Chapter 672: Discussing morality

As a newly formed 7-core demonic beast, Hongyu was still a bit unstable and the medicinal essence within her was not completely spent. For a few more hours, Cao Yun helped her control it and make the most of it. But since Hongyu had recovered a great deal, she was able to use her own flames internally, purging some of the toxins herself even without Cao Yun's help. Despite her excitement and the surge of vitality, Hongyu saw Cao Yun's condition. He was absolutely exhausted and was barely able to stay focused on her. Indeed, just after breaking through, he had fought the Supplicant Tyrants, then had flown away from General Meng Tian for a very long time before taking the Gushing Blood Holy Heart pill out. And even after all of that, Cao Yun had been forced to dig a cave, set up array formations, refine a Perfect 1-Spirit pill for almost a week, prevent it from escaping and even use his intent and spiritual senses to guide its medicinal essence within Hongyu. Obviously, even he was not doing too well at the moment. However, he kept trying to help Hongyu.

Sensing Cao Yun's dedication, Hongyu contained her excitement and helped him as best as she could. First of all, she reduced the heat all around her so it would still be warm but not scorching hot. Unfortunately, even a 1-Spirit pill wasn't enough to push Hongyu all the way to forming her eighth core. That being said, she did get closer to it. Besides, once her own body reached its limit, Cao Yun helped her store the remaining medicinal essence within her own tissues. It would slowly diffuse and speed up the process as much as possible. Forming a core was like building muscles or any other tissue, even if one ate as much as they could, there was a limit to how much muscle one could gain, everything else would simply be either fat or wastes. By storing the medicinal essence, Hongyu would still benefit from it when her body was ready to build her core a bit more.

As soon as he was done, Cao Yun simply collapsed. Immediately, Hongyu spread her left wing and he fell on top of it. Cao Yun was still conscious but he was simply too exhausted. Once the tension was gone, he let go of everything and his body relaxed so much that it stopped listening to his commands. However, he was able to whisper a few words. For Hongyu, those were imperial commands. Her brother had done so much for her after all. Part of it was Cao Yun's guilt about the fate of her parents, but also gratitude for their sacrifices. But Cao Yun also liked Hongyu a lot, being able to fly around with her felt wonderful. At this point, she was indeed like his sister. And obviously, family was very important for Cao Yun. Once again he thought about his blood sister but also his sworn brothers and sister. Hopefully they were all fine and he would meet them again soon.

Hongyu obeyed Cao Yun's command. She leapt into the skies, completely shattering the weakened array formations and collapsing most of the cave. Before completely losing consciousness, Cao Yun took back all of his belongings into his spatial ring. After that, he fell asleep within Hongyu's warm feathers. The Heaven-Searing Fenghuang rose as high as she could and then flew in a specific direction Cao Yun had given her.

Although his body was completely asleep, Cao Yun's consciousness wasn't gone. A large part of it was indeed sleeping but he still retained enough of it to enter his sea of consciousness. He couldn't train or do anything complex. In fact, it was a strange sensation to feel that a large part of his own mind was asleep while he could still act. But Cao Yun had already felt this kind of sensation. He had realized how his self wasn't what he thought it was. In fact, he wasn't even sure whether there was such a thing as his self. Everything he thought he was came from various interactions between his ten souls and the environment, the people around him. His feelings came from his souls and although he could then manage them in different ways, he couldn't simply change them or decide them.

In a similar fashion, each time he tried to find out where his thoughts really came from, Cao Yun realized that at some point he couldn't trace their origin. They just emerged in his mind seemingly out of nowhere. With his greater understanding of the souls, Cao Yun discovered that they indeed came from his ten souls, or more accurately from the interactions between all of them. Sometimes, there were even interactions within one specific soul, as though each soul wasn't an indivisible unit itself but made of smaller units he still couldn't discern.

Despite all of that, Cao Yun simply couldn't change the fact that he felt as though he had a self. Ironically, he couldn't change this feeling either because it came from his own souls interacting with each other. But he couldn't find a rationale behind this feeling, nor could he feel any other way. However, he was hoping to understand it better and to develop his comprehension of himself through his cultivation. Until now, it had seemed to work.

In his sea of consciousness, Cao Yun saw the Palace of Supreme Wisdom. Under it, there was still the shadowy form of the Devouring Robber. Even now, it was slowly absorbing the Death Energy and Ghost Energy it could. But Dian Mo was restraining it so it didn't go out of control. The Devouring Robber was the Po of Death so it was obvious that Death Energy that was the ultimate form of this Po would be useful to its development. This Po of Death was also related to resentment and envy. And there was no greater envy than that the ghosts felt for the living. Ghosts were in fact remnants of emotions coalesced within corrupt energy from the souls of the dead. Most of them sincerely believed to be the person they remembered but they were not. And they all envied the living, wanting to live again.

In this Ghost Energy, it was even worse as the priests had cultivated it for a very long time. Many different personalities were in there so their illusion of being an individual was shattered. Without the corpses of the Supplicant Tyrants to control it, the Ghost Energy was much more violent but Cao Yun's cultivation could easily deal with it. As much as Cao Yun wanted to study it to improve his 'Death Verses', he was in no condition to do so at the moment. Instead, he began to talk with Dian Mo.

"How are you?"

"I'm fine, boy. In fact, I'm much better than you are right now. You're really insane, you know that?"

"Is Demon King Mo Wang still influencing you?"

Although there was no trace of the old man, Cao Yun was still a bit worried.

"I can't tell for sure. Maybe it had some small impact on my personality, but I couldn't tell. Anyway, I can say without any doubt that this putrid soul is gone. I am what's left. And I am Dian Mo! But I really thought I was a goner, you know that, boy?"

"I did too..."

"Would you have missed me?"

Dian Mo was joking around but Cao Yun could tell that there were real emotions behind his words.

"Of course. I missed you already. Honestly, you're a great conversationalist. And I have many books I'd like to talk with you about. So it's great that you're back, we won't be bored."

"Indeed, we won't... But if you keep pushing yourself like that, I'll be the one missing you. Are you planning to go back to the Hongchen Kingdom yet? After what you just did, I imagined that the Empyrean Asura Theocracy will mobilize many soldiers to find you out. Thanks to that, you should have an easier time going through the border."

"Maybe, but..."

"But you want to know more about this strange pill and the presence of my former master, right?"

Dian Mo already knew what was going through Cao Yun's mind. After all he had come to know the boy very well and Cao Yun had even shared his recent memories with him. It was as if Dian Mo had been observing everything all this time without being able to act at all.

"Indeed. Would it be a problem for you?"

"What?! About Demon God Da Mo?! Nah...! I mean, sure he created me, but he also left me prisoner of this Palace of Supreme Wisdom. Honestly, I do feel some gratitude toward him, but that's it."

Hearing this, Cao Yun realized that it was a bit different from what Dian Mo was saying. In a sense, Demon God Da Mo was Dian Mo's father. Even now, he had some conflict of allegiance.

"Did you know that Demon God Da Mo and the Weaver of Souls spend a lot of time in another realm?"

"... No... I've seen it in your memories. Hell, I didn't even know about the Weaver of Souls. Apparently I wasn't privy to many things, only what was necessary or common knowledge. But it would explain how he lived so long, he didn't. He just came back periodically to rule over his slave empire."

"So you have no idea what this realm can be...? I thought that since you were a spirit of spatial array formation..."

"Well, I can tell you that space can undoubtedly influence the flow of time as well. It's hard to explain as it's part of the Dao of Space and the Dao of Time. But those two Dao are often thought to be separate. In actuality, they're one and the same. It's just that it's easier to understand just one aspect of the Dao of Space-Time. Altering space always affect time though. But most of the times, the effects are limited. It's not impossible for another realm to have a completely different flow of time. However, the numbers you're talking about seem impossible honestly. You realize that it would mean that a year in that realm would me almost ten or twenty years in ours. While we experimented millenniums, they would have experienced mere centuries.

"But then, you also know what it means, right?"

"Do you?"

Cao Yun threw back Dian Mo's question. Indeed, they both knew what the implications were. If time was flowing in such a different manner, it was in fact possible that Demon God Da Mo had survived in that other realm. Since they didn't know for sure how the flow of time was different, maybe less than a millennium had passed in that other realm. If that were the case, considering that a Reborn Demon like Demon God Da Mo could live for around two millenniums, there was still a possibility of him being alive. Worse than that, if he had been able to break through to the Immortal Demon realm, he could live tens of millenniums. Of course nothing was certain. But since no one knew for sure what had happened to Demon God Da Mo after his defeat at Emperor Nuwa's hands, there was a possibility.

For a few minutes, neither Dian Mo nor Cao Yun spoke. Dian Mo was worried that he would have to choose between his former master of his first friend. Thinking about that, Dian Mo did realize that he considered Cao Yun his friend. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to make that decision because Demon God Da Mo was authentically dead. After all, were he alive, he would have attacked once more, especially since the beginning of the Forsaken Dao Era. But some of his armies might still be around in that other realm. Maybe he even had descendants or disciples who could be threats. Many thoughts went through both Cao Yun and Dian Mo's heads.

With all that in mind, Cao Yun had to gather more intel.

"You're going to attack the Temple of Grace and Submission, aren't you?"

"Indeed. I have to know more. Besides, it will really push the Empyrean Asura Theocracy. This might help create a revolution as well. Everything that can destroy this fanatical regime is a good thing."

"Even taking a young murderer as a disciple? Do you agree with what this Lan Duoyan did? You know he didn't only kill people who betrayed his family and friends, he also turned his hatred toward innocent people as well?"

"I... I don't... But who am I to judge? I'm no arbiter of virtue either."

"If he had completely wiped out this village, killed even children, would you have the same reaction?"

"No, but he didn't. I can't talk about what-ifs. I don't have all the answers, I'm really trying to act as best as I can. And yes, I have to accept and even do things I don't like. But... I don't have anything else to say about this subject. Lan Duoyan did what he did, but he didn't lose himself in it. I don't think this boy will turn out to be a monster. I'd like to have the right answer to all questions, but the world is messy. Killing innocent people is clearly wrong, but Lan Duoyan might do more good than bad in his life, especially with my guidance."

"You hope that he'll help you weaken this theocracy... Aren't you just using him and other like tools?"

"I'm not! This theocracy has to fall, otherwise all demons will be swallowed by this insane war. And if I have to choose between my Hongchen Kingdom and those who would destroy it, my choice is immediate. The only real solution is to destroy this monstrosity. Besides, many demons think the same thing but they're too weak to do anything. I will help them. Of course it serves me too, but it serves them as well. You could say that they are using me as tool without any knowing it."

"Hmm..."

"Listen, I don't want to argue about this too much. Think what you may of my actions. But unless you have a better course of actions, it's useless. Give me an alternative and I'll consider it. Do you think I like dealing with this? Do you think I liked making deals with slavers? But isn't the situation of the Desolate Sepulcher better now? What do you have? Any suggestion?"

"I don't have anything to offer. But, boy, isn't that logic the same logic Emperor Weide could throw back at you?"

Hearing Dian Mo's last words, Cao Yun stayed silent. Dian Mo also realized that he might have gone too far. Honestly, he didn't really care about the violence and death at all, but he liked to argue and debate with Cao Yun. And morality was a good subject because one could argue forever on the right thing to do. Maybe he should have said something else or picked another subject though because the conversation was done.