of them combined. In a sense, he was creating the future of the Cao family. Such an art contained the hard work of Cao Beiwen as well as the desire of the Cao blood for justice.

His next Constellation was the Room Constellation related to movements creating array formations around the enemy. For the moment though, his Root Constellation was extremely useful as it was related to grounding and defensive movements. This improved Cao Yun's resistance in the Blood Storm, allowing him to get even better sensations within this maelstrom. However, this was still excruciating.

-

When finally the storm was over, Jing Baiyu was the first one to leave the lower decks. Hongyu also wanted to leave, but she had promised Cao Yun to stay down below, restricted into her array formation. However, the crew was able to see how sad she appeared. Because she had helped them during the entire ordeal, they sincerely felt bad about the way they had treated her as though she was a terrible omen. To be honest, a few crew members were blaming her for the Blood Storm. But they were smart enough not to say anything out loud. Captain Jing Baiyu himself would have made them pay their stupid words, and they knew it. So they kept this resentment within. Thankfully, most of the crew was grateful and didn't see Hongyu as a bad omen anymore. That being said, they didn't want her out of the lower decks either.

A demonic beast could easily attract others. And after a Blood Storm so terrifying, they didn't want any more problems. Maybe this was unfair but honestly, they didn't care much. Their lives were more important. Sadly, they were used to mistreating those traveling with them, as they were often slaves. As much as they could sympathize with them sometimes, they had learned to keep some distance as they knew the fate of their 'cargo'. Although Hongyu was different, their attitude didn't change.

Jing Baiyu immediately saw the chains and ropes tied to the main mast. Most of them had ruptured, but not all of them thankfully. Before even assessing the damage to his own ship, the captain grabbed the chain and tugged on it. He didn't even have to give any order. As one man, half of the crew grabbed the chain and helped him. The other half was waiting for the extremity of the chain to reach the upper deck.

In a few seconds, they brought Cao Yun up. The young man had stayed in the Divine Blood Ocean's waters for a few hours. Just like the rest of the crew, Cao Yun could breathe underwater. First of all, cultivators didn't need as much oxygen as mere mortals, so they could hold their breath for extended periods of time. But they could also survive with the low amount of oxygen within water, allowing them to quite literally breathe water, probably for years or decades without much issue. Contrary to the crew though, the killing intent within the red water had not been enough to kill Cao Yun. However, the violence of the Blood Storm combined with it had injured him.

The young man they fished out of the ocean was barely conscious. And he had not enough strength to pull himself up without their assistance. In fact, he was barely able to stand up. After coughing all the water in his lungs to breathe with more ease, Cao Yun thanked the crew. Of course, they refused his kind words and thanked him in return. They helped him down toward the lower decks. Finally, Hongyu was able to see her brother and she tried to hug him as much as she could with her body. Within her soft feathers, Cao Yun felt perfectly at ease.

While he was resting, the crew dealt with the repairs. Considering the violence of the Blood Storm, there were a lot of things to deal with. But Captain Jing Baiyu's priority was to make sure they could reach the shore. They still had two or three months to get there. But the repairs themselves would probably take a month, or longer.

First of all, Jing Baiyu threw out all the water he had trapped into the spatial ring Cao Yun had given to him. This had saved their lives, just as much as Cao Yun's actions. Then, he led the crew to repair the boat as fast as they could. With their enthusiasm, they could be done faster. Maybe they might succeed in less than month. At the very least, it was possible. Although Cao Yun needed to rest, he did give some materials to the crew as he had prepared everything he thought he might need. Obviously, he had prepared for the trip. In fact, the only thing he had not taken in his spatial rings was a ship. No matter how much space his spatial rings had, he lacked the space for a full ship that could survive on the Divine Blood Ocean. Otherwise, he would have taken one to spare...

Several times Cao Yun tried to help but the crew refused. They wanted to show their gratitude. As much as he understood that, Cao Yun would like for the repairs to be done with as soon as possible. That being said, this was also a great opportunity for him to cultivate. After all, he had gained some precious insights within this Blood Storm. And this made him feel like his ties with his great-grandfather were now tighter than ever. Indeed, he had lived through a similar experience. Reading through 'Three Storms' again, and some texts left behind by his great-grandfather, Cao Yun seemed to understand his state of mind better. With it, he was also understanding Cao Beiwen better as well overall.

A few times, it wasn't the crew but Hongyu who stopped Cao Yun from going up onto the upper deck. She didn't want him to exhaust himself even more. Although he could have rejected her concerns, he didn't. This period of calm was indeed good for him. He even advanced his Qi cultivation and his blood cultivation, even though he was indeed much more focused on his Soul Embryo.

As soon as Fading Fang was in any condition to sail, Jing Baiyu began to move again. Indeed, remaining in the same spot for too long was dangerous in the Divine Blood Ocean. For the moment, they had been lucky on the front of the demonic beasts. The captain didn't want to take any risk. A Blood Storm was extremely rare, but demonic beasts were not. Not even encountering a weak demonic beast was very strange.

With Cao Yun's knowledge, it made sense in fact. Many demonic beasts had been killed nearby and this had caused this extremely violent Blood Storm. But that also meant that something had killed those demonic beasts nearby. Staying around here was indeed a terrible idea. And Cao Yun was glad when Fading Fang moved again.