Chapter 670: Driving the abomination insane

The red abomination seemed to grow in size with each passing moment. From its red flesh, bloody chains were erupting in every direction. Had it had any sanity left it would have gone back to the ground to chase down demonic beasts in order to feed. Thankfully, that creature was acting on pure rage, not even instinct. It was simply trying to devour Cao Yun and Hongyu, whoever was the closest at any given moment.

Despite their actual speeds, Hongyu and Cao Yun were flying just fast enough so they wouldn't go too far away from the monster. Although Hongyu was simply obeying her brother, she quickly understood what he was after. The Blood Gushing Holy Heart pill needed blood to preserve its strength. And because of the chase, it was expanding its strength and its blood faster and faster. The more enraged it was, the faster it was depleting itself. So they couldn't let it feed on the blood of anything else.

Unfortunately, the Blood Gushing Holy Heart pill had a lot of blood in reserves, despite expelling all the blood of General Meng Tian. Besides, all of Cao Yun's mental or spiritual attacks were useless since this thing had no mind of its own. In fact the pill had barely any spirit in it. Technically it was a 1-star Spirit pill, but clearly it was very rudimentary. For any alchemist worth their salt it would have been considered a failed refinement. But the priests were experimenting with it nonetheless.

For more than ten hours, Cao Yun and Hongyu flew all over the place. They stayed within the Yanbei region but got away from the Temple of the Lesser Blood King. Although the creature lacked any form of intelligence, it didn't mean that it wasn't dangerous. In fact, it grew faster and faster as well as it was expanding its strength. After a few more hours, Cao Yun and Hongyu had pushed themselves to their maximal speed just to avoid the bloody chains. Each time a chain passed near them, it altered their trajectory by the mere air pressure it created. As such, it forced them to stabilize while staying at their maximal speed. Honestly, this was a great workout... But failing would have dire consequences.

At last, General Meng Tian's body began to decrease in size. The Blood Gushing Holy Heart pill had expended too much energy already. Although it was still trying to expend more energy, it began to consume less and less. Any ounce of energy left was harder to convert into actual strength. Thus Cao Yun and Hongyu knew that this was over. It was only a matter of time. To be fair, they were also exhausted as they had fought just before flying all over the place. Right now, they were running on fumes. But their sense of self-preservation was strong enough to push them beyond their limits.

Despite its lack of intelligence, the Blood Gushing Holy Heart pill could feel that it was reaching its end. However, it didn't try to leave in order to feed on the blood on anyone else. Instead, it pushed even harder as though it wanted to take Cao Yun and Hongyu down with it. And it certainly wanted that.

Once again, the Blood Gushing Holy Heart pill expelled a large amount of blood from the body of General Meng Tian. But this time, the blood came from the pill itself. All around the large deformed body of the former general, there was a dark red cloud of blood. It flew with incredible speed toward Cao Yun. No matter how much Cao Yun tried to avoid it, he was completely surrounded by it. Then, Hongyu too was entirely engulfed in this red mist.

Using all of his Wei Qi and spiritual senses, the young man tried to resist but the blood simply seeped it all. Then, it seeped through Cao Yun's skin. The young man felt his skin burn and quite literally melt. It was as bad as what he had felt at the bottom of the Blood Abyss pits, but there was something else. This time, the intent in the blood was familiar but also extremely aggressive unlike the intent from the Weaver of Souls. This heinous blood tried to insinuate itself directly into Cao Yun's sea of consciousness by going through his Upper Dantian. If Cao Yun's Soul Embryo had remained in his Huang Ting, it would have been severely damaged. Thankfully, only Cao Yun's flesh was damaged as well as some of his meridians. They were all things he could heal.

Cao Yun disregarded the pain and focused on the Drop of Wrath. Suddenly, the evil blood within Cao Yun started to shake. A vast amount of it was going through Cao Yun's spine to get to his Upper Dantian but it got swallowed by Shendao the Heart Gate. The Drop of Wrath within Cao Yun's heart began to devour most of it. What remained of this blood made its way into Cao Yun's sea of consciousness.

When it entered this vastness, it suffered the same fate as the mental manifestation of the Drop of Wrath swallowed it. Dian Mo was observing the scene. And there was no doubt, the intent belonged to Demon God Da Mo. It had been normal blood, not essence blood. But in itself it was impressive and worrisome. Dian Mo and Cao Yun were both wondering where they had obtained such blood. Maybe it was conceivable that they had in fact essence blood. Thus it was possible that they were growing another body for Demon God Da Mo, just like what had happened beneath the Devil's Jail.

Anyway, Cao Yun had devoured all the red mist around him. His skin was almost entirely gone and the pain was unbearable but he had survived. Still, it would take him some time to heal completely. What worried him was Hongyu. Thus he didn't hesitate and flew in her direction. Faced with the same evil blood, Hongyu couldn't defend as well. Despite having the intent of the Drop of Wrath in her as well as Evil Qi, she couldn't simply consume this blood. But she had been able to survive long enough for Cao Yun to save her.

Like the young man, she was severely injured. In fact, it was so severe that she couldn't fly anymore. Cao Yun was forced to use his spiritual senses to support her so she wouldn't plummet to the ground down below. Engulfing her in his spiritual senses and Wei Qi, he tried to stabilize her condition. Unfortunately, he still had to think about General Meng Tian's body. By now, his body had even lost the shape of a humanoid being. Some parts of it had swelled beyond recognition while others were scrawny and dried as they were deprived of any blood at all.

Such a sight would have repulsed most people, but this reminded Cao Yun of his own Turbid Demons. Despite its grotesque appearance, the creature was still dangerous. It was hard to estimate its actual strength but Cao Yun guessed that it was comparable to a middle Accomplished Demon by now. Compared with Cao Yun, it was weak indeed. Unfortunately, Cao Yun had also used up a lot of his strength. Thankfully, his main advantage was his mind. Since the creature was mindless, Cao Yun was almost certain of his superiority and victory.

As it had expelled a large amount of its own blood, the creature was sluggish. After making sure that Hongyu was fine, Cao Yun used the opportunity to strike. Once more, he used all of the strength he had left and stabbed directly where he imagined General Meng Tian's heart was. Of course it had been replaced by the Blood Gushing Holy Heart pill. So Cao Yun's spear stabbed through the pill and literally pierce through General Meng Tian's body. It exploded into a rain of blood.

Cao Yun's skin was still melted and he was covered in blood. But at the end of his 'Tainted Heavenly Pillar', he could see the small red pill. Even with the tip of the spear stabbed into it, the pill was trying to fly away. It wiggled and wiggled. But with Cao Yun's aura restraining it, the pill couldn't move much. In an instant a blue light surrounded the Blood Gushing Holy Heart pill and it disappeared within Cao Yun's spatial ring.

-

Wasting no time at all, Cao Yun brought Hongyu back to the ground and dug another cave. He set up rudimentary array formations around them in order to protect and hide them while he was treating the Sky Tyrant Fenghuang. Hongyu was seriously injured. Her breathing was hoarse and erratic. Most of her feathers had been corroded and her flesh was exposed. Even her fiery tails had been partly consumed. Despite trying to surround herself with flames, it had not done much for her. Thankfully, her Evil Core and Wrath Core had protected her other cores from the threat but her internal organs had not been so lucky.

While Cao Yun remained in his terrible condition, he did everything he could to heal Hongyu. Pushing through the pain, Cao Yun's flesh was almost completely exposed and he didn't care as he knew his skin could easily grow back unlike Hongyu's. The best way to help her was very dangerous. If she was to form her seventh core, there would be a surge of Qi and vitality throughout her entire body. Along with some medicine, this would probably save her. Otherwise, Cao Yun knew that the healing process would be lengthy and probably would leave scars. Her cultivation might become harder and harder. Hongyu might never recover fully. Thus, Cao Yun decided to play with her life.

The choice wasn't easy at all. Unfortunately, he couldn't communicate with Hongyu at all as she was simply too injured to be aware of her surroundings. Still, he tried to soothe her and told her exactly what he was going to do. This was a gamble and he was extremely worried about it. Once again, she had suffered because she was close to him, just like her parents. Obviously Cao Yun felt terrible about the situation. He would survive without any harm but those around him were suffering for it. Even though this was a gamble, Cao Yun had steeled his will. No matter what would happen, Hongyu would survive and rise even higher and higher. He would not forsake her.

"Dian Mo, what do you think of my treatment?"

"Treatment?! Is that what you call it?! ... Well... It certainly can work, but it could also kill her on the spot."

"Can you help?"

"... Of course I can... I just... Fine, I'll do it."

Cao Yun felt some hesitation in Dian Mo's voice and he could understand it, but he had no time for it. From his spatial ring, Cao Yun took the Blood Gushing Holy Heart pill. Although it had spent most of its energy, there was still some of it left. More than that, a large part of Demon God Da Mo's intent was left in it as well. Cao Yun was aware that Demon God Da Mo had created Dian Mo. So asking him to help use his creator's intent to heal Hongyu was a bit hard. However, once he had made up his mind, Dian Mo went full-out.

The young man took out his 'Aureate Grove' and began refining the pill itself. As soon as it entered the cauldron, the Blood Gushing Holy Heart pill tried to escape but Cao Yun's spiritual senses trapped it completely. No matter how much it tried to break out, it couldn't leave the cauldron. Down below, Cao Yun used his own Black Heart Flame to heat up the furnace. Then, he threw various ingredients meant to promote Evil Qi but also blood and rage. There was a two thousand-year old Bloodshade Lotus, an extremely Yin plant that grew on blood. Surrounding the Bloodshade Lotus was a thick blood aura and killing intent. He took out some Solar Ash Resin that was so hot that it could melt a mortal's flesh upon contact.

Then he poured some essence blood from a White Claw Eagle, a 4-core demonic beast. The essence blood sizzled and got almost vaporized as it entered the cauldron. With his spiritual senses, Cao Yun made sure to keep all the vapor within the cauldron. The pressure was so intense that part of that essence blood condensed back into a very unstable liquid.

Mixing Yin ingredients that would promote Evil Qi and fiery ingredients that would promote flames was very difficult. Indeed, the flames were trying to purify the Yin nature of those ingredients so the clash was intense. But Cao Yun was using his spiritual senses to force them to mix together. Even his cauldron was a bit lacking but Cao Yun was using his own soul to strengthen it. In his sea of consciousness, Dian Mo was supporting Cao Yun as well and observing the refinement process along with him. Dian mo was essentially focused on the Blood Gushing Holy Heart pill that would be the basis for Cao Yun's pill.

Finally Cao Yun was able to successfully mix the two main ingredients that were the Bloodshade Lotus and the Solar Ash Resin. The essence blood of the White Claw Eagle had been a very good agent to help them merge. Cao Yun's understanding of the Five Elements Wheel was astonishing to the point where he could mix opposing elements. After all there were always traces of each elements within any ingredient. So he had to play on the balance of all the ingredients and their elements within the cauldron.

A strange mixture was now floating in the cauldron and starting to coalesce around the Blood Gushing Holy Heart pill. That was the moment Cao Yun chose to throw in powder from demonic beast cores. He used 6-demonic cores, 7-demonic cores, 8-demonic cores and even one 9-demonic cores from the Stormriser Leviathan Emperor. After reducing them into powder, he threw some in his flames with other mixtures of powders while he threw most of them directly into his cauldron.

From his cauldron a powerful vitality was gushing forth. Even the intent of Demon God Da Mo was being suppressed by this vitality. Dian Mo was observing as Cao Yun was slowly destroying any remnant of his intent within the pill. It was this intent that had destroyed General Meng Tian's mind and he didn't want his new pill to destroy Hongyu's mind, although there would always be a risk.

Suddenly, a large boom echoed in the cave. Cao Yun's cauldron literally swelled for an instant but it didn't rupture.