Chapter 689: Leaving as one entered

Cao Yun clearly needed some time to rest. At the moment, he could barely use his spiritual senses. That is to say, he couldn't send any part of his soul out of his body. The most he could do was to expand it a little into his Wei Qi, but even his Wei Qi was thinner than usual. Thankfully, his Qi and blood were still plentiful, only his soul had been affected. However, it thus affected his ability to use his own Qi, blood, and in fact even his martial arts. After all, the mind was the general guiding everything but the soul was used to transmit the orders. In other words, one's mind referred to the intellect, the knowledge, while the soul referred to the emotions, the aspirations; hence, the two of them were needed to do almost anything. And of course, the separation between the two of them was sometimes blurry.

At that moment, Cao Yun's mind was perfectly calm and clear. However, his soul had been pushed too far for too long. Thus, even willing his body to move required some effort. Although he barely needed to sleep considering his cultivation, he felt like a mortal who had not slept for a few days. Only his mind cultivation allowed his mind to remain clear and his will not to break.

As much as he needed to rest, he couldn't. He had already spent too much time in the Temple of Grace and Submission. First of all, he had to leave. Unfortunately, he couldn't do anything else. His first thoughts went to the slaves and servants within the temple. But if he were to get caught, he couldn't help them either. Besides, he wasn't even sure how to really help them without causing more harm...

With no hesitation, Cao Yun went for the door. His array formations were still active. Before leaving, he altered them a bit to create an illusion array. This wasn't very well done and Cao Yun was even disappointed in himself. Dian Mo tried to help him since the boy was completely exhausted. But since Cao Yun was the one setting it up, it barely reached 75% of efficiency. This wasn't even a complicated array formation he had chosen and yet he couldn't pull it off. But it would do for the time being.

Anyone opening the door would see Holy Cardinal Ling Weisheng and Yu Xiangling standing in the room. Unfortunately, the illusion wouldn't last long and any Accomplished Demon could see through it very easily. At most, it would confuse servants for a few minutes. Since they were terrified of Holy Cardinal Ling Weisheng and Yu Xiangling, and rightly so, they wouldn't want to disturb them. However, seeing that they didn't move, didn't speak, and didn't even breathe, they would end up seeing through the illusion. That being said, Cao Yun would take any time he could buy.

Before he took down his array formations, Cao Yun circulated his stealth technique. This was extremely difficult in his condition, but he didn't have any other choice. Fortunately, thanks to the memories he had absorbed, he had a perfect understanding of both the layout of the Temple of Grace and Submission as well as the movements of the priests within. Thus, he could choose the path in which he was the least likely to encounter anyone. Unfortunately, there wasn't any path he wouldn't see anyone. And there was no other exit other than the main gate. The priests didn't want their slaves or servants to have any way out and defending only one exit was easier. Besides, they didn't really fear being cornered in their own temple so they didn't make any secret passage to run away.

As such, even the windows were meant to be too small for anyone to exit through them. And yet, they were designed in such a way as to let enough air and light in. Unfortunately, Cao Yun couldn't break the walls to come out without being found out.

Dian Mo observed as Cao Yun was using his stealth. It wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't as good as it used to be. Hopefully, he could intensify it in case of great danger. Indeed, Cao Yun was clearly trying to save all his strength if an emergency occurred.

As soon as the array formations fell apart, the young man used his senses to hear if there was any disturbance outside of the door. Since he couldn't send his spiritual senses through the door, he was forced to do so. Once he was convinced that everything was fine, he slightly opened the door. Seeing the two corpses of the guards still there, undisturbed, he knew that no one had come this way yet. Indeed, Cao Yun had left those corpses there for that reason.

If someone had come to visit Holy Cardinal Ling Weisheng or Yu Xiangling, they would have seen the corpses. Because of that, they would have raised some kind of alarm. But if there was no corpse, they would have found it strange and tried to open the door directly. By leaving the corpses, Cao Yun increased the chances of being warned beforehand, thus having the opportunity to prepare himself.

Cao Yun closed the door behind him. Then, he took the two corpses into his spatial ring. Maybe he could do something with them, maybe even feed them to demonic beasts or use their blood and bones, he wasn't sure. After seeing how they had treated the dead, he had absolutely no problem treating their corpses as raw material if need be. In fact, it might have been better for Cao Yun to also store Holy Cardinal Ling Weisheng and Yu Xiangling's corpses. But, to be honest, he had let anger take over a little, not by much, but still. After witnessing their ruthlessness and cruelty, he didn't even want ash to remain of them.

Setting up another illusion of two guards before the door would take time and it would slow down Cao Yun and further exhaust him. Thus, he simply left the corridor empty. Of course, it would surprise anyone coming there, but in fact, it might even make them delay opening the door. Without any guard, they would be forced to open the door themselves and they wouldn't want to disturb Holy Cardinal Ling Weisheng. In other words, they might stand in front of the door for some time before daring to open it.

Finally, Cao Yun left through the path he had chosen.

-

After only a couple of minutes, he heard some noises and stopped in his tracks. The young man became completely immobile, his back against the wall. Then, he saw a small group of four servants going in his direction. There was absolutely no doubt that they were going toward the chamber he just left. Not only was this the right direction, but their faces were livid. All four of them were walking rather slowly and showed all the signs of pure terror. Indeed, they were going to see Holy Cardinal Ling Weisheng. What Cao Yun didn't know was that they had been sent by old priests because the Silver Wolf Marshal had demanded Holy Cardinal Ling Weisheng's presence to accept orders from the Empyrean Asura.

Since those servants were not even Golden Blood Children, they had no way of sensing Cao Yun's presence. Thus he relaxed a little in order to preserve his energy. But he now knew that he had to be fast. Extrapolating how long it would take them to get to the corridor before the chamber, to open the door, and to realize no one was in there, he might have enough time to completely exit the Temple of Grace and Submission and get rather far. With some chance, he might even be able to leave the entire Holy Hongxue City by then. Anyway, Cao Yun kept on going forward.

With the complete plans of the Temple of Grace and Submission, the young man was finally able to see the exit of the temple. He had barely encountered anyone on the way. And none of them had been able to detect him at all. Thus, he had not wasted much time. Soon he would be out, then he simply had to run for it, hoping to be far enough by the time the servants raised any alarm.

-

Outside of the Temple of Grace and Submission, the Silver Wolf Marshal was waiting without hiding his impatience at all. All of his warriors were as impatient as they didn't like being here. None of them had any favorable impression of the Heavenly Demon God Faith as a matter of fact. But they all followed the Silver Wolf Marshal, the great hero of the Langyin Region. After all, even the Empyrean Asura had been forced to make a deal with him in order to annex that region.

At last, Silver Wolf Marshal Shanyin Guan was done waiting. He stood up like thunder and walked up the stairs. At the entrance, the small old priest saw this giant man walk toward him in a hurry. It felt as though a giant wolf was rushing toward him, ready to tear him apart.

The old priest was also waiting for orders from Holy Cardinal Ling Weisheng. In her absence he was the head of the temple but he couldn't make any important decision. At the moment, his role was to delay Silver Wolf Marshal Shanyin Guan until the Holy Cardinal arrived. Of course, the array formation was also there and it would prevent the marshal from stepping in easily. But still, in that situation, the old priest had to stop the Silver Wolf Marshal. He couldn't let him activate the defenses. How could he though?!

"Old man, let me enter or I'll just break through your defenses!"

"I... I... You can't...!"

The old man's voice was shaking as much as his entire body. He felt as though a monster was breathing down his neck. If he said the wrong thing, he might die without even realizing it.

"If you don't tell me, I'll get in anyway. And your Holy Cardinal will have to deactivate the defenses herself! Is that really what you want to do?! I remind you that I've been sent by the Empyrean Asura himself. I have orders from him directly."

The Silver Wolf Marshal took out the symbol of the Empyrean Asura, forcing the old priest to kowtow before him as though the Empyrean Asura was there in person. Now, the old priest was between three ferocious monsters, Silver Wolf Marshal Shanyin Guan, Holy Cardinal Ling Weisheng and even Empyrean Asura. But faced directly with Silver Wolf Marshal's eyes, he simply couldn't say no. Thus, shaking all over, he stood up a little, not daring to raise his head in the presence of the Empyrean Asura, even though it was just his symbol.

"I'll accompany you inside, Honorable Marshal."

"Good decision. But do not try to delay me. Lead the way, fast."

Then, the marshal turned to his warriors.

"Stay there and wait for my return. We'll leave as soon as I'm done."

"Yes, sir!"

They all answered in unison. The Silver Wolf Marshal had not even waited for their answer as he knew it already. In front of him, the old priest wouldn't dare to delay. Hopefully, Holy Cardinal Ling Weisheng wouldn't punish him for making this decision. After all, he had no other choice, and this was the right decision. She wouldn't be that petty, right? Right?!

-

Cao Yun was so close to the entrance he could feel the fresh air and see daylight.

Since he couldn't use his spiritual senses, the young man was forced to rely on his physical senses alone. He didn't let the excitement get to him. In fact, it was precisely because he was so close to his goal that he remained ever vigilant. And he heard it. Outside the entrance, he could hear the heartbeat of warriors. Although they were not moving at all, Cao Yun was still able to identify that they were wearing armor just by the way their heartbeats sounded. From those sounds alone, he was able to determine their number. And although he wasn't sure about their cultivation, he could guess that they were extremely powerful just by the sound of their hearts.

Thankfully, they were outside. This meant that they didn't have the right to enter the array formation and thus, they couldn't expand their spiritual senses, if they had any, inside. Most likely, they had failed to notice Cao Yun. Even if he got closer and closer, they might not notice him.

Pushing his stealth as much as he could, Cao Yun walked forward with incredibly minute steps. He had to avoid detection at all costs as he didn't know anything about those warriors or why they were there. The first thought that popped in Cao Yun's mind was that they were the reinforcement asked of Empyrean Asura. If that was the case, they had to be powerful. But waiting for them to leave wasn't an option. Knowing nothing about the situation, he had to guess that they wouldn't leave without an order from Holy Cardinal Ling Weisheng and this was perfectly coherent with the servants he had seen walking toward the chamber he had left.

Cao Yun stopped breathing and even stopped his heart completely, using his intent to move his own blood instead. With his current state, he couldn't hold it for very long. But at the moment he did everything he could to increase his stealth. He walked in front of the warriors. Immediately, he noticed that they were all Accomplished Demons. Thus, he pushed his 'Ashen Feather Seal' even further and further, to the limit of what he could do. He was so glad to have spared his energy along the way.

All of them were wearing symbols that told him they were with the Silver Wolf Marshal. After all, he was known by all demons on the continent. But then, that meant that he was either here or on his way. Cao Yun had no intention of facing that marshal, let alone at this precise moment, when he was at his weakest. With utmost care, Cao Yun walked down the steps. His stealth was at its peak, Cao Yun was using every ounce of mental strength he had left. Even Dian Mo tried to help from within as well.

Walking down the steps, Cao Yun kept his senses focused on the six warriors now behind him. He noticed that a woman among the group turned her head in his general direction. Cao Yun froze on the spot. It might just be a coincidence...